Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Summary: Naruto is dead, in a final act of revenge against the village. Now left with his mysteriously conceived son, can the Hokage make things right? Or will the boy turn out just the same?
Pairings: None yet
Rating: PG-13 for some language.
7/29: Reloaded, fixed formatting for Kyuubi's speech.
One last chance
Chapter 2: Tempest
Next day
The Hokage sighed. She never did like these long reports.
One of the jounins standing in front of her droned on and on over what damages the village had taken and how much it would cost to fix, and all the people still missing. Not that she didn't appreciate the effort they had put into reporting the full extent of the damage, they just didn't have to read the whole thing to her.
It seems the report would go on for hours. It had to stop, NOW. "Yeah I get the picture, just start fixing everything OK?" a slightly irritated Tsunade said. Kyuubi's little 'deal' was giving her more than just headaches. Her already short temper was now even shorter and she did NOT like to have to spend all this time listening to things that would make her feel worse. "Have you found out what happened to cause all this?"
"No Hokage-sama. All the witnesses are still incapacitated. Those at the center of the explosion did not survive."
"I see. Still, please keep investigating."
"Of course Hokage-sama." The jounins vanished in a puffs of smoke.
"You called sensei?" Shizune walked into the office.
"Yes Shizune. I need you to do something for me. Just keep an eye on me if anything happens."
"What do you mean?" This couldn't be good news.
"The jounins and ANBU can't find out what happened exactly, so I'm going to investigate myself." The Hokage said. "It seems the only option is to ask the witness that was there."
That's odd, Shizune knew that there were no surviving witnesses. "And who is that?"
"Kyuubi."
Not good news.
---
Tsunade had used a sleeping jutsu on herself, and found herself back inside her own mind. Finding the Kyuubi's room again wasn't hard, just look for the big thing that didn't belong. When she did arrive at the place, the great demon fox was asleep, softly purring, as it was thinking of hunting down those blasted humans and ripping them apart. Irritated that her shouting had no effect, she proceeded to kick the demon awake.
Whadda you want now? It growled hostilely as it slowly opened its eyes. Being kicked awake was not the best way to have a friendly demon - if demons were ever friendly. I was enjoying that dream! It snarled angrily. "Its time to pay the rent." Tsunade spoke in a greedy tone.
Kyuubi sighed. If you don't remember me saying, I have no spare chakra left. It growled. "I have no need of your chakra, all I want is information."
Information huh? What kind of information?
"Tell me what happened that night." The demon visibly cringed. "We're trying to find out what happened, but I'm getting impatient waiting for anyone else to piece it together. So tell me."
Huh. Fine. Arguing wasn't going to get him out of this. You might not like it though.
Flashback - 4 days ago, evening
Team 7 had just returned from another C-rank assignment. Since its three members had been promoted to chuunin the year before, they were no longer stuck doing boring missions Naruto had deemed 'Old lady jobs'; weeding old ladies' gardens, buying old ladies' groceries, finding old ladies' runaway pets etc. They had finally been given the 'good stuff' to do, such as catching missing nins (bandits), assassinating (delivering diplomatic messages to) daimyos, or stealing (buying) the Hokage's sake.
(Naruto's imagination made things more exciting than they actually were.)
"Good jobs guys, go home and get some rest." Their always-late jounin sensei said, walking away, eyes firmly kept on his book.
Then came the usual "Ne, Sasuke-kun, wanna get dinner?" The aforementioned raven-haired boy didn't even bother to respond and simply walked away, Sakura in hot pursuit. Naruto simply left, having learned long ago that nothing he did or say would persuade the girl to have dinner with him instead. He went off to Ichiraku for dinner.
---
Naruto looked up from his 5th bowl of ramen as Sakura plopped into the seat next to him. "He managed to lose you again huh?"
"As always." She sighed sadly. "Pork ramen please." The owner nodded and went off to make her order.
"I don't see why you don't simply give up. All the other girls have." It was true. Since Sasuke's 'attempted defection' two years ago, his popularity with the younger generation had dropped. Surprisingly, the older generation had simply shrugged it off.
"I honestly don't know sometimes. I guess there's a part of me that wants to be with him so he wouldn't be alone. Nobody should be alone." She paused. "That's just silly isn't it?"
"No, you're right. Nobody should be alone." Naruto's tone of voice went darker with each word.
Sakura cringed at the tone, and realized she had wandered into the zone of 'stuff that she knows shouldn't be said around Naruto'.
The ramen arrived (Sakura's first, Naruto's sixth) and was consumed in silence.
---
Sakura had left after one bowl, and Naruto after his tenth. Walking down the path to his small shabby apartment he began to think.
'I've saved this village three times now. I stopped Gaara from trashing the place with his demon (true), I stopped Tsunade from fixing up that rotten snake so he could attack again (true), and I saved it from that rampaging boar demon (also true, it was an angry Ino and an overactive imagination). OK, maybe only twice, but still...'
He kept his head down as he walked past a group of ladies. He didn't need super hearing or Byakugans to know they were whispering about him while shooting him nasty glares.
'... they all still treat me the same, if not worse. And its started to get a lot worse lately.'
He arrived at his door and was about to put the key in when he felt someone rush him. Reacting with ninja-like reflexes he spun around drawing a kunai at ... Sakura!? "Wha?"
She was frantic. "Naruto please! I need your help."
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?"
"Its...its...Sasuke. I ran into him on my way home. He was carrying his pack and muttering something about leaving. I ran up to him but he used a sleeping genjutsu on me! At least this time I was prepared and dispelled it after he left, but now he's gonna get away and I don't know what to do." At his she broke down. "You've gotta stop him before he does anything stupid again. Tsunade really going to have him killed if he tries to leave again."
---
Naruto sped towards the gate, hoping he wasn't too late. 'That bastard, after getting the Hokage to trust him again, he just tries to leave again.' Sakura had been too frantic to do anything, so he put her on his couch. On the way, he bumped into Shikamaru and told him to tend to Sakura, she should tell him about Sasuke and he would tell the Hokage.
---
Sasuke walked along at a leisurely pace, taking in sights that he would not be seeing again, at least he hoped. He had just walked into a slightly-crowded after-hours district when his chakra radar felt it, a familiar chakra headed towards him at high speed. 'Shit' he spun around just in time to see Naruto stop in front of him, with a fuming expression on his face.
"What do you want dobe?"
"Sakura told me everything, how dare you try and betray us again you bastard!" Sasuke just shrugged as if it meant nothing to him. That just made Naruto angrier. "The Hokage gave you another chance, look what you've achieved since then. You're just gonna throw it all away."
"I still haven't achieved enough power to beat HIM! Wasting away in this little peace-loving dump isn't gonna help anything."
"That snake's just using you! Shikamaru's gonna report this to Tsunade, if you stop now I can still help you." Naruto yelled. "He is not using me! He will give me power."
"But everything that's happened is his fault, he attacked us! He's corrupting you."
"It's YOUR fault you little brat." Some drunken villager stumbled in. "You're the one corrupting him. He's the last member of that great clan, not some petty boy. They should never have put you in the same team as him."
"Yeah. It's all his fault." Sasuke said with an evil smirk.
"What!?"
"You heard him, get that brat!" The drunk shouted as his friends converged. Sasuke took the chance to run away.
"Sasuke stop!" Naruto tried to pursue but the villagers got in his way. "The third was foolish to let you live. Now that damn demon's been planting evil thoughts in the Uchiha's mind. We can't afford to lose him, he's the last one of them left!"
"What the hell are you babbling about!? Orochimaru's the one that's been doing that." But it was too late, the mob of villagers charged. "Ugh, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
It turns out the mob had some ninjas in it. Even with his Kage Bunshins, Naruto lost, badly. There were wounds all over his body and he could feel internal damage to his organs. Distracting the mob with a smoke bomb, he fled into an alley. 'Damn it. Damn it! I can't lose, not yet. I…' "There he is." "All right lets kill the demon. Sorry kid, no hard feelings." (1) "How are we supposed to kill the demon?" "Throw it in the river."
---
Naruto was unconscious when they dragged him away. He was inside his own mind, running to the end of the corridor.
He ran and ran, until he found it; eight yin-yang symbols on the wall, each had a handle. There was nothing left he could do but to die, but feral rage overcame him. If he had to die, why do it alone? Gathering all his strength, he started pulling the eight handles, one by one.
What the hell do ya think you're doing kid!
"Getting revenge. Isn't that what you've always wanted?" Number two.
Not by blowing us up you twit!
"What else do you suggest?" Number three.
Let me handle things.
"Not a chance. I'm sorry about this." Number four.
Don't do this.
Number five.
Please?
Number six.
Don't do this!
"Don't do this!"
Number seven.
Shit! Chakra jyuufutsu no jutsu! (2)
Eight? (3)
And there was nothing more.
End flashback
"Oh." Tsunade's face twisted angrily. "So that's where he went, the rotten little bastard. And here I was thinking he got blown up or something."
Tsuzuku - TBC
Notes
(1) - That quote is from the movie 'End of Evangelion'
(2) - 'Chakra jyuufutsu no jutsu' - Chakra expel technique
(3) - There are eight chakra gates. If he opened them all, he would die while having the power equal to a hokage. (Manga Chapter 52)Expels the Kyuubi's chakra from the body. I think it's possible because Naruto opened the chakra gates.