1The Third Day.
Um, okay. This is the last chapter. I'm trying to make it as long as possible. (And I re-posted it...less than 24 hours after I posted it the first time. New note at the bottom.)
Thanks to anyone who reviewed ( and gave me the info about Tsunade)
Guess what? I successfully came up with bullshit to make Tsunade's freezing up more plausible. Ok, she was afraid of blood cause of the necklace and her brother and Dan dying after wearing it, so she froze up seeing her apprentice die and knowing that Naruto (who she had given the necklace to) had killed her. So, the curse came back! Ahh! Head for the hills, the kitchen's on fire! No? Well, at least I tried...
Disclaimer: Oh Naruto, Oh Naruto, why art thou not pouring oodles of moolah into mine bank account? What. What the hell do you mean, I didn't invent you, so I don't make a profit! Bastard.
The Third Day.
Naruto was sitting at the Gate, the Gate of Konoha, basking in his satisfaction. Had anyone seen him at that point, they would have viewed many different things and come to several conclusions.
If a traveler had happened to walk by, they would have perhaps seen a boy, sitting on the gate, behind which they would have seen tragic devastation.
The traveler, or travelers, would have assumed at first that the boy was the lone survivor, driven mad by the trauma of seeing all of his friends and loved ones murdered by whatever had caused the destruction.
For, why else would such a boy be grinning?
This did, in fact, happen to several merchants and farmers coming to deliver their wares.
Not in any particular order, shinobi and other people of various trades wandered by, or towards Konohagakure over the course of several weeks. Finally, however, the trickle of people ceased as word spread of 'Konoha's Demon', as Naruto had been dubbed. This, however, did not happen until several days after the Third Day had taken place.
-
(The third day)
A team of three Konoha jounins returned to Konoha on October eleventh. They had been conducting a business transaction with a village a days travel away, and had missed the festival.
Now, with the transaction completed, the squad, which consisted of a woman and two men, headed back to Konoha.
It was the tallest man, the one with the black hair, that noticed the smoke curling in the distance. Signaling to make sure his teammates had noticed, they repositioned so that they were running side by side.
"You think that's just a house fire?"
"Idiot, that'd be one big-ass fire."
"Ya know, once we get back, I'm sooo gonna kick your ass."
"Ha! I'd like to see you try, loser"
"Urusai! Stop bickering, we're still on a mission!" the woman cut in.
"Damn prude..." the shorter ninja muttered.
"I heard that. I think I'll kick your ass. But shut up until we get back to the village, asshole."
The tallest of the three snickered as one teammate rebuked the other.
-
"Fuck."
The jounin squad stood before what had once been their home. It took several minutes to take in the sheer magnitude of the devastation, but only a few seconds to notice it and come to the conclusion that that bastard Kyuubi had done the damage. It was the only thing that had remained untouched, and the dead body of a chuunin reclined next to it.
The irony of it all was, that the demon container looked like he should have been an angel, with his clear blue eyes and halo of golden hair.
However, to their biased eyes, the angel reeked of a dark aura, that would poison and kill anyone who got too close.
Too bad that they were right. (For them, at least.)
The clear-headed woman was incensed and fearful at the same time. But she put aside her own emotions and decided to back off for now. "Come on, we've gotta get outta here, I'm upset too, we'll head to Sunagakure, they'll help us out-"
Before she could finish her sentence, the two had already surged forward. Maybe they were the clearheaded ones. They wouldn't have been able to escape anyway; they might as well die trying to avenge their village, their first loyalty.
The kunoichi started running as soon as she saw her squad's quick death's.
"Just where do you think you're going?" Naruto came up behind her and the kunoichi froze; the boy had an arm loosely hung around her neck. His arm snaked around her waist to her weapons holster, and in one fluid movement, brought his arm up and slit her throat.
Naruto twirled the kunai, and whistling, walked back to the gate, on the way retrieving his trophies.(the weapons...remember?)
-
A convoy of merchants from several surrounding villages were heading to Konohagakure to sell their products to the shops their, or to set up stalls of their own.
One grouchy old man was scolding a child in a gravelly voice. "What, yah brat, you think I can clean up after yer messes? Pick that there stuff up now!"
Instead of dutifully doing as she was told, the little girl blew a raspberry at him and ran from the camp to the road and along to the village.
Back at the gate, Naruto was keeping watch, to watch and make sure that his beautiful, precious village was not contaminated by the travelers' boisterous selves. When the little girl ran up, out of breath, Naruto concealed his displeasure with a grin, and snapped the girl's neck.
He then faded away into the scenery.
Hours later, the rest of the convoy approached, expecting to find the girl who had run away sulking outside the gate because she had been denied entrance.
They instead saw the still smoking wreck of a village.
Naruto stayed in the background, curious about their reaction. Would they be horrified? Furious? Or maybe, ...happy?
The women shrieked and covered the children's eyes, trying to shield them from what they had already seen. Nevertheless, the mothers believed that more damage could be done from prolonged exposure to the dead bodies, which were already beginning to bloat with gasses.
The men, on the other hand, saw the destruction and the opportunity it presented. Never once did it occur to them that something had actually destroyed the village. To their narrow minds, it had simply happened, and the whole event was over with.
Its not over. Its NEVER over.
Naruto bristled with anticipation. The scheming opportunists...wouldn't, would they?
"Hnn. This sure is a mess, ain't it. Konoha was our largest consumer."
"Yep. It used to be a pretty prosperous village. Quite a location, actually."
"Plenty of trees...and plenty of fresh water nearby, and I reckon we could re-use some of the wreckage to rebuild as well..."
No! It's mine! Konoha's mine YOU BAStards!
As the first man made to step around the crumbling wall, Naruto sprang out of the trees, snarling like a ...fox. With his claws extended, he rapidly lacerated the man's chest, before whirling on his nearest companion, and de-boweling the middle aged farmer.
The troupe was even less of a challenge for Naruto, who had destroyed a whole ninja village with ease. He was a little disappointed. But, there were maybe eight people in his world who could have presented him with any difficulty at all.
-
"Gaara..."
Sabaku no Gaara glanced back at his elder sister in acknowledgment. Over the years since he had tied with Naruto, the three had developed a sort of understanding, so Temari knew it was safe for herself to continue.
"You're the Kazekage. You're not meant to check up on such menial matters as this."
"Aw, come on, Temari, you know he just wants ta see his buddy," Kankurou's brash voice rang out.
Gaara listened absently for an opportunity to assert himself. And eventually it came.
"-lighten up, he's"
"He has other-"
"I'm going." Gaara cut in to his siblings' argument. His blood was singing with excitement. He couldn't turn back now, anyway.
Temari sighed, but didn't say anything.
Kankurou gave his sister a triumphant look.
-
"Holy fuck."
That just about summed it up.
(Unbeknownst to them) Naruto had just resumed his perch on the gate a few hours prior to their arrival, after disposing of the last group of visitors to Konoha.
It was really quite picturesque. The view catered to The Old Gaara's personality quite nicely; the buildings collapsed and still trickling dust, the streets (what could be seen of them) painted in blood, a trail of smoke from a still burning fire swirling artistically into the deceptively blue sky. Which matched the hue of Naruto's eyes perfectly. They were blue, signaling that Naruto was running on his own chakra alone.
"Who...you...did you do this?" Temari stuttered.
"..." aside from his initial comment, Kankurou could not think of anything to say.
Naruto sat staring at them complacently.
Gaara decided to break the silence after about ten minutes. Not exactly, just about.
"Well, isn't this a pretty picture." He murmured under his breath so that only Naruto, with his sensitive ears, could hear. Louder, he said, "You go and do this after lecturing me on not killing people?"
"They were mine. They belonged to me. It was not your place to kill them." Naruto replied. "Besides, I did it soooo much better than you could have."
The group remained in the same position until the sun set on the dead Konoha again, with Naruto sitting on the gate, swinging his legs, and Gaara standing closest to him, Temari and Kankurou standing further back in a stupor, facing the two who were looking anywhere and everywhere. Eventually, Gaara signaled to Temari and Kankurou to head out.
"You're just gonna leave him there?" Temari asked in a strangled voice.
"Yes."
"B-bu-but-"
"He's the Hokage now. He's in charge. Besides, you don't really want to fight that, do you?" There was an unspoken statement in the air that Gaara himself doubted he would have stood much chance against his role model with only his siblings for back up.
"Well," Kankurou said, getting over his shock, "at least we know what happened to that team we sent to Konoha a week ago."
Fin
Yes, it's done!
Yay! Six pages...please don't kill me, but I was ready for it to be over. I didn't really plan well (I forgot to kill Konohamaru and his crowd last chapter...but you'll all conveniently forget I said that...) So next time...I won't plan again! But what I'm planning next is basically plotless. It's a highschool AU. I love those. And it's yaoi. Did I say that last chapter too? Oh well.
Now, don't be sad with me if you don't like yaoi. I'm a yaoi fangirl and think that yaoi couples are adorable (as long as the characters are cute, too.) BUT! I'M GOING TO WRITE A NARU/INO OR NARU/TENTEN AFTER THAT'S UNDERWAY! SO DON'T STOP READING MY WRITING! THERE ARE FEW ENOUGH OF YOU AS IT IS! sobs
Anyhoo, I'd like to thank all of you who reviewed!and especially those of you who gave me info and constructive criticism. I hope I'll get better eventually...
(And I didn't mean to scare anyone, I wasn't only going to update after I got a certain number of reviews...I was just...suggesting that more people review...)