Sorry, folks. I had a few one-shots take over my priorities for whatever reason (they flowed out when this story didn't; I'd be much obliged if you'd check them out and drop a review on them...) and then my laptop was taken. I am not, however fortunate or unfortunate it is for me, dead.
This chapter was originally about three times as long as this version, but you'll get the rest next time.
So, without further disruption by this AN, I present you with the third installment!
They had arrived at Tazuna's familial home without further incident, which was good for all sides; Kakashi didn't want Naruto to unlock any more of his sealed powers, Sasuke and Sakura were afraid of the intense skills he'd displayed in his bout, and Tazuna still hadn't gotten over the fact that such a shrimp had saved his life twice. It was currently time for dinner, and the assembled persons of the house were gathered around the table to eat.
"Arigato, Tsunami-san. The food is delicious."
Tazuna's daughter smiled at the praise, her eyes closing to convey an image of demure cuteness.
'In the time it took her to close her eyes and open them, a competent ninja could have slaughtered everyone in this building. She is too trusting, and too reliant.'
Naruto didn't know where the thoughts were coming from, but he also didn't particularly care about that. What mattered was getting the most energy he could out of the stew he'd been presented with, which was slim to none... He'd never been very big on nutrition anyway, though, and could subsist on nothing but the Kyubi's malevolent chakra for two days out of a week; it didn't feel good, obviously, but it had allowed him to survive when shopkeepers overcharged him for stale or rotten food.
As he prepared to leave, the young boy across from him...what was his name, Inami? Imari? In any case,the boy spoke up.
"Why do you even bother trying to do anything? Gato's invincible, and you're all just going to die."
"Well, kid, nobody's invincible! I'm sure that if we try hard enough..."
Naruto cleared his throat, interrupting what would have been a fantastic story about teamwork, friendship, and the power of hope. "That's absolute bullshit." He declared. "There's people who are invincible, Sakura, and you just haven't met them. Gato isn't one of them, but they exist... Just look at history: Hanzo of the Salamander single-handedly defeated all three of Konoha's legendary Sannin, and gave them that title. The Yondaime Hokage ended the Third Shinobi War with a single battle. Uchiha Madara could summon and control the Kyubi no Kitsune... There are people who truly are invincible, and who don't need to hide behind walls of money to prove it to others. In the end, that's all Gato is: a coward who solves problems by throwing money at them. If I can't personally end the man's life in a week's time, I can promise you now that he will die before the next seven days are gone."
The cold eyes in Naruto's head didn't flinch, but his gaze betrayed all the welled-up fury he kept inside of himself. The boy's words had struck a note in him, a sickening melody of discord, and he hated it. He hated the boy's ignorance, he hated this mission, he hated that he couldn't remember his past...
"Run along and play with your toys, child, so I can do my job."
"Shut up!" The boy screamed. "You're just a bunch of ninja who get to be safe because you live inside a big city with walls and powerful fighters! How would you know anything about what it's like to suffer like we have?"
Sakura dipped her head in shame at that statement, and Kakashi simply stared off into the distance. Sasuke was livid with anger at who he'd deemed to be an insignificant brat, on the verge of assaulting him. Naruto was the most dangerous in his reaction, however, because he remained entirely calm and collected. Very slowly, he pushed his chair from the table; standing up, he removed his jacket and shirt.
"This," he showed off his right shoulder, "is the standard tattoo of the Dark Side, the Anbu. Many people consider it the ultimate symbol of strength in our village, and I am one of the few who disagrees. Now this," he maneuvered his left shoulder forward, its marking eerie in the low light, "this one is given to those who ascend all ranks of the Anbu and reach a higher, stronger, deadlier level of skill. Before being disbanded, Kurojutsu Anbu-that would be the Black Ops division-were given this mark to show just how much they were willing to sacrifice in the name of Konohagakure no Sato. I remember nothing of those times, and am only beginning to rediscover my abilities after so long within their absence; it was done so that I could be a normal child, which was a vain and foolish dream."
Sky-blue eyes deepened and warped, turning themselves into sanguine orbs of death's manifest.
"My scars, for the most part, were given to me by my own people; I was sworn to protect them, unable to lash out at them even in the most dire circumstances, because it would have meant my death. Before the age of thirteen, I didn't live under a single thing but the open sky. There was no guarantee of food, and most of that was stolen out of garbage because there was no other way to obtain it. Both of my parents are dead, I was never adopted, and there are no such things in my life as 'friends' or 'compassion.' You have constantly whined and bemoaned your status, even in just the few short hours that I've known you, but your life is less than half as hard as mine could have been."
They were the most words he'd spoken in months, and he was clearly worn out from so much speaking in so little time. "If anybody needs me, I'll be training in the woods..."
He left by way of the front door, and did not return.
"Despite what Naruto said," Kakashi drawled, "his sealing was the right thing to do. It may have been the worse choice in terms of military power, and its drawbacks can still be felt all these years later, but it was necessary. What we did in the name of Konoha, what he did, is something no child should experience... We sealed him away because he was too zealous for bloodshed, too hungry to kill in an attempt to protect. By all rights, he was going insane-he'd developed too much power, far too quickly, and it warped his mind to darkness."
"And what about the beatings?" Sakura questioned. "If he was an Anbu at four, he would've been about to fight them off easily."
"That's not how it works. For a normal ninja, the penalty for attacking a civilian is exile or a sealing of chakra. The Anbu penalty is a formal beheading. The Kurojutsu way is even simpler: you're killed on the spot, and your existence is wiped from all records relating to you. Even after his sealing, that lesson had been drilled into Naruto's very bones; no man-made seal could erase his blind loyalty and utter devotion to the village of Konoha..."
"The seal slipped inside of the mission room, when he was arguing with Iruka." Sasuke asserted. "It didn't break, but bits and pieces of his former self came back?"
Kakashi's nod was all that Sasuke needed for confirmation.
"Zabuza panicked when he first saw the Kurojutsu mark... He recovered quickly, but there was real terror on his face when he realized what it was. What exactly did Naruto do that warrants a reaction that strong? Particularly from a man whose moniker means, 'Demon of the Mist?'"
"Too much to count... He slaughtered armies, assassinated people who should have been untouchable, and ended a covert war practically by himself. He could control seven elements, and his favorite nickname was 'Yami-sama,' the Dark Lord. Personally, however, I preferred his title as the Senso no Kami-the God of War. He was truly a soldier to be feared, and Zabuza's reaction is one of the most controlled ones I've ever seen. Most others would have simply committed suicide rather than face him."
While Sakura paled to a shade that rivaled ghosts, Sasuke nodded in his understanding; it was better to die with honor, a free man, than to be butchered like a fool who didn't know when to quit. "In any case..." Kakashi continued, "...training will resume tomorrow, since Naruto was right-we have a week, likely, until Zabuza returns, though I think he may be frightened off by several factors."
'Like me being in perfect health, or Naruto possibly regaining more of his past self...or the woman who's listening in on our conversation from upstairs.'
"And, while we're on the subject of frightening things, Naruto can never know we had this conversation."
'That bastard!' She seethed. He dared to talk about the boy behind his own back? Is that what the famed Hatake Kakashi was doing, ignoring his own personal mantra?
'I'll kill him!' Well, not really, but she certainly wanted to. It was disgusting, what they were doing. They wanted to keep him their pet, their tool, shackled to the ball-and-chain of memory loss. She couldn't stand it, she had to go to him now... She couldn't risk staying in this place and wiping out its residents.
'I'm coming...just...wait for me, saiai, beloved.'
She found him, certainly, but he was asleep; she'd never seen him so at peace, and he looked far less fearsome without his mask...dare she say that, even as an adult, he looked cute? Smiling, she leaned down to kiss his forehead.
"Just wait for me, my little kitsune..." She laughed quietly, leaping towards Gato's base; she had been hired by him, though that was just a ruse-her allegiance belonged to one man, and only to that one man. "I'll be coming for you in a little while."
Later, when Naruto woke, he would remember the words as if he'd dreamed them... but that was for a different time, a different place, and alternate circumstances.
The hand in front of his face was frozen stiff by the malicious aura he emanated. The hidden group of senbon fell from the assassin's hand...and then Naruto opened his eyes. Brilliant, lustrous, red-hued, filled with darkness no being could hope to match.
The pre-noon sun shone down through broad leaves as Naruto woke from his quiet slumber; he took hold of the assailant's hand, violently growling as his unsheathed sword-he'd forgotten to put it back after he'd finished his 'training' the previous night-was blocked by a wall of mirror-clear ice. "To think that you would attempt to kill me while I was sleeping... Thank god, I thought that none of your generation had spines!"
He broke the wall with the pommel of his blade, and his sword's honed edge lacerated its target.
It was at this point that Naruto heard something pop inside him, and a deafening roar filled the area; he felt two colors of blue-and knew how strange that sounded-envelop his chakra. Further memories of the distant past rushed to the front of his mind, blurred images and whispered words becoming sharply focused. "The ebb and flow of my energy, the biting frost of demise..." He said, drawing a cold power from his violent inner self.
After a few short minutes, very little was left of the androgynous being that had once been named Haku.
"Water and ice... Suiton and Hyoton. A third of my sealed powers have become unlocked thanks to that child, and his death was more than a fitting reward."
Now it was time for him to make his move... But, he supposed, he would pay a visit to his 'team' first. That was what a teammate did, after all, wasn't it...
Believe it!