Chapter 2: The Bitter Truth

Author's Note: Well, my primary editor now has problems getting online because he now has to use a library computer. So that means I now have to depend upon you, readers, to point out any grammar mistakes you see.

"Naruto-kun, duck!" Naruto dropped and dodged a thin blade of darkness. A gigantic ripping sound echoed behind him and the tree behind Naruto was cut in half.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"* Half a dozen clones appeared and rushed Karasu with drawn kunai. With a bored expression written across his face he cut them down and slowly walked towards their group.

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu!"* His arms growing to three times their size, Chouji grabbed the fallen tree and swung the thick trunk at Karasu. Just as it was about to hit him, he quickly slashed the tree and watched it fall in two cleanly cut pieces. Naruto summoned another clone when he noticed something, Lee removing his weights.

"Lee, wait!" Naruto leaped at his friend too slowly.

"This man is obviously a strong opponent. But it will take much more for him to match our strength!" Naruto fell on his afterimage and watched helplessly as a barely noticeable green blur slammed into a fist hardened by the horrors the owner had committed. The attack itself left Lee bruised but fine, but he blinked trying to figure out how Karasu saw his attack seeing as he possessed no special doujutsu or was especially fast.

"Pay attention." Reacting instinctively, Lee pulled out a kunai and blocked Karasu's downward cleave. His eyes widened as he watched the sword bite deep into this kunai, leaving only a centimeter separating him from death. Reaching behind him Karasu pulled out a wazaki and raised it high.

"PAY ATTENTION!" Naruto tackled Karasu to the floor. Without a moment's hesitation, Karasu stabbed Naruto and watched emotionlessly as he smirked. "Baka, now Boss!" With the clone dispersed, Karasu had a clear view of the actual Naruto in mid-air bearing down on him.

"Yosh, RASENGAN!" Naruto frowned when he saw Karasu's hands come together in a single prayer like hand seal. But he continued anyways, figuring that a single hand seal wouldn't do much too much damage.

"Kuragari Ishikifumei no Jutsu."* The dark chakra surrounding Karasu flew away from him and swallowed Naruto, Rasengan and all. Absolute darkness clouded Naruto's sight, and sent him crashing to the ground. Closing his eyes, Naruto concentrated on his hearing and touch. He felt nothing, and could dimly hear a few things. Steel clashing on steel, yells of pain and he thought he heard "Konoha Senpu!"* being yelled out. But he did here one word in particular:

"Weak." An iron hard fist slammed into his stomach and forced all the air out of his lungs and another hand began choking the life out of him. Cracking open an eyelid, Naruto saw that the darkness was gone. And to his horror he saw Chouji and Lee lying facedown in a pool of blood a mere three feet away. He craned his neck to get a good look at their enemy. Cold brown eyes reminiscent of burned wood stared into his eyes with disdain. "All of you are so weak; and I expected so much more from you, given what you hold inside." A deep growl resonated inside Naruto's mind.

"Let me out of here, gaki, so I can show this arrogant little angel who's weak." What surprised Naruto more then the fact that Kyūbiresponded was Karasu's response.

"I'm no angel, Kyūbi. You should know better then to judge by smell. Just because I still smell like one doesn't mean I am one anymore."

"Y-You can hear him?" Naruto quickly began blocking out all thoughts in case Karasu happened to be a mind reader.

"Yes I can hear him, and no I can't read your mind if that's what you're thinking." Naruto did his best to listen to the conversation, as the alternative was thinking of his friends lying in a pool of their own blood.

'They're not dead, I know they're not! They're too strong for that!' Air rushed into his lungs as Karasu released his chokehold on Naruto, and he hit the cold earth floor. A shadow fell across Naruto and he glanced up at a solemn Karasu. He didn't want to look anywhere else in case he might find Hinata.

Gesturing to his friends, Karasu spoke: "It seems you didn't have to make your choice, Naruto. Your strength has determined that for you. Your friends have died by my hand and all your other precious people will too because you are weak. But I will give you one final choice." Standing up to his full height, Karasu towered over the grounded Naruto. "Do you want to save the rest of your friends, or watch me kill them when you could've stopped me?" His hand was not a welcome sight; it was stained in the blood of his friends. But it also served as a reminder to Naruto, a reminder of his failures. A reminder of how both Sasuke and Karasu managed to swat Naruto away like an annoying fly. A reminder of how weak he was compared to them. Naruto had never before seen anything so tantalizing in his life. At that moment, he needed no…wanted that power that Karasu offered.

'But why can't I move' He thought, feeling his hands twitch. 'If I do this, I'll have the strength to save my friends…, and get revenge. So…, WHY CAN'T I MOVE?' A small sound distracted Naruto from his avenger thoughts. The sound of heavy breathing and even heavier footfalls brought Naruto back to reality, and he craned his head to see the source of the disturbance. He gasped in a mixture of joy and relief. Karasu sighed and turned towards the source of the noise already knowing who the source was.

"It looks like you did survive. If you had just stayed down and bled to death, you wouldn't suffer much longer Hyūga-dono."

"Hinata-chan, why didn't you run?" Blood seeped out of a deep stab wound on her side, multiple slash wounds crisscrossed all over her arms and blood leaked out of the corner of her mouth. But in spite of all this, the heiress smiled at Naruto a true, sincere smile that reminded him of who he was and wasn't.

"I n-never abandon my friends, Naruto-kun." Using her good left hand, Hinata settled into the classic Jyuuken stance.

"Baka, you could've lived for a little longer. Naruto, what is your answer?" Karasu turned his cold eyes to Naruto, expecting to find yet another avenger wanting more power then they possessed. However, what he found was nothing short of the future Hokage.

"HELL NO!" Naruto slapped his hand away and punched Karasu in the gut. The only thing that told Naruto that his punch connected was Karasu's eyes narrowing. So, he settled for the alternative. He tackled Karasu to the ground and summoned twenty clones who piled on top of them. "Hinata-chan, RUN!" Naruto felt himself being lifted and thrown into a nearby tree. Opening his eyes he saw Hinata shielding him from Karasu's slash. "NO!" His legs failed as he tried to stand and shove Hinata out of the way.

"Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho!"*Ignoring the fact that there was now what seemed to be a pulsating blue wall hovering between him and his targets, Karasu slashed. Instead of slicing through like he expected it bounced off the shield and left Karasu reconsidering his views on Naruto's group.

'Well well well, it seems not all of you are as weak as you seemed.' Karasu thought. 'You may have hope yet.' He sighed as he heard the sound of wind and turned to face the reinforcements.

"Hyūga-dono, my fight with you is done. Be happy in the fact that you saved him, and sleep." Hinata collapsed, unconscious from blood loss and chakra exhaustion. Catching Hinata securely in his arms, Naruto turned to face the newcomers. Karasu painted another fake smile on his face as he welcomed the enemy reinforcements but this time it was laced with malice towards a particular person. "I feel honored, first the Kyūbi Jinchūriki, Gai's apprentice, the heir to the Akimichi clan and the heiress to the Hyūga clan tries to beat me and now the 5th Hokage, the God of Amagakure and the Snake-teme are here to kill me. It's nice of you to come here and to finish me off personally, Orochimaru." A cruel smile reared it's head on Orochimaru's face, making his feature even more snake like.

"I simply can't let my experiments run around and kill my new allies now, can I? It puts a bad mark on my reputation you see and I've been dying to put an end to this research for awhile now." Orochimaru regurgitated his sword, Kusanagi and hungrily licked the blade. Tsunade was too busy keeping Lee and Chouji alive and only had enough time to shoot a glare at Karasu who simply smiled and waved back.

"You should've left when you had the chance, Karasu-san." The strongest of all Six Paths stood before Karasu, wielding the only thing he needed to kill him, his jutsu Shinri Tensai.

"You know me, Yahiko." Karasu paused as he felt Muramasa thrum energy and even actually smiled a little at the scowl on Yahiko/Pain's face. But he knew he wasn't strong enough, he knew that he couldn't beat Yahiko by himself let alone fighting him and two of the former Sannin. "I never run from a fight. Besides, I have nowhere left to run remember?"

Englsih name of Jutsus:

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu: Shadow Clone Jutsu

Bubun Baika no Jutsu: Partial Multi Size Jutsu

Kuragari Ishikifumei no Jutsu: Senseless Darkness Jutsu

Konoha Senpu: Leaf Whirlwind

Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho: Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms

Author's Note: Well, I finally have the poll for D-Grayman set up so go vote! I decided to pair Ed with Winry because he would become useless without her and I don't want to spend time making up an excuse on why he wouldn't need automail. You know, reviews make an author happy HINT HINT.