I do not own Naruto.
Speaking/Thoughts
Chrome stood in a clearing with a rocky terrain with a river running down the middle of it. He had decided it best to wait for the others, and if need be then stop what was left of the retrieval squad. "I hope Zale's okay he doesn't seem all that stable lately." he said aloud watching the tree line, and noticing some rustling. 'Someone's there.'
He was forced to dodge shuriken that darted at him, and then stop Satsuki and Kiba by wrapping them up in iron. "Let us go Chrome; we need to bring Naruto back." Satsuki said struggling in the iron chains that were wrapped around her legs keeping her in place.
"I'll let you go Satsuki." Chrome said, and the chains fell to the ground useless. This obviously surprised Satsuki who stared at him in shock. "Naruto doesn't seem to well off, and I'm worried he won't be normal unless he can talk to you again. Still I do have a job to do, so I can't let Kiba go."
"Then let me go, and keep her here!" Kiba yelled struggling in his bindings. He was intent to beat on Zale who must have been very far ahead by now.
"You would be a nuisance, and make him even more unstable Kiba. Besides I never really liked you, you're dog peed on my shoes once." Chrome said, and Kiba was unsuccessful at repressing a laugh at this. "Whatever just get going Satsuki." Satsuki nodded before leaping off. "Wait a second where's your little dog?"
Chrome was thrown to the ground violently when Akamaru spun into him a big burn mark on his back revealed. "Ha that's my boy Akamaru!" Now that Chrome had lost his focus the chains melted off of him like puddles. "You're not going to stop me from putting a beating like that on Uzumaki."
"You're couldn't put a beating on a fly with a fly swatter." Chrome dismissed with a wave of his hand. "In fact that's a pretty good idea." Chrome gripped the air tightly, and in it iron sand formed a giant fly swatter that he moved with ease. "I should warn you that I'm not the same as the others. I've been personally training with Zale from the beginning. That means my Manipulation is second only to Zale, not even Gaara has the same mastery over it that I have."
"I couldn't give less of a damn." Kiba snarled getting down on all fours Akamaru barking. "Fang over fang!" They hurtled forward spinning at an unnatural speed, and Chrome didn't even flinch the iron sand coming to block Kiba who hit his head back, and fell onto his feet.
"You're not nearly as tuff as you talked about being." Chrome said gripping the air, and the iron sand formed into a sword which buzzed loudly. "This will be the weapon that will take away your pride as a shinobi by giving me the ability to beat you without a single scratch."
"Don't be so damn cocky!" Kiba said throwing two small smoke balls at Chrome who watched the purple smoke envelope him. "Let's try this again; fang over fang!" Kiba and Akamaru went into the smoke navigating by smell as they hit what smelled exactly like Chrome. "Ha take that!"
The smoke cleared, and Kiba watched what he had been hitting to see a beaten stick with Chrome's jacket tied around it. "You're going to need to do better than that." Chrome said a swirl of iron sand delivering him safely on the ground. Once again he smirked at Kiba who growled along with his dog. "It looks like the owner and his mutt are getting frustrated."
"Don't talk about Akamaru like that!" Kiba barked.
"Oh how cute you thought Akamaru was the mutt." Chrome said with a chuckle even Akamaru seemed to be laughing at that one.
Kiba launched forward with no hesitation, and an iron sand knife pierced his stomach. There was a pop, and Kiba turned into a log causing Chrome to look around forgetting about Akamaru who leapt into the air. Immediately a thick yellow substance spilled into his eyes blinding him. "Ow what the hell was that? It's like acid!" Chrome yelled rubbing his eyes.
Now that he was distracted Kiba launched at him only to fly through iron sand. Chrome stood by the river raising a few droplets of water into his eyes washing them free of what he hoped wasn't what he thought it was. "Who the hell is this guy?" Kiba asked panting hard his teeth sharp. Without looking at him Chrome threw a few grain of iron sand into Kiba's eyes blinding him.
"Wait a second you only need your nose to attack." Chrome sent a few grains into Kiba's nose overfilling his senses with the sharp scent of metal. The fight was one sided, and it infuriated Kiba that he couldn't even touch the power that Chrome had under his belt. "I hope you see the difference in our power now."
"Piss off!" Kiba said furiously rubbing his eyes, and blowing hard out of his nose trying to get rid of the terrible smell, and the horrible feeling in his eye.
"I'm going to give you a chance to say sorry." Chrome said the iron sand sword forming in his hand, but Kiba once again told him to piss off like an idiot. "Well then I'm going to beat you into the ground." Chrome struck Kiba once sharply across the chest sending the boy flying, but instead of allowing him to fall he kept beating Kiba one whip right after the other.
Every one of the whips left an ugly red mark that bit through the sweater, and Chrome continued to do this until Kiba was a bloody mess. "Please no more." Kiba pleaded barely conscious.
"Calm down, you haven't even take the full brunt of my assault yet." Chrome said tossing a plasma bill into the boy's mouth so he wouldn't die of blood loss. He placed his foot gently onto Kiba's hand, and pressed down until the boy passed out from the pain. He took out his communicator, and flipped it open. "Zale I took care of Kira, but Satsuki got away. She's going to be coming after you, so I'll just wait here for the others."
Zale was quiet for a little while before saying "Okay" and hanging up.
-Scene Change-
Zale didn't like what was going on, but he couldn't focus long enough to bring himself to stop Satsuki here and now. It was idiotic she was still chasing him; he wasn't Naruto Uzumaki he was Zale just Zale, and for some reason he felt terrible for breaking her trust like that. "Why do I feel so bad Kurumi?" Zale asked her, and all he got was an incoherent grumble.
He stopped for a quick rest examining the damage Kurumi's demon chakra had taken on his body. His body was under high strain with the constant running, and the demon chakra came out randomly ripping out of his skin then instantly repairing it. "ZALE!" he heard someone yell, and he turned his head to see Satsuki getting closer.
Without saying a word Zale turned on his heel, and started running in the other direction knowing that he was close to the border. He didn't want to deal with her, and he sure as hell wasn't ready to either. It had been hard enough to knock her out when he left, but if he stopped he wasn't sure he would be able to keep running.
Finally she caught him at the Valley of End where he stopped because of the wall of fire blocking his path. "Look at me god damn it!" Satsuki screamed at him tears streaming down her face. "Why the hell would you even think of leaving?! What happened to your dreams of becoming Hokage?"
"I have a new dream Satsuki, one that's too big for Konoha." Zale said not turning to look at her.
"There's no such thing. It was because of you that I knew that. I used to think about going to Orochimaru all the time because I thought that there was no power in that village, but when I saw how hard you trained, and how hard you fought I knew there was power in that village. You were the dead last before, and now you could hold your own against a sanin!"
"That's another matter entirely." Zale said clenching his fists as his lies came to fruition. "Even with what you did for me Satsuki the village will stop me at every corner they could. They'd stop at nothing to make sure that I would stay loyal to the village. When I broke out Kurumi she was strapped to a surgery table, and there was a doctor ready to cut her open."
"No that's not what Konoha would do." Satsuki said shocked at what could have happened to her friend.
"You're right it's what the corrupt would do." Zale said with a shake of his head. "People are too corrupt no matter where you go."
"We could change all of that; you'd become Hokage, and clean up the village. You could start at home." Satsuki tried to reason.
"My dream couldn't be done in Konoha." Zale said, and he could feel Satsuki shift into a fighting stance.
"Then I'll make you come back, and I'll force you to have the same dream. I'll become Hokage myself, and then make you my god damn successor if that's what it takes Naruto Uzumaki!" Satsuki yelled using the name she remembered all of her childhood.
"That's not my name." Zale said with a quiet voice his nails tearing into his flesh, and blood pooling on the ground right under his hands.
"Sorry Zale Uzumaki." Satsuki said tears streaming down her face.
"No that's not my name either." Zale said, and an actual tear coming to his eye, and this statement confused the heck out of Satsuki. "Naruto Uzumaki died a hell of a long time ago."
"I get it you changed, but that's no reason to abandon who you were!" Satsuki yelled at him.
"No!" Zale yelled angrily causing her to jump. "I'm not Naruto Uzumaki, he died. I'm Zale the guy that took over his body when he did. I was a spirit, and took over his body when he died. That's why I can use Manipulation, and that's why I changed so much."
"How long has it been this way for?" Satsuki asked him.
"It's been this way ever since the Chunin exams." Zale said with a long shuddery sigh. "There now you have it, and now you know that the person that you loved died a while ago. Everyone knows, even Kurumi has her lies that you don't know about."
To Zale's surprise Satsuki started laughing, and hard. When she got her laughter under control she said "I'm not going to buy that piece of crap story." she said determined, and this left surprised Zale who turned to look at her finally. "I don't care what the hell you call yourself because I fell in love with you; I fell in love with you."
"You're tricking yourself Satsuki." Zale said with a head shake.
"No I'm not, and I'm sure about that. Now let me tell you how this is going to happen I'm going to beat you down, and drag you back to Konoha!" Satsuki screamed, and a smile dawned on her face as she felt the confidence that the old Naruto undoubtedly held.
"Look if you want to fight then I'm not going to hold back, and that means demon chakra, and Manipulation." Zale said trying to scare her, but she stood determined in her fighting stance. He pulled off his now black jackets, and then his black shirt shocking Satsuki slightly. His two large black wings came from his back in a flurry of feathers, and on top of that a bright red glow as he put Kurumi down in a safe area. "Come at me ready to kill because if you hesitate for a second you'll be dead before you know it."
"You don't have to worry about me." Satsuki said narrowing her now Sharingan eyes the tomoes spinning defiantly to the fear that Zale tried to instill with. "Lions Barrage!" She ran forward at an incredible speed delivering a quick dozen strikes to his chest knocking him off into different directions where she would be to kick him again. "You're coming back with me."
The bandages around her arms started to unwrap, but she was thrown off when Zale's wings suddenly expanded sending him crashing into Satsuki's chest and her into the stone wall. His wings folded, and he hovered there watching her crash down to the river. "I really am sorry Satsuki." He whispered to himself his wings flapping to keep his aloft.
"If you're really sorry then you'll come back to us!" Satsuki said appearing behind him, and she went for a quick strike between his wings to disable his movement. Her hand hit a log, and shattered it. Looking down she found Zale standing on the water looking at her. "Hold still so I can hit you." She dropped to the river creating ripples.
"That's like telling me to pick the weapon to kill me with." Zale said dodging each strike she sent with his demon speed, and occasionally flying up to move out of the way. "You should just give up."
"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" Satsuki yelled sending giant waves of fire at Zale. He disappeared in the flames. "Did I get him?" She got her answer when she saw his black wings unwrap themselves from his figure revealing him.
"My wings are nearly invincible." Zale said, but now they were virtually useless. He drifted down slowly, and they turned ash leaving him on the ground. "At least they were." Satsuki charged at him avoiding the spikes that rose up out of the ground to pierce her body. "Chidori!"
"Shadow clone Jutsu!" Zale said making a signature Naruto jutsu the clone appearing with a pop and quickly forming the spiraling ball of chakra in his hand. For a moment these attacks mid air a terrible flesh tearing noise going through the air.
They launched back, and both hit an incredibly soft patch of dirt that was curtsey of Zale. Zale looked shocked the seal on his chest had been sliced right through his control of Kurumi's chakra fading away. "I knew that I wouldn't be able to beat you when you use your demon's chakra, and I knew that the second seal let you control it, so I got rid of it." Satsuki said with a smile.
"You really are the prodigy that others claim you to be." Zale said with a smile holding the gash, and it closed slowly. "It's too bad that since I spent so much time reading up on the human body in the medical ninja library I can Manipulate my own body without too many repercussions."
"Manipulate all you want I'll bring you back no matter what happens." Satsuki said smiling at the compliment. She disappeared from view the only indication she was still there was the water rippling with every step she took.
Zale used this as a way to keep track of her, but he didn't take into account that the ripples were a few seconds behind the actual person moving. He received a strong blow to the chin sending him flying through the air. "That's not bad." Zale said disappearing not even leaving the ripple of water.
Satsuki turned he was moving too fast for her Sharingan to track. "Where is he?" Satsuki asked. The water under her started to form under her. "He went under water?"
The water began spiraling and she saw many Zale at the bottom of the whirlpool seemingly coming from his hands. She couldn't escape, and was eventually pulled underneath the water where the wind was knocked from her lungs as she thrashed about. As deadly as the tactic seemed she knew Zale wasn't trying to kill her every few minutes he force her to the surface, and allow her to refill her lungs.
Satsuki felt her consciousness start to slip little by little, but then something snapped inside of her. 'I need to bring him back, no matter what.' Satsuki thought to herself her eyes snapping open and an extra tomoe formed in her blood red eye. 'That's it I can see now.'
Using brute strength Satsuki burst free of the whirlpool launching getting up on land as quickly as she could taking in deep breaths letting the darkness fade from the corners of her vision. "How foolish you can't get away just like that." Zale said sending spikes at Satsuki and to his horror they pierced her. "You were supposed to avoid them."
"And I did!" Satsuki yelled the bloody body turning to a log and Zale couldn't turn in time to dodge a sharp kick delivered to his jaw sending him hard into a wall. "Come on I know for a fact that a little attack like that wouldn't take you out."
"It probably would have taken Naruto out, but for a guy that has survives for a few thousand years without a body that's nothing." Zale said walking out of the dust cracking his neck with an ugly sound. His eyes narrowed and his fist clenched as he got into a peculiar fighting stance that Satsuki had never seen before. "I'm going to prove to you that I'm not Naruto Uzumaki. This is a fighting style that I used to use in my old life, and haven't used since.
"With this fighting style I can beat anybody and the only people that could have held a candle to stop me aren't on your side."
Zale's right foot went behind him his toes touching the ground the rest of his foot sticking straight up. It started to rub the ground, dirt started piling up furiously much more tension then there should have been for such a small movement. It was too late for Satsuki to realize that he had been building up tension in his feet like a spring.
He leapt forward at an incredible speed that she was barely able to counter. Her arms came up blocking him, and he leapt back building up the same tension. "Not this time!" Satsuki yelled charging forward ready to interrupt him, but he teleported (not moving quickly, but he actually teleported) behind her slamming his palm over her back sending her sprawling on the ground. "Ouch."
"You didn't think I needed to build it up did you?" Zale asked standing over her his elbow sticking out having done the damage to her back. "Please Satsuki just give up."
"You keep telling me not to hesitate, but that's all your doing." Satsuki said disappearing from the ground and she slammed her foot into Zale's back sending him flying through the air. His fingers barely scratched across the ground, but a big cloud of dust formed hiding him from view. "Where did he go?"
In an idiotic way Satsuki got closer to the dust cloud and a column of earth shot out of it slamming her in the face and sent her skipping across the river regaining her balance only to be met with a hail of frozen water shuriken. These she countered with her own shuriken, but Zale had a limitless amount.
'Whatever it takes.' Satsuki thought placing a hand on her neck where the curse mark was, and she scratched the seal binding it. Immediately the affects took place shocking Zale who watched as Satsuki was wracked in pain and odd marks spread across her body. "AHHH!"
"Satsuki stop!" Zale said taking a step forward wishing he could stop whatever the hell was hurting her.
"No!" Satsuki said as the dark evil chakra flooded her system, and she got enough of it under control to fight. "It may not be the right way to do it, but I'm going to bring you back."
She disappeared too fast for even Zale's trained eye to follow, and he heard the sound of chirping birds. "Chidori One Thousand Birds!" A black chidori plunged deep into his chest nowhere near anything that would hurt him, but it was more than enough to put him out of commission.
Without even giving himself time to recover Zale grabbed the fist now sticking out of his chest and squeezed it tightly. Satsuki screamed in pain trying to pull it out, but she was stuck in place, and somehow Zale managed to stay conscious even with a fist sticking him right through the chest. "I knew that you weren't going to win this right from the beginning." Zale whispered and Satsuki felt the marks start to recede along her body her dark chakra being sealed off.
"How are you doing that, you said you can't Manipulate chakra." Satsuki said shocked as she felt herself become weaker and weaker.
"No, but I can use Chrome's seal to control yours." Zale said looking at the crudely drawn seal on her hand. By no means was it as good as Chrome's but it gave him ruff control of that dark almost evil chakra that Zale had felt from her.
Satsuki's arm was suddenly thrust out of Zale's stomach launching her back, and she looked to see him roughly heal his own body very quickly. He held a kunai, and she was much too drained to block him from killing her, so she laid there silently accepting her death. He loomed over her, but she was left surprised when he fell to his knees his head in her shirt as tears leaked out of his eyes.
"I can't do it; I don't know why, but ever since I came to live like Naruto I've made all these connections. I've never felt this way before, but you and Kurumi make me feel so happy. I feel terrible and I don't want to leave you or her. I wish we could all stay together forever." Zale whispered his eyes flooded with tears. "I would just give it all up if I could just stay with you two. I'd even stay in Konoha."
"Then why don't you?" Satsuki asked wrapping her arms delicately around him.
"That's not an option anymore by breaking out Kurumi we opened ourselves to being prosecuted, and we've officially abandoned out village. There's nothing anyone can do to fix this anymore, and I really wish that they would have given me to Danzo. Then we'd at least be safe." Zale said wrapping his arms around Satsuki.
"I've got an idea!" Kurumi said startling them both to look at her smiling. "We're all going to be such a cute family, why don't you come with us Satsuki?"
"No I couldn't just abandon Konoha." Satsuki said shaking her head, but she looked at Zale then at Kurumi both of their eyes full of hope that she would come with them. Tears came to her eyes at how happy she felt. "I can't believe that I'm agreeing to this, it's insane."
"Is that a yes?" Zale asked her, and she nodded. He couldn't have been happier not even when he got Naruto's body had he been this absolutely excited. "Thank you, that's amazing."
"Hooray!" Kurumi cheered hugging them all tightly to her bust.
"Aww that's a great that everything turned out, but we need to get out of here now because Gaara said that we're going to have company of one copy ninja, and none of us are in any shape to fight." Kira said, and they all jumped before agreeing. "We won't be able to outrun him, so what do we do."
"Wings." Satsuki said and they turned to look at her. "Zale can give us wings, and we could fly away."
"Alright then line up I need to do this fast." Zale said his long black wings forming once again a confident UN Naruto like grin on his face. This wasn't cockiness that he had this was pure confidence, and it was well deserved.
Zale easily gave Gaara, Shiki, Aria, Kira, and Chrome a large pair of black wings, but he hesitated slightly with Satsuki and Kurumi. Finally he as gently as possible placed his hands between their shoulder blades, and after feeling for a bit a pair of wings sprouted from their backs big and beautiful. What was different and the first thing they noticed was these were a brilliant white. "Not that I'm complaining, but why are they this particular color?" Satsuki asked a cheeky grin on her face.
"Well they're because you two are my angels." Zale said with a shy smile, and they each gave him a kiss on the cheek leaving him blushing red. "Come on let's get out of here."
"Wait Naruto, Satsuki!" Kakashi yelled running toward them, but they all launched into the air leaving him behind and it was impossible for him to tell where they were heading.