WELP, I DONE IT! Chapter 4 is officially finished, phew. Why do I always only have creative thoughts late at night?! Also I'd like to add that I hope everyone is staying safe in the crazy world that is reality. With that being said, your in for a long read so I hope it helps yall escape from the troubles of real life.
I am so totally excited to finish up on the Pain arch and start writing more cute fluff. Anyways, enjoy!
Signing off, Cherry is typing...
Naruto found himself in darkness. His toes covered in shallow water as he walked towards the ginormous prison deep within himself.
Dropping to his knees, his eyes turned a familiar red. His pupils morphed into a cat-like slit. Bringing his hands to the sides of his head, he doubled over, his eyes wide as he stared at his own demonic reflection in the rippling water.
'How did it end up like this?' Naruto's mind began to question.
'Is this the answer to peace? Someone, please help me...tell me the right answer...I don't know anymore...'
Naruto dropped his hands into the water, ruining the reflection of himself he couldn't stand to look at any longer.
"Destroy everything." The massive silt eyed monster spoke, it's white jagged teeth showing in a wide open smile. Its red pungent chakra beginning to spill out, slowly surrounding Naruto.
Naruto began to rise to his feet as the dense red chakra circled around him.
"Kill those who have brought you pain." The demon continued, watching as the child before him slowly staggered towards its prison gate.
"Entrust me with your soul. I'll save you from your suffering."
Naruto stopped suddenly. His body moved on its own as he stuck out his chest in pain. His orange jumper and fishnet shirt both ripped down the middle, revealing his bare chest. The muscles of his chest and stomach contoured, and the black ink of the Eight Trigrams seal appeared on his skin. The seal moved around in a messy swirl as it turned into a black hole, its contents leaking out into the water below him. The black ink continued to spread out around him into the murky shallow water.
"That's it. It's fine now." The demon continued to tempt the child in front of his gate.
More red pungent chakra spilled out from between the bars, surrounding Naruto and raising him towards the seal that laid on the prison doors.
"That's right, come. Tear the seal."
Naruto's hand moved on its own, as his finger tips reached to the edge of the paper, slowly starting to peel the seal away.
Without warning, two firm hands grasped Naruto's forearm. Both of the hands softly guiding Naruto back down to the liquid covered ground.
Naruto landed so that he was sat in the water, his hands behind him supporting his weight. Snapping out of the trance, his now bright blue eyes looked up at the two figures standing before him. He looked between the two, wide eyed. He instantly recognized the figure to his right. A tall spikey blonde haired and blue eyed man, his features a lot similar to his own. To his left, however, stood a women with beautiful long red hair reaching to her waist, her eyes a dark pale blue. Naruto quickly turned his attention back to the man he has only ever seen carved in stone or pictured in a frame.
"The fourth hokage...?"
Smiling, the Namikaze spoke, "Naruto, you've grown."
The women to his left stood closer to the fourth, interlocking her arm into his and softly resting her head on his shoulder.
"My boy has gotten so big. You're eating well, aren't you? Not giving your sensei's too much trouble right?" The women asked through a brilliant bright smile.
"Kushina, don't nag the boy just yet. He's confused..." The Namikaze spoke delicately, as if he was slightly worried he might set off a fuse in the fiery haired women if he spoke too much out of line.
The women simply huffed cutely, her cheeks puffing out slightly. A pink haired individual came to mind for a spilt second at the sight of her but quickly faded as he looked in awe at the fourth hokage.
"Why are you here?" Naruto sounded, his voice deep and raspy.
"I worked some of our chakra into the seal, so that if the eighth tail ever appeared, so would I." He explained.
"I really wanted to avoid that, though...since I had no desire to see you again, Kyuubi." The hokage finished as he turned his head over to look at the gates behind him. The fox simply growled in response, obviously enraged at the sudden entrance of the man who banished him 16 years ago.
"It is fun to see my son as a young man, however, so I'll let it slide." The hokage smiled back at Naruto, his eyes shinning in the same bright blue he himself owned.
"The fourth hokage! Come, so I can rip you to shreds!" The demon complained from behind bars.
"SHUT UP, DATTEBANE!" The woman linked to the fourth yelled, her other hand clenched in a tight fist, her hair starting to wave around like a hot fire.
Naruto looked at the couple in amazement, 'did he say...son?' he thought.
"Now, now, Kushina, calm down. Naruto's waiting for a proper introduction, but I guess that guy is pretty noisy, let's go somewhere quiet." With a snap of his fingers, they now stood in a void of shimmering white and pastel colours.
Naruto, not being phased by the switch in scenery, spoke,
"Naruto...? How does the fourth hokage know my name?" he spoke in a whisper, still not believing his eyes.
"Because I named you, of course. You are my son, after all." The hokage flashed a gentle smile.
Naruto ears rang for a few seconds. Blinking, he used his pinky to ring out one of his ears, not believing he heard the Namikaze correctly.
The woman with the silky crimson hair spoke, "Personally, I wanted to name you Menma, but he talked me out of it." She said as she poked a finger into the hokages cheek. Letting go of her husbands arm, she placed a hand on her hip. The other hand swung in front of her chest, using her thumb to point to herself.
"Ah, and I'm your mother, dattebane!" She said with a large smile.
Naruto's body began to shake, he hiccupped as he let himself be absorbed in his emotions.
"So, the one who sealed the Kyuubi inside of me..." Naruto trailed off and looked towards the hokage. The fourth hokage nodded slightly.
His parents moved towards him and he felt a warm hand touch his back, and another soft hand rest on his cheek, the thumb rubbing his whiskered face . Naruto's eyes widen as he looked into the eyes of his mother for the first time as she gently caressed his face. Then looked to his father, who's hand felt strong and supportive on his back. Naruto didn't know how to feel. Happy? Sad? Angry? The emotions stirred inside of him, not knowing what to think, he backed away slightly from the two warm hands.
"Naruto...? What's wrong, we've waited so long to see you..." Kushina whispered, her hand still raised in the position it was in on her sons face.
Naruto held his head down, and stepped towards his father once again. He stood in front of him, then suddenly dropped his body low, withdrew his right arm, and punched the fourth hokage in the gut.
The hokage bent forward slightly in shock on impact. Kushina frowned, her hand on her mouth in surprise.
Naruto looked up again, but now a cascading waterfall of tears flowed down his face.
"WHY DID YOU SEAL THE KYUUBI INSIDE OF YOUR OWN SON, DATTEBAYO?! Do you know how much I had to suffer because of that?! The whole village looked at me like I was trash, and I couldn't make any friends. So I trained really hard, trying my best to become strong so people would like me, then I met Iruka sensei, Kakashi sensei, Ero-sennin, and I was happy because they helped make me stronger! But because of that, the Akatsuki came after me, so I had to train even harder, and then because I was too weak, the Kyuubi took control and I hurt Sakura-chan, so I had to train even more so I could protect her and bring Saskue back to the village, but in the end I wasn't strong enough and the Akatsuki still killed my friends. And I...I...uh, what am I even saying? Damn it! Am I supposed to be happy or mad? I don't know anymore!" Naruto finished, gasping for air, his hands raised to his face as he wiped away the stream of water descending from his eyes. His whole body trembled with despair, Naruto couldn't remember the last time he cried like this, or cried at all.
Minato allowed his son to continue to cry, understanding that these tears held years and years of loneliness and fake smiles.
Kushina held her head down so that her face was shadowed, her hands clenched the front of her long dark green dress. She took a deep breathe, raising her head and looking straight at her blonde haired son. Her eyes visibly watery.
"It must have been hard for you, Naruto. I'm sorry..."
Naruto looked at the beautiful woman again, tears still dripping down his face. His body still shook, but more gently now.
"I have no right to act like a mother and apologize, but I hope you can forgive us, because we love you." Kushina finished as she step closer to her husband, placing a hand on his chest. The Namikaze smiled, nodding his head at his wifes words in agreement.
Naruto's tears stopped, his body stilling instantly. He looked to the couple before him, his bright blue eyes twinkling. Naruto felt as if his own heart had stopped, as if time itself had stopped.
'Love?'
Naruto thought.
'Is this...what it feels like, to be loved?'
As if his face wasn't soaked in tears just a few seconds prior, Naruto produced one of his signature bright beaming smiles.
"Well" Naruto sniffed, wiping the bottom of his nose with his finger, "I guess I can forgive you, I am the fourth hokages son after all, I can handle it."
Kushina beamed, attacking her son in a tight hug, almost causing Naruto to topple over. Minato quickly joined the pair, hugging his wife and son all together for the first time in 16 years.
Kushina looked up at her son, "When did you get so tall, Naruto? Your the spitting image of your father, dattebane!"
Naruto smiled, scartching the back of his head and chuckling at the smaller woman.
"Wait a minute...why didn't I think of this before" Kushina started, having stepped back from the group hug, her hands now clenched to her side. Her fiery locks of crimson hair began to fly around wildly. Her face became a terrifying shadow of anger.
"You mean to say I spent 9 months carrying you in my stomach just for you to be an exact clone of your father, dattebane?! Shouldn't MY son look more like ME?!" She finished, huffing and puffing as she yelled.
Naruto laughed at his mothers expense.
"Now now, Kushina, I think it's great he looks so much like-" the hokage never got to finish his sentence as he received a punch to the face, the fiery haired woman fumming at her husband.
A beada of sweat dropped down Naruto's temple as he smiled apologectically. His mother reminded him a lot of another pink haired woman in his life.
After the moment of chaos subsided, the three sat in the void, Kushina snuggled up in her sons arm, resting her head on his shoulder. Naruto happily welcomed the motherly figure next to him, his bright smile never leaving his face. Minato sat relaxed in front of the pair, but a more serious expression on his face now.
"Naruto, I have something important to tell you. 16 years ago, when the Kyuubi attacked the village, I learned something." Minato spoke, his tone now stern.
Naruto frowned his eyebrows, "What...?"
"There was a mastermind that manipulated the Kyuubi to attack the village. A powerful shinobi, and I believe he will attack our village again. I've been watching over you all this time, Naruto. I believe it is one of the Akatsuki, the one with the orange swirlled face mask. That man, he's no ordinary ninja. He's probably just using Pain, a pawn on his board of shogi." Minato finshed, his brows turned down.
"But Pain has a grudge against the leaf village! During our battle he said long ago his own village and family were wiped out during the war." Naruto explained not buying his fathers explanation yet.
"It's because of that hatred that he's being used, Naruto."
"Being used?! Someone as strong as him..." Naruto breathed out, the thought of Pain being used by someone even more powerful seemed insane.
"Naruto, Pain had questioned you about peace, but the answer is difficult. In this world, wherever there is light - there is also darkness. As long as the concept of winners exists, there must also be losers. The selfish desire of wanting to maintain peace causes wars, and hatred is born to protect love."
Naruto listened to his fathers words carefully, wanting to absorb as much fatherly advice as he had the chance. But as he listenend, his head dropped, his bright eyes glazing over. The depressing thoughts of peace and war mixing around in his head. Kushina also looked down, deciding to take a back seat and offer her comfort by holding onto her sons arm tight.
"As long as the era of shinobi exist, there will be war in search of peace. And this will give birth to more Pains. Yes, it was Pain that killed Jiraiya sensei, and many others, but the chaotic world of shinobi is equally guilty for giving birth to pain. To be a ninja, Naruto, is to confront hatred. Jiraiya-sama intrusted you to find a way to end this hatred, and so am I, Naruto."
"BUT STILL! I can't forgive Pain...there's no way I can forgive him!" Naruto yelled with his eyes shut, his fathers words sinking deeper into him like an open wound.
"I know."
"SO TELL ME! Lord fourth...dad..." Naruto looked desperate now, begging for guidance.
"What should I do?" He asked again, his voice becoming more raspy.
"I don't know the answer, you must find it yourself." Minato finished.
Naruto's patience was starting to wear thin, finally erupting, he spoke, "If Ero-sennin and you don't know, how am I supposed to know?! Everyone expects way too much from me, I'm not smart and I'm not a great ninja, and-"
Kushina placed a gentle hand on the far side of Naruto's cheek, turning his head to face her. Kushina gave Minato a quick side glance, then returning her gaze to Naruto, her mouth opened just enough to speak.
"We believe in you, Naruto." Both his parents said, simultaneously.
Naruto stared at the womens gentle face, then to his fathers, his eyes wide. He felt his heart thump, and his shoulders relax, as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. As if his whole life, he was waiting for this moment. For his mother and father to utter those words.
"We know you'll find the answer." His mother added on. "After all, to be a parent is to have undying faith in their child, dattebane." Kushina winked, nudging Naruto softly with her elbow. More relaxed now, Naruto noticed the speech quirk, now knowing what he had inherited from his mother. Grinning to himself, he figured he had a lot more in common with her then they both first realized.
Minato placed a hand on his knee, beginning to stand up in the bright void. The other two followed his actions.
Minato placed his hand on the head of the slightly shorter spikey haired blonde, and with a smile he spoke to his son.
"Well, it looks like our time is up." Minato ruffled the boys hair as he spoke.
"What, Already?! But I still have so many more questions, and things to tell you too, and-" Naruto deflated, looking on as the couple in front of him started to glow a warm hue. Kushina once again attached herself to her husbands arm, smiling warmly.
"I'll rebuild the seal, but this will be for the last time." Minato reached out his hands, all five fingers touching Naruto's stomach, as the leaking seal reappeared. He twisted his fingers on the seal as if he were closing a cap on a bottle.
"Naruto, make sure you listen to your sensei's! OR ELSE!" Kushina yelled the last two words with her free hand clenched in a fist, her hair ablazed for a short moment.
"And eat properly, okay? You have to eat your vegetables. Ah, and you better not have taken after Jiraiya-sama, that pervy bastard! Find yourself a nice girl, someone just like me, ok?" Kushina finished, smiling brightly again. The glow around her and Minato growing stronger now. Naruto reached out his hands to hug his parents one last time when he noticed he was glowing too.
"Don't you have something to say, Honey?" Kushina nudge her husband in the gut, maybe a little bit too hard.
"Ah, um, well I'm not too good at these kind of things..." Minato trailed off before finishing, "Listen to your mother!" He said proudly, as if he thought of the most perfect advice.
Naruto nodded with a sad smile.
"I guess this goodbye forever, huh..." Naruto trailed off, his head dropping. He could feel his eyes beginning to sting once more.
Minato shaked his head from side to side softly, "We'll see you again, when you need us the most." He smiled, giving Naruto a wink.
Naruto looked up in awe, a glimmer of hope shinning in his eyes at his fathers words.
"We love you, Naruto." The couple again spoke in unison, finally vanishing.
Naruto instantly felt his heart fill with overwhelming warmth. Never in his life had he heard those words uttered in his direction before.
"Thank you mom, dad." Naruto spoke, a bittersweet smile on his face as he watched the glow around him become brighter. In a flash of bright light, the scene vanished.
...
Naruto found himself standing on the underside of a gigantic ball of earth hovering way about the real around. He paused for a moment allowing himself to enter sage mode once more. Looking down, he spotted Pain. Naruto was clueless to what had actually taken place whiles he was submerged in the nine-tails power, but as he looked at Pains condition he could tell he had taken quite the beating. Naruto stared on, his face serious with determination.
Pain returned the gaze as the locked eye contact even from the great distance above. 'His hesitation is gone...' Pain thought to himself as he watched upon the orange suited boy.
The giant ball of rock Naruto stood on began to crumble. Naruto jumped from rock to rock as he descended down to the earth.
Finally reaching the ground, Naruto and Pain stood in a face off surround by rubble. Without a word, without any hesitation, the two went at it instantly. Pain's tired movements became his down fall as Naruto had the upper hand, his endless amounts of chakra powering over Pain. They fought the old fashioned way, their taijutsu skills being put to the test. Punch after punch and kick after kick they fought tirelessly, the two men covered in sweat. Naruto becoming fed up created his wind rasenshuriken, hurling it towards the orange haired man. With a cry of exhaustion, Pain screamed.
"ALL MIGHTY PUSH!"
Pain reflected the high frequency jutsu, smiling like a maniac as he looked towards the blue eyed boy.
Naruto began to count down in his head. 'Five...'
Suddenly, all of the rubble around them blew up in a puff of smoke. They were surround by hundreds, if not over a thousand clones of Naruto's.
'When did he...?!" Pain thought to himself, looking on in disbelief.
'Four...' Naruto had his original powerful rasengan forming.
'Three...' He ran full force towards his enemy. Pain stiffled in his spot, his jutsu not ready to be used for a second time yet.
'Two...' He was almost there now, at least half of his clones running behind him to give support when needed.
'One...' Naruto almost made it, but not quiet. Inches from the glowing blue orb, Pain used his all mighty push once more.
But Naruto wasn't repelled. Forcing himself forwards, he used his clones as a buffer as he pushed forward, the other clones pushing Pain towards Naruto as well.
Pains purple rimmed eyes widen as the blue orb of fast revolving chakra made impact with his stomach. Gawking, blood spat out from his mouth, and as the blue orb dissipated, his body dropped to the ground.
The rest of the clones dissipated into the air.
Naruto looked down at the lifeless body. He closed his eyes. Thoughts of Jiraiya-sensei's words came to him.
'I have faith that there will come a time where people can really understand each other. I'll entrust you to find the answer, Naruto.'
Then, Kakashi-sensei.
'Only you can surpass the fourth hokage. I truly believe that.'
Then, thinking of his father and mother.
'After all, to be a parent is to have undying faith in their child, dattebane. We believe in you, Naruto. We love you.'
Naruto took a deep breath, exhaling deeply. Using sage mode again, he dipped into his senses. Naruto tried desperately to locate the real Pain, the real man behind all of this, but there was nothing anywhere near where he was.
Having an idea, Naruto bent down towards the lifeless body of the last orange haired puppet of Pain, pulling out one of the small black rods embedded in his face.
'These rods must have a connection to the real Pain, they all were covered with them...' Naruto thought, he took the small black rod and stuck it in his left palm, piercing the skin.
Closing his eyes, he let his senses flow once more. A stream of blue chakra from the rod lead him far into the distance, eventually leading to a red haired man who opened his eyes in shock.
'Found you.'
Naruto thought as he dipped into a run, his arms flowing behind and his legs moving with inhuman speed.
...
Ino was stood on a tree branch, her left hand up forming the ram seal in front of her face. A bead of sweat dripped down her forehead. Opening her eyes again, she turned slightly to her left, and motioned with her hands, "This way!"
The rest nodded and followed, effortlessly jumping from branch to branch. Ino was in the lead, followed by Shikamaru and Neji in the middle, with Sakura taking the tail end.
Sakura struggled slightly to keep up, her vision becoming blurry from time to time.
"Ino, are we close enough yet?" Shikamaru shouted, looking at the back of her light blond hair and purple outfit.
Ino paused on a branch, once again using her sensory skills to locate the enemy. The rest waiting on their designated branch.
Opening her eyes, she looked to Neji and nodded. Taking the hint, Neji looked in the direction they were heading, activating his Byakugan.
"Their inside a large tree, but it's not a tree. It's made of paper, some type of jutsu." Neji stated, the veins on his temples contouring as he looked through the paper walls of the room a couple of metres ahead.
"But theres two of them, and one of them is definitely low on chakra, the other still has decent reserves. As your predicted Shikamaru." Neji finished.
"Alright, good work you two. Save your chakra for later Neji, your a key component if my plan is going to work."
"What is the plan, Shikamaru?" Sakura spoke up from behind. Her body was lightly laced in sweat.
Shikamaru frowned, knowing damn well that Sakura was already spent from the travel alone. Motioning towards the ground, Shikamaru jumped down on to the grass covered earth. The rest quickly followed, the four shinobi standing in a circle, looking towards their leader.
Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets, once again standing in his usual lazy slump. Frowning his brows, he closed his eyes and spoke.
"Sakura...I know you want to get revenge for Naruto, I know your determined and your will of fire is strong, but you have to know that if you continue like this, you'll die."
Ino gasped lightly and turned to her pink haired best friend, concern written all over her face. Neji simply nodded lightly, not making eye contact.
Sakura clenched her fist, looking down to her feet. Her vision blurred again.
"I mean...do you really think that's what Naruto would want? Your not in any condition to fight. Honestly, you already look like death..." Shikamaru muttered the honest truth that no one else had the heart to say to her.
The pink haired girl said nothing. Anger and frustration bubbled up inside of her, only because she knew he was right. She was just going to be a liability if she went on.
"Ino, thanks for your help, but now I need you to take Sakura back to the village and get her to a medic. It's obvious that the travel took a toll on you." Shikamaru finished as he looked to the girls.
Ino put a gentle hand on her friends back, motioning her to move back.
Sakura signed, but then looked up. Her face as determined as ever.
"I understand. If the best thing I can do for Naruto right now is return to the village, then okay. I'm trusting your judgement, Shikamaru. But, I at least want to know what the plan is." Sakura spoke with a heavy heart.
"The plan is simple, really. It's the execution that'll be difficult. I attack with my shadow paralysis, and Neji attacks the Akatsuki guys chakra points whiles I hold them still. And if all goes well, milk as much information about the Akatsuki as we can before we finish them off. But even if we do manage to get that far, theres still the issue of Naruto turning into the nine-tails...last we saw, he was already forming an eighth tail."
The four fell into silence at the last bit. Naruto had touched the hearts of all of them at some point in their lives. The four silently begged for Naruto's safety during the silence, as they all thought they same thing. 'Please come back to us, Naruto.'
"We should get going." Ino broke the silence. The pair of women said their goodbyes, wishing the men luck. Flickering out of sight, the two pairs went their separate ways.
As Ino and Sakura jumped from branch to branch again, they decided they would make their way back so that they didn't interact with whatever was happening with Naruto and Pain as that would only endanger them.
Ino kept paced with Sakura, keeping a close eye on her incase she needed to stop and take a break. They probably should have stopped her from coming in the beginning, but she was sure that at the time no one could have change her mind.
As Sakura flew threw the trees her mind wandered back to Naruto. A wave of memories started to wash over her. She started to remember all the times she had watched him sleep as he blabbered nonsense and even tried to kiss her with a ridculous looking puckered lips. She giggled to her self lightly as she imagined the time he started making a rasengan whiles he snored in the hospital. The times when they both called out Kakashi-sensei for being late, or all the bowls of ramen they had together after she had given in to his persistent addiction of the hot noodle soup. Or the time he had gotten attacked by an enemy, and laid on the ground pretending to be dead as she cried on top of him. He got a good smack for that one. All the times he had jumped in front of her during their missions when they were younger to protect her, and flashed her a brilliant white smile reassuring her that everything would be okay. Even when he was pinned down by Pain with those rods in his back, he still insisted that she run away to safety, not caring what happened to himself.
As they continued to travel back to the dust bowl of Konoha her heart filled with so many mixed emotions. Suddenly sensing something off in the distance, she stopped on her current branch, placing a hand on the tree trunk for support and looked to her left. Ino's face quickly came into view however as she joined her.
"What's wrong, do you need to rest up a bit? I can try to use some medical ninjutsu on you as best that I can..." Ino offered.
Sakura shaked her head from side to side, "No, that's not it. I think I sensed someone, heading in the opposite direction of us, towards Shikamaru and Neji-san."
Ino frowned thinking to herself 'who the hell would of known where Shikamaru and Neji were, or where the enemy was. Were way too far from the village for anyone to be this close...'
"Maybe it was nothing, there's no way anyone else could be out here already." Sakura continued.
"Yeah...It doesn't add up. If your fine, we should get going. I'm sure Lady Tsundae-sama will need our help too once we arrive."
Sakura nodded in agreeance as they flickered off towards the village. She looked back once, still unsure of who she had sensed, but shrugged it off again and continued on.
...
Naruto deactivated his sage mode, deciding to save his energy for when it was necessary. Jumping from branch to branch, he knew exactly where to go.
As Naruto travelled through the thick and quiet forest. His mind wandered to all of the people back at the village. Kakashi-sensei...he remembered not being able to sense his chakra when he arrived in Konoha. Naruto gritted his teeth, wanting to believe that Kakashi-sensei was off on some far away mission. He began to think back to the events prior to his eruption of anger that brought out the Kyuubi.
"Sakura-chan..." Naruto said out loud to himself. He blinked away tears, begging the universe that she was okay as he leap from branch to branch.
Sensing something off to his left, he stopped on a large branch and looked towards the direction.
Frowning, he tilted his head. 'Sakura-chan...?' No, why would she be here, I need to get a grip...' he shock the thought out of his head. Taking another deep breath, he cleared his mind. Refocusing his thoughts on his enemy for the sake of the village.
Kicking off with power, he continued on for a while until he decided to stop again and re-enter sage mode. Closing his eyes he sensed the two Akatsuki members just up ahead, but it was followed by another pair of people near by. Naruto tilted his head in confusion and followed his senses to the pair.
'Shikamaru...and Neji? What the hell...'
Naruto flickered into existance next to Shikamaru with Neji crouching on the tail end. They both jumped slightly at the sudden appearance of their blonde haired friend.
"Naruto, what the hell?!" Shikamaru exclaimed in a shouted whisper.
"That's what I said, dattebayo!"
Shikamaru and Neji both exhaled.
"Wait, first of all, how did you sneak up on us like that..." Neji asked with a stern look, embarrassed slightly that he didn't notice their blonde haired friend until now.
Naruto simply pointed at his frog-like eyes that were rimmed with an orange hue. "Sage mode as it's perks, dattebayo."
"Well it took you long enough to get here." Shikamaru added.
"The hero always makes his entrance at the most crucial moment." Naruto said with his arms crossed, nodding his head at agreement at his own statement.
"Hmph, well I'm glad your finally back to your senses. We thought we lost you there for a second. And fighting off that damned fox would of been a huge drag..." Shikmaru said lazily, but gave Naruto a sly look.
Naruto looked down for a moment, ashamed of himself for losing control and endangering his friends. He shook the thought away and focused his senses towards the large tree not too far from where they were crounching in the bushes.
Shikamaru began, "They probably already sensed that were here, I mean at this point we might as well just walk right in..."
Naruto shook his head from side to side in disagreeance.
"No, this is something I need to do alone. You two should head back to the village and help the others." Naruto stated, his face serious.
"It's too risky. Utilize us, Naruto. You don't have to go at everything alone. Your friends are here to support you." Neji stated, an actual tiny smile appearing on his face.
Naruto felt slightly embarrassed at Neji's out of character expression, blushing lightly at the kind words.
'Friends, huh...' Naruto thought, the word filling his heart with warmth.
But Naruto shook his head again. "No, I'm sure of this. I can do this, believe it, dattebayo!"
Shikamaru shoulders slumped down, "So you mean to tell me we went through the trouble of coming here only to have to go back, what a drag..." Shikamaru trailed off, the clear annoyance on his face.
Naruto stood, and started walking towards the large paper tree, prepared to make his grand entrance.
"Anyways, I'll explain everything later. Right now I have a job to do and a man to talk to." Naruto clenched his fist. Images of his sensei's and parents floated around in his head.
As Shikamaru and Neji flickered out of the scene and back to the village, Naruto took a few more steps forward. Using a chakra enhanced hand, he brought his fingers to the dark brown paper tree. Moving the thin layer of paper aside, there sat a red haired man upon a throne of wires and machinery. Next to him, the purple haired lady, another Akatsuki member. The large room was dimly lit with candles of all shapes and sizes.
Naruto and Pain locked eyes as Konan looked between the two, her brows frowned. She readied herself for an attack, but deflated at Naruto's next words.
Naruto's face was angry and serious. He clenched both fist on either side of him. He felt a slight drift of wind on his bare open chest. Naruto looked up at Pain with just his eyes.
"I'm here to talk."
Holy moly this chapter is roughly 5700 words guys. I might have went a tad bit over board. I worked my ass of on this one so it might be 2-3 weeks until the next chapter. I say that but I ended up only taking a week and 2 days for chapter 4 so...we'll see ;)
Again, PLEASE comment and review. What did you like, dislike? Any questions or confusing parts? Let me know and I'll get back to you ^_^ I enjoy all your feedback, bad or good.
Next Chapter 5 Nagato, Konan.
