When Death Comes

Chapter 3

Naruto took several deep breaths in an effort to calm himself. He could feel his pets raging inside his mind sending a burning pain through his hand as the lines that made up his tattoo turned crimson in reaction to his anger.

"SHUT UP!" he yelled at the top of his lungs causing his pets to immediately stop their screeching. 'Calm down Naruto, people don't just disappear he must have gotten out somehow.' taking another deep breath he examined the room until he found a tile in the wall that seemed to be impressed deeper into the wall then all of the others. He placed his hand on it and pushed and felt it dig deeper into its crevice, but aside from that nothing happened.

'Worth a shot' he thought before winding up and punching the stone as hard as he could and collapsing the entire wall in the process revealing a dimly torch-lit tunnel.

'Got him' Naruto began to cackle madly as he walked into the tunnel and took off down the hall as fast as he could.

Danzo was a wise man, one did not live to be so old as a shinobi without being so. It was this wisdom that led him to flee from the insane man that had just butchered his best shinobi with ease. That was not to say that Danzo was a coward simply that he did not believe in fighting a battle that he was not certain he could win. Even the power of the Izanagi granted to him by the Sharingan in his arm would be meaningless if he didn't have an attack that could kill him. On top of that Danzo was sure that the boy had acquired new skills since the last time he had seen him in battle.

'I knew I should have killed him back then' the old man thought remorsefully none of this would have happened if he had simply done as he had believed was right instead of falling for Hiruzen's speech about the will of fire and Naruto's ability to overcome his hardships and coming out as a better man for it.

Bullshit. It was all bullshit. The monster that called itself Uzumaki Naruto had no shred of light in it much less a will of fire. Any hardship it had suffered had done nothing but breed hatred and bitterness inside of it, and now Danzo was the sole holder of all of its animosity.

After a few more minutes of contemplating his current circumstances Danzo finally saw the end of the tunnel only to immediately frown as standing in front of the large metal doors was the lanky form of Uzumaki Naruto smiling at him as if he was greeting an old friend.

"Sup' Bitch" Naruto repeated his earlier greeting the smile never leaving his face.

It was about a minute of running down the tunnel before Naruto was hit with a stroke of genius. Why waste all this time running down the hall when he could have his pet do it for him. Placing his hand on the wall, he felt one of his pets leaving him and watched as a shadow that took the form of his silhouette took off down the tunnel. Naruto stopped running and took a seat on the floor and began whistling a happy tune as he waited for his shadow to reach the end of the tunnel.

Another minute passed before he could feel the tug of his shadow telling him it had completed its mission. Another moment and he felt himself being pulled in its direction and a moment later he stood at the end of the tunnel. He leaned against the metal door behind him and stood still as he patiently waited Danzo's arrival.

A few minutes passed and he saw Danzo sprinting in his direction. He adopted a smile as Danzo came to a stop in front of him.

"Sup' Bitch" he repeated his original greeting the smile never leaving his face. The look of terror and surprise on Danzo's normally impassive face filled Naruto with unimaginable joy.

As soon as Naruto finished his greeting Danzo struck "Wind Style: Vacuum Bullet" spitting out small bullets of pressurized air which Naruto was barely able to avoid due to the confined fighting space. After the initial attack Danzo charged in something which did not seem to concern Naruto very much as he continued casually dodging Danzo's attacks without ever throwing out a punch of his own.

Danzo leapt back realizing the futility of his assault as the smiling man in front of him was faster and more agile than the elder. Despite this it seemed that Naruto was content to stand there and wait for Danzo's attacks as he made no move to attack and stood in front of the door smiling.

"I see you're not much of a talker" Naruto's words were immediately followed by Danzo going into a long string of hand seals "Earth Style: Earth Spear" spears formed from the walls and floor where Naruto stood causing him to launch himself forward at Danzo who intended to meet his his opponent halfway with a kunai in hand only for Naruto to have Naruto sidestep him and land behind him.

Danzo was panting with exertion as pain spread through his right arm. "Looks like old age is finally catching up to you" Danzo tried to form hand seals only to find that he couldn't move either of his arms or any part of his body for that matter.

A moment later his right arm seemed to melt and fell to the ground in a puddle. "Interesting" Naruto said as a small bonsai tree sprouted. "What's that shit made of?" he asked curiously only to receive no response. "Ah, right you probably can't speak at the moment, huh? Oh well I suppose it can't be helped, chakra exhaustion does that to a body. You know I thought this would be more fun, but it seems I may have done a little more preparation than necessary." For the first time Naruto frowned in disappointment it was rare that someone could live up expectation especially when Naruto had been preparing for this moment for six years while he was certain Danzo hadn't given him a second thought.

"I was originally going to torture you a bit myself before I killed you but I think I'll let my pet have some fun with you. Oh but don't worry I asked him to be extra careful with you wouldn't want you to die before you get the full experience. See ya!" The look of delight on Naruto's face was the last thing Danzo saw before he was consumed by Naruto's shadow which continued siphoning Danzo's chakra as it had been since the battle began. It also took great joy in tormenting Danzo's mind with images of his greatest fears and his own memories which it took great joy in warping to its purposes.

Neko was pissed as she slowly marched through the forest nursing her injuries. That monster was too much and had butchered her entire squad and injured her heavily before she was finally able to slice it in half.

Despite her injuries she continued her search for Naruto. She needed to make the bastard pay for his actions and would stop at nothing to make that happen. He had killed her fiance and beat her within an inch of her life leaving her alive on a whim 'Maybe one day you'll prove yourself useful' he had said before he moved on without a care tearing into group after group of ANBU on his way out of the village. That more than anything enraged her. He had seemingly left her alive not even deeming her worthy of dying along with her fiance and her comrades.

Suddenly she willed herself more than anything else to roll to the side as a kunai landed slammed into the ground where she was a moment earlier. She growled as she heard laughter coming from the trees and a moment later the crimson eyed object of her loathing landed a few feet in front of her.

With a cry of rage she tried to charge him only to fall to the ground as her legs finally gave into the pain and exhaustion. "Damn you got fucked up!" he said jovially. Her response was a growl as she tried to force herself to her feet. "Not much use in that you know even if you stood up I would just push you back down."

"Sh-shut up" she growled continuing her efforts finally being able to rise to one knee after a few moments of struggling. Only for Naruto to walk up and push her down onto her back.

"Told you" he said as she glared at him as he stood over her.

"Why are you here?" she finally asked after her efforts to sit up simply resulted in him pushing her back down with his foot.

"Just wanted to check up on a dear friend."

"Fuck you" she responded.

"That's not how you treat a friend"

"I hate you"

"See that's why we're friends, I hate me too," he laughed exuberantly. Neko was not nearly as amused and resumed her efforts to stand up.

"If we're 'friends' then help me up," her words were practically dripping with sarcasm, but to her surprise Naruto just shrugged and lifted her before placing her against a nearby tree.

She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted as the sky was lit up with red as the sound of an explosion shattered the silence.

"Looks like someone found my present" Naruto said happily. "Unfortunately that does mark the end of my stay and I really must be going, but let's do this again I enjoy our chats" With that he disappeared leaving Neko sufficiently confused.

AN: I had originally written a long epic fight scene for Danzo but eventually decided against it. I thought it would be more appropriate for Danzo to meet his end this way. Not all deaths have to be large and bombastic the truth is that Danzo knew nothing of Naruto's capabilities and much less the ability of his pets and therefore was unable to prepare for any of them. I would also like to say that Naruto is 15 while the rest of the rookie 9 are 12. My reasoning is that in the anime Naruto is stated to have failed the academy exam multiple times despite the fact that he was the same age as all of his classmates. In this story Naruto failed the exam a couple of times before abandoning the village and in fact only attended class with the rookie 9 for a short time before leaving the village. Hope that clears up any confusion. Thank you for reading and as always I am willing to answer any questions you leave in a review either in the form of a PM or directly in the next chapter.

-SilentSIlas