Naruto stared at the ground now with an expression of pure shock on his face. To him, there was nothing around him. Orochimaru was not there, smiling sickeningly in his direction. Madara was not pressing his own father's sword against his chest. Sasuke was not being forced to kneel near the pillar of faces. Tayuya was not staring at Naruto with a pitying expression, as if watching her toy being confiscated from her.
No.
Only the man's words resounded in his head. His body didn't move, and he didn't even feel it when Madara pierced his chest and abdomen with the huge black blade, piercing through his body and stabbing the tip of the sword into the ground.
Naruto felt like a spectator in his own body, just watching what was happening as if he was looking at the whole situation through a huge screen in a dark place. Orochimaru's muffled voice, the faint smell of blood, smoke and death no longer even bothered his nose as it had before.
Orochimaru's words repeated in his mind as loud as his own voice, as if they surrounded him completely. Not just the disgusting discovery that, all this time, the woman he was fucking was actually his sister. Not just the discovery that his mother was used as an object, and that his birth was just a sick experiment. Not just the discovery that the shadows he and Sasuke killed earlier were actually Choji and Konohamaru, corrupted by Orochimaru's power.
Questions surrounded him...how did Konohamaru get there? When did those faces of soldiers from other convoys end up on that pillar?
Who was his father? Minato...was he working for Orochimaru, or was he just another one of his lab rats?
Who was he, in fact?
These questions soon disappeared, for the more he thought about the whole situation, the more his chest burned, and the flames in his body grew. The voice inside him became more and more audible.
The screen in front of him disappeared, and soon Naruto found himself surrounded by memories. At first, Temari, the woman was as beautiful as he had seen her before. Her blonde hair, on one of the rare occasions when it was loose, swayed in the light breeze that hit her smiling face. Naruto could still feel the warmth of her body if he concentrated hard enough.
Soon, this vision, so warm and bright, was slowly fading away, becoming cold and dark, and in the blink of an eye, Temari was gone.
After such a good memory, came the memories in which impacted him in a different way, but which made as much of an impact on his life as Temari herself. The attack on his camp, followed by the sight of his father's body impaled by swords, lying on the ground, already lifeless. It tore him apart, left him lost, alone in the world.
Then came one of the memories that had impacted him until that day. Those three men on those horses appeared in front of him.
Naruto immediately tried to grab his sword when one of them got off his horse, approaching in the same way he remembered from years ago. However, his sword was not on his back, in fact, he had nothing with him.
Gritting his teeth, he lunged towards the man with his fists, trying to attack him, but to his surprise, his fist simply went through the man, as if he were made of air, as if he didn't exist. And that's when, as he turned around, he saw a smaller version of himself, wearing ragged clothes, dirty and tired looking, with his father's sword on his back fearfully watching the man approach, until the first groan echoed through his ears as the man attacked the little blond boy.
Naruto screamed and advanced towards the man again, who now held his younger version by the waist, but again, he just walked past them both, as if they weren't there, and once again, he had to remind himself of the horrible feeling of having his body violated by that man's disgusting fingers.
A feeling that, although it didn't last long, since his younger version killed the men soon after, permeated through his body for what seemed like an eternity, something that followed him and continue to follow him all his life.
That memory faded, and soon, he found himself in that city where he met that nobleman, where he first met Konohamaru. The memories passed quickly, almost as if they skipped to only the most important parts. The boys trapped in that cell, the boys bound by collars connected to chains that connected them all.
The looks, the touches of that despicable nobleman. The feel of his rough tongue against his neck, his hands on his thighs, and the disgusting eyes of that man in pure desire of his body. Something that made him shiver, both in disgust and anger.
Until the memory focused on the moment when Naruto broke that nobleman's neck and set fire to his quarters, followed by the rescue of Konohamaru and Hans. That being the last time he saw the latter.
The last moment he saw Temari, wounded on that horse. The last moment he saw Mifune, being killed by one of the enemy's swords. His capture...
The feeling of that sword piercing his chest and that arrow sticking in his back.
The feeling of being among death, but never being touched by it, never even having her attention turned to him.
The smell of rot and blood invading his nostrils. The sound of the reaper's footsteps walking around him, taking lives that perished beside him, sending the souls to their judgment, if such a thing existed.
But despite all this, being accompanied by death, walking side by side with it at times, death never paid any attention to him. It never turned toward him, never came closer than it should. It never brandished its scythe against him.
The memories surrounded him like a fierce hurricane, until they all gathered upon him, and after blinking, Naruto found himself lying down, staring at the dark sky through the treetops.
Confusion was evident on his face, but soon, his body strangely relaxed as he saw creatures of the night devouring bones and flesh and drinking blood all around him, but never touching him.
That same dream he had always had, that had long disappeared inside his being, but was always there, accompanying him. The dream he never understood the meaning of.
The treetops stirred, and figures formed in the sky. Orochimaru's words echoed through his head again, and the creatures seemed to devour that flesh and grind that bone with more intensity. The figures took the characteristic forms of Tayuya, and Kisame. The last events passed in the sky, like shadows coming from the light produced by flames from a campfire.
That anger that had always accompanied him, for the first time, burned out of his body, and the creatures of the night stopped devouring that flesh. Those same creatures, for the first time, turned toward him, but did not approach.
They began to walk around him. Predators cautiously watching their prey.
Naruto blinked, and he was no longer in that dream. He was now in a totally dark place, his body being the only source of light in the place, illuminating the small area around him.
He walked, and only then did he realize how wet his feet were. The entire area was covered in blood, to the point where the level of the red liquid reached his ankle.
The same place he had been just before he met Sasuke, just after leaving that pit of already decomposing bodies.
Footsteps approached from the darkness, and Naruto turned around, strangely calm, but in clear confusion.
"Who's there?" he asked, running his eyes toward the direction of the sound of the approaching footsteps. Whoever it was, stopped walking, and all was silent.
Soon, two red eyes seemed to glow among the darkness, staring directly into Naruto's eyes, who, despite feeling no fear, took a few steps back. Memories of that huge being made of blood that appeared the last time he was there raced through his head.
The red eyes in front of him, though threatening, stared at him with genuine curiosity, and even joy... happy, perhaps?
"Who are you?" Naruto asked again, standing in an attack position just in case, without taking his eyes off the two red dots, which slowly approached.
"You." An extremely similar voice to his own came from the darkness, just before that being stepped into the light that his body strangely emanated. Naruto's eyes widened slightly and he slowly left his battle position, without even realizing it.
In front of him was a faithful image of himself. The same huge, muscular body, the same visible scars. The same golden hair. The only thing different were his eyes. The white part of his eyes was replaced by a black as dark as his own surroundings, his iris was completely red, and there was no pupil, only that crimson red that stared at him.
Naruto blinked a few times, shaking his head in an attempt to make that being disappear, but to no avail. His gruesome version was still staring at him, as if waiting for something.
"... I have waited for you for a long time." Naruto ran his eyes down his unchanged body... there was nothing, outside of his eyes, that evidenced anything. There was no expression on his face, no body expression. One couldn't tell what that being was thinking, if not from the red glowing excitedly.
"... You claim to be me." For the first time, his gruesome version smiled. Its teeth were sharp, long, like those of a dangerous predator. And despite the macabre smile, it emanated no hint of hostility.
"The truth may take a while to come, I'll tell you. I'm proof of that." His macabre version began to walk quietly around him, stepping once more into the darkness, though his eyes seemed to light his way amidst the blood. "But no matter how long it takes, the truth always comes. Have you ever wondered what that dream really means?"
As soon as his other version disappeared amidst the darkness, Naruto found himself in another place, a forest. In front of him, a body, dead for some time now.
His eyes ran over the arrow wounds on the woman's body, until his gaze stopped on her belly. She was pregnant.
Naruto made a confused frown, and then, his eyes slowly widened as he stared into that crimson red. Not from dried blood, but from the hair of the woman's already decomposing body.
A hair of fire like embers in winter, seeming to glow in the darkness, even after her death.
Creatures of the night appeared around her, but before Naruto could process it, the creatures began to devour the dead woman's body. It was then, that Naruto saw a baby in the corpse's belly, becoming more and more visible as the creatures devoured the flesh, without ever touching him.
The short golden hair already revealed everything, and Naruto had that answer the moment the baby fell to the ground, crying after the impact.
Now it made sense... that was not a dream. It was his birth.
The creatures of the night watched the screaming child, but did not attack him. In fact, they circled the baby still watching him. At first, Naruto really thought they were just staring at a prey, but as he watched this, he realized it was a kind of ritual. The creatures did not attack him, instead they poured blood into his mouth, and walked away soon after.
Days passed... Naruto couldn't say exactly how many days, but too many for a newborn baby to survive in that state... until then, mercenaries appeared.
The blond immediately recognized those rigid expressions, those dark eyes that stared at the golden-haired baby. His father.
Or rather, the man who adopted him, and who despite always telling him he was not his father, he eventually came to see him as a father figure.
"Amazing, isn't it?" His own voice made itself present beside him, and he turned to his other version. His eyes stared into the red eyes that watched the scene of his father picking him up on his lap, with the excuse of taking him to have a burial that his mother did not had. "A child survives that situation. After all, it was pure chance that those creatures showed up."
The scene faded, and soon after, the image of Naruto brandishing his father's huge sword, and repeated images of using his brute strength appeared in front of him, running around him again and again. " Your brute strength really is impactful. An ordinary human, would never reach that level."
Naruto turned to his other image, eyes wide, his body evidencing pure confusion and disbelief. "An ordinary human? So... I'm not..." He couldn't formulate the sentence until the end, the images from his memories faded, and he returned to that same dark place covered in blood.
His macabre version was not around, but he could feel it... not close... but he could feel it with himself. As if they were the same person.
"We are the same being. Like I said, the truth may take a while to come, but it always shows up. We are one. Me, I have already accepted you. Now, you must accept yourself." Naruto turned toward where the voice was coming from, and then, his eyes again widened in pure surprise, and even fear.
His macabre version disappeared, and in its place, that huge creature made of blood was watching him. Only then did Naruto realize that all the blood in the place was gone, and that he was only stepping on an already worn concrete.
The creature was huge, much bigger than anything he had ever seen before. Its crimson red eyes glowed as they stared into Naruto's sapphire blue ones. Its elongated snout sported a small smile that showed its sharp teeth, just like those of his macabre version, but much larger.
"What...?" Naruto tried to ask, but couldn't say anything, causing the creature, strangely similar to a huge fox with several tails, to snort in amusement.
"Don't be so frightened. Like I said, we are one." The huge fox began to shrink in size, and soon, the blood that formed its body took on a humanoid form. The macabre version of Naruto appeared again, calmly walking towards him. The sound of his footsteps on the concrete echoed through the place.
"I don't have many memories before I came into this world. But I do know some things. Like for example, my death coming at the hands of that man... Madara, if I'm not mistaken." Naruto followed with his eyes as his other version walked around him, not letting him out of his line of sight.
"My being merged with a man in an experiment. Weak, but clever and cautious. So that in the end, I had the chance to be reborn into a boy, a little child." The macabre version of Naruto stopped a few inches away from the blond, staring him in the eyes.
Naruto couldn't move, nor would he want to, even if he could. His mind processed all that information. It was a lot to digest, the whole situation was a scandal.
"Do you see that woman, Tayuya? That man, Kisame? You wonder how something like that could be real. Those are their true appearances. Humans corrupted not only by chakra, but by experiments done with beings from my world. Creating hybrid, powerful humans." Naruto felt the hand of his other version gently touch his shoulder, and watched the smile that was born on his lips.
" This...is your true self." The scene changed, the darkness receded, and Naruto found himself standing in front of a mirror.
His eyes widened, his mouth was ajar, and his whole body paled. His trembling hands went fearfully to his face, touching his cheeks just below his eyes.
The blue of his eyes were now a crimson red. His pupil was an animalistic slit, like the eyes of a dangerous demon, a creature emerging from the darkness. His blond hair was streaked with red, his teeth were pointed, and he had claws instead of fingernails. His lips were black.
"The brute force. The rage. The endurance. The vitality. A gift from your father to you. Or should have been." The mirror disappeared, and Naruto again found himself face to face with his real self, it seemed. "That pillar, that hole out there... your friend's eyes. If Orochimaru gets what he wants, the human world will be shrouded in death. People like Tayuya will rule the humankind, so easily manipulated. Temari's memories will fade, Ryuzetsu will be just an old souvenir."
His other version, or his true version, opened his arms, a hopeful and even eager smile on his face.
"Accept yourself. Maybe things might not change. Maybe you will die at the end of the road. But at this point, we have walked alongside death all our lives, haven't we?"
Naruto just faced his true face, his true self. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't, he didn't even know what he would say even if he could. He wanted to ask more questions, but what good would it do if in a few moments he would be dead anyway?
He wanted to do so many things, but at that moment, he could only do one.
Taking two steps forward, Naruto reached out his arms, and embraced his true self.
He felt strange at first, the sensation of something stirring in his body. Soon, a warmth, different from the burning of his anger, spread out, starting from his chest and running all the way through his body.
His eyes opened suddenly, his chest burning from the pain of having his body pierced, and from that sensation that seemed to blend with the anger already so common inside him. His body was lying on the ground, abandoned by Madara and Orochimaru who probably thought he was dead.
His senses slowly returned, and he could hear in a muffled, clipped way what Orochimaru was saying, along with Sasuke's desperate, angry voice.
Slowly turning his neck to the side, Naruto faced Konohamaru's body. They had thrown him next to the dead bodies of his companions. The boy's head was turned the other way, and Naruto couldn't help the knot that formed in his throat at the sight of the boy's still wide-open eyes.
"I call upon you, O my thoughts, and I will walk in close to you, darkness." Orochimaru's distorted voice made Naruto turn his neck toward him, and he stared coldly at what the man was doing.
He was standing in front of the pillar of faces, Sasuke was kneeling beside him with his hand in one of his eyes, blood dripping through his fingers. From the expression, the body language, the blood, and especially the small ball Madara was holding, his eye had been ripped out.
Orochimaru had his hands in a strange symbol, a purple energy emanated from his body and entered the pillar of faces. The ground began to shake, and the hole that connected the worlds expanded. The entire surrounding area was enveloped by a huge tornado, wide and powerful, which made strong breaths of air rush inside, but which did not suck any bodies in its direction.
"Tayuya... the boy's sperm." The woman walked over to Orochimaru and handed him a clear vial with a viscous liquid inside.
Madara was the one who took the vial, and as he stooped down, he placed it on a slightly battered scroll. With a hand signal that Naruto has no idea what it meant, the scroll simply exploded into smoke.
The blond felt the movement of his legs slowly return, and slowly, he begins to stand up without taking his eyes off the situation in front of him.
" His blood." Madara pulled out a few more vials containing that familiar red liquid and did the same.
Orochimaru then turned to Sasuke. "So much wasted potential. But your eyes will help in my plans, for Madara will not risk going blind." The man approached Sasuke, kneeling in front of him and forcing him to face him with his one eye. "You should never have run away. You could be on my side now."
Orochimaru's hand glowed in a purple energy, and Sasuke panted in despair as the man approached his other eye. The brunette tried to run away, but he was held tightly by Madara.
Just inches from Sasuke's eye, Orochimaru heard quick footsteps beside him, and narrowly managed to dodge a punch coming from Naruto, so fast that it created a small gust of wind with his movement.
The man's eyes widened slightly as he stepped back. Although he had clearly dodged the blow, his face burned, and a trickle of blood trickled down his cheek. Orochimaru snorted and watched with too much interest as the blond man landed a punch to the side of Madara's face.
Sasuke stood up quickly and looked at Naruto, widening his one eye soon after. His gaze traveled over Naruto's rigid face, stopping for a few moments at his red streaked hair, and ending at his eyes. Red ones in the shape of a slit. "Naruto..."
"Now... that's unexpected." Orochimaru said, calmly walking to the side without looking away from Naruto. "I had my suspicions that something similar to this could have the possibility of happening to you, but seeing it is something different. Too bad we can't control you." Orochimaru picked up his sword, glancing at Madara, who had already recovered from the blow, despite the redness in the area hit.
Sasuke stopped facing Naruto and got into position right next to him, his one Sharingan running frantically around the scene, looking for something, anything they could use to get out of that situation.
"We can't kill them. But we can try to escape. Can you buy me time?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto made the slightest movement to face them. His red eyes looking analytically at Sasuke.
Not just Orochimaru, he seemed to be able to see that strange energy in everyone's body there. Sasuke's, had a purple coloration, but not exactly the same as Orochimaru's. It was a lighter, brighter purple.
"How much time do you need?" Naruto asked as he watched Kisame calmly approach. They were outnumbered, against opponents with supernatural powers. All the same, he had to admit that the odds were not in their favor.
Especially since the wounds in his chest and abdomen were not healed, he could only ignore the pain. He still felt his body getting weaker and weaker, despite the sudden energy coursing through his veins.
"Not much. Just a few moments." Sasuke said, touching Naruto's arm, just before spitting a fireball onto the ground. A wall formed around both men, obstructing the view of the surrounding opponents.
Orochimaru and Madara stood still in the same place, though they closed their eyes and covered their faces with the blast. Kisame moved a few steps away, being the one most affected by the heat of the flames.
In an instant, the wall of fire moved, and Naruto appeared leaping through the flames at incredible speed, attacking Orochimaru, who was the closest to him. The man's eyes widened at the sudden attack, and he dodged, leaping backwards as he brandished his sword.
Naruto dodged the slashing attack and threw dirt towards his face, causing Orochimaru to grit his teeth and close his eyes instinctively, giving the blond man the opportunity to punch the man hard in the stomach, throwing him backwards.
Madara appeared beside him literally moments later, attempting a diagonal slash in his direction. Naruto dodged, ducking and throwing his body to the opposite side of the blow at the same time, and countering with a low kick. However, Madara dodged by spinning his body, taking advantage of the momentum, and attacked Naruto again.
The blond man leaned on his arms and launched himself to the side, dodging Madara's attack, but receiving a punch coming from Kisame in the process. Despite the powerful blow, Naruto recovered and grabbed the man's arm, pulling him to the side and using him as a shield for Madara's attack. The huge sword pierced Kisame's shoulder, and Naruto kicked the man forward, toward his enemy Sharingan user.
His instincts screamed, and he ducked, dodging an attack coming from Orochimaru. However, he wasn't quick enough when the man canceled his own attack and kicked him in the stomach, hurling Naruto toward the other two opponents.
Kisame kicked him in the face just before he could recover, and the blond man staggered to the side, feeling another blow to his stomach. But Naruto recovered quickly, to the point where he was able to dodge the next attack coming from Kisame.
Slipping the said man, he throws his body to the side, dodging a vertical cut coming from Madara's sword. However, Madara reacted quickly, almost as if he had expected him to make that move. The man landed a kick to his face, and swung his sword diagonally.
Naruto gritted his teeth and threw his body backwards in an attempt to dodge. Although he escaped a potentially fatal blow, he could not avoid the diagonal cut on the side of his abdomen.
Orochimaru attacked him from the side, piercing his shoulder at incredible speed. Naruto grunted in pain, but soon reacted and jumped up, spinning his body still in the air, delivered a powerful kick to Orochimaru's face.
The moment Naruto's feet hit the ground, hands came out of the dirt and grabbed his leg. Unlike the black hands from before, these hands had color. Long, shabby fingernails, but they were obviously human hands.
Naruto pulled his foot with all his might, and out of the ground, a huge humanoid creature with bands covering its eyes and a demonic expression emerged, apparently surprised that it had been pulled violently out of the dirt.
"Incredible. Minato was not a complete failure as I thought. Although, I still have trouble understanding how you survived." Orochimaru's voice appeared right behind him, and Naruto tried to react.
But before Naruto could do anything else, he was hit hard in the back, and groaned as he felt his body being thrown away, bouncing a few times on the ground.
From the ground, another creature, similar to the one that held his leg, appeared, and gave him a kick that sent him flying upwards.
In the air, Kisame was already waiting for him, and violently kicked Naruto towards the ground. However, the blond managed to recover and spun his body around, dodging Kisame's kick. Grabbing him by the head, Naruto pierced one of his eyes with his finger, followed by a punch to the face, and he used Kisame's body to cushion his fall to the ground.
The blond man quickly got up, only to be thrown to the ground again by that giant creature.
A fireball, however, struck the creature, and the explosion of flames not only hurled it away from him, but also began to spread throughout his body.
Naruto coughed a few times, spitting out some blood, the pain in his body almost non-existent, but present. His body became weaker and weaker. It was as if he was anesthetized. His body was suffering the consequences, but he felt nothing.
Almost something made exactly for fighting. An incredible attribute, but dangerous, and potentially fatal.
Looking at who had thrown that fireball, Naruto nods to Sasuke, who had lightning wrapped around his hand.
Madara tried to attack him, however, Sasuke dodged and countered with a kick to his neck, sending the man to the side. Sasuke's Sharingan glowed brightly and its tomes spun so fast that they seemed to have formed a single black line in contrast to the crimson.
Sasuke was enveloped by a cloud of steam that quickly rose into the sky, and his body seemed to emanate strong breaths of hot air that forced everyone around him to move away. The black sky roared in thunder, an opening was created in the huge tornado that surrounded them.
Sasuke raised his arm to the sky, and a pillar of lightning fell on his hand. His whole body was enveloped in lightning. Blood dripped from the side of his mouth, and from his one eye. The purple energy around him glowed more brightly, and Naruto, for the first time, could feel the power emanating from his companion's body.
The pillar of lightning grows, becoming enveloped around his entire body. Lightning emanated all over the place, running together with the strong wind from the tornado all around.
The sky roared once more, and out of its vast darkness, a figure formed. The head of an angry dragon made completely of lightning appeared. Its sharp teeth hardening its rigid expression descended faster and faster, until a deafening roar echoed through the place as the lightning dragon hit the ground.
A burst of lightning struck, and a flash caused Naruto to close his eyes and put his arms in front of his face. The deafening noise echoed everywhere, and he felt swallowed by the enormous pressure of power.
The whole ground shook with extreme force, and the agonizing cries of the pillar of faces seemed to have become louder, more intense, and although there was still pain present in those voices, there was also anger. Growls that echoed together with the roar of the lightning dragon.
The noise got even louder, and the ground shook even harder, to the point where Naruto became unbalanced and fell. The blond man shrank his body and put his hands to his ears to try to muffle the noise.
The flash spread all over the inside of the huge tornado, and if there was anyone outside, they would see a blinding flash inside of an extreme force of nature, but in a totally unnatural way.
Naruto gasped slightly, coughing up blood shortly after the flash dissipated, and the noise disappeared. His body was numb, but he forced himself to stand up, even though he felt his world spinning with such weakness. A sudden surge of energy spread through his body as he staggered, and he managed to keep his feet firmly on the ground. His heart was pounding so hard that he could hear his own beating.
His eyes raced around him, admiring the beautiful destruction caused by something so incredible and terrifying that he didn't even have the words to describe it. The ground was black, and lightning still emanated from the place, but isolated and with less intensity.
No sign of Orochimaru or those other assholes. The pillar of faces was still there, but covered by a dense cloud of dust and smoke.
Further ahead was Sasuke, kneeling and panting, with blood dripping on the ground. Naruto moved to walk over to him, but stopped as he almost went to the ground when he stepped on his right leg.
Looking down, the blond didn't quite know what to think as his leg was twisted, turned the other way. And yet, he felt no pain.
Naruto blinked a few times, just before he put his hands on his thigh and with one quick motion, put his leg back in place. It wasn't broken, just dislocated. At least, that's what he thought.
He made his way over to Sasuke, feeling his leg awkward each time he stepped with it on the ground.
"Sasuke." He whispered his companion's name as he approached him, crouching down and putting one of his arms around his neck, supporting him to stand upright. "Come on, man, we gotta get out of here." He took a quick look at Sasuke's face. Blood was dripping from his eye and the side of his mouth, his sharingan deactivated. There were several cuts on his face and the arm he used to create that lightning dragon was bruised, as if there had been some explosion all over it.
He was tired... exhausted, actually, because of the heavy way he was breathing, almost desperate to get the air that was hardly getting into his lungs.
"Come on... get up... we just-" Naruto stammered a few words, but the sound simply wouldn't come out of his mouth. His stared at nothing, and soon, the metallic taste in his mouth intensified. Sasuke, beside him, gasped in apparent surprise. It was then that his eyes focused on the sword piercing his body.
"That was a good try. I don't recall you ever demonstrating a power like that in your training." Madara's voice echoed through his mind, and two more swords pierced Naruto's body.
The blond blinked a few times, processing that information. His eyes burned and his eyelids grew heavy, forcing him to close his eyes. As soon as he did, it was as if all the pain that had been inhibited resurfaced in his flesh at once, and he fell to the ground.
"What a waste." With his eyes closed, he heard Orochimaru's voice, followed by a groan of pain coming from Sasuke. Naruto struggled to open his eyes, and the first thing he saw, besides Orochimaru right in front of him, was a huge purple snake right behind. Predatory eyes staring at him.
The serpent was huge, not as big as the being of blood in his mind, but much bigger than anything he had ever seen in the world. Its scales seemed to be as strong as the metal of the soldiers' armor. On its head were horns, which spread around its skull, forming something like a crown.
As if the snake was some kind of king.
Sasuke's body fell beside him, in slow motion. Naruto observed his face without both eyes, with his eyelids wide open, blood dripping down his cheeks. There was no pain in his expression, only despair... a despair stamped eternally on his being, since Sasuke was now dead, with a sword piercing his heart.
Naruto blinked, and suddenly he was no longer on that battlefield, similar to a real war picture. He was on a green plain with a huge river in front of him. The water was flowing calmly along its course.
He had been there... a long time ago. And soon, he heard the sound of someone sitting down beside him.
"It's been a while since the last time." His father's voice, although long not directly spoken, still resonated perfectly in his memories. He would probably, never forget it.
Naruto snorted in amusement, looking at his father's typically rigid face. "Yes, I know. But to be honest, there were times I thought it wouldn't take long for that to happen." The blond man looked away. That was different from last time.
Perhaps more melancholy.
"Why do you say that?" His father asked, and Naruto lowered his head.
"I thought I would die much sooner. On several different occasions."
The two men were silent for some time, until Naruto felt a touch on his leg. As he looked, he arched his eyebrows as he saw Gamakichi right beside him, in the exact way he remembered. "Ah, it's been a long time, bud." Naruto said with a small smile, taking Gamakichi in his hand and placing him in his lap.
He missed that frog sometimes.
"The times you thought we would meet again... did you always think it would be the last time?" His father asked, and Naruto stared at him with an arched eyebrow, confused by the question.
"Yes. I always thought I would see you for the last time on my deathbed, or some shit like that." Naruto raised his head, staring up at the blue sky, so different from the black he'd seen a few times before. "Doesn't this feel like a farewell?"
"Maybe. But your blood is something that would not allow your death so easily." Naruto stared at him again, this time in clear surprise, and doubt.
"My blood? You... you knew?"
"I've only met one man with that hair. The only reason I got you that day, truth be told." Naruto watched as his father stood up, covering the sun's rays and watching with every detail the face that stared back at him.
It was the first time he saw the true eyes of the man who raised him.
A smile broke out on his lips, and Naruto shook his head. "I should have known. Our group wasn't big enough to be considered a threat to a kingdom. And now, that explains why you have more than one sword piercing your body. Although it doesn't explain why they didn't take your sword before."
His father smiled, and moved a few steps away. "So... since this is the last time... should we say goodbye?" Naruto asked, but when he turned to his father, he was already gone, as was Gamakichi.
He blinked again, and everything went black. But it was strange, he felt conscious, at least on the edge of consciousness, although, he couldn't move, or speak, or anything.
It was as if he was between life, and death.
Soon, in front of him, other bodies appeared. Deformed bodies, with organs, limbs, and even heads missing, but still alive... or at least they appeared to be alive. Whispers and moans echoed from their deformed, decomposing mouths.
A familiar figure approached, using the scythe in one hand to drain those poor souls. The souls stirred as the figure approached, some in fear, some in sadness, some even in defiance, saying that they didn't want to leave.
The black figure, however, walked calmly, staring deep into the eyes of the souls it was harvesting.
That was the first time in Naruto's entire life that death looked in his eyes, approaching with short but precise steps.
The scythe was raised, and the blond man, in a strange way, prepared himself not to feel anything... or perhaps to feel too much, if hell really was as he had known it.
But, such to his surprise, death, though staring at him, passed by, disappearing completely from his vision.
Its footsteps walking away were the only things Naruto heard.
Well, here it is, end, it's over, that's it, we're done. Well, what to say? I liked it, I won't lie. Although I think my sister could have written a few more chapters to focus on the characters' relationship or at least to focus on the mental side of Naruto and this other self of his.
There is a lot of potential in this universe, unfortunately, that wasn't really explored. Feels bad. But well, this story originated from a dream she had, so all things considered, and considering it was pretty short, I can be satisfied with that. It's good for a quick, heavy read for a change.
Well, that's it, I hope you enjoyed it, comments are always welcome and blah blah blah (although this fucking site is broken and sometimes I can't see the comments. Like right now, pretty cool)
She said she probably won't write anything more related to this story, but who knows, there are a lot of blank spots, and the ending was kind of open... anything can happen. So long bunch of bastards, see you in another story!