Chapter 2: Flowers of Fate.
Naruto had continued to knock for what felt like an hour or so before shouting out. He had gotten a major headache about 15 minutes ago and he was losing his patience. "Ok! I know you think you're funny, but you can either open the box now or I'll break it open!" There had been no response again, so he began to formulate his plan. There was no way he could rasengan his way out; there was barely enough room for him in this box so there definitely wasn't enough for him to create a clone to help him mold the chakra. Why did his signature move have to be based almost solely on molding chakra? He hated molding chakra! Luckily whoever had replaced his torn jacket had left his kunai filled leg pouch untouched. He got a nasty cramp in his side with how he had to bend in order to reach them, but managed to pull one out before beginning the tedious job of carving his way out. It wouldn't take too long, the wood couldn't be more than an inch or so thick, he would be out in a few minutes.
Or at least, he would have if he hadn't immediately received a face full of dirt once he broke through the wood. Shaking his face to get as much off as he could, he blinked several times. Okay, so he wasn't just in a box, he was in a box and underground. That wasn't exactly the news he had been hoping for. Not to mention that his headache was just getting worse. With a determined frown Naruto began to dig through the dirt with his kunai. The throbbing in his head only drove him to push faster. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and yell at whoever had thought it would be funny to bury him alive. He had known there were people that didn't like him because of the Kyuubi, but it had never escalated this far before. It was mostly just rude stares and being ignored. Of course, if Mizuki had been willing to steal the scroll of forbidden techniques and kill him to make a quick getaway, then he assumed there were probably others with similar ideas. Still, to kidnap him from the hospital and bury him alive? That was was just weird. They should have at least killed him before burying him; that's what a ninja would have done, and he doubted anyone but a ninja could have kidnapped him from the hospital.
He highly doubted Sasuke would have buried him alive after he passed out. That just wasn't his style. Where would he have gotten the casket from anyway? So that meant that someone must have found him and brought him to Konoha hospital. Only for someone else to kidnap him while unconscious and bury him alive in a perfectly good casket.
Now that was a story to tell the grandkids. If he ever had grandkids. If Sakura didn't kill him for not bringing Sasuke back. Oh man, just the thought of talking to her after getting knocked out by Sasuke was giving him anxiety. He had promised to bring back Sasuke and failed catastrophically. He had considered justifying it as, 'I promised to bring him back, but never specified when. I can just keep trying to bring him back until the promise is fulfilled!' but knew it wouldn't convince her. Heck it didn't even convince him. Sasuke would be considered a full-blown missing-nin now. Sakura would never talk to him again, and he had officially broken his nindo. So that sucked.
On the bright side though, he thought he was almost through all the dirt. With every patch of dirt that landed on his face he would shake it off, before shaking and kicking it down to the bottom of the coffin. After about 15 minutes his head felt like it was about to explode, and he had filled up the entirety of the coffin with dirt. Luckily, the dirt was clay-y and kinda wet so it didn't collapse on top of him. Clay-y? Was that a word? Whatever, dig now, worry about that stuff later. Oh man he was gonna' kill whoever buried him. Not literally, but he was gonna' yell at them a lot and maybe paint their house neon orange or something. Tsunade might kill them though, for like, treason and stuff. That would have to be after taking something for this headache. Holy cow, whatever painkiller they had given him at the hospital was definitely wearing off, all his muscles felt like they were on fire and he was getting lightheaded from the pain as he dug.
Finally, after another 15 minutes he broke through and crawled out to lay on the sweet dew covered grass nearby. He had heard the phrase 'six feet under' before, but hadn't figured they would have literally buried him six feet under. Maybe it was supposed to be irony or something? He didn't care right now, he was too busy sucking in as much air into his lungs as he could, and his pain started to fade. Oh, the painkiller wasn't wearing off, he had been suffocating to death… cool.
Finally opening his eyes after taking his time to recoup any lost oxygen, he noticed that the sky was particularly beautiful. You couldn't see the stars like this in the village because of all the light pollution. Usually, he only saw it on long missions outside of the village when they had to camp out. Lifting the kunai up to look at it in the light, he frowned and threw it aside. It was completely dulled and some of the edges were starting to chip. It's true they were meant to be mostly disposable, but that was still like 500 ryo down the drain.
The birds started chirping and he decided it was time to get up. Nature was calling to him. Not the birds, he had to pee. Smirking to himself at his internal joke he stood up and walked over to the edge of the property. Once relieved, he turned around to look at his would-be grave with a little more detail. It was quite a sight. There were flowers laid out all around his grave and a small but ornate gravestone. The house nearby looked like it was halfway through some major renovations. The whole thing looked like it had been power-washed and there was that smell in the air that said 'this paint may not look fresh, but if you touch it you'll get it all over your hands.'
So someone had kidnapped him, and buried him alive behind their house? That was dumb. Not to mention they had buried him next to their parents or something. He looked at the two older gravestones next to where he had been buried. Something about harbors and peppers? He didn't know what that was about. Looking to what was supposed to be his gravestone he read what was written.
Here lies
Uzumaki Naruto
Son of
Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina
Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi
and
Hero of Konohagakure.
…
…
…
"Ok, what the fuck?"
UN:PoA
Hiashi was pleased. After he dragged the still sobbing Hinata home from the announcement that the Naruto boy had died he tossed her into her room, rather unceremoniously too. He had refused to let her watch the burial, or rather, he had refused to carry her to the burial and she hadn't been in any condition to go by herself.
The first day almost the entire house had to listen to her wail late into the night. 'She just lost her friend.' Hiashi had told himself, 'Give her a day to grieve.'
And a day she had gotten. He swore to himself that if he had heard so much as a sniffle from her room the next day he would go in their personally. Only no sounds came. That had actually made him rather nervous. Just as he was about to go and check on her though, she came out, grabbed a large glass of water from the kitchen, and then she returned to her room. She had her own indoor plumbing, as was only fitting for an heiress, and a bookshelf. So, all she needed to leave her room for was food, water, and training. Kurenai had given their whole team a week off to mourn, so she had nowhere else to be. While he hadn't seen her get any food, his parental concern had been assuaged and he returned to his study.
The 3rd day is when she had surprised him. She come out of her room, fully kitted out, as if she was preparing for a mission and walked into the rear courtyard. Using his Byakugan to keep an eye on her from in his study was a simple task. She had walked right up to a nearby chuunin of the branch family and looked up at him. "Fight me." She had said simply. Hiashi's eyes had widened from shock alone. A bit of an overreaction considering he didn't have any rational reason to do so. That had been surprising, but not overly so. She had just spent two days in her room and had no team duties., She was probably just working out some energy and frustrations.
The man had looked at Hinata like she had grown a second head but simply bowed and gave the appropriate, "Yes, Hinata-hime." before dropping into the juuken stance. He began first, giving her an agonizingly slow strike that was obviously meant to be blocked. She slapped his hand away and looked at him with an angry frown. "I didn't say 'pity me,' I said 'fight me!'" She growled. Hiashi had to consciously prevent himself from turning his head to look at Hinata. If the chuunin had looked at Hinata like she had a second head before, then she must have appeared to have 3 heads, 16 arms, and a Sharingan at this point.
"Yes Hinata-hime, forgive me." He said with another deep bow. Hiashi put his pen down so he could actively watch his daughter. What followed was 10 minutes of her barely surviving. He frowned deeply to himself, wondering what he had been expecting. A small group had gathered around the fight by that point. None of them made it outwardly obvious that they were watching, they just so happen to be eating their meal nearby, facing away at an angle, and with their Byakugan active.
After Hinata had collapsed and vomited slightly, the chuunin dropped his guard completely. He bowed again and made to walk away before Hinata stood back up. "Again," she said simply, looking at the man as he tried to turn away. He stopped and turned to her, again bowing. "Hinata-hime, I don't think that's a good idea. You should rest, and if you want, you can come to me again. We can always train together lat- AHHHH!" He let out a blood curdling scream, collapsing forward. While he had been trying to help her save face, Hinata had shaped her hand in a familiar sign, letting out a quiet "Hya." as she did. Hiashi couldn't restrain himself this time, his head snapping to face his daughter like he had been an everyday civilian.
She had never used the caged-bird seal before. Hinata spat out a mass of bloody phlegm before speaking. "I said… again!" She shouted before charging at the man. In his shock the chuunin had managed to let Hinata get a few strikes in while he recovered, before leaping back and re-dedicating himself to the fight. "Y-yes Hinata-hime!" The watching crowd made themselves scarce after that.
Hiashi's frown had turned into a loving smile. If he had known his death would have had this kind of affect on his daughter, he would have killed the Uzumaki child himself years ago. Fourth Hokage be damned.
UN:PoA
Naruto had been pacing for at least 10 minutes. "Ok so," He began, talking to one of his clones. "Either this 'prankster' has one of the worst senses of humor in the world, and was willing to let loose an S-class secret for the sake of his joke, or when I had been retrieved I was in such a bad state that everyone had assumed I was dead, buried me, and revealed I am the apparent child of The Fourth Hokage to the world." Naruto collapsed backwards onto one of the piles of flowers. "So now what?" He asked the clone
"I dunno man, I'm you remember?" The clone responded. The real Naruto looked at him with squinty eyes. "You're no help, why did I even make you?" The clone sighed. "You said, it was to bounce ideas off of me, but we both knew that wouldn't work. You're just scared that you're actually a ghost and the Shinigami is gonna sneak up behind you, so you want me to watch your back."
It was the real Naruto's turn to sigh now, he definitely wasn't a ghost. Ghosts didn't need to breath or dig out of caskets. The clone was just trying to scare him. "I mean, if I go back then they're gonna think I'm undead or something. Or some jerk that's just pretending to be me. Or like, 11 other different things that could end really badly for me… us." he amended after a moment.
"Oh yeah, and what are you gonna do instead? Run away? That's not part of our nindo." The clone countered.
"You mean the nindo we broke the second we let Sasuke get away?" Naruto countered in return. "Just think what Sakura will do to us when she realizes that not only did we not get Sasuke back, but we let her think we were dead for who knows how long? We might actually die after that."
"Good point. I suppose we could- Oh gods you were right! The Shinigami! He's right behind you!" The clone shouted, eyes wide in terror.
"What!?" The real Naruto jumped up and turned around, only to hear a loud "HA!" behind him and a poof as the clone dismissed itself. He couldn't blame it; it had thought it was funny, and now he kinda did too. Wait, why would he think it was funny too?
Naruto frowned to himself before deciding to file that question under the 'interesting, but not important right now' part of his brain. That was a really big part. He'd have to go through there one of these days. There were probably those weird cockroaches in there. Maybe that's why his mind looked like a sewer whenever he saw the Kyuubi. There was a leak in that room he never checked out.
Swallowing hard, Naruto did what any sensible ninja would do. He picked up one of the flowers that was left for him and started picking off the petals. One by one.
"I leave..."
"I stay..."
"I leave..."
"I stay..."
"I leave..."
UN:PoA
"What now?" Kakashi sighed at the genin that had just knocked on his door. He had finally managed to get a bit of sleep, when he was woken up a whopping 2 hours after his head hit the pillow. He was going to have an aneurysm at this point.
"S-Sir, Hokage-sama has requested your prescience in the Hokage Tower immediately. I apologize for any inconvenience." The young girl stuttered. So this one definitely wasn't the same boy he had sent to get the Hokage. Unless he was henged and Kakashi was just too tired to be able to tell.
No, that was just the lack of sleep talking. There was no demon genin that had nothing better to do than bug him. At least not anymore. 'Wow, ok,' Kakashi thought to himself. 'Screw you too, brain.' Standing tall Kakashi patted the girl on the top of her head. "It's fine, it's not your fault. Take your time getting back. I'm on my way." He said, trying to be extra kind to make up for his rather cruel greeting earlier.
Locking the door behind him, he jumped on top of his place's roof and began to journey towards the Hokage Tower. He could have sworn he heard a henge pop behind him as he jumped away, but convinced himself he was hearing things.
UN:PoA
"Are you sure he's the best candidate?" Shizune asked her mentor. "What if the villagers freak out? He hasn't gotten a psych evaluation since Naruto's death. What if he's not stable?"
"Then, they can rot in hell. He's the best jounin for the job right now, despite his current situation. I don't want to spend the next two weeks here looking through profiles just to pick him anyway. Besides," Tsunade continued. "I'm not exactly stable right now either. Do you really think I'd do a better job of keeping this place together than him? I'm drinking way too much and if I don't do those breathing exercises every 30 minutes or so, it feels like my brain will melt. Hell, I'm the one who grades most of those psych evaluations and I wouldn't even pass myself at this point."
Shizune looked like she was about to argue but there was a sudden knock at the door. That was odd, they had expected Kakashi to come in through the window. "Enter." Tsunade spoke with all the dignity and authority that she could muster.
Kakashi walked into the room slowly. There was a rather dark bag under his one eye, and Shizune noted to herself that he was giving off an eerily similar vibe to the one that Tsunade had given before she collapsed a few days ago. Shizune had gotten her to take a shower and clean herself up, but she was still wearing the black robe and had trouble sleeping.
Kakashi bowed deeply in an unusually serious mood. He stayed bowed down for perhaps a few seconds too long before sighing a, "Hokage-sama." and standing back up.
"Are you ok, Kakashi-san?" Tsunade immediately asked, 'doctor mode' taking over. "You don't look well. Please, sit."
"Moderate to severe sleep deprivation, causing mild audio-visual hallucinations. Minor chest pain, and loss of appetite, possibly unrelated but unlikely" He said stoically, giving a rather spot-on self diagnosis. He gave her an eye-smile before taking the offered seat. "Nothing compared to my time in ANBU though. I'll be fine."
"I see." She began to give a slightly worried frown. "Tell me Kakashi, are you loyal to Konoha?" She asked, changing the subject.
Kakashi barely managed to stop himself from raising his eyebrow. He hadn't expected that. He knew there was a good chance he would be questioned. After all, he was the sensei to the Traitor Uchiha. But, he figured it would have happened within the first few days after his return. When it didn't, he assumed they either didn't question his loyalty or they were too busy. It made sense though. Run him ragged with constant small missions and then question him when he had his guard lowered. "Yes ma'am," he answered quickly, perhaps too quickly, but he hoped not. It was true; the thought of defection hadn't occurred to him once. This was his home. It was all he had.
"I see, you have been run down lately, and I'm partially to blame for that. I apologize." Tsunade began. "I have put you through a lot, and so soon after the death of one of your students. I must ask though, how much more would you go through for Konoha?"
"I would die for her ma'am." He replied instantly. It was also true. He loved this place. From the hot summer days to the cool winter nights. From the Hokage Monument to the Memorial Stone. He loved all of it, even the parts that made him sad.
"Good, good." Tsunade said, nodding slowly. She looked at him in his one eye and stared at him in the way that only a Kage could. "Then I have a mission for you, a mission of such grave importance that I dare not give it to anyone else. I know you are tired, but don't worry, you'll have some time to rest and prepare for this mission, should you choose to accept it."
Kakashi paused, but nodded. So it was a suicide mission, not a questioning of his loyalty. It wasn't a big deal, he had gone through many supposed suicide missions during the war with Iwa. Not to mention his time in black ops. "Of course, ma'am. Anything for Konoha," he said, although there was something in the back of his head that told him he was forgetting something.
Tsunade smiled and nodded as well. "Very good, Kakashi, I was hoping you'd say that, but perhaps you should hear what the mission is before accepting it." She stood and took her hat off her desk. Walking over to him she held it out for him to take. "You mission is to take up the position of Hokage, and protect Konoha and her people from all enemies, foreign and domestic."
His eye widened. He looked at the hat. He had always thought he would look cool in it, ever since Minato-sensei had taken up the position of Fourth Hokage. He had never actually wanted to wear it though, at least not seriously. He reached a shaky hand up to take the hat from Tsunade. He couldn't tell if he was shaking because he was nervous, excited, or if it was from the sleep deprivation. He held it in his lap and looked at it.
"Hokage-sama, if you are sure in your decision I would be honored to-" He paused… oh yeah, that's what he had forgotten. "I can't."
Tsunade and Shizune both raised their eyebrows in shock. "I'm sorry, what? Why not?" Tsunade asked, trying to not look upset.
"I'm still a jounin sensei. I have a duty to Haruno Sakura. I can't leave her. I can't abandon her after everything she's already been through." He explained. Holding the hat back out to his Kage.
Tsunade frowned deeply. She wasn't proud to admit it, but she had forgotten the Haruno girl had existed all together. She was a rather sub-par shinobi, all things considered. "Are you sure about this? If you turn this down, I can't guarantee that I won't find someone else. This could be a one-time offer," she explained.
Kakashi nodded. "I'm sure. I can't just-" He paused. "After Obito and Rin died, Minato-sensei was all I had. If he had left me behind, I would have-" He paused again, fighting back emotions he had buried long ago. He had always considered his father a coward for taking his own life. After Rin's death however, he had been feeling rather 'cowardly' himself. If Minato-sensei hadn't been there for him… He may have been Hokage at the time, but Minato was till very much his sensei, and he didn't know if he was capable of doing both like Minato had. "I can't leave her." he said simply. As though he had just commented that the sky was blue.
Tsunade nodded slowly, she saw something in Kakashi that she had seen in herself. At this point, Sakura was to Kakashi, as Naruto was to her. For some reason he had pinned his hopes to a small, stupid, fragile child just like she had. She wouldn't take her away from him. Not to mention that he probably subconsciously saw a bit of Rin in Sakura. She hadn't gone too in-depth on the reports, but knew that Rin hadn't taken the death of Obito well. The report she read said it was suicide, and she had used Kakashi to do the deed.
Taking the hat back from his grasp she nodded. "Very well, I understand. However, I would ask you not tell anyone about this. The last thing I need is a bunch of power hungry jounin vying for-" Tsunade paused. Looking down at Kakashi. His eye was closed and there was a very subtle snoring sound coming from him. He truly was a good man. It's a shame he wouldn't take the hat.
UN:PoA
Naruto rubbed his chest as he frowned. It was odd, it didn't really hurt that bad anymore, but it just felt weird. Like, his ribs were all squishy and bendy, not hard like they should be.
"Ok, so I guess I'm leaving." Naruto said to himself. Tossing the last rose onto the ground. That was the 7th rose out of the last 7 roses that had he had ended with "I leave." as he plucked the final petal. Naruto looked out into the distance. He could just barely make out Konoha in the distance. With a nod of his head, he decided to go in the opposite direction. East? Just as he took his first step away from everything he had ever known he paused, and turned back. Not to face the village, but the graves of his supposed parents. It just felt wrong to not do something. Walking back so he was facing the gravestones, he bowed. "I know we never met, and I know you sealed a demon inside me, but thank you for bringing me into this world. I wish things had been different...mom...dad." He whispered before standing up straight. Without another word he took his hitai-ate off and dropped it on his 'grave.'
Naruto picked up the kunai that he had dropped, he had the feeling he was going to need every bit of equipment he could get. Especially if he couldn't go to his apartment and grab his mission bag. It was funny, this whole fiasco had begun with him trying to prevent Sasuke from leaving the village. Now he was doing the same, albeit for different reasons. Stretching out and giving one last look at his home Naruto nodded to himself. This was oddly freeing, like taking your shoes off after a long day. Cracking his neck Naruto turned away from Konoha and began running east. He didn't know where he was going, just that he needed to go somewhere that wasn't here.
UN:PoA
Author's notes:
"HINATA WOULD NEVER DO THAT!" I hear you say. You're right, the Hinata you knew wouldn't have, but the Hinata you knew died when she saw Naruto's corpse. If you're obsessed with someone to the point that you stalk and borderline worship them, and then that person dies? You're going to go through some changes. In most people the change would not be this sudden, or this severe, but Hinata's hero was killed, and she was unable to see him buried because she was too weak. Granted there was no way she could have reasonably been expected to fight off her father, but when you're already mentally unstable and grieving? Things like "logic" and "reason" start to matter less and less.
As some of you may have noticed, Naruto is kind of acting as comic relief right now. That's how I've always kind of seen Naruto. Even in a shit situation he makes light of it, not because he wants to, but because he doesn't know what else to do. I promise you though that Naruto will be more "spider-man" and less "deadpool" if that makes sense.
I also decided to stick with the current "jumping from scene to scene" format for the foreseeable future. I had originally planned on basically splitting each of these scenes up into different chapters, but have now decided that scene jumping is much more convenient and I don't have to write the boring "in between" moments where nothing is happening.
One of my reviewers asked if Naruto was buried alive, or if he was actually dead and resurrected. Let me be 100% clear here. Naruto was dead. He had no heart. There was no brain activity. By all reasonable metrics he would be considered dead. That being said, Naruto THINKS that he was buried alive. After all, people don't just come back from the dead, right?
And last but not least, I forgot to mention my beta in my last chapter. PartHistory. He's trying to teach me to use google docs (I usually just use libreoffice,) so if there are any hiccups with the uploads it's not that he's a bad beta, it's that I have no idea what the duck I'm doing.
Also look at me, breaking last chapter's promise on shorter author's notes. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to find a new nindo :^)
