What is Uzumaki Naruto?
Someone that has had his mind toyed with by forces that he had no hopes of understanding for years.
Somebody that has tried, again and again, to shoulder too much weight.
Something that must already be dead.
"I believe that it is in the nature of man to fight.
Ninjutsu is but a tool; without it, civilians would war with sticks and stones and gunpowder again. But shinobi go above and beyond that, in the sense that it is in the nature of ninja to kill.
For what else could be, when we train them for this specific purpose from the moment they can channel chakra?
We are monsters, creating more monsters.
A good shinobi is one that can kill their emotions. Empathy, compassion, love; these are the things that we get rid of first, in order to make a more efficient murder machine.
Except for a small fire that must be fanned, of course. Love for your clan; love for your village; love for your nation.
Love thy clan; love thy village; love thy nation.
Kill the rest. So that your clan's reputation grows. So that your village expands its power. So that your nation expands its land.
And we call it honor.
But there can be no honor, no ideals. Not for us. Only madness, looming over you like your loved ones' tombstones.
I do not pretend that I am any better.
Under the Uchiha banner, I have killed men, women and children.
Under the Konoha banner, I have killed men, women and children.
I am beginning to resent it; not the killing itself, for this I have resented since the very beginning. But this world. I am beginning to loathe such a world.
This loathing is all-encompassing and I fear that
Pieces of the letter had been torn away and were never found.
haps they are right. Perhaps I am mad.
Perhaps Hashirama truly will bring peace. I hope for a miracle. And yet I am prepared for the worst."
Uchiha Madara - Unsent letter to Uchiha Setsuna; Two months before his defection.
"It is time for you to fall away, Little Uzumaki." Indra said, almost gently.
Naruto said nothing in answer. He felt more like himself, here. He dimly remembered the smells of forests, of the mountains, and then the sea. Perfume — two different ones. His breath was hot, and his mind was clear.
For the first time in a long, long time.
"Your body might still be holding on, but your will is gone."
Naruto knew it. This game had gone on for far too long, already. He was tired.
"You are nothing more than a walking corpse. Rest." Indra said, as though he were extending a kindness.
Naruto still stood silent. Although…
The embers of something ignited within him. Something that burned. Something like rage. It was something that the man in front of him had felt before, too, according to what he had seen through Indra's memories. Just an echo of a feeling that hadn't been his.
"Defiance…? To the very end, then. Very well." Indra smiled. "Kneel."
Indra extended his hands and a wave of invisible chakra pressure made Naruto drop to a knee. It was as though his very being was being torn apart. And that he was being crushed at the same time. The only thing he could do was holding on, trying to keep what it was that Naruto thought made him him together.
The pain was not only physical, far from it. His mind was on the edge of rupture. Every fear, every superstition, every shame was turned against him.
He had thought he could defeat this?
The tearing went on seemingly forever.
"I will win this one, too." Indra said.
Something about the familiar words angered Naruto even more. He was starting to get pretty pissed.
He opened his eyes and anchored himself to reality.
"Win…? Win?!" Naruto gritted out. "Is this all this is about to you? Your conflict with your brother?"
Indra laughed.
He brought his power against Naruto again. The tearing continued. Naruto held himself together.
The power came from all directions, and he fell to his knees again.
It seemed to last forever. And Naruto knew it might well do so if he continued to fight. Indra had all the time in the world. Naruto didn't.
"Isn't there any way out…?" Naruto growled. "Is this conflict just going to go on forever…?"
"Until he admits his ideals are wrong." Indra smiled.
"That's it?!" Naruto roared. The pain was blinding. "For something like this?!"
"Aren't you doing the exact same thing?"
Through the haze of pain, Naruto saw it still.
He had done so. Just because Sasuke was not that similar to Asura superficially, he had been too stupid to see. He was part of the cycle in every way. What would it even matter if Indra took over, if he was already doing his part?
They were the same, after all.
Naruto felt some of the pain recede, and Indra seemed surprised.
"No." Naruto grunted. "I have made mistakes, but we're not doing the same thing. I won't become like you."
The man smiled, and the pressure increased again. The pain came back. Naruto felt that he was being torn apart again.
"I'm still me!" Naruto roared. He attacked.
Indra laughed. "So you want to fight…? Such proud last words, too. Come at me, then!"
The pressure abated.
Naruto didn't have to try to reach for his emotions.
Lightning and Wind; Yin and Yang.
What was harder was letting go.
But with everything on the line, he would have to.
This was what he was born for. This moment, suspended in time, where only the battle mattered.
His soul was soaring; his heart was thrumming. He was chakra, he was strength. He was the Storm.
The Cloak of Storm held.
Indra grinned. Around him, his chakra shaped itself into weapons. Twin swords. Just like Naruto.
Lightning and Fire; Yin and Yang.
Their blades clashed, mighty blows that reminded Naruto of the old legends; of men facing angry kami. It was obvious from the very start that Indra was stronger, better.
This had never stopped Uzumaki Naruto before.
They pushed away from each other, almost perfect reflections. Indra took a long breath. The strength, the quality of the chakra that gathered made Naruto shiver.
"Firestorm Release: Sunlight Flare!"
A wall of crackling white fire, burning so bright that it hurt to look at, covered the entire field, blooming like the most terrible sort of flower.
Naruto had nothing in his arsenal to counter that. He pushed his chakra to his legs and dashed around it.
He ran at his fastest speed, something so far above a regular human that he would not even be seen by most shinobi.
Of course, Naruto rarely, if ever, faced most shinobi. Or maybe he didn't really care enough about such encounters to really commit them to memory.
Indra extended his hand and chakra — or rather, an unrefined blast of it — slammed into Naruto like hard pellets of stone, sending him rolling. Before he had recovered, Indra was upon him, swords flying through the air with a keening sound.
Lightning and Wind made for a better combination, when it came to speed. Which meant Naruto was almost as fast as Indra was.
He parried the blow, but the strength of it sent him through the water with a booming sound. He used Wind underwater to twist himself, aiming for the surface again.
He came out with a gasp.
"You may as well give up." Indra said with a small grin. "My power only grew over the generations."
Naruto stared up at him, defiantly.
He felt the oceans of chakra at the man's disposal. Indra moved.
A rising kick smashed into Naruto's face with thunderous might. He was flying through the air, and something was coming for him, obscuring the heavens.
It was a sword.
One that displaced the very air around it.
A gigantic purple sword made out of chakra. It came from a Susanoo, Naruto could see. One that made the ones that Sasuke and Shisui had displayed look like children's toys.
But Uzumaki Naruto was no quitter. With a roar, Naruto focused the Storm in his arms and swords and prepared to parry the attack.
It kinda worked, because instead of cleaving him in half, the blow just sent him careening toward the water again.
He smashed into it, and from this height, it might as well have been stone. Everything hurt. The impact might well have given him whiplash.
Naruto rose above the water again. His hands were shaking.
"You are not lacking in will… or strength. I can admit as much." Indra smiled, and his eyes were red with the Sharingan. Naruto reacted to the sight by falling on trained instincts. He slapped his hands together.
"Storm Release: Blinding Flash."
Indra laughed even as he closed his eyes. "I can sense chakra too, you know."
Storm was Wind and Lightning. Naruto focused on that.
"Storm Release: Shadow Clone."
"What would more of you hope to do…?"
The Storm Clones began weaving hand seals, as coordinated as a single unit.
"Storm Release: Vacuum Tear!"
"Storm Release: Vacuum Tear!"
"Storm Release: Dragon Arrow!"
A rift in the air broke the air apart around Indra. Blades sharp enough to cut through lightning itself came at him from every angle. One Naruto released the latter jutsu. The arrow flew, aimed at Indra's face.
Indra caught it, almost lazily, protected by his Susanoo and his own elements.
While the clones held their techniques, Naruto weaved two different jutsu. One with each hand.
"Storm Release: Raijū!"
"Storm Release: Faded Lightning!"
A beast made out of purple electricity formed, starting from Naruto's left hand. A cord of lightning connected to it, and the hound flew toward Indra, getting as close as possible and obscuring his view of Naruto..
Naruto brought his right hand up, and focused the chakra through his extended middle finger. A point of light shone in front of it before disappearing.
The beam of light that he shot went through both the hound, detonating it, and Indra. Seemingly.
Indra casually summoned a column of pure flame to shield him. He twisted his hands in signs Naruto had never seen before, and it exploded into beams of electrical white light that shot toward Naruto.
By going through his clones.
Naruto began running again. As fast as he could. His body was screaming in pain, but he could not slow down. Not for a single moment.
His thighs felt as though they were about to give out on him.
"It is such a shame." Indra began, as light a cloud. He wasn't the one fighting for his life, and it showed.
Naruto didn't bother answering him. He continued to run and dodge, feeling numbness start to climb through his legs. That was bad.
"Had you been anyone else, we could have been allies."
Naruto jumped and twisted to avoid being split in two. He slid over water, passing in between orbs of fiery lightning without being consumed in the process.
Still sprinting through the beams that exploded around him, Naruto barely managed to growl out his answer.
"I could have been your follower, you mean?"
"What difference does it make?" Indra eyed him with some dark amusement. "We could have ruled the world together. Just the way you wanted."
"That is not what I want!" Naruto bellowed.
"Oh? And what do you want, then?"
The answer came to Naruto unbidden. Something he didn't even think he had wanted, especially during the last days.
He had thought he didn't, but…
"I want to live!" He shouted.
The words rang true in Naruto's mind, just as they rang through the pure lake.
"So you have changed your mind, then. That…" Indra began, almost sadly. "Is the one thing I cannot give you."
"Then I don't want to hear anything you have to say!"
Indra's Susanoo faded away. Was he trying to save on chakra…? Did chakra even truly exist here?
Naruto summoned his bow in a blink. He jumped, and the beams continued to follow him. Chakra tinted the air purple around him as he aimed.
He released five arrows in the time it usually took him to shoot two.
Indra's own hands flashed…
And an ancient-looking bow appeared into his hands.
Fire and Lightning gathered around him. The air crackled with power. Naruto's mouth tightened.
"Are you surprised that we might be similar…? After all that I've said?" The man asked.
The destructive force of the attack was simply superior to Naruto's. The resulting collision and the deafening blast of burning air that followed sent Naruto tumbling through the air.
Where was up… where was down?
He slammed into the water head-first and almost passed out, here and there. With a groan, he pulled himself up once more.
Indra stood over him, once he surfaced.
"It's over." Indra said. "You're strong, as strong as it gets. But that's not enough. You won't be able to defeat me in battle."
His Sharingan was turned off.
The real Naruto burst through the clone lying on top of the water, reaching for Indra. Indra dodged him easily.
Just as easily, he dodged the second Naruto that rose up from under.
"I invented the Shinobi arts, Uzumaki Naruto." He drawled. He kicked the second one away.
It exploded in a shower of Lightning. He looked up and slashed at the first one.
It dispelled into smoke. The real Naruto, transformed into the clone's earring, fell upon him, attaching something around Indra's wrist. A sealing tag unfolded itself around his entire body.
"We had a lot of time to perfect them." Naruto smiled grimly.
"…What is this?!" The man asked. He had been tricked. His chakra turned inward, folded upon itself and detonated in a burst of bright light.
Naruto, half unconscious from being so close to the source of it, slowly stood up.
"…It worked?"
There were no more traces of Indra.
Chakra coalesced into the air again.
"Which part of 'it won't be a fight' do you not get?" Indra's voice called mockingly.
He reformed out of nothing. Pushing his panic down, Naruto rushed in and slapped another seal on his exposed, reforming hand.
One that would plunge him into a long, long sleep. Unconscious but alive. He had planned to use it on himself, once he managed to finish it.
"The core concept, I guess." Naruto spat.
Indra shook his head and… ripped the seal apart. As though it was just paper.
Naruto tried to put some distance in between them.
Flames billowed like a beast's open jaws.
Naruto summoned and threw a sword away, and pulled himself to it in the same movement. He summoned a clone seamlessly.
"Storm Release: Path Clearer!"
The clone was consumed despite his jutsu.
Naruto pushed again, forcing himself back to the water's surface.
With a growing sense of hopelessness, he stood up again. He lost his balance for a second. Something slammed through his lung.
Naruto started to choke on his blood.
The world seemed to turn dark, to slowly fade away.
No way.
He pulled the arrow out of his ribcage with a horrifying noise and forced the wound shut.
Naruto's sword met Indra's barely a second later, in a resounding clang.
He twisted his body away and dodged under the second one. Naruto kicked, and to his surprise, he managed to land a solid hit.
Indra looked just as surprised. And then amused. Naruto felt it then.
Power.
Power.
Power.
Indra's hand extended.
"Firestorm Release: Searing Bolts."
Streaks of fire and lightning combined rained on Naruto. His cloak caught fire first, the reinforced material being made to look like paper. His entire body felt as though he were burning, and his skin cracked when he threw himself to the side.
He fell heavily to his side. Indra's index and middle finger came down. Twin bolts of burning light went through his palms, pinning him to the surface of the water. Water that hissed and steamed around the supercharged rods of flame.
A foot pushed his head underwater.
Time stretched on. Naruto's eyes were open. He could see through the clear water, colors, purer than they should be… as he desperately tried to breathe.
He swallowed water. It burned like lava.
His body went limp, his mind went blank; he wondered about giving up.
To just let go. It wouldn't be that hard, would it…? His lungs had more or less given out anyway, and there would be no pain, just comfort—
"Storm Release: Depth Charge!" He called instead.
His chakra engulfed him, and it stunned Indra for a very short moment. Naruto knew better than to let an opportunity like this pass.
He flashed up, pouring all of his strength into this attack.
All of the Storm, he focused along the edge of his sword. He aimed for the area in between Indra's chin and throat. He saw the surprise in the man's eyes and relished in it.
"Cloud Piercer!"
Naruto thrust upward.
Indra's eyes opened wide, and his hand pushed the sword away. The Susanoo rose around him, purple, strong and unyielding.
A long, bleeding wound had opened along his cheek, and his hand, the one that still held Naruto's sword, was in a bad shape.
There was something serious in Indra's eyes now.
Naruto leaped back, feeling his lungs burn.
White fireballs appeared behind Naruto. He avoided the first three, but had to use his arm to shield himself from the latest. He summoned a sword and—
Indra grabbed him, his hand wrapping around his throat tightly.
"It was a nice trick, that seal from before. Fitting for a shinobi." Indra admitted. "And so was this."
Naruto growled.
"Open your eyes, now." Indra ordered.
"…So that you can hypnotize me…?"
Indra scoffed. "I can't hypnotize you more than I can hypnotize myself."
"That's a very convenient lie."
"When have I ever lied to you…?" Indra sounded amused.
"I could probably think of a few times… if your hand wasn't wrapped around my throat." Naruto breathed out.
Indra let him fall to the surface of the water.
The pressure came for Naruto again, a true wave of power. Every single part of him, every part of his will was focused on pushing the attack back.
Indra showed him a terrible future, forcing visions of death into his mind. Or maybe they were truly coming from himself.
"They will all die if you live." Indra said. "You will lose them all. But I can prevent that."
Naruto crawled across the floor, spasming from the pain.
There was the temptation. Indra had power. Power beyond measure. He could save them. The pain would stop. The madness would, too.
No more burdens.
But…
He thought of the people in his life.
"No."
Pain. Even more pain. Oh gods, was he burning, or did it only feel as though he were…?
"Surrender, and it will all stop." Indra offered.
"…No." Naruto muttered.
The true pain began.
Everything was a blur around Naruto, a nonsensical patchwork of colors.
He was starting to forget why he was fighting in the first place.
And there was pain.
Cutting, blunt, electrifying, inescapable pain.
His consciousness seemed to stop at that.
The pain had started — It had started at some point he couldn't define anymore, and it didn't stop. Naruto howled and raged and screamed in true agony.
The pain went deep, like a fire that seared his bones, or his very soul.
He couldn't see anything; he couldn't hear anything; he couldn't feel anything.
Then it stopped for an instant and he remembered who he was.
"Surrender." Indra demanded.
"No." Naruto gasped.
Naruto continued to howl.
There was something welcoming past the veil of endless pain.
Something welcoming that seems to call to him.
Naruto ignored the call of oblivion.
Indra's attacks persisted.
When mere mind-numbing pain, soul-rending agony began to lose its appeal, Indra began weaving horrific visions of the future that awaited Naruto.
The death Naruto's selfishness would bring, and the ruined world that Nagato, if left alive, would usher.
And he made it seem so reasonable, too.
As though giving up would save everyone.
A traitorous part of his mind, the same one that told him there was no need to remain in that much pain, told him it might be for the best, after all.
But in the end, he was Uzumaki Naruto.
And giving up when something was at stake was not something he did.
"Forgive me for disturbing you, my lord."
A woman, red of hair and beautiful, bowed in front of him.
Only silence answered her. Time stretched on, languid and painful. For her only, as he had never minded.
The crescendo of tension in the air was continuous.
"What is it?" He muttered back, barely bothering to look at her. The very sight of her face only brought back memories he had no more use for.
"Kurou's forces have been defeated."
"Kurou was supposed to be the best of you." He said quietly. "Why do you think he was defeated, Yoisen…?"
"…I do not presume to know, my lord."
Indra's face stood shrouded in shadow, and he only bothered looking at her briefly. His eyes flashed red for an instant.
"I shall tell you, then." Indra whispered. "Asura's forces are willing to die for him."
"…I see, my lord."
"Do you really…? Kurou wasn't willing to die for me, and that must be why he perished."
No answer came.
"Look at me, Yoisen." Indra said quietly.
"Yes, my lord."
She did so, and his red eyes met hers.
"Would you be willing to die for me to fulfill my ambition?"
"Yes, Indra-sama."
Indra smiled.
"What if I asked you to die now?"
Was this what had happened to the woman who had built Uzushio…?
She was — She looked too much like Karin. And—
"Surrender." Indra demanded again, sounding bored.
"No!" Naruto roared.
How many times…?
Even moments after the pain stopped, Naruto felt as though he were still in the throes of it.
"It is a mercy I'm offering you." Indra waited.
Naruto chuckled painfully, dragging himself back to his knees. "I know of your mercy."
"I will kill the man named Nagato in your stead. You are unable to do so."
"No thanks."
"I will let your friends live if you do so, you have my promise." Indra continued, unimpeded.
"I refuse." Naruto said. "You will die, anyway, without the Nine-Tails."
He didn't know how much time he had left, at this point. Indra shook his head.
"This is false. We will live forever."
"You will live, while I rot in some corner of your mind."
Though it did raise a few questions. How had he planned to do so…? There was a way, then.
"Refuse and you will lose your mind anyway. There won't be a you to speak of."
"So it shall be." Naruto gritted out. "No matter what, I'm leaving here. If it takes trapping myself forever, I will do it. If it takes becoming as mad as Uchiha Madara… then so it shall be."
Indra shook his head. He looked at him with something like pity.
"It is too late for this. You should have done so earlier, before coming here. But you and I both know you were not ready to sacrifice yourself in this way when you still could. We are the same, after all."
"We are not."
Indra smiled.
Is there anything I can do?
Naruto racked his mind, looking for an answer. Looking for a way out.
Think.