Black Leaves

Chapter 52

Remember to check out my other story(s) as well folks.

This was it. Naruto had just about enough of his mind being manipulated and he was going to see the main man of the village for any information he might have. No appointment or anything.

For the past few weeks; the boy had been almost constantly trying to differentiate between what really was and what was a trick created by the mental block. Every time he thought he had made some headway, the mental block would kick in and revert everything Naruto had done. Causing all of the false images and words to reappear and distract him. Constantly trying to pull him back into the darkness he was trying so desperately to crawl out from.

When he walked into the Hokage's office; Naruto stood there a bit confused. Nothing was different or odd about the room. There was the couch on the side, bookshelves lines with scrolls and books on the other. The large series of windows that allowed the sun to light up the entire office behind the wooden desk and leather chair that the village leader normal sate at.

Everything in the room was as it should be; except for the person sitting at said desk.

"We thought our father was Hokage again." Naruto stated in a confused tone while walking into the room.

Sarutobi looked up from the papers he was reviewing and gave a welcoming smile to the young ninja. "Well." The old man began. "Your father was originally going to retake the mantel but because he had become so obsessed with dealing with your other half; I could not leave him the position in confidence. Tsunade was meant to take my seat but due to Lady Empress's daughter's change in condition, she has had to devote most all of her time to trying to cure the girl."

The old man leaned back in his chair. "So I took it upon myself to remain seated as this village's leader." He cleared his throat before continuing. "But besides all that. What brings you to my office, Naruto?"

Naruto walked up to the desk and gave the old Hokage a hard look. "Have you done anything to us?" His voice was cold.

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at the young ninja.

"Did you have our mind altered?" The boy tried to remain calm. His mind was shifting the image of the very man in front of him. His appearance would shift from one of concern to one of great annoyance mixed in with some irritated mumbling.

'Remember.' Venom tried to focus his host.

"Your mind should still be yours. I have not given any order to alter your mind in anyway by any ninja that answer to me." He gave Naruto a hard look. "Is there a problem I should be made aware of?"

Naruto gave the old man a long look. "Someone has been messing with us." Naruto nearly snarled. "Someone has done something to our mind. Made it hard for us to tell what is and isn't real." He shook his head to focus as the image of a very irritated Sarutobi kept appearing before him.

"We keep seeing things that are not there. Hearing things that are not true." Naruto's voice was starting to sound more and more annoyed as the image refused to go away.

Sarutobi leaned back into his chair. "Well, I can't have one of my ninja being manipulated by someone now can I?" He spoke in an irritated tone. Someone had the gall to indirectly attack his village by messing with the mind of one of his young soldiers. That means that there was the potential of having more being unconsciously controlled without his knowing. The possibility of an invasion from within had just become very, very real.

"Should I have the Yamanaka take a look?" Sarutobi asked with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto shook his head. "Neither of us want anyone else in our head. We will be able to figure out who is behind it some other way."

"Well." Sarutobi took a long drag of his pipe. "I'll be here if you need any help." He gave the boy a look. "Your father would be more then happy to help his son."

Naruto had to calm himself. The words and memories he had of his father could all be false and the terrible man he thought he was could all be a lie.

"We will trust you on this one." The host mumbled. He gave a look at the old man for a moment before shaking his head once again and excusing himself from the village leader's office.

Since his father was neither at the family's abode or at the Hokage's tower; Naruto was falling a tad short in possible locations the man could be at. The boy had to wonder about the village for a while before even the smallest hint of a possible hint of an answer could be found.

And he found it via his sister. For some odd reason, she and Ino had become good friends over time and were now currently relaxing at a table at an outdoor cafe. It was just by sheer dumb luck that Naruto was able to come across the pair.

"Hey there Naruto." Ino called out as she saw the boy approach their table.

"Hey Ino. Hi Naruko." Naruto greeted the two girls as he reached their table.

"So, what brings you all the way here?" Ino asked innocently while she played with the straw in her drink.

"I'm looking for our father." He answered truthfully before looking at his younger sister. "Do you have any clue where he could be?"

"I'm not too sure. Last I saw him was with mother walking towards the training grounds." She answered truthfully. "Why do you need him? Do you need help with something?"

"Yeah, but we think only he can help us for now." He looked in the direction of the villager's training grounds. "Thanks for the help."

When Naruto walked off in search of his father; Ino looked at her friend. "Tell me again, why did your father give you both nearly identical names?"

The younger blond looked away from her friend with a hint of embarrassment showing on her cheeks.

Naruto made his way to the village training area and search every training center for his parents. And he found them. But he wish he had not. Oh how he wished he had never even thought to go looking for the two people that conceived him.

Why, you might ask yourself, would Naruto waste a good portion of his day searching for someone when to just regret finding them. You got three guesses.

If you guessed because they were currently in the act of enjoying enjoying each other in the most carnal ways possible; then you have a filthy, filthy mind and I love you. There were simply some things that a person should just never see; and your parents writhing about in completely animalistic passion was one of them.

Not even Venom could remove the searing image burned into Naruto's mind. He had only caught the faintest glimpse of his parents coupling before hiding; but it was more then enough to scare the poor lad.

Every bead of sweat and soft grunt was now a permanent mental scar. The worst part of it all being that he had to wait for them to finish their fun before he could actually speak with his father. Meaning he had to hear every grunt and groan that his parents made. Not even Venom's incessant babbling could drone out the noises.

After waiting what felt like an eternity; Naruto's parents finally finished their romp. Giving Naruto a chance to actually confront his father.

Both parents were surprised by Naruto's sudden appearance and tried to play off the fact that they just finished a bout of love making.

Naruto ignored their semi-nervous behavior and explained to both parents his problem. Obviously leaving out the parts involving his personal alien parasite.

His father did not show it; but he was pleased that his son had come to him for help. He was more than aware of the hostile feelings the boy had towards him and his wife after finding out about their abandonment. He had a right to feel that way.

But, the Fourth Hokage had hoped that he could eventually redeem himself and eventually get the love and admiration from his son that any normal father would want. So far, nothing Minato had done seemed to do anything to better his relationship with his first born.

Now could be the chance he needed to gain his son's trust.

"Please come with me son." The older blond said. "If we can get a Yamanaka inside your head, maybe they could help remove whatever mind-block has been forced on you."

"We already talked about that with the old man." Naruto explained. "We thought it best that no one else got into our head with how it is. We wouldn't want it to get any worse."

"While your right in that we don't want your condition to worsen, but without someone with extensive knowledge on walking through the mind, how will we find any solution?" Minato argued.

"That is why we came to you for help." Naruto countered. "Your supposed to be this amazing genius; we are sure you can come up with something."

Kushina chuckled slightly at her son's words. She always found it amusing when people would call her dunce of a husband a genius. If she didn't prepare meals, she doubted the man would ever remember to feed himself.

Minato stood there in thought for a moment until the arrival of one of the newer chunin decided to show up. His hair style kind of reminded him of a pineapple. Said chunin looked Naruto directly in the eyes.

"Sasuke is gone." He stated. The ninja's lazy toned voice held such a tone of seriousness and urgency that it was almost impossible to tell if he really was from the Nara family.

"What?" Naruto was in complete disbelief. Yes, he knew his team mate was a bit on edge all the time and was easily persuaded by those with power; but he never seemed like the kind of person that would just leave his village, his mother, his home.

'Time for a hunt.' Venom mussed as he felt his host's anger and confusion swell up.

"Sakura confirmed it. She was found unconscious on a bench near the village entrance." Shikamaru explained.

"What are we waiting for?!" Naruto shouted. "We gotta' go bring him back!"

Shikamaru quickly grabbed Naruto before he could run off towards the village's main gate.

"Hold up." The Nara was quick to say. "It would be stupid to believe that he left the village alone. I've already assembled the rest of the search party."

"Again. What are we waiting for?!" Naruto shouted.

Shikamaru did not reply and decided to take off in the direction of the search party. Naruto quickly followed, leaving his parents to wonder what to do about the situation.

The two reached the village gate and could see nearly every male team member of the rookie 9, minus Shino, standing in wait.

"Move out!" Shikamaru ordered while still moving forwards. The rest of the boy's followed close behind their leader as he lead them out of the village and straight into the surrounding forest.

As they traveled; Shikamaru tried to explain his plan of attack as well as the potential dangers that the group may face. Naruto did not hear a word. Venom's constant talking blocked out anything his teammates were saying.

Word such as 'traitor', 'betrayed', 'forsaken' echoed through his mind. Each word Venom spoke raised his host's temper higher and higher, bringing him closer and closer to the brink of lost control. The boy's speed increased slowly and a noticeable gap formed between him and the rest of the search squad.

"Hey!" Shikamaru shouted. "Slow down a bit." He sped up until he was matching Naruto's pace. "I know your upset, but getting separated could be the worst possible thing we could do right now. That, and losing your cool."

Naruto ignored the chunin and continued onward.

Shikamaru sighed. "Look," He started. "We don't even know if Sasuke is alone right now. As far as we know, he might have a small army from the Village Hidden in the Mist escorting him. Going in alone, without any sort of plan, is not a good idea."

"We have a plan." Naruto snarled lowly. "We plan on ripping apart anyone that gets in the way of us bringing Sasuke back home."

"Naruto." Shikamaru sighed once again. The boy was beginning to feel a tad light headed due to the blond's constant ignorance. He was completely unaware of Naruto's mental block and how it changed the chunin's words. Instead of words of caution, Naruto heard teasing, goading, encouragement to kill. What made matters worse; Naruto was too focused on trying to retrieve Sasuke to notice and even try to separate reality from hallucination.

"We are getting close." Naruto said darkly as he sniffed the air. "We smell Sasuke's traitorous scent." The boy snarled.

Shikamaru raised his hand to signal for his team to stop; and all but Naruto did. The blond continued forward until he landed in a very small clearing. Sasuke's scent permeated the air, as well as several other unfamiliar smells. This proved that the traitor was not alone.

Naruto blinked several times before his alien vision would activate; shrouding the world in red and allowing him to see the vital points of anyone foolish enough to walk into his line of sight. Scanning the surrounding area, Naruto quickly located the one's responsible for assisting Sasuke's defection and let out a low snarl.

It did not take long for alien host to spot the obviously smaller innards of Sasuke curled up on the back of a much larger individual.

"We see you." Naruto growled in an almost sing-songy tone of voice.

The boy's allies could see his from ripple for a moment before completely vanishing from view. Neji activated his family's all-seeing eyes and observed the faint outline of Naruto's body slowly crawl along the forest floor.

Seeing as how Naruto was not going to listen, Shikamaru ordered the rest of the squad to spread out and scan the area for any signs of Sasuke or any other enemies. Naruto was going to easily draw any foes out from hiding, so it was time to set up some traps.

The forest was quiet. Completely and totally silent. Not even the faintest hum from the cicadas could be heard.

The Sound Five had lost sight of the blond-haired Leaf shinobi and were putting in all the effort they could in trying to sense his location, as well as the location of any other potential enemies.

It was actually very easy to detect the location of several other Leaf shinobi trying to hide; but none of the Sound ninja could find the blond headed one.

Kidomaru twitched his fingers ever so slightly; causing the nearly invisible strings of thread tied to each finger to move an almost none-existent amount. Each thread was attached somewhere on each of his teammates, and they had all spent so many years together that they were each able to understand what every possible movement of that thread could mean. And this specific movement announced the number of enemies.

Tayuya moved very, very slowly; her hand inching towards her specially made flute. Her fingers inched closer and closer as she soon noticed one of the Leaf shinobi getting close to her position.

The Sound ninja was completely silent as she slowly moved; not even the sound of her clothes moving could be heard. Unfortunately for her, upon finally touching her weaponized musical instrument; Tayuya's nail made a very soft clink against the hard material. It was a soft sound; so soft that it could only have been heard if you were standing almost right up against the girl.

She barely had time to move as the tree she had been hiding behind violently exploded into a mass of splinters. What remained of the tree toppled over as the air behind the wooden mess rippled slightly before revealing an angry Naruto.

The boy stared Tayuya down before pointing at her with one of his massive claws. "You. Are a threat." He snarled lowly. "We will kill you first." He launched himself at the Sound ninja with all four arms outstretched and ready to impale.

The rest of the Leaf ninja took that as the cue to attack and went after the closest enemy.

Tayuya was already having one Hell of a time against the blond Leaf shinobi. His constant swiping while insuring that the gap between him and her stayed small made it nearly impossible for the red haired ninja to think, let alone actually attempt to play her instrument.

Every time she would make an attempt at retaliation or escape; Naruto would either outright ignore it or power right through. Nothing she did worked.

It was only when one of the Leaf ninja's allies went sailing past the duo did Tayuya get just enough space in between herself and the lad to be able to bring her flute up to her soft lips.

The very moment her lips touched the flute and she blew out a soft stream of air, Naruto was writhing on the ground in agony. His hands held firmly against his head as his body shifted and contorted in inhuman ways.

His screams of pain ripped through the sounds of battle as Tayuya's playing continued. Naruto could feel his body start to liquefy as the high pitched noise tore through every cell. In a desperate attempt to stop the Sound ninja, Naruto reached forward with one of his hands; only to have his arm slowly melt off of his body.

Seeing her opponent completely at her mercy, Tayuya took advantage and delivered a hard kick straight into Naruto's liquefying chest. Now, the woman just made two very big mistakes: One, she had stopped playing her flute, and two, Tayuya basically just planted her foot firmly into a pile of sludge.

Naruto, not being one to miss an opportunity, quickly heaved his jelly-like mass at the trapped woman and tried his best to envelop her into his body. An easy meal as well as disposal of a legitimate threat.

The Sound ninja struggled as Naruto's gelatinous mass slowly tried to envelope her; but like quicksand, the more she struggled, the more trapped Tayuya became. She was able to keep one arm free from the boy's grasp while keeping her head uncovered however and was using all of her strength to bring her flute up to her lips yet again.

Grasping the metal instrument as tightly as possible; the Sound shinobi blew a shrill note that forced Naruto to loosen his grip on the woman; his form becoming almost completely shapeless as his clothes vanished within his gelatinous form.

Tayuya was able to rip herself away from Naruto's form; which was now looking more and more like a dripping skeleton, and blew another shrill note from her flute. Seeing the boy weak again, Tayuya decided against physically attacking the boy and instead wrapped an explosive note around a kunai and tossed it directly into the boy's semi-solid form. The sharp weapon tore right through the liquid boy and sailed past harmlessly before exploding a good distance away.

"Quit messing around, Tayuya!" Sakon, or Ukon, shouted before a spinning Kiba and Akamaru forced their attention back to their own fight. His words were just enough to distract Tayuya enough to allow Naruto a brief window of opportunity to escape and slowly reform his body.

'She is too much of a threat.' Venom snarled.

"She is not our target." Naruto stated as a rebuttal. The boy looked around and saw the small barrel that Sasuke was tucked inside of, having been removed from the back of the heavy-set Sound ninja. He quickly looked around to see that everyone was preoccupied with each other before sneakily making his way over to the barrel.

'We should kill them all.' Venom tried to persuade his host. 'Make sure they never bother us again.'

"We just need Sasuke." Naruto mumbled as he approached the barrel.

'He is a threat as well.' Venom whispered. 'His entire clan is a threat to us. Bringing him back will just cause more problems. We should just end their filthy lineage here.' He tried to persuade his host. 'They will become harmless to us. Stomp out the final ember of the clan of fire.'

Naruto stared down at the barrel that held Sasuke; both of his monstrous arms twitched as Venom's words echoed in his mind over and over. Venom was not wrong; the Uchiha clan and their mastery over fire was a very real threat to the symbiote and it's host. Killing the last living, pure-blood warrior of that clan would completely remove the threat entirely.

The thought of being free of such a threat delighted Venom to no end; just one less thing to worry about, but Naruto was not so quick to decide. Sure; Sasuke and his whole clan were a very serious threat to Naruto's very existence, but the Uchiha clan were a valuable asset to his village.

Not only that, but the boy was Naruto's teammate; a fellow villager and soldier of the Village Hidden within the Leaves.

'He is a traitor.' Venom pressured. 'Bring him back and he will just leave again.'

Naruto slowly lowered his clawed arms. "I can't." He sighed in defeat. He and the Uchiha had been through so many trials and tribulations that simply killing him was just not right.

Venom snarled; his host's sentimental side was going to get the both of them killed. And he was not about to let that happen. Or at least that was what he was hoping. Whoever was manipulating Naruto's mind was preventing Venom from doing so at the same time.

Naruto reached for the large barrel; but right before he could pick it up, the top burst open violently as Sasuke suddenly leapt out. The Uchiha landed on the other side of the barrel, opposite of Naruto with his back facing the boy. Naruto could almost smell the massive amount of corrupt chakra running through the boy's body.

It smelled intoxicating to Naruto's hybrid mind. There was so much of the purple energy emitting off the Uchiha that Naruto's mind started to turn the boy from a human, into a buffet.

"I'm feeling hungry." Naruto snarled. Sasuke gave the Uzumaki a small glance before leaping away from both his old teammate and the still ongoing battle.

Without a second thought, Naruto chased right after. His mind clouded with his desire to feed on the Uchiha; his original intention of bringing him back to the village was completely forgotten. Being new to being a true symbiote; Naruto was not able to control his instinctive desire to feed. His hunger had completely overtaken him; momentarily at least.

Sasuke had to push as hard as he could to further the distance between himself and his ex-teammate as he tried to make a beeline straight for country's border. All he had to do was cross that line and he would be home free. But no matter how hard he pushed; Sasuke just could not get Naruto off his tail. In fact, the blond annoyance was quickly closing the gap between the two.

Sasuke could feel power welling up within him as he got closer and closer to the border. He liked it. It felt good. Unfortunately, he was not able to revel in the feeling long as he was forced to suddenly dodge as a large claw sailed right next to his ear and dug itself deep into a tree.

He turned his head back a little to see Naruto regrow another claw and launch it out of his hand; aimed straight for the back of Sasuke's head. The young Uchiha was just barely able to get out of the way of the large impaling spike.

A figure dressed in white zoomed right past Sasuke and straight for Naruto. Only to be tossed out of the way without even the smallest hint of slowing the Uzumaki down.

Two were getting closer and closer to the border; Sasuke could see the two large statues of Madara of the Uchiha clan and Hashirama of the Senju as he neared the legendary Valley of the End. Seeing his goal in sight, Sasuke put everything he had into reaching ever so close border.

With one final push, Sasuke was able to leap across the large ravine; dodging a hard swipe from one of Naruto's monstrous hands and landed squarely ontop of the statue of his ancestor. He stared forward with a smile as he was just a step or two away from reaching the border.

Naruto landed on the head of Hashirama with enough force to crack the hard stone.

"Sasuke!" Naruto snarled.

The Uchiha just gave a cocky smirk to his former teammate before taking a step towards freedom. He could hear Naruto snarling in anger and decided to taunt hid former teammate with a small wave.

"Fine!" Naruto roared. "Leave like the coward you are!"

Sasuke continued to walk forward.

"With you gone; there will be no reason to keep the rest of your filthy clan alive."

Sasuke stopped in his tracks.

"What's the matter?" It was Naruto's turn to taunt. "You surely did not think that they would all live if you were to leave, did you?" Naruto scoffed. "Without a single battle-worthy clan member, there will be no need to keep the rest alive."

Sasuke turned his head just enough so that he could see his former teammate. Small, black, flame-like tattoos began to form and move across his pale flesh.

"Is your simple mind finally putting two and two together?" Naruto chuckled darkly as small black tendrils began to spread out from under his clothing and wrap around various and random places on the lad.

Sasuke's eyes widened in a combination of shock and rage.

"That's right~." Naruto sang in a mocking tune. "You finally figured it out." He laughed. "The one you have been looking for all this time. The one who forced your dear brother to leave his loving home. The one that slaughtered nearly your entire clan; has been with you from the very beginning."

Sasuke turned completely around and glared the most hateful look a human could ever produce at his former teammate.

"Go ahead and run away." Naruto mocked. "That's all you Uchiha can do. Run away so that we can finish off the rest of your pathetic clan."

Sasuke launched himself towards Naruto, murder in his eyes.

"Good." Naruto hissed before leaping straight for his airborne teammate.

Sasuke tossed several kunai at his former ally. The weapons dug themselves into the boy's flesh, but he showed no sign of noticing as Naruto pulled back a fist prepped for a hard punch.

Sasuke saw the attack coming and grabbed Naruto's arm before it could make contact with his face. The young Uchiha twisted his body around and delivered a hard heel squarely onto Naruto's face while releasing his hold on the boy's arm. The force of the kick was enough to send Naruto flying backwards and into the face of the first Hokage's statue. The stone shattered at the force of the impact.

Sasuke used the same force he used to deliver the powerful kick to push off Naruto's body and land right back at his original position, a smug expression etched onto his tattooed face.

Naruto dug his claws into the rock behind him before he could fall and wiped a small bit of blood from his lip. "Looks like this will be fun." He chuckled before planting his feet firmly against the rock and ripping out a massive chunk of stone with his monstrous arms. He lightly tossed the boulder upwards before giving it a powerful smack with one of his alien appendages; sending it straight for Sasuke with the speed of a cannon.

The Uchiha easily avoided the projectile before forming a few hand signs and placing his thumb and index finger directly in front of his mouth.

Naruto's eyes grew large as he recognized his opponent's actions. The boy leapt straight into the air as a massive wall of flames soon engulfed nearly the entire upper portion of the statue he was just standing on.

"Using fire is no fun." Naruto chuckled as he attempted to slam his feet down hard on his opponent. Sasuke was able to dodge the initial impact; but the force caused the stone statue's head to nearly shatter and sent bits of rock flying towards the Uchiha. The small stones cut into his soft flesh; small minor injuries, nothing to worry about.

"Incoming!" Naruto's voice shouted from above. Sasuke looked up and had to scramble out of the way as Naruto slammed down with enough force to cause the statue to start crumbling away.

Both young ninja were forced to move from falling rock to falling rock while dodging each others projectiles as the ground rushed towards them.

Sasuke was able to safely land on the water while Naruto quickly vanished beneath it's surface. The ripples and splashes caused by the falling stones quickly obscuring Sasuke's sight of the boy.

The Uchiha knew that staying on the water would be a death sentence and made for the closest cliff side just as Naruto's bladed appendages started to reach and stab at him through the water.

Sasuke was able to stick his feet to the cliff face and quickly pulled out a kunai. His sharingan eyes slowly scanned the surface of the still water for any sign of movement.

He scanned the water for what felt like hours before noticing a small ripple from the corner of his eye. Sasuke threw his weapon without hesitation only to hear a loud splash come directly from the opposite direction from where he was looking. He tried to get out of the way, but Naruto was able to wrap all four of his arms around his target and pull him into the water.

The pair began to sink down to the river's bottom; one struggling to break free while the other simply held the other in place. No matter how many times Sasuke was able to stab into Naruto's flesh; how much dark purple blood that was spilled into the water, the Uzumaki would simply not let go.

Sasuke could not let it end here. He needed to get away. The Uchiha focused all he could; begging the power that was bestowed upon him to help free him from a watery grave.

Without warning, Sasuke's body erupted into a massive explosion of black and purple chakra. The force and heat of the explosion caused Naruto to release his grasp and for Sasuke to launch straight out of the water. The young boy landed on the surface of the water as his own body went through it's own transformation.

His hair had turned a light blue as the rest of his body became a darker gray. His teeth became small fangs as his nails became long, sharp and black. His eyes and become gray and yellow while two massive hand-like wings sprouted from the back of his shoulders.

Sasuke looked down at his hands and smiled wickedly. He felt good, really good. Really good and really really strong. His smile grew as electricity began to spark and form around both of his hands.

The Uchiha looked down and gave a yell before plunging both of his electrified hands into the water; sending the arcing power throughout the river. The result was almost instant, with Naruto leaping out of the shocking water and onto a nearby islet smack-dab in the center of the river.

Naruto looked over at his opponent. "Impressive." He growled with a twisted smile.

"Now let me show you what a real Uchiha can do." Sasuke said with a nasty smirk.

"So the rest of your clan were not real then?" Naruto mocked. "No wonder they were so easy to kill."

Sasuke lunged at Naruto; electricity coursing through both of his hands. The young traitor used his new wings to push himself forward through the air faster and faster.

Naruto stood still and watched as Sasuke brought both of his clawed hands forward and aimed them both for Naruto's chest. Both hands plunge deep into Naruto's flesh before ripping out through the boy's back. Sasuke's wicked grin grew as he saw the purple-red blood cover his arms.

"Now that stung a little bit." Naruto chuckled.

Sasuke's grin quickly melted into a snarl as he violently ripped his hands out of his former teammate. Blood splattered into the water.

Naruto gave a slight cough as blood dripped from his lips. "The village would want us to bring you back." Black tendrils slowly began to cover his form as he chuckled darkly. "But we feel you would be much more useful inside our stomach."