Title: Covenant
Author: bubblytokki
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimers: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in this story.
AU. Why stay in a village that loathed him?
Pairings: Probably none. I find that pairings or focusing on them hinder my stories… so gomen nasai. ^^
Chapter 6-Snow
He was in a dark corridor, slowly trudging through the water that seemed to suddenly appear beneath his feet. The walls were a dark grimy yellow, and there was a strange ethereal glowing about them, allowing him enough light to see. The rippling of water echoed on the barren walls and he shivered. The scenery reminded him of where the Kyubi had been sealed. The Kyubi who would never return.
He frowned bitterly, remembering that the only person.. or rather creature he could call paternal, was gone.
He continued to walk down the corridor, stopping when he hit a dead end. What was he supposed to do now?
The wall shook as if in response to his unspoken question, creating waterfalls of dust that made him cough. It made a deafening noise that rang loudly in his ears. The wall parted, revealing another corridor. Gamely, he stepped through, wary but determined to see this weird dream sequence through.
Wait… dream sequence… so this was a dream. Naruto sighed in relief and tried to wake up. He couldn't and began walking.
After walking for an indeterminable period of time, he found himself standing in front of a barred door that was ajar. It brought nostalgic memories of the times Kyubi and he had spent together.
He was walking down a dim corridor, head downcast in loneliness. He was alone. The kids made fun of him and abused him. He was in pain and longed for someone paternal, someone he could curl up and cry with. He heard a muffled growl and looked up, surprise etched on his face. Wasn't this his mind? Shouldn't he be the only thing in it? Curious, he ran toward the source of the noise, coming upon a huge set of barred gates. Cruel red eyes glared down at him, rendering him speechless for a few seconds.
"Sugoi~~~!" Naruto exclaimed as the body of the creature came into view.
Brat… what are you doing here? The voice demanded, its strong voice echoed in his head.
"I didn't know I had you in my mind! This is so cool!"
The eyes narrowed as it continued to observe him. Naruto grinned and walked up to the bars. He energetically jumped back when a clawed paw swooped down at him.
"Wow.. you must be strong. It must be nice to be strong," Naruto babbled eagerly, ecstatic that someone would listen to him. "Who are you anyway?"
I am the Kyubi. How I long to be out of this cage.
"How did you get sealed here anyway? It's kind of weird to be sealed in a person isn't it?"
Insolent child! The Kyubi roared as it threw itself against the cage, causing the bars to tremble but not break. I would be free were it not for that cursed seal.
Naruto looked up, seeing a slip of paper that had 'seal' written on it. Cautiously, he jumped several times trying to reach it. He kept missing by several feet.
Sheepishly he looked up at the Kyubi, blue eyes wide with innocence and barely masked longing. "Ne… until I find a way to free you, will you be my friend? I promise I will get you out somehow.."
The Kyubi gazed contemplatively at him, eyes narrowed in suspicion. It searched him and he felt as if he entire soul was being analyzed. He looked up unabashedly, hoping with all his might, that this strange creature in his mind would be his friend.
The voice was softer as it answered, So be it.
He snorted. He had been dreaming in a dream, which was weird. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts from the precious memories, and slipped through the barred gates. He allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness, barely making out the dark silhouette of a box. Hesitantly, he walked toward it, feeling in his gut the heavy significance of the box. Carefully, he put each of his hands on the sides of the lid, and lifted.
The box contained scrolls. Hastily Naruto pulled them out, eager to see what was contained in them. Hands slightly shaking, he unraveled one, and was barraged with visions. He saw himself through the eyes of the Kyubi, small and insignificant, but radiating such innocence and wonder. He felt the love that was slowly ingratiating itself into the heart of the author of the scrolls.
Kyubi otou san had left the scrolls for him, scrolls relating the mysterious past of his adopted father. Tears began to leak out of his eyes, and he swore to himself that he would return and see every one of them. He picked a scroll that had a red tinge to it, wondering why it was glowing so strongly.
The images in this one was associated with more powerful emotions and he was swamped with the figure of a man on a huge toad. Fierce blue eyes crowned with billowing shaggy blond hair sadly gazed at him. This man's cloak swung wildly due to the fierce wind generated by his own tails. Power radiated from this tiny human's form, and hesitation colored the scene. Naruto was startled as he felt himself being pulled into the scene by a heavy force and everything became a dull black.
He heard a cacophony of sounds and opened his eyes blearily. He was in a vision in his dream… this night of rest was restless and almost wearisome.
There were shinobi fighting a huge shadow. Naruto turned to gaze carefully at the shadow and stood up abruptly. If he wasn't mistaken, that was the Kyubi in his full form. Awe-struck he gazed at the power that rolled out in waves. No wonder Kyubi otou san wanted to be free. The freed form was beautiful and deadly, something to be reckoned with. Nine tails gleamed in the dim light of the moon and a sleek body glistened as Kyubi flexed in response to the punitive attacks of the Leaf village. Naruto ran toward the Kyubi, tears in his eyes, and stopped as a toad appeared. He felt someone run through him and realized that he was just an observer in a past memory, with the added bonus of feeling the emotions of Kyubi.
He turned at the same time that Kyubi did to face an ugly toad with a tiny human on its head. He fit the earlier description and Naruto was startled to see a reflection of his own blue eyes in the man.
Who is this guy?
The man stared directly at Naruto mournfully before turning back to Kyubi.
"Kyubi," the man began in a clear baritone. "Will you not leave our village?"
You humans have trespassed on knowledge that is forbidden. I will not. The voice echoed for miles, authority strengthening the Kyubi's voice.
The man bowed his head in sorrow as he replied, "Then I ask forgiveness from you and my son for what I am about to do."
The man's hands swiftly performed a jutsu as he chanted. Naruto saw and felt Kyubi's agony as it was pulled into its spiritual form, its body accompanying it. He saw a baby boy that had a disturbing similarity to himself in the hands of the man, and saw two chakras, red and blue, fuse into one, swirling and sending whiplashes of wind across the valley, finally settling above the baby's stomach.
Kyubi in his final glimpse of the world, felt surprised as he saw his captor's face enveloped in grief.
"My precious son," the young man wept softly. "Forgive me." And all became distorted and gray.
The scene lingered on his mind as he was transported back to the chamber in his mind, tears spilling over his cheeks.
~~
"Oy~~~!! Naruto!"
Naruto blearily opened his eyes, wondering if he was dreaming again. He saw a hand coming down at his head, and saw stars on impact. Pain followed soon after.
"Ow!" he yelled out angrily, glaring at the masked perpetuator. "What kind of wake-up call is that?!"
Kakashi sweat dropped and answered gamely, "You overslept. It's training time."
"What happened to your wounds?" Naruto asked and took in Kakashi's appearance. Kakashi was leaning on a crutch and oozed exhaustion. "Oh…"
Naruto leisurely stretched and yawned, to piss Kakashi off. He dodged the flying pillows as he intentionally loosened his muscles like a cat to prolong his time in bed. Naruto hid a smile as Kakashi's forehead started popping veins. It was a good comedic relief after the vision he had.
"Ne… sensei.. if you hit me with a pillow and knock me out, I won't be able to get up," Naruto said teasingly as he winked at Kakashi.
He avoided another clumsy hand and jumped out of bed energetically.
"Naruto."
Naruto looked up in response, surprised at the serious tone of voice.
"You know they will return, don't you?"
He nodded his head.
"Will you stop hiding your strength?" Kakashi glanced away, shame softening his voice as he continued, "I'm not strong enough right now to fight them."
"Sensei… you damaged that no eye-browed freak pretty badly. He'll be back around the time you're healed…"
"I know. It's just that younger shinobi worries me. You might have to kill…" Kakashi began hesitantly, he seemed to hate himself for having to request such a thing.
Naruto closed his eyes in quiet contemplation., debating on whether or not he should disclose information that would contradict what he gave the Hokage. Coming to a decision, he quietly responded. "Sensei… I've killed many times before. It's just that I don't want to scare my teammates away with the intensity of my killing intent."
Kakashi's eyes widened slightly. "So.. my initial hunch was correct. Who trained you?"
With his trademark smirk, Naruto answered in a sing song voice, "I can't tell you."
Kakashi ruefully smiled and nodded. "Well… then please train with your teammates."
"Sure."
~~
Naruto laughed as he saw Sakura casually walk up the tree, while Sasuke struggled. He didn't try walking on the tree as of yet because he didn't want to depress his teammates. Keeping his mirth to himself, he skipped up the tree, whistling out of tune. Pretending to ignore the glares of his teammates he accidentally slipped and caught himself on a branch that would be more adequately called a twig.
"Naruto," Kakashi said sternly. "Train with more weights on."
Gamely complying, Naruto jumped down and strapped on the weights, and groaned. They were the super ultra specialty item of chakra draining weights that built up chakra endurance… or something of the like.
"Sensei! Where did you get these? These are rare items that even I couldn't find!" Naruto exclaimed exaggeratedly.
Kakashi bopped him on the head with the crutch. "Just train."
Naruto walked up the tree unsteadily. The added weights were really burdensome and the chakra draining effect made it more difficult for him to control his chakra. Especially since he had more of it now. Carefully, he analyzed the seals buried into the weights and adjusted his chakra to be as efficient as possible. Too much chakra, and it would all be sucked into the weights, too little and he wouldn't be able to walk on the trees at all. This was all troublesome.
So intent was he on his task, that he failed to notice that his teammates had hollered at him to go home and continued to train diligently. He wouldn't be able to sleep without overcoming this difficulty anyway. A week passed quickly as he assimilated the knowledge required to master the weird weights.
"Naruto… you can stop now. You need to eat and sleep too you know," Kakashi suggested as he kneeled next to Naruto on the tree. "Besides," he continued, "I would like my weights back."
"Kakashi sensei… look! I mastered it!" Naruto yelled out joyfully as he danced on the branch, upside down. He noted the look of surprise on Kakashi's face and filed it away to think on later.
"Good job Naruto!" Kakashi congratulated, pride in his voice. "When we return to Konoha, I can't wait to train you one on one. Your potential is probably greater than mine."
Naruto beamed as he declared, "I'm going to be greatest ninja ever!"
"Now give me back my weights," Kakashi demanded.
"Yada… you're not recovered anyway," Naruto replied quickly. He wasn't giving up the weights when he had barely mastered them. They were really rare and fun to train with. "Go home and rest Kakashi sensei!"
Kakashi looked at him heavily, impatience seeping out of his face. Seeing an opportunity to play a game, Naruto quickly turned to compromise.
"Sensei, if you catch me in five minutes, I'll give it back to you today. If you don't, I get to train with them one more day." He used his too cute to resist sparkly blue eyes technique. Kakashi agreed hesitantly, unsure of his speed.
Naruto smirked and dashed off, carefully applying chakra control so he would only be just ahead of Kakashi. He laughed joyfully as he dashed through the trees and soon the two of them were blurs unless the observer had highly trained Sharingan or Byakugan eyes.
Which this observer did.
"Naruto…soon.." the observer said softly and teleported away.
~~
There was a boy lying on the grass, Haku noted thoughtfully. He was the blond boy from the previous battle, and the shinobi in him itched to end the threat. He calmed the killing intent and moved to wake up his enemy. Slowly moving his arm to the shoulder, he stifled a gasp as his arm was firmly grasped. Piercing blue eyes gazed into his own, and he struggled to breathe consistently. Barely leased power pulsed on the hand that was holding his arm, and Haku couldn't resist the urge to shiver.
Those blue eyes peered into his soul and softened as the boy loosened his grip on his arm.
"What's your name?" the boy asked softly, as if to preserved the sanctity of the early morning hour.
"Haku," he responded automatically. Something about the boy told him to do just as he was ordered to.
"Well.. my name is Naruto," Naruto declared in a friendly tone, sitting up in a relaxed position. "Ne…"
Haku started in surprise. "Yes?" he answered quietly.
"Why do you follow Mr. no eyebrows?"
"Zabuza san?" Haku repeated in shock. Zabuza did lack eyebrows, but it was disconcerting that the boy knew who he was.
"Yeah."
"Because," Haku began thoughtfully. "He is my precious person."
"Precious person eh…" Naruto trailed off to gaze at the clouds. "I used to have a precious person too, but he left me to train and become stronger."
"Do… do you miss him?"
"Of course I do. But he's really strong and trained me too." At this, Naruto faced him eagerly.
"Zabuza san trained me too," Haku stated, he felt a weird kinship with Naruto and wistfully wished they had the opportunity to become friends.
"Ne… you're lonely aren't you?" Naruto's voice was piercing and straight to the point.
Haku turned away, pain lacing his body.
"I can see it in your eyes. You have a precious person, but you're still lonely. The loneliness is painful isn't it? So much so that you don't know what to do, even if you have a precious person, you occasionally feel more used than loved."
"You're just like me… a tool," Haku said in wonder, knowing that Naruto was speaking from experience.
"Well… maybe," Naruto replied good-naturedly. "All I know is that, Itachi onii chan, wants me to become stronger…" Naruto's voice was strained as he continued, "I still miss him though."
"I'm sure he wants you by his side also," Haku said as he attempted to cheer up Naruto.
"Ne… don't come tomorrow on the bridge," Naruto requested gently. "Neither you nor Zabuza… please. Find another life, another source of money."
"Why?" Haku inquired.
Naruto stared at the grass in serious contemplation before he answered.
"I don't want to kill you."
He shook as he gazed at Naruto with sorrow. "I cannot change his mind."
Naruto frowned. "Then tomorrow you will
die by my hand."
Haku steadily watched Naruto as he answered, noting the pain etched in his features, "Thank you for your kindness today. Farewell"
Haku stood up and gathered his basket as he turned and waved at Naruto before he walked away, tomorrow I will die.
~~
Naruto blinked away tears as he stared at dying Haku. Their fight had not lasted long because his rasengan had surely torn up Haku's internal organs beyond repair. He sensed that Kakashi was almost done with his battle as well.
He gazed softly at dimming white eyes, and whispered, "Farewell, one who could have been my friend."
A soft pained voice answered, "Naruto san," Haku rasped as he coughed up blood. "You are truly kind. Pl…please do not throw away your heart."
With empathetic eyes, Naruto gently laid Haku down on the floor, holding his head tenderly. "Thank you… Haku…"
His features hardened as he saw his teammates glare at the dying Haku. They had been barely holding up the battle when Naruto had arrived.
"He was more honorable than either of you," Naruto bit out as he turned back to Haku.
"Naruto san," Haku managed to whisper. "I really love the snow. Do you think it will snow?"
A tear drop fell from Naruto's eyes as he tried to hold in his tears, "Of course it will Haku. For a pure heart like yours…of course it will."
Haku coughed up more blood as he struggled to keep his eyes open. "Thank you… Naruto san. It was a pleasure meeting you."
Haku closed his eyes and stilled, death claiming its pure hearted victim. Snow began to fall gently, as Naruto howled his grief. Would everyone he considered precious die because of him? His biological father died sealing Kyubi in himself, Kyubi allowed himself to be absorbed to save him, and now Haku, a boy with a golden heart was dead. His tears were cold and the snow continued to fall, as if the skies itself were grieving for Haku as Naruto gathered the boy in his arms and wept.
~~
AN: Hiyee everyone, bubblytokki is here~~~! I hope this chapter was all right. I got lazy and too out the Inari part. ^_~ Hoped you all liked it!!!
Response to reviewers:
Moonfairy: Sorry.. I didn't mean to come out super defensive.. _ *hits self with spongy mallet* Hopefully this interaction was appealing to you.. and another thing.. the next chapter will have all their reactions, focused on them. Thanks for reading up to now~~!
Babowonsuni: Hey.. are you Korean? You seem like it from your name.. but.. ah well.. Here is the Haku-Naruto interaction.. hopefully it wasn't too disappointing.. ^^;;;
Cookie6: Yummie… cookies.. ^^ Yeah.. Itachi is coming up soon.. maybe in two or three chapters… so, please be patient.
Emeraldblossom: here is the next chapter. Hope you like it!
Curlsofserenity: Thanks for reviewing and reading my chapters~!
Insanechildfanfic: Thank you very much. I'm glad you think so. J
Eaglesage21: Well.. I felt bad when I got rid of Kyubi too.. so I decided that there would be flashbacks.. :P
Shadow Eclipse: thanks for the info and the site.. I'm really into the manga right now too, and I totally forgot that there could be an online source as well as the published volumes.. (in Korean…)
Rubymoon17: Thank you so very much for reading. I appreciate the fact that people are actually reading my stories…
Licht Sieger: Thanks.. hopefully that 'so far' extends to the end of the fic… J *crosses fingers*
Greg: Me myself and I: Thanks for your encouraging comments. I'll try to develop them more.. well.. that's if I don't get lazy.. _
Pyr00tje: He'll actively be in the story again soon.. Although… not until the next next chapter..
Karrafear: Thanks… I hope that it meets your standards and that it is an enjoyable read.
Adilus: well.. I don't really have an update schedule.. more like I write while I work since my work is slow right now. So.. there will probably be more updates during the week than the weekends. At the very least.. once a week or so.. ^^ Thanks for reading.
En Satsu Koku Ryuu Ha: Thanks. I always thought that if Naruto gave into the abuse and turned out to be normal rather than super optimistic, he'd be something like the way I portrayed him.
Shakiya: err…. Happy ending…? Errr…. We'll see… *bashfully looks at Shakiya* I love sad endings… er…. Yeah..
Kaisui: Thanks.. I'm glad and honored that I qualify. Um.. about Naruto.. I tried not to make him so bloodthirsty.. but I guess.. in this case.. it's somewhat a like company thing. But.. see…see.. he's more cheerful and not so bad in this one.. *crosses fingers*
Kiharu: Thank you very much. I'm glad you think so…
Silverknight7: Well.. so do I.. and about hw.. you sound like me~~!! ^^;;;;;;
Preview Chapter 7-reflections:
Naruto has always been in another league. I wonder if I'll ever be half as strong as he is.
-Haruno Sakura