Saa... Here it is. I was too ansty and couldn't wait, as Im sure you guys couldn't either. Jeeze.. Can't wait cause of my own cliff hanger, how troublesome. :) Plus I want to get down and post King Kyuubi, but I can't just yet, since it's the unofficial sequal and spoil a few things from this story.
Anyway, I hope you like the surprise in store, and NO I didn't randomly pop it in there on a whim (youll know it when you see it). There were a few very SMALL clues, such as in chapter one, and another with the medic fox. Youll see, te he he! And beware, this chapter is MAJORLY quote happy. If the last chapters were a lot, then wow wait until whats in store. I own none of the quotes and didn't come up with them at all. Just because I suck and I'm not poetic enough to come up with a cool quote. Yeah.
Anyway, there's another chapter after this, just a half chapter, to close everything up and tie up (many) loose strings. It will be posted shortly after this one.. probably give it a few hour's ( if not a day) wait though ;)
Welp, its been fun guys, but we're drawin to a close. Nothin to see here.
Disclaimer: I own nothing cause Naruto owns my soul. So yeah: nothing.
Legend:
"Ramen!" - Aloud speech
'Damn!' - Thinking/ Thought speech
'Fool.' - Kyuubi thought speech
"Hark!" - Kyuubi Speaking
"Eh?" -Fox/misc speech
Fortune's Fool
Chapter 11 - Unkindest Cut
By: Mirazhe1
Naruto looked at the group solemnly as they looked behind him to the army anxiously.
"We can win," he said assuredly, Kyuubi nodding. The group looked at him apprehensively and Naruto looked downhearted, that no one would fight for Konoha with him.
Gaara stepped forward, joining Naruto at his side silently.
"I will fight with him," He said slowly, perminently dark rings giving an evil look to his eyes. The group looked on, questioning. "He released me of my demon. How, I don't know," Gaara looked to Naruto, "I owe you for that, at the very least." There was a pregnant silence before Kiba stepped forward to stand on Kyuubi's side.
"Don't know why the hell Im doin' this, but we might as well go out with a bang." Akamaru barked in agreement from his jacket. Lee soon followed.
"Yosh! With our flame of youth, we shall defeat any darkness!" Naruto allowed a chuckle at Lee's exuberance. The rest of the group paused though, loath to step forward. The vessel sighed, ready to turn and meet certain death, until the tension broke, and one by one the rest filtered forward, joining the small band of willing ninja. They all stood together again, looking over the army proudly, yet fearfully. Naruto spoke up.
"Konoha Ninja! My brothers and sisters of the kunai! I would rather fight beside you than any army of thousands!" The vessel roared. The group looked on, most blinking, before their confidence slowly rose. "Let no shinobi forget how menacing we are, we are of the Leaf! Let us fight like them!" A few cheered at this, all agreeing. "We run to battle today! Let us fight for Konoha. Protect it! It is ours!" Naruto spared a quick glance around his team. A few looked ready, confident to serve for their village, but many, Ino, Shikamaru, Kankuro, Temari, Neji, looked unconvinced.
"The past is history. The future, it is UNCERTAIN! But today is a gift, so we shall call it the present! We are not shadows dispel in a few MEEK RAYS of sunlight! We are not PUPPETS, pulled by strings or fate; NOR are we the wind, here one moment, gone THE NEXT! We fight for all we have. All will be well, kitlings! All will be well in the end. If it is not well, IT IS NOT THE END!" Kyuubi roared powerfully, the army shifting uncertainly before them.
"We will fight for Konoha and we will die for it. If we fight for it, then we are great. If we fight for it and die, we are heros. Be not afraid of greatness, my friends: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them!" Naruto pumped a fist into the air. Many of the nin gained determined, challenging looks. This army dare challenge the great Konoha nin! "They shall not pass! Now let us FIGHT! FIGHT FOR KONOHA!" The team cheered loudly as one, pumping fists with kunai into the air, and ran forward. Naruto reached into his pouch, and tossed his home-made pills to each of them, all of which swallowed them (some still more hesitantly than others).
Charging onward, Sakura and Sasuke retreated to the back of the army, just before the team connected with the front of the army. There was a resounding shockwave at the force, a few of the samurai falling to their backs. The Konoha Genin fought fiercly, quickly and efficiently immobilizing or even killing the enemy.
But they were grossly out-numbered and soon the more close range fighters retreated and the powerhouses surged forward. Kiba and Akamaru, experienced with Naruto's pills took a strong offensive with their new techniques, Dainamikku MÄkingu and, Jinju Konbi Henge: Sotoro. Now one monstrous two headed dog, they surged forward with a huge Garoga the size of Hokage tower. Gaara stood close behind, giant waves of sand flowing over the enemy. Not far off roared a house sized sand tanuki, odd markings proving it was Shukaku, battering the enemy back and forth with its tail and huge blasts of air. Temari, at Gaara's shoulder, rained down blades of wind from her fan.
Shino's destruction bugs also flew forward, multiplying at huge rates with their host's now abundant chakra. Waves of the army merely collapsed from chakra exhaustion. This was soon followed by the huge ball that was Chouji as he rolled over many more.
The rest of the team hung back, quickly taking care of all who was left alive and expertly covering the backs of their friends with the two Hyuugas with Lee and Ten Ten bringing down most shinobi, and Ino, Kankuro and Shikamaru taking most of the samurai down efficiently. Kyuubi turned mad man (mad fox), mercilessly tearing out throats or chucking knives with his tail.
Naruto looked on at his team, and watched as they fought so valiantly. Nevertheless, they were grossly outnumbered and slowly being pushed back. Frowning, the vessel quickly went to action.
"Kitsune Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He cried, and the field was suddenly filled with his own army of foxes, easily matching the enemies army. They stood, waiting for orders like mindless puppets. Naruto paused, gathering his vast amounts of chakra, more more more. It bubbled under his skin, hot and burning, until, finally, he had enough.
"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!" He roared, and hundreds of foxes shimmered into his view, all of which quickly possessed a Kitsune bunshin. Their powerful demon chakra whipped around the feeble bodies of the kitsune bunshin, and became visible to the naked eye. Their bodies, huge imposing and half tangible, surrounded the tiny kitsune bunshins. They leapt forward to battle, making quick work of the enemy.
Naruto preformed his mass summoning technique four more times (of coarse with the help of his pills), each time summoning hundreds of fox spirits to possess his bunshins. Thus, he became the first to summon the entire fox spirit summoning clan to battle at one time. All except their leader of coarse; their leader was always there from the beginning.
The genin quickly began to make headway with the help of the foxes, their chakra tails lashing out at the enemy to quickly dismember any in their way. The army after many long, what felt like, hours, slowly began to dissipate, when Naruto finally spotted Uchiha and Haruno battling one of the stronger spirit foxes. The vessel rushed forward, spotting Ino at the corner of his eye run toward Sakura.
With the Uchiha so distracted with the fox spirit, Naruto easily connected a stone fist with his cheek, sending him rolling. Sasuke quickly made it to his feet again, glaring daggers at the vessel. The spirit fox backed off as they began to circle each other like an angry wolf and sly fox.
"So I guess I get to fight you after all," Sasuke spat as he tossed a kunai at Naruto, quickly disappearing. The vessel danced out of the way. "I finally figured out what the hell you are," came his voice, behind him, accompanied by the whirr of a fumma shuriken. Preforming a quick "Hari Jizo," it was reflected back at the Uchiha unexpectedly, and pierced his shoulder. He fell back, ripping the weapon from his wound and spat. "KYUUBI NO KITSUNE!"
Not far off, Kyuubi's ear's perked and looked over curiously as he pinned down an armless samurai heavily. Shrugging half heartedly, he turned back to his work and tore out a samurai's throat.
Naruto looked down at him, unblinking, before finally flashing a foxy grin. "Nope! Just his keeper." Enraged, the Uchiha stood and tossed the giant shuriken again, disappearing from sight. Naruto dodged it, but cursed when he felt a wire twang against his arm. The wire instantly twisted around him like a rope as Sasuke reappeared. He preformed many hand seals and his arm plunged downward, his other hand clasping his wrist. Blue energy gathered and he surged forward, leaving a trench in the ground behind him.
"CHIDORI!"
His arm plunged into Naruto's lung and retracted slowly, painfully. Why give him a quick and merciful death? Let him suffer and die slowly. The vessel snarled lowly in pain (he dare not whimper or yell) as the Uchiha clenched some important organ in his chest (Naruto really didn't want to know what THAT was) and twisted painfully. Sasuke finally removed his bloodied hand and grasped at the leading wire carefully attached to the ground, immobilizing the poor vessel.
Naruto faintly heard Kyuubi howl not far off, it was hard to tell, his ears ringing so, feeling his pain. "Follow not the bell, kittling! Tis a knell, inviting thee to heaven or to hell!"
The vessel, woozy with pain, watched as time seemed to slow down. He spared a glance to Ino battling Sakura, just as the mind-nin, sore and wounded, plunged two kunai into her opponate, one just below the eye, and the other up through the bottom of Sakura's jaw, just were the throat began. Ino yanked the second kunai sideways just as she pushed on the first, effectivly decapitating the pink haired shinobi.
He watched his team battle out with the enemy, killing efficiently, just like shinobi should, yet acquiring wound after wound. A deep gash here, a broken limb there. Slowly slowly, like it would never stop.
But he would, its time to stop it.
None of his comrades would die in this battle.
The vessel looked back at Sasuke, hardly hearing the Uchiha insanely rant on how Orochimaru would make him all powerful were the Leaf couldn't, Sharingan eyes blazing.
"- Fox-spit! I will destroy Konoha! I will have the last word!" He concluded. Naruto glared, coughed up blood and rasped:
"Last words are for fools who haven't said enough." Sasuke promptly went staggering back at Naruto's burst of chakra, so hot that it melted the wires and set him free.
"Th-this is the Kyuubi! The Kyuubi's chakra!" He stammered. Naruto was silent, his chakra still blazing as he carefully wiped the trail of blood from his mouth to his thumb. With his other hand he pulled down the collar of his shirt, exposing a small seal just below his collar bone, still in tact from the Uchiha's vicious attack.
"Nope," He offered a sinister vulpine grin. "This is me." He swiped his bloodied thumb across the seal and his already blazing chakra seemed to multiply by hundreds. Sasuke stumbled back, finally landing on his rump, and watched as the blazing blue chakra slowly formed a shape around the vessel.
The shape of a fox, a fox with three tails.
Naruto's real form slowly began to shift as well, filling up the large image of his chakra until he too resembled a three tailed fox. The chakra slowly dissipated, vanished, and left the vessel's flowing golden fur to shine forth. He was tall and lean, slender yet regal and imposing. His face, long, golden and a muzzle tipped in black, was adorned with two shining blue jewels... No, not jewels, eyes, slittled blue shinning eyes. His ears were long and pointed, just as Kyuubi's, and black tipped at the end, like most foxes. Fur rippled downward, flowing like a golden river, all the way to his tails, also tipped in black like auric brushes in ink. And in all his foxish glory, Naruto stood before Sasuke, the boy hardly coming up to his shoulders.
"Now Uchiha Sasuke," Came Naruto's laughing voice from the regal fox body. "You have been condemned as traitor of Konoha and responsable for leaking information to the enemy and many murders. You will be trialed once we return you to Konoha."
Sasuke snarled lowly and poofed away. Naruto's ears swivled as he heard "Katon: Go-" above him. It was cut off though as the vessel disappeared in a blur of speed and reappeared in front of the Uchiha.
"Don't underestimate me, Uchiha," Naruto roared. "KITSUNE CLAW!" Naruto slashed his hand-like paw, preforming his usual devistating attack. Still, when they both fell back to earth and the vessel danced out of the way, Sasuke writhed in pain upon the ground, favouring the half of his face, shoulder and chest that was near mutilated. Blood splattered and pooled around the Uchiha, so deep he seemed to swim in it.
"Though you will stand trial in Konoha, Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto said slowly. "You have dared commit the worst crime against me." Sasuke, hardly listening, looked about desperately for help. The entire battlefield seemed to be ignoring them, as if caught in a genjutsu.. In fact, just now he could see through it with his one in tact Sharingan, the air shimmering with chakra. He looked back at Naruto, eyes wide as the vessel advanced toward him menacingly.
"First, you've made me cast a genjutsu. I REALLY don't like casting genjutsu. Second..."
The battle was won, victorious and successful. The fox spirits had been a major help, and though many had been dispelled through the battle, almost half of the clan was still left to see to the army's end. All of the gennin, tired sore wounded and beaten, were alive and, mostly, well. Sometime during the battle, they weren't exactly sure, many Konoha reinforcements joined the battle, enabling them to surge forward and break through the army.
The gennin were amazed though, when they saw none other than the Toad Sannin, Jirayia join the battle. He hadn't been seen in Konoha for years (and unbeknownst to them, unofficially defecting once he heard Uzumaki Naruto had run away. He was not loyal to a village that outcast their savior).
Slowly, the injured ninja began to return to Konoha, but the genin lingered behind, looking about for their leader. Surely, oh surely he wasn't felled during the battle? There was no sign of 'Tenko' (or as many had figured out, Kyuubi) either, which only made them worry more. They waited, and waited, the sunny day still shining, amazingly enough, until they finally saw three figures breaking over the hill. One, large yet lithe, padding on all fours in a regal way only he could. Another, being carried, bloodied, useless and eyeless, yet thankfully unconscious.
Then there was the last, standing proud and tall, his wounds already healing as he lead all three over the horizon toward the small band. Sunlight played through his golden mop of hair and past his, thankfully human, limbs to cast a shadow down on the group below.
And Konoha's sun, shining in all his glory, broke over the horizon.
The war was won. Konoha was still standing and in tact. Though with many casualties, the Konoha nin held strong and quickly rebuilt and were in relatively working order days after. Repairs were still being made but normal life was slowly coming back.
Konoha had effectively kept most of the invasion out of the city walls and dispelled the huge army. Orochimaru, leading them through, had been rendered useless as a ninja by Tsunade and the newly returned Jirayia. Apparently the Toad Sannin had heard of the Kyuubi vessel returning to Konoha and came to see for himself. What a surprise he got.
A month after the attack, Sasuke was finally outed as a traitor and a huge trial ensued. The council and public whole heartedly disagreed that their savior would do such a thing, and blamed Naruto and Godaime for setting it all up. They were silenced, however, when they were backed by such a huge collection of evidence, and eye witness accounts. Not to mention backed by most all of the shinobi population that knew of Naruto's feats, most viciously by his gennin comrades.
Slowly, slowly, things returned to the norm, and Konoha became more prosperous. The village slowly began to accept him, both the public and the council, and the vessel became a figurehead of loyalty to Konoha and a great shinobi. Slowly slowly things were becoming well.
But only slowly, slowly.
One more to go :( So bitter sweet. I hope you guys at least like the semi ending. The real ending comes up next chapter: Auguries of Innocence