CHAPTER 8: Your Salvation

Ocean blue eyes opened slowly before blinking several times due to the early morning sun rays, the eyes began to look around whilst still laying on the bed, the eyes soon widened in realization before the boy who laid in the bed got out of the bed quickly and began to look around quickly, the boy then turned towards the window before looking outside and seeing a familiar backyard, backing away from the window the boy soon came across a mirror and the boy stared at his reflection in shock. The reflection showed a young boy about six years old wearing a white shirt, green shorts and black sandals, the next thing the boy noticed was his hair, it was sun kissed blonde with red highlights, the three whisker marks on each cheek where the next thing he noticed backing away the boy spoke in a whisper "how the hell did I get here", before the boy could do anything else he heard knocking on the door "Naruto Ni-San are you awake", a female voice said on the other side of the door, the surprise and apprehension on Naruto's face was apparent even if the voice did sound familiar something in his head told him that this was wrong "Ni-San if you're not awake I'll tell mom to pour cold water on you", the female voice said with a bit of irritation, having no choice Naruto cautiously made his way to the door, once he had his small hand on the door knob he took a deep breath before opening the door and standing face to face with a young girl who had three whisker marks on her cheeks, purple eyes, a heart shaped face, and slightly long sun yellow hair that went down to her neck "Fuso", Naruto thought shockingly, Fuso seeing her brother's slightly shocked face poked him on his forehead with a grin that resembled a fox "didn't sleep much did you Ni-San", Fuso spoke getting Naruto's attention back "y-yeah I went to sleep late", Naruto said still apprehensive of the current situation "well Ka-Chan, Oto-Chan, Ni-Chan and Ni-San are waiting for you to come eat breakfast, come on", and with that Fuso grabbed hold of Naruto's hand and dragged him downstairs before leading him to the dining room table, once there the two saw the rest of their family there sitting and waiting for them with warm smiles, even the arrogant redhead Menma was smiling out of happiness for seeing his two siblings "there you two are and good morning Sochi-Kun", said Kushina as she came out of the kitchen with pot of curry, setting the pot down she looked towards her two eldest children making her way to them Kushina kneeled down in front of Naruto and Fuso and gave them a look over "have you been sleeping well Sochi-Kun", Kushina said worriedly, if Naruto wasn't surprised before he most certainly was now and it must have been evident on his face since his mother spoke whilst giving him a warm hug "what am I going to do with you if you make me worry like this", Kushina said softly, Naruto went stiff as he heard her words and unbeknownst to him a tear fell from his right eye, putting a bit of space between her and her son Kushina saw the tear and cleared it off of him "come on let's eat", Kushina said warmly taking Naruto's small hand in hers making their way to the table, Naruto sat in between his mother and brother, Naruto took a look at the dish of curry in front of him before picking up a spoon and eating with his family, Kushina along with Minato could only smile warmly as the rest of the family breakfast was spent talking to each other whilst eating, Naruto would occasionally answer questions pointed at him with a quick response, the apprehensive feeling he had when he woke up earlier was still there but he hid it well except when his 'mother' hugged him. Eventually the family finished with their breakfast and Minato spoke "Okay, now that we're done eating let's go to the front yard I have a surprise for all of you", said with a smile, getting up from the table the family began to move towards the front door when they noticed Naruto wasn't with them turning back to the table they all saw that Naruto was still sitting at the table with a blank expression "Sochi-Kun", Kushina said questioningly getting the boy's attention "what are donning aren't you coming with us Ni-San", Menma said with a raised eyebrow, Naruto turned his head to his waiting family and spoke quietly "y-you want me to come with you", the family turned to each other in surprise before Fuso spoke "of course Ni-San, we wouldn't leave you behind for anything", Naruto showed an apprehensive look but eventually he cautiously made his way to his waiting family they all smiled at him as they made their way outside "surprise!", a large group of people said as confetti was shot into the air. Clearing his vision Naruto saw familiar faces of Itachi, Kishimoto, Hana, Yukimaru, Yakumo, Ino, and...Cayde he then recognized in front of him and his family a banner was held the inscription reading "Happy birthday day Menma, Fuso, and Naruto", as Naruto's 'family' went forward Naruto stayed back and watched as his family went to go greet the others "t-this, this isn't right", Naruto said under his breath as he began to backup and as he turned around to get back inside Naruto came upon a disturbing scene, he was standing in a clearing with a small river to his left, a bunch of trees surrounding him and a big bonsai tree in front of him, but it wasn't his surroundings that bothered him but the amount of bodies that were in the clearing, but what really got him on edge was the familiar faces on the bodies Fuso was impaled in the chest with a spectral blade, she also had a missing right arm, Menma's headless body was floating in the river, Jiriaya's dismembered body parts were scattered across the clearing with his head being right next to Naruto's left foot, Tsunade's body was cut open with her body being pinned up against bonsai tree by a couple spectral blades, but the biggest shocker for Naruto was when he slightly looked downwards and saw the forms of his 'mother' and 'father' laying at his feet breathing heavily as blood poured out of their wounds, Naruto then felt something in his right hand and when he put his hand in front of him he was shocked to see it was sort of gun similar to Cayde's only it was made up of some sort of black material (think of the Thorn hand canon from destiny two). Naruto was cut from his musings when he heard coughing, looking back down Naruto stared at the downed forms of his 'parents' with apprehension, subconsciously he began lifting his right hand and aimed the gun towards his downed parents "end it", a whispering voice said as Naruto put his finger on the trigger of the gun "end all your suffering and find your salvation", the whispering voice said once more, Naruto's arm then began to shake as he remembered a specific memory.

FLASHBACK TWO YEARS AGO*

Sitting on the roof the apartment Naruto sat there with a sandwich in his hand as he gazed out at the rest of the village, he wasn't by himself for long as he sensed Cayde walking up behind him before sitting next to him, his own sandwich in hand , the two spent the next few minutes just gazing at the bustling streets of the village "beautiful view right", Cayde said light heartedly "it is", Naruto responded whilst still looking at the village, the comfortable silence returned as both kept gazing at the bustling village "I heard you almost got into a fight at school with a certain pair of twins", Cayde said seriously as he kept staring at the Village "they were asking for it", Naruto replied with a bit of annoyance "doesn't mean you should add flames to the fire", Cayde said coolly "you would do the same if they told you what they told me", Naruto said a bit of anger showing "what did they say", Cayde asked questioningly, Naruto didn't reply immediately and stayed quiet "if you don't want to say you don-", Cayde was cut off from saying anymore as Naruto spoke "they called me a disgrace to my family, they said that my family must've been so happy to have left me behind because I was a pitiful excuse of a human being, and when I heard them say that all I wanted was to rip them apart however I could", Naruto said whilst clenching his hand, Cayde turned to Naruto with a brotherly a put a hand on Naruto's shoulder "l'm gonna tell you an old speech form one of closet friends", Naruto gave Cayde a side glance as Cayde continued to speak, clearing his throat Cayde tried to do his best impression of Zavala "revenge is a fools game Guardian, we have a duty to the people of the last city and revenge will only divert us from that", Cayde finished sagely whilst still trying to impersonate Zavala, Naruto snickered at Cayde's impersonation and Cayde in return gave a brotherly smile before moving his hand to the top of Naruto's head and ruffled his hair, making a mess of Naruto's hair who gave Cayde a light hearted glare, Cayde chuckled at Naruto's glare before turning back to look at the bustling village with a small smile, Naruto followed Cayde's lead and also began to lookout at the view of the bustling village "Naruto", Cayde said blankly catching Naruto's attention who turned to look at his old brother figure "if you still plan on getting your revenge make sure no one you care about gets hurt in the process, make sure you are ready to deal with the consequences, and most of all", Cayde paused turning to look at Naruto "Hit 'em where it hurts ", Cayde finished Cooley as he showed a fist towards Naruto, who intern bumped fist with Cayde with a fox like smile before speaking with determination

"you got it".

END FLASHBACK*

Back in the present Naruto pointed the gun upwards and away from his 'parents' before pulling the trigger and a loud bang was heard throughout the clearing, for a while nothing happened but my much to his surprise the world around him began to shift and fade, Naruto then noticed a bright light emitting from the Bonsai tree and with no other options he ran towards the light and jumped into it. Landing on the other side, Naruto noticed he landed in a huge patch of red and white flowers, looking around Naruto was a bit awestruck at the environment around him (think of the ending cutscene in destiny 2 shadowkeep)

as Naruto looked around he began to walk forward before stopping a few steps before a long Cliff that led into mist "long way down", Naruto said under his breath "you made it", a young yet deep male voice said, turning around Naruto noticed a figure not to far from who seemed familiar "we have heard your cries for help", the figure said beginning to walk towards Naruto "and soon we will answer", figure said still walking towards Naruto with clasped hands in front "who are you", Naruto asked, the figure spread his arms out before speaking "don't you recognize us", Naruto's eyes soon widened in shock as he saw a copy of himself, the copy then continued to walk towards Naruto as it spoke "we are not your friend, we are not your enemy", Naruto took a few steps back as the figure kept moving towards him before feeling the edge of the cliff

"we are... your salvation", the copy said now only few feet away from Naruto "accept our gift", the copy said as he put two fingers on Naruto's forehead before pushing Naruto of the edge of the cliff, as Naruto fell down the cliff while yelling his vision was covered by the mist before his vision went black once more.

An ocean blue eye snapped open and immediately began to look around in a panic before settling on a glowing green hand that hovered over his forehead, not thinking about where he was Osiris grabbed the wrist of the hand with his left hand and pulled the person in and using his right hand to grab hold of the person's throat beginning to choke said person. Soon enough though Osiris's vision began to clear somewhat and his eye widened as he saw a face he hadn't seen a long time, a singular ocean blue eye stared into two hazel eyes that were also wide in shock "T-Tsunade!", Osiris thought as he let go of the medic's throat who began to cough "I-I'm so sorry Tsunade-San, I didn't mean t-", Osiris was stopped from saying anymore as a raised hand from Tsunade stopped him in his speak, clearing her throat Tsunade stared at the Genin in front of her with a twitching eyebrow before sighing loudly and putting her hand down and relaxing her emotions "I don't fault you for your actions Gaki your not the first person in the world to wake up in a fright after a near death experience, if anything I should blame myself for not stopping your sudden attack even if you didn't mean it", Tsunade said passively as she walked to the end of the bed and took out the clip board before writing a couple things down, Osiris turned and looked towards the window in the room before speaking blankly "how did I get here", Tsunade gave a small glance towards Osiris before looking back to the clipboard in front of her "You were brought here about four days by your team and the others, they had patched you up before hand though and without that you might've not been here today", Tsunade said, Osiris got a look of understanding before looking to his right and he saw a night stand with vase full of flowers, one of his knives and a scroll "some of your comrades stopped by and dropped off some of your things and the shy one left you some flowers",Tsunade said as she put the clip board away "shy one?, probably Ino", Osiris thought before being snapped out of his musings as he was flicked lightly on the head by Tsunade, looking at her blankly his right eyebrow twitched as he saw her smug look "now that I got your attention your clear to go the only thing I recommend is that you leave the bandages on your right eye for at least two more days", Tsunade said, realization soon came to Osiris as he got up from the hospital bed and moved to mirror that was in the room, looking at his reflection he saw that the bandages were warped from the left side of his head to underneath his right ear, Osiris began to slowly move his right hand to the bandaged eye socket but was caught by the wrist by Tsunade who had small frown "I wouldn't recommend doing that, it's not done healing and any type of contact could infect the wound", Tsunade said sternly, Osiris just stared blankly at Tsunade before nodding, letting go Tsunade moved to the door of room and opened the door halfway through her exit she spoke "thank you Osiris-San", Osiris who was in the middle of changing his hospital shirt to a dark grey short sleeved shirt stopped and turned to look at Tsunade "for what?", Osiris asked questioningly, Tsunade gave a slight glance towards Osiris and gave a small smile "for protecting my godchildren", and with that Tsunade left the room leaving Osiris to reflect on Tsunade's words, after getting dressed Osiris now wore the dark gray short sleeve shirt and olive green cargo pants being tucked into black shinobi sandals. Looking towards the nightstand Osiris made his way to the nightstand before standing in front of it, looking at the objects in front of him he picked up the scroll first and channeled chakra into it, a puff of smoke later and Osiris was holding his folded jacket with his equipment and a warped item being stacked on top of it, placing the jacket and his equipment aside, Osiris held the warped item in hand and turned it over to see an inscription "from your favorite guardian P.S made a small adjustment, hope you get better soon", Osiris gave a smile as he began to unwarp the item, Once opened Osiris was surprised to see another hunter knife except this one was made out of darker materials it was also surprisingly lighter compared to the regular hunter knives, there was also a small inscription written in the blade portion of the knife that read

"Mortes Manus", "Mortes Manus", Osiris repeated "has a nice ring to it", Osiris thought as he then turned to his equipment and began to place it on, moments later Osiris had his equipment on and was putting his jacket on but the sound of an opening door caught his attention, turning back towards the door Osiris turned to look at his teammates and sensei come in the room with Ino carrying flowers, Yakumo holding a container of food, and his sensei holding another container of food, although being told that there male teammate had awakened a few minutes ago the three from team 12 were still very surprised to see the state of their male teammate, getting out of her momentary surprise Yukimaru gave a small smile "it's great to see you okay Osiris-Kun", she said warmly in response Osiris nodded with a barely noticeable smile, Ino and Yakumo who were still in there momentary surprise but once out of it Yakumo did something no one expected of her, placing the food aside Yakumo moved quickly towards Osiris and embraced him in a warm hug, initially Osiris had slightly stiffened at the contact but slowly he relaxed into Yakumo's warm embrace and gave a one arm hug "thank you", Yakumo said quietly only loud enough to be heard by Osiris, who could only keep his unnoticeable smile. Ino looked upon the warm scene in front of her with a smile although inwardly there was a mix of emotions that not even she understood, before she could dwell on it any longer a cough from her Sensei had caught her and her teammates attention "not to ruin such a tender", Yukimaru said teasingly as she paused to look at Osiris who had his neutral expression and a blushing Yakumo who were still in an embrace before Yakumo let go and began to rub her arm out of embarrassment "but the food might get cold if we just leave it around", Yukimaru said as she went to go sit down in one of the chairs that were next to the hospital bed, once situated the entirety of team 12 was sitting down and enjoying their food whilst making ideal conversation with the occasional worried question for Osiris who would answer reassuringly whilst keep his face of neutrality, by the end of day Osiris's was cleared to go home and the whole of team 12 soon went there separate ways with all of them agreeing to meet backup in two days time. Making his way back home wasn't as difficult as Osiris thought but the absence of his right eye was a little strange "I'll get used to it", Osiris thought to himself as he continued to walk his way home, hopefully Cayde was there so he could reassure his worries about him, as Osiris walked up the hillside that led to a bunch of houses and apartments, making his way to right side of the road he came to a stop at Cayde's and his apartment "home sweet home", Osiris said in a tried tone as he gained a small warm smile, walking up a flight of stairs that led to the apartment he soon came to the top of stairs and came to an abrupt stop and all traces of his warm small smile was gone replaced with a blank calculating expression that stared straight at the person in front of him. The person in front of didn't seem to notice him and was about to knock on the door once more but before she did, she took notice of him and showed a surprised expression, but as soon as it appeared her surprise was replaced with a small smile that showed regret and gratefulness, turning away from the door she made her way to him, she never lost her smile as she walked towards Osiris and didn't take notice of his expression as she spoke "good evening Osiris-San, I see that you've been let out of the hospital and are doing well", Osiris nodded before speaking "why are you here Kushina-San", Osiris asked bluntly getting straight to the point and hiding his animosity towards the redhead in front of him, not surprised by the young Genin's blunt response Kushina straightened herself out and took a deep breath before looking towards the enigmatic Genin with regret before speaking "I... came to find you to thank you saving my team at the bridge and... to say I'm sorry for my team's actions and insults towards you, we didn't know that you and my souchi were so close", Osiris could only hmpf in response getting a questioning look from Kushina "we weren't close", Osiris said blankly as he stared slightly to the side almost like he was reminiscing on a memory "but it didn't take a genius to see he was alone, makes someone wonder why he would run away from home", Osiris finished in a questioning tone as he kept his blank face looking towards the older redhead, Kushina could only look ashamed as she looked towards the floor not noticing when Osiris made his way past her and towards his apartment door before he came to a stop "I didn't save your team out of the goodness of my heart, I did it because there were some good people there, people who didn't deserve suffer, had they not been I wouldn't have lifted finger", Osiris finished coldly as he opened his apartment door and made his way inside, not noticing the self disappointment that Kushina's face was showing as she shunshined away, back inside when Osiris made his way to the kitchen in the apartment he heard knocking on the door sighing loudly he backtracked towards the door "what else do you want Kushin-", Osiris stopped from saying anymore when he stopped and looked at the henged blue eyes of his older brother figure who had smile "I would ask if you're okay but with the conversation I just listened to and with your release from the hospital , I can assume your pretty tired", Cayde spoke sheepishly, Osiris could only deadpan before nodding with a small smile before both entered the apartment ready to forget today's events.

LATER*

At the Uzumaki/Namikaze compound, Uzumaki Namikaze Fuso was in a whirlwind of emotions whilst laying on her bed, it had been four days since her and the two other Genin teams had made it back home, it had been four days where she came close to death, it had been four days when the person she held the most anger and animosity towards inadvertently saved her, her family, and the other teams. Once they had made it back to the Village although everyone was tired team twelves sensei pushed forward and took her injured Genin to the hospital before passing out due to chakra exhaustion, whilst they recovered from the C turned A-Rank, she along with her brother were scolded by their mother and father for letting the Nine tails chakra take control of their emotions before they relented and making sure her and the others were alright, afterwards she along with other teams gave their reports to her father and she was shocked to learn that while she was unconscious Osiris had took initiative and got the rest of the Genin to safety and took on the hunter nin alone even more surprising was when her mother along with the two other Jonin sensei's confirmed that Osiris took on an entire army of bandits alone, most felt grateful like Shino, Hanabi, Yakumo, and Ino but the jealousy displayed by Menma, Kiba, and Sakura was not missed. And that's the dilemma she found herself in, On the one hand she was indeed grateful for Osiris's action, had he not took initiative she might've not been here today, On the other they weren't on the greatest of terms and the fight they had the day prior wasn't helping matters even more problematic was the confrontation her mother described when she had went to apologize on their behalf, to say that she gained a little bit of fear of Osiris would be an understatement, Fuso sighed loudly and had a remorseful face "I don't know how to feel", she said aloud tiredness being evident in her voice "maybe... if Ni-Chan was here he could help", and with that Fuso let her tiredness take her and she promptly fell asleep.

MEANWHILE*

On the Outskirts of Konoha on a hilltop a figure hidden by a closed cloak stood on the edge of the hill looking towards the Village hidden in the leaves, the figure wasn't alone for long as another figure with white hair came out of the trees and stood next to the cloak hidden figure "right on time", the cloaked figure said her voice clearly being feminine "I live to serve Orochimara-Sama", the white haired figure said, Orochimara could only shake her head nonchalantly before speaking once more "did you get what I asked Kabuto-Chan", Orochimara asked, in response Kabuto nodded and took out a satchel that was moving chaotically, when Kabuto opened the bag a medium sized snake lashed out towards him but before it could a feminine hand grabbed hold of the snake and when it turned towards the aggressor it immediately calmed as it stared into the snake like eyes of Orochimara almost like it was in a trance "So this is Nagini, Naru-Kun's friend or does he go by Osiris, such a lovely name", Orochimara said hotly "Now, you're gonna help me by setting up a meeting between me and your friend", Orochimara said as she chuckled lightly a hint of giddiness shown in her eyes.

AUTHORS NOTE*

Alright another chapter done and dusted much sooner then the last, yes this chapter was much shorter than the last but it serves a purpose, on the same topic I don't know if I will have the Chunin Exams as a whole chapter or split into two parts but will see, besides that thanks for reading and any literature mistakes I've made, I will try and correct, Laters.