Welcome back once again. This chapter will deal with the aftermath of Naruto's mission, and some training just to occupy space and showcase a bit of everyone's talents.
I don't always own Naruto, but when I do; I don't. (Bud Light all the way, btw)
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"Naruto-kun."
"Naruto-kun."
"Naruto-kun!" Said Hinata as she looked at Naruto with a worried expression on her face. He had been distant and seemed like he was depressed ever since he got back from his mission last night, though she didn't know what it was.
"Hn." Naruto said as he continued to stare at the wall.
"Naruto-kun what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Don't lie to me!"
"I'm not."
"Bullshit!" Hinata said as she slapped him in the face.
Naruto then opened and closed his mouth several times, making himself look like a fish.
"Now do you wanna tell me what's wrong?" Hinata asked, though it wasn't really a question.
"I…" And for the first time in over 3 years, Naruto began to cry. "I'm a failure Hinata-chan…"
Hinata then wrapped Naruto in a hug and let him cry into her shoulder, where they stayed until both passed out.
The next morning, Hinata woke up first, and blushed when she saw how close she was to Naruto; she then remembered the previous night and how upset he was.
"What could be wrong with him? I've never seen him like this before. Maybe I should go talk to Jiji-sama?" Hinata thought as she looked over the sleeping form of Naruto.
She then carefully moved so as to not wake him, before walking out the door and directly into the Hokage's office.
"Well Good morning Hinata, how are you today?" Hiruzen said once she walked in.
"I'm okay, but I need to talk to you about Naruto…"
"What is it?"
"He seems really depressed since he got home last night. Did something happen on his mission?"
Hiruzen seemed to cringe at the mention of Naruto's mission, before he looked over to her and said "You know I can't tell you anything about it, but yes it bad. One of Naruto-kun's men was killed and he blames himself for it. You should really try to comfort him, he was taking it hard when I saw him last night."
"I see… Thanks Jiji-sama." Hinata said as she turned and went back into their house to find Naruto now awake and laying on the couch looking straight up at the ceiling again.
"Naruto-kun… I'm sorry for getting angry last night, I didn't know… I went and talked to Jiji and he told me what happened."
Naruto simply turned his gaze at Hinata and locked eyes with her, and she noticed that the bright blue orbs that she loved so much were now glazed over and dull, showing all of his hurt.
"Naruto-kun it's okay, it's not your fault." She said softly as she moved over and sat down on the edge of the couch and began stroking his hair. He tensed at first but slowly relaxed as she continued.
"It is my fault… he's dead and I caused it…"
"Shhh. No Naruto-kun, it's not your fault; all shinobi, especially ANBU, know when they join the ranks that they could die at any time."
"It doesn't matter… it should've been me…" Naruto whispered before he began to cry again. After a while, he passed out once more, and Hinata walked out to talk to the Hokage again.
"Jiji-sama, Naruto-kun isn't getting any better, is there anything you can do to help?"
"Unfortunately no, he looks at me like his grandfather but I'm not the right person to help him. I'll have Sasuke-kun come talk to him; maybe that will help."
"Okay thanks." Hinata said as she went inside once again. Seeing that Naruto was still asleep, she went to take a shower. Several minutes later, she came back out, luckily fully dressed, to find Sasuke and Itachi walking in the door.
"Hi Sasuke-kun, Itachi-san."
"Hey Hinata, what's going on with Naruto?"
"He blames himself for losing one of his men last night. I tried to talk to him but I don't know what happened, so I think you would be better off."
"I see. Are you going somewhere? Because what we are about to talk about is an SS-Rank secret. Don't think I'm trying to run you out of your own house, I'll just have to take him to another room if you weren't leaving."
"Don't worry about it Sasuke-kun, I was about to go into town for a while."
"Okay then, see ya later."
After Hinata left, Itachi did a few hand seals and the room glowed purple briefly, before fading to normal.
"Hey Naruto." Sasuke said in his best impression of a soft voice as he shook the blonde awake.
"Hnn Sasuke, Itachi? Are you here to take back your spot as captain? I sure don't deserve it…" Naruto said, the depression evident in his voice.
"No Naruto-kun. We came to help you through this, as your friends." Itachi said in his soft voice, which was also his angry, happy, sad, bored, and exited voices.
"I don't deserve help. I was careless and it caused Mumei to get killed."
"Don't blame yourself so much Naruto-kun. As shinobi, especially those of us in ANBU, we know that there is a chance we could die at any time. Mumei willingly did what he did to save you, because he respected you. You insult his memory by acting like this. During my span as captain I lost many men, and I did many things I'm not proud of-" Itachi almost shuddered at the thought, specifically thinking of when he wiped out half of his family. "but I never let it get to me. You have to take this in stride and move on. Allow it to make you stronger and honor the sacrifice he made for you."
"Yea Naruto, it's part of the job. We knew before-hand last night that it was an S-Rank mission and that we might not make it out." Sasuke added in.
"It was my first time as a captain… and then I made a foolish mistake… it's MY fault that he's dead! He should've just let me die Goddammit!" Naruto started in the same sad tone, but by the end he had more anger in his voice and his eyes had turned red with black slits.
"Naruto calm down, don't blame yourself." Sasuke said as they began to back away from the couch.
"IT'S! ALL! MY! FAULT!" Naruto screamed as he stood up and kicked his couch back and through the next 2 walls, into his bedroom.
"I killed him!" a red chakra tail shot out behind him as his features became more feral.
"Goddammit it should've been me!" the chakra became more intense and grew another tail as he dropped to all fours. Sasuke and Itachi were seriously worried now and had backed against the wall to avoid the tails that were lashing out and destroying the house.
"Why didn't he just let me die?!" 2 more tails shot out as his eyes turned completely white and his skin began to peel off. The intensity of the chakra coming off of him had now pretty much shredded the room they were in, and the bedroom that was now connected due to his outburst.
"Why-" Naruto started again but stopped as Hiruzen burst through the door and planted a paper tag on his forehead faster than even the Sharingan could track.
"So fast… that is why they call him the God of Shinobi…" Sasuke thought as he saw the door fly open and Naruto collapse into Hiruzen's arms; nothing in between, even with his Sharingan active.
"What happened?" Hiruzen questioned Itachi, who turned his Mangekyo on and looked Hiruzen in the eye, replaying the scene through a Sharingan genjutsu.
"I see." Hiruzen then looked around at the now destroyed house. "Damn, Hinata won't be happy about this. Anyways, I've suppressed the demonic chakra, you two should stick around until he wakes up and try to talk to him again. If he loses control, just put one of these on his body somewhere." Hiruzen said before he walked out the door.
"I can't believe it… Naruto just destroyed his entire home with chakra alone, and Hokage-sama moved so fast I couldn't even follow it with my Sharingan. I've got a lot of catching up to do." Sasuke said, still in awe.
"Don't worry little brother" Itachi said as he poked him in the forehead "you're still young, there is plenty of time to become stronger. For now though we need to concentrate on helping Naruto-kun."
"Yea…" "I really hope we can get through, I hate seeing him so messed up."
The 2 then retrieved the couch from Naruto's bedroom and sat there in silence for another hour before Naruto woke back up.
"W-What happened?" Naruto mumbled out.
"You used the Kyubi's chakra and it lashed out, causing this."
"Oh." Naruto then re-entered his depression mode.
"Naruto you need to stop this. It's not you. You're supposed to be the happy one. Don't blame yourself for what happens; it's part of life." Sasuke said.
"No, I only blame myself because it is my fault. If I would have-" Sasuke interrupted him with a swift right hook, knocking him over the arm of the couch and into the floor.
"Goddammit Naruto stop blaming yourself! Mumei wanted to die for you and now you're pissing on his sacrifice. Live and get stronger to be sure it doesn't happen again. Honor what he did for you!" Sasuke yelled out, his temper now shot to hell. "Life is a bitch, we have to accept it and move on! I know you're stronger than this, Taichou."
This outbreak finally brought Naruto around, if only just a little.
"I guess you're right… I'm not happy about it but I can't just sit around and do nothing forever." Naruto said in a flat tone.
"Exactly. Like I said, you need to move on. Mumei didn't sacrifice his life for you so you could go emo on us. How about we go to Ichiraku's that'll make you feel better."
"Ummm… sure, just let me get cleaned up real quick." Replied Naruto as he went to take a shower.
Several minutes later, Naruto reemerged from the guest shower (his was destroyed during the rampage) fully dressed in his polo shirt and khaki shorts before they left the house in search of food.
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1 week later
Hiruzen had given Delta squad the week off, to allow Naruto some time to settle down. During the week, Naruto's house had been repaired, and Naruto spent most of his time there with Hinata. By the 5th day, he felt almost normal again, and actually began to train once more. By the end of the week he was back to normal once more, though he still thought of the incident occasionally, and figured he always would.
Currently, we find the 3 man Delta squad at ANBU HQ undergoing a training exercise; a simple game of capture the flag.
"Ready?" Naruto asked as he set a timer for 15 minutes and strapped an orange flag (A/N this is like a cross of capture the flag and flag football) to his waist.
"The one with the least amount of point at the end of 3 hours buys lunch. Go!" Naruto said as both Yugao and Sasuke charged at him. Sasuke stopped halfway and began doing hand seals while Yugao continued on. Just as she was in front of him and about to slash down, she phased from existence, revealing a kunai flying towards him before Sasuke said "Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!" (Dragon Fire)
Sasuke exhaled a stream of fire that seemed to follow behind the kunai and speed it up at the same time. Naruto had no problem dodging the flaming kunai, before doing his own seals and calling out Futon: Tajuu Renkudan!" (Multiple Drilling Air Bullets) as he inhaled deeply and began to blow out several volleyball sized wind bullets towards Sasuke.
Sasuke did the best he could at dodging the wind bullets, but there were too many, and finally one got a glancing blow on his rib cage. He grunted in pain as the attack sliced him several times and knocked him back off his feet.
As soon as Naruto stopped the wind bullets, Yugao sprang forth from the ground in front of him and slashed upwards with her sword, cutting Naruto across his chest, before she grabbed onto the orange flag and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying across the field. She quickly attached the flag to her waist just in time to dodge a large fireball courtesy of Sasuke.
Before she had a chance to hit the ground after dodging, Sasuke appeared beside her and launched a kick into face, shooting her into the ground with a loud crash. Sasuke then dropped down and grabbed the flag off of her and leapt off, attaching it as he went. He soon gained enough distance and dropped into a defensive stance, waiting for an attack.
He didn't have to wait long before he sensed a presence overhead, and jumped to the side just in time to avoid a downward slash from Naruto's kodachi. Naruto quickly corrected himself and turned to throw several kunai towards Sasuke, forcing him to dodge once again. Once Sasuke landed, he took the offensive, pulling his tanto rushing in towards Naruto. Sasuke slashed towards Naruto's clavicle, only to have it parried by Naruto. This continued for just a moment before Naruto won out, grabbing the flag and jabbing Sasuke in the gut with a rasengan.
Just as Naruto blew Sasuke away, he was attacked on 3 sides by Yugao's Mikazuki no Mai. Naruto dodged the attacks with only a couple of small cuts. Afterwards, Naruto fought a losing kenjutsu battle against Yugao; just as she was about to gain the upper hand, the buzzer went off, Signifying the end of round 1.
"Woo that was a close one." Naruto sighed out. "But point for me!"
"Dammit another minute and I would've had you!" Yugao cursed.
"Coulda woulda shoulda Neko-chan." Naruto teased, which probably wasn't a good idea, considering he lost the next round. And the next. Truly, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
After the designated 3 hours, Naruto had managed to win 3 of the matches, Yugao won 2, and Sasuke won 1.
"Lunch is on Sasuke today!" Naruto shouted as his stomach audibly growled, causing Sasuke to feel a phantom pain in his wallet.
It was a well founded intuition; because Naruto won, he picked the place, and of course it was Ichiraku's. 30 or so bowls later, Naruto was kicked back with a euphoric grin on his face while Sasuke was emptying his wallet with anime tears streaming down his face. "Why me?!" Sasuke mentally cried as his wallet 'coughed' out a cloud of dust.
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I hope you all enjoyed this one. I think after this, there will be another timeskip to the point of the genin graduation exams, because I don't feel like writing another years worth of training as fillers until I get to the next arc, which will be the Wave Arc. I feel compelled to do a wave arc in some way, shape, form, or fashion, because it is a pretty universal trait in just about every fanfic I've ever read. It's also pretty fun to write in my opinion. But anyways I've rambled on enough; review, fav, follow, and refer your friends.