Black Leaves
Chapter 53
"So here we stand." Venom stated. His impressive form stood opposite of Sasuke's demonic transformation. "Two beings that utterly despise what the other is." The alien crouched down. "One of us is going to die here. And we have a feeling it won't be us."
Sasuke stared at the alien monster for a moment before a sinister smile graced his blue-gray face.
"I think I've figured it out."
Venom's large white eyes narrowed slightly.
"You're afraid of me. Of the great Uchiha." Sasuke cackled slightly. "That's why you tried to kill us all. Your afraid of the power of the Sharingan."
Venom's expression relaxed somewhat. For a moment he feared that Sasuke had figured out his kind's weakness to high heat; instead the boy thought that it was has family's bloodline ability that was the real threat.
Sasuke got down into a better fighting position and allowed dark electricity to start coursing through both of his hands. "I WILL get revenge for those you killed!" The boy charged at the alien; death in his eyes.
Venom blinked before tacking a step to the side, causing Sasuke to sail harmlessly past, before grabbing the boy's leg and slamming him hard onto the ground.
Sasuke recovered quickly and reached around to grab Venom's arm; electricity still coursing through his fingers. The boy's sharp nails dug into Venom's soft flesh. The symbiote let out a roar of pain as the electricity coursed through his body; the heat cause his form to destabilize for a moment and release the Uchiha.
Sasuke swung a foot around and slammed it into the side of Venom's head hard enough to cause a portion of it to splatter and forcing Venom to stumble back slightly.
Going on the aggressive, Sasuke began to swipe his electrified claws at his much larger opponent; each time just barely missing. Venom was very fortunate to have his symbiotic senses to assist him at the moment since he was currently regenerating a missing eye.
When said ocular organ finally did reform, the symbiotic monster pulled an arm back and slammed the palm of his large hand directly onto Sasuke's side; sending the young ninja careening into the nearby cliff face. His back his the unyielding rock with enough force to knock not just the wind, but a bit of blood, right out of his lungs.
"Did you think we were joking when we said we were going to kill you?" Venom asked before cracking his neck. "You better give it your all unless you want to be entombed with the rest of your pathetic clan."
With that, Venom leapt toward Sasuke with enough force to crack the ground he was standing on. The Uchiha barely had time to flap his mutated wings and get out of the way before the symbiote's shoulder smashed into the cliff wall.
Sasuke flipped through a few handseals before leaning back and releasing a large plume of fire from his mouth. Venom used his embedded arm to rip out several large chunks of rock to block the flames before tossing another chunk at his opponent.
Sasuke easily avoided the projectile and dove straight for the alien with his hands once again super-charged with electricity. One hand was able to plunge deep into Venom's chest, sending a painful shock throughout his large form and causing the large monster to roar loudly in both pain and anger.
The Uchiha tried to pry his hand free from within the semi-liquid beast, but found it much harder to get his out than it was to put it in. So, he opted to continue sending painful shocks through the symbiote's body until it had become liquid enough that Sasuke was able to pull free.
Sasuke looked down at the nearly completely liquid Venom. He could not hide his wicked smirk as the defeated beast tried to slink away. The Uchiha pulled a kunai out from its holster and charged it before haphazardly tossing it into the puddle that was once Venom.
A black tendril shot out from within the puddle; caught the weapon through the finger loop and quickly launched it right back at it's thrower. Sasuke side-stepped just as the black liquid vanished beneath the waves.
The boy slowly scanned the water once again for his target; pride already filling him as the realization of his victory slowly crept into his mind. He had finally killed the murderer of his clan and the one responsible for his brother leaving the village.
But that was not good enough. The fact that the village itself had protected this monster caused Sasuke's blood to boil. This was an unforgivable act and the entire village needed to be punished for harboring such a monster. Who knew just how many people within those protective walls were actually beasts in disguise?
Sasuke knew what he needed to do. He needed to more powerful so that he could completely wipe out not only the entire race of beings that had killed his family, but the village that harbored them as well. That was beyond inexcusable to the young Uchiha.
He looked up at the broken statue of his ancestor and began to think of how things would have been if Madara had been the village leader instead of the Senju. The world surely would be a much better place if the Uchiha had been in charge of the most powerful ninja village in the known world.
Maybe they could still be. Sasuke may be the only combat ready Uchiha still alive; sans his older brother of course, but there were still plenty of civilians with Uchiha blood that could birth powerful offspring. If he could convince his brother to help in his cause, then the Uchiha could become unstoppable and control not only the entire Village Hidden in the Leaves, but the entire nation as it was.
But, the boy needed more power before he could even begin to hope to succeed in taking the ninja nations. A lot more power. As of right now, there was only one individual that could give the lad the power he wanted; the very man that gave him the strength and power to take out the very murderer of his clan.
Lord Orochimaru of the Legendary Sannin.
Sasuke would do whatever it took to gain the power necessary to destroy Konohagakure as well as the monsters that have infested it.
With that thought still fresh in his head, Sasuke leapt up the cliff face and landed on what remained of his ancestor's statue. He looked forward into the dark forest with a hard steeled gaze. Only for a large black tentacle to suddenly come up from behind and smash into him hard enough to send the young boy careening back into the deep valley.
He was just barely able to right himself and land on the same small plot of land he had just left moments before.
"Did you really think we were going to let you get away that easily?!" Venom's monstrous voice roared.
One of Venom's secondary arms came out of the water and slammed onto the small land mass. Only, the hand and the claws attached to it were much larger than before. The other arm came up, followed by two two smaller arms in between.
All four arms hoisted up Venom's new body.
The beast's upper body mass had increased so much that he was no longer able to stand upright and now had become completely quadrupedal. The back legs had become almost completely bestial and stuck out more from the body than directly underneath. His neck no longer existed, causing his large skull to appear to be a part of his torso.
Each side of Venom's head contained three large white eyes while his mouth had become filled with nightmarish fangs to the point where they were even sprouting from the roof and floor of his mouth. From each of his massive shoulders sprouted two more head on very long and flexible necks. The heads were similar in appearance to Venom's original skull; large eyes and fangs included.
"You want to know what makes us truly different?!" Venom roared as he lunged for the Uchiha. "We constantly adapt to face whatever challenges we come across." The monster swiped a massive paw at the boy. "We don't have to depend on others making us stronger. We don't run away from our problems and hope someone else can help make them go away. We don't go begging for power. We take it!"
Sasuke responded by quickly dodging several of the monster's attacks and and landing on Venom's back. Without a second thought, Sasuke plunged a super-charged hand directly into the monster's back and held on tightly to it's spine.
The creature gave a loud angry roar before it's two other heads snaked around and snapped at the Uchiha. A sea of tentacles exploded out from Venom's back and slammed the Uchiha with enough force to pry his electrified hand off of Venom's spine and into the water.
"The same trick won't work twice!" Venom roared before making a loud series of retching gags. The beast leaned it's head over before violently churning out a river of nasty purple-black bile into the water. The vile concoction quickly spread across the river's surface as it spread and sank down into the water.
Sasuke was able to leap out of the water before the vile mess could get too close; only to be slammed into a cliff wall by Venom's now even more massive bulk. The large alien pinned his mass against Sasuke's as small tendrils started to leech out and wrap around the smaller human.
"We are going to swallow you whole!" Venom roared as Sasuke's body started to become absorbed within the monster's alien body.
The Uchiha fought back with all he had but could not break free from Venom's semi-liquid grip. Everything became dark as his body was consumed by the symbiote. He could not see, hear, smell, or feel anything. He could not even tell if we was moving or not, or even breathing.
He had to get it! He could not die like this; as some horrible beast's meal! He had to get his revenge. He had to avenge every last Uchiha that had died because of both this monster and the village that housed it.
Sasuke put everything he had into getting out while begging the mark on his shoulder to give him more power. He ordered it to give him the power he needed. Suddenly; an idea formed within his twisted mind and a nasty smirked graced his face.
Willing his fingers to move, the Uchiha performed a series of hand signs before focusing all of his energy right into his very center. Once it was as condensed as possible, Sasuke unleashed all of that energy in a giant fiery explosion. The force of which was enough to blast his way out of his organic prison.
Venom screamed in a combination of rage and pain as the entire front portion of his body burst open.
"Did you think you would kill me so easily?!" Sasuke shouted as he tried to take advantage of the monster's stunned state by launched several large balls of fire directly at the monster's horrific heart. But before they could hit the beast, large holes appeared that caused the attack to sail harmlessly right through Venom's damaged torso.
"Your fire is useless boy!" Venom roared as several large fangs erupted from his chest and were launched towards the Uchiha. "Your techniques are useless." The monster reformed his massive form. "Your entire bloodline is useless and ends today!"
Instead of attacking Sasuke; Venom leapt up onto a cliff face and started to climb up. "We will slaughter the rest of your pathetic family right before your filthy eyes before draining the life out of you!"
Now the roles have been reversed. Instead of Sasuke being hunted down as a traitor to his home. It was now Venom who was to be hunted while trying to completely eradicate every single sign of Uchiha existence within his home village.
"Stop!" Sasuke shouted as he unleashed a wall of fire to scorch the beast's path; only to watch it walk through the hot flames as if they were not even there and continuing onward. The flames no longer brought harm to his alien body and were now nothing more than an annoyance.
Venom decided to retaliate by spewing out a torrent of purple bile at his assailant. "Try to make us. You Uchiha claim to be superior to all those around you; yet we've killed the best warriors your clan has ever created. We slaughtered them, tore them apart and listened to them beg and scream for help that would never come."
The monster's words brought Sasuke's blood to a boil. Electricity coursed through his hands and feet as he launched himself towards the beast; intent on finishing this fight before the demon could make it to the top of the cliff.
Focusing with all of his might, Sasuke launched all of the built up energy he had as a massive ball of electrical chakra aimed directly for Venom's large head.
The creature, as well as the cliff it was scaling, exploded violently. When Sasuke landed upon the water below, he could see no sign of Venom except for a few small pieces of black flesh floating within the water.
The Uchiha took a heavy sigh of relief. It was over. The beast that had slain his family, forced his brother to leave, and threatened what few members remained was finally dead.
But he could not afford to rest just yet. There was still a village that had harbored the vile beast that still needed to be dealt with along with however many of it's wretched kind remained.
Sasuke turned his back towards the direction of his birth place and faced towards what will become his knew life as a ninja of the Sound. He dragged his tired body back up to the top of the ravine and was about to push forward when it suddenly hit him just how tired and hurt he really was.
The boy fell to his knees and had to braces his hands against the ground to keep from completely falling over. Every part of him felt hurt and drained. He had used up way too much energy in that fight and could not even rise up off his knees; let alone walk anywhere at all.
He took a few calming breaths, did his best to ignore the pain, and tried with all of his might to get to his feet. Sasuke contemplated just staying where he was for a while to rest up, but that thought was quickly dashed away upon remembering that he was still being chased by his former home.
Deciding to lay down for a moment; the boy rolled onto his back just in time to see a large foot hovering right over his head. With a sudden burst of energy, Sasuke was able to roll out of the way and just barely get back onto his knees; still unable to stand.
"Finally." Venom snarled. "It looks like you finally understand where you belong." The monster swung a fist that connected to the Uchiha's side and sent him sprawling to the ground. Sasuke tried to get to his feet only for Venom to slam a foot onto the boy's back and hold him down.
"Beneath our feet."
Venom stepped off Sasuke for a moment before grabbing the back of the human's head, raising it up and slamming his face hard into the ground.
"Don't think for a moment that we are completing our mission." Venom chuckled darkly. "After all; it was the Demon of the Village that killed the last Uchiha warrior long before we even got to him. His body torn apart and almost unrecognizable."
The monster lowered his head until it was directly next to Sasuke's.
"The only things missing were his brain...and his eyes."
Venom allowed his tongue to slither out from between his jagged fangs; the tip becoming hard, sharp, and covered in tiny hook-like barbs. He held the appendage in front of the Uchiha's face before pulling it back and jamming it directly into the center of Sasuke's left eye.
Sasuke let out a loud scream of pain as the tongue began to slowly pull away from his face. The pain the boy felt was indescribable as every single one of the barbs twisted and tugged slowly along with the main appendage. It was torture in it's most purest of forms as the alien above him took as long as possible to move even the smallest amount.
Venom's tongue continued to slowly pull until the eye finally had popped out of it's socket. The bleeding red orb was still attached to Sasuke's skull when Venom gave one final, violent yank; ripping the eye clean away from the Uchiha's body.
Venom let out a loud roar-like laugh as he dangled the pierced eyeball in front of him. The barbs on his tongue became long spikes that began to spin around; completely shredding the eye to pieces. All the while Venom laughed as loudly as possible.
"Now for the next one." Venom chuckled as he once again extended his deadly tongue towards Sasuke's face.
But before he could drive the weaponized appendage into the Uchiha's second eye; nearly a dozen shinobi from the Land of Sound appeared from nowhere and surrounded the two.
Venom slowly rose to his feet; with one foot still planted firmly on Sasuke's back.
"Looks like we got some people that want to spoil our fun." Venom dug his heel into Sasuke's spine. "What do you say we let them join in?"
But before the otherworldly beast could even move; the entire crowd of ninja began to form the exact same hand signs simultaneously. Without warning the ninja all opened their mouths and produced an inhumanly high pitched screech.
Venom's body began to distort and twist unnaturally as every cell of his being screamed in agony. Venom was forced off of Sasuke; who was quickly snatched up by one of the surrounding Sound ninja. Said individual was quick to flee the scene as his comrades continued to pummel Venom with their sound-based attacks.
It was only when one of their members mistimed his attack that their target had an opportunity to strike back. Using his destabilized state, Venom launched a barrage of thick tentacles all around him; impaling everything they could reach. He instantly began to drain his attackers of their life energy as he saw Sasuke being carried away in the distance.
Venom growled as he watched the two figures vanish from sight. He let out an angry roar before tossing the drained husks of his victims down the ravine. H was tempted to follow them but decided against it. With only one eye, Sasuke was not even close to being a threat. Besides he had the few remaining Uchiha within the village to feast upon.
He had other business he needed to attend to and the cowardly Uchiha was nowhere near the top of his priority list.
As Venom turned his back to the fleeing Uchiha, his form shrank until it had once again become Naruto's own. The emotions of the symbiote bled into Naruto and fueled the boy's already heated rage even further.
Sasuke just left! Even after being forced to threaten his very mother; the coward still turned tail and ran away! And Naruto let him. Just like Venom; he did not see the point in trying to chase the boy any further. His resolution was absolute and if threatening the last of his family did not change Sasuke's mind, then nothing will.
It was completely pointless to try. For now.
For Naruto, the mission was a complete and total failure and he did not expect to be given a hero's welcome when he would return to his village.
The sky darkened as thick storm clouds slowly rolled in. Naruto ignored them as he calmly walked back home. He also ignored the heavy pounding of the rain as the sky opened and released a torrential downpour.
His eyes narrowed as he continued to walk forward. The barrier holding his mind hostage having weakened do to his transformations had allowed small glimpses to be seen of things that had truly transpired. These memories coupled with what had just happened moments ago brought out a rage deep within Naruto that he was currently fighting to contain.
The seal on his mind had not just been used to make him remember things differently but also hide away memories that would not benefit the individual that had placed it upon him. Unfortunate for said individual, Naruto's clash with Sasuke allowed the boy the smallest glimpse of who was responsible.
Naruto passed by his injured allies without so much as a glance. His mind too focused on what needed to be done to allow for even the smallest of distractions to stop him for even a moment.
Those that could still stand did and tried to follow Naruto; helping those that needed it before continuing onward.
The aura of pure malice that radiated off the blond forced everyone to stay a few steps back lest they incur an unknown wrath.
It was not until the group could see the entrance to their village did Naruto finally alter his movements.
There, standing at the entrance to the village, was none other than Sakura Haruno and Mikoto Uchiha, Sasuke's mother. Kakashi stood before the two women with a look of great concern that outmatched theirs.
Naruto's brow furrowed as he started to quicken his pace until it had turned into a full blown forward charge. He was tired, his body was worn, and he was irritated.
All three onlookers' expressions brightened when they saw the lad quickly approaching. It took the small group a moment before realizing that Naruto was showing any sort of happy expression.
Before they knew it; Naruto was right up to them and a large bladed hand had erupted out of the back of Naruto's shirt before thrusting itself right for the Uchiha matriarch. It was only through Kakashi's quick thinking did the Older woman not have her life ended by a claw piercing her skull.
Using his lighting-based technique; Kakashi used all of his strength to try and redirect Naruto's attack. He was successful in preventing the bladed claw from rupturing Mikoto's head; instead; her pretty little head was now stuck in between two large and dangerous claws.
"Naruto! Wha-?" Sakura was quickly interrupted by Naruto growling loudly.
"Your worthless son ran away!" Naruto snarled. "Ran away with his tail in between his shaking little legs." He began to slowly put pressure down on Mikoto's shoulders.
He smirked wickedly. "And we hurt him. We hurt him bad." He hissed. The applied more pressure, forcing Mikoto to bend her knees. "He's now more scared of us than ever before. As you should be as well." He blink for just a moment to allow his eyes to go blank before quickly returning normal.
Mikoto looked confused and scared. Why was the normally sweet and kind Uzumaki boy acting so...vile?
"Naruto stop!" Kakashi ordered.
"We told your worthless child something. We made a promise." Naruto snarled before slowly pulling Mikoto closer to his face.
"We're going to finish what we started so long ago."
Mikoto's eyes widened before Naruto violently tossed her backwards.
"Now hold still." Naruto raised his massive hand; poised to deal a lethal strike. But the attack was once again interrupted by Kakashi. The man had to use kunai in both hands to block the blades from ripping apart the Uchiha matriarch.
"Get out of our way!" Naruto roared as he applied more pressure on his arm, forcing Kakashi to take a step back to maintain balance.
"What the Hell are you doing Naruto?!" Kakashi shouted as he tried to push back his student. "Get her out of here!" He ordered Sakura.
The pink-haired girl gave a nod before grabbing Mikoto by the arm and forcing her to run away with her.
"Not so fast!" Naruto roared before launching a black tentacle out of the side of his torso and launching it for the female Uchiha. The appendage quickly caught up to the running pair and easily snagged the adult woman's ankle; tripping her and dragging her back to the blond.
"Stop this immediately!" Kakashi ordered as he tried to push Naruto back. The boy was a lot stronger then Kakashi remembered, but he still did not want to harm him even though he seemed to have lost his mind. The stress over losing such a close ally must have weighed heavily upon his soul.
Naruto fixed his gaze upon the older man. "We don't take orders from you!" He suddenly applied force into his arm and pushed Kakashi back enough to knock him off balance. His other arm ripped itself out from his back as he made for a leaping lunge towards the struggling Uchiha.
Mikoto quickly formed a few hands signs before holding her hand up to her mouth and letting loose a stream of fire aimed right for Naruto. She may not have been a ninja, but basic fire technicians were pretty much mandatory for all Uchiha to know.
Even engulfed by flames; Naruto anger forced his already tired and hurt body to continue onward and strike at the mother of the Uchiha traitor.
"We may have missed out chance to kill your worthless son, but we be sure to parade your rotting corpse before him!" Naruto screamed as his body began to slowly melt.
He ignored the pain and swiped at the Uchiha repeatedly as the pouring rain slowly doused the flames encircling him. He was able to strike her with one of his massive claws; leave a deep bleeding wound across her chest as she tried to crawl away backwards. Unfortunately, Naruto's body had destabilized so much so that upon making the swing and after wounding Mikoto, the entire appendage flew clean off and away from his semi-solid body.
He continued to march towards the retreating woman even as his body fell apart. Globs of flesh dripped away like a viscus slime while whole body parts simply fell and melted away.
Eventually the flames were too much and Naruto's body began to completely collapse in on itself; resulting in him becoming nothing more than a few bones and a black puddle.
The rain had finally put out the flames and the boy's mess of a body slithered and slinked about while still trying to reach for the Uchiha.
Sakura gave Kakashi a look filled with a wide range of emotion. The older man gave a sad sigh.
"What happened to you?" He mumbled before looking at his female student. "Watch over him. I'll be back shortly with help."
Sakura watched her teacher leave before looking down at the slowly reforming Naruto. The girl crouched down and stared at the puddle sadly.
"What did happen to you?" She whispered as the black mass reformed bone and tissue. Sakura went over to Mikoto and sis what she could to help the injured woman.
"Kill them." Naruto's distorted voice echoed out from his slowly reforming skull. "Must Kill all Uchiha."
Sakura did her best to ignore the horrific voice while tending to the older woman before her. She was able to stop the bleeding and treat the large wound as best she could before the feeling of something wet and slimy climbing up her leg forced her to snap her attention back to her semi-solid teammate.
Naruto had only barely reformed the general shape of his arm before reaching out and grabbing Sakura by the ankle. He looked up at the pink-haired girl with his one completed eye
"Please." He begged. The look he gave could only bring pity to the girl's heart. "Please get them out of my head." He pleaded with all he had. The boy suddenly yanked Sakura away from Mikoto before forming his arm into several tentacles and reached them out towards the older woman.
They grabbed at her leg and torso before reaching for her neck. The Uchiha tried to break free; but it was like fighting jelly. Her hand simply adhered to the dripping appendage and could not break free.
The slimy tentacle quickly tightened it's grip around the woman's neck; intent on squeezing the very life out of her. Sakura tried to sever the appendage with a kunai; but just like Mikoto's hand, it too sank and stuck fast to the dripping limb.
Mikoto's eyes began to shudder and droop as her breathing picked up; trying desperately to take in any air that could slip through her crushed trachea. The last thing the woman saw before completely passing out was a ball of fire once again engulf Naruto's semi-liquid form; forcing the strangling limb off of the chocking Uchiha.