Soft Drink

A Naruto Fan Fiction

By Matt Sterling

"Do not tempt the untemptable. In the end, all the pain and anger and destruction of the temptation will only lead back to you."

Deep in the forests, amoung the animals and amoung the peace, the village of Konoha sat. Normally in this village that rang out piece just by looking at it, military power was ensued. Although, this power was not shown in front of the normal villagers, even though they had the very simple option of getting the information.

So, because of this simple, unwritten understanding, most of the village was peaceful. And in this peaceful village there was ninja, ninja created and used to protect the peace. Sometimes stopping the peace to ensure future peace was even used. These ninja were taught from adolecense to fight for their village, and they were almost brainwashed into the fact that their village was supreme. Loyality was not an uncommon thing, and most ninja would give their lives for the village.

Amoung these was Uzumaki Naruto. His life was a normal one, up until he graduated from the acadamy. Since then, he has had a full life some ninja only dream about. It was up until he turned fifteen that he was initially contacted by the Akatsuki Organisation.

Before this time, Naruto would have said that it was out of the question. That there was absoultely no way that he could join something so evil, so corrupt. But there was something that happened between the first time they meeted him and the time they proposed the question to him.

Naruto had killed the Hokage.

Although, there was something else that happened. It was not him that killed the Hokage, Tsuande. Physically he had, but mentally, it was not him. A jutsu, unlike any other, it was not a copy jutsu, as many would reconize it not to be him. The person was in his head. Naruto had no knowledge of who it was, but he was caught in the act, and subconsiously, he came back just after the moment he laid his kunai into the unaware Hokage.

The situation had been almost, just right. Naruto did indeed kill the guards that were in her doorway, and he did indeed kill the Hokage. Just after a class S mission, the ninjas were in short supply, and the Hokage herself even had to go on one, she had been wounded. After giving herself the proper treatment, it was known that she would be completly knocked out for one night. That night.

Security around the perimiter of the village was heavily increased and there was more ninja lurking the night than in the day. The only place they didn't secure was her room. Maybe it was cockiness and maybe it was ego, but they thought that if anyone wasn't caught in the outside permiter and the inside perimeter, then they hadn't made it through. No matter what, no one was going to make it to her doorway, and even then, a signal would be called.

Instantly a guard would move out of position, he had been carefully placed so that he could get to her bedroom in a matter of seconds. Though he did not arrive. He was already dead. The second set of guards came in just as Naruto was finishing the job. Blood covered his face and his eyes were glowing with hatred.

But then, they changed. Naruto flipped around and noticed the situation. It was over.

But, he escaped. It was in the same manner he had done the assassination. Someone took over his mind, and skillfully, he escaped, killing four ninja on his way out and almost killing another.

It has been close to a year since that event occured, Naruto is much more aged and heavy bags weigh under his eyes. Sleep is never a pleasure for him anymore. He only sleeps once a week. For that one year he has been on the run and has killed over a hundred hunter nin from almost all of the countries.

"Are you sure this is it?" said a feminine voice.

"Almost certain," said a masculine.

"Let's go up then. . ." The two figures entered a cave, and as they walked forward into it, they noticed stairs. "Up, up we go." she said, twirling her finger around. The stairs continued up, for almost ten minutes, it was located in a mountain so it was logical. Soon the stairs started to become more fine, well cut, and more perfect.

"What's this?" said the man, the stairs ended. Standing at the end of them was the cave wall. "Huh? I don't get it. . ." He turned to his left to inspect a part of the wall when suddenly feet flew from the spot he was looking at. Through the shadows they kicked him over the edge.

"Uchicha!" shouted the woman, Uchicha, the man, flew down almost three stories before regaining his composure. In midair, he caught on to one of the stairs, and slowly started to pull himself up. The figure that had kicked him looked straight at the woman. "You. . ." she said, keeping the fright in her voice away. "Are you. . .Uzumaki Naruto?"

The figure stood her height, although he was slumping over. His blonde hair was dirty, and his eyes were as wide as he could make them, and his eye itself was very large. Bags under his eyes were very, very, thick and as dark as they could be. "Who are you?"

"I am Hoyo Ikue," she looked over the edge again, looking for Uchicha. Herself, she was tall, for a woman, and had blonde, almost styled hair. She wore a cloak just like the one Uchicha was wearing, it was khaki in color and had red fining. It covered their entire bodies.

"Who did I just kill?"

"You didn't kill him."

"Who is it."

"Uchicha Itachi." Naruto instantly backed into the corner agian. "Wait! We aren't here to kill you! If we were, don't you think we would have attacked by now?"

"I'm not sure, many people come here. . .to kill me. . .but I didn't do it. . ."

"We aren't one of those people."

"She's right," said Itachi, finally getting a chance to catch his breath. "I want to tell you why we are here, but I need you outside of this place first."

"No, this is my cave!" shouted Naruto. "I did this, you know, since it began, the whole thing. It keeps me up. It used to be just a small cave in a big mountain but now look at it!" he started to laugh. "I wasn't very good at it in the beginning, and soon my kunai dulled down on me, but then they started to send people, so I got a replenish in kunai's. Now I just get them from a girl in the village next door."

"What does she do?"
"She leaves them at the entrance. There's about fourty down there now, since they dull up after a month, and she sends one every week. Do you have anything to drink or eat?"

"I have a soft drink we bought over at the village you were talking about," said Hoyo. She handed it to him and he opened it as quickly as he could.

"Yes," he laughed. "These are the best. I only drink these. Remember that."

'He's obviously insane,' thought Itachi. 'He speaks of needless and pointless things. . .can we get him. . .?'

"Naruto, I need to get to the point. Since you killed the Hokage of Konoha, the country has been in an uproar and a civil war has occured. That country is a no mans land. And allies of what they used to be are still bent on killing you. So, because of this we've decided, since you have that fox inside of you, that we do not need to kill you. The Akatsuki I mean."

"So. . .?" Naruto was sitting on the top step, while they stood. He took the last big gulp of the soft drink before dropping it into the hole that would lead to the bottom.

"We wondered if you, yourself, could join the Akatsuki." Naruto staired at them, awestruck by this.

"It would mean almost perfect safety from anyone, and plus, you only have to do jobs for us at the maximum of one a month. These are not mass murder jobs like you are probably thinking, just a little something to keep our reputation up in the country you are assigned."

"And it is probably. . ." Naruto started.

"Konoha."

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