Here it is, folks. The last chapter of Naruto Estacado, A Fox in the Shadows. The epic showdown between Uchiha Sasuke, the arrogant cursed-seal bearer, and Uzumaki Namikaze Estacado Naruto, the wielder of the almighty power of Darkness. Only one person will walk away from this battle alive, and, if you look at past chapters of this story and the storyline of The Darkness itself, you'll realise who that's gonna be. Anyway, I've talked too much, so I'll let you get on with the end! Let's get rockin'!
Last Time, on Naruto Estacado...
"You know not what you do, Uchiha." Naruto spoke, though they were not his words. The Darkness was speaking for him, sensing Sasuke about to strike. Naruto closed his eyes momentarily, and when he opened them again, they were the ominous yellow of the Darkness. His tentacles and Creepers sprouted from his back as clouds rolled across the sky, blocking out the sun.
"This is it, dobe. The day I finally show you who's stronger of us two." Sasuke said with a smirk, clenching his fist. Naruto stared at him, his face emotionless.
"And so it begins." He spoke, raising a hand.
Chapter 22, Don't Ph34r the Reaper
The dark clouds that had rolled across the valley cast a great shadow over the ancient battlefield, and drops of rain began to fall from the heavens. On one side stood Uchiha Sasuke, dark flame-like marks reaching across the left half of his face. On the other stood Naruto, his eyes glowing yellow as the sun as his Demon Arms swayed wildly about him in anticipation of the coming battle. A long tongue snaked out from the jaws of one of the Creepers' jaws and licked its lips.
"You should not have come here, boy." Naruto spoke in the voice of the Darkness. "This place will be your grave." With his arm raised, Naruto gathered a ball of shadows in his palm and fired a Kurai Kiki across the valley, which gouged a deep trench into Madara's head, and would have seriously damaged Sasuke had he not dodged at the last second, throwing several shuriken at Naruto. Each of the shuriken missed, but with a movement of Sasuke's fingers, turned in mid flight and wrapped the wire they had been tied to around Naruto.
"Goodbye, dobe! You were good for the comedy, but no one needs you anymore!" Sasuke yelled, pulling on the strings to tighten them around Naruto, before he brought them together in a tora seal. 'Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu!' He thought, and expelled a burst of flame in the shape of a dragon, which ran down the wires toward Naruto. But, much to Sasuke's surprise, a black tentacle pierced the flame and dissipated it, before continuing its course toward Sasuke. The Uchiha brought out a kunai and blocked the Demon Arm, before throwing his weapon at its owner.
"Hmph. You are arrogant, and that shall be your downfall. To think you could defeat me with a simple kunai?" Naruto asked, swatting the blade away with another tentacle. He drew his sword from his back and held it in his right hand, with Pestilence in his left, and charged toward Sasuke. Sasuke rolled out of the way and fired a Housenka no Jutsu at his foe, who blocked with the flat of his blade and swung down in a large arc, gouging into the statue's head as Sasuke stepped back.
"So, is this how it's gonna be? Always attacking, never planning, and neither landing a blow, locked in battle till judgement day?" Naruto asked, pulling his sword from the ground and swinging it at Sasuke, who ducked under the swing and shot a skyward kick at Naruto's chin, but the blonde grabbed the leg with a Demon Arm and pulled him into the air, before slamming him back into the ground.
With the others...
"Ouch, that had to hurt." Chouji commented, watching their battle from afar. The other four members of the team had joined up with Temari, Kankuro and Gaara and set off to find Naruto and Sasuke. They hadn't expected to find either in any other state but battling. "Do you think we should help him?"
"No, Naruto would be annoyed if we interfered with his battle. Either way, he doesn't need help to defeat Sasuke." Neji answered, his arms crossed as he watched the battle with his Byakugan activated.
"I meant should we help Sasuke? He's really getting a beating, and- THAT DOESN'T SEEM PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE!" He yelled, seeing Naruto drill into the statue he was standing on with Sasuke's face.
"That's Naruto for you." Shikamaru groaned, before closing his eyes and leaning against a tree. "Just let him do his thing."
With Naruto and Sasuke...
"Why won't you die?" Sasuke growled, delivering an axe kick t Naruto's shoulder, but the blonde merely shrugged it off and plunged Pestilence's barrel into his stomach. Naruto smirked and pulled the trigger, firing the bright yellow blast into Sasuke's gut at point blank range. The raven-haired teen was thrown backwards by the force of Naruto's attack, and he looked up to see Naruto heading toward him with a Rasengan in hand. He tried to evade the attack, but he was still trying to re-orientate himself, and the Rasengan ploughed into him, and caused a large explosion which destroyed a large portion of the statue.
"RAAAGH!" Naruto roared, a flicker of crimson in his eyes as he leaped toward his opponent, sword in hand. Sasuke Jumped down the cliff and landed on top of the lake, charging up a Chidori as Naruto closed the distance between them. Finishing the Chidori, Sasuke raised his lightning-clad right arm into the air and forced it against Naruto's blade, the two powerful forces caught in a deadlock.
"No!" Sasuke said, as his Chidori failed and exploded in his hand, sending him to the shore and into a pile of rocks. "You're the loser! You should be below me! No one is above an Uchiha!" Sasuke yelled, the curse seal stretching over his face. "So why are we fighting on equal ground here?" Then, Naruto did something unexpected.
He laughed. And not a small, quiet laugh. But full-blown, maniacal laughter that echoed even over the roar of the waterfall. "What's so funny, dobe?" Sasuke asked, confused. Naruto stopped laughing abruptly and looked at Sasuke with a dark grin and an equally malevolent gleam in his eyes.
"What's funny is that you still think we're on equal ground. You've let the curse seal travel almost all across your body. I, on the other hand, have yet to use the curse seal, my Darkness Guns, my summons and the Kuro Yaiba. I've been handicapping myself this whole time, you've just been too arrogant to realise."
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP, SHUT UP!" Sasuke roared, charging another Chidori. He leapt at Naruto, thrusting the electric attack forward. Naruto caught it with the flat of his sword and threw Sasuke off course. Sasuke landed on the water in a half-handstand, and brought his leg up to slam into Naruto's cheek, but the blonde blocked with a forearm. The Uchiha used his momentum to attack from the other side with his other leg, swinging it into Naruto's side. But this time, Naruto was unable to block as a wave of pain crashed into his mind, freezing him in place. He fell to his knees, clutching at his head as Sasuke moved back. "What the..."
"rEnD... SlAuGhTeR... DEVOUR HIM, NOW! I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS WEAKNESS!" The Darkness roared demonically from within Naruto's head, causing another wave of pain to course through his body.
"Shut... up..." Naruto grunted out loud, rising to his feet once more as black veins began to appear across the skin of his neck. Black chakra began to rotate around his feet and the water beneath him began to bubble and boil. Sasuke felt a sense of danger and death emanating from Naruto's form and took a step back, holding a kunai in front of him, giving him a false sense of security.
"J-Just what are you?" Sasuke screamed, throwing his kunai at Naruto. Before it could even get near the blonde, the kunai disintegrated into nothing before his eyes, which widened. Naruto looked up at him, his yellow eyes containing the same spiked wheel that made up his cursed seal, grinning. For a moment, Sasuke could've sworn he saw Naruto's features shift to that of someone older, more gaunt and pale than he.
"I am... your demise." Naruto growled, the black veins that ran across the skin of his neck now covering a large proportion of his face. He raised an arm, and black tentacles shot up from the water beneath them and tried to pull Sasuke down into the depths, but a Goukakyuu no Jutsu quickly reduced them to naught but ashes. "Why do you run from death?"
"Because I can't die! Not now, not ever! Not until Itachi lies dead at my feet!" the raven-haired Uchiha yelled, aiming another fireball at his opponent. The fireball consumed Naruto, and SAsuke smirked, but said smirk vanished when he saw the flames die out as his foe swatted them away with the back of his hand.
"How pitiful... Is this really the best you can do? Very well. I shall end it for you." Naruto stated, and a Demon Arm grabbed Sasuke's ankle and threw him into the ground with a large crash, before Naruto descended upon him, using Demon Arms as makeshift stilts to raise him into the air and away from future attacks. "Transform. I know you can. Take that second form, and become your strongest yet. I wish for this battle to be as entertaining as possible, before this facet of my personality is locked away again."
"W-What... are you t-talking about?" Sasuke gasped out, as Naruto was holding down by the neck with a thick black tentacle. Naruto narrowed his eyes and used the Arm to pull Sasuke out of the ground and spin him around in the air, before launching him into the side of the cliff. He raised Pestilence and fired off a shot, which crashed into the hole Sasuke had created, sending yellow flames out of the small opening.
"You obviously don't give up as easily as I had thought. Unfortunate." Naruto spoke monotonously, seeing Sasuke pull himself from his hole, his skin almost completely covered by the flame-like marks of his cursed seal. The sclera of his eyes had been turned dark, accentuating the bloody crimson of his three-tomoe Sharingan. His nails lengthened, his skin turned a shade of brown normally only seen on corpses while a black shuriken-like mark appeared on the bridge of his nose, and his normally pitch black hair turned a light grey and lengthened, cascading down his back in a shaggy mane as a pair of large, webbed hands burst from his back.
"Shut up... I am going to kill you... and you are going to stay dead this time!" The transformed Sasuke roared, lowering his fist into his Chidori stance as the lightning burst into existence in his palm. "CHIDORI!" He thrust his clawed hand at Naruto, leaping at his rival, and attempted to pierce his heart, but a Creeper sunk its fangs into his arm, spraying blood into the air and causing Sasuke to scream in pain, before being lifted into the air by the Creeper and held at eye-level with Naruto.
"Somewhat impressive..." Naruto droned monotonously, still being partially controlled by his curse seal and the Darkness. He pulled down his collar, showing off his own curse seal, spinning rapidly. "But anything you can do, I can do better." As he spoke, the wheels began spinning faster, until they became little more than blurs before reaching across his skin and covering it in a dark green substance that hardened to form a strange armour. In certain places the armor opened to reveal more armour beneath, this time yellow, and in some places was covered by more armour in a shining silver. A silver plate covered the lower half of his face, an image of a skull's jaw engraved upon its surface. His fingers were coated in the same silvery armour, which sharpened into claws.
"You... reached it too?" Sasuke asked incredulously, staring wide-eyed into those of his foe, his yellow eyes glowing brighter than before. Naruto didn't answer, but threw Sasuke into the ground, where he followed and began to repeatedly pummel his face in with his armoured fist, his entire body surrounded by a faint black outline as he unconsciously spilled out wave upon wave of the Darkness' power. After plunging one last powerful punch into Sasuke's face, Naruto lifted him up and raised Pestilence to his forehead, resting his finger on the trigger. But even though Sasuke's death was at his fingertips, he hesitated.
"nO... EvEn NoW, WhEn tHiS mAggoT iS aBOuT tO dIe, yOu rEsIsT mE? iNsoLenT, uNgRaTeFul, stupid pUpPEt!" The Darkness roared in Naruto's head, before sending its long tendrils out over the walls of his mindscape, fighting for control over his host's mind. Naruto tried desperately to resist the Darkness' control, but the timeless entity quickly won out, taking over Naruto completely, however fleetingly. He pulled on the trigger, but Sasuke had taken the few seconds that had elapsed while Naruto and his tenant fought to come up with a plan to escape Naruto's grip.
He raised his arm once more, covered in the monochrome lightning that formed during his Cursed Chidori, and pushed it through Naruto's chest, piercing his heart and ending his life almost instantly. Naruto's grip around his neck loosened, allowing him to fall to the ground and crawl away from the blonde's bleeding body as the precious crimson liquid stained the ground beneath them and ran into the nearby lake, turning the water the same bloody crimson.
With the others...
"NARUTO!" They all screamed, even Gaara, as they watched him fall to the ground. They would have jumped in to aid him, but the power he had been putting out was too much for them to even get near, and so staying where they were would have ensured everyone's safety. Besides, Sasuke would've had little trouble against them when he had used his own level two cursed seal, despite how easily they had beaten their respective opponents even when using that stage. They jumped down the cliff, as they each activated their respective powers. Neji threw one of his shields at Sasuke, who blocked it with a hand and threw it off course. The Hyuuga pulled it back with the chain attaching it to his arm and moved back, allowing Chouji to rush forward, his fists already enlarged. The Akimichi was quickly dealt with by a swift kick to the abdomen, throwing him back.
"Are you kidding me? Uzumaki Naruto, the Hero of Konoha, is dead! And I killed him! There's no one who can beat me now!" Sasuke roared, throwing out his arms as he screamed up to the dark clouds. Rain pelted the ground and the eight shinobi as they stared each other down across the valley.
"You will be branded a traitor to Konoha, for killing one of your fellow ninja." Shikamaru stated, knowing that Sasuke already understood that.
"You think I don't know? I killed him because I wanted to, and I would've been branded a traitor anyway!" Sasuke shouted back, ripping his headband from his brow and throwing it into the lake. "Don't come after me. Take him back, give him the funeral he deserves." He spoke calmly, confusing everyone.
"What do you mean?" Temari asked, not knowing why someone who had just killed his enemy in cold blood would want to give him a funeral.
"He was a good fighter, and deserves some respect at least. I just had to make sure... this time, he doesn't survive." Sasuke finished, turning away from the group and jumping into the trees. They turned to Naruto and tried to collect his body, but the tentacles of the Darkness still swayed around his form, attempting to attack them when they came near.
"We should return with backup, we can't take him back like this." Shino stated, hands in his pockets. He turned and walked away, though none of them saw the tear in his eye. The others had similar tears, even Kankuro and Temari, and they too turned and left, leaving Naruto's corpse to lie in the rain.
Several Hours Later...
"Ah, so this is the legendary wielder of the Darkness?" A peculiar redheaded girl asked to no one in particular as she landed in the valley, walking slowly toward Naruto's body. "Hmm, I can see why Orochimaru-sama wanted to capture him. The power rolling off of him.. it's almost palpable."
As she got closer, she looked him up and down, hands on her hips. "Wow, he's pretty cute. It's a shame he's dead though. Oh well, maybe Orochimaru-sama can bring him back!" She said, clapping her hands together. She stepped past the Demon Arms, which had long since fallen dead at his sides, and picked up the body, before leaping back into the trees, heading for the hidden location of Otogakure, the Village Hidden in the Sound.
Somewhere Beyond Space and Time...
Naruto looked up at the metal monstrosity before him, its long cannon aimed toward the crumbling castle on the horizon. At least a dozen sewn-up Krauts surrounded him, brandishing rifles and shouting orders in German with the same twisted voice he had become accustomed to. He looked around at his enemies, before a grin appeared on his face and his eyes turned yellow. Tentacles sprouted from his back, and he raised Pestilence into the air, the end of its barrel glowing brightly, before he fired.
And that's that! I'm glad I finally got this finished. I'm sorry if it's not the ending some of you were hoping for, or it's not good enough. But it will be continued in 2011, with my newest story which will be named 'From The Shadows I Rise'. Keep an eye out for that in the new year. I meant to address this in the last chapter, but I forgot, so I'll do it now. I was planning to give Neji something more elegant, but every story does that. He needs something bulky and powerful, something that fits in with his Sin: Pride. Yes, none of you guessed, but each of the members of the Sasuke Retrieval Squad had powers that were linked to one of Seven Sins. But there are two unaccounted for, which will be seen to in the sequel. But the known Sins are...
Naruto: Wrath.
Shikamaru: Sloth.
Neji: Pride.
Shino: Greed.
Chouji: Gluttony.
Oh, and if you haven't watched Shippuuden, or are just simply an idiot, you'll find out who the redhead is later. Those of you who have watched it and have some intelligence will know exactly who it is. Hint: one of the people in Naruto's harem, chosen by the poll. Anyway, I have no more to say, except that I hoped you enjoyed reading, and I look forward to writing for you all in 2011! So, Happy New Year, and goodnight!