The Heart of the Demon
Chapter 15
Too Good to be True
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters
The final exam was only two days away now and Naruto was freaking out, she hadn't been able to figure out a way to get out of leaving with Jariya. The trip had been nearly the only thing on her mind for the past few days and no matter what she thought of it wasn't enough to get her out of the trip. Seriously anyone else would be better, she would rather it be Kakashi taking her, though admittedly that wouldn't be much better. If it hadn't been for Gaara being there to keep her mind off it she probably would have gone crazy thinking about it.
Gaara finally had to go back to his hotel, apparently his sensei, Baki if she remembered right, had been on a tirade since he got back from Suna. Gaara had to go back to the hotel lest there be an international incident, his father was going to be arriving in the village tomorrow and if Gaara wasn't there when he arrived it wouldn't end well for anyone.
Naruto was currently heading to a training ground to try and get her mind of Jariya, she hadn't trained much since the preliminaries having spent every second she had with Gaara enjoying it for whatever little time that had together before they were forced apart. As much as Gaara insisted he would be going with on the trip she really doubted his father would agree and if he didn't then no matter how much Gaara wanted to him coming along it wouldn't work.
Naruto arrived at the training ground started with some taijutsu practice against one of the training dummies. She wasn't alone for long as someone landed behind her. She sighed and turned to whoever it was that interrupted her training and of course it was the person she least wanted to see "Jariya" she growled.
"Naruto, please just let me talk."
She glared at him "fine say whatever it is you want to and go away"
He sighed this was already going better then he thought it would "I know you know about your parents and I understand why you hate me but if you just give me a chance I hope I can make it up to you. You may not want to admit it but I do have a lot to teach you and if you will just give it a chance this training trip could actually be enjoyable."
Naruto gave an indignant laugh "You want me to give you a chance? You don't deserve one."
"I know I don't, but this trip is happening whether you like it or not and if you could just let go of you hatred it will go so much better"
Naruto's face twisted in anger "Let go of my hatred?! I don't let go of hatred, I cultivate it, embrace it and it makes me stronger. I will never let my hatred go."
"Naruto hatred will only destroy you, you can't let it control you."
"Nothing controls me! I am my own master!"
"What about Kurama?"
Naruto growled audibly clenching her fists tight "Kurama is not my master, he is my friend, my protector, my mentor!"
"Then how come he is never around, no one has ever even seen him"
"Kurama is always with me! You have no right to say he's not around when you never were! You abandoned me just like everyone else! Kurama was there when no one else was, he is a thousand times the person you could ever hope to be!"
"I'm here now, let be here for you" Jariya pleaded
"Too little too late." She jumped into a tree at the edge of training ground "This training trip isn't happening, if I ever see you again it will be too soon." With that she jumped away leaving him standing there alone.
Jariya sighed "well that couldn't have gone worse" he said to himself before he to left the training ground.
Naruto arrived back at her apartment as the sun was setting to find Gaara waiting by the door. She smiled widely "You're here" Gaara gave her a halfhearted smile back, he was fidgeting something must be wrong, Gaara never fidgeted "What's wrong?"
"We'll talk inside"
"alright" she opened the door and they went inside, this had her worried what could have Gaara so nervous.
They sat down on her couch "There's something I have to tell you" he looked into her eyes and held her hand in his "The sand is planning an invasion of the leaf with the help of the sound, the invasion will start in the final exam."
Naruto hadn't been expecting that, the sand were their allies why would they attack? "Why" she got out after a few seconds of silence.
"I'm not sure, but they plan to have me rampage around as Shukaku."
"You can't do it!" this was a lot for her to take in, she may not like the village much but the leaf wouldn't take an invasion lying down, they would retaliate and a lot of people would die, she didn't want her friends to be among the casualties.
"I don't plan too." He took a deep breath as if trying to come up with the words for what he wanted to say "I won't leave your side, if you want I will stand by you and defend the leaf."
"No, they wouldn't care, you would immediately be arrested when it was over, especially if they find out you're a Jinchuriki you have to get out of here, tonight."
Gaara gave a small smile "I was thinking the same thing, but I won't go without you." They sat silent for a few seconds "It would mean becoming rouge ninja, you may well never get to see you frien—"
She cut him off "Yes, I'll go with you" she didn't care about being a rouge ninja, she would miss her friends but ultimately Gaara was all she needed.
Gaara smiled and kissed her passionately. "I need to go get some things from the hotel before we go." He said when they finally pulled apart.
Naruto nodded "I have to say goodbye to some people, we'll meet at the main gate by midnight."
Gaara nodded "I'll be waiting" with that Gaara left.
Naruto quickly packed up some supplies and headed out herself.
Kabuto sat on a nearby rooftop and watched them leave, his time as a spy had given some useful eavesdropping skills and Orochimaru wasn't going to happy with this new development.
Naruto landed outside the Hokage mansion taking in its massive form, even with her relationship with Hiruzen and Konohamaru she had only been here a few times. She didn't waste time gawking at it instead making her way to her destination. She pulled open a window on the ground floor and climbed in. Konohamaru's room was fairly large and looked just like you would expect from the 8 year old grandson of the Hokage.
Hiruzen was still at the Hokage tower and she knew he would be, Konohamaru was probably somewhere in the house and even though she would love to say goodbye in person she knew that Konohamaru wouldn't understand. She put the note she had written inside one of his dressers drawers so he would find it the next day, there was one in there for Hiruzen as well. She heard someone coming and quickly left before she was seen.
Hinata sat down on her bed and sighed, her nightly training session with her father had been especially rough tonight, he had been training her hard since the preliminaries and this was the last night before the final exam. They weren't going to train the next day instead she was going to rest, maybe Naruto would want to hang out, she had hardly seen her since her and Gaara had gotten together.
There was knock on her window that made her jump, she went over and saw none other than Naruto waiting outside. She opened the window "Naruto I was just thinking of you" she said with a smile and moved so Naruto could come in. She wasn't surprised Naruto went to the window instead of the door, it was unlikely her father would let Naruto see her so late.
Naruto climbed in through the window and quickly looked around the room making sure no one was listening before she turned back to Hinata and gave her a big hug.
Hinata returned the hug but was starting to get worried, why was Naruto here so late and why did she have a bag of supplies with her? "Naruto is something wrong? What's going on?"
Naruto gave her a sad smile "I'm leaving Hinata, I couldn't go without saying goodbye."
Hinata was speechless, she was leaving? "What? Why? Where are you going? And for how long?"
"I don't know where, but I doubt I'll be coming back. Please don't say anything to anyone."
Hinata stared at her dumbfounded "you can't leave, you'll be branded a rouge ninja! Why would you leave!"
"Shhh Hinata someone might hear." She sighed "Gaara's in trouble and has to leave, I'm going with him."
"Gaara?! You're leaving for Gaara?! Naruto you've got get a hold of yourself! You just met him and you're willing to throw away your whole life to run away with him! You'd leave your friends behind, your village behind for him?"
"Hinata you don't understand Gaara is my soul mate we belong together, I can't live without him, losing him would kill me." She hugged Hinata tightly "You are one of the best friends I could have ever hoped for" She broke the hug and held her hands on Hinata's shoulders tears welling in her eyes "Thank you so much for being there for me Hinata, I don't know what I would have done without you. Goodbye." With that she went back to the window to leave.
"Naruto" Naruto turned to look at Hinata whose eyes were streaming tears of their own "Thank you, for everything. I'll miss you more than you know. Goodbye" Naruto nodded and smiled slightly as her own tears made their way down her face. She left Hinata's house and made her way to her final destination, there was one more person she had to talk to before leaving.
Kabuto entered a small building on the edge of the village and made his way through to the basement and bowed. Orochimaru sat in a large chair viewing a wall covered in various papers and documents. "Lord Orochimaru, it seems Naruto and Gaara are planning on running away together, he told her about the invasion plans."
Orochimaru slammed his fisted hand onto the arm of his chair "Damn that stupid brat" he stood up and strode out of the room Kabuto following close behind. "Take the sound five and engage Naruto, keep her away from Gaara at all costs."
Kabuto nodded "Of course lord Orochimaru" He then quickly went to collect the sound five.
Naruto took a deep breath she hadn't seen Sasuke since he confessed his love for her but she couldn't bring herself to leave without saying goodbye. Whatever had happened between them it didn't change the years of friendship they had shared, Sasuke and Itachi had been like a family to her and she couldn't leave this unresolved. She knocked on the door and waited, it wasn't long before Itachi came to the door.
"Naruto, what are you doing here?"
"Hey Itachi, is Sasuke here?"
"He is, but I don't think you should see him."
"Please Itachi, I need to see him, it won't take long."
"You hurt him a lot Naruto, when he's ready to see you he'll come to you."
"Itachi, I need to see him tonight it's important."
"It's alright Itachi, I'll talk to her" Sasuke spoke up before Itachi could respond again. Itachi nodded and moved away so they could talk. "So why are you here Naruto?"
Sasuke came out onto the deck to talk to her rather than her coming inside "Sasuke, I know I hurt you and I'm sorry, but I won't let what happened ruin years of friendship." Sasuke could see her eyes were red, she'd been crying whatever was going on it was big. "We've been through so much together, you and Itachi are like family so I just couldn't leave without saying goodbye."
"Wait leave? What are you talking about, you're leaving? Why? When will you be back?"
She wiped her eyes "I can't tell you why, but I'm not coming back Sasuke."
"What do you mean you're not coming back?"
"I mean I'm leaving and will likely be branded a rouge ninja, I just couldn't without saying goodbye, we've been through too much for me to leave it the way we've been" She wrapped her arms around him and kissed on the cheek "I will always hold you close to my heart. Goodbye." With that she jumped away toward the main gate.
Sasuke couldn't process the information he had been given, he just stood there staring at where she had been standing. Itachi came up him "Sasuke, did she leave? What did she say?" After a few seconds went by without a response Itachi went up and put his hand on his shoulder. "Sasuke are you okay?"
The contact brought Sasuke back to his senses "I don't know."
"What did she have to say?"
"She said she was leaving, forever."
"What?"
"She said that she was leaving, and that she would be branded a rouge ninja."
"I have to report this to the Hokage."
Sasuke nodded slowly still out of it trying to process the information.
Gaara waited at the gate, it was almost time so where was Naruto they had to go before anyone noticed he was gone.
"Hello Gaara, waiting for Naruto?" Gaara spun to see Orochimaru standing a few yards away with a bag in his hands "I'm afraid she won't be able to make it."
Gaara's breathing quickened "What do you mean."
"You should know not to cross me Gaara, I need you for the invasion and you've gone and fucked it all up"
"What did you do to Naruto."
"I'm afraid she paid for your disloyalty." He threw the bag onto the ground in front of Gaara and out rolled Naruto's severed head.
Gaara's eyes widened and his heart stopped, she was the only thing in the world that mattered to him, she couldn't be dead. He had never experienced such pain, his entire life he had been alone and when he is finally saved from that loneliness it's taken away.
Orochimaru quickly retreated as a second later Gaara transformed into Shukaku. He smirked to himself as he made his way away from the village, the genjutsu had worked perfectly, it wasn't the invasion he hoped for but hopefully Gaara would do some damage before they killed him.
Naruto was making her way to the main gate from the Uchiha district when she felt and saw Shukaku appear from that direction. 'No No what happened?!'
'Naruto you have to get there quickly, if my brother is rampaging about something very bad must have happened with Gaara. You need to get there before the leaf ninja do.'
Naruto completely agreed but before she could make it any further a group of six people dropped in front of her.
"You've caused us quite the problem Naruto, now we have to kill you." Kabuto said with a small smirk
"Kabuto, get out of my way, NOW!" she wasn't going to take her time her eyes turned red and her fangs lengthen before she charged at him.
Kabuto jumped away and a large monstrous man met her charge head on. The sheer size difference allowed him to throw Naruto back. She landed on her feet skidding a few feet and growled, she didn't have time for this. Chakra started to bubble out of her surrounding her, she would end this quickly.
Shukaku let out a massive roar and quickly started destroying everything in sight. Sirens started going off all over the village and response teams started responding in a matter of minutes. Ninja swarmed around Shukaku trying to contain him.
Jariya ran out of the bar he was currently sulking in to the sight of a tailed beast rampaging through the village again. He was quick into action shunshining directly into the fray. The area around Shukaku was a warzone, little more than ruins remained; he had to force Shukaku away from the village before any more damage was done. He went through a series of hand seals and sent a large wave of fire at Shukaku's side causing it to recoil from the sudden powerful attack.
After getting Shukaku's attention Jariya used his summoning jutsu and with a large puff of smoke he was standing on top of Gamabunta. "Hu Jariya, what's going on?" Gamabunta stammered, he hadn't been summoned in a while.
"Hey Gamabunta, I'm gonna need your help with him." Jariya pointed out the obvious target.
"Another tailed beast? Seems too familiar."
"Well it won't turn out as bad as last time if I have anything to say about it."
Shukaku roared loudly before sending out a few air bullets toward the new threat.
Gamabunta countered the air bullets with his own water bullets before hitting Shukaku with a pressurized stream of water.
"We have to lead him out of the village."
"Agreed" nodded the massive toad before he jumped out of the village making sure Shukaku was chasing him before continuing further out.
Hiruzen was in a frenzy organizing evacuation efforts and counter strike teams, he had gotten word that Jariya had engaged the Ichibi and was luring him out of the village. He was throwing on his shinobi attire between issuing orders, he had to get into the battle and do whatever he could to protect his people.
Naruto saw the massive toad appear and started to freak out, Jariya had started to fight Gaara she needed to get there immediately. Her chakra cloak quickly reformed to three tails this fight was taking too long.
The sound five had been struggling against her one tailed chakra cloak for a few minutes even with them all being in stage three of the curse marks. "Keep her busy for as long as you can, and whatever you do, don't retreat" Kabuto ordered before retreating himself. Kabuto of course knew that the five would die shortly but from the looks of things Shukaku had done all the damage he was going to be able to.
Naruto didn't care that Kabuto ran it just meant she only had to deal with the five of them instead of six. Jirobo jumped forward and slammed his hands on the ground in front of Naruto while Kidomaru sent a continuous volley of arrows at her and Tayuya had her monsters charge at Naruto's side. Sakon and Ukon attacked her from behind and Kimimaru charged her other side.
Sasuke had run after Naruto when the Monster appeared at the village gate and had finally found her fighting a group of much smaller monsters. She was covered in bubbling red chakra what the hell was going on, what had they done to her?
Naruto jumped high into the air and then slammed hard back down using her three tails to crush Tayuya's beasts into bloody messes on the ground. A heart beat later she sent a powerful wind blade at Jirobo who was still standing back up after his attack, the wind blade shot through him splitting him in two killing him in an instant.
She swept the ground behind her with one tail flinging Sakon and Ukon away and caught Kimimaru's bone sword with another while the third shoot toward Kidomaru knocking away his arrows on its way. The tail formed into a hand and grabbed Kidomaru crushing him like a bug before chucking his body away sending if flying miles outside of the village.
Tayuya watched in horror they had been fighting on par with her seconds before and now both Jirobo and Kidomaru were dead "Fuck this I'm leaving" she ran hoping to god Naruto wouldn't follow.
Sakon and Ukon tried to get back up but didn't get a chance as Naruto's two free tails wrapped around their legs and started repetedly slamming them into the ground until they were little more than bloody stumps attached to their shattered legs.
Kimimaru was now keenly aware he was the only one left having given up his sword avoid one of Naruto's attacks he was limited on his options, not having enough time to pull out another spine sword. Kimimaru jumped and dodged as her tails swung and grabbed at him, he wasn't able to keep it up for long before one of the tails caught his leg and slammed him into the ground. Immediately after Kimimaru was slowly being crushed between all three of Naruto's chakra tails.
Kimimaru grunted as the pressure increased "You will not break me!" he shouted in defiance.
"Watch me!" Naruto yelled back her voice that of demon. She squeezed as hard as she could and after a few moments she heard Kimimaru's bones start to crack before they finally broke and Kimimaru was crushed falling limp as all of his organs were turned into a fine paste. She dropped his corpse and was gone in an instant.
Sasuke watched in slight horror, what the hell was that? What had Naruto done? The power he felt emanating from her, the ease with which she slaughtered those monsters, how could she have such tremendous power hidden away? He shook himself out of it and ran toward where he assumed she was headed.
Hinata looked out her window to see what was going on and saw as Shukaku started his rampage at the main gate. 'That's where Naruto was headed! I have to help her!' she jumped out the window and headed right for the tailed beast tearing the village apart.
Jariya and Gamabunta finally turned around satisfied that they had led Shukaku far enough out of the village to fight without risking further damage to it. "We have to come up with a strategy to stop this guy fast"
"What do you suggest?" Gamabunta questioned as he dodged another air bullet
"DAMNIT STOP MOVING YOU STPID FROG!" Shukaku roared out
"I'M A TOAD YOU MISSHAPEN RACOON!" Gamabunta yelled back
"We have to get at its Jinchuriki, I need to get on top of it."
"How do you suggest doing that?"
"Get close to it I'll take it from there"
Shukaku then started forming a tailed beast bomb from its gaping maw.
"Shit, Gamabunta oil now!"
Gamabunta shot a stream of oil which Jariya lit on fire with a simple fire jutsu. The massive stream of super-heated flames slammed into Shukaku like a tsunami causing him to real backward and send the tailed beast bomb harmlessly into the sky where it exploded in a brilliant light show.
"Now Gamabunta" Jariya shouted and Gamabunta complied jumping right next to Shukaku and impaling him with his massive Katana. Jariya took the opportunity to jump from Gamabunta's head to Shukaku's.
Shukaku roared and fired an air bullet right into Gamabunta sending him skidding across the forest before he disappeared in a giant puff of smoke.
Jariya quickly made his way across Shukaku's massive head narrowly dodging the countless spikes of sand trying to impale him. 'There!' He located the small human form at the pinnacle of Shukaku's head and charged toward it forming a rasengan in his hand. He closed the last few yards and slammed the rasengan into Gaara's unprotected chest.
Gaara's eyes opened wide and he screamed like the devil as Shukaku let out a massive roar "NOOOOO!" Shukaku's eyes faded to gray and his form started to dissolve causing Gaara and Jariya to fall from their massive height.
Naruto shot through the air and caught Gaara landing softly a dozen yards from Jariya. Her chakra cloak dissipated when they landed. Gaara looked around confused and disoriented trying to keep his vision from fading. He eyes landed on Naruto's and he smiled as wide as he possible could, she was alive, alive and here with him, but she was crying. He lifted his hand up and caressed her cheek wiping away some tears. She was saying something but he couldn't hear, he knew this feeling, it was just as Naruto had described on the tower, he was dying.
"Gaara! Gaara no! You can't go, you can't leave me you promised you'd always be there! Please don't leave, I need you."
He was trying to speak but the words just weren't coming out, finally he managed to speak "I love you Naruto" he took a deep painful breath "I'm so sorry…" His hand fell from her face and his eye started to glaze over.
Naruto pulled Gaara's head into her chest "No No No No No please No Gaara please don't go" she sobbed as she rocked back and forth.
Hinata landed a few yards away from Naruto and gasped at sight. Sasuke landed next to Hinata and his face twisted in pain, seeing Naruto so, broken was more than he could take.
Hinata took a step forward "Naruto" but she didn't respond.
Jariya took a few steps closer realizing now what he had done, the boy he had just killed, the Jinchuriki of the ichibi was the boy Naruto had been in love with. "Naruto" he said softly not knowing what he could possible say to help the situation.
Naruto stopped upon hearing Jariya's voice and the killer intent that flowed from her was staggering even for him. She lifted her head as her chakra cloak started to form, the tears evaporating from her face "You." The pure hatred in her voice was haunting.
Sasuke grabbed Hinata's arm "We have to get out of here now!" Hinata was confused but didn't argue wanting to get away from Naruto's terrifying presences. She had never seen Naruto so angry, the hatred she was radiating was almost palpable.
Hiruzen landed a few yards away from Sasuke and Hinata with a group of elite ANBU "get out of here now, she isn't the Naruto you know right now!" Sasuke and Hinata jumped away without any defiance.
Naruto laid Gaara's head gently down onto the ground as he skin started to peel from her body and a fourth tail formed on her cloak. She stood to her full height and sent Jariya a look of pure hatred stepping slowly toward him "You. YOU KILLED HIM!" She roared now fully into version 2 tailed beast mode.