15

A/N: Well, it's been awhile, but I know I've made you wait longer before. Haha. So, I decided to base the resolution off of chapter 448. If you haven't read it yet, you might want to get on that first, unless you like spoilers. Oh, and as I was going over my previous chapters to make sure everything made sense, I realized I'd made a mistake. I mentioned something about Hinata chasing after the team on the morning of their departure, which interestingly isn't in the chapter. Hmm, I don't know how that happened, but I fixed it. Other than that, please enjoy the resolution to Redemption!


Redemption

Chapter Eight- His Name


Sakura was the first to approach the cave. Naruto was in there. Her steps were slow and deliberate. The others followed cautiously behind. They were almost there; just a few more steps. Sasuke put his hand on her shoulder, telling her wordlessly to stop.

"Wait," he whispered. "Someone is here."

Sakura didn't grasp the meaning of the words. Of course someone was here. It was Naruto! She tried to shrug his hand off, but he tightened his hold. And then she saw him, the figure emerging from the woods by the rock. She stopped moving all together.

"Who," she breathed. But they all knew the answer. It was Pain. He moved closer to them with no hesitation, and certainly no fear.

"Here to see Naruto in his last minutes I presume?" he questioned politely. His face betrayed his words and voice. He was clearly bored.

"Don't worry," he continued, as if someone in the group had actually responded. "Nagato expected you might show. Don't be a stranger." He gestured towards the cave. "Feel free to go see him."

They stared, not sure what to do. Ayato was quaking in his shoes. At first glance, Sai was the most relaxed in the group, although Sakura noticed how tightly his fists were clenched. Neji was tense, ready for anything. Sasuke's grip didn't loosen on Sakura, who wasn't sure whether she should attack Pain or go to Naruto. Sasuke kept himself the most composed.

Sasuke leaned close so that Sakura could feel his breath on her ear and cheek. She suppressed a shiver. So not the time! And why did she get the feeling that he was smirking?

"Keep walking. He won't do anything."

Sakura swallowed nervously and nodded. Sasuke leaned back and they started to walk, never taking their eyes off of Pain. After a few more steps they were inside of the cave and the darkness enveloped them. For several seconds, Sakura couldn't see anything. She blinked a few times and her eyes began to adjust.

"So you came," said an unfamiliar voice. "I thought you might betray me, Ayato."

Ayato trembled and looked away from the voice, saying nothing. Sakura scanned the room, searching for the source of the voice, but instead she found Naruto. He was lying crumpled on the ground. Her heart skipped a beat. Had they come too late? She broke free of Sasuke's grip with ease.

"Sakura, wait!"

But Sakura was already halfway across the room. He groaned and hurried after her. Neji and Sai stayed put, flanking Ayato.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled as she fell to her knees beside him. She was vaguely aware that her knees burned and were probably bleeding. Sasuke crouched beside her and activated his Sharingan, scanning the room. After a moment, he spotted the one he could only guess was Nagato.

"Naruto! Naruto, are you okay? Can you hear me?" Sakura continued, completely oblivious. She began to check him for wounds and, after a quick routine check, she placed her hands on his chest. Sasuke looked down at what she was doing. Her hands began to glow and chakra flowed into Naruto's unconscious body.

After several seconds, Naruto began to cough and Sakura sat him up quickly. He opened his eyes and Sasuke could almost feel Sakura's relief.

"You're okay," she said softly, stating the obvious. "I thought…thought," she took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Naruto."

Naruto smiled. "Why are you apologizing Sakura? I'm fine." He paused, his face suddenly becoming serious. "But now isn't the time for this."

Sakura was confused. "What do you mean?"
Naruto looked around, his eyes locking on Nagato. "I'm not finished here."

Sakura looked up, seeing him for the first time. Her eyes widened at the sight of Nagato, who was a mere pale shadow of what used to be a man.

He was so skinny that he practically had no stomach and all of his bones were visible through his skin. His hair, black and straight, hung down just past his shoulder blades. He seemed to be half placed inside of a huge machine. It looked as if he was standing in it, and it covered up to his waist. His arms, which hung down by his sides, entered the machine at the elbows. Black things, which oddly resembled very thick stings, protruded from his back and into the machine against the wall.

He looked like a weak cripple. How could he have so much power? Sasuke saw the look on her face and leaned close. "Don't underestimate him, Sakura. Remember what Tsunade said. This man wants to wage war on Konoha, and he could do it with ease."

Yes, Tsunade had said that. She said that Pain was simply one extension of Nagato. That Nagato controlled at least six bodies with his chakra to do his bidding. That must be what this machine was for, to help channel his chakra.

Naruto stood up and Sakura and Sasuke jumped up with him. He turned and looked at them. "Teme," he said, giving Sasuke his acknowledgment.

Sasuke smirked. "Dobe."

Naruto looked at Sakura seriously. "Sakura, this thing, it's between me and—"

"Where are the others?" she asked suddenly, interrupting. "I thought that this needed more members of Akatsuki."

"Well whoever told you that is obviously wrong," Naruto said, trying to make it a joke. Ayato shuffled his feet awkwardly. But Sakura would not be calmed so easily.

"We're not leaving you here alone with him," Sakura said. "I know that's what you were going to say, and it's not happening."

"Sakura, this is between me and Nagato."

Sakura began to protest but Naruto put a finger over her lips, making Sasuke stiffen ever so slightly. "It's okay, Sakura. I'm not asking you to leave me here. Just wait outside, okay?"

Sakura batted his hand away and frowned. "Give me one good reason why!" she demanded.

"Sakura," Sasuke muttered behind her.

"No, Sasuke! We traveled all this way to make sure he was safe and take him home and now he wants to be left alone with someone who would end his life without a second thought? Hell no!"

"We'll be right outside the cave if something happens," Sasuke said. Sakura whipped around. "You can't be serious!"

They stared at each other, each waiting for the other to give in.

Naruto laughed darkly. "And the clash of stubbornness ensues."

Sasuke frowned at him without sparing a glance and then sighed. He raised his arms quickly and enveloped Sakura in a tight hug. She was so confused that she stood there like an idiot, doing absolutely nothing.

She blushed. "…Sasuke..."

He raised one of his hands to her neck. "Trust me," he whispered. Suddenly Sakura's legs gave out and Sasuke caught her as she fell. Naruto gaped.

"What did you do, teme?!"

Sasuke shrugged. "Just pressed the appropriate pressure points. She'll be out cold for maybe twenty minutes. I hope that's enough, because when she wakes up there'll be hell to pay."

Naruto nodded. "Okay, thanks."

Sasuke nodded and gathered Sakura into his arms better before leading the rest of the team outside. Pain was gone.

"Now what?" Neji asked.

Sasuke went to the closest tree and sat down against it, laying Sakura in his lap. "Now we wait."

Back in the cave Naruto and Nagato stared speechlessly.

"You are the sacrifice needed to bring about peace on this Earth, Naruto," Nagato said.

"And you would kidnap and kill to bring about this peace that you speak of?" Naruto questioned. "You'd wage war for it? The pervy sage said that one day people would love and understand each other."

Nagato sneered. "You'd believe in his idealism at this point?"

"I don't understand…" Naruto frowned. "If you were his apprentice, how did you turn out this way? I'll answer your question after you tell me…"

Nagato sighed. "Very well." He proceeded to tell Naruto about his parents' murder. When he was young, the Konoha Village started a war and his parents, who the ninja didn't realize were civilians, were casualties. He continued to tell Naruto about how he accidentally killed these ninja with his new found ability which developed out of his rage. It was called the Rinnegan.

Afterwards he left his house with some provisions, but was soon starving in the streets with no one to help. Finally a girl named Konan found him and took him back to her friend, named Yahiko. The three of them stole to get by and lived that way for a long time.

When they witnessed war continuing, Yahiko and the others went and found Jiraiya, who taught them to become ninja. Their deepest wish was to end war. Nagato wanted to protect people, and Jiraiya imparted his wish for people to understand each other. He also wished that war would end once this happened. But eventually he had to go home, and he left the trio.

Yahiko became the leader of their soon to be infamous gang. They met with a man named Hanzo to help end war, but Hanzo set up a trap with Konoha's Danzo, who wanted to become Hokage. Through this trap, Nagato was forced to kill Yahiko. In a rage, he killed the majority of the ninja there. He became the leader after this incident, but many of his friends continued to die anyway.

He paused briefly. "The peace of big countries like your own is built on the sacrifice of smaller countries. Your peace is violence to us. The peace Jiraiya spoke of was just a fantasy; there can be no peace in this cursed land."

Naruto pulled Jiraiya's book out of his pocket. The Legend of the Gusty Ninja.

"You may be right," Naruto said, "but the pervy sage believed in me, so I will believe in what he believed in." He paused. "I will break the curse. If there is such a thing as peace, I will find it."

Nagato stumbled for words. "You…that…those words…"

"That's right," Naruto said. "Those were the words from his first book. He wrote this book to change the world. In the end he says that it was inspired from one of his pupils."

Naruto looked up. "That was you, Nagato. And the name of the main character is Naruto." He began to raise his voice. "So my name is a precious memento to him. I can't just trample that!"

He began to calm down. "I will become Hokage and make sure that there is peace for everyone, so please believe in me."

Nagato seemed deep in thought. "You remind me of myself when I was younger. I couldn't believe in what Jiraiya said or the man himself then, but you have chosen a different path. A different future." He paused. "I will believe in you, Uzumaki Naruto."


Naruto walked out of the cave, to his friends' surprise, completely unscathed.

"What happened?" Sai and Neji questioned at once. Naruto explained the story quickly, promising more details later. Sasuke frowned.

"We didn't hear any fighting, but I thought for sure that something would have to happen for you to get out alive. Interesting."

Naruto grinned. "How's Sakura?"

Sasuke grimaced. "Should be raising hell any minute right now."

As if on cue, Sakura stirred in his lap. "Maybe you should move her," Naruto suggested with a wide grin. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Like he couldn't handle one girl.

"W-what happened?" she murmured. "Where…"

She used Sasuke's shirt to climb her way into a sitting position, leaving her confused face only a few inches from his ever so cautious one. Naruto sniggered. Sakura's eye's narrowed.

"Sasuke," she purred softly, "you were the one who rendered me unconscious, correct?"

He smirked tentatively. "That would be me. And look, Naruto is fine. This whole thing is over. You were exaggerating the situation."

Sakura looked around and spotted Naruto. And turned back, unfazed. "And yet, you still knocked me out," she said softly, playing with the cloth of his shirt. "I think we're going to have a talk once we get back to Konoha."

"Hn."

"Um, Sakura," Ayato said nervously. He didn't want to provoke her anger. She turned innocently to him and everyone cringed at her fake and dangerous happiness. "Um, yeah," he muttered, avoiding her eyes. "I was just wondering if we ought to get going? I'm worried about Shinji…"

Her mood changed immediately. She jumped out of Sasuke's lap and smiled for real this time. "Of course. And Naruto can explain to me what happened on the way back."


Although Naruto insisted on going straight to the hospital to see Hinata, the team forced him to see Tsunade and give her a briefing. Once done, he bounded off to pay the Hyuuga a visit. This visibly upset Neji, and left Sakura giggling and muttering something about puppy love.

Sasuke had his hearing and, due to his help on the recent case especially, he was given a minor, in comparison to death, punishment. Seeing as he never actually took the test to become anything more than a genin, he must stay at that level for 3 years. In the meantime, he was on probation, meaning he couldn't leave Konoha. He took Sakura up on her offer and eventually began to date.

On one of these occasions they decided that a simple place like Ichiraku's was fine. Sakura twirled her chopsticks and stared at the food blankly, trying to come up with some sort of conversation.

"Sakura." Sasuke's voice broke her reverie. She looked up instantly.

"What is it?"

He smirked. "Just eat."

She blushed and looked away. "Whatever Sasuke. I just feel like maybe you should try a little harder to be sociable sometimes."

"While you're trying to eat?"

She shrugged. He reached over and cupped her face in a hand, putting his face way too close. "What do you want me to ask?"

Her blush came back in full force, and he leaned forward so that their lips brushed. Sakura was having a hard time thinking anything at all.

"Teme, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled from somewhere nearby, ruining the moment. Sasuke released her instantly, a scowl already in place. Sakura groaned and turned. Naruto was running towards them with a huge grin on his face.

"Guess what guys?!" he asked excitedly.

"It better be worth it, Naruto," Sakura hissed. Naruto smirked.
"So—rry! You did look pretty personal right there Sakura-chan."

The chopsticks in her hand snapped and Naruto gulped. "Well, umm, what was I going to…oh! So guess what?"

They stared at him blankly, clearly not going to guess. "Fine," he pouted. "You guys are lame." He perked up again rather quickly. "Hinata and I are dating!" he exclaimed. He was clearly very proud with himself. "I just asked her today." He stood up straighter and smiled triumphantly.

Sakura laughed. "That only took forever, Naruto."

He shrugged. "Oh! But there's more!!"

Sakura looked at Sasuke warily. Returning her gaze to Naruto she asked the unspoken words. "What else?"

"She says that we should all go on a double date! Wouldn't that be so much fun?!"

Sasuke turned back to his food silently fuming. Sakura blushed. She was sure she saw red flash in his eyes. "Um, that probably isn't a very good idea…Naruto…"

"But—"

Sasuke stiffened. Sakura waved her hands. "Maybe we should talk about this later."

"Oh, well I was just going to say that she's on her way right now." Sakura froze, her hands still in mid-air.

"Don't worry! It'll be fun!!"

Oh really?


A/N: So I finally finished it! I hope it was worth the read. I know that the Nagato part was really anti climatic, but it was that way in the manga too. I hope it wasn't too close to the manga to upset you. I just couldn't think of another way. Anyway, I felt really bad because I started this story so long ago, so here is the ending you've been waiting for for about a year and a half. Woot! 12 pages!! Please review!!!