Chapter Eight: Until the End
AN: I listened to a lot of music for that part. If you'd like to be in the mood, I recommand the song of Gandalf's death for the first part in the hospital, then Epic Score's Liberators, Two Steps from Hell's Eldorado for the more "active" part :) I really hope you will like that chapter.
Naruto's head was dull and heavy.
He was meandering into a sea of fog, as he was walking Konoha's streets towards the hospital.
The body was found.
The words had the same effect as those Tsunade had pronounced all these weeks ago.
Such a long time…
It seemed to him that years had passed since Jiraiya had left him for the last time.
Since Jiraiya had ruffled his hair and handed him a popsicle.
His feet were making him closer and closer to the hospital.
He knew what he was going to find in there.
And God, he didn't want this.
For all these weeks, he had clung to a tiny, fierce hope…
He had clung to the crazy thought that if they hadn't found the corpse…
…then Ero-sennin might well be still alive somewhere.
After all, he was Ero-sennin right? The man was a legend, just like Kakashi-sensei. How could he die? People like him didn't die. They lived old and inspired countless tales about their heroic adventures. They just couldn't get slaughtered alone in some gloomy pool, somewhere in the end of the world, without anyone to assist to his last, heroic breath.
No, that just didn't make sense…
…so what the hell am I doing here?
Naruto had arrived in the hospital. Like a robot, he automatically headed towards the autopsy room.
His heart was beating fast, and his lungs seemed to fill with toxic air, making him want to run away and hide somewhere where he could breathe.
He turned in the corridor, and there he stopped dead in his feet.
Leaning against the wall by the double door of the autopsy room, his silver hair shining softly under the greenish, electric light, was Kakashi.
Naruto didn't move, but Kakashi sensed his presence and raised his eyes.
Both of them stared at each other for a few moments, then Naruto took a deep breath and started walking again.
Kakashi didn't make a move, until Naruto arrived in front of the door. There, Kakashi laid a hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"Naruto-kun."
Naruto didn't say anything, but he stopped nonetheless.
Kakashi took a breath. This was going to be extremely delicate.
"You know, sometimes it's better to keep to the last happy memories we have of the person we lost."
Naruto raised his eyes to him and looked at him coldly.
"Are you seriously going to try to stop me from seeing him?"
Kakashi sighed and placed both his hands on Naruto's shoulders, turning the younger body towards him.
"Technically yes, but I know you won't listen to me, and I don't have the right to stop you from actually going in there. I'm just saying that…"
Naruto kept looking at him without saying anything. Kakashi sighed again and decided that the best call was to be honest.
"Naruto, believe me, what you are going to see in there is not pretty. I…I'm just worried about you."
"Because...? You think I'm not able to handle it right? How surprising," Naruto sniggered darkly.
"Maa, that is not what I said, please stop twisting my words. I'm worried about you because anyone would be particularly upset to see a loved one in that state. I…"
Kakashi closed his eyes.
"Okay here it is. I will not stop you from entering that room. But I just want you to remember that I am here, if…If you need someone by your side. I'm here for you. You don't even have to talk. Just come to me or give me a sign. I will be there immediately."
Naruto's eyes softened and he lowered his head, sighing softly. When he looked up again, Kakashi saw more lassitude in his blue eyes than anger or resentment.
"It's okay, sensei. I..I guess I appreciate what you're trying to do." He whispered, patting Kakashi's forearm.
Kakashi's eyebrows flew up as he didn't expect that reaction.
"I guess this had to happen at some point, you know, Naruto went on. I just…I just need to go in there to make sure all of this is not a damn nightmare or some sort of sick joke, you know…"
His throat tightened and he avoided Kakashi's concerned eyes. He squeezed his forearm again and turned to the door.
"Anyway, don't worry about me, sensei. I can handle this."
He held his head high and entered the room although his stomach was twisting and screaming for him to run away as far as he could.
The room was rather small and lit by the characteristic, electric lights that seemed to absorb all the warmth present in the atmosphere, only leaving a sensation of cold and sorrow. In the center of the room was a table, on which there was a rather large shape covered with a white sheet. Sakura was standing near the table. She seemed tired and concerned, as though she hadn't slept much in days. She came forward as soon as Naruto entered the room.
"Hey, Naruto…" she said, giving him a brief hug.
She took his hand and led him to the table. There, she looked at him, anxious. Naruto's face was unusually grave and solemn. He was completely silent. Sakura took a deep breath.
"Okay, Naruto, I must warn you…He has been underwater for about three months…I did my best to repair the damaged tissues but…you're in for quite a shock." She said with all the gentleness she was capable of.
Naruto nodded.
"I'm ready." He whispered.
And Sakura drew the sheet to uncover Jiraiya's body.
Naruto had a soft gasp at the sight, and his fists clenched. He remained completely silent for a moment, his breath shuddering, his nostrils flaring as though he was trying hard not to cry.
Feeling his pain, Sakura's eyes filled with tears, and she laid her hand gently over Naruto's slightly shaking arm.
"I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun…"
Naruto grabbed her forearm and squeezed it softly.
"Sakura…Will you please leave me a moment? I need to be alone with him." He whispered in a broken murmur.
"Of course…I'll be waiting with Kakashi-sensei outside…Call us if you need anything. We're right here with you, you're not alone, okay?" Sakura answered.
She rubbed his back in a comforting gesture before turning on her heels and heading towards the doors. She opened them and stepped out before closing them behind her. Kakashi didn't say anything, but he observed her attentively. Sakura, on the verge of bursting out in tears, turned her back to him and pretended to just look at Naruto through the little square window of the left door, covering her mouth with her hand. Yet Kakashi wasn't stupid, and he knew Sakura well. His face saddened and he came behind the young woman. There, he encircled her body with his long arms and enveloped her in a warm hug, pulling her into his chest. He rested his chin on her shoulder, and didn't say a word; he just focused on holding her firmly but tenderly.
What was there to say?
The sight of Naruto standing in there in front of Jiraiya's mutilated corpse was difficult to stand. He could literally feel the waves of sorrow crushing the boy's young heart, and his own throat was too tight to emit a sound. Soon, he heard Sakura sniff discretely and take a shuddering breath. Kakashi realized she was crying silently and that she was struggling to hide her emotions from him. He tightened the circle of his arms around her and brought his lips against her ear.
"Don't hide from me, Sakura-chan…Let it out…"
Sakura let out a small sob and her nails came to dig into his forearms, her body shaking.
"G…God I'm…I'm s-sorry…I…I thought I c-could…Control m-myself…" she murmured, trying to control her sobs.
"Shhhhhh…"Kakashi blew in her ear, rocking her slowly.
He kissed her temple and brought a hand up to soothe her hair and remove the pink strands which had fallen before her eyes.
"There's nothing to be sorry about." He whispered before resting his chin on top of her head. He lifted his arms up a bit so that they encircled Sakura's chest, and he squeezed her tighter, crushing her back to his hard chest as he watched Naruto come closer to the table.
Jiraiya was almost unrecognizable. His skin was an awful shade between grey and green. Some parts of his face had started blackening as the skin was getting more and more nectrotic in the ambient air. His entire frame seemed thinner, and his chest seemed slightly caved in. Naruto took one of his hands and caressed it slowly. It was skeletal, almost crumbling under his touch, as though it was somehow made of dust.
Then, there were the wounds.
Naruto's eyes filled with tears and his throat tightened awfully at the sight of the multiple bruises that were covering Jiraiya's face. His strong nose seemed to be broken and he had a deep, enormous gash on the right side of his face. His upper lip was split and it seemed to Naruto that he had lost several teeth. The ribs were tearing through his sides, and Naruto could tell most of them had been broken, piercing the man's lungs and dealing a lot of internal damage.
Yet what really crushed Naruto's heart was the soft, serene smile that was still stretching Jiraiya's dead, black lips.
The young man let out a small sob which he muffled in his hand.
"No…" he whispered, as the tears fell down on his cheeks.
That smile was recognizable among millions.
Even though Naruto had hard time recognize his shishou from the terrible state he was in, that smile was so intimate, so specific that he could never mistake it for anyone else's.
"Ero…s-sennin…" Naruto gasped, the sobs crawling in his throat as he was caressing Jiraiya's mane. The blazing, insolent white was now dull and dead, like the hollow carcass of a withered, long lost glory. Like the petals of a faded flower, some of the once beautiful hair remained in Naruto's hand when he retrieved it.
He couldn't believe this.
He couldn't believe that these devastated, ruined remains once were Jiraiya.
He couldn't believe that under the crackled, greenish skin had once beaten the most gigantic heart he had ever known.
He couldn't believe that these dark lips would never stretch again in a proud, hearty smile.
He couldn't believe these eyes would never look at him again in that characteristic, fatherly way Naruto cherished so mush.
Everything Jiraiya once was had disappeared brutally. It had just vanished into thin air, in the beauty of a last laugh under the shining sun, in the nonchalant gesture of handing him a popsicle. He was now nothing more than a memory, a whisper that had left the crumbling envelope lying on the cold, hard table.
As his last laugh was reverberating again through Naruto's entire body, like a vicious memory taking pleasure in torturing him by bouncing again and again into the walls of his heart, one particular, excruciatingly real thought tore his mind apart.
Jiraiya-sama was dead.
Dead.
Naruto let out a small whimper and fell on his knees, holding Jiraiya's dead hand to his cheek and letting the salty tears stream slowly over the crackled, decayed skin which felt raspy and hard under his own. For a moment there, nothing else existed in the world but that hand pressed against his cheek, that cold, dead hand which would never ruffle his hair again.
Ero-sennin…
Suddenly, all went dark.
The hospital room faded before a gloomy and moist hall, so vast the walls were lost in darkness. Before the blonde man stood a gigantic, iron gate, locked by a seal.
Behind the gate, Naruto could hear a shallow, beastly growl.
It's painful, right?
Naruto closed his eyes.
Of course, he had returned.
Right from the start, Kyuubi hadn't stopped pestering him. Not a day had gone by without his nagging voice ringing in his head, whispering horrors about Kakashi and Tsunade, and the entire village. Every day he had kept telling Naruto how wrong he had been, and how wrong he still was to be so loyal to that treacherous, greedy village which never hesitated to sacrifice its inhabitants to achieve its goals. He had carefully cultivated Naruto's anger, and the blonde had been so lost and so desperate to deny Jiraiya's death that he had found it easier to let his heart festering on anger. It had kept him busy, trying to find all the reasons why he had the genuine right to hate his friends, and especially Kakashi.
He opened his eyes again to see the blazing curve of a furry tail caressing the golden metal.
That sensation that something has been torn apart from you…
He heard the screeching of an enormous claw against the cold hard floor.
…that it has just vanished into thin air before you could raise a finger…
Naruto winced. The aching flames of anger were slowly coming back after they had finally died down thanks to Kakashi's relentless efforts. Along the weeks, Kakashi had indeed succeeded in breaking through his defenses. Little by little, the silver-haired man had climbed the cliff on top of which Naruto had found shelter, isolating himself from the rest of the world. Kyuubi of course had done his maximum to push Naruto into repelling Kakashi,
"Don't you trust him."
"Don't let your guard down."
"You hate him remember? He knew about Jiraiya, he knew all along, and he certainly know many things about your past and he keeps lying right into your face. Don't trust him!"
The words had kept swirling in his mind, but every time Naruto had crossed Kakashi's eyes, he had seen behind the mismatched pupils, and all he could find was love, friendship, and deep, sincere care. As a result, Naruto had progressively shut his mind, until Kyuubi's heinous voice had eventually become silent.
Yet the recovery of Jiraiya's body had cast him back into the pit, and Kyuubi had returned.
"Leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you." Naruto commanded with a broken voice.
He felt completely lost. His heart was aching and he wanted to throw up. He just wanted to curl up on himself and fall asleep in silence so that the nightmare would end.
The growl intensified until it made the ground shake, so much Naruto felt his entire being vibrate with it. Then two enormous, hellish eyes rose far above him, fantastic orbs coming from utter darkness, glaring with ambition and thrill. The Demon Fox was so gigantic Naruto could only see his magnificent, contemptuous head. Kyuubi's beautiful face split into a demonic grin, showing his huge, terrifying teeth.
"I said go away!" Naruto said, clutching his head into his hands.
Kyuubi chuckled, and the sound seemed to wrap around Naruto's heart like an insidious snake.
"I can't go away, you idiot, I live in your soul."
"I can shut that dirty mouth of yours anytime."
"Then please do. Make me shut up."
The giant fox glared contemptuously at Naruto who kept his head squeezed in his hands, sitting on the floor and rocking himself back and forth in despair.
"So? I'm waiting." Kyuubi snarled.
I have to make him shut up. I have almost let him use me back in Tsunade's office, and it could have ended badly. I mustn't listen to him.
But the pain…
God the pain…
It's opening up again…
That awful ache burning my heart, tearing my entire body apart until I suffocate…
Kyuubi has helped me get away from the pain…
"That's right, Kyuubi answered to his thoughts, I helped you through the pain and I can help you again."
"I don't want your help! Leave me the Hell alone-ttebayo!"
"To do what? Sit on your ass and whine like a child? When the Hell will you become a man and stand true to your own principles?"
"What are you talking about?!"
"Justice, Naruto. I'm talking about justice."
Naruto couldn't help but laugh bitterly.
"Oh come on really?! Are you seriously talking about justice? You, who have destroyed my village and killed my parents?! How dare you?"
Kyuubi growled and his teeth glittered in the darkness.
"You are nothing but a stupid brat; you can't begin to understand what happened that night. First I was controlled by Uchiwa Madara, but even though I hadn't myself decided to destroy the village, I am now convinced it served them right! And you know that too!"
Naruto leapt on his feet and threatened Kyuubi with his index.
"Shut up! I forbid you to talk about my parents and my home like that!"
"Your parents let you carry a demon in your soul, and instead of helping you through the loss of your entire family to protect their sorry asses, can you remind me how the villagers treated you for years?! Where was that Kakashi you love so much when the villagers were throwing stones at you? Where was Tsunade? Where were all your friends? Oh I forgot, that pink-haired bitch was way too busy running after that arrogant piece of shit you call your best friend."
"We already talked about that…It's my home…I have forgiven them all…"
"Fine! You have forgiven them, and that's already proving your fucking weakness. But let me ask you this question…"
Kyuubi's eyes almost sparkled with malice.
"Are you seriously considering forgiving yourself on top of all that shit?"
Naruto's head snapped up and he looked at the fox incredulously.
"What?!"
"Don't tell me you haven't understood yet." Kyuubi whispered.
They looked at each other for a long, silent minute, then Kyuubi resumed his poisonous talk.
"Don't tell me you haven't understood the reason why you have been refusing to accept Jiraiya's death."
"Don't you say his name." Naruto seethed.
"The main reason you have been running away…"
There was a small silence, and then Kyuubi uttered words that had the effect of a huge blow in Naruto's stomach.
"…is the fact that you are the reason he died."
Naruto's eyes opened like giant orbs, and his mouth fell open in utmost shock. For a few minutes, he remained silent, and when he managed to make a sound, his voice sounded hollow and dull.
"What the fuck are you talking about?!"
Kyuubi sighed.
"Your stupidity will never cease to amaze me."
"What do you mean I am the reason Ero-sennin died?! How in Hell could I have known he went there?!"
"Please remind me why you didn't know he was going to Amegakure."
"I was out in an eight-squad mission to retrieve Sasuke!"
"Precisely. Sasuke, huh? I thought Jiraiya had asked you to stop looking for him?"
"W…What?!"
Naruto hated that new feeling that was crawling up his veins like poison, compressing his lungs and making his heart pound faster in his chest, as he suddenly felt like he was finally unearthing a particularly nasty secret.
"Jiraiya asked you to stop looking for Sasuke. You wouldn't listen to him. As a result, you were away from Konoha to look for Sasuke when Jiraiya made his decision to go to Amegakure alone. If you had stopped looking for Sasuke as Jiraiya asked you, you would have been in Konoha that day. You could have stopped him, or gone with him to Amegakure. Conclusion: you chose that backstabbing Uchiwa bastard that has been hating you and dragging you in the mud all your life, and you let Jiraiya die a painful, slow death whereas he was the closest thing you had to an actual family."
Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing.
He felt as though his head had suddenly filled with cotton, as though his legs had turned into jelly. He fell on his knees, still staring at Kyuubi with an expression of pure horror on his face.
"No…No, this is ridiculous…It's…I…"
Naruto was struggling with words the same way he was struggling against the horrible, awful picture that was unraveling in his mind. He remembered Jiraiya's unusual, deep worry when he had asked him to stop looking for Sasuke. Then the picture changed, and he saw himself and the rest of his team standing under the heavy rain outside Konoha's gates, ready to go look for Sasuke after they had received new information about his whereabouts.
He hadn't even told Jiraiya he was going. He hadn't even told him goodbye.
The picture changed again…
The barely recognizable body, the mutilated skin, the endless number of bruises scattered all over his necrosing skin…
…and the soft smile of a man he loved with all his heart.
No...
Naruto's mind struggled again, trying to cling onto the idea that no matter what, Jiraiya would never have let him come with him, that he would have taken advantage of another mission sending Naruto away to go to Amegakure by himself. That was just ridiculous, an unfortunate chain of events, and he couldn't be blamed for this.
Yet his heart was screaming louder than his brain.
Kyuubi's words had hit their target at its core.
I have tried to put everything on Kakashi and Tsunade's backs just because I couldn't face the truth.
All these weeks trying to run away from that hole in my chest…
Now I know what's down there…
I have killed Ero-sennin.
Naruto grabbed his hair and let out a tortured sob, as Kyuubi's words sank cruelly in his brain, smashing his nerves and ripping his soul apart.
"Yes! Yes Naruto! You are the one responsible for Jiraiya's death, and yet you have been sitting on your ass for months, whining and hiding, while right from the start you could have done something to redeem yourself." Kyuubi went on, his eyes sparkling with thrill as he felt Naruto was losing his mind. He just had to push him a little further, and he would finally get to the result he had been trying to reach since the beginning.
Naruto's soul would be his.
"There is one way you can redeem yourself, only one, single way. Go to Amegakure and take the lives of the ones who have mutilated Jiraiya."
Kyuubi could feel the fire flooding Naruto's veins. He could feel the incredible fury that was ravaging his heart, the enormous guilt eating his soul away.
Just a bit more…
"What happened to that I-will-never-give-up crap of yours, huh?! What are you waiting for?! Revenge, that is what your heart craves for, then listen to it! Listen to it, and let the power engulf you to bring their doom upon your enemies!"
Naruto crushed his fist on the ground, his body shaking, his other hand clutching his shirt over his heart.
Yes…Come to me… Give me your body, give me your heart, give me your soul…
"Be the man you always wanted to be, the strong man that defends his friends even after death, the man that struggles for justice."
Let me devour you, let me take my revenge on the village of Konoha and on the entire mankind.
"Earn Jiraiya's forgiveness by standing up and facing the ones who massacred him while your back was turned!"
Let me take my revenge on humans for what they have done to me and my siblings. Let my dreams come true at last, after being locked away in darkness and solitude for endless years. Let me claim justice for my stolen freedom.
That was when Kyuubi, carried away by the suffering, the solitude and the hatred that had been eating his own heart away for hundreds of years, made a mistake.
One, single mistake.
"Let me be in charge, I will be your eyes and your hand, I will avenge Jiraiya."
All his body shaking, Naruto raised his head and glared fiercely at Kyuubi. Ice met fire, and Naruto rose on his feet.
"You are right, Kyuubi. I have to take my revenge. It's the only thing I can do now. But I will do it without your help."
Kyuubi's eyes widened, and for a moment, they lost their hatred, replaced by genuine confusion.
"What?!"
"You said I had to show the world that I stood up for my principles. You said that I would defend my loved ones even after their death. You said that I am the reason Ero-sennin is not here anymore. That's why I have to face his murderers alone. That's why I have to fight them as Uzumaki Naruto. I am the one in charge of my actions. Not you."
"Don't be ridiculous! You don't stand a chance against them alone. I won't let you fight alone, that's suicide!" Kyuubi seethed, persuading himself, deep down, that his worry for Naruto's safety was only related to the fact that he would die along with the boy if the latter got beaten.
Naruto raised his hand in the air, and a wooden barrier came down from darkness, pinning the giant fox to the ground as the magnificent beast was snarling and twisting.
"When will you stop underestimating me, Kyuubi?" Naruto whispered, his eyes hard.
"Naruto…! Take that shit off me!"
"No. I won't let you interfere. Goodbye, Kyuubi."
"Naruto! Wait, you bloody idiot!"
He struggled but Naruto had left.
His mind returning to reality, Naruto let the gates of rage fly open.
That was his last chance.
The very last thing he could cling onto.
I have to take my revenge.
Suddenly, it was so obvious.
That was what he should have done long before.
Naruto cast his head backwards and let out such a terrifying scream of rage that in the corridor, Kakashi's heart stopped beating.
Sakura, still in his arms, let out a gasp when within a fraction of second, Naruto had burst out of the room, nearly flinging it into Sakura's face. Without looking back, he started walking quickly through the corridor.
"Naruto!" Kakashi and Sakura screamed at the same time, running after him.
The blonde was breathing with difficulty. His eyes were wide open, pushing the people that were standing in his way aside, growling with rage. He could barely see where he was going. He could barely think. All he could see was Jiraiya's battered body.
All he could see was his soft smile.
He had to claim justice.
He had to avenge him.
That was all that mattered to him now.
Sakura grabbed Naruto's hand.
"Naruto, stop!"
The blonde didn't even realize what he was doing. He turned around and crashed his fist into Sakura's face sending her fly backwards. Opening his arms wide, Kakashi caught her in the air and both of them fell down to the ground. Sakura was holding her jaw, wincing in pain, and she raised astonished eyes to his long time friend.
"Naruto!" Kakashi bellowed, holding Sakura's face protectively to his chest with a hand tangling in her hair pressing her cheek against his heart.
Everyone in the corridor was frozen. No one dared to move.
Naruto was casting a terrifying, swirling aura, his breath was short, his eyes were wild and the veins of his temple and neck were prominent.
"I'm leaving for Amegakure, alone. And I don't give the slightest shit about your fucking opinion. So get off my back or I'll kill you. All of you." He breathed out, his voice harsh and threatening.
Kakashi's heart fell to his toes.
Oh boy. It's happening.
Naruto turned towards the wall. With a beastly scream and extraordinary strength, he destroyed it with a punch. The force of the blow was such that a part of the ceiling fell down, sending the nurses scattering and screaming. Kakashi wrapped his arms tightly around Sakura's head and put his chin on her hair, encasing her face into his chest to protect her from the rumble. Someone screamed something near them, and a wooden shield appeared over their heads. Sakura shot her head out of Kakashi's embrace and gasped.
"Yamato-taichou?!"
"Hai. Kakashi senpai asked me to monitor Naruto from afar just in case the shock of seeing Jiraiya's body was too strong and made him turn into Kyuubi."
"Well I think it is happening. We have to follow him!" Sakura exclaimed, struggling in Kakashi's arms and leaping on her feet. Even with her mouth bleeding, she flung herself to Naruto's pursuit. She was going to jump through the hole in the wall when Kakashi caught her again and encircled her chest with his arms, pulling her back to his torso.
"Sakura, wait!"
" LET GO OF ME !" Sakura shrieked fiercely.
"No! Sakura-chan, listen to me, Kakashi urged in her ear. Tenzou and I will go after him. I need you to go get Sai, Shikamaru and the others. Things are going to get messy."
He let go of her and turned towards Yamato, his brows frowned and creating a deep crease on his forehead.
"Tenzou." He said with authority.
"Hai, Senpai."
Within a fraction of second, the two men had disappeared into thin air, launching themselves behind Naruto.
Naruto was running so fast he could barely feel the ground under his feet. His heart was screaming for blood and violence, and all he could think of were the cries of pain he was going to rip out from the throats of the bastards that had killed his precious Jiraiya. As he was leaping from a branch to another, he could feel Kyuubi struggling to get loose, but he shut him further away.
This is my fight.
This is my revenge.
I am Uzumaki Naruto, and I will make it up to you, Ero-sennin, even if I have to die trying.
Amegakure was a long way ahead, but he didn't care. He could barely think. He was almost drooling with rage, and all his body was shaking.
His heart was filled with so much hatred he could kill anyone on his path.
He hated everyone.
Everyone.
Friends or foes.
And most of all, he hated himself.
If he hadn't left the village to search for Sasuke, he could have stopped Ero-sennin, he could have convinced him to go with him. Jiraiya would have never accepted, but Naruto was so blinded by his anger that he was convinced he could have changed his fate.
I haven't been there for you, and I will never forgive myself.
As he was jumping on a branch, Naruto let out another scream of rage and punched the tree with violence, diving his hand right through the wood.
I'm going to torture you bastards.
I'm going to spill your blood and drink it on Ero-sennin's tomb.
The last thing you will hear will be Uzumaki Naruto's laugh as you die slowly and painfully while he watches.
Don't try to flee or hide from me.
I will never, ever give up, and I will hunt you down to the world's end.
"Naruto!" A familiar voice shouted behind him.
Naruto turned around swiftly.
Damn. Kakashi-sensei. Yamato-taichou…I should have known.
He crossed his hands.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
Two clones appeared and threw themselves towards Kakashi and Yamato while the real Naruto kept running forward.
The first one threw five shurikens at Kakashi who pulled out his knife and repelled them all swiftly. As Naruto's clone was diving on him with a scream, Kakashi kicked the tree behind him so he could jump in the air. He swirled on himself and managed to pull his wires out, encircling Naruto's clone. He wrapped his arms around him from behind, then plummeted towards the ground while turning on himself at increasing speed. They both crashed in the ground, and Naruto's clone disappeared.
"Tenzou! Don't let yourself be distracted by the clone!" He shouted, wiping his forehead.
"Hai…Senpai!" Yamato answered from up the trees, fighting a particularly aggressive clone. He feigned to be cornered against a trunk, and when Naruto crashed his fist on his face, Yamato turned into a wooden clone, and the real one appeared behind Naruto. He turned his hand into a wooden spear and ran it right through the blonde clone's heart.
Kakashi landed next to him and both of them looked at each other.
"Damn, it feels so weird to…you know…it's Naruto, I mean…" Yamato said.
Kakashi laid his hand on the brown-haired man's shoulder.
"Ma, Tenzou, this was a clone, and we will get Naruto home. I promise you. Now come on, or we'll lose him."
"Stop calling me Tenzou, Senpai, my name is Yamato now!"
"All right all right…Come on Tenzou!"
He leapt into the air and Yamato rolled his eyes before following him.
"Mattaku, that man will never change…" he muttered.
The pursuit lasted almost an hour. Each time they were getting closer to the blonde-haired boy, the latter would send his clones to repel the two men. Even though Kakashi and Yamato tried not to fight them to keep on Naruto's trail, they had no choice, as the clones were extremely aggressive and more and more dangerous. Silently, Kakashi made up a plan. He made several clones of himself to confuse Naruto, and while the blonde's clones were fighting his own, he disappeared through the ground.
The real Naruto ended up in a large clearing, and he threw himself forward. He had almost made it halfway through the clearing when a voice roared.
"Doton, Doryuu Heki!"
Naruto gasped as an immense mud wall rose from the ground, blocking Naruto's path, knocking the young man down to the ground as the earth seemed to be parting in half. He growled and started crossing his hands to conjure his clones in order to help him climb the wall when the strong, familiar voice rose again.
"Naaaruto!" the voice bellowed.
Something in that voice made him turn around slowly, ready to face its owner.
Hatake Kakashi.
The Copy-Ninja was standing behind him, his eyes fierce, all his body standing firmly in the ground, tall and elegant. His silver hair was flying in the slight wind, and his fists were clenched.
"I cannot let you go there, Naruto."
"Oh? You mean you are going to try and stop me, Kakashi?" Naruto seethed, spitting his name like an insult.
"I won't try. I will."
"I will avenge Ero-sennin, and I won't let you stick your fucking nose in my business!"
Kakashi heard Yamato arrive behind him, but he held his hand in his back to stop him from restraining Naruto too soon. First, he wanted to talk to him, and he hated the idea of resorting to violence with his precious Naruto.
Kakashi could feel Naruto's chakra boiling like magma, and he had the unpleasant feeling of being back in that dream he had many nights before.
That was actually happening: Naruto was being eaten from the inside. He was being manipulated by Kyuubi and he was going to fall into his hands.
Wait a minute…
Kakashi frowned.
Something was weird. Naruto's chakra was extremely agitated, but he could also feel that the blonde was blocking something, as though he was pushing it down inside himself.
Not understanding what was going on, Kakashi thought he had to tread extremely carefully.
"Please wait…" He said, raising his hand in a sign of peace.
"For what? For you to lecture me again ? For you to tell me that I'm just screwing everything up again? That I'm just a fucking idiot doing rubbish?" Naruto seethed, his eyes glaring flames.
The anger kept rising.
"No, Naruto, I swear. I...I am just worried about you. I care about you, very much. You know that don't you?" He asked with his most tender, caring voice, still coming forward slowly as though he was trying to tame a particularly fierce animal.
"Then if you care so much about me, let me go beat the hell out of these bastards. If you care so much about me, let me claim justice by breaking every fucking bone in those who have murdered my shishou." Naruto yelled, his eyes welling up with tears of rage.
Kakashi sighed and kneeled. Behind him, his hand was still ordering Yamato to wait.
"I know how you feel, believe me, I know. But revenge will get you nowhere. When you go there and kill them then what? Huh? Well I'll tell you what."
He took a breath. God, it was just like that day on the hospital roof all over again. That day he had tried to explain Sasuke how much revenge was a dangerous illusion of hope. That day he had tried to save Sasuke, but he hadn't tried hard enough.
Today he had to save Naruto. He just had too. For starters, he had promised Sakura...and above all, he could never live with himself if something happened to him.
"The fate of those who seek revenge is grim. It's tragic, You will end up suffering and hurting yourself even more. Even if you do succeed in getting revenge, the only thing that remains is emptiness. It will break you, Naruto-kun."
"I don't care. I just can't live with the idea that I have done nothing to avenge his death and his suffering."
"What if they kill you? Do you think J...do you think he would have wanted that?"
Kakashi bit his lip. Hell, he had almost pronounced the name.
"I am Uzumaki Naruto. I will beat the crap out of their asses and feed them to the fish!"
"Naruto, you have seen what they were capable of. You have seen what they did to one of the legendary sannins. You are strong, there's no doubt about that, and I'm prouder of you than you will ever know, but this is crazy and you know it. This is suicide. And I will not let you run to your death."
"Shut up...Shut the hell up!" Naruto shouted, grabbing his head as though it was going to explode.
Kakashi opened his mouth to answer, but then he realized something.
Naruto was not talking to him.
He frowned and carefully made a step forward. Behind him, Yamato was still waiting for his signal, yet Kakashi didn't make it.
"Naruto, what's happening to you?!"
The blonde was staggering backwards. He seemed to be mumbling to himself. He looked completely out of his mind.
"No…I said…Back off! I…I won't let you get out…They are mine…I will fight as Uzumaki Naruto…They are mine…mine…MINE!"
Kakashi gasped as he suddenly understood what was going on.
Oh God, he is fighting Kyuubi.
Naruto roared and lunged on Kakashi, but before he could reach him, large branches sprung out from the ground and curled around him like wooden snakes, immobilizing him a few inches from his target. The blonde seethed and struggled with ferocity, but he could not free himself. Kakashi stepped forward and grabbed Naruto's shoulders.
"Naruto, it's over now. Let me help you through this. I swear I will help you, you hear me?"
Naruto raised his eyes towards him and shouted:
"You cannot help me! Don't you understand? You cannot help me!"
"Look, I know you are lost, scared and angry. Let's just talk this over, please."
Naruto had a contemptuous laugh that sounded extremely weird coming from him.
"Oh yes right, let's talk. It's always about talking with you, right sensei? Talking again, and again, words, always fucking words! I'm fed up with words, Kakashi! I want action! I demand justice!"
"You cannot obtain justice that way, Naruto! You are just going to throw yourself in the Akatsuki's arms and get yourself killed, is that what you call justice?!"
"There you are underestimating me again! Why the Hell does everyone keep underestimating me?! When the Hell will you stop seeing me as a child? When the Hell will you start considering me as your equal Kakashi?"
His eyes welled up with tears of anger and hurt, and he had a soft gasp.
"When the Hell will I have some damn worth in your eyes?" he asked.
His nails were digging in the wood, and all his body was shaking. Kakashi's heart tightened. His hands flew up and took Naruto's face between them.
"Why the Hell do you think I'm trying to save you right now, Naruto? Why do you think I have been watching over you every freaking day for all these months? Because you are precious to me, you damn stubborn ass! I do consider you as my equal, but I am also older than you, and it is my duty to protect you. You were once my student, and you became my friend, then my family. I believe in you Naruto, from the bottom of my heart, I have always believed in you. But I knowthat you are not experienced enough to fight the Akatsuki all by yourself! No one can fight them alone, not even me. We need to work together, Naruto, remember? Teamwork! That is the first freaking lesson I have ever given you! We have to stick together, and I promise you we will eventually beat the crap out of these monsters. You hear me? I promise you, Naruto-kun."
Naruto kept looking at him, his eyes brimming with tears. Kakashi maintained his face between his hands and he smoothed Naruto's hair gently.
"Your heart is misleading you, Naruto-kun…I know it hurts, but you are chasing an illusion, Kakashi went on with a softer voice. Trust me, I know. I know you're in horrible pain. I know you're angry. But you are going the wrong way. You will find nothing there other than death and destruction."
Naruto lowered his head, and for a moment, Kakashi's heart filled with hope. Had he found the right words? Would he succeed in stopping Naruto from running right to his death?
"Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me, Naruto-kun? Have I?" he asked softly, as he had done in his dream.
He soon got the answer…And it was not what he expected.
Naruto raised his eyes again to Kakashi, and the silver-haired man's heart skipped a beat when he saw that they were slowly darkening, in a way he had never seen.
"You are all trying to manipulate me…That damn demon fox is trying to break through my defenses in order to steal my body, and you are trying to stop me from doing what I should have done months ago. It is you, all of you who don't trust me! You have always underestimated me, all of you, at all times!"
His eyes were still watery, yet the tears wouldn't fall. Instead, his pupils were fading out, the magnificient, shiny blue turning into a bloody island surrounded by an ocean of darkness.
"Naruto, what's happening to you?!" Kakashi asked, horrified, as he could feel Naruto's chakra turning into an immense ball of dark power. He didn't understand where that malevolence was coming from, as Naruto had been blocking Kyuubi's way out.
"You think I am not strong enough to beat the Akatsuki, right sensei? Well Kyuubi agrees with you. Then I will show you both that I am strong enough. I will show you that I am worthy to seek justice for Ero-sennin. And to prove how wrong you have been about me for all these years, I will fight you, Hatake Kakashi, as Uzumaki Naruto. I won't let Kyuubi interfere. You and Yamato taichou are mine."
"Why are you doing this?! This is complete nonsense! What are you trying to achieve?"
At this question, the last remnants of the dying azure cast a last look at Kakashi, a look that transpierced the silver-haired man with the strength of its impossible grief.
"My…fault…"
Before Kakashi could utter a word, Naruto threw his head backwards and let out a bloodcurling scream, his face contorting as though he was in incredible pain.
"Naruto!" Kakashi and Yamato yelled.
A huge blast of chakra exploded from Naruto's body and sent both the men fly backwards. They fell hard on the ground and protected their heads as the wooden branches restraining Naruto had been propelled in the air after them. Kakashi coughed in the thick could of dust created by the chakra burst, and he helped Yamato up. Instinctively, he put himself in front of the man to protect him, and stared through the dust in Naruto's direction.
"Naruto?" he called.
No answer.
Kakashi's heart was beating fast in his chest.
He couldn't feel Naruto anymore.
"Oh Hell, no! Naruto!" he cried out.
He initiated a step forward but stopped almost immediately.
His eyes widened, and his heart froze in his chest.
That chakra.
All his hair straightened on his skin.
When he exchanged a horrified glance with Yamato, he understood the man had felt it too.
"That's not Kyuubi, Senpai…", Yamato whispered.
The chakra they were feeling was not only incredibly dark.
It was also literally screaming.
It was something Kakashi had never felt before, and that he would never be able to explain properly. It was not physical. Kakashi could not hear it with his ears, but it pierced his heart from end to end. It was a horrible, mixed feeling of anger, despair and loneliness vibrating in that whirling chakra, like a vortex tearing through reality and exhaling the rotten smell of Hell.
Kakashi anchored his feet in the ground and lowered his head slightly, readying himself to face the creature that was going to get out of that fog.
Soon, something appeared through the dust.
Two red, shining orbs.
"Tenzou. Stay behind me." Kakashi whispered, reaching out a hand in his back to keep Yamato there.
Naruto's silhouette materialized slowly as the boy was walking forward through the cloud, like a demon coming out of a sandstorm.
Finally, the boy's face appeared, and both Kakashi and Yamato had a slight gasp.
He was unrecognizable.
His face was twisted in a wicked, malevolent grin, and his nose was crinkled in a feral growl.
Yet his eyes were the worst.
They were nothing more than dark pools in which swam a blood-red pupil that held no other expression than pure hate.
"Naruto, what happened to you?" Kakashi let out in a dismayed voice.
"Ahh…Hatake…Nice to meet you at last…"Naruto answered in a low, growling voice.
Kakashi's heart filled with ice as a very disturbing thought rang in his mind.
That thing is not Naruto.
"Who the Hell are you?"
The dark-eyed creature took a time to answer. He kept staring at them with his lips slightly bared, showing his teeth.
"I am the anger. I am the pain. I am the lonleliness. I am the one that has been hiding deep down through the stones and contempt. I am the one crawling in darkness through the mocking and the hatred. I am the real Uzumaki Naruto." He finally answered.
Kakashi felt like his heart had fallen to his toes.
Suddenly, he understood what had happened.
Naruto had been stopping Kyuubi from getting out, but at the same time, his emotions had been too strong to control. His anger had reached too deep within himself, and his chakra had filled with all the long repelled emotions, like poison piercing through his containment and flooding the entire system.
He had just given a voice and a body to his dark, evil self.
Yami Naruto.
"Masaka…" he breathed out.
He had a step backwards, horrified. He couldn't feel Naruto's sunny chakra anymore within that howling, incredibly macabre energy. All he could feel was pure evil, and an inconceivable strength.
The dark Naruto threw his head backwards and laughed.
"Oh, realizing at last that your little idiot was in fact extremely powerful, are we Kakashi? Is that fear I feel in you?"
Kakashi pulled himself together and held his head high.
"I'm not afraid of you."
"Oh? It does sound most interesting…But enough chit-chat now."
He took a slow step forward with a carnivorous smile on his face.
"I have been waiting for so long…"
He took another step.
"That fool just wanted to fight you both without the demon fox's help… And it served me right…"
He kept walking towards them, slowly, like a panther approaching its prey, and Kakashi had a little step backwards. He spread his arms slightly to protect Yamato.
"He just couldn't hold his emotions in and repel Kyuubi at the same time…He freed me without even knowing I existed."
He stopped.
"I'm sorry but the rules have just changed…"
A demonic smile distorted his features.
"This will be a death fight. I will not leave either of you alive."
Kakashi's eyes widened at this declaration, but then it all happened too fast.
Yami Naruto conjured a clone, and both of them lept on Kakashi and Yamato like murderous panthers, effectively separating the two men. Kakashi coiled back with a gracious backflip. Yet Yami Naruto didn't give him the time to pull himself together. Dragging two kunais from his belt, he screamed rageously and dove on Kakashi, his teeth bore and his eyes fierce. Kakashi blocked the kunais with his forearms.
"Nar…"
He didn't have the time to pronounce his friend's name, for the blonde had aimed a particularly vicious kick right into his stomach. Kakashi gasped and bent in half while Yami Naruto slammed his fist into his jaw, sending him flying backwards. The silver-haired man crashed into the dirt, trying to recover his breath, clutching his stomach, his jaw bleeding. The dark Naruto lept on him, his kunai raised.
"Die!" he screamed, raising his arm high in the air.
Yet before he could stab Kakashi, the man disappeared in a poof, replaced by a wooden trunk, and Yami Naruto growled as he felt two powerful arms coil under his armpits and around his shoulders, blocking his upper body.
"Naruto, listen to me. I know you're still in there."
"There's something you might have not understood, Kakashi. I am Naruto now."
Yami Naruto jerked his head backwards violently and hit Kakashi's nose with the back of his head. Kakashi's arms faltered for only a second, but it was enough for Naruto to free himself from his embrace. He joined his hands.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
Five Yami Narutos appeared, smirking and seething, and they surrounded Kakashi before jumping on him with feral roars. Kakashi blocked and repelled the blows coming from everywhere, jumping in the air, crouching to the ground, avoiding the hits with roulades and stopping them with expert parades. He whirled on himself to give impulse to his leg which he crashed into one of the clones' head, making the latter disappear in a poof of smoke. He felt another blow coming from behind, and he blocked another clone's elbow with one hand while he crashed his foot into another's stomach. Yet Yami Naruto kept spawning clones, again and again, and Kakashi kept repelling them the best he could…
…and it made Yami Naruto steadily angrier.
"Why aren't you fighting me seriously? Why aren't you using your Sharingan? You think I'm not serious enough? You think I'm not worthy of the famous Copy-Ninja's thousand techniques?" he seethed while sweeping his leg in the air, aiming at Kakashi's head but missing his target as the silver-haired man crouched at the last moment.
"Stop insulting me, Kakashi! Fight me seriously! RASENGAN!" Yami Naruto roared.
The air started spinning in his hand in a high-pitched howling, but the usually blue orb was now dark and red. Kakashi gasped but didn't wait to be touched by that tremendous amount of dark power.
"Doton, Shinjû zanshu no jutsu!" Kakashi yelled.
He disappeared underground just in time, before Yami Naruto's dark rasengan hit the spot where he was standing a few seconds before, smashing the ground and making the earth shake.
Hidden underground, Kakashi sighed and wiped his forehead.
"Damn it…Damn it…Damn it!" he growled, hitting the damp earth surrounding him.
He was stuck. This was one of the worst scenarios that could happen. It was even worse than fighting Kyuubi. If the demon fox's mantle had appeared, Yamato would have been able to restrain it by force if he had acted quickly. Whereas here, Naruto had himself blocked Kyuubi's chakra. As a result, his swirling, devastating emotions had to find another channel to get out, and that was what had brought Yami Naruto to life. Yet Yami Naruto's chakra, although malevolent and demonic, remained Naruto's, and Yamato didn't have the power to restrain his chakra. Kakashi could only guess that Naruto's true self had recessed back somewhere within his mind, but he wasn't sure. He wasn't even sure he could return, but he was fighting hard not to think about that scenario.
That was unconveivable.
He would not lose Naruto. And because he wouldn't lose Naruto, he couldn'tfight him with full power. He wouldn't use his Raikiri against him, yet of course Yami Naruto had noticed that Kakashi wasn't fighting to his full extent, and it kept making him angrier and more powerful.
It was really a vicious circle.
Kakashi had a limited amount of chakra, contrary to Naruto… His moves were limited, especially if he didn't intend to kill his opponent. He had to act quickly before his chakra got completely depleted. Naruto was stronger, so Kakashi had to be smarter…
He closed his eyes for a moment and let his mind drift away, seeking for an answer. He knew he didn't have much time. He could feel Yami Naruto above the ground, searching for him, and he could also hear Yamato fighting what sounded like half a dozen of clones.
Think. Come on, think, damn it.
"SHAAAAAAAAAAANNAAAROOOOOOOOOOO!"
Before Kakashi had time to make up a plan, the ground exploded around him and he found himself being cast up into the air. He fell on his bottom and coughed and spit the earth that had entered his mouth. He blinked and realized he was back above the ground, sprawled on his back among the rumble of a devastated earth whose creaks and enormous crevices were spreading through the entire clearing like an immense spider web. He looked around, temporarily confused, looking for the owner of that very familiar voice.
"KAKASHI-SENSEI!"
Within a fraction of second, Sakura rushed to his side and crouched down, running her hands up and down Kakashi's body.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt? God what the Hell is happening here?! There's like a hundred of Naruto's clones! What the Hell is that dark chakra I'm feeling? I'm not seeing Kyuubi's mantle, what the Hell is happening?! How are we going to…"
Kakashi took Sakura's face in his hands.
"Sakura, Sakura! No more questions, I want you to listen carefully…"
He didn't have time to utter another word.
"Fûton! Rasenshuriken!"
"SAKURA! WATCH OUT!" Kakashi shouted.
He shoved her face in his chest and wrapped his arms around her head before throwing himself aside to the ground. Naruto's attack missed him of just a few feet, but the ground exploded again under the force of the impact, thrusting both Kakashi and Sakura in the air. They were sent right down into one of the craters Sakura's blow had created, Kakashi holding the young woman into his chest as tight as he could to protect her in their fall. He fell hard on his back and winced in pain as a rock dug in his skin, cutting off his air. Yet he ignored the pain and released Sakura from his embrace.
"Are you all right, Sakura-chan?!" he asked, concerned, trying to catch his breath.
"Yes, yes I think so, what about you?!"
"I'm fine, don't worry about me. Now listen…"
"My, my, when will you ever stop your endless speeches and actually start fighting?" Naruto's voice rose just a few feet from them.
The dust cloud created by Naruto's attack slowly faded out, and Yami Naruto stepped out of the fog, his eyes shining, his lips twisted in a wicked, insane grin. At the sight of his eyes, Sakura gasped and grabbed Kakashi's sleeve.
"Oh my God what the hell…!"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you, Kakashi said, shifting to stand between Naruto and Sakura, his nose crinkled in a growl, don't you dare touch her."
"Ohh, hello Sakura, I'm glad that you joined the party, this isgetting more and more interesting!"
"Kakashi, what the Hell is happening?!" Sakura asked, trying to get back in front of Kakashi, but failing as the silver-haired man kept her behind him.
"Revenge, princess. Revenge. After all these years, I'm finally able to beat the crap out of your self-centered, superficial ass!" Yami Naruto sniggered.
"W…What?!"
"Oh come on, don't play innocent with me, Yami Naruto growled, of all people you certainly are one of those who hurt the former Naruto the most in his life. He loved you with all his heart, he did everything for you, he humiliated himself to please you, and what did he get in return?"
"Na…Naruto…" Sakura stuttered, completely stunned.
"NOTHING! Naruto yelled, making the young woman start behind Kakashi, you gave him nothing but contempt and bruises. How many years have you been insulting, mocking, and bullying him? How many years have you been ignoring his efforts to become your friend if not your boyfriend?! How many years have you been dangling your fucking "love" for the "ohmygodsupercool" Sasuke-kun under his nose, while he was struggling just to get a little bit of your attention?!"
"Naruto, I don't understand…I'm sorry…You are my best friend…" Sakura stuttered, completely confused as to why Naruto was speaking of himself using the third person.
"SHUT UP! Don't you dare calling me your best friend. I have no friends anymore. I will kill each and everyone of you and enjoy your painful death."
He roared and leapt forward, and Kakashi just had time to throw Sakura aside before Naruto's fist connected with his collarbone. There was a disgusting, crunching sound and a sharp, burning pain exploded in Kakashi's chest, making him yelp in pain. The man staggered backwards but managed to stop Naruto's foot coming right at his head. Both of them exchanged a series of blows.
"Stop it! Naruto, leave him alone !" Sakura shrieked.
She leapt into the air and landed right on Naruto's back. They both rolled on the ground, and Sakura struggled fiercely until she found herself straddling Naruto, pushing his face to the ground and pulling his arms backwards to block them in his back. Yami Naruto let out a bark of laughter and disappeared in a poof.
Sakura remained completely still, frozen in shock, wondering what had just happened. Kakashi came to crouch beside her and took her face in his hands.
"Sakura, look at me. This is not exactly the Naruto we know, okay?"
Seeing Sakura's lost eyes fill with tears, Kakashi pulled her in his arms and crushed her face in his shoulder, wincing in pain because of his collarbone.
"Ma, come here, he said, listen to me. It's okay, everything's going to be okay…"
No lies, Hatake¸ a nagging voice immediately rang in his head.
"Err…All right, actually it isn't, the situation is way worse than I had imagined and we're in a deep pool of shit right now but we'll figure it out as we always do, ne? " He asked in a high, mellifluous voice.
He kept holding her to him, and when he felt her nod in his shoulder, he let go of her. Sakura seemed to recover her spirits:
"Let me have a look at your collarbone, sensei, I think it's broken." She whispered before pulling her hands next to Kakashi's shoulder releasing a warm, green chakra. While she was working, Kakashi started explaining the situation.
"That man you've just seen is like Naruto's evil twin. Naruto has been stopping Kyuubi from getting out all by himself, but because Naruto's mind and heart are a mess, because he has been dealing with so many emotions he has been keeping for himself for three months, these emotions have eventually found a way to express themselves. They have materialized in the shape of that dark-eyed Naruto. Now…The tricky part is that we have to find a way to stop him without killing him."
Sakura's eyes shot up.
"Do you have a plan?"
Kakashi scratched the back of his head.
"Err…No not really, I must admit that I hadn't expected that kind of situation at all. I think the best move right now is to buy me enough time to think."
"What do you need?"
"Tell me who's up there", Kakashi ordered, jerking his head towards the surface of the crater towards the battlefield.
"I could only bring Sai, Shikamaru, Ino, Chouj, Tenten and Kiba, sensei, the others were at the hospital or on mission."
"All right we'll manage. Listen here: Naruto…errr…Yami Naruto keeps spawning shadow clones, and as a result, I can't tell where the real one is. I need you guys to take out as many clones as you can, as fast as you can, but of course you will have to restrain your blows in case you hit the real one. This is more a fight to restrain Yami Naruto rather than kill him. But remember: he will try to kill you. Don't hesitate creating clones yourselves to keep him busy. Yami Naruto has got as much chakra as Naruto, but it's not infinite. I want to make sure his chakra is enough depleted so he can focus on fighting me. And that's when, of course, I will come up with a brilliant idea to stop him. Got it?"
"Naruto! What the heck is wrong with you?!"
Shikamaru's shout made them both turn their heads upwards.
"Okay, I think your collarbone is fixed." Sakura said, rising on her feet.
"Good job, Sakura. Now let's go. Try to find a way to explain the situation to the others but without Yami Naruto hearing, all right?"
"Wakatta, sensei."
Kakashi laid his hand on Sakura's shoulder and squeezed it.
"It's almost over. Tonight, we're going home with the real Naruto, or we are not going home at all."
Sakura nodded solemnly.
"Hai, sensei."
On these words, they leapt out of the hole and launched themselves back into the fight. Sakura let out a fierce cry of war, and she charged right into the battlefield.
The calm, peaceful clearing had indeed turned into an agitated pool of figures fighting each other, throwing ninjutsus, kunais and shurikens. Yami Naruto was getting more and more greedy, and he kept spawning shadow clones, attacking each one of his friends with at least four clones, and pummeling them down with both taijutsu and ninjutsu.
Sakura dove forward, and she was immediately assailed by three clones. She ducked and tripped one of them with a violent swap of her leg, before spinning on her self and using the second one as a shield while the third was crashing his fist on her. When the second clone disappeared, Sakura roared and sent a majestic punch into the third's stomach, making it vanish as well. Then without waiting any longer, she darted towards Sai.
"Sai! Draw a bird and get me up in the air, now!" she shouted, punching one of the clones in the head.
"Hai! Ninpo: chôjû giga!"
A magnificient bird sprung out of Sai's scroll and both Sai and Sakura jumped on its back. Sakura searched the clearing for long, blonde hair. When she found Ino, she ordered:
"Sai, fly to the ground fast so I can catch Ino."
The young man obeyed and dived on the blonde girl. Sakura leaned aside, casting her arm out, and she grabbed onto her friend who gasped in surprise. Once they were back in the sky, Ino turned towards Sakura, surprised.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"Shut up and listen, I just talked with Kakashi sensei…"
Sakura explained them what Kakashi had told her, and she asked Ino to use her mental powers to transmit the messages to all the others without Yami Naruto knowing. Once it was done, the three friends dove back to the battlefield and jumped down, throwing themselves back in the fight. Tenten was swirling her chained maces in the air next to Ino who was engaged in close combat. Chouji had doubled his size and was rolling on himself, crushing the clones standing on his path, while Shikamaru was attacking the remaining ones with his long, sharp shadows. Kiba and Akamaru were fighting side by side, surrounded by nine clones, growling and seething as they were pushed backwards against a corner of the devastated terrain. The nine clones quickly gathered to form three use rasengan orbs, and they were rising their hands in the air when Yamato suddenly sprung out of the ground and tackled the clones down with multiple wooden arms.
As for Kakashi, he was trying hard not to use his Sharingan too much, but fighting Yami Naruto without it and without trying to kill him proved to be particularly tricky. On top of that, the dark-eyed blonde was pushing him to use more and more powerful techniques as he was growing steadily more impatient and infuriated by the fact that Kakashi was obviously trying to minor the damages of his own attacks. As a result, the two men were exchanging increasingly powerful jutsus, and Kakashi was often taken aback by the techniques Yami Naruto would use, as he had never seen Naruto use them in the past. It made him even more unpredictable, and Kakashi started to think the situation was getting worse every minute.
As the silver-haired jounin was repelling Naruto's attacks the best he could, his mind was racing. As he used to do, he started isolating the problems to try and find the most suitable solution. The problem was that he had to stop Naruto from killing everyone but without killing him.
Put him to sleep.
"Die! RASENGAN!" Yami Naruto yelled while aiming the spinning orb right at Kakashi's head. The latter crashed his fist into Yami Naruto's upper arm and succeeded in deflecting its course, and the orb went to tear right through a tree which fell down, making a swarm of birds rise in the sky.
While fighting the boy, Kakashi kept thinking. He remembered that famous morning where he had woken up with Naruto nestled in his chest, and how he had saved the entire village's ass by hypnotizing him.
Mmmh…I'm afraid that won't be enough. He is going to resist, and if I fail once, he will know what I'm trying to do and he will avoid looking at me in the eye.
Yami Naruto cast his leg in the air and Kakashi blocked it with his forearms before aiming a kick at his flank.
Mmh that means only one thing…I'll have to use the Mangekyô.
Kakashi winced. Using the Mangekyô Sharingan was very risky, and he had to use it with full reserves of chakra or he could die.
All right let's say that I use the Mangekyô…What do I do? Just put him to sleep? Ask him gently to stop?
Yami Naruto spawned three clones that charged him.
No, no, that's not enough…
He put his hands on the ground and spinned on himself with such speed he turned into a human tornade, wiping out the three clones that were coming at him. When he landed, his eyes shot open.
I have to confront Yami Naruto's feelings.
It seemed obvious now. Kakashi had to use the mangekyô in order to trap Yami Naruto into an alternative world where Kakashi would have a complete control on him, and where he could confront him emotionally. Now that he thought about it, Kakashi fully understood the sense of that dream he had many weeks ago. He had to prevent Naruto from being swallowed by the orb, but the orb was not Kyuubi.
It was Naruto's dark inner self.
This was the last step of the journey to Naruto's heart. Kakashi couldn't reach it with words now, because Naruto had shut himself way too dep. In that case, the only thing left to do was to reach it mentally.
"That's it! You don't want to fight me seriously? All right then, let's see what you can do with that! Tajuu, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" The dark Naruto seethed.
A large number of clones appeared and encircled Kakashi who felt a bead of sweat slide along his temple.
Oh dear.
As he couldn't humanely avoid the hundreds of blows that Yami Naruto's clones were throwing at him at the same time, Kakashi made extremely rapid signs with his hands and shouted:
"Raiton, Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
Four copies of himself appeared around him. They were sourrounded by lightning, creating a true barrier of light, like blazing archangels coming from the heavens. Under the real Kakashi's orders, they charged the Yami Narutos with incredible speed. They fought fiercely in a clash of thunder and kunais, the Yami Narutos disappearing in poofs of smoke, the lightning Kakashis vanishing and creating powerful, electrical blasts that wiped the last Yami Narutos out. As both of the men had lost all their clones, Kakashi prepared himself, expecting Yami Naruto to summon more shadow clones. Yet the man surprised him again.
"Fuuton, Reppushou!"
The air screamed as an enormous ball of wind appeared in front of Yami Naruto's anger-distorted face before darting right towards Kakashi who didn't lose a second.
"Doton! Doryuu Heki!"
The immense mudwall sprung out once again from the ground and came to stand before Kakashi. The giant windball hit the wall with full force, ripping out some parts of hard mud that crumbled and fell on Kakashi who threw himself on the ground and protected his head with his arms. When the wall stabilized itself, he pushed the ground with his hands and stood up.
"Raiton, Kaminari no Ookami !"
From the silver-haired man's extended hand sprung out a magnificient, blazing wolf crackling with blinding bolts. Just before the animal threw himself on the wall, Kakashi used the underground hiding jutsu to protect himself as the wall blew up in a fantastic explosion. When he returned to the surface, Yami Naruto had been cast to the ground by the destruction of the wall. A rock had apparently hit him pretty hard on the face, as his left cheek had a trail of blood, making Kakashi's heart clench.
Focus, damn it.
He had to keep telling himself that to avoid making mistakes. Yami Naruto was particularly aggressive, and he was absolutely determined to kill Kakashi. Even though the man was Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Ninja of Konoha, Yami Naruto had a tremendous amount of chakra and Kakashi was actually starting to have trouble recovering his breath.
Taking advantage of the fact that Yami Naruto was apparently having trouble recovering from the explosion, Kakashi darted forward and dispatched his wires to immobilize him and put his plan into execution. Unfortunately, the dark Naruto's reserves of chakra were far from being empty, and before Kakashi had time to tackle him on the ground and force him to look into his Sharingan, the young man had backflipped and landed on his feet with a grim smirk twisting his face.
"Not bad. But what do you say about this, sensei?"
He crossed his hands and made several signs.
"Fuuton, Kaze no Yaiba!"
A sword of wind appeared in Naruto's hand and the young man darted towards Kakashi with a feral scream. Kakashi took several steps backwards and quickly made signs as Naruto swung the huge sword over his head and prepared to crash it on the jounin.
"Katon, Taiyou no Kenbu!" the silver-haired man shouted.
His arms burst into flames as they took the shape of two curved, fiery sabres which he raised above his head to parry the windsword. The impact was powerful and Kakashi had to dispatch chakra in his feet to dig them in the ground. He groaned and winced as the windsword was still crashed on the fire sabers, but as the fire was stronger against the wind, he managed to repel Naruto with a strong impulse of his arms. Both men engaged in a fierce fencing, fire clashing against wind. Yami Naruto was maneuvering the huge windsword as fast as he could, repelling Kakashi's fire sabers and using its blunt force to destabilize him and make him stagger backwards. Yet Kakashi was a master in the art of the blades, and his agility allowed him to imprison Yami Naruto in an illusion of fire which was enhanced by the power of the wind. Soon, he moved so fast that he succeeded in tricking Yami Naruto into thinking he was in front of him when he was really behind him. There, he kicked the back of the young man's knees to make him fall on the ground, and he took advantage of that short time during which Yami Naruto was slightly disoriented to whirl on himself and give such an impulsion to his sabers that they came to spin over his head in an impressive column of fire. He prepared himself to strike the blonde-haired boy, when he had a moment of hesitation which made him lose his balance and stagger slightly.
Yet that was what Yami Naruto was waiting for.
He recovered his spirits and leapt like a jaguar on Kakashi, crashing his fist deep in the silver-haired man's stomach, making the latter spit blood into his mask as he was thrown backwards by the force of the impact. He fell hard on his back and his sabers disappeared. Hearing a rageous scream and feeling his hair fly in every direction, Kakashi gasped and rolled on his side as Naruto's windsword crashed on the spot his head had been just a few moments earlier. As he couldn't breathe anymore because of the blow Naruto had just given him, Kakashi crossed his hands hastily and managed to pronounce the kawarimi formula. As Yami Naruto was charging him again, he disappeared, replaced by a wooden log.
The combat went on, and Kakashi grew more and more desperate. Everytime he succeeded in determining where the real Yami Naruto was, he tried to find an opening that would allow him to immobilize him long enough to hypnotize him, but the man was way too fast and unpredictable when he didn't disappear among his clones. Kakashi tried several times to bind him with his wires, but the blonde seemed to be an expert at avoiding them. However, as they kept fighting, Kakashi realized that Yami Naruto was losing focus. In addition to the fact that he, too, was losing chakra, his exponential anger at seeing Kakashi restrain his blows had the effect of multiplying the strength of his own on the one hand, and push him into making mistakes on the other hand.
Yet Kakashi's chakra kept falling.
Kakashi felt that Yami Naruto too was losing his strength, and he realized that the crucial moment was coming nearer, as the number of spawning clones was decreasing steadily after disappearing. Wincing in pain, backflipping, crouching, blocking, repelling Yami Naruto with chakra blasts, Kakashi's state was worsening rapidly. Yami Naruto was extremely fast, and the silver-haired man had more and more trouble avoiding some of his hits. As a result, the dark-eyed blonde succeeded in aiming particularly vicious kicks at Kakashi's ribs, as well as a violent blow on his nose. From the pain, the noise and the blood that started dripping in Kakashi's mouth, making him cough, the jounin deduced his nose had just got broken.
After what seemed hours to Kakashi, only one Yami Naruto remained. Both of them had stranded away from the battlefield, fighting through the woods, leaping from tree to tree, ripping the trunks apart and smashing the ground. The sky had filled with dark, heavy clouds, and the air had filled with the scent of the upcoming Naruto wouldn't spawn any more clones, and Kakashi wondered whether they had all disappeared from the clearing where his friends had been fighting. As they bursted out of the forest, Kakashi sent a violent kick at Yami Naruto's chest, sending him fly backwards and roll on the river bank.
There, both men remained still.
Kakashi was still standing at the edge of the forest. Panting, breathing with difficulty because of his broken nose, his forehead protector had been replaced by a large, bleeding gash on his forehead as Yami Naruto had crashed his fist on it and crushed the metal to pieces. His hair was falling before his tired eyes, damp with sweat and blood, and he could tell from the sharp pain on his side that he had at least three broken ribs. His mask was almost ripped off, and it still covered Kakashi's nose and mouth thanks to a tiny string of fabric. His shirt was also torn apart, showing his muscular, pale chest which was moving up and down as Kakashi was trying to recover his breath.
A drop of rain fell on Kakashi's face and slid down his cheek like a tear.
Yami Naruto remained on the ground for a little moment, his cheek pressed against the damp grass. His lip was cut open, as well of his left brow ridge which was bleeding abundantly, covering half of his face with sticky red liquid. As he heard Kakashi approaching, he growled and pushed on his hands so he could kneel. He cast a heinous, murderous look at the silver-haired man.
More drops of rain fell down, creating ripples in the calm river.
When he finally got on his feet, Yami Naruto wiped the blood off his face and spit on the ground before bearing his teeth.
"This is where it all ends, Kakashi. This is where I kill you."
"No. This is where I get you back, Naruto." Kakashi said with a soft voice.
On these words, the sky tore open, and a fantastic lightning bolt irradiated the clouds, casting its light on the two men's exhausted faces. Naruto threw himself back at Kakashi with a rageous scream, and both men, knowing these were their last forces, fought with the energy of despair. Kakashi knew he was running out of time. He could feel his chakra falling steadily. He knew he had to act fast, or he would die without recovering the real Naruto.
The rain started pouring harder as the two men kept exchanging powerful blows, moving around each other as though they were dancing under the thunder. They fell in the river, stood up, hit, fell again, growled, spat and coughed. Nothing else in the world existed to these two men's eyes but the other. The lightning crashed on the earth, illuminating their wet, exhausted faces, making Yami Naruto's hollow eyes blaze with hatred and anger, and Kakashi's mismatched pupils shine with dread as he felt that Naruto was fading further away before a creature of irrespressible savagery. As Kakashi was blocking his violent, relentless blows, he could see every inch of Naruto's usually kindly and loving face now awfully distorted in a demonic mask of pure malevolence, defiled with blood and mud.
He was running out of time.
In sheer desperation, as he couldn't seem to find any opening, Kakashi crashed his fist on Naruto's face, yelling under the storm.
"I won't lose you, Naruto! I know you're in there, damn it, and I won't let you destroy who you are, you hear me?!"
As Yami Naruto fell backwards in the water, Kakashi jumped on him and straddled him, crashing his fist on his nose and yelling again, all his body shaking under the rage and fear to lose one of the most important pieces that kept his life together.
"I won't let you destroy everything you and I believe in!"
He hit him again.
"I won't let you disappear, you hear me?! I can't let you disappear!"
His fist crashed again in Yami Naruto's jaw.
"I will bring you back even if it's the last thing I do! I will bring you back! I will bring you back!" Kakashi screamed, striking him again and again.
Yami Naruto spluttered blood which came to smear Kakashi's hands. Hating himself at the sight of Naruto's bloody and bruised face, Kakashi grabbed what remained of the blonde's shirt and raised him up so their noses practically bumped into each other.
"Now look at me for heaven's sake!" He yelled.
"Fuck you!" Yami Naruto shrieked as he crashed his forehead against Kakashi's nose. The silver-haired man yelped under the horrible pain that irradiated through his already broken nose, and he fell back in the water while Yami Naruto, spitting a broken tooth, stood up and let out a demonic, insane laugh, his eyes flaring in the storm.
"You have already lost him, Kakashi, can't you see?! You have lost! The Naruto you used to know doesn't exist anymore. He died and can never come back, I killed him when I took his body over, and you know it deep down."
Kakashi felt his heart tighten painfully at these words. Yami Naruto had read Kakashi's thoughts, and he had well understood what the silver-haired man was dreading the most. Kakashi growled and attacked him with his kunai.
"Shut the hell up!" he roared, jumping on his feet and charging Naruto with a kunai.
Yami Naruto blocked Kakashi's kunai with his own by raising his hands over his head, and both the men found themselves nose to nose, dripping with water, panting under the heavy rain. Yet before Kakashi had time to open his Sharingan and use it, Yami Naruto repelled him violently wih a kick in his stomach. He then whirled on himself to give impulse to a murderous stroke, diving his kunai straight to Kakashi's throat, who rolled on himself just in time. Yet Yami Naruto had a sudden resurge of anger, and as Kakashi stood up on his feet, he snarled and bore his teeth, his eyes inflamed with impossible hate. He lunged back at Kakashi's throat but the man repelled his kunai with his arms and aimed a violent kick at Yami Naruto's chest. The blonde avoided it and spinned on himself, casting his leg into the air to reach Kakashi's head who stepped backwards to avoid it, but Yami Naruto was too fast. As Kakashi staggered backwards, Naruto pummeled him with rapid, precise strokes, hitting specific points in Kakashi's body, not leaving him a single second to retaliate. Soon, the man soon found himself down on the ground, the rain pouring hard on his face, spitting and coughing blood.
There, as a deafening thunderbolt illuminated the hellish sky, Naruto straddled Kakashi and raised his hand high in the air.
"It's over, Kakashi. I win. Oodama Rasengan!"
Kakashi remained there lying under him, his face covered in bloody cuts. His bare, muscled chest was rising and falling as he was panting. His good eye was surrounded by a bluish bruise. The giant, dark and blood-red orb appeared in Yami Naruto's hand, and the blonde grabbed what was left of Kakashi's shirt, diving his murderous eyes into the grey one, ready to strike.
I'm going to die.
It was an absolute certainty. For the first time of his life, Kakashi knew for sure his life had finally come to an end.
Knowing he had nothing to lose, Kakashi raised a hand towards Yami Naruto's face and gently, slowly, he caressed it, with all the tenderness he could muster.
"Naruto-kun…" he whispered in a gargling breath as his mouth was filled with blood.
Naruto kept his hand in the air, the whirling orb ready to dive right into Kakashi's heart.
Kakashi!
The rain kept pouring hard on them, drenching them, harassing them, and the thunder kept rolling in the sky, tearing the clouds apart in fantastic spurts of golden light. Kakashi was defeated, at Yami Naruto's entire mercy.
Yet the dark-eyed boy didn't move a muscle.
Kakashi!
Something deep, way deep within his heart seemed to be screaming.
No, not Kakashi!
Something was stopping him from killing that man.
Lying on the ground, Kakashi saw the demonic eyes soften.
Within a fraction of time, he saw Naruto, imprisoned behind darkness and blood, screaming so loud it could tear off the fabric of space and time.
When tears appeared in the obscure eyes, Kakashi knew the time had come. Yet he also knew his chakra was almost completely depleted. As a result, that would certainly be his very last action. In sheer desperation, his dark grey eye filling with tears, he raised his other hand and took the whiskered face he cherished so much between his hands.
Before he pronounced the name of the last technique he would ever use, Kakashi let out a broken whisper, coming from the deepest realms of his heart.
"I love you, Uzumaki Naruto, and I shall remind you how much, may it be the last thing I ever do."
He opened his Sharingan, and murmured:
"Mangekyô… Sharingan."
