A/N: Here we are again. This one's a little short in my opinion, but I ended it where I wanted. And it's better than nothing, right? First part's a little gruesome, you've been warned. Also, my big motivation for getting this up was in part due to around ten or so readers who, after I spontaneously checked traffic one day, seemed to be diligently waiting, even after all this time, for an update. You all make me so happy. This chapter's dedicated to you guys, as well as those few who like to check my profile and probably saw that little hint I left. I didn't forget about you!
Longer note's at the bottom. Read it if you want, and enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer: I recently saw Masashi Kishimoto at a doughnut shop. Feeling brave, I approached him and boldly asked him for the rights to Naruto. He looked at me, shouted something (probably a profanity or two) in Japanese, and then punched me through a wall. Series still ain't mine.
"I decided to make my home amongst the flowers. I hadn't recalled any specific abode of mine in my memories, so the beautiful place I had discovered seemed perfect. I was so naïve."
Purge
Brotherhood, Part 1
Haruno Sakura had thought she knew fear and pain. She thought the emotional pain that came with facetious taunts was the worst she would ever experience. When she decided to become a ninja, like her parents before her, she figured all of her enemies would flee; they wouldn't be willing to face a proud kunoichi of Konoha. Oh, what a laugh.
She was uninjured, of course. She would always be uninjured. She was weak, pathetic, an easy target, but she would never be hurt. There were too many roadblocks the enemy would have to hurdle to get to her. And so, as she opened closed eyes and pulled herself off the ground (who knew Naruto had that much power?), she understood for the first time what it meant to be a ninja.
The first member of her team she saw was Sasuke. He was currently on his knees, gasping for breathe. He looked on the verge of collapsing. Senbon riddled his entire body, making him looks more like an oversized pincushion than a human being. She ran over to him. He would always be her first priority, the top of her list. Kneeling down beside him, she asked him probably the stupidest question one could ask a pre-teenage boy who had just survived the fight of his life.
"Are you hurt, Sasuke-kun?"
Slowly, Sasuke planted one foot on the ground, then the other. He rose, stumbling a little when he straightened his back. The boy turned towards her and gave her a tired glare.
"Sakura, I am an Uchiha. I am impervious to pain. I simply cannot be hurt." Clearly, his ego was still intact. Sakura sighed. As she grew to know him (through stalking, a little voice in the back of her mind reminded her), she learned that if Sasuke could still gloat, he truly was fine. Chakra exhausted, but fine.
She saw the unconscious Yoshirou at the end of the bridge and winced at his condition. A small pool of blood had formed around him, clearly coming from the large slice that had nearly taken his lower leg off. That Zabuza really was something. If they didn't get him back to Konoha to receive adequate medical attention, he could quite possibly lose the limb. That would end his career. Sakura let herself relax a little when she saw Kakashi appear next to him, take out a roll of gauze and wrap the wound with almost half of it. It wouldn't really do anything, but it was probably better than nothing. At the very least it would minutely stem the blood flow. Sakura turned towards the final team member, the last one on the list. Always the last one on the list.
When she was older and wiser, Haruno Sakura would look back on that day and remember it as the singular event that changed her life. That made her a better person. It was a day on which her eyes were opened, and she learned the true value of human life. One might even go so far as to say it was on that day that her future was decided; she would become a medic-nin, one of the best. On that day, where she learned what war did to humanity, and she learned resolve, focus, and strength.
On that day, where she learned fear.
Uzumaki Naruto lay face down in a pool of his own crimson life fluid. The chakra that had once covered his arms in an unbreakable aura had long since vanished, leaving in its wake a tangled, shredded mess. Black skin collected on his arms in globules. Muscle and specks of bone peaked out in the sunlight. His body was seizing, convulsing. Still, Sakura stood there, unable to do anything. She couldn't do anything, and because of that, the teammate, who she had just recently learned had gone through hell and came back, was dying. It was her fault.
She looked around her. The devastation was obvious. Her eyes were drawn to the crater Naruto had created when he unleashed that unholy, concentrated rage, but there were other battle scars as well. Scorch marks from Sasuke's Katon jutsu tinted select parts of the bridge a harsh black. Kakashi's Raikiri had made a similar effect, only the black was in a ring from where the blade's bolts had struck the ground. Slashes along the metal at the far end of the bridge marked Yoshirou's valiant stand against his former student. Sakura looked at her hands. What had she done to contribute to all that?
Her fault.
She took her long locks into her hand. While everyone was out there dying, she had focused on being pretty and cute.
Her fault.
She snatched an unused, shiny kunai from her pouch. It was still full of deadly weapons. Sakura sneered, and sliced the pathetic hair away. She didn't watch the lush locks fall to the pavement as she ran over to Naruto's prone body. This time it might've been her fault, but that didn't mean it had to be the same in the future.
He needed to leave. He needed to get out of that place, whatever it was, and return to Konoha. He mentally noted the irony in that statement: return to Konoha. In another universe, if he had known he'd said that, he might've even laughed. But emotion was too far gone, forgotten to him by now. The only person he even remotely cared about at this point was his brother, but Sasuke wanted him dead. At this very moment, he was probably training himself to destroy his older brother. But going back might heal old wounds. He hoped, anyway. It was a very foreboding thing, however; only the Hokage and the elders knew of the truth. Every other shinobi was kept in the dark for their own good. It was a conspiracy wracked in lies. Now he had to return. In order to do that, he had to survive long enough to tell the truth. And to tell the secrets that lay within the scroll.
The scroll. He would have attacked Madara on sight had he known beforehand. This plan, this masterful deception of the world, could not be completed. If it was, every human life would rest in Uchiha Madara's palm.
He closed his eyes momentarily to ward off the headache, before unravelling the scroll further and reading the second half.
And then there was that.
Uchiha Itachi's world had been turned upside down. He would no longer be a rogue. He would no longer carry the weight of his past actions upon his shoulders. Standing up, he turned and ran out soundlessly into the hallway, turning to the direction of the exit. He had become a protector. His part in this gigantic play would be done, whether it cost him his life or not. And one thing rang out, clearer and more profound in his mind than any of the other myriad thoughts.
Uzumaki Naruto must survive.
"He has gotten the key ingredient. You know what to do."
"Hai," the three chorused, before disappearing. Once they had all gone, the figure in the shadows made himself known.
"I still don't see why he has to die."
Takehiko removed himself from his chair and walked over to gaze out his favorite window. There was a minute's pause before he spoke again.
"Tell me, what does it mean to sharpen a kunai?"
The other man let out an annoyed grunt. He really wasn't in the mood for one of Takehiko's philosophical lectures. Knowing, though, that the point wouldn't be made unless he "humored" the leader, he answered.
"It means you have a weapon with which to kill your enemies."
A humorless smirk graced Takehiko's face before he answered.
"You are both right and wrong, friend. You are right because that is indeed what it allows you to do. You are wrong because you didn't give the correct answer."
"Get to the point."
"But life doesn't work that way, does it? You cannot simply wait for the correct conclusions to come jumping into your lap, asking you to decipher their messages. Patience is a virtue that not many people-"
"And how does any of this relate to the sacrificing of Uchiha Itachi's life?" his other snapped, cutting him off.
"-have," Takehiko continued as if never interrupted, "And as both of us have learned in our careers, boldly rushing in and making both you and your motives known does not solve anything."
He turned to the particular shadow the mysterious man currently occupied and stared into his blue eyes. Eyes which glared back.
"Uchiha Itachi is a warning. You do not know what for. You do not need to know what for. I am only one of three people who actually know what is about to happen to the world," he smirked, although the other man did not know why.
"And who are the other two?"
"Uchiha Madara."
The man was concerned by this, but did not stop to ponder. Pondering in this situation was dangerous. "That is only one person."
Takehiko smirked again.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"
The fireball roared through the trees before exploding in a messy splash of light. The three pursuers continued, uninterrupted. Itachi bit back a swear; he should have expected nothing to happen. This annoying pursuit had been going on for over an hour now, and the former (at least in his mind, anyway) missing-nin had thrown jutsu after jutsu at his attackers. He knew who they were, obviously. The base's leader did not like his property stolen from right under his nose.
Itachi dropped down to the forest floor after dodging a quick bullet of water. He jumped after feeling the ground shake minutely, barely clearing a wall of stone that had emerged from the ground. That was another annoying part of this whole shit-storm. He had only seen teamwork of this level in the ANBU. One would try to distract him, only for another attacker to attempt a killing blow. His years of training in both Konoha and the Akatsuki was the one thing that had really, consistently saved his life.
Itachi used the momentum from his jump to head back into the trees. He pushed his chakra out, sensing for the pursuers. Dammit, he thought, they're still there. He readied several smoke bombs and slammed them against the newest branch he landed on. A thick fog engulfed the area in moments, obscuring all vision. Itachi took the opportunity to summon two shadow clones and send them in opposite directions. He then took out a kunai, masked his chakra the best he could, and hoped for the impossible to happen. One second passed before he heard voices inside the smoke cloud with him. There were no footsteps accompanying them, so he head to rely on the sound of their voices alone.
"Shou-san, this is not the Kirigakure no Jutsu, correct?" a stoic voice inquired.
"I never thought you to be the joker, Yuuto-san," the one confirmed as Shou replied in a gruff voice.
"Shut up, both of you. I'll go after the one to the northwest, Shou is to go after the one headed to the southeast. Yuuto is to stay here. Move."
Two light pads confirmed the departure of two of the attackers. Itachi activated his Mangekyou silently. The hunted had become the hunter, at long last. From the sound of the man's voice, he was to Itachi's left, as well as a bit in front.
Perfect.
The Uchiha stalked towards the voice silently, kunai in hand. He could eventually make out a shadow, and could make out what looked to be an ANBU mask secured over the man's face. Itachi's brow furrowed slightly. It was curious, but not overly problematic. He knew, obviously, that the mask did not fully obscure the eyes unless worn a certain way. The man was facing to the right; Itachi angled his path of approach carefully so that he would be behind him. He brought his kunai up into a reverse-hold, preparing for a quick stab to his neck.
When he got within a foot of his target, Yuuto's right arm flung up while his entire body shifted suddenly to the right. Itachi found a kunai pointed directly at his own neck. He did no so much as flinch.
"Do you think me to be ignorant and stupid?" his enemy began in that same stoic voice Itachi had heard earlier. A scowl could be barely detected on the Uchiha's visage.
"I know you are an Uchiha, and I know you have access to the Mangekyou Sharingan. We were all given a file on you, should this very situation happen, Itachi-san."
Now Itachi felt a small tinge of anger welling up inside him. He was sold out. Should he escape this predicament, someone was going to die. That much was certain. Taking a quick breath through his nose, Itachi substituted with a third clone he had formed before the other two, currently heading directly for Konoha and about a mile away in distance. Feeling a sudden rush of air as he landed on a branch, Itachi activated his one and only backup plan.
Bunshin Daibakuha.
The explosion's roar echoed throughout the forest. Itachi allowed himself a small, satisfactory smirk. Even if Yuuto hadn't been killed or disabled, he would be, at the very least, disoriented for a good amount of time.
He pushed an even greater amount of chakra into his legs. Time was of the essence, he repeated in his mind. As if he didn't know that already.
But unfortunately it didn't want to cooperate. Of course, the explosion had attracted the attention of the other two pursuers. Itachi felt their chakra spike as they acknowledged the possible death of their other comrade. He knew it wouldn't take long for them to home onto his position again. Thankfully, though, he still had about seventy-five percent of his chakra. Itachi estimated the distance to Konoha to be approximately ten miles. Defense and offense no longer mattered; it was purely about speed. The Uchiha redirected three-fourths of his remaining chakra to his leg muscles. Damn the consequences. To anyone watching, the already-fast man would have appeared to just plainly disappear.
"Hokage-sama." The interruption by one of the ANBU who was currently supposed to be patrolling the outskirts of the village was unannounced, and momentarily caught Hiruzen by surprise. That meant it was important.
"What is it." An order, not a question.
"There is commotion and signs of battle roughly fifteen miles away from the village. The cause appears to be Uchiha Itachi. He is heading directly towards the village. The shinobi he is currently fighting are not known to us at this time."
The Hokage was already leaving his office. His battle armor gleamed in place of his robes.
"I want four squads of ANBU. You are to close the village gates, and all shinobi currently in the village are to be on standby. Border patrols are to remain scouting. If I do not report from the village gates within fifteen minutes exactly, all civilians are to be escorted to the hidden bunker within the Hokage Monument, and all shinobi, genin included, are to prepare for battle. Check the bingo book for information on Uchiha's assailants. Do not inform the other villages."
"Hai."
With the departure of the ANBU, Sarutobi was left to his own thoughts. He was one of few who know who exactly Uchiha Itachi was. For him to blow his cover so suddenly and try to make his way back to truly friendly territory meant that something incredibly dire must have happened.
Dire to Itachi meant cause for panic to other shinobi. Needless to say, this was a problem.
'I need to retire.'
When Itachi cut the chakra flow to his legs again, he was in very familiar territory. No matter how long it had been since he left, he still remembered the immediate forest surrounding Konohagakure no Sato. Not wasting any time to reminisce, he headed for the village gates. Itachi's Sharingan had long since deactivated, in order to send more chakra to his legs for the last sprint to the village. But it didn't matter now; he had made it. Exhausted and battle-scarred, but he made it.
It only took him a moment to notice the Hokage standing outside the village, gates closed shut, in his battle armor. The monkey staff Enma was at his side. Itachi noticed sixteen ANBU black ops shinobi hidden amongst the trees surrounding the old Sarutobi. The missing-nin jumped down to land in front of the Hokage, his hands raised in the universal sign of surrender, so as to not severely provoke the ANBU. He might be the infamous Uchiha Itachi, but sixteen elites were still out of his league.
"Hokage-sama! Quickly, I have something for you!"
Hiruzen, who had had his eyes closed up until this point, quickly walked over to Itachi. He flared his chakra twice to tell the ANBU to hold their positions.
"What is going on, Itachi-kun?" he asked.
Itachi, however, was starting to lose his careful control on his emotions. Sweat was rolling down his face like silver beads; his heart rate was accelerating. "Time is of the essence, Hokage-sama," he reached into one of his chest pockets with his right hand and pulled out a simple scroll. "You must take this scroll and-"
A sword pierced Uchiha Itachi's neck. Blood splattered heavily on the ground. All sound stopped.
The air behind the gurgling man twisted and conformed, first condensing into the emotionless mask of a wolf, which now sported a large crack twisting through the middle, and then into the body of a man. Eyes gleamed with craze mixed in bloodlust. A hand formed out of the air and grabbed the scroll mere milliseconds before the Hokage could. The dying Itachi could only watch in choking horror.
'G-Genjutsu...?'
Yuuto spun, grabbed his ninjato in a reverse-hold, and slid it out of Itachi's blood-soaked neck. His body dissipated back into the air as he moved away. The projectiles and jutsu the ANBU threw at him seemed to swirl and curl around him, striking the ground and slingshotting into trees. And then he was gone.
Itachi fell to his knees, weakness and failure overcoming him. His entire body seemed soaked in the blood that continuously poured from his neck like a faucet. It pooled in his mouth, choking him. Hiruzen grabbed his shoulders to stabilize him, if only for a moment. The aged Hokage nodded to him, silently commending him for his loyalty to the village, even in the end. He would have a hero's burial, next to his family. As if by one last surge of strength, Itachi's black eyes sharpened, as if piercing Sarutobi's very soul. He coughed the blood in his mouth onto the stained ground.
"Tell Sasuke."
The face of a shinobi who had sacrificed so much in his young life hit the ground, no longer impeded by the strength of muscle or the honor of men.
So. How're you all doing? Miss me? Yes no? We've been here before, I think. Heh. Recent manga chapters have both helped and hurt the story's plot, but I guess canon doesn't matter in a story like this. Er... too much. What else is there? Hold on, I gotta go searchin' for my carefully prepared, "HA! I HAVE RETURNED TO BLESS !" speech...
...
Can't find it.
Atrocious update times aside, Purge is still kicking. Dammit, I feel like I'm supposed to be saying something el- oh.
I'M SORRY FOR KILLING ITACHI. Don't hurt me! D:
Yes, I know I just went and slaughtered probably the most significant person, character-wise, in the Naruto-verse. Yes, Itachi had the most character development in the entire damn series. Yes, Itachi was ranked in the top-ten on the "Most Unbelievably But Still Not Overpowered Badass" list. Yes, Itachi's death was incredibly anti-climatic and probably lasted a total span of approximately ten seconds.
Unfortunately, it was necessary. Leads to drama 'n such next chapter, and affects a whole bunch of stuff plot-wise.
Now then. I know reviewing is not necessary, nor do I try to shamelessly ask, "OMFG REVIEW THIS PLOXXXX?1?" However, reviews have been scientifically proven to motivate authors to get off their asses and update more (wink wink nudge nudge). Keep that in mind. Your ability to make me an incredibly happy camper rests in that arrow/other-mouse-cursor moving over that button down there and clicking. Keep that in mind!
~FicsRLulz