CHAPTER 28 Old Grudges
Tsunade and Jiraiya in his sage form stood in a crater in the middle of village staring down six pains in their black robes with red clouds.
"You will pay for what you have done to the leaf." Tsunade said
"Turn over the nine tailed jinchuriki and I will leave, and bother you no longer." Pain said
"He isn't here; he is a mercenary he goes where he pleases." Jiraiya called back
"But he is tied to this village and you will call him or he will return to its ashes." Pain replied has he pointed and the mecha pain charged and the two Sanin braced for the attack. Before he got to them there was a flash of yellow light and the mecha pain exploded. The smoke whipped around and once it dissipated there stood Naruto in his full sage form wearing a long black trench coat with reddish orange flames around the bottom.
"You two alright?" Naruto asked over his shoulder as Sakura appeared next to them.
"You ok shisho?" Sakura asked as she appeared next to Tsunade.
"Sakura? Fox?" Tsunade asked in shock "How did you get here?"
"Flying thunder god I put a seal on the old perv when I first learned it." Naruto said "Knew I would have to bail him out sooner or later."
"Oh didn't think you cared." Jiraiya said with a smirk
"Thought I would have to use it sooner, to bail you out of a whore house, a bath or something." Naruto replied. "You guys get out of here I'll deal with them."
"Alright, but here take Katsuyu." Tsunade said as she slid a small slug into the pocket of his trench coat, then she and Jiraiya jumped away.
"That means you as well Sakura." Naruto said
"I'm not leaving you to fight them alone." Sakura said "Just try and make me." she said with a sly grin toward him.
"Vixens always such a pain in the tails." Kuza said as he stepped out of Naruto's shadow along with Kira.
"Can't be as much of a pain as traveling through the shadows like that." Kira said
"Try that instant transmission thing, feel like I'm going to hurl every time he does it." Sakura said
"I knew you would come." Pain said
"Well here I am and already taken down one of your lackeys." Naruto said "You can't be as tough as everyone claims you are." But as he said that one of the other pains went through some hand signs and a massive face appeared and the pain Naruto had just destroyed walked out of its mouth.
"You cannot destroy pain, no matter how many times you send us away we will just return." The main Pain said.
"Oh really?" Naruto asked as he disappeared in a flash and reappeared behind the pain that was just revived. He then smashed a black ball into it destroying it immediately, then swung around with another black ball in his hand toward the pain that resurrected the pain he just destroyed again. Before he could make contact another pain jumped in the way and took the hit and began to absorb the attack.
"He will absorb any chakra you use." Pain said
"Well let's if his limit is as much as mine." Naruto said with a smirk as the bijuu dama grew even more enveloping the pain that took the hit and then was absorbed by its body as Naruto jumped back.
"See he can…" Pain began but an explosion ripped the other pain apart. "But how?"
"Simple I threw some paper bombs on him before I jumped away." Naruto replied
"Well this gets us nowhere." Pain said as the resurrection Pain went through hand signs again and the face appeared.
"Keep setting them up I'll just keep knocking them down." Naruto said as he got into a fighting stance.
"Oh no I can see bringing them back would only result in the same outcome." Pain said
"Good to see you're smarter than you look." Naruto said
"But with the power you gave me I can go further back." Pain said as two people walked out of the mouth. "Two people who know the fox's power better than anyone."
Naruto stood there in shock looking at an older version of himself with only blond hair and a woman with red hair standing next to him.
"What's going on?" the man said as Pain appeared the two of them and placed his hand on them and they both let out a small grown of pain.
"The hell was that?!" the red head said as she swung around and tried to swing but couldn't.
"Don't bother Kushina-chan." The blond said as he stared at Naruto. "That was a control seal."
"But Minato-kun what is going on?" Kushina asked
"How long has it been?" Minato asked
"Sixteen years almost seventeen." Naruto replied
"Naruto-kun you know them?" Sakura asked as the Kushina looked at him with shocked eyes.
"Wait, Naruto?" Kushina asked "Our… but why does he look like that?" she asked looking at his fox like characteristics.
"Looks like some sort of sage form." Minato said
"Correct." Naruto said "I'm the fox sage."
"What is going on, who are they?" Sakura asked just to get Naruto to point up at the fourth Hokage's face on the Cliffside and Sakura's eyes bulged in shock.
"These are my parents." Naruto said. "Now Pain why would you bring these two back?"
"Because he has already defeated the fox once, and she held it inside her." Pain said
"Hey there is something else we have in common." The fox said in a joking manner
'Not now fox.' Naruto said as a shiver of disgust went through his body.
"And you will have trouble fighting your own parents." Pain said
"And how did you know they were my parents?" Naruto asked
"You have your spies and I have mine." Pain said "and I looked at a side by side picture."
"That will do it." Naruto shrugged. "But you picked the wrong person to go up against me." he said with a smirk
"And why is that?" Pain asked
"I've been wanting to beat the shit out of this guy since I found out he sealed the damn fox in me. So I will thank you for letting me get out this pent up anger." Naruto said as he vanished and reappeared behind Kushina and kicked her straight at Sakura then turned and swung at Minato who also vanished.
"That is no way to treat your mother." Minato said as he reappeared holding Kushina in his arms, then set her down.
"Well you guys were brought back to fight me." Naruto said "And I like taking the first shot."
"Before I deal with you I have one thing to take care of first." Naruto said as he melted into his own shadow. Then appeared behind the Pain that resurrected his parents and ripped it apart with his claws. Just then pain with long hair lunged at him but was launched to the side as Kuza hit it and tore it apart with his teeth and tails.
"Well let's get this started then thought I was the one you wanted to fight." Minato said as he pulled out a bunch of his tri-pronged kunai and threw them all over the area.
"Just wanted to be sure he wouldn't bring back any of his friends." Naruto said as Minato vanished. "Hey Sakura-chan will you deal with my mother while I deal with him."
"What ah yeah sure." Sakura said a bit shocked and confused as he vanished and she turned toward the red head.
"He knows the flying thunder god?" Kushina asked as she got into a fighting stance.
"Yeah he is really good." Sakura said as Kushina charged and swung at her, but it was dodged.
"Well the way you two were talking, you two are an item then?" Kushina asked in a teasing tone getting Sakura to blush.
"Well ah." Sakura began but couldn't say anything from the embarrassment as she blocks another attack from the fiery red head.
"Well guess that answers that." Kushina said with a smile. "Well put everything you have into this I won't let my little Naruto be with someone who can't fight."
"Well I was trained by lady Tsunade." Sakura said as she swung down at Kushina but hit the ground causing a massive crater around herself.
"Wow only seen that kind of strength from Lady Tsunade, you are her student." Kushina said as she continued her attack. "That type of strength is legendary, but so is the demon known as the red hot-blooded habanero." She said with a smirk as her hair began to rise behind her like tails and her face became shadowed over.
"Well looks like we may have stepped in over our heads." Inner said "But we can't let up in this fight, this is his mother even though she has just been resurrected, it would be good to get her blessing on our relationship. So we can't let her see us as weak."
Naruto and his father were clashing at high speeds that no one could follow. They then came out of their battle out of breath.
"Well you've definitely perfected the flying thunder god if you can even use my seals." Minato said.
"I had your notes to master it." Naruto said with a smirk.
"Well too bad you don't know that once a seal is placed it is there forever." Minato said as he vanished.
"May not have been in your notes but I do know that." Naruto said with a smirk as he swung around and swung his fist punching his father in the gut. "But I can sense them and known about the one on my back since I learned the technique." He said with a smile as chains burst from his arm and wrapped around Minato.
"Ah looks like you got me?" Minato said with a chuckle "Beaten by my own technique."
"Don't worry about trying to use the flying thunder god the chains have sealed that. Now to take back what you took from my little friend." Naruto said as he put his hand on Minato's head then looked over to Sakura and Kushina as they were jumping around dodging and throwing blows at each other. "How you holding up over there?" Naruto called to her
"Oh just fine." she called back sarcastically as she barely dodged another attack from Kushina "But help wouldn't be turned down."
"Just give me a minute." Naruto said as yellowish orange chakra began to engulf Minato and flow into Naruto.
"Minato!" Kushina called as she looked over and saw what was going on but that left her open to Sakura's attack as she caught a fist to the side of the face sending her skipping across the ground and landed next to Minato and Naruto knocked out.
Once the chakra finished flowing from Minato to Naruto, Minato slumped over breathing heavily. "The hell did you do?" Minato asked huffing.
"Took back the other half of the fox's chakra." Naruto said as he then placed his hand where the seal Pain had placed on him was and removed it knocking out the Fourth. He then took a knee and did the same to his mother, as Sakura landed next to them.
"What did you do to them." Sakura asked
"Just removed the control seals." Naruto said "Now take them out of here. I'll deal with these two alone."
"What no. I told you I'm here to help you." Sakura said as she stood next to him.
"Well then time to finish this." Pain said as the female pain went through some hand signs and a massive rhino appeared and charged at the pair.
"I got this." Sakura said as she bit her thumb and went through some hand signs. "Summoning jutsu!" she called out but nothing happened. "What?" she asked in shock, just then Kira jumped in front of her and a beam of white light came from her mouth and engulfed the rhino and it vanished. They looked down at the small white fox.
"You're a light?" Kuza said in shock
"I don't want to talk about it." Kira said
"She is right leave it to another time, now you two get out of here." Naruto said looking at Kira and Sakura "And take them with you." He said gesturing toward his parents.
"Right." Sakura said giving in to the order and picked up Kushina while Kira put Minato on her back with one of her tails and they jumped away.
"You too Kuza." Naruto said
"With all do respect, but go to hell." Kuza replied as he stood next to Naruto "I've stood with you up to this point and I ain't backing down now."
"No I need you to watch over Sakura." Naruto said not taking his eyes off Pain.
"She will be fine with Kira." Kuza said
"Oh really you have that much trust in her?" Naruto asked in a teasing tone.
"We are facing the leader of the group that is hunting you and you want to tease me about vixens?" Kuza asked in an annoyed tone
"Fine but this ain't over." Naruto said as he got into a fighting stance. Naruto then lunged at the pair of pains as they did the same. At the last second Naruto drew the swords on his hips and they clashed with the two pains black rods.
"Kuza!" Naruto yelled as he pushed away from them and Kuza's tails came out of the summoning Pains shadow and wrapped around it's body and dragged it into the shadows.
"Looks like it's just you and me." Naruto said staring down the pain
"Where did you take her?" Pain asked
"Oh her? Don't worry about her, Kuza is having fun with her in the shadow realm." Naruto said
"The what?" Pain asked
"Just the place where shadows are darkest, drives most people mad." Naruto said "But you're not people are you?" he asked getting a shocked look from Pain who lunged at him.
"What are you talking about?" Pain asked as their weapons clashed.
"You reek of death," Naruto said "You're just a puppet having your strings pulled from another place were the real enemy is." He said with a smirk as he pushed away from Naruto
"Well to bad you will never find out." Pain said "almighty…" he began as he raised his hand but it was too late as a black ball hurtled through the air and hit him in the chest and exploded destroying his entire body.
"To slow on the draw there." Naruto said as Kuza walked out of his shadow. "You find the puppet master?"
"Yes I found the energy source, and I can take you there." Kuza said as they stepped into the shadow and disappeared.
Sakura landed next to Tsunade and Jiraiya and set down Kushina's body to get a shocked look from Jiraiya.
"How is this possible where did you find her?" Jiraiya asked
"What who is she?" Tsunade asked
"She is…" he began but stopped dead as he saw who the white fox had brought with her. "Impossible." He said as Tsunade also got a look of shock from seeing the recognizable Fourth Hokage.
"But how?" Tsunade asked stuttering
"Pain used some sort of jutsu to bring them back to life." Sakura replied
"Like Orochimaru's reincarnation jutsu?" Tsunade asked
"No those are dead bodies whose souls were sacrificed, and then possessed by a lost soul." Jiraiya said as he went to the bodies "These are living breathing bodies." He said as he checked their pulses.
"Well, all I know is they are Naruto's parents." Sakura said as Kira walked up next to her.
"Um Sakura who is that?" Tsunade asked "It looks like the fox that follows Naruto but white."
"Oh this is Kira she and yes she is a summoning fox like Kuza." Sakura said
"So you're a fox summoner now?" Tsunade asked
"No I still have the contract with the slugs," Sakrua began but stopped "But for some reason it didn't work down there."
"That is because you have been marked by the foxes." Came Katsuyu's voice said from Jiraya's shoulder
"Fox mark?" Tsunade asked getting Sakura to blush
"Yeah, Naruto marked me as his… mate." Sakura suttered
"Mate?" Jiraiya said in his peevish voice and smile "And what had to happen for that?"
"Nothing I'm telling you." Sakura said
"Once you were marked you were taken off the slug summoning contract." Katsuyu said
"But" Sakura tried to protest in shock
"Don't worry I'm sure we can get you on the fox summoning contract." Kira said "But only if I am you partner."
"You're only saying that because you want an excuse to be around Kuza." Sakura teased
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Kira replied sticking up her nose.
"Who are you talking to?" Tsunade asked
"Oh Kira." Sakura said gesturing to the white fox. "It's one of the side effects of the fox seal I can understand foxes."
"Well, I need you to go around the village and help out where you can." Tsunade said "We will take care of these two." She said gesturing to the fourth and his wife.
"Right." Sakura said then turned to Kira "Well if we are going to be partners might as well get some practice working together."
"Right." Kira said as they jumped off into what remained of the village. After finding most people with minor injuries, that was when she came across a collapsed building she recognized. It was her parents' home once she got closer she saw her father bent over the lifeless body of her mother.
"Dad!" Sakrua called out as she landed next to him getting him to look up at her in shock
"Sakrua? You're home." Her father said in a shocked tone as she kneeled next to her mother and began to check her over, but quickly assessed she was already dead. "You have to save her."
"I'm sorry dad she is already gone." Sakura said as she pulled her hands away as the tears began to fall.
"No, no it can't be." Kizashi said as tears began to fall from his own eyes "Why, why did this happen? What does that guy want, to do something like this?"
"Naruto." Sakura said "He wants Naruto-kun and the nine tails."
"That damn demon, nothing good comes from him. He can have him." Kizashi spat but then felt something grab his collar and begin to choke him
"Don't ever talk like that about Naruto." Sakura said getting her father to look down at her. But instead of the usual emerald eyes of her daughter he saw the red demonic eyes of the fox. "He never wanted any of this."
"What has he done to you?" Kizashi asked in shock "You're not my daughter. You're a monster like him." At this Sakura dropped him and he began to gasp for air as she stared at him in shock.
"Get away from my wife." He yelled at her and tried to push her away
A blue haired woman walked up to a man with red hair in a machine who looked very weak.
"Nagato we need leave. Before he gets here." The blue haired woman said
"Luuuuucy I'm home." Came Naruto's voice making the blue haired woman swing around to see the mercenary walk out of the shadows with a black fox at his heel.
"You won't get near him." The blue haired woman said
"Step away Konan." Nagato said getting her to look back at him in confusion. "I wish to speak to him. *cough*" he says coughing upo some blood.
"Very well." Konan said stepping aside.
"So then we finally meet, fox." Nagato said as Naruto walked up to him.
"So we do." Naruto said
"Well you can end me now if you like there is nothing that can stop you." Nagato said
"Well that girl over there might have something to say about that." Naruto said gesturing over to Konan. "But no I'm not going to kill you, even though I should."
"Why not I've done more than enough to you too warrant it." Nagato said
"Yes you have attacked the other jinchuriki that I call family." Naruto said "And then attacking the home of the woman I love. But I would rather talk right now because you ain't long for this world now are you?"
*cough* "No I am not." Nagato replied coughing up blood.
"So there is no point in killing you just yet." Naruto said "What I want to know is why you're doing this. I already know that guy in the mask is pulling the strings. What I want to know is why you let him do that, with this ability I'm sure you could have ruled the hidden rain with ease why hunt down me and the other tailed beasts down?"
"For the power to stop all war and suffering." Nagato said
"How?" Naruto asked
"Only through pain can people truly understand each other, so by causing as much pain as possible they will look past their difference and come together to help each other through them, and focus on the source of that pain me." Nagato said getting Naruto to shake his head.
"No you fool." Naruto said getting Nagato to look at him in confusion "Yes they may focus on the cause of that pain to begin with, trust me I know what it's like to have a group focus their hatred on a single thing. However what happens when you're gone?" he asked looking at the a confused Nagato "Once the focus of their hatred and pain is gone they will start back on each other once again. No longer having something to focus their pain and anger on they will look to something else for an outlet. Like I don't know maybe causing pain to someone else to relieve their own?" at this Nagato started to listen more intently "Then whoever they cause pain to will need to find an out let, and it is just an endless cycle. I know that cycle all too well. When I left the leaf I had no direction and hated the village for what they did. I tried to run from it made friends and forgotten about it. Until I returned and the hate was still there buried so I became a merc, inflicting pain as much as possible when given the chance. It may have quilled my hatred for a time but it always came back. Then I finally came back to this village and found out the one I thought caused me so much pain was only trying to help me. It gave me a new outlook and I began to let it go and now I no longer feel that hate anymore."
"So by causing all this pain I will only cause it to radiate out from here and make it even worse." Nagato said as he lowered his head guilt "I'm sorry."
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." Naruto said
"Right." Nagato sighed "Here I may not be able to take back what I did to this village but I can take back some of the pain I caused." He said as the resurrection face appeared again and opened its mouth.
"Nagato no you'll die." Konan cried
"It is my punishment for all the pain and hatred I've caused." Nagato said to her then turned back to Naruto "I have returned all the life that I have taken this day. Maybe one day we will truly be able to let go of those chains of hate."
"Until then I'll be there to take down the ones that forge them." Naruto said with a smirk "For a price of course."
Sakura sat there watching her father cry over her mother's body in shock at what her father had just said. Just then her mother began to stir.
"What?" came her mother's voice as her eyes opened getting the two of them to look down at her in shock.
"MOM!" Sakura called out in shock
"Honey." Kizashi cried as he hugged her.
"What happened?" Mebuki asked
"You died, but it's a miracle you're back." Kizashi cried still hugging her.
"It was Naruto." Came Katsuyu's voice from Kizashi's shoulder.
"What?" Kizashi asked in shock "The demon."
"Yes he defeated Pain then found their leader and convinced him to give up and return the lives he took." Katsuyu explained then went on to tell them what he did starting from when Sakura left him.
Kizashi stared at the slug in disbelief, at what he heard then looked at his daughter. "I'm sorry." He said getting Sakura to look up at him in shock. "I misjudged him."
"A lot of people do that." Sakura said putting her hand on his shoulder "But he is really a great guy once you get to know him, like I have."
"And you love him don't you?" Kizashi said getting Sakura to look at him in shock and then she looked away in a deep blush. "I'lll take that as a yes."
"Yes. I do." Sakura said "He may be rough around the edges but he is really nice when he wants to be."
"Well I suppose I can start to look past his past." Kizashi said getting Sakura to smile and hug him.
Naruto was heading back to the village followed closely by Kuza.
"Well didn't know you had it in you." Kuza said
"Had what?" Naruto asked
"You could speak from the heart like that." Kuza said "I think there were even tears." He said with a chuckle.
"Yeah and if you ever mention that to anyone I'll throw you so far into the shadows even you won't be able to get out." Naruto said as they were approaching the village gates.
"Wait I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about that." Came Katsuyu's voice from Naruto's pocket.
"What?!" Naruto said in shock as he came into the village and saw the entire village waiting for him "Stay away!" He yelled as they swarmed and picked him up and began to throw him up in the air in celebration.
"Put me down, I swear I will burn this place to the ground. Slaughter you." Naruto yelled along with other insults, as Kuza sat there laughing at his master's situation.
END CHAPTER 28