(Chapter 4 – The Not So Grand Reunion and Buried Memories )
'I guess they've improved since I left', Naruto thought as he gracefully dodged another kick from a weakening Kiba. Hinata and Neji both collaborated to deliver a double Jyuuken strike that had enough force to knock out a full grown grizzly bear. The blonde akuma side-stepped and avoided both attacks, he quickly crouched down and did a low kick on both Hyuugas; making them fall and hit their heads. Sasuke came up next, he used his sword to strike the blonde but was quickly blocked by a beautiful odachi.
"You do know that defeating me won't be an easy task, ne, Sasuke?", Naruto chuckled and taunted. The last Uchiha gritted his teeth in frustration; he tried to elbow the blonde's ribs but failed miserably when Naruto used his knee and landed a strong blow on the raven's stomach. Blood escaped from his lips and air was knocked out from his lungs, Sasuke desperately stilled himself on the ground. The two engaged in sword battle. Blade hitting blade and metal hitting metal. The raven tried to take the odachi to disarm the blonde. Before he could take the blade, hot searing pain burned his hand, causing him to retract it.
"Oh, come on, Sasuke, you can't just take what's not yours. That's rude. Besides, Noroi doesn't take kindly to strangers like you, he gets a little cranky when he gets touched by others who he doesn't identify as his master. You should be careful, he might send you to Hell because of that tainted soul of yours, you'll never know", Naruto menacingly informed with slight sadistic glee in his eyes.
No one knew of this but Naruto was actually somewhat of a sadistic predator, sometimes, he likes playing with his prey and often, he doesn't. This personality developed just after he was banished, a part of Kuruma's sadistic side kind of rubbed off on him. He does try to control it at times and only uses it at those who deserves to see his disturbing side.
You might be asking, "What the hell did we miss?". Well, I'll tell you. Naruto seemed to be more than interested in testing out his once comrades' skills than just getting the hell out and escape. Somehow, he decided to toy with them and maybe, achieve some sort revenge for their attitudes towards him before. After the group arrived, the leaf nins seemed to be in slight desperation to talk to Naruto. All of them looked haggard and ready to collapse but they held their ground.
A gloved fist hurdled at the blonde Kyuubi's direction, he grabbed the clenched hand and kicked the attacker, who was actually Kakashi, on his side. Sakura charged at him with her immense strength with moist eyes, evident proof that she was going to cry soon. Naruto avoids her fist before grabbing her shoulder and punching her square in the face.
"For your information, I don't really hit girls but you, Sakura, are an exception", the blonde akuma grinned after noticing blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. Some of the Rookies were already knocked out or immobilized. The few who were still remaining were: Neji, Hinata, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi. Ino was unconscious like Chouji; Shika was struggling to escape a reversed Kagemane; Kiba was too busy trying to build up more energy, and, Tenten and Lee were both paralyzed by a special taijutsu technique Naruto learned while traveling.
"Naruto, please, just hear us out! We promise you, we won't try anything stupid!", Kakashi desperately reasoned. At this rate, not only would they fail their mission, they will also have trouble on seeking medical assistance for their injuries since Suna doesn't want anything to do with them; no doubt they'll just ignore them.
Naruto snorted. "Yeah, good luck on that. You already did something incredibly stupid, Kakashi! And that's trying to come after me!".
"Dobe! You're being difficult here!", Sasuke almost screamed in irritation.
"You think?", Naruto replied with unhidden sarcasm while he rolled his eyes.
"Pl-Please, Naruto-kun. We j-just want to talk to y-you", Hinata stammered with tears her eyes.
"Just give us a minute, Uzumaki. Give us a chance", Neji huffed, he tried to regain his breath from the battle that he knew they were going to lose. The blonde seemed to think for a moment but in truth, he was just faking it. Inwardly, he mischievously smiled.
"Hmmm...Nope!", he cheerfully declared before disappearing into a yellow flash and reappearing behind Hinata, he spins on his right leg and kicks her directly on her head. The dark haired girl lands on the hot sand, faced down, without consciousness. Neji calls for his cousin, he races to her side but was stopped when a clothed arm looped around his neck, cutting off his air supply. The silver haired jounin races to the duo to try and help the male Hyuuga. A rock-like hand shot out of the ground as he was about to reach the duo, preventing him to get any closer to the two.
"Don't worry, Kakashi. Once I'm done with Neji, here, I'll tend to you and the team next", Naruto tightened his grip while Neji thrashed around much harder. The Hyuuga eventually fainted in lack of air. The blonde gently sets him down then faces the one-eyed jounin, who was trying to get the stony hand of him. Naruto performed a series of quick hand signs, he smirks. Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi all warily stared at the akuma as he whispers;
"I'll show you why I'm called the Mirror Demon".
Everything went black.
A huge mirror shard and total darkness was all Kakashi saw as he opened is eyes, he groaned groggily and sits up. The older male looks around, trying to process what had happened and where he was.
"I see you're awake...", a smooth and familiar voice commented. Kakashi instantly snaps his head at the giant shard's direction. There, in the reflection of the mirror piece, was Naruto, who had a slightly cruel smirk.
"What are you planning, Naruto?", Kakashi nervously asked, he then mentally hits himself for sounding so weak. He was the famous Sharingan no FREAKING Kakashi! Why would he be nervous?!
Naruto chuckled. "It's because you're in my world, now. And in my world...it could get pretty ugly. For you, that is". Noticing a confused look on his old sensei, the blonde proceeds to explain.
"I knew what you were thinking because you are trapped in the world that I, myself, manifested through a...special technique. In here, I can basically do whatever I want. I call it, The Reflection Realm", the blonde snickered at the wary look on the older male's face. Kakashi felt a lump in his throat, the uneasy feeling he was getting was a HUGE sign that something undesirable was going to happen and he wouldn't like it.
"Naruto, whatever you're trying to teach us, we get it, okay? We learned our lesson and we've been suffering for longer than you'd think. We regret what we've done and we beg you to forgive us, we promise we won't do anything like that again", Kakashi felt guilty and ashamed of himself, he knew that if his sensei and teammates were there, they would've been sneering and scowling at him in disgust and hate. He let down and betrayed his student, the person he was supposed to protect and teach to be a successful nin.
Naruto's orbs suddenly went blank, his eyes half lidded and emotionless. Mouth morphed into an uncaring frown while his surroundings seemed to waver. Pieces of mirror shards slowly rose from the ground and surrounded the giant piece and the silver haired jounin in a circle. Now, both were trapped in a mirror filled room. The blonde's frowned turned into a vicious grin, showing his pearly white fangs that he developed from the infusion with his demonic fox friend.
"Do you know why I called this place the Reflection Realm, Kakashi-sensei?", Naruto hisses at the end but asked, nonetheless. Replying with a shake of a head, Kakashi prepares for the worst, he knew that he, obviously, snapped a wire in his ex-students mental and emotional restrictions. He was going to receive punishment, badly.
"It's because, here, one can reflect on his or her past memories. More preferably, your past mistakes and considered nightmares", the last sentence sounded demonic, it filled Kakashi with panic and worry. The mirrors around slightly glowed before images started to play on them. The older male watched the blurry images adjust themselves until they were as clear as crystal. Eyes widen and skin paled when the images were clear enough to see.
"...No...it's...it's...", Kakashi stammered in disbelief, causing the blonde reflection to smirk in satisfaction.
"Yup, it's you, only younger", Naruto answered. "Do you remember what age you were then? Do you know what year it was? Do you remember which rank you were in?", the masked blonde questioned one by one, each getting quieter and quieter. To the silver haired male, it seemed that Naruto's voice was getting closer and closer but no, it wasn't. The man in the mirror was only a reflection, a diversion. But they didn't know that.
Kakashi was rooted to his spot, all the mirrors surrounding him showed different situations and memories but they were all focused on hm. At the moment, the older male didn't care about the other memories, his eyes were glued at the single mirror that was showing one of his greatest nightmare: The Memory of his Genin team and Sensei.
Seeing the man's eyes on that particular mirror, the masked blonde chuckled before snapping his fingers. Other memories of the scarecrow's genin team and old jounin sensei as well as his father replaced the other memories on the remaining shards. Breath quickened and sweat dripped down Kakashi's forehead, he did everything he could to block those memories out just to forget that it-what he thinks-was his fault he lost his friend's life. He kept blaming himself, even though, a small part of himself told him that it wasn't. There, in front of him, was the image of his sensei, his friends and his father, who all died and left him all alone. He betrayed all of them, he betrayed his sensei, he betrayed his friends and he betrayed his father. He let them down by letting his student down; he treated his own student like an outcast by ignoring him.
"This is one of my many abilities as the Mirror Demon, Kakashi. I can make others reflect on their old memories, those that were deeply buried and use them to my advantage. Now, you might be thinking; " Is this some kind genjutsu that I can easily disperse? And what do you mean reflect? What's so different in seeing and reflecting?". Well, first, no, this isn't a genjutsu. It's similar but no. I created these mirrors that can trace and remake your memories, dreams and nightmares; replaying them to you. There isn't any way to stop these flashbacks and I'm the only one who have the power to do so.
"Second, reflecting is by replaying and analyzing these images. Here, reflecting is watching, absorbing, understanding and accepting these memories, dreams, etc., etc. In here, you'll have no choice but to accept that you are the one who killed your teammate! That's what reflecting is, well, at least, for me that is", Naruto explained with a wicked smile, he was definitely enjoying this.
"You see, Kakashi, I had already reflected on my memories, dreams, nightmares and like. And just like you, I was terrified; I didn't know that I had such a horrible existence and faith. I wasn't even aware that I was only beginning to fake my smiles ever since I was 11 years old", the blonde shake his head in nostalgia and sadness that he didn't want the frozen silver haired male to notice.
"See, Kakashi? I had been brainwashing myself ever since just to make myself stay, somewhat, sane! Because of this, I had blocked out everything in my surroundings just to think and reflect for a whole week. I didn't care if I died in thirst or hunger or anything! I just wanted to think but not act, like a broken doll. I felt so dumb, so foolish to ever trust such unworthy people! That's when I started accepting the truth. One by one, I accepted my memories, my dreams, my nightmares; everything! And moved on", Naruto glances over to Kakashi, who was still frozen with so much emotion in his exposed eye.
Naruto grins. "But you, Kakashi, you and the others aren't that accepting. You guys never see the bright side of things like I do. That's why you'd always choose to lock those emotions and images away and bury them deep. That's why you are all weak. Don't get me wrong, I have no intentional ill will on you or Konoha. This little lecture was just a tiny payback, I mean we-technically-are humans and we need some drive for revenge, once in a while", the blonde akuma finishes with a light laugh. Suddenly, a tight whistling sound blared through the plane, making Kakashi flinch but eyes still remaining on the images.
"Oops, spent too much fun; didn't know it was already time to skedaddle. See you, Kakashi! Tell the others that they don't need to compliment me for the exciting trip to memory lane that I gave them and tell them that I really liked our reunion. Bye!", Naruto waved his hands before disappearing.
Everything went dark, again.
With a loud gasp and pale skin was how Kakashi woke up, he looked around and saw the others still unconscious, except for Sakura and Sasuke. What made him slightly panic and confused was that Sakura was bawling her eyes out and Sasuke's eyes were slightly red and watery.
"Oh god! Those memories! Please lock those memories out! Please make them stop! No more! No more! I was cruel, horrible! I'm not fit to be a kunoichi! I betrayed him! I belittled him! And I made him feel unloved when he made me feel adored! I'm a horrible person!", Sakura sobbed while Sasuke tried his best to comfort his teammate and stop the tears threatening to flow after seeing the memories of his old cold self.
Kakashi hurriedly went over to the pink haired girl side to try and ease her pain, he slowly rubbed her back gently to calm her down. Groans and gasps filled the area, the other rookies is such haste just to end the images they saw on the mirror shard. All of them carrying their own set of teary eyes and terrified expressions.
"What are we going to do now? With that kind of power, we won't get anywhere near him", Neji asked, trying to be strong and not make the situation any more worse.
"I don't think that was all he had. There something he's still hiding from us. I can feel it", Sasuke commented with determination swirling in his eyes.
Kakashi sighed. "Alright, we'll fix our wounds first then report to the hokage, we can't just go after him carelessly like we did".
The rookies agreed before carefully picking themselves up from the ground, some were helping the injured ones to stand up and walk. The silver haired jounin helped his pink haired ex-student, he felt remorse and shame fill him as he failed the mission. The group slowly traveled back to Konoha with shame and self-disappointment radiating from each and every one of them.
Only time will tell if their blonde friend will ever be willing to forgive them and the village.