Taming the Beast
To Sasuke, it seemed the only sound for miles was his breath catching in his throat as he ran over dry, hot sand. Rumbles of the far-away fight echoed through the dunes, but fell upon deaf ears.
The war continued to rage.
All the while, Sasuke ran. He thought of Naruto. He thought of Madara. He thought of the Brotherhood and Norio, and how both wars were ripping apart the country. Men now watched ninja through wary eyes, spawned horrific tales of Naruto's Jinchuuriki powers and its evils around campfires. New rivalries were taking foot, and Madara continued to plan a grand scheme for a bitter and equal world.
And despite this fearsome evil, the world stood divided, despite this new storm that threatened to blow away both ways of life until all that remained of the world were easily forgotten memories.
Sasuke remembered, back when he was Akira, how Norio had pulled him aside one night, before his induction into the newly formed Brotherhood.
"You know who you're fighting for, right kid? You know why this is right?"
And Sasuke had remembered nodding, remembered saying I want in. And Norio had smiled like a cat with a mouse in its teeth, and led Sasuke into the tent, where he pledged loyalty in front of tired men keeping themselves walking with only a burning hatred for the ninja arts.
Are you prepared to fight for our world?
Yes, Sasuke had answered.
Are you willing to kill the enemy, no matter his face, for the lives of the ones you love?
Yes.
Sasuke skidded to a halt and quickly bounded into another direction as sand came barreling down a dune towards him; evidence of the fighting that pestered the surrounding landscape.
Are you willing to place your faith in us, fight for us, and call us your brothers?
Yes.
And so the Brotherhood began.
The weapons came from an engineer Norio had befriended back in a small village Sasuke could no longer remember the name of. 'Waterfall' or something similar. The old engineer was a brilliantly sharp man; a man who had been scarred by the strife of the war. He had been secretly working on the weapons to protect himself and his seven year old daughter, Miki, his now only living relative. His wife and three other children had been murdered the previous year during a raid.
"I'm not going to stand here like a fool and let them kill me!" Sasuke remembered the engineer saying as he blasted the first real shot of the prototype he'd made.
The engineer had been left to wander, alone in his bleak solitude as he cowered in the shadows of his closet and covered his crying daughter's ears at night to shield her from the sounds of the Akatsuki. They had been living in a war-torn village claimed by the enemy. No way in, no way out. Then Norio and Sasuke had discovered him, rescued him, the Brothers had brought up the resistance. The engineer had lived to tell the tale of the day he'd seen his family's murderers slain by his own hands.
Sasuke respected the engineer, and knew his pain. He remembered his vows to the Brotherhood. The end of his ceremony. The men saying we are pleased to call you our brother. And the old engineer had been there, smiling as he said the words.
A strange hollowness seemed to drill a hole in his chest. Each word he'd vowed to the Brotherhood felt burned into Sasuke's heart for the sake of the Yamagatas. Now, however, a new name also branded his thoughts, fixing his mind with another purpose.
Naruto.
Sasuke could see the engineer and his tent up ahead. He was loading a wagon with more weapons and ammunition to bring to the men. Under the bright heat, the distance rippled and shimmered, distorting the engineer's shape. As he unloaded more guns into the wagon, he looked up, shielding his eyes from the relentless sun as he peered out across the sand to make out the figure fast approaching.
Sasuke stopped running, coming to a grinding halt, his sword glinting in the sun as he embedded it in the sand. The engineer waved. It was a cheerful gesture, an unwitting one. He didn't see the danger.
Sasuke respected the engineer. From the distance, he was grateful that he could not see the engineer's face. The seals came quickly, and Sasuke didn't dare to think as he hand shot out to touch the handle of his sword. He only acted. He liked to think that the engineer, if in Sasuke's position, would have done the exact same thing if it had been Miki in Naruto's position. He, too, would have taken out the one thing the enemy had that could have hurt her, killed her.
The sword pulsed, and a ripple shot through the sand, darting towards the tent and wagon like a snake. It was better this way. The engineer's quarters sagged in the middle of the desert, not too close to Norio's camp in order to avoid any possible link. The weapons were precious to Norio, and he felt it unwise should word break out, for the engineer to make camp along with him. Any men in the area were broken off from the rest.
It would be awhile before the others realized what had happened if no one was left standing, and by then, it would already be over.
Sasuke turned, the wagon and tent going up in flames with a bang the instant he looked away. He could feel a rush of blistering heat as it hissed past his cheek, raking fire-hot, vengeful fingers through his mussed black hair. He relished the burn.
It felt like repentance.
The pass wasn't far now. He calculated that he had only had about seven more miles, and by these calculations, he should reach it before the Sand caravan, which held his precious cargo. He had only ran about three more miles, with no thoughts to occupy him but the whisper of a name that coursed through his mind, when he saw it. In the distance, stark against the brightness and heat, A shadow, cloaked in black, stood eerily still. Sasuke skidded to a stop and his heart jumped into his throat.
Before him, stoic as a statue, and just as dead as one, was none other than Itachi Uchiha, his own brother, believed deceased.
Was deceased.
Numb, but nonetheless wary, Sasuke stared into the paper-white face of his brother. To see Itachi defiled, violated, his body used against his spirit's will, infuriated him and washed out the rest of the world for a moment. The corpse lifted his face towards Sasuke, eerily locked on his form.
There were no eyes, Sasuke realized with a sick jolt. Nothing but twin black caves of nothingness that promised a soulless jail, an abyssal hell that swallowed hearts whole. This was not his brother. A deep fury licked at his insides.
"You did not answer me."
Sasuke reeled at the sound of the voice, acting quickly, but his fire did not singe its target. Kabuto deftly dodged, and remained untouched. His crystal lenses glinted in the daylight.
"Is this your answer?" Kabuto questioned, looking anything but disappointed. There was no anger; only an unrestrained maniacal glee that split Kabuto's face in two with a wholesome grin. Sasuke's grip tightened on his sword, and his mind whirred with the next possible moves, the most likely escape routes. The Sharingan whirled, pivoting back and forth, trying to decide which was the most imminent threat: The corpse, or the snake. Only one thing was certain when it came to the corpse; without the eyes, genjutsu wasn't needed.
It was the corpse that attacked first.
"Watch them die then. You know, it might have turned out alright if you had only come with me. You'll regret this course of action, Sasuke. I might have let you go after I was done with you and allowed you to be with your unnatural little family. You'll come to me willingly when they're gone and you have nothing left to live for. I will only say one thing: I have the power to destroy Madara Uchiha, and you're passing it up. For a man trying to protect the one Madara wants, I would have thought you wiser." Kabuto vanished, like a mirage that rippled and twisted away under the glare of the sun once one came too close.
The corpse was forming seals and Sasuke had little time to dwell on Kabuto's words, and even with the added senses of the Sharigan, the attack was well calculated and sudden. Sasuke leapt away. His eyes watered as a tongue of flame burned a patch of skin on his cheek. He rolled, starting off at a run once his feet hit the sand at the right angle and he had gained a little momentum. He dodged another fireball, and shot off his own.
Itachi's corpse was fast, but his billowing black sleeve was on fire. The corpse paused, hesitated for some reason. Sharingan swirling, Sasuke quickly scanned his surroundings for the object of Itachi's interest, but found nothing. He had to get away.
This was a diversion, obviously. Kabuto had placed Itachi in front of Sasuke in order to stall, to inflict emotional distress upon his target.
The best option was not to fight, but to flee. It was a loathsome decision, but the scales tipped in Naruto's favor. Sasuke darted away, Sharingan still casting frantic glances about in order to best perceive what would happen next. He detected the subtle wave of power that signaled a jutsu, and he tensed in response, having only a fleeting moment to prepare. A fire technique had been activated, a wall of fire shooting upwards from the sand. The fifteen foot high wave of deadly heat rose to meet Sasuke so suddenly he felt the heat as he reeled back. He guessed what would happen next, and it all happened in an instant.
The wall of fire rushed forth with blinding speed. With a crackle and flare, Sasuke conjured up his own fire. In a great, blazing ball of heat and great force, the fire encompassed him. Spinning the ball of fire around his entire body with just enough force, he managed to pass through the burning wall. He gritted his teeth against the burn. It was in this moment, while engulfed by flame, that Sasuke made his move. He had a plan, and he was relying on the theory that the corpse could only detect initial sensations and movement.
Free from the fire, the gasp that threatened to leave his mouth once he gulped for air incinerated on his lips, no sound but a frantic whoosh of breath slipping past. It was all the time he had to regain some composure from the deadly heat. The corpse was on him in an instant, drawn to the movement. It had been waiting, and so had Sasuke.
A specter of death, the corpse flew forward, unleashing shuriken, which were sidestepped and deflected. Sasuke sent another fireball blast towards the corpse, but it easily sliced through it with more fire, leaping through the inferno. Then, cold, dead fingers were wrapped around Sasuke's pale throat with bruising, crushing, strength.
Sasuke vanished once the crimson eyes rolled in the back of his head, and from beneath the shifting soft earth, the real opponent burst through in a tower of falling sand. With a swift swing of his sword, Itachi's head rolled.
Sasuke looked on at the sight bleakly, a heaviness weighing down upon him. The sight of his brother had reopened scabbed over wounds. He had been correct, he thought glumly, but he felt himself hesitate, watching Itachi's corpse crumple into sand. It hadn't been as tricky as he suspected.
He was right to have been wary.
The earth rumbled, and a loud, reverberating boom pierced the stillness of the desert. Sasuke's head snapped to the west, and his stomach dropped, eyes narrowing as they scanned their surroundings.
It was the pass.
The caravan had reached the pass before he had defeated Itachi. Cursing, he bounded forward, realizing that the entire diversion had been carefully planted. There was such simplicity to the corpse's movements, that Sasuke had been forced to think more deeply, to expect and believe more; but that had been the trick, hadn't it? It had done its job and stalled him for the right amount of time. Cursing again, heart pumping a mile a minute, Sasuke raced across the sand, eyes open and searching for any possible trouble along the way.
He saw nothing.
The canyon pass came into view. A mushroom cloud of smoke and sand slowly sank back down to earth. He ran, jumping over rubble, pushing past juts of rock that had been blasted from the canyon walls and mounds of displaced sand. A mile ahead, the caravan lay in ruin, crushed and blown away. Norio had gone to great lengths to ensure that the caravan would be destroyed. It was like torching a spider after stepping on it. Using the canyon on the alternative route, Norio had upped his chances of actually killing someone important with a blast and a rock slide to follow.
Again, Sasuke didn't trust his thoughts, and carefully tuned them out, trying to ignore a rush of cold panic. He approached the ruin. Bodies lay strewn about the rock, pools of dark blood seeping into the surrounding sand and coloring the rubble. Sasuke grimaced, kicking aside a faceless corpse and wading into the destruction.
Groans and whimpers began to rise from a few of the living. One nin began to scream as consciousness overtook him, and Sasuke didn't blame him. Over seventy percent of the nin's body was charred black. He ignored the screams and continued to search.
He kicked aside flayed, wooden boards that had to have belonged to the Kazekage's wagon. Leaping over the mound of a camel's body, he approached what looked like the remains of the Kazekage's coach. A tuft of blond hair caught his attention, poking out from underneath a splintered pile of wood. Sasuke's blood ran like ice through his veins. Slowly, Sasuke reached out, throwing off the board. He could hear his heart in his ears, feel the pulse behind his eyes.
He let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. The hair color was right, even the hitai-ate, but it wasn't Naruto.
"Not...here..." came a muffled gasp. Sasuke's eyes swiveled around towards the noise, creeping out from behind the rubble to his right. The first thing he noticed was the dull gleam of another Hidden Leaf hitai-ate. A pale hand appeared from under splintered, blackened boards, and a body shook itself free of the debris with difficulty. Sasuke recognized the nin.
Sai.
Sai groaned, crawling forward, his left side bleeding profusely, having been impaled by a stray wooden splinter. His legs were burned, Sasuke realized, the leather pants dotted with a few singed holes revealing red flesh. Painfully, the Hidden Leaf ninja rolled onto his back on top of a rock, hissing through his teeth, grimacing and even more ghostly pale than usual. A strange smile flickered across his face.
"He's not here...had him...go...another team..." Sai rambled, grimacing in pain, shivering despite the heat.
"Where, then?" Sasuke demanded, regaining his cool composure. Sai's eyelids fluttered, his chest rising and falling with ragged gasps. A dark eye focused on Sasuke's form, and a grim smile tugged at Sai's pale lips.
"Like I...would tell...you." Sai managed to croak, chest heaving with the effort to breathe through his pain. "Is...the Kazekage...alive?" he wanted to know. Sasuke frowned. There was no other sign of life outwardly, but the Sharingan proved otherwise.
"Yes." Sasuke could see Gaara, entrapped in his own dome of hardened sand, but either the Kazekage had been knocked out cold, or he was lying still as possible, listening to Sasuke's every word.
The thought unnerved him.
"Where?" Sasuke repeated. Sai only shook his head, and fell silent. Without a word, Sasuke reached out, yanking Sai into a sitting position. The Hidden Leaf nin yelped. He shook his head, but Sasuke saw his eyes slide to the left as his head tilted back.
Sasuke followed the gaze, out to the west.
"I never realized...how blue the sky was." Sai's breathing grew shallow, and Sasuke released the nin from his hold, allowing Sai to crumple on a slab of rock.
"One cannot find the fox without first finding its burrow." Sai grew quiet then. Sasuke left him. The Leaf nin wasn't dead, and back up couldn't be too far away. He'd have to hightail it if he didn't want to be discovered. Sasuke mulled over the cryptic words as he raced towards the glare of the sinking sun to the west.
Naruto fell to his knees. The sand felt red-hot under the roughened palms of his hands. A growl bubbled in his throat, low and deep and angry. His breaths were shallow, ragged, and caught in his throat. Something ached, but he couldn't tell what he'd sprained or broken. His fingers bit into the sand like claws searching for purchase.
"Surrender. There's nothing left to fight for. You can't fight anymore, and you've already had your bursts of strength. Will you risk the precious life of your unborn child for your own stubbornness? Or are you just that selfish?"
Slowly, Naruto raised blue eyes that flickered crimson. He gritted his teeth. Before him, Kabuto smiled, his pearly scales glinting in the after-light. Carnage was strewn around the dunes. Naruto's escorts and a few of Kabuto's specialty curse mark monsters. One of which was still bleating as it bled from the hole Naruto's rasengan has gouged in its side.
A cramp seized Naruto's middle. A seed of doubt began to blossom in his thoughts, but he quickly culled it. He shook his head as his breath caught. He saw red when he blinked. Kabuto kicked aside the body of the medic nin from the Hidden Leaf to stand before Naruto. In anger at the clear disrespect for the bodies of the fallen, Naruto shot up and swiped at Kabuto.
It would have been a nicely aimed, and powerful, hit had it not met with Kabuto's serpentine defenses. With lightning speed, a snake shot out of Kabuto's sleeve, coiling itself in a vice-like grip around Naruto's arm and staying his clenched fist. It squeezed, and Naruto watched his fingers turn purple.
He was beginning to form a link in his mind, between how the snakes and Gaara's sand. How the sankes might work and how Gaara's sand was difficult to pierce.
He reared back, reaching for a kunai with his other hand and beheading the white snake in one clean swipe, but another shot forward, and another. He slashed. Blood got in his eye. The snakes' fangs dripped with deadly venom and the hissing filled his ears until it felt like the only sound in the world besides his heartbeat.
The cramp returned, and the pain seemed to trickle down to his knees, which shook. He told himself he was alright. It was nothing. He didn't waver, didn't stumble.
Kabuto was still smiling. Waiting. "I can't say I'm surprised at your endurance. But even someone like you tires." Another snake, and Naruto's fist collided with its head, knocking it sideways. His chakra levels were depleting despite his link to the Kyuubi, and he ran the risk of overexerting himself if he produced more clones. The way he was now...it was difficult. In his head, he could hear the Kyuubi cackle and rumble.
Let me out. Let me out if you want to protect it. But it there was a chime of dangerous laughter to its voice, and Naruto knew; no matter how well chained the fox was, it would never team up with him if it didn't have an ulterior motive, a chance of escape.
"You should relax. Keep fighting like this, and you might do something you'll regret," Kabuto said through his wall of snakes. Naruto barely registered his voice beneath the fox's chants of let me out, let me out, let me out.
Kabuto chuckled. "I suppose you didn't have much of a choice in the matter, though..But Sasuke did."
Naruto faltered, just for a moment. Sasuke's name was like a lance through his brain. A snake wrapped his throat suddenly. Squeezed until he thought his eyes would pop out of their sockets and his windpipe would snap. He stabbed it repeatedly until he found a weak spot, gagging when it released him.
"All this time he's allowed you think he's dead, and he's been running around alive. He led you to believe that when he was alive, he had changed somehow. But he never did, did he? It's because Sasuke lives only for himself, his own goals. Not for you. Not for that." Kabuto nodded towards Naruto's middle.
What do you have to lose? He's baiting you. He wants you to fight until you can't stand, to provoke you and taunt you. It won't stop. Rest, and let me out! NOW, WHELP, the demon howled.
Naruto said nothing. He tried to steady his breathing, keep the boiling heat from rising. He stared at a lizard watching him from underneath a thorny brush. Tried to sort through his thoughts.
Gaara had reacted on a hunch after Naruto had left with Sai; the Kazekage had played it safe, like any sensible leader in charge of protecting such precious cargo would. Naruto couldn't say he was easily able to stomach the thought of another nin posing as him in the shadows, but he followed orders, albeit grudgingly and after a few heated words. Disguised as ANBU, he and Sai had met up with a small team composed of the medic ninja, and a few protectors. Sai had gone back to aid the Kazekage's caravan after receiving word about the worsened state of the fighting, figuring he could stop any followers. Naruto had his group had started to make their way towards a rendezvous point where they were supposed to meet up with Shikamaru, Kiba, Ino, and Chouji, whose assignment was to escort Naruto out of the area safely. They would take a different route through Suna.
They never made it.
Dark jutsus Naruto had never seen before were used. Snakes and experiments shot out of the sand like weeds, grabbing ankles, shooting venom. In less than ten minutes, half of the team had already fallen due to the deadly poison without much of a fight. Naruto had no choice but to enter the fray, not that he'd been reluctant anyway, to protect those around him, the one inside him. With each man or woman who fell, Naruto felt a little more control ebb away, and a little more desperation take its place.
It had been ruthlessly calculated, this attack, yet the fangs steered clear of Naruto's skin, yet the monsters dodged him and taunted him rather than aim to kill him as Naruto fought to protect those around him.
And the Kyuubi laughed. Snarled and thrashed so violently, Naruto could feel his teeth chatter from the reverberations in his head. Constantly, he fought two battles. He grew weary not tapping into the Kyuubi's formidable chakra, and still it laughed while his comrades fell and he sank to his knees.
The name Sasuke cut him again like a razor's edge, made him wince and his stomach churn. He thought of the man in the pub who'd seemingly not known him. Yet, Naruto had known. He'd known all along. He had a way of knowing things while hoping there was another side, another point he hadn't seen that would make it all clear and reasonable, instead of vicious and cruel.
"You really thought he was dead, didn't you? To think, all this time he's been alive, and he's been hiding from you. All you do is slow him down, hinder him. You forget who Sasuke Uchiha really is, Naruto. You think you see something salvageable, a glimmer of the young man you thought you knew once. But that young man? He died a long time ago. I was with him those three long years he trained, and I can assure you there's nothing there."
Kabuto's fingers grabbed his chin roughly, made Naruto look him in the eye. Naruto could feel the heat rise. It made him feel physically ill to shove it right back down, like he was swallowing a hot coal. It was unbearable, so unbearable, he thought he might scream from the burn...
Don't lose control.
How? He'd asked his mother's apparition once as he dreamed. How did you do it? How did you not lose yourself when it's so, so easy to give in? Why is it so much harder?
"There's nothing left for you, Naruto. Madara will capture you. Your child is as good as dead. Your comrades have fallen, your village will soon be in ruin. But, there's still a way out. A way to escape it all. You know what I'm talking about. Only one thing you can possibly do now to ensure Madara doesn't get what he wants. Or will you lie here in defeat and wait for him like a coward?"
The words cut deep, sliced through Naruto better than the snake's poison. They were meant to dismantle, manipulate, consume. Kabuto wanted Naruto to lose control. He was suggesting Naruto end it all here. He was suggesting Naruto face his own death.
Naruto shook his head mutely, still struggling internally, shaking so violently from keeping the Kyuubi at bay that he groaned and his teeth chattered.
"Wouldn't it be the most humane escape?" Kabuto whispered. "Wouldn't it be better on your own terms? Wouldn't it be sweeter to leave it all behind? The ultimate protection. The ultimate way to ensure Madara never lays a finger on your child. Or your village."
It's not right, Naruto thought suddenly, wearily. Kabuto was coaxing the fox out of Naruto, the anger, the Nine Tails. Why? Why would Kabuto see Madara plans foiled if he was on the side of the Akatsuki? It didn't make sense. But it was working, and Naruto cried out against it.
No. It couldn't end here. He struggled, cried out.
A snake coiled around his neck, its forked tongue tickled his ear. Naruto felt the child squirm as his middle tightened and cramped once more. He couldn't lose. He couldn't tire, not this time. More snakes held him to the ground.
"You don't want to do this, Naruto. You don't want this suffering. This pain."
Naruto clenched his teeth against the Kyuubi's whispers: I won't lose. Let me out. Free me from these chains you've coiled around me. Free me. It's not so hard. The voice of the Nine Tails had softened, low, velvety, enticing. It almost sounded sweet, but Naruto still knew better, somehow, somewhere, in his mind.
In a sweeping gesture, Kabuto acknowledged the dead team. "They're dead because of you, and you will always mourn them. But, you could die right now, and who will mourn you, when there is no one left to side with you?"
Naruto shook his head, fighting against his living restraints, and the demon inside. Suddenly, Naruto growled, sensing another presence. Someone far more sinister.
"Oh, Kabuto, is this the best you could do to thwart me?" Suddenly the desert was as still as death. The lizard under the brush Naruto was trying to concentrate on scurried away in fear.
"Madara," Naruto growled, his voice grating against his throat, raising red eyes to look upon the masked man on the darkening horizon, a chip of shadow that couldn't be chased away. Madara was alone. Naruto noticed Kabuto's mild surprise, and anger.
"What are you trying to do now? Coax the fox out of the boy and ruin my unborn vessel? Juvenile. Did you think you could outdo me in such a simple way? Although, it was a good shot, and it almost escaped me. You were brilliant. Especially with giving that brutish rebel the mines and giving him the intel he needed to blow the Kazekage's caravan away. But it didn't work, did it? You expected Naruto to be killed from it. But your target walked out of your trap unharmed. Now here you are, desperate and at wit's end, so you're stalling and trying to tickle the Jinchuuriki's dangerous side as a last resort."
The snakes disappeared, and Naruto slumped to the sand with another dull cramp, but he kept a wary eye on Madara's approaching figure.
"Stop toying with me, Kabuto. It's no longer fun, and you are beginning to infuriate me." Madara was closer now, materializing before Kabuto like a cloud of dancing smoke, his hand curling around Kabuto's wrist in a strong grip.
"Stop this," Madara whispered, softer now, swiveling a red eye on Naruto and turning his attention away from Kabuto.
They stared at each other for a moment, Naruto and Madara, daring the other to move. Naruto felt frozen. Uselessly, he curled an arm around himself, as if to try and shield what lay hidden beneath his skin. Again, Madara disappeared, reappearing before Naruto, kneeling before him, so close that Naruto could make out the different fiery shades in his one eye.
"Well, look at you," Madara breathed, "The great Naruto Uzumaki, Conqueror of Pain, on his knees before me! Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Go on, get up, boy. On your feet, now! Challenge me. Or will you flounder and keep me laughing as you try to kill me, like your father did? Oh, I did enjoy that dance."
Naruto grimaced, infuriated at the mention of his father, but managed to keep still, willing his chakra to replenish. He stared into the depths of Madara's eye, silently challenging him.
"This meeting is premature, Naruto Uzumaki, but it's no matter. Do not struggle. It's not worth it, and you're in no condition for it."
Behind them, Kabuto remained still, expressionless save for the grim line of his mouth. Madara turned to him.
"Don't you see?" He spread his arms wide in a sweeping gesture. "Can you both not see what we can all accomplish together?" Madara looked back to Naruto when Kabuto remained silent.
"Think for a minute, boy! What kind of world are you trying to save? A hateful one that would sooner have burned you at the stake than try to figure out who you are? You were never important until you saved their miserable little lives!"
Naruto looked away, but the faces of those who'd spurned him sprang unbidden to his thoughts. There was a dark truth to Madara's words, and Naruto hated it.
"You could live in a different world, both of you. A world where you are revered and accepted. A world where everyone is equal. A world without judgement," Madara pointed to Naruto's belly, "Some place safe, for the little one you hold dear. Would you sooner release your child into this mad, mad world? It would be the bane of everyone's eye. Would you sooner let them taunt you, hurt you, or hurt your child because they can't understand it?"
We could live in such a world. This new world will be one where no one is ostracized. A place where everyone has a home without having to feel the searing pain of human prejudice or of this unholy, tainted world. But you would rather thwart me. You would destroy this heaven that could be your home. You would rather subject your own to hate and spite-"
"You're fucking insane if you think for a second I'm going to listen to you," Narut cut him off.
"But you're already listening, and you already know. What are you fighting for, Naruto Uzumaki? What is the purpose of this bloodshed? Why fight me, why die at my hand, when you could sooner join me and live in my world? Those who love you have already abandoned you, or died for you. But I...I will not die, Naruto, nor will I abandon my subjects."
Silence reigned. Somewhere, a jackal laughed and yipped. Naruto fought against the searing wave of anger within.
"When the world is war-torn, there is no such thing as honor. Only survival and victory. Once you understand that, you and your child may have a better chance of survival. What will you do, boy? Your comrades have fallen. Your peers have turned their backs on you. Your lover has fled, or is rotting in a ditch somewhere. Your parents are dead. You have no one to fight for, and no one to fight for you. When I come for you next, you will come willingly. As for you, Kabuto, I'm afraid I will leave you to experience your own demise. It's a pity." Madara began to ripple, but not before Kabuto stumbled forward, hysterical last words slipping from his lips while his eyes darted between Naruto and Madara.
"You think you know everything, Madara! But you don't! You've spent all these years hating Hashirama, vowing vengeance against the one you believed to have betrayed you and sold you out to the clan! You have hated the village that condemned you! All these years you've hated and plotted, and it was your own clan who worked against you, who forced you out!"
For a moment, nothing happened. Naruto stayed on his knees, head hung, teeth clenched, shaking against the Kyuubi's rage as it began to boil over his skin. Kabuto stood still. Madara stared, Sharingan whirling, and looked to Naruto before turning away.
"Goodbye, Kabuto." He faded away into oblivion, and Kabuto tried to run.
Naruto saw red. The whole world was a rosy blur. The heat was rising off of his skin in crimson wisps of deadly chakra. He could feel the pain of his body bending, as if he was folding in on the baby like a living shield. He could feel the last vestiges of his human thoughts begin to fade into something meaningless and barbaric. He wanted to scream, but he grunted instead as he felt fire course through his veins.
He began to rise, shakily at first, leaping in a rage towards Madara's disappearing figure. Claws swiped at the air. He remembered seeing the gleam of the red heat dance off of Kabuto's pearly scales in a shimmer, like dying light. Naruto remembered the black eyes widening in surprise, the glasses falling to the sand, when a fountain of red erupted from Kabuto's neck with a single, deadly slash of a whip-like tail as it sprouted.
He remembered feeling like he was splitting in two.
"Look at me!" someone, somewhere, was saying, shouting. Naruto couldn't tell who.
Hold on, he remembered thinking to the child, Just hold on, and we'll both be alright.
It was the last thing Naruto thought before the world began to rumble and the sky turned white.
Sasuke's skin was burning. Beneath him, Naruto bucked and snarled, and still, Sasuke held on. He gripped the other teen's wrists, acting like an anchor. Naruto cracked a feral grin, flashing pearly fangs.
"Such sinful eyes." It wasn't Naruto's voice that slipped past his lips.
"Look at me," Sasuke growled. Naruto snapped at him, clawed at him, twisted and roared with an inhuman voice. The heat was excruciating. The palms of Sasuke's hands were beginning to blister, his clothing was singeing away. Naruto's skin was also burning, seeming to slough off in some areas to reveal bright spots of pure, concentrated red chakra. His eyes were turning from crimson to abyssal black pits.
It was far too easy for Naruto to lose control like this. The seal must have continued to weaken. Sasuke wasn't trained to handle this, and neither was Naruto. Desperately, Sasuke held on, and the chakra continued to bubble and seep off of Naruto's skin.
"Let go, Uchiha, before I kill you."
Sasuke's grip tightened, and he winced. "'I'm not letting you go." Naruto twisted again, and a claw raked against Sasuke's side, cleanly slicing through skin. He grunted, thinking fast.
Sinful eyes, sinful eyes.
It was no secret that the Nine Tails had bared witness to the powers of the Sharingan before, and so Sasuke, desperate and burning, went on a hunch.
He activated the Mangekyo, which in turn caused Naruto to thrash more wildly beneath him. The bubble of a second tail began to form in defense. The Kyuubi was desperate now, working fast to ensure Naruto was lost to its power.
It was trying to beat Sasuke to the finish line.
Sasuke's Sharingan began to spin, and Naruto howled.
The world slowly came into view in stages. Fuzzy, hazy pictures and sounds. A streak of color there, the muffled weight of footsteps on sand there. The fire-bright glare of the setting sun. Naruto could taste blood and dirt in his mouth.
The child was motionless within him, and the muscles around his middle ached. Shit, his skin stung...
Naruto's eyes snapped open, only to drink in the darkness of the desert. A wind rattled past, and Naruto's teeth clenched. Even its gentle fingers seemed to rake claws across his sensitive skin.
A small fire popped into view to his right, slowly turning to embers. Where am I? he wondered. Who was here with him? He remembered Kabuto, and Madara...
He bolted upright, breathing hard, scanning the inky desert wildly for the villains he remembered.
"Madara's not here," a voice from the shadows said. Naruto's breath hitched. His eyes widened when he took in the cloaked figure who came to stoop beside him. The cloaked man had deft fingers, working quickly and gently tugging at the dirty bandages around patches of Naruto's burned skin. Naruto noticed the man's palms were heavily bandaged. The figure raised his head, and Naruto went cold, even with the fire in his veins.
"Sasuke..."
The jackals laughed, the bats in the cave ahead sang, the desert sighed under the fingers of the wind, and Naruto only stared.
A;N As promised, here are the chapters titles for the next (and final) remaining chapters. See if you can let your imagination run and guess what's next:
Ch. 32: Warhead
Ch. 33: Snake
Ch. 34: The Ninja Way
Ch. 35: The Temple of Izanami
Ch. 36: The Birth of A New Age
Ch. 37: Epilogue: The Wanderers
I will post "Warhead" tomorrow sometimes. Thanks everyone for reading! Also, quick note: When I edited this, some of the story's scenes did change. Sorry if this caused any confusion :)
Also, there will be other PoVs the next coming up chapters, but don't get discouraged! There will be SasuNaru goodness, we just need other PoVs so you guys know what's going on and what's making the story take these other turns.