Disclaimer: All this is from Naruto. The characters, the names, the everything.
I hope this is as good as the second chapter. Thanks for all that reviewed! Review again please? And if you have any questions about this, review too! And if you have some suggestions, review again! Review review review and review again. Heh, just want to hear your opinions. Flames allowed!!!!!!!!!!
EVEN IN DARKNESS, THERE IS LIGHT
And Then There Was Pain
Naruto's whole body felt like on fire. And he fell onto his knees. It was too painful, but Naruto realized what he was doing. He wasn't this weak. He started to get up.
"I am going to be Hokage of Konoha!" Naruto whispered over and over again.
"The Hokage. The Hokage of. I am going to be" Naruto whispered more.
"No Stupid Brat!" Naruto could hear Kyuubi clearly in pain. "Run! Stop! Run from this place!" Naruto could hear the demon's voice panicking.
" What? How? How can you talk to me demon?" then Naruto thought how much he liked being called demon and, amid all the pain, he restated his question, "How can I hear you?" Getting no answer, Naruto stood on his feet and curled his fists into two tight balls. All his knuckles became white. His face was as pale as snow. Somehow, if Naruto had a mirror in the cave, he would be shocked how deep his face scars were on each cheek.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Kyuubi was screaming. Suddenly, red smoke appeared on top of the altar in front of Naruto. More and more gathered there. Naruto wondered where it came from but then he saw his stomach. The seal was releasing. No it was dissolving. But into what? Naruto thought
Then more pain came to Naruto. It drove him to his knees. This was double the pain before. No triple! This was too much.
"AHHHHHH! NOOOO NOOO!" Then the red ball of mist became Kyuubi's face. It snarled and bared its teeth. Naruto shrank back in horror.
Naruto stood there still feeling the pain and watched Kyuubi's face. He didn't feel frightened anymore. And though he felt the pain, he just accepted it and let it flow through his body. It still hurt, but it was something Naruto could bear. Except the next thing that came his way.
Naruto's head exploded with pain. Something was being forced through but Naruto didn't want to accept it. He did not like not knowing what was going to enter through his head. It took all of his effort to keep the invisible force at bay.
Then he was caught off guard. He saw writings on the walls of the cave beginning to form. As if taking its chance, the something went into his brain like a train going 150 mph. Years and years of information came in. No, centuries and centuries of information were stored in Naruto. He didn't see it yet. But he knew it was there. Naruto put his hands on his forehead. It still hurt. Then he slowly slid his hands down. When it went to his mouth, he could taste the metallic taste of blood.
He looked at it and suddenly blood was dripping from somewhere from his face. Naruto found out it was his nose and ears. The blood changed from dripping to pouring. Naruto dried to cover all three at once. In a few seconds, the ground around him was all bloody.
Naruto found himself on the ground looking at the ceiling of the cave. The pain was gone and kyuubi was not on the altar anymore. There wasn't anything on the altar anymore. Naruto closed his eyes. That was a mistake he would wish he never made.
In the darkness, there was light. Then Naruto saw a large overgrown female fox demon on the ground. It was in labor. Even though Naruto knew it was a demon, he wanted to help it. Naruto reached out his hand and tried to touch it. When his hand touched the great fox, it went through. Then the image became a movie.
3 fox demons were born. Naruto knew the one in the middle was Kyuubi. The other two from right to left were Niyoke and Seoku. Naruto saw how the three fox demons grew up. How they were trained by their mother and father. He saw how Kyuubi found a shrine that gave him more power. He saw how Kyuubi used the power to fight his siblings and take their power. Then kyuubi took his mother's life and power. Then Kyuubi's father. Naruto saw how Kyuubi traveled over time. Killing anybody in his path when he was in demon form. Sometimes Kyuubi would go to human form of any kind he liked. Uchiha, Hyuuga, Aburame, Inuzuka, or even Akamichi. Naruto saw what Kyuubi saw. How bloodlines formed and how some ended. Naruto gained countless information while he looked at Kyuubi's memories. Naruto saw how Kyuubi found his mate and how his mate died by humans.
Then Naruto saw how Kyuubi came to Konoha just out of pure lust, blood, and revenge even though Konoha took no part whatsoever in the killing of Kyuubi's mate. But Kyuubi wanted to destroy all humans on the earth. Naruto saw how Iruka's parents died. He even saw the face off between Kyuubi and the fourth Hokage. After the fourth Hokage used the sealing technique, everything went black.
When Naruto woke up, he saw he was in real life and not in his head anymore. It was nighttime and everything was dark. Only the torches with fire burning kept the cave visible. Naruto somehow knew where he was and what the shrine did. He knew a great many things. His nose scent was high, he could hear things from far away, and he could even see sharper. But Naruto again knew somehow that he could take that away and become normal again.
Naruto knows that the cave is called the Becoming and the altar is called the Changing. Naruto even knows what it does. He said it out loud.
"The altar summons what is inside the human and absorbs it. Sometimes it's a demon. Then the wall takes the power and memory of the demon and crams it into the human. In the human's mind, he or she replays the memory of the demon and sees how it's powers can be used properly." When Naruto realized what he had said out loud, he tripped and touched the altar again.
Again, Naruto felt pain all over his body but went away quickly. Then he heard the voice again, "And it is always used to summon the right blood of the ancestors, your people. This also reawakens the jutsus in the blood and it will be reawakened in you." The voice grew silent and all was still until writings began to cover the wall. This time it was so tiny, Naruto could not read any of it. There were so many that some overlapped to the ground. And for the second time, Naruto blacked out again.
This time, when Naruto woke up, he found himself on a bed. He immediately sat up and looked around his surroundings. He found out he was in a hospital room. Naruto sighed and fell on his bed again. He looked at his stomach and saw the seal that the fourth Hokage used was gone.
Naruto thought of what happened and why. There were answers in his brain but he knew they weren't from his memories. They were either from Kyuubi's memories or the memories from whatever happened after he blacked out a second time. Naruto kept the memories at bay.
Naruto looked to his left and saw Kakashi. Naruto winced. Did I hurt him that bad? Naruto thought. But he knew that Kakashi wasn't in the hospital because of Naruto. Wait! How did I know that? What do I mean? I know that he is here because of the 7 kunais that are lodged in him deeply. It was taken out only 30 minutes ago. Naruto shivered in horror. How did I come up with all that information? I must have read it somewhere or somebody told me while I was asleep. Naruto kept confusing himself by thinking more and more.
"Naruto. I have been saying your name more than 5 times already! And my question 6! Are you ok?" Somebody said to Naruto.
"Huh? What?" Naruto stepped out of his mind abruptly and looked around. He found out he was surrounded by the people he had to do the mission with. Chouji, Kiba, Shikamaru, and even Neji was there. Rock Lee was there, Gaara was there, Kankuro and Temari was there. They all stood beside Naruto's hospital bed and waited for Naruto to speak.
Naruto hesitated for a moment, then he gave a little smile. He did not give his usual big fake grin but instead just the honest and small smile.
"Naruto! Are you ok? How could you go and do a class A mission all by yourselves? You all are just Genins. Damn that Hokage. This almost was a suicide mission. If there weren't so many talented medical nins, all of you would be dead!"
"Thank you Iruka for that great compliment on me being talented but really, did you just have to say damn the hokage?" Tsunande said as she and Shizune walked in.
They immediately checked all the patients to see if they were ok. Naruto's bed was the last to be seen to. Tsunande walked up to Naruto and hugged him tightly and he returned it just as hard (No not that way you stupid hentai freaks. Hugging brother-sister way). Everybody gasped. They did not know Naruto had a friendly relationship with the Hokage.
"Tsunande baa-chan?" Naruto asked quietly.
"Yes."
"Why did Kakashi have 7 kunais in his stomach?"
"Naruto, right when you left, ninjas from the hidden village of grass started to attack Konoha. I guess they believed we were vulnerable. And we were. Kakashi was agains more than 10 jounins by himself. He was clearly hurt by your assault when you hit him through the wall. He killed them all and kept going on until he dropped from blood loss. Without his courageousness, we might have more casualties than now." Tsunade explained.
Asuma, Kurenai, Anko, and even Gai were standing around Kakashi's bed. They set flowers on the table next to Kakashi. There were a lot already. It seemed like the whole village sent flowers to Kakashi. Naruto looked behind his bed. Nope, no flowers there.
"Sorry Naruto! We all just got out of the hospital so we don't have flowers to give to you." Kiba said loudly.
"Nani? You received a lot of flowers from other patients!" Tsunande said.
"We all gave it back to the flower shop so Ino and her family can make more profit." Shikamaru said.
Naruto jumped out of his bed and declared that he was healed. But everybody could see as he walked out of the room that his fists were clenched and his knuckle was large and white. But nobody made a move to stop him. Naruto kept smiling as he went out of the hospital and walked down the road. He saw how much Konoha needed to be repaired. One old man fell under the weight of all the bricks he was carrying. Naruto stooped down to help him. He received a backhand across his face.
"Get away from me you...." The old man was cut off as he was helped by some children walking by. Naruto walked away.
Naruto kept walking down the road to his apartment. When he reached his apartment, he saw the door was wide open. His windows were broken and smashed. There was garbage all around his apartment.
Naruto walked into his apartment and saw there was stones and letters everywhere. The stones had pierced through his drawers, his bed, his everything. Even his ramen that was stored in his cupboards. Oh well, At least they didn't put any fart spray in here.... Naruto thought.
Naruto took a letter and began to read it. It said, " Go away demon child. You have hurt enough prodigies in this village. Sasuke and Kakashi. They are more important than you. Leave and never come back. And If you every hurt them again, the whole village is going to root you out. And the Hokage will not be able to stop it. Go away and leave now." The note ended with a few cuss words.
All the other letters were close to what the first one said. After Naruto read them all, he started to clean up. When he was done, he first walked slowly out. Then his movements became faster as he sped up toward the forest of Konoha. Naruto did not even look as he ran over Shikamaru and Ino. He did not even say sorry as he pushed Kiba out of the way. All he did was run. All he wanted to do was run forever. He wished this was all a very bad dream. But it wasn't. It is reality.
Finally, even with enhanced senses, he stopped when he couldn't hear a person breath. He couldn't feel any chakra signatures. He could not see anybody near. And he could not smell anybody but the forest and animals around him. There, in his little safe haven, Naruto wept.
"They hate me just because of the fox. I will become stronger and protect my precious people. I will protect Iruka-sensei." Naruto cried over and over, "I will become stronger and make people acknowledge me. I will protect the ONES I love. No the ONE I love. The ONE I care for. Iruka-sensei." Naruto wiped his tears away and tried to make himself promise.
"I will not lie to everybody. I will stop pretending. I will stop putting up fake smiles to everybody. I will become stronger. I will make the villagers acknowledge my strength." Naruto was determined to do all the things he said.
But he sagged his shoulders and sat on the floor. Then he lay down to look at the clouds above.
"But... " Naruto spoke out loud to himself, "But what would it feel like? To have a family. A real family. What would it be like to be loved? To be cared for? To be admired? To be treated right? But right now I can only imagine." Naruto chuckly roughly. " I can only imagine what it would feel like."
Naruto laughed mirthlessly. The laughter had a raw edge to it. Then he drew a long, deep ragged breath. "No one knows.... No one knows what it feels like." Then he grew quiet.
"Come out Gaara. I can sense you with all my senses. I carry a demon also." Naruto looked straight at the tree Gaara was standing on.
"You have a demon too? Then you must know the true pain of loneliness. But you do not live to kill. Don't you want vengeance for those who treated you wrong?" Gaara asked.
"I didn't know I had a demon in me until recently. I always thought I did something wrong. was it because I didn't have parents? Was it because I walked with my left foot before my right foot first? Or was it because I looked bad? I wanted the village to acknowledge me so I could play with their children. I wanted people to play with me but nobody came." Naruto said.
"Naruto, what youkai (spelling? It means demon I think) do you carry?" Gaara asked.
"I carry the fox demon. Kyuubi. It wasn't destroyed by the fourth. All that was a lie. It was sealed into me when I was a baby. And no one knows what it feels like. Only we two knows the feeling." Naruto finished.
"No one knows what if feels like. That's true." Gaara said as he jumped out of a tree. He lay down next to Naruto and they watched the clouds together. They watched the clouds for a while till Gaara started the conversation.
"Uzumaki Naruto..... I admire you." Gaara paused, "I know what you feel. Sometimes.. sometimes I want to kill all the villagers in the sand because they run from me." Then, Gaara started to pour out his feelings. "I sometimes think I hate them. I seldom think I love them. I'm always having dreams when I actually do sleep. But I quit sleeping since I was three." Gaara stopped there and looked at Naruto.
"I have them too." Naruto said softly. This was the first time Gaara saw Naruto's real face. Not the fake smiling face, but the gentle face that was kept beneath all the time in public.
"Naruto, they are bad dreams though. Lonely dreams. Scary dreams. I dream that Shukaku comes to life and eats me. I dream about all the children my age that run away from me. It feels so painful. But even after I stopped sleeping, I could still remember those dreams." Gaara stopped abruptly. Both of them started some more at the clouds. But not really looking at the clouds.
"I have dreams too." Naruto said softly, "I have dreams too." He said it more loudly than before. "But, they are always lonely dreams. There is no way out of them. I get it both times, in my mind and outside. Its like living hell. People are always turning their backs on me. Or they look at me with those cold eyes that I hate. It makes me shiver up."
"Still, no one knows what it's like to be hated." Gaara said quietly.
"Yeah, no one knows what it's like to be lonely all your life. To be turned back over and over again. Always making up dreams that go good for you." Naruto added even more softly.
"No body knows what it is like to feel the feelings of anger, loneliness, pain. Everybody being afraid of you. For something that isn't your fault." Gaara said.
They sat under the clouds for a few more minutes. Naruto stood up.
"Well! It's no use just crying here and doing nothing about it. How did you find me?" Naruto asked.
Gaara also stood up. "When you left, I stayed I didn't know what else to do but follow. But I wasn't fast enough so I had to look for you. The forest is large."
"Oh. Let's go back to Kono." Naruto suddenly stopped. The unwanted memories were trying to force their way into Naruto's mind again.
"Naruto? Naruto are you ok? Naruto!" Gaara' voice was beginning to fade in Naruto's ears.
Kyuubi's memories seeped into Naruto's brain. His knowledge of ninjutsus, genjutsus, and taijutsus. They were molding with his own memory. Then something unexpected happened. Suddenly, Naruto knew how to do a lot of jutsus. He knew water jutsus, fire jutsus, wind jutsus, sand jutsus, and even lightning jutsus. Naruto knew that the second time he blacked out in the Becoming cave was responsible for this.
Naruto knew what each jutsu is and does. He knew how much chakra that is needed to use for them. He knew everything he needed to know like as if he memorized them. Then Kyuubi's chakra came. It was pure evil. Naruto could feel it. It was adding it to his own. Naruto didn't want that. He wanted it separate. So he created a mind spot for the chakra. He couldn't believe how vast the Kyuubi's chakra was. There were more than enough to destroy Konoha at once. Mixed with his own chakra of course. Then he felt something around him.
Naruto recognized it as desert graveyard. Was Gaara trying to kill him? Naruto opened his eyes. The sand came off of Naruto. "Are you ok?" Gaara asked.
"What.... What happened? What did I do? Why did you use the desert graveyard on me?" Naruto asked.
"Nothing happened. One moment you were talking about going to Konoha. The next moment, you were unconscious on your feet. Blood was coming out of your nose and ears. I used the sand and blocked them. And I thought you were going to bleed from all your pores in your body so I covered you up." Gaara explained.
"Oh." Naruto smiled. "Thank you. You know, if only people would get to know you. Then I bet you would be the most popular boy in the whole village." Naruto said.
They started to walk back to Konoha. A squirrel ran at Naruto and Gaara with an explosive tax on its back.
Naruto picked it up and took out a kunai but Gaara used his sand and covered the tag. It exploded in the sand. 5 umbrellas flew up to the air and rained kunais all over the place. Gaara made a shield and blocked all of them. Naruto made some hand seals. Gaara frowned. He was familiar with them.
"Desert Graveyard!" Naruto yelled. Sand came up only three inches from the ground. Then it fell down. "Shit. Wait, when did I learn that move?" Naruto asked himself..
A Jounn konoha ninja came down in front of Naruto and Gaara. More than 30 more came down from the trees. They all surrounded Naruto and Gaara. Naruto and Gaara faced each other back to back posed for fighting.
Somebody was running toward them. Naruto recognized who it was. The person had pink hair and a big forehead. It was Sakura.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto smiled.
"Shut up Naruto! You hurt Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun. You are the reason Sasuke-kun will not come back! I hate you. I mean those words that I said in the hospital. I wish you would just die!"
As if on cue, the Jounins started attacking. Naruto made his trademark jutsu. And it was 30 Jounins against 100 Narutos. Gaara and Naruto made a plan together in the middle of the fight. 20 Naruto clones surrounded Naruto and Gaara. Gaara made a sand barrier around them. Outside of the sand barrier, the clones were losing bad. None of the jounins were getting tired. Each of the 20 clones inside the barrier started making hand motions on each other's hands. A white ball of chakra started to appear. But it soon turned red.
Gaara let out his sand barrier and Naruto's clones were almost finished. The real Gaara and Naruto were in middle of 20 rasengans. One of them charged at a jounin. The jounin was too slow and the rasengan passed right through.
"ITS AN ILLUSION!" the jounin screamed.
Gaara made hand seals again and made a tornado. This time, the clones manipulated the chakra in their hands so it spinned up down and around. This added chakra to the tornado and more power. When it died down, Naruto and Gaara were gone. The Jounins went back to the hokage to tell her about what they had done.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I know I know. The chapter sucked like shit. My opinion I think the first chapter is better! What do you think? Review please! You like?