Pre-word: So here we are at what I would like to think of as the climax of part one of this fic.
This is another chapter where I think the less said, the better. However, with this you will probably kind of get an idea of what I've been building towards since the beginning and why I made certain choices that I did a couple chapters back.
Heart Under Shadow
Push and Pull
Uzumaki Naruto thought he was prepared.
He had no idea how wrong he was.
This was the conclusion that Kaguya had reached as her master walked through the streets of Konoha to the official meeting destination his team had agreed upon.
"You okay, Kaguya-chan?" Naruto asked, having gotten good at being able to read Kaguya's mood even while she was hidden away inside his shadow. He stopped walking, having already arrived in front of Ichiraku Ramen.
From here, the view of the Hokage Monument looked particularly picturesque under the midday sun. It should have been by all means a beautiful day, yet somehow the air from the day before had only gotten heavier in the village.
"We are fine." Kaguya answered from within the shadow. "However, we are concerned for thou." She was surprised to find she actually meant those words. When was the last time she had felt something like this for a human? There was no scheming to be had here, nor any kind of ulterior motives. She just wanted Naruto to be okay.
"Thanks, but it will be okay." Naruto turned away from looking at the Hokage monument to smile down at his shadow. "You're here with me… so something will work out." He had resolved himself to no longer be used by others. If Kakashi and Danzo wanted to go at one another, that was fine with him. However, he wasn't just going to be some pawn in their schemes. He was going to fight too, for himself.
Otherwise, what had been the point in gathering strength until now?
"Naruto!" Sakura called out to him from further down the street, waving at him as she ran in his direction. She was actually the biggest complication in everything at the moment, whether she knew it or not. No, in the first place it was because she didn't know anything about what was going on that she was a complication.
That was why Naruto had resolved to talk with her before Kakashi arrived.
"Sakura." He returned her greeting as she slowed to a stop in front of him. Hiking a thumb at the open ramen stall next to them he asked, "Want to get a bite while we wait for Kakashi-sensei? Not like he'll be on time anyways." That was one thing Naruto had learned about his teacher over the past month of training under him. He was the least punctual man Naruto had ever met.
"Sure." Sakura nodded and the two of them made their way into the stall, pushing back the flaps to enter.
"Naruto!" Ayame smiled as he walked inside and took a seat. "What's this? A girl not Kaguya-chan this time?" She then asked, smiling devilishly and giving them both a suggestive wink.
"It's not like that." Naruto quickly retorted, waving both hands in front of himself. In the past, Sakura might have slugged him for such a comment, nevermind the fact he had nothing to do with perpetuating the misunderstanding. However, he was surprised to find Sakura only giggled, placing a hand in front of her mouth.
"Nice to meet you." She bowed before then taking her seat next to Naruto. "I'm Haruno Sakura. Naruto's new Genin teammate." At the mention of being Genin, Naruto couldn't help but fiddle with the hitai-ate atop his head that marked him as a Ninja now. With the simple introduction out of the way, she glanced curiously at Naruto as she asked, "Who's Kaguya-chan?"
"Ah... right." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, not sure how to even begin answering that. In the first place he had wanted to talk with Sakura about some of these things, but he had no idea how to go about it. "Before that, let me get the usual!" So he decided to stall for time, ordering his ramen. Sakura also placed an order and a comfortable moment of silence settled between the two.
"Well, I'm sure there's a lot of things you don't want to talk about yet." Sakura suddenly said, surprising Naruto who turned to look at her with his mouth agape. "We just became a team, after all. So it's probably too early to expect us to be completely open with one another. Still… I never thought you and I could get along like this. It's weird right, but I really kind of feel like we've become friends." She finished, flashing Naruto a big smile.
"...Sakura." Naruto whispered, not sure what else he was supposed to say in such a situation. All this time he wanted someone his own age he could finally call a friend. To his surprise, it was Sakura that first used the word to clarify their until now unspoken relationship. He didn't know what they were; study-buddies, test rivals, or simply two lonely people afflicted by bullies?
Maybe it was perhaps a result of being all these things that they were now what Sakura would call friends? In the first place, Naruto didn't even know what it was that made friendship. Was it something self defined? Or was it something more than that? Regardless of what it was, it seemed he had finally reached his goal and obtained a real friend.
Just in time to lose it.
"Aruji-sama!" Kaguya warned too late. In the next moment, a young man with long black hair sat down next to Naruto, on the opposite side from Sakura. He seemed tired, dark circles under his eyes, the rest of his physical characteristics hidden under a large cloak.
"Welcome! What can we get you?" Ayame didn't notice the tension that had filled Naruto's body, paying attention only to their new customer. However, she did frown slightly when the man shook his head at the question.
"I'm not here to order… I actually have business with Naruto." He said simply, turning in his seat to look at the young blond next to him. Tension filled the rest of the stall, as everyone's eyes settled on Naruto alone now.
"Sorry dude, I don't talk to strangers." Naruto fought past his fear, grinning at the man as if to show him he wasn't intimidated. In the first place, he really didn't know who this person was or what he might want with him. However, Kaguya had sounded really panicked just now, so he could only be bad news.
"You and I are no simple strangers anymore, Naruto… although this would be the first time we met." The man spoke casually, or rather he was attempting to. His breathing was labored, but he was doing an excellent job of masking it until now. There was a dripping sound and for a split second, Naruto's eyes darted to the floor.
Blood.
The man was bleeding under his cloak, but the extent of his injuries was hard to gauge.
"You're hurt." Sakura also seemed to notice, peeking over Naruto's shoulder in an attempt to better get a look at the man. In the distance there was a quiet and low tremble that momentarily occupied all their attention. As if realizing he was low on time, the man turned once more back to Naruto.
"It doesn't matter anymore." The man said, downplaying his injury. "Naruto… bring out the one you call Kaguya." His eyes glanced down, looking purposefully at Naruto's shadow.
"How do you-" Naruto started to ask, but a moment later and Kaguya cut him off by taking control of his shadow. Even still she remained out of sight.
"It is probably best to assume from this point on that your Sensei is dead. That is the only way this man got information about us from him. This is why we wanted him dead in the first place." She stated as a matter of fact. But Naruto's brain wasn't able to keep up with the information.
Hatake Kakashi. Dead? That was what Kaguya had said, but it couldn't be. Naruto looked once more at the small pool of blood gathering beneath the man now.
"Well, it appears she is listening. So it doesn't matter if she comes out or not." Itachi didn't miss the brief look that flashed against Naruto's face and seemed to realize he had just taken in information from some disembodied voice. Even if he couldn't hear her, he knew now that she was here.
"What is he talking about?" Sakura asked, but both men ignored her. Meanwhile, the ramen master had grabbed his daughter's arm, pulling her further back into the shop. Neither one of them were preparing ramen anymore, as if they realized something was about to happen and they might need to flee at any moment.
"Naruto… you and I are both victims of Danzo." The unknown man said. No, in the first place his identity wasn't a mystery. From the moment he had walked in, Naruto had known exactly who he was looking at. Despite trying to tell himself he didn't know, there was only one person this could be.
Uchiha Itachi.
He had come to avenge the loss of his brother, who would one day have served as his replacement eyes. Before coming here, he had found Kakashi and gotten information on Kaguya. However, he had been injured, either during the skirmish to get that information or after, it was impossible to say.
Such a fight would have no doubt attracted attention, yet Itachi had managed to escape to the inner parts of the village without pursuers despite that injury. Another low tremble in the distance was the answer to that mystery. Itachi wasn't alone. He had an ally or allies that were currently distracting the others so he could have this conversation uninterrupted.
"Let me tell you my story, so you know why I am about to take your life. You at least deserve to know that much, from one victim to another." Uchiha Itachi faced forward in his chair, placing his elbows on the counter-top and interlacing his fingers. "I did kill my clan, yes. However, it was in order to stop their planned coup d'etat. I also did spare my brother that night… but not so I could one day take his eyes."
Itachi's eyes changed. Going from pure black irises to red with three spinning tomoe. The Sharingan. Naruto had only seen such eyes once before, when Kakashi showed him his one eye briefly. These were different then that. The power gap between them was easily distinguishable and Naruto knew now that they were dealing with someone that very well could have bested his teacher.
"Danzo made me a promise. That he would keep my brother safe." Itachi continued, his voice getting more ragged, and increasingly more emotional. "Sasuke was my light… he was supposed to be better than I was. He was supposed to kill me and avenge our clan… because he was the one person I could not bring myself to kill."
The tension reached a boiling point. Something was about to happen, but no one had any idea what.
"That's why, Naruto. I will have to kill you… or I will be killed by you. Either end is fine for me. In the process of this death-match… let's destroy the village that Danzo sought to cultivate through our sacrifices. Our combined anger should produce nothing less than that." Itachi's Sharingan changed yet again, as chakra built in his right eye, he turned to look directly at Naruto.
It was in that moment that Kaguya saw to move. Naruto's legs lifted on their own, pushing against the face of the counter and launching him backwards. He flew out from the ramen stall. However, after he dodged out of the way, the one that had been next to Naruto was now in the immediate line of fire. Literally.
The ear-piercing scream Sakura let out caused Naruto's heart to fall. He took back control of his movements, spinning in midair and landing in a crouch in the middle of the street. For a moment he didn't see what happened. All he heard was Sakura's screams, but she was still hidden behind the curtain. He didn't have to wait long, as she stumbled out from the stall a second later.
Sakura was covered in black flames. Her body burned and boiled, being consumed by the flames so intense in heat that it felt like they would burn him just looking at them. She continued to scream, flailing around blindly with no real purpose. She burned and burned and continued to burn. All the while just letting out the last yells of a dying person experiencing the most intense pain they would ever know.
The black fire didn't end there, Sakura in her flailing having spread it to the ramen stall. The whole building went up in flames. Had Ayame and her father been able to get out in time? He didn't hear their screams, but the fact was he hadn't seen them run out either. Leaving him to only assume the worst.
Yet the only thing he could was stand here and watch. He knew to get near those flames would be the same as suicide. Never did he hate himself more for his worthlessness. As Sakura, his friend, burned to death while undergoing intense pain.
Then it was over.
Naruto's first and only friend went silent as she collapsed onto the street. Unmoving, yet still burning. Her body was slowly consumed by the black flames that wouldn't go out.
"Amaterasu." Kaguya gave the flames a name, but Naruto didn't care. He didn't even hear her speak. The only thing he could see was Sakura's still smoldering body. Her clothes, hair, skin and even bones were burned away. Nothing of her was left untouched by the dark fire that Itachi had cast on her with a single glance.
Uchiha Itachi.
Like how Kaguya and Naruto took the only person left that was important to him, Itachi in return took away Naruto's first friend.
Naruto wanted to scream but no words came out. He thought maybe he should cry but there were no tears. There was only nothing. He was left completely blank and empty. As if this was just a dream, or maybe even a Genjutsu. For it couldn't be reality. He refused to accept that this was his new reality.
"Aruji-sama!" Kaguya shouted, trying to get Naruto to move, or at the very least return control of his movements to her. She was too late, Itachi stepping out from the burning shop and looking once more at Naruto with his Mangekyou Sharingan eye.
A single glance was enough.
The same flames that now ate away at Sakura's corpse engulfed Naruto.
The black flame exploded from his left shoulder. The intense heat was something so indescribable that it couldn't be put into words. This was true hell. Worse than any beating Naruto had ever received. No, worse than all of them put together. It was this pain that Sakura just suffered through. It hadn't been long, before the pain had taken her life. Just knowing she had experienced this as her last moments, though… Naruto finally felt something.
A heartbeat.
His heart beat and pulsed, pumping blood and adrenaline to the rest of his body. "...Uchiha… Itachi!" Naruto roared his name, the Rinnegan eyes on his hands popping open, ripping the fabric keeping them concealed apart.
"Shinra Tensei!" The black flames were pushed off of Naruto, sent flying in every single conceivable direction. The buildings on the street around them went up in flames. Every single one of them… burning in the same way as his favorite ramen stand.
Ichiraku Ramen was beyond recognition now, consumed by the black flames that had just been intended to take Naruto's life. His teacher, his friend, the only place that ever welcomed him, along with the people inside. In a single moment, Itachi had taken all that from him.
Kaguya had predicted Naruto wasn't prepared.
Well, he was now. Because the only thing he truly had left was her. There was nothing left for him to lose and so he could unleash his full power. All his pent up anger that had been storing up for the past twelve years of his life. At Danzo, at the village, at Itachi, at the entire world for having turned against him.
Naruto had just become her perfect Jinchuriki.
Itachi hadn't been spared from the flames that Naruto had knocked back, getting burned alive by his own black fire. At least, he was for only a moment, before he broke apart into numerous crows. A couple of the crows collapsed dead to the ground as the flames continued to eat at them. The rest all flew away.
"As we suspected, a shadow clone." Kaguya would have shot him with her bone bullet the moment he stepped into the stall if she hadn't predicted such an outcome. If Itachi had truly forced information out of Kakashi, then it went without saying he would know not to put himself in the way of her bullet.
"Kaguya-chan, where is the real one." Naruto asked. No, it wasn't a question, but more of a demand for her to find him. Kaguya slowly rose from Naruto's shadow, Byakugan eyes already active as she scanned the surrounding area for the man they were now in a death-match with.
What she saw instead was a barrage of shuriken flying at them from nearly every direction. "Defend thyself while we search." Kaguya slipped the tanto out from her sleeve, tossing it up to Naruto who caught it effortlessly with his left hand.
The shuriken were on him a second later. Naruto swung the short sword, batting away every single one, using the enhanced vision of the Rinnegan on his right hand to quickly find them. Meanwhile, his left swung the sword, leaving a trailing white streak with every flick of the wrist. The deflected shuriken fell to his feet in pieces.
"We found him." Kaguya pointed to a nearby five story building several blocks away. It was the tallest building in the immediate area, making it the ideal spot for Itachi to continue sniping at them with his Shuriken Jutsu. Meanwhile, they wouldn't be so easily able to counter-attack.
No, that wasn't true. If they were trying not to cause collateral damage it would be difficult. As Naruto was now, with nothing left in the village worth saving, he simply reached behind him.
"Bansho Ten'in!" Naruto pulled everything behind him in.
Everything.
Buildings from blocks away. The trees in a nearby forest. Water from a lake. Other humans. Nothing was off-limits to his power that reached far back, stretching over a block-wide area. All of this was pulled in by the Rinnegan in Naruto's right palm.
He threw that hand over his shoulder as if a baseball pitcher rather than any Ninja. His baseball was all those things he had just grabbed. It all flew past him in a hailstorm of death and destruction. The houses were ripped apart into smaller chunks, the trees splinted into spears. The bodies of all the people turned into ragdolls.
This maelstrom obliterated everything in front of him, colliding into other buildings leading up to the one that Itachi had been hiding in. That too was destroyed, turning into nothing more than scraps as the flying debris tore it to shreds.
Every single standing structure around Naruto was reduced to rubble in the span of only thirty seconds. Above the rubble was a layer of red mist, every single human living in the air reduced to particles as they were shredded by the force of Naruto's technique.
Naruto didn't even seem to see it, walking forward as if in a trance. The short sword hung limp at his side. His shirt fell off, the black flames from earlier having burned a significant portion of it off and the movement now causing what fabric that was left to slip away from him. There was a mark of burnt flesh on his left chest cavity, the pinpoint of the Amaterasu attack that hit him.
It burned. It surely must have been beyond painful, yet Naruto could barely feel it. His sense of pain was dulled, riding high on the adrenaline of fully unleashing his power for the first time.
"Aruji-sama!" Kaguya jumped onto his back, placing her hands on his shoulder and riding on him as if she was some backpack. "Uchiha Itachi… it's not over yet." She warned him, her Byakugan scanning over the destruction.
Naruto's Bansho Ten'in had also thrown the earlier Amaterasu to other parts of the village, spreading the flames further and causing an even wider area to burn in black fire. Any Shinobi that wanted to wouldn't so easily be able to move in on this area now, even if they weren't distracted elsewhere. Despite this, a drawn out battle wasn't ideal for either side.
"I know." Naruto answered, continuing to walk through the red mist to where Itachi had been. He hadn't seen it with his own eyes, but he knew in his gut. There was no way Itachi was someone that could be defeated just like that. Even if he had been injured, he wasn't someone Naruto could kill so easily.
The ground trembled. Moments later and the rubble in the place where Itachi had been was sent flying as a giant spectral warrior composed of pure red chakra broke free. "It would appear he even has Susanoo." Kaguya noted. "Aruji-sama. What do thou plan to do?" She was afraid Naruto had no plan at all. As impressive as his power was when let loose, just randomly throwing attacks around wasn't going to get them anywhere. They needed strategy.
Naruto answered by raising his hands together to make a cross seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He created six shadow clones that all immediately began to run forward. Six clones was his limit. That was because the vision of the Rinnegan between all of them was linked directly to him, giving him numerous angles from which to view the battlefield at once. However, his brain couldn't comprehend too many different images at once, so for now this was as far as he could go.
Kaguya also couldn't be replicated. Even she wasn't sure why, but she suspected it had something to do with being the progenitor of chakra and in a sense being natural energy itself. So long as she remained out in the open, she would thus expose the real Naruto.
Itachi didn't have the time or leisure to attack the real one, who had hung back to collect information about the Susanoo by having his clones charging forward in a suicide attack.
"Shinra Tensei!" One of Naruto's clones fanned out to the right, unleashing his attack to send Susanoo flying backwards. It didn't work, the shield absorbing the attack and deflecting it back at Naruto.
The clone was destroyed immediately, but the reflected Shinra Tensei didn't end there, rebounding into an undestroyed part of the village and blasting all the buildings in its path apart. Naruto and Kaguya weren't paying attention to that, instead focusing on the shield that was capable of even reflecting the power of the Rinnegan.
"Yata no Kagami." Kaguya explained, breaking it down for Naruto. "Any attack will be reflected. Thou shall need to find either a way around it by striking from the rear or somehow disarm him." Naruto simply nodded, already paying attention to Itachi's next attack.
A clone that had fanned out in the opposite direction was stabbed by a sword. Instead of disappearing like shadow clones usually did when receiving a fatal blow, that clone was instead absorbed into the sword, the blade retracting into a large sake gourd.
"Totsuka no Tsurugi." Kaguya even had knowledge of that sword, yet another legendary weapon in Itachi's arsenal. "Anything struck by that blade will be sealed inside the gourd for all eternity. Troublesome abilities all around." As it was, Kaguya didn't see how this was going to end in a quick fight.
Naruto could send clones all day if he wanted. That wouldn't mean anything if they couldn't get through Itachi's sword and board defense. As he was, he might be invincible.
It was at that moment that Itachi let out a cough of blood. He fell to his knees, the Susanoo flickering for a moment. "Bansho Ten'in!" One of Naruto's clones didn't miss the opportunity, targeting Itachi directly with his technique. The whole Susanoo went flying along with Itachi, moving with him at the center. The clone could do nothing as it collided into him, popping it out of existence.
"Kaguya-chan…" Naruto said slowly, still forming the idea as he was talking. "Will your Haikotsu put a hole in that Susanoo?" He asked.
"In the Yata no Kagami, no." Kaguya shook her head. "If we aim for the normal body, perhaps it will work, but the hole will not spread very far and is likely to seal itself quickly."
"That's enough. Get your technique ready." Naruto handed her the short sword and she slipped it back in her sleeve. One of the remaining three clones must have seen the action, because it took that as a signal of some sort, reaching towards Naruto with his right Rinnegan.
"Bansho Ten'in!" The clone yanked Naruto in, Kaguya being pulled along for the ride as they were sent flying across the terrain. The clone had directed their trajectory towards Itachi, who was just now recovering from being knocked down earlier.
The sword from the sake gourd sprouted out, stabbing at the true Naruto as he entered within range of the Jutsu. "Just keep going!" One of Naruto's clones jumped up from below them, knocking them above the trajectory of the extending blade. That clone was stabbed a moment later.
"Kaguya-chan!" Naruto shouted as they closed in on the Susanoo. She did as instructed, shooting three gray bullets made of her bone into the side of the spectral warrior. As she predicted, the spreading ash didn't go far, forming only a temporary hole big enough for a single person.
"Thou cannot mean to fly in there!?" Kaguya yelled, having not been expecting Naruto's plan to involve jumping directly inside of the Susanoo. She would have told him from the beginning it wouldn't work. Itachi seemed to also realize what they were aiming for, the Susanoo turning itself to place the Yata no Kagami directly in their path.
As it was, they would simply bounce off of the shield. From there, they would be vulnerable to counter-attack. In the next couple seconds, they were about to lose. Or so she thought. She had forgotten about Naruto's remaining clones and Itachi, by paying attention to the original, had made the mistake of turning his back on them.
"We're not going in!" Naruto contradicted her. "I'm bringing him out!"
"Shinra Tensei!"
"Bansho Ten'in!"
His two clones hadn't stopped moving onto the next step of the plan. Both of them stood cheek to cheek, pointing their open palms at Itachi. The first one had targeted the spectral warrior made of chakra, blasting it back with the Almighty Push. The other clone had been aiming for Itachi himself, pulling the user of the Jutsu towards the two of them.
Naruto's gamble paid off, Itachi being ripped from his Susanoo through the hole that Kaguya had created earlier. Just as he was pulled out, Naruto and Kaguya flew over him.
"Kageshibari no Jutsu!" Kaguya manipulated Naruto's shadow just as his and Itachi's overlapped. The two were bound together, binding Itachi and temporarily stopping him from forming any seals to unleash another jutsu.
Their sideways momentum slowed to a stop, the two beginning to fall to the ground. Itachi hit first, Naruto not seconds behind.
"Amaterasu!" Just because he couldn't form any hand seals, didn't mean he was out of options. He still had the power of his Mangekyou up his sleeve. Naruto's clones from just before dove between them, obstructing Itachi's view and absorbing the black flames. They disappeared a second later, taking the fire with them.
"You wanted to destroy the village as revenge, right!? Well here you go!" Naruto fell on top of Itachi a second after. Both his palms pressed against the last surviving Uchiha and he unleashed his Jutsu, turning Itachi into the core of it. In the same way Kaguya had once been the core for this same technique.
A Jutsu he hadn't gotten a chance to test until now. Because to test it was to destroy everything he knew. Naruto didn't care anymore. There was nothing left in the village for him now. So it might as well all just disappear.
"Chibaku Tensei!"
Chapter End
Post-word: So that's where this was going.
When I started writing this, I had a vague idea I wanted to get to this moment at the end here. However, I had a lot of things undecided and it wasn't until I made that decision a couple chapters back to pull the trigger and push forward with this route. Of course, there's a lot of repercussions that have to follow this and I'm gonna start to lay them out next chapter. I also need to talk about the characterization of a certain character, but that's something I will also save for after the next one.
Of course, the story is far from over. If anything, I would say it is only just beginning and this was the real ending of the first chapter.
