Tale of the Setting Sun
Chapter 27: "The Roar in a Rain of Tears"
Another moonlit night swept across the tiled rooftops of Konoha. As always, the village blissfully slumbered under the ever-watchful eye of the ANBU.
It was also another late night for the Hokage, who was finishing up the day's paperwork. Just as he had scrawled his signature across a trade permit, he paused his pen; he could sense someone heading straight for his office. A moment later, a red-haired ninja using the Body Flicker Technique appeared in the space before him.
From the disheveled appearance and the smell, Naruto looked as though he hadn't bathed in days. More importantly, he was alone, when Hiruzen had received a messenger bird from Kakashi informing him that the whole team was on their way back.
"Naruto, where's the rest of your team?" asked Hiruzen.
"I'm a clone," said Naruto. "I wanted to know why you sent that missive to Team Shirakumo telling us to stay in Wave country."
Alarms started going off in Hiruzen's head. "If such a missive was sent out, it was not under my authority. Naruto, what is going on?"
The hard look in Naruto's eyes told Hiruzen that this had only confirmed the boy's suspicions.
"I'm guessing someone intercepted my messenger birds. They must have also forged your seal on a fake missive to keep our teams in Wave country. I tried getting here as fast as I could, but I had to conserve chakra... I'm going to report back. I - " The clone broke off. His eyes widening, he fell to his knees.
In a cloud of smoke, he disappeared.
Slowly, Naruto rose to his feet.
Everything was very still. And larger, as though magnified. Or was it his senses instead?
Taking in his surroundings, he surmised in an instant what had happened. While Naruto had fought the hunter-nin, Shirakumo had died trying to take down Hidan, and to finish the job, Rai had paid with his life. Further out, Naruto could see yet another body—Sai?—but his chest alone moved up and down, breathing.
"Kakuzu, you bastard, where are you! Come back here and bring me my body!"
It was Hidan's head, sitting at least a dozen yards away from its body. Impossibly, Hidan seemed to have survived even a beheading.
The earth shook and in a daze, Naruto looked up. Snow drifted serenely down from the sky as a raging battle played out in the background: Jiraiya faced off against Kakuzu, and what appeared to be four black humanoid masses.
It didn't seem right to Naruto. His teammates were no longer here. And yet the world continued to move.
Some of the snow that had been falling had melted, and the ground shimmered with water. Naruto caught a glimpse of his reflection: Crowning a blank face, his hair burned like fire and his whisker marks stood out starkly. Droplets of blood rolled off his chin and landed in the water, dyeing it red, and his reflection disappeared.
This quiet, burning sensation… He had never felt like this before.
No—that wasn't quite right. He had felt it once before. He could remember now. It had happened years ago and the memory of it had been forcibly taken from him. But it was all coming back.
Everything was fuzzy and dim. He could hear the sound of running water. The back of his head throbbed, where they had struck him. He wondered where his captors were taking him. He wished he had remembered to wear his scarf to cover his face. Maybe all this wouldn't have been happening, then.
There was someone still fighting his captors. He didn't know who it was. They were strong, and several of his captors groaned and fell to the ground. Eventually however, his captors managed to put a sword through their chest. The person collapsed, and their mask fell off.
With a jolt, he saw the face of the woman who slammed bowls of rice down on his table everyday. She had never had a kind word for him before and yet she had fought for him.
Now, she was gone.
Something inside him snapped. Everything he had ever felt in his short life came together into a single, black emotion. It seethed and roiled. It wanted release. His vision was turning red. A guttural sound filled the tunnel, and he soon realized it was coming from him.
The next thing he heard was the sounds of his captors' screaming. Before long, bodies floated facedown at his feet in a river of blood.
Back in the present, Naruto opened his eyes.
An immense metal gate loomed before him. Something huge and dark lurked behind it; a single seal on the gate doors blocked its escape. He knew it was the only thing preventing the demon it held captive from devouring him.
"So you've finally come to me of your own will," A deep voice filled his head. "What changed?"
"There's nothing holding me back anymore," said Naruto.
The demon roared in laughter. "You finally understand."
A wave of dark, tainted chakra surged out from between the bars of the demon's cage and entered Naruto. He felt his depleted chakra reserves fill up to the brim—and then some more, as it overflowed and enveloped his entire body. He had never felt so much chakra before—it almost felt as though it was eating away at his own body.
Naruto was the jinchūriki of the Nine-tails. He had carried its burden in ignorance for many years, and upon his revelation, tried to deny it. Though he hadn't wanted to admit it, he had been afraid of the consequences. But all that was gone. There was nothing he had left to lose.
Now, he decided, it was time to embrace it.
"Forget about me!" Tazuna yelled. "Just go!"
Kakashi hesitated. More than anything, he wanted to investigate the source of the ground tremors—he could feel it in his gut that it was linked to his team's disappearance. But after all that he'd done to defend the old bridge-builder from Zabuza, he couldn't leave him there by himself. Nor did it seem like a good idea to bring him along.
After a moment's thought, Kakashi summoned back his ninken pack.
"Take him to safety," he instructed his hounds.
In agitation, Tazuna bobbed his head. "I'll be fine! Your students need you!"
He nodded. With a final look back at Zabuza's still body, he left.
As Kakashi ran alone through the fog, the ghostly image of the masked man who had killed Zabuza floated into his mind. He had disappeared before Kakashi could give chase, leaving behind only questions. The strange thing was, even though it was his first time seeing the man, he had a sinking feeling it wouldn't be their last.
The marshlands passed quickly. As the air grew colder, the tremors grew more pronounced. He knew that he was drawing close. He could only pray that he wasn't too late.
Kakuzu couldn't remember the last time he'd had such a bad day, and he had lived a long life. It didn't rank quite as high as the day he'd returned to his village following his failed assassination attempt on the first Hokage—nothing ever would—but it was up there. It didn't help that once again, he was battling for his life against a Leaf-nin.
It rankled that he was even here. While Jiraiya's head would have made an excellent trophy, Kakuzu would have preferred to fight him on a stage of his own choosing. No, the only reason he was here at all was because of the Leader's orders:
Don't lay a hand on the jinchūriki.
Capture the jinchūriki's teammates.
Kill everyone but the jinchūriki.
Easier said than done, when the jinchūriki kept popping up in his vicinity and when 'everyone' included one of the Sannin. Kakuzu knew that the Nine-tails had to be extracted last—so why go after its jinchūriki at all at this time? What was the point?
Nonetheless, he carried out his orders without question, even while that bastard Hidan was talking his ear off with his complaining. He trusted that the Leader always knew what he was doing. Still—he couldn't shake off the sense that there was someone else pulling the strings, pushing around Kakuzu as a pawn in their game.
Suddenly, Kakuzu was yanked out of his thoughts when the sage froze, halting his assault. And then Kakuzu felt it too.
A wave of vile chakra blasted into the air. It was powerful enough that the force of it alone blew away the fog in their vicinity. Kakuzu immediately spotted the source: It was the Nine-tails' jinchūriki, surrounded in a translucent shroud that he recognized as the tailed-beast's chakra. Four tails, made out of the same vile chakra, churned wildly at his back.
The Seven-tails' jinchūriki they had captured had resorted to using this power too, before they overpowered her.
With a stab of annoyance, he wondered whether Hidan had violated the Leader's orders and attacked the jinchūriki. Kakuzu's battle against Jiraiya had not afforded him many chances to check in on how his idiot partner was doing.
Then, he saw the headless body.
"Oi, Kakuzu!" the head howled.
As he watched, two of the jinchūriki's chakra tails picked up the body and ripped it apart with ease. The remaining tails picked up the screaming head and slammed it down with a force that split the ground in two.
Well, there goes another partner.
Powerful gales of wind accompanied every swing of the beast's tails. The sheer force of its chakra warmed the atmosphere, causing the snow to melt into a shower of rain.
To Jiraiya, its overwhelming chakra seemed to be the very embodiment of nature. It was hard to believe this demon was Naruto.
No—he mentally corrected himself. This was the Nine-tails emerging from Naruto. Somehow, the seal had weakened enough for it to physically manifest itself.
The beast turned its hate-filled gaze on Gamabunta. Its tails whipped through the air toward them and Gamabunta braced himself, ready to return the blow—when the tails arched around them and slammed instead into Kakuzu. The missing-nin, who had been on the verge of striking an unsuspecting Jiraiya, bulleted down through the rain and crashed into the wet ground. Torrents of mud flew in every direction as his body continued to bowl through the earth, leaving behind a long, uninterrupted strip in his wake.
Stunned, Jiraiya watched the beast let out a deafening howl that shook the skies.
The moment Kakashi felt the Nine-tails' chakra surge through the marshland and blow away the fog, he braced himself for the worst. And yet, nothing could have prepared him for the scene of carnage that met his arrival: At the base of a cliff, bodies with all too familiar faces littered the muddy ground. It was an image that brought back painful memories of the Third World War.
His colleague and fellow veteran, Shirakumo. A crater with a body mangled beyond recognition.
And Rai. His student. His eyes were still open, staring glassily up at the grey sky.
The day he had first met his genin team flashed in his mind:
"You can tell me your likes, dislikes, hobbies, your dreams." When nobody answered, Kakashi sighed and gestured towards a genin with a scar running down his face. "How about you go first?"
The boy scowled. "The name's Hagane Rai. My goal is to become the best weapons specialist in Konoha. And...I hate being ordered around!"
The sound of rain filled his ears. As he watched the droplets hit the boy's still face, Kakashi's heart grew heavy. It seemed like it was only yesterday, when his team had passed the bell test.
The air crackled. A blood-red ball of chakra shot through the sky and slammed into the cliff with a thunderous explosion. Breaking off from the point of impact, giant boulders began sliding down, crashing into the ground.
"Gamayudan (Toad Oil Bomb)!"
A mass of murky oil burst through the air, coating the rampaging beast. Jiraiya followed by directing his spiky white hair to wrap itself tightly around the beast, dragging it down to the ground. For a moment it seemed to work—and then with another roaring surge of chakra, it burst out of its bindings. Infuriated, the beast switched its attention from Jiraiya, who was forced to dodge out of the way.
Kakuzu seemed to have had enough, taking this as a window of opportunity to escape. Jiraiya saw out of the corner of his eye as the hulking missing-nin leaped backwards and flickered away in a puff of smoke.
"Jiraiya-sama!" shouted a voice.
A familiar silver-haired ninja appeared, gently setting down three bodies beside a shrub.
Jiraiya did a double-take. "Is that you, Kakashi? Did Sarutobi-sensei send you?"
Kakashi stood, his infamous Sharingan glowing in his left eye. "It's...a long story."
It was as though he was viewing everything from a distance, through a red haze. He was in control of his body, and at the same time, he was watching his own body move.
Hidan was dead, or at least crushed beyond repair, and Kakuzu seemed to have disappeared. His enemies were gone and Naruto knew he had already achieved his objective. And yet, it wasn't enough. There was a void deep in his chest that he didn't know how to fill.
He could feel his body thrashing about, itching with the desire to be put into action. To go somewhere—anywhere—and not come back. Only, there was nowhere to go. He had longed to leave Wave country and return to Konoha. But there was nothing for him there anymore.
The marshlands stretched out into infinity behind him while to his front, past the edge of the cliff, he could see a dark sheet of water—it was the sea, disappearing into the horizon. He wondered what lay beyond there.
Pushing back, he readied himself to propel his body forward and –
"Naruto!" a faraway voice shouted.
It took a moment to process that it was his name being called. Naruto blinked—and all of a sudden, Kakashi stood beside him in his mind. His left eye glowed red; he had activated the sharingan. Naruto took an involuntary step back. He had seen Kakashi use it sparingly in battle, but never before like this.
The Nine-tails let out a growl. "You...you're not an Uchiha..."
Ignoring the beast, Kakashi turned towards Naruto. "What's going on here? Where's Mayu?" Naruto didn't respond, and the jōnin's face turned solemn. "Come back, Naruto. This isn't the answer."
"What would you know, sensei?" The part of Naruto that was still rational knew it wasn't Kakashi's fault. But bitter words were coming out of his mouth, like vomit, and he couldn't hold them back. "It's not like you were here when everyone died."
Kakashi drew a sharp breath. "I'm sorry I wasn't here. I came as quickly as I could."
For some reason, the apology only made him angrier. "It doesn't matter anymore. I've failed my mission, my team is gone. There's nothing for me to care about anymore. Do you know how that feels?"
"I do," said Kakashi.
Taken aback despite himself, Naruto stopped.
The jōnin's gaze, while trained on Naruto, seemed to be focused on something far away. "I also lost my team, in the world war. Obito and Rin... They're gone because of my failures."
"Ignore him," the Nine-tails snarled. "He's only trying to confuse you."
It would have been all too easy to do as the Nine-tails said. It was tempting enough that Naruto almost gave into it.
But as he considered Kakashi's words, he could feel his anger seeping away. And in its place, he started to remember things.
He thought of his first day at the Academy, when he had felt like the only person in the world. He thought of the day he first killed as a genin, and fell asleep to the rocking of the wagon.
He thought of his birthday, in which Mayu baked a too sweet cake and Kakashi presented him with a tantō. He thought of the Chūnin exams, looking up at a dark ceiling and Rai asking if he was awake. He thought of Mayu calling down to him in his fight against Fū. He thought of their team, sitting down at Ichiraku's after a hard mission and ordering extra garlic with their ramen.
At the time, these moments had not seemed so precious to him. Only now that they were gone, did he understand.
Something in his chest throbbed, and Naruto clutched it. He could feel the void there, but he couldn't reach it.
"How do you deal with it, sensei?"
"You fool!" howled the Nine-tails.
Kakashi inclined his head. "We endure."
The beast that had been bristling suddenly seemed to shrivel up before his eyes. Its baleful eyes dimming, it shrank in size, and finally, as the red demon shroud smoldered away into nothing, Jiraiya jumped forward to catch Naruto's body in midair. The body, as scratched and beaten-up as it was, seemed almost lifeless. However, Jiraiya could feel his heart beating in a steady rhythm, and for that, he was thankful.
As he walked back, he saw Kakashi kneel and close the eyes of the chūnin boy. Standing up, the jōnin bowed his head in prayer.
Jiraiya somberly looked down at Naruto's still face, and then around at their surroundings. At some point in the night, the rain had stopped. The sun was rising, bleaching the sky in its vivid colors.
It was a new day.
Kakuzu didn't call it running away. He called it a tactical retreat.
The Sannin had been enough trouble on his own. With the jinchūriki rampaging and then the Copy Ninja showing up to the battle, he had made the executive decision that it was high time he left the country—sans his irritating partner.
He had finally reached the forest, when without warning, he sensed someone following him.
"Kakuzu-san! Kakuzu-san!"
It was a high-pitched voice that Kakuzu despised from the bottom of his many hearts. Turning back, sure enough, he saw an orange mask gaining on him.
"What is it?" he grunted.
"You sure high-tailed it out of there," said Tobi in a cheery voice.
"If you were worth the slightest bit of money, I'd kill you."
"That doesn't sound likely! Unless...the Leader makes me your next partner." Tobi began to sound worried. "That'd be dangerous, considering how quickly you go through them."
"I'd be doing the world a favor, getting rid of you." Kakuzu paused, fully taking in Tobi's appearance. He was carrying something large on his back and suddenly, he wondered what the man he regarded as the Leader's Big Mistake was even doing there.
Tobi must have noticed him watching. It was difficult to tell through the mask, but to Kakuzu, it almost seemed as though he was smiling.
"Don't worry. This isn't anything you need to concern yourself about."
Somehow, the Hokage had already gotten wind of the fiasco in Wave country. By the time Kakashi and the others returned to the safe house, there were several ANBU ops scouting the perimeter.
With the help of the reinforcements from Konoha, the matter was quickly wrapped up: The Wave country's daimyō and his children were returned to their vassals. Shirakumo's genin team was informed of his passing. A sallow-looking woman was transported back to the village for further interrogation. A search party was sent out to retrieve Mayu's body, only to return empty-handed.
Finally, the rest returned home.
The day after their return, a funeral service was held. Half the village turned up, the procession led by Mayu and Rai's older brothers and Shirakumo's grieving daughter. Knowing their history, Kakashi had half expected Izumo to blame Naruto—but with tears streaming freely down his face, the chūnin seemed lost in his own inner conflict.
Shirakumo's genin team was there, along with many of the other genins. At the mention of Rai's name in the Hokage's funeral address, a young kunoichi with hair rolled up into buns burst into tears.
And then it was over.
That day, a somber pallor seemed to have been temporarily cast over the village; shutters were drawn, and lights were dimmed. As the skies grew dark, everyone returned to their homes, turning in early for the night.
All, except for one.
From a distance, Kakashi watched Naruto stand before the memorial stone, to which three names had been newly added.
The next day, Jiraiya approached Kakashi with a proposal to take Naruto along on a journey. Once given the choice, Naruto thought over it for a few minutes, before giving his answer.
Somewhere hidden deep in the depths of Konoha, the members of the underground organization Root gathered before their leader, Danzō.
Most people were not even aware of its existence. Under the orders of the Third Hokage, Root had officially disbanded following the downfall of the Uchiha clan. However, to this day, the organization continued to operate in secret as the unseen force supporting the great tree of Konoha.
One of its members kneeled before Danzō now, having finished his report. He had been sent to Wave country as part of the jinchūriki's team to keep an eye on his activity. However, his report was incomplete: The operative had been knocked unconscious halfway through the final battle. The only other witnesses present for the remainder of the battle, Jiraiya and Kakashi, were staunchly loyal to Hiruzen, leaving Danzō to grasp in the dark as to what had occurred. It was an unfortunate turn of events, especially given the operative's previously spotless track record. It was his first failure.
Perhaps that was the reason why, while giving his report, the operative seemed uncharacteristically distracted.
After dismissing the operative, Danzō stood by himself in the darkness, thinking.
Whatever had happened in Wave country, it made little difference in the end. No matter what Hiruzen said, he was not stupid enough to trust the jinchūriki to stay loyal to the Leaf. He had heard reports that the jinchūriki would soon be leaving the village again for an extended period of time, and it was clear to Danzō that Hiruzen was growing soft in his old age.
As he considered his next move, Danzō regarded his right arm with a baleful glare. He would bide his time for now. But sooner or later, the Nine-tails' power would be his.
On the morning of their departure, just as they reached the gate, Naruto stopped. He turned around and gazed up at the stone faces of the Hokage Monument, before closing his eyes.
As the sun's glow warmed his face, he could hear the other villagers streaming past him, the chatter of their daily life resounding in his ears.
"...market prices have gone up lately..."
"...going to meet my uncle in Tea country..."
"...a cake for her birthday..."
His eyes opened. Turning back around, he saw Jiraiya waiting for him.
Naruto took a step forward. And another.
And then, walking through the gates, he left Konoha behind.
A/N: This finally marks the end of the long and tumultuous Wave arc. A big thanks to all my reviewers who pushed me through it. The reason why this story didn't update for so long was because I was struggling with life and massive writer's block. In the end, it was your reviews that brought me back.
Moving on, there'll probably be some delay between the release of this chapter and the start of the new arc, as I rest (lol) and also plan out more things. It wouldn't be an understatement to say that everything up to this point was a setup for the coming second half of the story. See you then.