CHAPTER 9: METEMPSYCHOSIS
Note: i have taken liberties with naruto's nine tails chakra mode, kurama mode, and tailed beast mode. they are all different forms /angry crying laughter
Just like that, two years go by.
Time flies by when you're busy training, busy moving from small village to small village, busy dropping by Suna to make sure peace is maintained.
In two years, Naruto does not return to Konoha.
No comfort food from Ichiraku and no letters from Sakura, even though Sasuke never fails to visit his dreams. Like everything else, he gets used to this new rhythm of life.
The closest he gets to Konoha is Suna, and Suna is beautiful, in its own unique way. The sky is always a sea of endless blue and the sun is always bright, right until it burns gold and crimson as it sets. Jiraiya is still in his wheelchair, but he says it gives him more time to write. Kakashi has a new team of his own, under Suna's Academy. Naruto doesn't know what they look like, nor their names, and it makes it hurt a little less. He doesn't see either of them very often, but at least he knows what they're up to, unlike Sakura.
Once, he swears he senses her familiar chakra in a nearby village, at the border of Fire country. Don't be silly, he tells himself. Sakura is not a kunoichi any more, let alone one hiding at the border.
Today, they're back at Suna.
The villagers here look healthy and well-fed, but they walk quickly and their eyes are always trained on the sandy ground below their feet.
"They still don't trust us?"
"Maybe it's just you they don't trust," Yamato says good-naturedly.
"Not funny," Naruto grumbles, and when the Kyuubi emerges in his consciousness to suggest maiming Yamato terribly, like perhaps breaking his spine, Naruto ignores him.
"The political situation is still tense," Yamato says, seriously now. "There's rumours of a coup every few months, and the prison is getting fuller and fuller."
Naruto frowns. "If Suna is now under Konoha, doesn't this mean Konoha are putting their own citizens in prison?"
"It's not that simple," Yamato says, sighing. "It's...political."
"When I'm Hokage, things like this won't happen. People shouldn't suffer or die due to differing ideals. People shouldn't even die because of their ideals, like shinobi are doing every day."
"That's what it means to be a ninja," Yamato replies, echoing Kakashi all those years ago.
Naruto thinks of Sasuke, a child brought up to live and die by this law. Sasuke, alone under layers and layers of soil. Sasuke, all that talent and potential and life, reduced to nothing but bone. "Definitions can change."
For the first time in a long, long time, he dreams of something other than Sasuke or death that night. He dreams about a new world, one without borders, without wars disguised as peace.
The next day, Akatsuki arrive in Suna.
Naruto is tucking into lunch at the only ramen store in Suna, one that is twice as expensive as Ichiraku's and not even half as good, with Yamato sticking close as usual, when there's an earth shattering explosion.
Dust and sand is everywhere.
Outside, something big rampages the village. Naruto rushes out from the restaurant to find Suna swarming with otherworldly animals. A pterodactyl flies over their heads, screeching. Up ahead, there is a monstrous dog with two heads, thunder across the wide streets. It steps on the roof of the Academy, crumpling it like a sandcastle.
"No!" Naruto screams. His chakra cloak activates automatically, coating his body in bright yellow light. All those years of training have paid off: he no longer wears the crude skin of the Kyuubi; instead, a chakra haori shrouds him in place of the waving tails that unravel behind him.
He makes the signs for shadow clones, and three of them materialise next to him.
"Rasenshuriken!"
The ball of chakra hits the dog, but instead of disappearing, another head emerges instead. "What-"
Beside him, Yamato is pressing his hands into the ground, bringing forth wooden vines that grow and wrap around the dog.
"Naruto of the Nine-Tails," a voice calls out in between all the chaos, screams, and unearthly animal roars, and a man with blinding orange hair stands before him, his black and red cloak rippling in the breeze. There are strange, metal rods in his face, through his nose, in his ears. His eyes are what unnerves Naruto the most: they are a striking purple, ringed with black. "My name is Pain. You need to follow me."
"Fox got your tongue?" he asks, when Naruto doesn't respond. Naruto can't tear his eyes away from the depths of those eyes, even though the Kyuubi is roaring at him. Pain grips a black rod in his hand, and without weaving any signs, pulls a body towards him and onto the rod.
The rod breaks through the body with a sickening thud, and it's Kakashi, eyes wide and mouth open. There is no sound, no screaming, no last words. Impaled, thick blood splutters from his mouth as it pierces through bone and soft organs.
No. No.
Naruto doesn't even know he's screaming until he's racing at Pain. He can't see, he can't think. He gives up control of his rational mind so the Kyuubi's rage and power can overtake him; a body, a vessel of pure destruction. There's too much smoke and dust, and when his vision clears, Pain stands there, untouched. Those unnatural eyes betray no emotion.
He can repel the Rasenshuriken, the Kyuubi hisses, almost impressed.
It doesn't matter, not when Kakashi's body lays on the side, unmoving, unbreathing.
No.
"I'm not done yet," Pain says flatly. He pulls out another black rod from his back with his right hand. With his other hand, he points to his left, making sure Naruto's eyes follow. Jiraiya is holding his own, fighting a woman with long orange hair, similar black rods decorating her face. Time slows down, and Naruto moves but it's not fast enough for whatever jutsu this man possesses.
This time, the rod shoots straight towards Jiraiya. He see it, and tries to use his mane as a shield, but nothing stops the momentum of the projectile. The way it slides through Jiraiya is effortless.
Naruto crumbles to his knees next to Jiraiya, whose eyes are already glassy. The blood pools around him. Just like that, just like the first time he saw Sasuke die, it's over in mere seconds.
"Now are you ready to follow me?"
"No," he whispers, fingers digging into the front of Jiraiya's cloak. His blood stains his hands.
"This is pain, Naruto."
Around them, the battle rages on. Bodies fall, buildings crumble, despair reigns.
"My friends have died too, for the sake of peace. There is no changing this world now. Your role is to be a sacrifice that allows Akatsuki to bring peace to the world."
"What do you want?" Naruto says, raising his head slowly.
"I formed the Akatsuki to break the cycle of hatred. I can put an end to it, but I need the power of the tailed beasts to create a weapon, one strong enough to wipe out an entire nation instantly. When the world understands what true pain is, all wars will cease, and the world will enjoy stability and peace."
"How many tailed beasts do you have?"
"You will be our first," Pain explains.
Naruto's heart slams painfully in his chest. This means that the rest of the vessels, those others like him, are still alive, still safe. Except the one he killed. That was a mistake. Probably. Yes. "You kill for the idea of peace...you kill ninja, villagers, my teachers, for the sake of peace. My friend died for the idea of peace. All I want is actual peace, but not like this."
"Tell me then: how would you bring peace? I want to know what your answer is."
Wars for the sake of peace. People acting for mere ideals and abstract concepts of the village, instead of helping each other. Peace as political power. He glances around, and his heart clenches even though Suna is not home. Does it matter, what symbol is carved on their hitai-ate or which country their village is in, when people are still dying? Is there a difference between dying under the reign of a rogue group, or dying under the law of a Kage?
And suddenly, instantly, the answer is clear. It cuts through the grief, the fear, the haze of the Kyuubi's wrath.
"I don't need a tailed beast weapon to stop wars. The power I have within me is enough to stop wars on my own. No one needs to die for the idea of peace. Everyone will be able to just live. I will be Hokage and set fire to the darkness of the shinobi world with my own flame."
"Lofty ideals, but useless ones when you don't even have the power to stop me." Pain's eyes and face betray no emotion.
"It's your eyes," Naruto says. "I don't know what they are, but its power...it's not human. The Kyuubi within me isn't human either. I need your eyes, or you need my tailed beast. Just this one tailed beast, just me. No one else needs to die." Naruto is so close to begging; he's already on his knees.
The Kyuubi doesn't seem to agree, because it roars.
"Peace...without violence?" Suddenly, everything around them descends into silence. All fighting ceases. Time seems to stop. "Konan," Pain says suddenly, sounding very tired. In the sudden lull, his words echo through the sandy village. "Bring him to me."
A kunoichi appears by his side, tall and regal, hair the colour of precious ceremonial silk. "Come," she says, eyes narrowing before dissolving into a sea of paper that wraps all around Naruto. "Don't fight this. Nagato just wants to talk to you."
This is how he's taken from the destroyed village, away from Kakashi and Jiraiya's bodies, and brought to Nagato's lair - like a gift.
It's a dark room, the smell of incense cloying and sweet in the air. A hunched figure sits atop a throne, dark rods extending into his bloodless body. He has the same blank ringed eyes as Pain. Konan, the kunoichi, stands by his side.
"Uzumaki...Naruto."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Nagato. I brought you here because you remind me of an old friend."
"You're the puppet master of Akatsuki?"
"Akatsuki, no. Pain, yes. I control the six bodies of Pain with my Rinnegan. My friend founded the Akatsuki. His philosophy for peace was one without violence or military might."
In spite of everything, Naruto can't help but feel a grudging kinship with this friend. "He sounds like a good guy."
"He was the best," Nagato rasps. "Yahiko was the kindest, strongest person I knew. That's why he's dead - the good never last in this world."
"I...had a precious friend one, too," Naruto says. "Sasuke died for no other reason than being a 'shinobi'. I was always so focused on avenging his death, but there's no one else to find, no one else I can punish." The words flow from his soul and into his mouth; it's everything he's been thinking about in his dreams. "I can't bring him back, but what I can do is change things and break this curse. If there is such a thing as peace, I will find it."
"You remind me of Yahiko," Nagato says.
"I will bring about a revolution," Naruto replies, his voice as clear and steady as the resolve that burns through him.
"You make me believe that maybe Yahiko's dreams can live on - on a different path I've taken the Akatsuki on. On the right one. About what you said - my Rinnegan and your Kyuubi..."
"You want us to work together?"
"No," Nagato replies. "I want you to choose. Do you choose the past of the future? Restore the lives of those lost at Suna, or take the Rinnegan for the future, for your revolution?"
"You can revive everyone you killed just now?"
"The Rinnegan can, with its Rinne Rebirth. If not, I will implant the Rinnegan in your eyes."
"Nagato…" Konan says softly, from the side.
Nagato shakes his head. "It's okay."
"I don't think this rebirth thing will allow its user to stay alive, so you're willing to give up your life for my choice. You're already dying, right Nagato?" Naruto asks, eyeing the black rods that rise from his broken body, the bandages wrapped around his thin legs.
Nagato doesn't respond.
"I can't discard my past, because that's my motivation to change the future. One cannot exist without the other." Naruto is silent for a moment, thinking. "My choice and my answer is," he says finally, "you use the Rinne Rebirth on Suna, then give me your eyes because you won't be needing them any more."
Silence. The quiet around them builds and builds, but Naruto does not look away from Nagato's eyes.
"Well," Konan says, at last. "He really is like Yahiko."
"Too much confidence," Nagato says evenly, "but I like that answer. I think Yahiko would, too. I will believe in your revolution, Uzumaki Naruto."
His hands form a Ram seal, followed by Snake.
Rebirth, just like death, is swift.
Konan takes him back to Suna.
The bandages around his head are heavy.
"Be careful, Naruto," she says, as she transports them on the back of a giant paper butterfly. "Konoha's most prized weapon now has the Rinnegan as well. They will use you as a political tool."
"Don't worry; I can take care of myself."
"The Rinnegan can perform jutsu that are outside the realm of life and death. You're an Uzumaki too, so your life force and Kyuubi's chakra reserves will be able to support its visual prowess."
"Uzumaki...Nagato was one too?"
"Yes."
They travel in silence for some time.
"Where will you go after this?"
"Akatsuki has nothing left for me. I'll be returning to Amegakure."
"Can you...take me there? You're right - once I return to Suna, Danzo will never let me out of his sight."
The wind whips Konan's hair around her, smooth as silk. "That sounds like a good idea. You'll be safe there, and you can get used to the Rinnegan. Amegakure welcomes anyone who is a friend of Yahiko and Nagato," she adds.