Prologue
Ox. Hare. Monkey. "Chidori!" Black lightning engulfed the boy's hand. The boy stood 5'5 with black, straight hair on his head and pale white skin. His bangs mirrored the side of his pale, sneering face. He channeled the last of his chakra into his hand and eyes. His eyes were a crimson red with a single balck pupil surrounded by three, black tomoes. The almighty Sharingan. The boy was standing from a crater within the cliffside, gazing down upon his opponent. Standing atop the water was a short blonde haired boy. He stood 5'3 with spiky, blonde hair. He had a slight tan bringing out the black whisker marks across his cheeks. His eyes were a bright azure blue filled to the brim with determination to bring his friend back. He pumped a mixture of his chakra and the demon's chakra into his hand, forming a round purple ball of pure energy. The sphere grew till it was larger than both boys' heads. "Rasengan!" "Sasuke, please come back. I made a promise to Sakura and we both know I will not break my nindo, my ninja way." All Sasuke did was laugh maniacally at his best friend.
"Really Naruto, you think I want to go back to that hellhole. Why don't you come with me? I have seen the glares you received, I noticed the bruises and cuts when you were late for the academy. Join me and Orochimaru will train both of us. We will become feared and we will show them all what they missed." Naruto sighed. "I am sorry Sasuke, but we both know how I feel about breaking promises."
"If it's any consolation Naruto, you were my best friend. My only friend. But you have become a stepping stone to my revenge and I can't not take advantage of such an opportunity."
"How about a bet Sasuke. If my Rasengan beats your Chidori, you have to come back with me. If your Chidori beats my Rasengan, then you can kill me and have your beloved power."
"Well Naruto, it seems you have a deal" Both boys tensed waiting for the other to attack, but a single leaf slowly fell. The second the lowly leaf touched the water's surface the boys charged one another at speeds the naked eye could not see. Naruto leapt at his teammate, meeting in the middle of the air.
Deep within the boy's mind laid the Great Kyuubi no Yoko. It watched with silent intent as it's container battled that bastard Uchiha. Then it felt it. A small tug on it's chakra and the boys. It flared it's chakra in search of the small problem when it saw a seal. A complex mind seal. Pondering what to do, it forcefully pushed all of it's chakra through the Shinigami's seal, through the boys coils, and into that seal. It watched, amused that such a human creation was so easily destroyed as the seal deteriorated. It pondered what such a seal could be designed for , but gave up on the tiresome chase for now. It needs to keep this boy alive because the plan the boy seemed to be thinking was the epitome of stupidity.
Naruto had a plan. It came to him in mere moments nearly shocking him into a questioning stupor, but the sound of his rasengan knocked him from his thoughts. He channeled as little chakra as he could while still maintaining the spiraling sphere. Mere milliseconds before the two attacks met, Naruto cut the chakra to his Rasengan, dissipating it. Crunch. Sasuke looked at his arm, all the way through Naruto's chest to the elbow. When he looked into his friend's eyes, he expected pain or sadness, but all he received was power. Naruto's eyes for a brief second flashed white. Instead of cerulean blue, it was a white iris and the sclera was black. Then as fast as he saw it, they were gone, but Naruto's focus was not. He quickly brought his knee up, hard to Sasuke's stomach. As Sasuke folded from the cheap shot, Naruto moved his arm faster than the sharingan could process. With a hit so precise Neji would be proud, Naruto hit the pressure point on the back of Sasuke's neck, knocking him unconscious. He quickly set the boy atop the shore and tore his shirt, looking for the curse mark. The blonde reached for the demonic chakra still within him and he channeled into his right hand. Sweating slightly, the boy began to tear away at the seal while he took his left hand filled with the remnants of his chakra. As the demon's chakra burned the seal into nothingness, Naruto quickly grabbed Orochimaru's chakra and soul before it could escape. He pulled the soul from the chakra and burned it from existence with the last flare's of the Kyuubi's chakra while he absorbed the snake's chakra into his own coils. Feeling the brief rejuvenation, he pulled Sasuke up into a fireman's hold and began running. The entirety of his body protested the sprint to Konoha, but he pushed through. He had to get back before Sasuke woke up or he was capital f fucked. Pushing his body beyond its limits, he ran. He ran so hard that he nearly hit Kakashi-Sensei. But that didn't stop him, no, he just kept on running.
Kakashi had been having a fucked up day. First he gets sent on a 5 hour long assassination mission that was basically a waste of time. He comes back home to hear that a group of genin had just been sent to pick up his star student from leaving the village. Now here he was running after making some Kage Bunshin to drag Neji and Choji to the village, running to pick up either the remains of Naruto or his two students knocked out. Yet, when a bloody orange blur sprinted past him and his summon, he nearly stopped running. Looking at Pakkun for confirmation and getting a nod in return, he turned and ran after them.
"Kakashi look at the ground." Heading his summons orders, he looked to see very bad news. There was blood, and a shit ton of it.
"Whose is it Pakkun?"
Sniff. Sniff. "High concentrations of electric chakra and," Sniff. Sniff. "Demonic chakra, so if I had to guess it would be the blonde brat."
Gulp. "Did you say electric chakra?"
"Yes?"
"Fucking, mother fucker, fuck. He just had to use a chidori." Kakashi was mentally cursing himself for thinking an A-rank assassination jutsu was a good idea to give to a mentally deranged genin. Oh shit, Tsunade was going to beat the shit out of him, but Shizune was probably going to be worse. Yet he knew Yugao would be the real pain. Damn she loved that boy, or at least the real Naruto. God was he going to regret this.
He and Pakkun poured on the speed, but they couldn't catch Naruto. They ran all the way to the gates and he still couldn't catch the boy. As they ran to the hospital, he flared his chakra and prepared for the worst, not knowing the wounds that Naruto had received, or the mental trauma he was about to suffer from.
Tsunade's day had gone from fucked to super fucked in the span of three hours. First she woke up with a raging headache from last night's drinking. Then Shizune had to wake her up because that Uchiha bastard had decided to leave the village and due to a lack of ninja, she had to send a team genin. Now here she was, overwatching the experimental healing Shizune had come up with to heal Choji while she had some doctors stitching up Neji. She watched as Choji started to slowly gain some of his own weight and muscle back. She breathed a quiet sigh before exiting the room to take a breather. With a call for help, her day just got a hell of alot worse.
Naruto burst into Konoha running at blazing speeds that even the great Konoha no kiiroi senkō would be jealous of. He burst straight through the hospital doors and ran upstairs to the emergency ward. He ran up seven flights of stairs before he stood at the entrance to the ward. All of the doctors and patients looked at him and sneered, their lips curling up into a foul look, but he ignored them. "Please...help...him," he heaved between breaths before he handed Sasuke off to a passing doctor. All the doctors quickly conversed on the Uchiha and took him away for healing, but they left Naruto standing in the entrance. He couldn't stand, couldn't see, couldn't hear, hell he couldn't even feel the air around him so he gave out, the chakra and adrenaline leaving him instantly. Before he fell Kakashi grabbed his student though he nearly dropped him at the sight of the wound and the blood.
"Help. Please help him for once. Help him!" Kakashi screamed. Hearing the commotion, Tsunade quickly jogged to the front to see the commotion happening, but she saw the Uchiha first and immediately summoned her guard. "Tora, you and Hebi watch over him. Neko, I know you dislike him, but please heal him."
"Hai Hokage-sama." They all chorused in response. As they left to carry out her orders, she turned and saw a bloodied Naruto in Kakashi's arms.
"H-hokage-sama, please help him. He's somehow still alive." Kakashi stuttered. Faster than a shunshin, she grabbed Naruto and ran down the corridor. As she ran, she passed a pale Shikamaru and a tired Temari, but as soon as she ran past, they both paled. Bursting into a room, she quickly set Naruto on a bed and got to work. Her hand glowed a bright orange as she cast her latest achievement, the Zōki saisei-jutsu. Slowly, small pieces of muscle and tissue began to rebuild where Naruto's heart should have been. Bursting into the room came a pale Shizune and an even paler Temari.
"Shizune, I need you to work on his lung. Temari, if you know how to transfer your chakra to me, I need you to do so."
"Hai Hokage/Tsunade-sama," both women chorused.
It took them 2 hours, three soldier pills, and some of Gaara's chakra to officially stabilise Naruto. Currently, Tsunade was in her office sleeping, Shizune was passed out on a chair by her Otōto, Shikamaru was sleeping next to Choji and Kakashi was sleeping with the Uchiha down the hall. That left Gaara and Temari still awake watching the sleeping Naruto.
"Thank you Gaara for saving Naruto's life. That's a good step forward in changing."
"Thanks nee-chan." They sat there silently watching Naruto, who was currently shirtless due to the procedure, but they watched as his entire body seemed to flicker.
"Nee-chan, what is happening?" Temari simply hummed before she walked right next to Naruto. She gently placed a hand on him, channeled some chakra, and dispersed it. "Kai!"
Both Temari and Gaara's eyes widened as hundreds of scars slowly began to appear all over Naruto's body. He had scars all around his throat, he had the chidori scar on his chest, there was a scar over his eye and mouth, and he had words engraved into his arms and chests such as 'DEMON' or 'BASTARD'. However the real shock was Naruto's body as a whole. His ribs were stretched taut against his skin, his arms were a little boney, and all of his baby fat was gone from his face. Temari gagged, trying to keep the vomit from coming up before, she quickly left the room. Gaara walked forward before tracing the scars. There had to be thousands of different types of cuts. Some deep and jagged, some small and thin, and some that were clearly grotesque and poorly done. Gaara immediately went into his mind to question his tenant. Arriving in a desert cave, Gaara stood in front of a single gate that held back the great sand Tanuki. "Why does he have scars?" Gaara questioned the tanuki.
"It's simple. The Kyuubi either healed him till they were non-lethal and then left them to scar to let him know of everything he has gone through. The only other option is that he either did not want them to heal and he wished to die, or he simply a reminder that he is alone, just like your scar." Nodding his head slightly, Gaara turned and left his mindscape. "Damn Nee-chan, I thought me and Chomei's jinchuurikis had it bad." Little did they know that inside Naruto's head was experiencing the worst of pains. The hidden truth.