The Leaf Saga: Chapter Two
Warnings: Alternate Universe, graphic violence, adult themes.
Konoha Training Ground Five, After Lunch
"You want us to what?"
Kakashi eye-smiled at his new subordinates, tall grey hair and jonin uniform rustling in the warm Konoha breeze. He and the rest of Team Seven were gathered in the village's largest training ground (baring the infamous Training Ground Forty-Four), Training Ground Five. Far from the urban center of Konoha, it lay just within the village proper, with the northern edge of the border wall barely visible in the distance. Training Ground Five was characterized by the wide flat plateaus that covered it, and the harsh, plunging ravines that divided them. Tributaries off the Naka River flowed through the land here like blood vessels, splitting now and then only to reconnect further along. The tops of the plateaus were barren and flat save for a few impressive large boulders. The tree line of the forest they'd come from lay a short clip to the south.
It was atop one such barren plateau that Team Seven now stood, each of the genin watching their jonin instructor carefully—critically—as though he were a madman set to snap at any moment.
"Mm, it's like I said: I want the three of you to try and kill me, while I do my level-best to kill the three of you right back. This way I'll know where you're at on a technical level and where we need to improve—supposing you're good enough to survive at all." He shrugged. "No point training trash. It'll also give us all a good opportunity to learn more about one another. You are your truest self when fighting for your life, you know."
Kakashi was tickled to see his thinnest student—jinchuriki to the most powerful demon known to mankind—was squirming like a schoolgirl, wringing the hem of his black kimono, youthful features twisted in concern.
"Sensei," he pleaded, "with all due respect or whatever, are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Of course."
Sakura chewed at her lip. Sasuke scowled.
"You're underestimating us?" the vanguard alumnus asked, voice low and laced with anger. "You'll regret it if you are." His jaw was set, and Kakashi added 'dismissive' to the list of things the kid's fur went up at. He had a feeling it'd wind up being a long list.
Hiding a smirk, Kakashi feigned a disinterested shrug. "Unlikely."
Sasuke's lip twitched, wanting to curl. He mastered it a moment later, but his Sharingan eyes blazed a promise to make the tall jonin eat his words.
"Are there any rules?" Sakura asked. "Techniques we shouldn't use, or…?"
She was fishing for more info. Kakashi approved.
"There aren't. Fight like your life depends on it, because it honestly does."
"You don't want us to hold anything back?" Naruto stressed. He was looking at him as though he'd lost his ever-loving mind, and Kakashi was strangely moved by the genin's concern—even if it wasn't exactly in-line with traditional shinobi philosophy. Caring for an enemy too much was hazardous.
Sakura and Sasuke seemed to suddenly understand just what the blonde jinchuriki was alluding to, if the wary glances they now aimed in Naruto's direction were any indication.
"Yeah," Sakura said, eyes bouncing back and forth between Kakashi and Naruto. "Yeah—is that really okay Sensei?"
A grey eyebrow drew to a frown. Kakashi looked at Naruto sternly and said, "It had better be. We're on schedule to deploy in ten to twelve weeks—your file said you can control it—"
"I can," Naruto stressed, angry flush rising up his exposed chest and neck. He looked imploringly at his teammates. "I can." His anger faded as quickly as it flared, leaving a petulant slant on his lips. "I won't hurt you guys."
Tension tried to build, but Kakashi cut it short with an overly cheery, "Good! Then we can go ahead and—"
"But you're asking me to hurt you." The blonde leveled accusing eyes his way. His toes scissored anxiously in the sandy pebbles below. "I'm not a very good ninja, but if you're not setting any limits…"
"I'm not asking you to try and hurt me," Kakashi corrected, setting a hand down atop finely buzzed gold. The kid flinched at the touch and looked up shyly through long eyelashes. His shoulders were narrow with boyhood. Kakashi smiled sadly. "I'm asking you to try and kill me."
Naruto's face soured and darkened. His eyes shot off to the side, and he pushed Kakashi's hand off him with the back of his wrist. "I knew it," he mumbled, refusing to make eye contact again. "You all want the same thing."
Kakashi shrugged, masking the twisted guilt in his stomach as only a veteran shinobi could. "It'll be okay. I should see where the three of you are at before we get started on other stuff—how else can we develop our team strategies? None of us knowing what the others are capable of? You can bet your cute genin asses whoever we run into out in the world'll know how to work together, and if we don't know how to as well, then… Imagine trying to beat a tough opponent in shogi when you don't know what the pieces do."
Sasuke's glowering eased considerably at Kakashi's explanation, but Naruto didn't seem convinced. Surprisingly, it was Sakura who spoke up.
"Even if you put it that way Sensei, a 'fight to the death'—even if just as a drill…" Her eyes were clouded and unfocused. She was obviously mulling something over in her head, and Kakashi felt like he might understand. Then, like a droplet in a hot pan, the distraction evaporated off of her frame, and her look morphed to the cool professionalism of an emergency medic—a look she must have adopted sometime over the last two years working in Konoha's hospital. "But even if you aren't worried about yourself, I still am. You and the rest of us. This team's health is my concern now. If anybody gets seriously injured and I can't deal with it, we'll be in big trouble. This place is so remote… I don't know that we'd make it back to the hospital in time."
Naruto nodded, so Kakashi looked to the last member of Team Seven to gauge his opinion.
"…it would be annoying if you died," Sasuke reluctantly admitted.
Kakashi killed the relief welling up inside him. It was a load off his shoulders to see these three showing concern over a comrade's safety, something that'd been steadily weakening among new genin under the Godaime.
Relieved though he may be, Kakashi felt a spike of irritation too. It was nice that they cared, but he could do without all the teenaged rebelliousness wafting off of them. He liked people who thought for themselves, but wished they had a little more faith in him.
'It's not fair to ask them to trust me though, just like that,' he mused to himself, holding the three before him under a no-nonsense gaze in the meantime. Hopefully once this exercise was over, they'd trust him—and each other—enough to work as a team. It was the true purpose of this little drill, after all.
'But first, a reality check.'
Kakashi's gaze flattened to dead. Killing intent leaked from him, poisoning the air as he left his slouch and stood straight and tall. Like this, it was impossible to forget the gap that existed between him and them. When he spoke, his words were cold and measured. "Don't confuse me for your homeroom teacher. It's not my job to make you happy or put you at ease." Old-fashioned nin-sandals scraped quietly against the sediment below. His long fingers twitched, the rectangular holster on his hip close by.
The genin tensed.
"It is my job to make you shinobi, by any means necessary. The kiddie gloves are long gone. These are war times, and you three are to be war fighters. But before we let you out there we need to know if you can handle it. A fight for your life. For the lives of your team. There'll be no 'gradual easing into this', no slow climb up the mission ranking ladder. We've got three monthsto get ready and then it's into the shit. I was called back from the front a month ago for this assignment. It wasn't pretty then; it will not be prettier in three months."
"If my commands seem too cruel to be real or too tough to bear, keep this in the back of your minds: it is nothing compared to what's up next. So believe it, bear it, and shut up. Time is one factor. Godaime-sama's mandates are another. If I tell you to fight like your lives depend on it..." Kakashi exploded forward, palm-thrusting Sasuke's nose to the side, catching Sakura's ribs with a hip-snap kick, and, with one smooth motion, burying a kunai clear to the ring inside Naruto's right shoulder, immobilizing the joint in a spurt of blood, "then you can assume they do!"
A trio of cries half-pained and half-surprised loosed from the genin. Sasuke and Naruto stumbled back, and Sakura fell, just barely rolling to a crouch through the pain. Kakashi stood before them all, relaxing back to a neutral posture.
"If you hesitated like this in the real world you'd already be—"
But he wasn't allowed to finish his gloating. A hail of agile swallows formed of fire and white-hot plasma dive-bombed his position, forcing him back. It wasn't a technique he recognized, and Kakashi allowed himself an internal curse at the missed opportunity to copy Sasuke's jutsu, but again, wasn't given any time to think as the swallows that landed where he'd just been exploded, kicking up dust and rubble with violent booms. Out of this dust the stragglers of Sasuke's conjured flock emerged, three in total, corkscrewing around one another for extra speed as they rushed him, each avian missile screeching as it flew.
'Not bad,' he thought, instincts computing the birds' trajectory like a supercomputer, 'but not great either, blocking your own line-of-sight. Angry, Sasuke-kun, aren't we?'
Hands blurring, Kakashi went through twenty-five focusing seals in a quarter second, and in the next half of one, shot no less than twelve missiles of his own, composed of super dense water, each the size of a fist. The first three collided with the flaming swallows, extinguishing them in a blast of steam. Those that remained continued on, punching vacuum-like holes in the dust cloud as they soared, three for each genin, one where they had been, one where his mind said they would have gone, and one where he himself would have dodged.
He was two parts pleased to one part annoyed to hear all nine of his water missiles splash simultaneously against an unseen surface. Cross-elemental jutsu weren't that difficult to perform, but based solely on their chakra natures, Kakashi guessed it was Sakura who raised the barrier, her own earth nature pegging her as the likely candidate. He knew her chakra control was phenomenal from the nine-years-worth of reports he'd read tracking her performance, but to raise a stone barrier thick enough to stop his jutsu so quickly, all without making a sound? He was impressed.
With another nigh-instant chain of handseals and some internal chakra manipulation, Kakashi primed his next ninjutsu. He squinted as the reddish-brown dust cloud blew lazily past his face, carried away on a warm wind. By now, the cloud of terracotta-colored haze was thin enough for him to see through. The stone wall was a dozen meters away, and unlike its mistress and her teammates, had not escaped his water bullets unharmed. Large, jagged scars told of the hidden spiraling he'd worked into the bullets, which had in turn carved swirling craters in the slab in a rough grid pattern. It wasn't enough to demolish the wall though, so when sudden, jagged cracks raced across the slab's surface, his instincts screamed for him to dodge.
It was a good thing he listened, for the moment his face left the space it'd been occupying, Sasuke entered it boot-first, leaping forward with a roundhouse kick aimed at knocking his head off.
A truly vicious look painted the boy's face. His nose was crooked and inflamed and fed out of it a runny river of red, painting the Uchiha's lips and chin in sappy crimson. It was definitely broken, but even as he sailed through the air over the boy's head, hands still holding the final seal of another jutsu, Kakashi saw the black and red of Sasuke's Sharingan eyes tracking him.
Looking to exploit his apparent vulnerability, Sasuke lashed out, hands fishing pre-rigged kunai from his vest and hurling them his way in one smooth motion. His speed was good, easily low to mid jonin level already, but his strategy was stale. He threw four kunai in a triangular pattern, each armed with an explosive seal already sizzling away. The first three were meant to box him in, and the fourth—sent straight and true—to catch him center mass. The tactic was well executed, but simplistic.
Mirroring his student's attack, Kakashi too withdrew a weapon from his flak jacket, one hand still set in a half-ox seal. Rather than kunai, Kakashi threw a pellet, which with a puff of dispellment smoke revealed itself to be a mesh net made of high-grade steel wire, weighted heavily at the ends. After that, three things happened in quick succession: Kakashi and Sasuke's thrown tools met in the air, the net wrapped around and trapped the cluster of explosive kunai, and Kakashi finally released his primed ninjutsu. Channeling the technique with the palms of his hands, Kakashi sent out a high-pressure wind column, the sheer speed and density of which made the air warble and distort. This advancing shaft of wind found and accelerated the bundle of steel and tags Sasuke had inadvertently supplied him with, and sent it careening back at the teen too quickly to dodge.
There was a blast of fire, a scream, and then silence.
Konoha Training Ground Five, Remnants of Sakura's Stone Wall
Sakura, crouched over Naruto, looked up at the scream, green eyes wide and bloodshot as they scanned frantically for Sasuke. Her bruised ribs screamed at the sudden movement, but she was already healing them and too shaken to care. Nine years in the academy together, and she'd never heard Sasuke make such a sound. It scared her.
Her mouth fell open as she found him. He must have used a fire technique—he knew so many she could only guess which one—to burn the bundle of steel headed his way, incinerating the tags before they could go off. It had been flying simply too fast for him to dodge. She could see from here that the wire, sharp and fine, had inflicted several lacerations. Worse though, and undoubtedly the cause of his agonized yelp, the same fire that destroyed the seals had also heated the net, leaving the wires to not only cut but char him as well. The medic in her counted him lucky to have blocked with his forearm, sparing his face and chest. The girl in her was horrified. Not at the injury, for she had seen far, far worse, but at their sensei's carelessness. Sasuke really could have died…
Fight me with the intent to kill, like I'm your worst enemy, come to take your life.
'He wouldn't…' she thought, real fear working up her throat like bile. There was killing intent in the air though, and she had to question, was she really willing to bet her life that this jonin wasn't crazy enough to kill them on their first day together? Was she really willing to chance it?
If you die, you'll never find those responsible. Mommy and daddy won't be able to rest.
Like a switch, the panic that'd been rising up her back halted, and the years of drilling and training and studying came flooding back to her. Shaking hands stilled. Wide eyes focused. She took another look at Sasuke, studied the way he was breathing—harsh, but not uneven—the way he was standing—back straight, knees slightly bent—and the look on his face—jaw set in a wince, he's hurting, but his eyes are steady and focused—and considered her options, all in an instant. She could rush to his aid but knew from the academy that he'd be more careful now. He'd fight defensively for at least the next several minutes, looking for an opening now that his attack had failed. She also had to consider her role as the team's medic. One of the first things they beat into your skull in the Medic Program was the importance of staying operational; if a team's medic sprang into action carelessly and was taken out of commission, the rest of the squad would be in big trouble. Injuries that would only take a few minutes to heal, but which were crippling if left unattended, became a deadly concern. Sakura could heal a severed Achilles tendon in thirty-seven seconds, but only if she was alive to operate. If Sasuke wouldn't die without her immediate intervention—and all signs suggested he wouldn't—then her job was instead to get the final member of their squad patched up and functioning before assisting in the fight.
Pink hair fanning as she spun, Sakura looked back to Naruto. For all that having a knife lodged in one's shoulder must have hurt, he didn't seem very pained. If anything, she thought, he looked rather aggravated, tugging at the ringed pommel harshly, golden eyebrows drawn taught in a frown. She realized that he was trying rather unsuccessfully to yank the blade from his joint through brute force alone, apparently missing the fact that Kakashi-sensei's kunai all had a rather large barb on the edge, which seemed to have gotten stuck on his humerus.
She brought her hand down like a whip, forcing his own away with a quick slap to the back of the wrist.
"Hey!" he cried, shooting her a dirty look for her trouble.
She met it with a flat look and a no-nonsense clip in her voice. "Quiet," she said, lowering a hand glowing a faint lime-green atop the pierced flesh. Although visually similar, this jutsu was for diagnostics rather than healing. With the hooked kunai still buried in his joint, that would be a bad idea. "Watch my back while I fix this, yeah? And try not to move so much. You're squirming."
"I can do it myself—" he said, reaching once more for the blade's handle.
She slapped his hand again, harder, and hissed, "Didn't I just tell you to shut up?" It was dangerous to become distracted while applying first aid, especially when using chakra to do so. One of the drills they put you through in the Medic Program involved operating on a deer while the instructors did everything they could to break your concentration, from throwing water balloons at you to good-old-fashioned screaming in your face. Sakura could admit that more than a few of her 'patients' hadn't made it in her early days, if only because she'd built up such a tolerance by the end. 'Grace under pressure,' and all that crap. That didn't mean she didn't get annoyed…
Not giving him another opportunity to delay her, and with her diagnostics complete, Sakura wasted no more time in seizing the embedded kunai, slightly depressing it before rotating the tempered steel forty-five degrees clockwise and free of his bone. Not pausing, she then yanked it out, utilizing the entrance wound to keep additional damage to a minimum.
She could admit to being impressed by his pain tolerance. Meek as he'd acted before lunch, the boy hadn't so much as winced once so far. She respected his grit.
When he immediately made to stand up without allowing her to treat his now-heavily bleeding wound, her opinion soured. She did not respect idiocy.
His hand made to press at the injury, and she slapped it a third time.
Or rather, she attempted as much. Her slap never made it, caught mid-flight by his own bloody hand.
'Impossible,' she thought automatically, not because he'd stopped her slap but because he'd used his right arm to do it—the same one which ought to be completely out of commission right now.
"Don't bother," he said, slowly releasing her from his hold. "I'm fine."
Confusion, concern, and anger all mixed in her breast. She held her now bloody fingers aggressively close to his face, rubbing them together. "Blood and guts are my expertise, mister. You'll know you're fine when I tell you you're fine."
He looked at her closely for a moment and then, and this really pissed her off, smiled, right to her face, like she'd whispered something sweet into his ear and not just threatened him.
He must have seen the vein on her temple pulsing, because he added quickly, small smile still roosting on his lips, "Honestly, I'm fine. You can check it out later if you want, but for now just trust me. I heal real fast 'cause of the Kyuubi. Something this small's nothin'. Won't even leave a scar."
She digested what he said, scowl loosening a little, only for it to return in force when she saw the pair of lines etched onto the side of his head. "Bullshit. Then tell me how come—"
But he interrupted her again—she really didn't like being interrupted—and shook his head. "There's no time. Look."
He motioned with his chin towards the skirmish playing out behind her, past the remnants of her barrier jutsu.
She looked and didn't like what she saw. Sasuke was doing his best to avoid Kakashi, but the man was relentless, circling like a wolf, probing for weaknesses and then exploiting them with almost no time delay. If Sasuke just barely failed to hide a tendency to tense before throwing his shuriken, Kakashi was sure to pounce the next time he tried, seizing the miniscule gap and making him pay in blood. Her dark-haired teammate already had no less than six new wounds on him, three of them ignorable grazes on his arms, two more on his legs, and one deeper chip on his brow—a kind of wound she recognized as having come from a kunai's ring, probably thrown by Kakashi and imperfectly deflected by Sasuke. Whatever its cause, a second stream of blood had joined the first flowing from his broken nose, this time running right into his eye. She could see a glob of sealing agent on his thumb, but every time he tried to apply it and stem the bleeding, Kakashi would dash in, scoring another cut. He was in a bad way. With only half his field of vision and the injuries piling up, his options were limited. It was all he could do to keep their sensei at bay, but between muscular fatigue and his current rate of blood loss, Sakura estimated the amount of time he could keep this up for—it wasn't much.
'Hang in there, Sasuke. We're coming.'
She looked to Naruto again. He'd discarded his bloodied, black kimono, leaving him bare chested. Her eyes flashed across his physique—almost lithe, but more plain-Jane thin really—and found his wound. Beneath the coat of blood painting the skin there, his shoulder looked immaculate, without so much as a patch of discolored skin to attest to Kakashi-sensei's stab wound.
'Amazing.'
She pushed it out of her head for now. A distracted medic was a dead medic.
"Hey," she called.
His eyes glanced momentarily to her before sliding back to Sasuke and Kakashi. "You don't think this is for real, do you?" he asked. Sakura couldn't detect any fear coming from him, but rather a reluctant, almost queasy feeling.
"Yes," she answered, drawing his eye once again. She willed her own to reflect calm authority back but couldn't completely deny the fear gnawing at her. "This is very real, okay? So I need you to listen. You know Four-Beta-Nine, right?'
Big blue eyes blinked at her, mystified.
Sakura's own green pair stretched wide with incredulity. Furious, she stepped closer and demanded, "Tell me you know basic Konoha strategy! You do, right?!"
His own helpless look fell, defensive anger taking its place. Nevertheless, he took a half-step back, shoulders sloping inwards. "I know about strategy!" he insisted. "Just not, like, by code-name or whatever."
Her hands balled into fists and shook at her sides.
"Look," he said, hands raised placatingly. "Just explain it to me real quick and we can—"
"There's no time!" she cried, shaking her head in a moment of panic. A guttural, strangled sound leaked from her pale throat. She turned, placing her back to Naruto. "Just… just stay back and try not to draw attention. And be ready to do it on my mark," she said, racing off towards the fight.
"Do what on your mark?" he called after her, voice thick with confusion.
"Fuckingkillhim!What else?"
Training Ground Five
Sasuke dove to the side like his life depended on it, catching his weight and launching himself back to his feet in a basic somersault. Going off the blandly sadistic look in his jonin opponent's eye, and the loud rip his shirt made as it was further shredded, it seemed that may well be the case. Any later in his evasion, and his innards would have painted the rocks and sand beneath his feet. As it was, Sasuke thought the many small puddles of blood scattered about were more than enough decoration already.
'It's all mine, too,' he thought. 'I haven't even scratched him!' His mind raced. He tried to control his breathing and stem the worst of his bleeding and prepare for Kakashi's next attack and plan his own, and on and on, juggling an endless stream of tasks just to try and stay alive. He wasn't especially close to Sakura and didn't know 'Naruto' at all, but no matter how much he wished he didn't need their help, Sasuke knew the only chance they had of surviving—never mind killing the grey-haired bastard—was to work together. He considered himself skilled, knew Sakura to be dependably competent, and had heard tale of 'Konoha's Kyuubi' more than once. Together, they stood a chance.
'Hopefully.'
Sasuke finally managed to stop the gash above his eye from bleeding, swiping a finger-full of thick medical jelly across the split skin during his previous evasion. He had another problem now, though. When he tried to blink his eye open, taking care to keep the prowling jonin in his sight, he found it impossible. The blood coating his eyelid had gone gummy and thick beneath the hot, dusty sun, gluing the skin shut. He'd need to manually separate the lids or find some water if he wanted to see properly again but knew by now that Kakashi wouldn't allow him the chance. Sasuke could only guess at how Kakashi managed to fight like this. The wonky depth perception and narrowed field of vision were certainly causing him plenty of issues.
Instincts honed by endless training told him to create a distraction, but he ignored them. Kakashi, Sasuke was sure mostly to mock him, turned every attack he launched back on him. Using the dust cloud to obscure his water jutsu, forcing him to negate the explosive tags on his own kunai, and the one time he'd tried to push the fight in close, using Sasuke's forward momentum as a force multiplier for his own punches and kicks. The man was maybe the worst kind of opponent for him: a fast, world-class counter-attacker; the kind of guy who took the adage 'the best defense is a good offense' to its upper limits. Sasuke was naturally inclined towards aggression, but against someone like this, he was forced to fight passively and wait for backup.
While his field of vision was narrowed, the perks of an active, fully-matured Sharingan were none the lesser for only using one eye, so, when the cloth leg of Kakashi's jonin garb rustled, a tell-tale sign of his impending charge, Sasuke didn't miss it. Neither did he miss the brief flash of chakra rushing through the ground towards the tall man, pooling beneath and just before him, before lancing out as a stone pike, racing up to impale Kakashi in one sudden thrust.
'Finally,' he thought, relief washing through him like clean spring water. He didn't waste the opening Sakura had provided, for while Kakashi wasn't harmed by her attack, he was forced to dodge. In one smooth motion, Sasuke kicked back off the ground hard, creating space and prying his eye open with his fingers, ignoring the pain as lashes were torn free and stinging, salty sweat-infused blood met his sensitive eyeball.
For as much as it felt like he'd been fighting Kakashi for an hour already, he knew from the sun overhead that mere minutes had ticked by. The wound on his forearm hurt so bad he thought he'd be sick, he had at least one or two cuts on each and every limb, and his nose still hurt like a bitch, leaking blood and runny clear snot down his chin; but for all that, a well of hot chakra still remained in his coils, rushing and rushing and rushing through his system, eager to be used. White-hot fire still roared in his chest. His heart beat to the unheard drum of battle, and despite the fury in his blood, Sasuke could feel excitement infecting his bones.
'This is it,' he thought. 'The temper of battle. The forge's fire.'
"It's me," Sakura very wisely said, quickly stepping beside him and seizing his more injured arm unceremoniously. In the instant before she did so, the thought occurred to him to have her heal his nose first so he could breathe easier. When the pain of her holding his sliced and charred forearm almost sent him to his ass, he held his words and did his best not to scream instead. The numbing aspect of her healing jutsu kicked in enough for him to think, and he felt grateful. If she had left his arm untreated and he'd been forced to block with it, he may very well have lost consciousness from the pain. As it was, it felt like hot coals where she held him, although even now the pain was lessening.
'She's really a fine medic,' he thought warmly, a wave of endorphins washing across his brain. It was a pain response, he knew, but still…
Fingers snapped in his face. His noble features screwed up in annoyance, but focus returned as well. 'Blood loss,' he realized, having prior experience with the symptoms. Snapping out of it, he looked at Sakura. As soon as she saw she had his attention, her own gaze moved, shifting from him to their maniac sensei's slowly approaching form. She reached into her medic apron without looking away and produced from it a pair of brown pills. They looked like dog food pellets and smelled like moldy bread, but Sasuke recognized them as blood pills, capable of stimulating red blood cell regeneration. He plucked them from her palm which immediately found and began healing his nose.
"One for now," she said, eyes flickering his way for an instant before returning. Kakashi was getting closer, but still exercising caution. "One for later. The lacerations on your arms and legs'll keep bleeding. I don't have time to treat them. Eat the second one as soon as you start to feel woozy or in five minutes, whichever comes first. Got it?"
He waited for her to release his nose, distantly embarrassed by the blood and snot he saw on her hand, before throwing one of the pills back, ignoring the putrid flavor. "Got it."
"Good," she said, and for the first time he picked up on the fear hiding beneath her professional persona. Determination swelled in his breast, although he was uncertain why. There wasn't time to dwell on it. Kakashi was almost close enough that he'd be pressed to avoid an attack should he choose to dash in. Sakura seemed to understand, for she quickly raised her hand to cover her mouth—'So he can't read her lips,' he thought—and whispered her plan. "I'm thinking Five-Sigma-Five, use Naruto for the execution maneuver."
Sasuke considered it for an instant, then hid his own lips. "Why not Four-Beta-Nine?" he asked. "It'd be better if we all—"
But she cut him off, huffing with unexpected aggravation. "Because 'Konoha's Kyuubi' doesn't know Konoha's playbook, that's why. We can't fight Kakashi just by ourselves but winging it with a complete stranger is only gonna get us murdered. We're doing Five-Sigma-Five, got it?"
Her anger must have been infectious, because the warm feelings that'd been bubbling up inside him abruptly disappeared, a light sneer working at his bloodstained lips now. "Fine," he said. "I'll take point. On my mark."
Sakura gave a quick nod, pretty features pinched. Her hand lowered from her mouth to rest by her waist, nice and close to her other one for rapid sealing.
Sasuke nodded back, his bloody face set in determination. He still hurt plenty and their strategy likely wouldn't be enough to topple the infamous jonin, but there was nothing left to do now but fight. Five-Sigma-Five was a risky baiting maneuver—best utilized with three to five shinobi—and involved luring a superior opponent in by creating a false opening. While one engaged the target directly, the other would support from a distance. The support would use techniques meant to create openings but would (on the other's signal) pretend to misaim, seeming to throw their own teammate off balance. Supposing the target fell for the trap and tried to capitalize on the moment of perceived blunder, the first shinobi, prepared for the moment, would immobilize the target. It was during this instant of distraction and vulnerability on the target's end that the final shinobi—Naruto, in this case—would strike, delivering a precise killing blow unseen from behind.
It was high-risk, high-reward, but the best option they had at the moment. Sasuke called go and bolted. He just hoped the last member of their team didn't fuck it up.
Training Ground Five
Naruto watched hidden behind a low boulder as his new teammates engaged Kakashi. Dissatisfaction radiated off of his concealed form. A scowl marred his lips.
Just stay back and try not to draw attention!
The sun beat on his exposed neck and back. The heat wasn't helping his temper.
'Join the fray, then,' Kurama suggested, 'If her strategy displeases you so.'
He wanted to, but… Uncertainty held him. Not only did he have doubts about leaving them to face Kakashi on their own, he also felt black, squirmy reluctance plaguing him whenever he thought about his assigned role.
Fucking kill him, what else?
How could she say that? Kill an ally?
'Is he?'
'He is,' Naruto thought, and if his answer was anemic even within the confines of his own mind, so what? Kakashi was a Konoha jonin, their assigned sensei and comrade, and no matter how much pain he'd inflicted on Sasuke, Naruto could tell he'd passed up several opportunities to kill him. Maybe the others had missed it based on a lack of real-world combat experience—a department Naruto admittedly only had a slight edge in—but all the same, he was certain Kakashi could have killed Sasuke already if he'd really wanted to.
'Your observation is correct, but your conclusions are flawed.'
Naruto's fists balled. Kurama was right, of course. Kakashi not killing Sasuke could also be explained by the man simply being a sadist. Was Kakashi really that kind of person? The kind that yearned for violence, that reveled in watching things suffer? Naruto couldn't abide by it, if so. Non-existent though his appetite may be for bloodshed in general, he was at least able to convince himself of its necessity in extreme situations. Reveling in the protracted death and destruction of others, though, was another matter entirely. He didn't want to believe Kakashi was like that.
'If you are right…'
'Then he isn't really tryin' to kill us, and we shouldn't try to kill him either!'
'But if you are wrong?'
Naruto's face screwed up, teeth gritting, eyes clenching shut in rejection.
A growl, lumbering, unhurried, full of malcontent, filled his soul. It was a sound that said You're pissing me off.
'You shame yourself with this dishonesty boy. Do you mean to shame me as well?'
Naruto's eyes creaked open. He felt sick, like he'd drank a drum of oil and poisoned himself. He watched Sasuke try to insert his blade between the fourth and fifth ribs of Kakashi's chest only to barely escape a fist that would have crushed his windpipe via hasty back-step and a well-placed earth jutsu on Sakura's part.
'If he hadn't dodged,' Naruto thought, heart pounding, 'would he be dead right now?'
He remembered hearing once that it wasn't uncommon for children with violent and disturbed upbringings to become reflections of those circumstances, growing cruel and hateful as a result of so much trauma. He must have gone further 'round the bend than that, because the only things he felt when hurting others were sickness and pain.
There was one exception to this… but he refused to think about those times. There was a reason he worked so hard to master Kurama's potent youkai, despite being fundamentally averse to using it.
'Acknowledge it, boy. If this man aims to claim your life, and the lives of your new teammates, what must you do?'
'I could restrain him,' Naruto insisted weakly. 'Try to take him out without killing him…'
There was a moment of quiet within him, and even as he watched Sasuke's feinted kick fail, resulting in another long graze across his chest, Naruto knew what his partner was going to say. Black wretchedness filled him, freezing the blood in his veins even as unbridled moisture collected in the corners of his eyes.
'You would let your despicable half-measured nature claim livesagain?'
The moisture coalesced and flowed down his frozen face. Sudden tightness afflicted his throat. Naruto felt like he'd been sucker punched in the gut. He couldn't find his breath. The weight of Kurama's unapologetic disgust weighed heavily on his insides. Things were happening so fast. And of course, for no woes traveled alone, it was at that instant that he heard it—Sakura's throat-tearing scream, calling for him to attack, to kill their sensei—to reach out, and snuff the light from him.
Naruto's head shot to the sky in a silent scream, and all the skin on his body burned away. It was a frozen moment of pure, unspeakable agony. The floodgates opened. Dark red blood poisoned near-black with mindlessly raging youkai enveloped him. Around him formed his cloak—a thick lacquering of primal miasma dredged from the blackest pits—transforming him from a boy to a devil. Super-heated chakra leaked from his mouth like steam and colored his eyes a mindless uniform white. Four tails lolled aimlessly behind him like haunting spirits. His ears were bestial like those of his demonic partner, but the rasping growl that leaked from his inhuman teeth bore little in common with Kurama's bassy tenor. His form was monstrous, his existence, hellish with pain. He bore it in silence.
All these changes ravaged through him in an instant, and for all that he resembled a mindless beast, he retained his full mental faculties. This is to say that, in the time between Sakura's cry for help and his explosion forward, less than one full second passed. With a speed that sent the loose rocks and sand beneath him shooting into the air, a fully transformed, four-tailed Naruto appeared in position. Before him was Kakashi-sensei's vulnerable back, and though the man had managed to turn his neck enough to see him, he was unable to move away—one arm pinned by Sasuke's elbow hold, the other, held in place by the teen's hand, whose grip was steel despite the kunai impaling his palm. He'd eaten the attack to provide Naruto this opening, this chance to kill the man who would otherwise be the end of them. Sakura was off several meters to the side, eyes wide and desperate and focused on him despite the obvious chakra exhaustion afflicting her. He wouldn't waste the opportunity these two had sacrificed so much to provide, even if it meant...
He twisted, pulling back at the shoulder and elbow, keeping his wrist and all the joints in his fingers perfectly straight. In this state he'd be able to gouge a hole so cleanly through Kakashi it'd be as though the man wasn't there at all. He aimed for the heart. Bare, youkai-infused musculature strained as every fiber in his body contributed what it had to his attack. The look in his eye was wild as his life-ending fingers plunged forward, a howling, screeching scream exploding out of his lungs. His fingertips were five inches away from Kakashi's back, then four, then three, then two…
Then the look in Kakashi's eye changed, shock dulling to acceptance and even pride. He didn't make a sound, but in the instant before Naruto's plunging hand took his life, the man seemed to be saying, "Good job."
Naruto's spearing hand came to an impossible stop, devilish fingers a mere hair's breadth away from ending Kakashi's life. Stillness fell across the rocky plateau, and all of Team Seven looked on in varying states of shock and horror. Not even Naruto understood what was going on. He hadn't consciously decided to stop at all.
'Move!' he cried, 'Move! Move!' It was like liquid lead had been injected into his veins and arteries and bones, and had suddenly cooled at the last possible instant, stopping him dead in his tracks. Eyes flat white with the most primal energy strained wide and horrified, even as the rest of him began to shake, overcome with conflict. He had to. He had to. He had to.
I have to. I have to. I have to I have to! Have to! Have to have to have to kill him! I have to kill him! I HAVE TO KILL HIM NOW!
But for all that Kurama and sense and his own fear screamed it at him, for all that Naruto absolutely had to kill this man, he just… couldn't. What if he was wrong? There had to be another way—he just needed one minute of peace and quiet to find it—he was sure! There was some way out of this—some way he could stop Kakashi and protect Sakura and Sasuke all at once. He just needed a moment to find it. Just a moment. Just one minute!
It proved his downfall. Time had seemed to slow for Kakashi as Naruto's fingers approached, and stand still entirely when instead of running him through, they stopped. The sensation wore off though as Naruto's instant of hesitation grew long. In the following second, Kakashi's gaze turned narrow and hard.
Kakashi shifted in front of him, and before he knew it there was a meaty thunk followed by the sound of unsteady feet and a thud.
Eyes widening, Naruto looked to the ground past Kakashi's feet and found Sasuke lying in the dirt, an ugly welt swelling high on his jaw. Naruto didn't know how the jonin managed to get free and lash out so quickly, but by the time his brain processed the information before him—taking in Sasuke's lolling, half-conscious stare, Kakashi's ruthless gaze, and the gigantic hole he'd put in his own guard—it was too late.
"Gogyo Fuin!"
Purple fire blazed on all five of the fingers that struck his belly. The physical element of the attack didn't faze him, but all the same there was a twisting, like something deep inside Naruto had been perverted and damaged, making his whole world feel wrong. Confusion filled him, only growing stronger and spiking out of control as the youkai coating him bled away, dispersing into the air in a hiss of steam. He distantly heard Kakashi dart off, and Sakura scream a moment later, but he could barely hear her over the rising tide of pain. As bad as it hurt inside the cloak, without it, he was left bare to the world, raw nerve endings firing lunatic signals up his spine as unprotected meat met the air.
Kurama wasn't healing him. Why wasn't Kurama healing him?
He found himself falling, unable to control his body on top of everything else. He didn't have any more insane panic or pain or fear to spare. When he landed and the coarse sand of the plateau ground into him, like salt and pepper into a raw steak, it was all he could do to stay conscious. Only one thought managed to pierce through his overwhelmed mind as he lay there, stunned by his own failure.
My fault. My fault—my fault—myfault—myfault! MY FAULT—this—this is all my fault!
Pure unadulterated desperation seized him in its grasp. He couldn't let people die because of his weakness. Not again. He couldn't lose another team.
'Please, not again!'
His head seemed to weigh a million pounds, but somehow, Naruto—bloody, shivering slice of meat that he was—managed to turn just enough to see the rest of Team Seven. He watched through unfocused eyes as Sasuke, legs only half obeying his commands, stood over Sakura's downed form, fire coating his hands from the wrists up as he tapped into reserves that didn't exist, doing everything in his power to ward off the inhuman killer that was Kakashi. Naruto saw blood drip from the kunai in Kakashi's grasp. His eyes slid naturally down the red dribble path connecting it to Sakura's prone form.
He cried desperately into his soul for help. The silence that met him was devastating. Kurama either couldn't answer or didn't know what to say. Stinging tears flowed freely from his eyes to mix with the blood and dust he lay on. The pain was out of this world, and his heart felt like it would explode at any second, beating like a hummingbird's wings through the agony and despair. He tried with all of his might to rise, but barely managed to move his arm. More tears flowed at this development, and a terrible idea came to him. It went against the core of his being, but, laying there in a puddle of his own blood and tears, watching Sasuke and Sakura struggle for survival, he vowed to do whatever it took to save them—to keep them safe—to protect them from all who would seek to murder his second chance. He didn't know whether it was guilt or hate or desperation that fueled his promise, but with the strength and clarity of this new, singular pledge, this isolated purpose, he found within him one little, hidden stash of strength. He used it to force his fingertips into his belly, seizing the fuinjutsu there like a physical thing. It was an ancient cog in his hand, the key to a machine of inhuman construction. Blood and spit and an insane cry of rage spilled from his throat, and with the very essence and fiber of his being, he twisted…
And the ancient cog turned.
Training Ground Five
Sakura watched through swimming vision as Sasuke, wreathed in fire, was finally cut down. Her ears rang a dull tone. With every breath she caused a small puff of dust to kick up, her cheek pressed to the rough ground. Strain and struggle as she may, her arms and legs refused to obey her commands. Kakashi had stuck yet another of his hooked kunai in her belly, and while the blade somehow missed her organs, the jolt of electricity he channeled through it left her incapacitated. The pain was unmanageable. She could shake and she could breathe and she could cry, but that was it. She was paralyzed.
'Sasuke!' she cried in her head, unable to accept what her eyes were seeing. They had never been friends, but all the same she'd known him since she was a little girl. They'd studied and drilled together countless times before, and now… Now, he was flat on his back, hanging onto consciousness by a thread, choking desperately for air. He was pinned to the ground by his throat, a two-headed spear made of stone locking him down with one prong on either side of his neck. She couldn't see to tell if his throat had been slit but hoped the dryness of his rasping breaths meant not. The flaming gauntlets he'd summoned at the end were gone, taking with them the bulk of his tattered shirt, leaving only his vest behind.
His bared skin reminded Sakura of her other teammate. It had been almost indescribable, seeing him switch from a shy, moody boy, into that… that thing. The sight of it inspired in her equal parts horror and awe. The power coming from him had been stifling, hot and angry and potent, but not mindlessly raging—not hopelessly lost. She could admit to losing her breath when he seemed to simply appear in position, terrible maw rumbling, endless eyes seeing. Through all the fear that seized her, Sakura had felt hope riding beneath it. Here was real power, she'd thought. Enough to make things happen.
But… in the end, he'd still been human underneath all that alien strength. Just a boy. Oily shame squirmed in her guts as she considered how much more convenientit would be, if only he'd been stripped of his humanity. If only he'd been formed into a proper weapon. With that on her team…
You all want the same thing.
The self-disgust rising inside her went a long way towards Sakura forgiving the blonde his hesitance. When she managed to find him, a rock's throw away, all the skin on his body missing… nauseating, nightmarish horror took its place. He was shaking uncontrollably, and her medical expertise allowed her to imagine all the ways in which he must be suffering in that moment, all the unbearable agony that must be ravaging him. Dark spots were floating around in her eyes, but despite this and the fact that he was a fair distance away, Sakura thought he may have been looking back at her…
'I'm sorry. I can't save you. I can't save any of us. Mommy… Daddy… I'm so sorry…'
Sakura's eyes fluttered. A weak chill slowly fanned outward from her core. With it, lethargy came. Thoughts of her mother and father filled her head as her consciousness began to wane.
'Forgive me, mommy, daddy. I failed.'
Her eyes slid slowly closed. There was a lone moment of quiet, and she knew herself to be on the precipice of darkness, but then…
Something changed. There was a terrible sound, like ripping and tearing meat, and then, with no build-up whatsoever, Sakura was at the bottom of the sea. It made no sense but was the only thing which could explain the sudden, elephantine weight bearing down upon her—not just her body, but her mindand soul too. The thick rotten stench of hatred clogged her pores, like the air had suddenly condensed to liquid. The ground beneath her cheek seemed to hum. A ringing pressed against her ears, high and long like an endless dog-whistle.
With a herculean effort, she managed to creak one bloodshot eye open.
What awaited her peeking gaze was eternal. That was how her human brain interpreted it. Where before with his four swishing tails Naruto had seemed to bridge the realm between human and devil, the thing that loomed there now, sat hunched above a puddle of its own blood, was pure.
Pure evil, she thought, half delirious, but that wasn't quite right. It felt… olderthan such things. That was the impression it gave, like its genesis lay in the eons before such concepts as good and evil originated.
Unbridled, images came to her head of creatures prowling their planet so long before her species came along, it wasn't even funny. Five tails of that red-black plasma floated ethereally behind it. More than an additional tail, his whole form was changed: a skull she recognized as belonging to a fox enclosed his head, worn like a helmet, but for the eyes.
The eyes, she thought, were the worst part—far worse than the pale skeleton of bones adorning him like armor, fused to his flesh by exposed, cord-like tendons and sinew. Worse even than the sound, reverberating from its pit at a frequency which broadcast an ancient wrongness. This was a thing better left buried in the earth or floating amongst the stars—it was hubris of man to try and tame such power. This much Sakura could tell from its presence alone. No, worse than all that, Naruto's once flat-white eyes, filled with power and anger but human thought too, had been replaced by flesh. Within the sockets of that skull helmet they watched, with irises of the deepest blood red, and monstrous double-pupils that staredright into her soul.
'Oh God!' she thought, trying once again to scramble to her feet, but just as paralyzed now as a minute ago. 'Oh, dear God…'
Terror was like a fist in her hair, working with Kakashi's jutsu to keep her pinned in place. She didn't want to hear, but she heard. She didn't want to feel, but she felt.
She didn't want to watch, but the devil and its unnatural eyes made her watch, all the same. And then…
And then it was gone, a fuzzy trick of the light making it appear to fizzle into nothingness—but only appear. Sakura knew better. She was a damn smart girl, and even if her eyes couldn't follow the creature's movements, she knew it to be moving all the same. When it appeared an instant later—or perhaps, an instant before, her mind not keeping up—it did so above Sasuke, blocking the path between him and Kakashi. She'd forgotten about him, about them both, but now reminded, felt her dread grow.
Oh no…
The creature made a new sound, like a yowl but upside down, that hurt both her ears and the back of her brain. Some drool escaped her frozen lips to pool on the ground, but she hardly noticed. Hell, Kakashi's arm turned into lightning, and she barely spared that a glance. All her focus, all her world, was zeroed in on a singular point. The creature had grabbed Kakashi's stony lance and was looking down at Sasuke now, alien eyes unmoving even as it growled and yipped more impossible sounds. Sasuke himself had gone deathly still, and Sakura could just make out from here the red and black of his Sharingan staring up in abject terror at the entity looming overhead. Tears flowed from her eyes like sake from a bottle. She knew what would happen next. With a single push, it would sever Sasuke's head…
'Oh God, oh my God!'
—and begin its killing spree. Kakashi would be next, and then, it'd be her turn…
A single, mutant eyeball swiveled in its socket, finding her as though she'd spoken aloud. Her heart stopped. Her blood froze. Her nipples pebbled in fear, and her eyes, oh, her traitorous eyes! They looked on and on and on, staring into the depths of damnation, seeing so much more than they should. The paralysis was weakening, little by little, and she found herself able to swallow the saliva pooling in her mouth.
Her pale neck bobbed with the effort...
And triggered something.
The abomination moved. There was no in-between; no transition. One moment, the spear was pinning Sasuke flat against the ground, and the next, it was swinging at Kakashi, a thousand miles an hour. The dark-haired Uchiha lay forgotten on the ground, none the worse for wear.
Kakashi dodged by the skin of his teeth, the air around him booming as the lance tore a vacuum in the atmosphere and air rushed back in to fill it. Naruto, or perhaps the Kyuubi no Kitsune, over-extended harshly in its swing, and presented a large hole in its guard that Kakashi and his lightning-encrusted arm seized upon.
This seemed the truth to Sakura, but when the tailed thing just continued to spin, waist cracking and twisting in the most gut-wrenching collection of snaps and pops and crunches she'd ever heard, she had to reevaluate her way of thinking. It completed its impossible, spine-crushing spin, and thrust the double prongs forward, intent on goring the grey-haired man through the face and neck.
A backwards rumble warbled deep in its throat as it moved, turning to a growl just barely within her ability to hear when, rather than punch twin holes through the man, its lance was obliterated, no match for Kakashi's arm and the lightning jutsu it wielded. The jonin continued his attack, driving up the shaft of the spear and shattering it to pieces. It reached Naruto's hand without slowing and split it in two, driving up between the fingers and on into his forearm, parting the limb like a wedge.
Sakura felt acidic bile bubbling in the bottom of her throat, but was unable to look away, despite the slackening grip of her paralysis. The image of a burst sausage came unwanted to her mind as venerable torrents of blood rushed from the wound, splashing against the ground loud enough for her to hear.
It was horrific, but not quite so horrific as what she saw next as the two split segments of arm morphed, each twisting upon itself with a sound like rubbing latex, bundles of muscle fibers bulging and squirming, fingers stretching and contorting with loud snaps, radius and ulna bones developing new unnatural joints, allowing the mutant limb, tipped no longer in fingers but instead in teeth, to bite down on Kakashi's arm, digging wounds that wept syrupy blood into his bicep and triceps.
Kakashi grunted in pain.
Naruto tittered, alien eyes dancing in delight.
Sakura gasped, and one of the eyes swiveled wetly to look at her, the other still trained on Kakashi.
In the deepest parts of her being, something screamed at her to get away—to run and hide and do everything in her power to forget, or baring that possibility, to simply kill herself. Better, this primal wisdom spoke in the recesses of her brain, than the alternative.
This response scared her. Hell, everything about this scared her, but within the roiling sea of fear and horror and confusion churning inside her, something steadier weathered the storm, bobbing along, waiting for her to find it. It wasn't bravery or anything else so noble, but neither was it madness. Sakura imagined its name to be 'surrender'.
Her paralysis was weakened enough now for her to move. Shaky, jerky, unsteady, she rose to her feet all the same. Her muscles spasmed at random. Hunched over, she held her stab wound tightly, healing it just enough to keep her innards from becoming outtards, mindful of her depleted reserves and the tasks ahead. Her bangs were sopping with sweat and speckled with blood. They hung in tresses, framing eyes that stared straight back at the beast. Looking deep into those unnatural double-pupils, she searched for a hint of that quiet, moody boy who'd shown up out of the blue. Maybe it was a trick of the light, or her overtaxed mind hallucinating, but just there, hiding in the back…
She swallowed again, offered up what few prayers she could remember, and stepped forward, breaking eye-contact with Naruto to rush to Sasuke's aid. A part of her expected to be torn asunder the moment she moved, but as her feet beat down on the sandy pebbles again and again, and her life was not taken, Sakura was reminded of Naruto's pledge to them.
I won't hurt you guys.
Of course, he'd said he could control it, too, and nothing in this world was so obvious as the fact that, right now, Naruto was farfrom 'in control.' Still, hadn't he become like this for them? Wasn't it the case that, after transforming, the first thing he did was rescue Sasuke? The air was thick with ungodly power and alien emotion, the combination of which had the most primal workings of her brain going crazy, but… in her heart, Sakura wanted to believe. That she would live. That they would succeed. That he would protect them. If she was wrong, they were dead anyway. Mind and heart in alignment, she put her trust in him and fell to her knees over Sasuke.
He was delirious, the blood-loss and chakra expenditure and head-trauma too much to properly function through. She snapped her fingers and slapped lightly at his cheeks, but he barely spared her a drunken, hazy glance, regular dark eyes trained feverishly on the sight across them. She didn't look. She was not trained for sustained ninjutsu combat, and her reserves were all but gone now. She had just enough left in the tank to stabilize Sasuke. After that, they'd both be helpless. Running away and just saving herself crossed her mind, but she dismissed it. Her place was here.
Otherworldly sounds and the chirping of a thousand birds broke out beyond her. She didn't look up. There was no point. She placed her trust in Naruto and did her job.
Konoha Training Ground Five
Naruto shivered as more pain lanced up his arm. The human before him had used lightning to hurt him again, taking one of his newly-formed appendages clean off. The remaining mutated half-arm dangled nightmarishly.
His loins stirred. Muscles stretched so good. Blood howled. The pain was exquisite.
Focus. Focus. Focus.
But his things were okay—just there, off to the side, one taking care of the other. The stench of death was absent from them. That was enough, wasn't it? Now he could—
No. No. Focus. Focus. Protect.
This one was the threat? This one, then? Wanting to take his things? If he was killed, they'd be safe? Just that much?
Yes. Yes. Kill. Kill. Kill.
Sure. That was easy days, right there. Kill, kill, kill. He could get behind that! Kill, kill, kill. This one, then?
Watch out!
"Fuin!"
A hand emblazed with negative light made to slam into his stomach. A bloody fissure split him open at the navel, crunching and squelching out of the way.
The human's eye stretched wide. His hand passed clean through.
Naruto giggled, and then the hole in his core sealed, locking the man in place inside him. He looked so confused. Naruto's eyes lolled in his skull. Sped-up yipping spilled from his throat. Twisted horns grew from his forehead. His half arm melted and reformed its proper shape. The sand drank his drippings with lively thirst.
Blood and guts are MY domain.
One of his things had said that. For real! Kehehe! It was hilarious.
Focus. Kill.
Fine.
Naruto broke his jaw open 180 degrees, cracks and snaps sounding out like crushed celery. His cheeks tore in a gory smile. His tongue hung low, down past his neck. There seemed to be too many teeth growing in his mouth, all long and wicked and uneven, like the amassed bones of an animal graveyard. Inside that ring of fangled white lay death given shape and weight. A marble of obsidian, or rather, the primordial soup of life, condensed down into a superdense orb, unfiltered energy beyond chakra, beyond youkai… beyond even space or time. It didn't quite lay in his throat, instead seeming to hover with a dull hum. A flash of silent light queued destabilization. Double-pupils stared. The whole thing went.
Relative silence in the clearing was replaced in an instant by a deafening roar. The energy that flew forth from Naruto's gullet was irrational, ten-times his height in diameter, miles long, it was a beam that flash-fried everything in its path. Stone and water and everything else disintegrated in a long tube. Trees just outside its path were set ablaze and uprooted. A section of Konoha's border wall collapsed in the distance. Kakashi simply ceased to be, but not quite as Naruto had been expecting. The queer poofing that marked his death was wholly unsatisfying.
Say again, say again, it was wholly unsatisfying.
The jubilation in his bones soured. A snarl set his chest vibrating. Senses stretched out like lazy summer foxes, but he couldn't seem to find—
There. There. There. Not dead. Protect. Kill. Protect. Kill.
Out from a tree line some hundred meters away, he reappeared.
No. No. Appeared. Appeared.
Yes. No. As he said. As he said. The man did not re-anything. He appeared for the first time only. A fake. All along. A fake.
Real one. Not fake. More danger. PROTECT. KILL. PROTECT. KILL.
The man shunshined from his plateau to theirs.
"That's enough, Naruto. This drill is—"
Ten orbs grew like tumors in his gullet. He braced for impact. Like this, he was sure to get him—
no no No No NO NO NO!
Why not?
He looked.
Ah! He saw. Oops! Just there, his things were in the way. Just there. Watching now. Too tired to move. Too hurt. Too close, too. Needed to be behind or would be killed. His mouth slammed closed with a crunch that broke teeth. Steam leaked from their holes. He swallowed the shattered bits.
To them.
Yes. To them. He began to move on all fours, bounding at top speed. They would be safe in his shadow. Then, he could kill. Then, he could protect.
Fear—absent even when he first showed the power on his tongue—flashed in Kakashi's eye. He lifted a headband and revealed red beneath it. "Stop him!" he shouted and rushed forward.
Will hurt them. Will. Don't let. Don't let.
Naruto understood. He would not allow it. Chakra-rich wood shot up from the ground in square chutes like fingers grabbing at him. Muscles bulged and multiplied and ripped free.
More humans! More! Protect! Kill all—Kill all!
He understood that, too. Now he could sense many more. Many, many. Just there, and there as well. How had he missed them? Were they hidden? Waiting for this? Come to kill his things? Come to kill him?
He would not allow that either. He was closing quickly on them. Then. Then, he could kill.
Stone walls sprung up in his way, but he ran right through them. Thrown steel pierced his flesh to no avail. The wood was worse, sticking to him whenever he touched it, but he wouldn't let it stop him. Protect. He would. Reach them, then kill, the man, the others. All and more. They would not come to harm, his things.
They would not.
Closer than them. Get there first. Protect. Kill.
Wood wrapped around his feet, and a human—fast! faster than the others—dressed all in green, appeared before him. His hair was black and his skin was dark red. Thick eyebrows angled down in a harsh frown.
"Naruto-kun, stop this! This unyouthful test has ended—"
Naruto lashed out, arm exploding in size and speed till it was like an avalanche of flesh and bone and energy, crashing into a cross-guard that held.
Stopped. Can't stop. Kill.
A hole opened in his elbow, then twenty more, and from them an explosion of youkai shot out backwards like an afterburner. His arm rocketed forward like a jet and the human's defense faltered. His forearms crunched and he was sent flying away. The wood was up past his waist now. He ripped and tore himself from it and then, with nothing left to stop him, jumped the rest of the way to his things.
They were in a small pile, half-unconscious, which made standing over them easy. His shadow painted them. The sight of it spawned great pleasure and warmth in him. Self-assured, he looked up.
PROTECT.
He would.
"That's enough, Naruto," the mixed-eyed man was saying, closest to him of all the humans now emerging from the tree line. Five, ten, fifteen in total. "Leave Sakura and Sasuke alone—I'm the one you want, right?"
Didn't make sense. Thought he would…?
Trick. Trick. TRICK.
Ah, had to be. Sly human. His jaw opened back up, but not so much that he couldn't still see them, instead this time bisecting at the chin, separating open like a snake's. White bone peeked out of the waterfalling blood. Some drippled down onto his things. The stench of their fear grew thicker in his nostrils. Central to his open mouth was that cluster of orbs, like black bubbles clumped together in the top of his throat. Like this, he would kill them for sure.
Protect.
Of course.
"Tenzou! Get him now!" one of the humans said, this one female with peculiar purple hair and lots of teased flesh.
"I can't, the others are in the way."
"Goddamn it, Tenzou, forget about them—grab him!"
"Shut up! Nobody do anything. If you hurt them, I'll kill you myself."
That was the mixed-eyed man. His words continued to confuse him. Naruto kept charging the orbs anyway.
"Naruto, listen to me!" His hands were up, palms exposed.
Closest to them, he was still a stone's throw away. When he made to take a lone step closer, the black orbs pulsed, and Naruto growled, low and clear, the unnatural gargling freezing him mid-stride.
The mixed-eyed man nodded and stayed where he was. "Listen. This was all just training, okay? I had to trick you guys into thinking I was going to kill you—get you familiar with the feeling—at least enough that I could count on you not to freeze out on the frontlines. Everyone here was hidden all along: a full team of medics; others to make sure things went okay. Look at Sakura. Look at Sasuke. They're drained, and cut, and bruised, but alive. You're smart enough to know what that means. I understand why this happened. What you're doing. You're trying to protect them, right?"
Dirty trick! Dirty trick! Kill now! KILL!
He was right. Tricky. This one was tricky. Would do anything to kill his things. Wouldn't let him, though. Couldn't hurt them if he was dead.
The black orbs quivered.
A hand grabbed his ankle. It sizzled and burned but didn't let go.
What?
What? His neck snapped and rotated so as to allow him the ability to see beneath him while still keeping the enemy in his line of fire. One of his things was touching him. Very bad. Too weak. Fragile. Ought to not be touching him, but how to tell it with so much death on the tongue? It looked up at him through watery green eyes.
"Naruto," it said, voice creaking and cracking.
Poor, poor thing. He would protect. Kill these ones, then get them away. Safe and sound.
He started to look back at the humans.
"Hey," it called, fingers tightening further around his ankle.
He looked back and managed a warble, shaking the limb. It needed to let go. Very bad to be touching him.
"Listen you great idiot—didn't you hear what they said?"
Lies Lies Lies
"It's enough. You've… you've already done enough, Naruto. You did it. We're safe."
Really? He didn't think so. Mutant eyes flickered towards the amassed enemy.
She managed a weak laugh and finally let go of his leg. Her palm was blackened and bleeding. His guts twisted.
"You're suddenly very thorough," she said, a hacking cough seizing her for several long seconds thereafter. When she could speak again, her lips had bright red flecks painting them. "I was just getting used to your half-assed nature."
He shifted his weight around. The humans across them remained silent and still, and only because of this was he not already mid-slaughter. His thing seemed determined to be heard. If they could wait to die, then he could wait to kill.
"It's dumb, right? Me telling you to kill him even though I could see how against it you were. And now, me telling you to stop, after you've gone and done this to yourself, trying to keep us safe." She looked up at him with a tired, pained smile, cradling her hand to her midsection, dirt smudged all over her face. He stared and stared. "Girls can be like that, you know? Indecisive and stuff. Sorry."
Conflict waged inside him. His other thing was silent, eyes still not very steady, watching him as well. The orbs in his gullet were long charged and ready to fire. He held off.
She looked up at him through a gap in her dirty hair, eye bloodshot and ringed. With a sigh that seemed to sap her remaining strength, her eye eased shut. "I don't know what else to say. Please, Naruto. Don't do it."
Unnatural double-pupils waivered, then shifted to regard the humans, and the mixed-eyed one more correctly. His face was solemn and remorseful. The orb cluster didn't power down.
Slowly, with a hesitant care meant not to spook him, Kakashi eased down to his knees and bowed his head to the dirt.
"Forgive me, Naruto. I already knew how you felt. I knew that this could happen and pushed you anyway. I take full responsibility for putting you in this situation. Kill me, if you need to."
The other humans rustled in fidgety unease but said nothing.
Would deserve it. Wanted this. All want this. Give it to them, then. Let them have it.
"Oi," his other thing barked from beneath him. He looked to it, and found a furious expression made only more potent by the fatigue it had to fight through. It was his dark-haired thing. The eyes that beheld him were full of accusation and empty of fear. "You'd really kill someone bowing to you? He's an ally, dumbass. Can't you see that?"
Allies? These are. Are not. Are too. Are not. Are too.
He couldn't tell. They were acting like it now. His things thought so. But he'd been so sure… If he was wrong, he'd kill allies. If he was right, though… They'd kill him. They'd kill his things.
Don't let. Don't let. Don't let. Protect. Protect. Protect.
He tensed and prepared to fire. They fled, the humans, all but the one. The mixed-eyed man stayed where he was, head bowed, accepting. A siren went off in his head.
He was the real one. The time when the mixed-eyed man could have dodged passed. He didn't, and it sent warning bells of unfathomable urgency and volume off in his head.
NO NO NO NO NO. Wrong. Wrong. Was wrong! Was wrong! Don't kill! Don't kill. Another of our things! Another of our things! Must protect as well! Must protect!
It was too late though. The orbs were destabilizing. Warping reality around them, burning in his gullet, shrieking like a collapsing star. There was no chance—no way to stop it now—he wasn't moving!
Naruto's neck snapped like a tree limb, spinning around till his mouth was aimed straight up at the sky.
The explosion that rocked out of him was everything, driving him into the ground till he almost touched his things below. The noise was deafening. The beam that fired was like a solid mass, stabbing the heavens past where the eye could see. In an instant, all the clouds in Konoha's sky evaporated. It was like the sun had been dropped on top of them, too bright to look at, too raw to behold. It lasted only seconds, but for those gathered in Training Ground Five, it seemed an eternity.
When it was over, and the aftershocks stopped, and people's senses returned to them, it became clear that nobody was hurt. Naruto was buried to his forearms and shins in the earth, Sakura and Sasuke were huddled beneath him, the gathered Konoha ninja were safely scattered all around them, and Kakashi, as he had been through it all, remained on his knees, head bowed, there, just a few meters away.
More Konoha ninja were finally arriving on the scene but were kept back by those who'd been there from the start. The Godaime appeared, flanked by a full ANBU squad, and observed impassively from the back.
Naruto ignored them. The melted bits of his mouth and face healed and reformed in seconds. When he had eyes again, they looked only at the mixed-eyed man.
Ears lying flat against his skull, the five-tailed Naruto whined piteously.
Kakashi looked up and realized he was alive, calm in a way that betrayed how ready for death he was. The whining drew his gaze.
Their eyes met.
Naruto yipped, unsure.
Kakashi's lips gave a faint twitch, and he nodded. He stood, walked straight over to him, and sighed. "Sorry, kid," he whispered, settling a hand atop his head. His palm sizzled, but he bore it, until Naruto ducked away from his touch, rumbling his upset. Kakashi shrugged. "For my own sake. To remember by. I can't promise I won't ask you to do stuff you hate, but… I swear, as much as I can, I'll do right by you three going forward. Believe it."
A new hand found his forearm. His muscles jumped. He looked down, and there, one of his things—
Sasuke.
—Sasuke, was grimacing, his own palm burning as well. After a few seconds, he let go.
"Fuck, that hurts," he complained, clenching his injured hand and brandishing it up at him. "Next time," he swore, eyes wavering, consciousness fading rapidly, "you won't have to save me."
He passed out. Naruto eyed them all, expression unreadable. They were a sight, all bloody, dirty messes. A matching set. Sasuke and Sakura were unconscious beneath him. Kakashi stood patiently before him.
Maybe…
The other shinobi gathered around looked on with open hostility and fear, but these three…
A little paradise in Hell. All I need.
Tension bled off of him. He nodded at Kakashi, then stood, stabbed his fingers into his stomach, and turned. Raw, but already healing, the ancient power evaporated off of him. Slowly, Kurama began to heal him. He pitched forward, eyes fluttering closed. Kakashi caught him before he could hit the ground.
Maybe…
He passed out in his sensei's arms, the rest of his team close by.
Author's Note: You made it! While my chapters tend to be long in general, this was an especially lengthy one that I only decided to keep as a single entity after much deliberation. Do not expect equal length from most future chapters. Also, please keep in mind that this story is AU, meaning that anything from the canonical Naruto universe is subject to change or elimination. That said, please feel free to provide feedback in a review. While there are several things that are meant to be mysterious at this point in the story, I still want to know if I am being unclear in spots. Thank you again for reading. See you next week with Chapter Three!