Rating: Let's just start calling it R early... but it's still only PG-13
for now...
Genre: All of the above... cept parody... parody and song-fic... and sci- fi... and...
Summary: Blah, you've heard this a hundred times, do I really need to keep putting it here?
Pairings: SasuNaru main...and KakaIru... all others... you'll figure them out soon enough
Chapter Title: 17. Enter the Demon
"Dobe, I acknowledge you, now stop this." Naruto lowered his head, hearing Orochimaru reach "one".
"All the more reason I have to do this," he muttered solemnly and stepped forward. "Fine, Orochimaru. I'll go with you, but you have to let Sasuke go and not drop him over the side of the tower." Orochimaru nodded, moving close enough to the boy to run his tongue along the side of his cheek. Naruto winced and grimaced at the wet muscle but forced himself not to back away in disgust. Anything could set Orochimaru off, and he preferred to keep his limbs. "Now let Sasuke go," he said more forcefully than he thought he could. Orochimaru stepped back, still holding the boy and kunai.
"As you wish, Naruto." He nodded and turned to Kabuto, who had followed Naruto up to the roof of the Tower. "Bring me the scroll," he said, referring to the one that held the seal to the body switch. He dropped the dark-haired genin, as he said he would, but not before catching his shoulder quickly with the kunai. Sasuke cried out in surprise and fell to the floor cradling his deep wound. It was all Naruto needed to spark his rage past reason, giving the Kyuubi ample opportunity to wreak havoc through the boy's body. His eyes narrowed to glowing red slits and his nails grew longer and sharpened, while in his head he subsided and let the Kitsune take over. Naruto's reasoning had been the attempt of Sasuke's life, whereas the demon was only looking for freedom and avenging almost sixteen years of confinement. In two seconds Naruto had Orochimaru on the ground, fighting to dislodge the teeth from his neck. The other ninja tried to get close enough to drag the crazed boy off their leader, but they were held back by the immense waves of chakra flowing off of the two.
Orochimaru gasped in shock when he felt the boy's razor-sharp canines sink into his flesh and immediately began trying to defend himself. With the solitary kunai he kept in his hand, he aimed for all of Naruto's vitals. A stab to the heart and lungs, a slash to the blonde's throat, and numerous wild attempts at his menacing red-eyed face, but almost as soon as he made contact the sliced flesh healed, leaving only the blood that had been spilled from the wounds. Little by little, the Sound ninja's attempts at getting rid of the boy were slowed as his movements became lazy and sluggish. He didn't understand what was going on until he noticed the blonde's chakra level spike every so often. Naruto was letting the Kitsune drain him of all his chakra. His soldiers tried again to attack, but a massive wave of chakra hit them and nearly levelled the entire tower. The fighting started again, but most of the people below were mesmerised by the power that seemed to radiate from the boy on the Tower. Sasuke was no exception.
He had scrambled back at the sight of the Kitsune emerging and watched in awe as Orochimaru died with the last ounce of chakra the boy drained from him. Heaving himself off of the now dead ninja, Naruto turned his bloodthirsty gaze on the others who had tried to attack him. He hunched his shoulders and smirked, showing off his blood-drenched teeth. A small trail of blood dripped down his chin and he lapped it up eagerly, before lunging at the nearest man, ready to devour his chakra as well. The Kitsune's lust for more chakra overwhelmed him and kept him blindsided to the horrible chaos he was creating. He hadn't been let out for nearly four years and he was hungry for any kind of revenge he could get his already blood-stained hands on. Several of the enemy ninjas ran in fear, and the rest attempted fighting the monster, believing in the old saying 'there's strength in numbers'.
Kabuto, just returning with the scroll in hand, ran over to the body of Orochimaru and placed his fingers over the wound, trying to offer enough chakra to wake the man up. He watched Naruto wearily, his body tense in anticipation of a strike against himself. He knew he was vulnerable while transferring his energy, but he steadied himself anyways. Just as Orochimaru began to stir again, Naruto looked behind him and, with a blast of chakra that not even Kabuto could have predicted or prepared for, he was dead, and Orochimaru hadn't had enough time to take in enough chakra to regain his life.
The blond crawled off his victim and stalked towards a Sound ninja who was struggling with his final breaths. His eyes flashed and he dove at the ninja for one final vengeance blow, but felt a hard object tackle him to the ground. Sasuke had finally had enough of Naruto's loss of control. If they weren't careful, he could turn on the entire village.
"Naruto, stop this." The monster growled and fought to dislodge the boy, who had him semi-pinned to the ground. "Onegai, Naruto-kun, yamerou. Yamerou," he whispered pleadingly. His begging fell on deaf ears and Naruto's demon-possessed body began to struggle harder. Sasuke's eyes widened in pain as he felt the blonde's teeth sink into the soft flesh of his hand. He shook his arm wildly trying to dislodge the incisors and failed to notice the clawed hands coming up to meet the side of his face. He hissed in pain but continued to hold down the Kitsune. It dawned on him suddenly, that Orochimaru and several of his jounins had done the same thing and ended up dying. He looked down, confused and saw that the once- red eyes had clouded over to a murky lavender and the struggle was no longer between the two boys but between Naruto and the Kitsune. He frowned and waited patiently for a winner between them.
"Come on, Dobe," he whispered softly, urging his rival to not give up. "Onegai, Naruto."
It took a few moments before his voice broke through the demon to Naruto. His chest heaving from exertion, he slowly began to calm down and his eyes opened to reveal their normal sky-blue colour.
"Sasuke?" Naruto asked, timidly. The older boy nodded. Naruto sat up and looked at the destruction around him. His eyes went wide as he took in all the destruction he'd caused when the Kitsune had gotten out of control. "I did all this," he stated. It wasn't a question and there was no hint of pride in his voice, only a strange mix of disbelief and horror. He knew he'd gone too far. He looked up and gasped at the sight of Sasuke's face. Three deep gashes ran along his cheek, just barely missing his eye. They seemed to be the source of all the blood on the dark-haired boy's face and looked extremely painful but Sasuke didn't even seem to notice them. He was too worried about Naruto. The blond lowered his head in shame. He let his eyes wander over to where Orochimaru lay; his body had finally stopped moving.
"He's dead," Sasuke mumbled, seeing where the blonde's gaze fell. He lowered his head and frowned. Part of him was thankful he was finally gone, but he knew how painful it must have been for him to be forced back into the living. Naruto nodded, still ashamed of what he had done.
"I shouldn't have come back," he whispered. "I should have left when that old hag in the forest told me to. She said I couldn't contain the demon, and look! She was right!" Sasuke frowned at his rival's new attitude. Naruto moved to stand up and leave, but he shot his hand out to stop him. The blond looked down and winced seeing yet another wound inflicted by him. He knew because he could still taste the coppery fluid from the bite in his mouth.
"Don't go," Sasuke said softly.
"But look at all of this! How can you even stand to be in the same village as me still after what I did to all those people?"
"I can because in this whole village, you are my best friend," he stated firmly. "I need you to stay with me. Who else is going to help me train to beat my brother? Onegai, shinyuu... don't go." Naruto looked down to see no tears in Sasuke's eyes, but a strong sincerity. He hesitated before nodding and dropped to his knees wrapping his arms tightly around Sasuke's neck.
"When I saw him take a swing at you, I snapped. I let the Kyuubi take my revenge," Naruto explained, keeping his voice level. "It was just like when we fought Haku, and I didn't want to see you die again." His voice was slowly chipping away all of Sasuke's resolve. He didn't really feel entirely comfortable holding the boy like this, but he knew Naruto needed his comfort as no one else was around to give it. He slowly and awkwardly put his arms around Naruto's back and buried his face in the boy's shoulder.
"It's okay, Naruto," he whispered. "It's over. You were strong. You were very brave. You did it." He hesitated before continuing. "Cry now, it's over. Orochimaru's gone."
But Naruto still refused to cry.
***
Tsunade was the first to arrive on the roof of the Tower, and automatically knew what had just happened. She scanned the dead bodies and sighed in relief to see that none of them were the two boys who had been brought up there. Her eye caught movement off to the side and saw Sasuke and Naruto holding onto each other, shaking slightly. She quickly gave them both a once over to confirm her suspicions. Naruto was shaking like a leaf, but physically perfect, while Sasuke was covered in gash after gash, bruise after bruise. She felt sorry for the blond, so much more than his injured friend. Naruto hadn't been ready to take a life yet and the Kyuubi's aggressiveness had stained his hands red. They would just have to remind him continuously that it was for the best. She walked over to her former team mate and sighed softly; pained that it had to end that way. In her heart there had always been hope that he'd come back to them all.
Behind her followed a handful of jounin soldiers and they helped assist Naruto and Sasuke down from the Tower roof.
"What happened here?" She heard one of the shinobi ask Sasuke, who had his arms slung over the man and Naruto's shoulders for support. The blond looked up at her knowingly and nodded. She smiled and nodded back, realising he wished it to be kept as much a secret as possible.
"These boys have just gone through a terrible ordeal, let them rest," she requested, ushering them all down the stairs, not missing Naruto's sigh of relief.
***
There was no funeral for Orochimaru. No one truly believed he deserved one, except for his two former team mates who knew him better than anyone. The rest of the village wanted nothing more than to pretend it never happened and move on with their lives. Tsunade agreed with their wishes, but made sure the Sound ninja's ashes were spread over a small patch of grass in the Hokage garden and visited it almost every day with a single flower.
"Tsunade-chan!" A deep voice called to her. She turned and greeted her friend with a small, sad smile. Jiraiya ran up to her in his wooden geta, wobbling off balance and falling flat on his face in a patch of daisies. She snickered lightly at his antics. He lifted himself up and smiled broadly at being able to make her smile after Orochimaru's death.
"Ohayo, Jiraiya-kun." She nodded and returned her gaze to the small grave. He walked solemnly up to her side and looked down.
"It's sad, really," he spoke after a few minutes. She looked up at him but waited for him to continue. "He had only one ambition, to learn every jutsu in the world, and it's been taken away from him."
"You don't mean to say that you wanted him to kill those two boys!" Tsunade shot back, appalled. He looked to her and smiled, waving his hands to defend himself.
"Of course not! I don't even know why I'm here. After all, he's not the same shinobi we grew up with. What I'm trying to say is that, he was our best friend and we didn't help him."
"We tried. You, more than others," she protested. "And you know that Naruto would mourn Sasuke's death too, regardless of how corrupted he became. We tried and that's what counts." He shook his head and knelt to the small mound of earth and pulled from his pocket a daisy that he'd swiped in his fall, placing it gently on the grave.
"I didn't ever want him to learn Rasengan," he exclaimed when he stood again. "I know it's selfish, but it was Yondaime's." Tsunade smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"I'm very protective of that kid too, but we're still Orochimaru's team mates. That's why we keep coming back here. Not just team mates, friends and, in your case, lovers, too." Jiraiya smiled at the memory.
"You're not still jealous, are you?" She scoffed and hit him playfully on the shoulder.
"I got over him years ago."
"Yeah, right," Jiraiya laughed. "You're just saying that because you caught us in my bedroom after we..." he trailed off, making crude gestures with his hands and thrusting his hips forward suggestively. Tsunade's jaw dropped at his brashness and she dropped her fist on his head.
"Baka! Stop being an idiot for once in your life."
"But Tsunade-chaaa~n," he whined. She turned to face him and smiled softly.
"Naruto-kun is almost exactly like you," she whispered, effectively killing the mood. He straightened and nodded sullenly.
"Maybe that's why Orochimaru did what he did to him." Though Sasuke would rather they didn't, they had both figured out what the Sound ninja had done to Naruto in the Hokage's bed chambers. "That may be right, but he's not a perfect copy of you. He brought Sasuke back." Jiraiya hung his head and nodded again.
"Hai, when I never could. I'm such an idiot. I feel like I failed him in some way by not rescuing him from the darkness that was consuming him. I almost whish I could go back and change it all and find out what could have been." Tsunade took his hand gently and held it tightly, leaning her head back on his shoulder.
"But you don't need to go back." He looked down at her confusedly. She just kept staring at the grave and let the flower in her hand fall down to the mound of earth. "Just watch Naruto and Sasuke and you'll see it all." He let out a happy laugh and lay his head down on hers, wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders.
"Arigatou, Tsunade-chan," he whispered into her hair.
***
Almost a month later, when the Tower had been more or less rebuilt and the village had returned to the way things were, Tsunade called Naruto to meet her on the Hokage Tower's roof.
Many of the villagers had started to torment the boy even worse than he was already used to. They hadn't seen the battle on the roof, but they blamed him for being so careless as to let Orochimaru have the chance to come back, seeking his revenge. Never mind that he was a legendary shinobi, never mind that Naruto was only a twelve-year-old genin. The blond ball of sunshine just ignored them all and shrugged off the snide whispers. He never really counted their opinions of him anyways, but they did serve to fuel his passion to become Hokage once again.
He bounded up to her excitedly and announced his presence in usual 'Naruto' style.
"Ohayo, Tsunade-baba!" He grinned, folding his arms behind his head. She rolled her eyes at the nickname she seemed to have adopted and nodded to him before pulling a medal from her pocket.
"This is for your bravery in defending the village." She held it out for him. He studied the small token before grinning up at her playfully.
"What, no awards ceremony? No wide-scale recognition?" he asked, shaking his head. "I don't want this thing. You know what happened up there on the tower. I don't want to be rewarded for letting the Kitsune take a hold of me." Tsunade nodded in understanding and put the medal back in her pocket.
"I know what you mean, but I do feel the need to recognise what you and the kitsune did to save this village from Orochimaru. How about becoming a chuunin?" His eyes bugged out.
"Are you kidding me?" She grinned and shook her head. "Of course I want to be a chuunin, but isn't this taking the easy way out?" She smiled fondly.
"No, you not only sacrificed yourself and your safety for others without thinking about it, but you just did a series of A-class missions without stopping. Plus, it's not like it's going to be just you. Sasuke and the others have been told as well." He stood still and silent for a moment, lost in thought before he wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug.
"Arigatou!" he grinned. She laughed and hugged him back, but didn't fail to notice that his smile no longer seemed as real as it had before, though it was the same one he used to wear.
~~~~~~~
Major thanks go to Kotonaru who was the one in the end who helped me with this chapter. (she's the only one who did a blow-by-blow of everything I was stupid enough to type.) THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! I'd also like to thank Jai-cat for giving me some starting pointers for the story, and GWFascination for her touch up work on the 'final' draft. I hope this one is up to your standards, and is as good, if not better than what I usually write. ^_^ (It sure as hell is a lot longer...)
(No preview, cause it's the end of this little arc, and I'm still patching it up with Kotonaru's help)
Genre: All of the above... cept parody... parody and song-fic... and sci- fi... and...
Summary: Blah, you've heard this a hundred times, do I really need to keep putting it here?
Pairings: SasuNaru main...and KakaIru... all others... you'll figure them out soon enough
Chapter Title: 17. Enter the Demon
"Dobe, I acknowledge you, now stop this." Naruto lowered his head, hearing Orochimaru reach "one".
"All the more reason I have to do this," he muttered solemnly and stepped forward. "Fine, Orochimaru. I'll go with you, but you have to let Sasuke go and not drop him over the side of the tower." Orochimaru nodded, moving close enough to the boy to run his tongue along the side of his cheek. Naruto winced and grimaced at the wet muscle but forced himself not to back away in disgust. Anything could set Orochimaru off, and he preferred to keep his limbs. "Now let Sasuke go," he said more forcefully than he thought he could. Orochimaru stepped back, still holding the boy and kunai.
"As you wish, Naruto." He nodded and turned to Kabuto, who had followed Naruto up to the roof of the Tower. "Bring me the scroll," he said, referring to the one that held the seal to the body switch. He dropped the dark-haired genin, as he said he would, but not before catching his shoulder quickly with the kunai. Sasuke cried out in surprise and fell to the floor cradling his deep wound. It was all Naruto needed to spark his rage past reason, giving the Kyuubi ample opportunity to wreak havoc through the boy's body. His eyes narrowed to glowing red slits and his nails grew longer and sharpened, while in his head he subsided and let the Kitsune take over. Naruto's reasoning had been the attempt of Sasuke's life, whereas the demon was only looking for freedom and avenging almost sixteen years of confinement. In two seconds Naruto had Orochimaru on the ground, fighting to dislodge the teeth from his neck. The other ninja tried to get close enough to drag the crazed boy off their leader, but they were held back by the immense waves of chakra flowing off of the two.
Orochimaru gasped in shock when he felt the boy's razor-sharp canines sink into his flesh and immediately began trying to defend himself. With the solitary kunai he kept in his hand, he aimed for all of Naruto's vitals. A stab to the heart and lungs, a slash to the blonde's throat, and numerous wild attempts at his menacing red-eyed face, but almost as soon as he made contact the sliced flesh healed, leaving only the blood that had been spilled from the wounds. Little by little, the Sound ninja's attempts at getting rid of the boy were slowed as his movements became lazy and sluggish. He didn't understand what was going on until he noticed the blonde's chakra level spike every so often. Naruto was letting the Kitsune drain him of all his chakra. His soldiers tried again to attack, but a massive wave of chakra hit them and nearly levelled the entire tower. The fighting started again, but most of the people below were mesmerised by the power that seemed to radiate from the boy on the Tower. Sasuke was no exception.
He had scrambled back at the sight of the Kitsune emerging and watched in awe as Orochimaru died with the last ounce of chakra the boy drained from him. Heaving himself off of the now dead ninja, Naruto turned his bloodthirsty gaze on the others who had tried to attack him. He hunched his shoulders and smirked, showing off his blood-drenched teeth. A small trail of blood dripped down his chin and he lapped it up eagerly, before lunging at the nearest man, ready to devour his chakra as well. The Kitsune's lust for more chakra overwhelmed him and kept him blindsided to the horrible chaos he was creating. He hadn't been let out for nearly four years and he was hungry for any kind of revenge he could get his already blood-stained hands on. Several of the enemy ninjas ran in fear, and the rest attempted fighting the monster, believing in the old saying 'there's strength in numbers'.
Kabuto, just returning with the scroll in hand, ran over to the body of Orochimaru and placed his fingers over the wound, trying to offer enough chakra to wake the man up. He watched Naruto wearily, his body tense in anticipation of a strike against himself. He knew he was vulnerable while transferring his energy, but he steadied himself anyways. Just as Orochimaru began to stir again, Naruto looked behind him and, with a blast of chakra that not even Kabuto could have predicted or prepared for, he was dead, and Orochimaru hadn't had enough time to take in enough chakra to regain his life.
The blond crawled off his victim and stalked towards a Sound ninja who was struggling with his final breaths. His eyes flashed and he dove at the ninja for one final vengeance blow, but felt a hard object tackle him to the ground. Sasuke had finally had enough of Naruto's loss of control. If they weren't careful, he could turn on the entire village.
"Naruto, stop this." The monster growled and fought to dislodge the boy, who had him semi-pinned to the ground. "Onegai, Naruto-kun, yamerou. Yamerou," he whispered pleadingly. His begging fell on deaf ears and Naruto's demon-possessed body began to struggle harder. Sasuke's eyes widened in pain as he felt the blonde's teeth sink into the soft flesh of his hand. He shook his arm wildly trying to dislodge the incisors and failed to notice the clawed hands coming up to meet the side of his face. He hissed in pain but continued to hold down the Kitsune. It dawned on him suddenly, that Orochimaru and several of his jounins had done the same thing and ended up dying. He looked down, confused and saw that the once- red eyes had clouded over to a murky lavender and the struggle was no longer between the two boys but between Naruto and the Kitsune. He frowned and waited patiently for a winner between them.
"Come on, Dobe," he whispered softly, urging his rival to not give up. "Onegai, Naruto."
It took a few moments before his voice broke through the demon to Naruto. His chest heaving from exertion, he slowly began to calm down and his eyes opened to reveal their normal sky-blue colour.
"Sasuke?" Naruto asked, timidly. The older boy nodded. Naruto sat up and looked at the destruction around him. His eyes went wide as he took in all the destruction he'd caused when the Kitsune had gotten out of control. "I did all this," he stated. It wasn't a question and there was no hint of pride in his voice, only a strange mix of disbelief and horror. He knew he'd gone too far. He looked up and gasped at the sight of Sasuke's face. Three deep gashes ran along his cheek, just barely missing his eye. They seemed to be the source of all the blood on the dark-haired boy's face and looked extremely painful but Sasuke didn't even seem to notice them. He was too worried about Naruto. The blond lowered his head in shame. He let his eyes wander over to where Orochimaru lay; his body had finally stopped moving.
"He's dead," Sasuke mumbled, seeing where the blonde's gaze fell. He lowered his head and frowned. Part of him was thankful he was finally gone, but he knew how painful it must have been for him to be forced back into the living. Naruto nodded, still ashamed of what he had done.
"I shouldn't have come back," he whispered. "I should have left when that old hag in the forest told me to. She said I couldn't contain the demon, and look! She was right!" Sasuke frowned at his rival's new attitude. Naruto moved to stand up and leave, but he shot his hand out to stop him. The blond looked down and winced seeing yet another wound inflicted by him. He knew because he could still taste the coppery fluid from the bite in his mouth.
"Don't go," Sasuke said softly.
"But look at all of this! How can you even stand to be in the same village as me still after what I did to all those people?"
"I can because in this whole village, you are my best friend," he stated firmly. "I need you to stay with me. Who else is going to help me train to beat my brother? Onegai, shinyuu... don't go." Naruto looked down to see no tears in Sasuke's eyes, but a strong sincerity. He hesitated before nodding and dropped to his knees wrapping his arms tightly around Sasuke's neck.
"When I saw him take a swing at you, I snapped. I let the Kyuubi take my revenge," Naruto explained, keeping his voice level. "It was just like when we fought Haku, and I didn't want to see you die again." His voice was slowly chipping away all of Sasuke's resolve. He didn't really feel entirely comfortable holding the boy like this, but he knew Naruto needed his comfort as no one else was around to give it. He slowly and awkwardly put his arms around Naruto's back and buried his face in the boy's shoulder.
"It's okay, Naruto," he whispered. "It's over. You were strong. You were very brave. You did it." He hesitated before continuing. "Cry now, it's over. Orochimaru's gone."
But Naruto still refused to cry.
***
Tsunade was the first to arrive on the roof of the Tower, and automatically knew what had just happened. She scanned the dead bodies and sighed in relief to see that none of them were the two boys who had been brought up there. Her eye caught movement off to the side and saw Sasuke and Naruto holding onto each other, shaking slightly. She quickly gave them both a once over to confirm her suspicions. Naruto was shaking like a leaf, but physically perfect, while Sasuke was covered in gash after gash, bruise after bruise. She felt sorry for the blond, so much more than his injured friend. Naruto hadn't been ready to take a life yet and the Kyuubi's aggressiveness had stained his hands red. They would just have to remind him continuously that it was for the best. She walked over to her former team mate and sighed softly; pained that it had to end that way. In her heart there had always been hope that he'd come back to them all.
Behind her followed a handful of jounin soldiers and they helped assist Naruto and Sasuke down from the Tower roof.
"What happened here?" She heard one of the shinobi ask Sasuke, who had his arms slung over the man and Naruto's shoulders for support. The blond looked up at her knowingly and nodded. She smiled and nodded back, realising he wished it to be kept as much a secret as possible.
"These boys have just gone through a terrible ordeal, let them rest," she requested, ushering them all down the stairs, not missing Naruto's sigh of relief.
***
There was no funeral for Orochimaru. No one truly believed he deserved one, except for his two former team mates who knew him better than anyone. The rest of the village wanted nothing more than to pretend it never happened and move on with their lives. Tsunade agreed with their wishes, but made sure the Sound ninja's ashes were spread over a small patch of grass in the Hokage garden and visited it almost every day with a single flower.
"Tsunade-chan!" A deep voice called to her. She turned and greeted her friend with a small, sad smile. Jiraiya ran up to her in his wooden geta, wobbling off balance and falling flat on his face in a patch of daisies. She snickered lightly at his antics. He lifted himself up and smiled broadly at being able to make her smile after Orochimaru's death.
"Ohayo, Jiraiya-kun." She nodded and returned her gaze to the small grave. He walked solemnly up to her side and looked down.
"It's sad, really," he spoke after a few minutes. She looked up at him but waited for him to continue. "He had only one ambition, to learn every jutsu in the world, and it's been taken away from him."
"You don't mean to say that you wanted him to kill those two boys!" Tsunade shot back, appalled. He looked to her and smiled, waving his hands to defend himself.
"Of course not! I don't even know why I'm here. After all, he's not the same shinobi we grew up with. What I'm trying to say is that, he was our best friend and we didn't help him."
"We tried. You, more than others," she protested. "And you know that Naruto would mourn Sasuke's death too, regardless of how corrupted he became. We tried and that's what counts." He shook his head and knelt to the small mound of earth and pulled from his pocket a daisy that he'd swiped in his fall, placing it gently on the grave.
"I didn't ever want him to learn Rasengan," he exclaimed when he stood again. "I know it's selfish, but it was Yondaime's." Tsunade smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"I'm very protective of that kid too, but we're still Orochimaru's team mates. That's why we keep coming back here. Not just team mates, friends and, in your case, lovers, too." Jiraiya smiled at the memory.
"You're not still jealous, are you?" She scoffed and hit him playfully on the shoulder.
"I got over him years ago."
"Yeah, right," Jiraiya laughed. "You're just saying that because you caught us in my bedroom after we..." he trailed off, making crude gestures with his hands and thrusting his hips forward suggestively. Tsunade's jaw dropped at his brashness and she dropped her fist on his head.
"Baka! Stop being an idiot for once in your life."
"But Tsunade-chaaa~n," he whined. She turned to face him and smiled softly.
"Naruto-kun is almost exactly like you," she whispered, effectively killing the mood. He straightened and nodded sullenly.
"Maybe that's why Orochimaru did what he did to him." Though Sasuke would rather they didn't, they had both figured out what the Sound ninja had done to Naruto in the Hokage's bed chambers. "That may be right, but he's not a perfect copy of you. He brought Sasuke back." Jiraiya hung his head and nodded again.
"Hai, when I never could. I'm such an idiot. I feel like I failed him in some way by not rescuing him from the darkness that was consuming him. I almost whish I could go back and change it all and find out what could have been." Tsunade took his hand gently and held it tightly, leaning her head back on his shoulder.
"But you don't need to go back." He looked down at her confusedly. She just kept staring at the grave and let the flower in her hand fall down to the mound of earth. "Just watch Naruto and Sasuke and you'll see it all." He let out a happy laugh and lay his head down on hers, wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders.
"Arigatou, Tsunade-chan," he whispered into her hair.
***
Almost a month later, when the Tower had been more or less rebuilt and the village had returned to the way things were, Tsunade called Naruto to meet her on the Hokage Tower's roof.
Many of the villagers had started to torment the boy even worse than he was already used to. They hadn't seen the battle on the roof, but they blamed him for being so careless as to let Orochimaru have the chance to come back, seeking his revenge. Never mind that he was a legendary shinobi, never mind that Naruto was only a twelve-year-old genin. The blond ball of sunshine just ignored them all and shrugged off the snide whispers. He never really counted their opinions of him anyways, but they did serve to fuel his passion to become Hokage once again.
He bounded up to her excitedly and announced his presence in usual 'Naruto' style.
"Ohayo, Tsunade-baba!" He grinned, folding his arms behind his head. She rolled her eyes at the nickname she seemed to have adopted and nodded to him before pulling a medal from her pocket.
"This is for your bravery in defending the village." She held it out for him. He studied the small token before grinning up at her playfully.
"What, no awards ceremony? No wide-scale recognition?" he asked, shaking his head. "I don't want this thing. You know what happened up there on the tower. I don't want to be rewarded for letting the Kitsune take a hold of me." Tsunade nodded in understanding and put the medal back in her pocket.
"I know what you mean, but I do feel the need to recognise what you and the kitsune did to save this village from Orochimaru. How about becoming a chuunin?" His eyes bugged out.
"Are you kidding me?" She grinned and shook her head. "Of course I want to be a chuunin, but isn't this taking the easy way out?" She smiled fondly.
"No, you not only sacrificed yourself and your safety for others without thinking about it, but you just did a series of A-class missions without stopping. Plus, it's not like it's going to be just you. Sasuke and the others have been told as well." He stood still and silent for a moment, lost in thought before he wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug.
"Arigatou!" he grinned. She laughed and hugged him back, but didn't fail to notice that his smile no longer seemed as real as it had before, though it was the same one he used to wear.
~~~~~~~
Major thanks go to Kotonaru who was the one in the end who helped me with this chapter. (she's the only one who did a blow-by-blow of everything I was stupid enough to type.) THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! I'd also like to thank Jai-cat for giving me some starting pointers for the story, and GWFascination for her touch up work on the 'final' draft. I hope this one is up to your standards, and is as good, if not better than what I usually write. ^_^ (It sure as hell is a lot longer...)
(No preview, cause it's the end of this little arc, and I'm still patching it up with Kotonaru's help)