Not Sick Chapter 22
The Seal
"Finally," Pain whispered, taking in Naruto's convulsing form. Hinata's body was bucked off of him, the rod stabbed through her sliding clear of Naruto's chest, and the Jinchūriki howled, a red beam of pure chakra shooting straight up into the sky. The Hyuuga's body lifelessly tumbled far away, coming to a rest on her side, the rod keeping her from lying on her back.
One of Naruto's friends, and the dog next to him, stirred, slowly turning to look at the body that had just been tossed towards him. Pain ignored them, staring intently at Naruto.
There was an explosion of energy, thick and crimson, vaporizing the concrete for meters around, and when it cleared, Naruto was gone. Instead, a monster lay in his place, with a stretched, unnaturally toothy mouth, and blank white eyes.
The monster turned towards Pain, growling lowly. The air shook, the sound itself filled with killing intent.
"What's really inside you." Pain watched the monster with a faint smile, even as the other Paths fell in beside him. Then, he inclined his head.
"You hate me," he said, the shade of a true grin flickering across his face. "I can feel it." One of Pain's feet slid back, and his remaining arm came up in a ready position.
"The end is here," he said with all the assurance a deity could muster, and then the Kyuubi charged.
Sasuke stumbled through the wreckage, utterly spent.
The Kirin had worked wonders. The entire tower was gone, replaced by shattered concrete and warped metal. So was everything around for about fifty meters: the energy of the multiple lightning strikes had been utterly tremendous. The fall had been of little consequence: he'd landed easily enough. And the rain was finally gone, another bonus. With his shirt gone, he'd been getting cold rather quickly.
But now, he was faced with a new problem. He needed to find his parents' remains immediately, and ensure they wouldn't regenerate. The lightning strike would have been for nothing if they, or more specifically his mother, recovered.
"Sasuke!"
That was a familiar voice. He turned towards it, narrowing his eyes. Dust still hung heavy in the air, but the Sharingan pierced it effortlessly.
Karin stumbled out from behind a sizeable chunk of rubble, her glasses held low. She was wiping them against her shirt, fruitlessly trying to clean them. Her hair was frazzled, kicked up by the ionized charge of the lightning strike; Sasuke distantly wondered for a moment what his own hair looked like.
"Sasuke! Are you alright-" The redhead looked up from her glasses and froze, staring at him. More accurately, at his chest.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, stepping forward. "Karin. I need your help."
"Anything, Sasuke," she said faintly, looking like she was somewhere else entirely.
"Can you locate my parents? They may reform at any moment," Sasuke pressed, staring intently at her. Karin's gaze eventually wandered away from his chest and towards his eyes. "I need to find them."
"Umm…" Karin bit her lip, shaking her head. "Right! They're not very concentrated yet, but…"
She turned in place, closing her eyes. "Over there. Most of their chakra is over there, and it's growing stronger by the second."
"Show me. Quickly," Sasuke urged, and Karin nodded, leaping forward through the rubble. Sasuke followed after her, careful not to slip on anything along the way: he was tired enough that a misstep was a real possibility.
Karin came to a stop not ten seconds later, and Sasuke skidded to a halt beside her, looking around. His Sharingan twisted, the starburst-shuriken emerging again, and he looked towards the sensor.
"There," she pointed, extending a finger and pointedly looking away from him. Sasuke watched her for a moment, and then stalked forward towards where she'd pointed. He dropped to one knee.
There, stirring in the rubble of the tower's destruction, was a small pile of ash and parchment. Two mixed as one, but they were slowly but surely beginning to separate themselves into distinct piles. The regeneration was more sluggish than it had been before: perhaps the Kirin had disrupted the technique.
Sasuke stared at the shifting ash. All that was left of his parents, heaped here in the rubble of a fallen tower in a deserted village, soaking up fetid rainwater. Something rose up in him, and he choked it back.
He was out of time. No more could be said to them. All he had left was their last request.
'Forgive him, Sasuke.'
"I'll try. I swear it," he whispered to the ashes. He felt Karin make a movement behind him, shifting at the subtle sound.
It was over. His eyes twisted again, one last bit of chakra dredged up from deep within him bringing a distinct tingling feeling. A drop of blood dribbled from the left, making a new red path: the old ones had been washed away by the rain.
"Amaterasu."
The ash piles caught fire, black flames pouring over them. A jutsu that could burn for seven days and seven nights, so it went: by the time it was quenched, Sasuke would be long gone from the village, and Orochimaru would hopefully have ended his hold over his parents. If he hadn't, Sasuke would deal with them again.
The Uchiha stumbled back, wiping some blood away from under his eye. That had been the last of his chakra. He was running on nothing but willpower and fumes now.
And he wasn't done. Naruto was still out there, fighting Pain. With his parents disabled, Sasuke could finally go and help him.
He turned. He could deal with the uncomfortable sensation running down his spine at the sight of the burning ashes later.
"Where are you going?" Karin asked.
Sasuke glanced at her.
"To help a friend," he said quietly. Karin hmmphed.
"Not like that, you aren't," she declared, rolling up one of her sleeves and holding out her arm. It was puckered, marked with countless teeth. "Take it."
"I don't-" Sasuke protested. Karin shoved her arm in his face.
"I said, take it," she snarled, baring her teeth. Sasuke noted with a little amusement it was the first time she'd ever tried to really intimidate him, and she wasn't doing a poor job of it. "No way am I letting you run off at anything less than full strength!"
He glared at her for a moment, before relenting and nodding. Karin gave a satisfied look, and then raised her arm to his mouth.
Sasuke bit down.
The feeling of Karin's chakra revitalizing him was incredible. Sasuke's chakra system jumped, suddenly practically throbbing with energy. Across his body, tiny scrapes and bruises he hadn't even realized were there healed with unreal speed. The slash across his hand closed with a steaming hiss: a burn on his shoulder scrunched itself out of existence, the skin unwrinkling and the irritating stinging vanishing with it.
Karin moaned as Sasuke pulled back, almost sounding like she was in pain. The Uchiha sighed, working out kinks in dozens of muscles that had suddenly relaxed.
"Thank you, Karin," he muttered as the girl recovered. "I needed that."
"No… problem," the redhead gasped, shaking her arm out. The bleeding Sasuke's bite had caused was already clotting.
Sasuke turned back towards the burning ash piles one last time, his Sharingan taking them in. Karin watched his back with worry: he was staring intensly, a frown fixed on his face.
"Sasuke... do you-"
Karin's murmur was cut off even as it began.
She started screaming.
The sound cut through the Uchiha's concentration, and he turned his head from the twin ash piles, snapping towards the redhead.
"Karin?!" he asked, moving towards her. His expression was actually twisted into something that approximated concern. He reached out towards her, tapping her shoulder
Karin stumbled back, screaming again. Her hands came up, clutching at her head, and she fell to her knees, trembling.
Sasuke watched her, his mouth going dry. He'd never seen her react like this.
"Karin!" This time, he wasn't asking. This was a demand. "What is it? What's wrong?" He bent down, grabbing her shoulders.
Karin choked, gagging on nothing. She looked like she was barely holding back on vomiting.
There was a flare in his peripheral vision, and Sasuke jerked his head towards it. There was a crimson beacon, pouring straight up into the sky, about three kilometers away, the source hidden by the skyline of the village. It lit the sparse clouds a baleful red, and filled Amegakure with a dull crimson light.
Sasuke stared at the light for a moment, and then slowly turned back to Karin.
She looked up into the spiraling stars of his Sharingan.
"Sasuke," she heaved, her eyes watering. Sasuke could hear her throat closing up, her voice petering off into nothing. He changed his grip to her forearm, trying to stabilize her, and Karin took a shuddering breath, her entire body shaking as if in the grip of a deadly fever.
"It's..."
"What. Is. That?" Sasuke demanded. His hand tightened.
"It's the Kyuubi," Karin gasped.
The Fox kicked Pain through a building. There was barely any warning: the monster that had once been Naruto Uzumaki fought, appropriately, like an animal. Mindlessly, striking without strategy or intent beyond ripping Pain to shreds.
Normally, the man would be beating the beast. But today, the animal was just plain stronger. Faster, as well: by the time Pain pulled himself from what had once been a bar, the Kyuubi was already there, bearing down on him with murderous intent so thick the air itself felt heavy.
The Preta Path tackled it before it could reach, bearing the beast to the ground under its weight, and draining away the crimson cloak wherever it touched. The Kyuubi shrieked and spun, slapping at the Path with its tails. Normally, it would have just been a battering blow, but one of the bone spurs sprouting from one of the five tails took the Preta in the chest, shattering its ribcage and coring the body.
The Kyuubi shook its tail carelessly, and the Preta Path sailed away, trailing blood until it crashed to the ground and lifelessly tumbled to a stop.
Pain watched with just the tiniest bit of concern.
Only five tails, and the Kyuubi was already giving him a bit of trouble.
Just a bit. The animal couldn't hope to stand up to his Shinra Tensei. And here in his village, the seat of his power, the Paths of Pain were incredibly efficient. Running out of chakra was … improbable. If it came to a battle of attrition, Pain would certainly win.
But still…
The Kyuubi came at him again, and Pain raised his hand.
Shinra Tensei.
The beast froze, its chakra aura rippling around it. It slid back across the ground for a moment, before stopping. Pain strained.
Impossible. It was resisting his jutsu. Utterly inconceivable.
The Kyuubi glared at him, snarling loudly. Its blank white eyes held nothing but hatred, and a sick kind of hunger.
Pain shouted, pouring all his passion into the attack, and the Kyuubi was lifted from the ground, yelping in frustration. It sped backwards so fast the Rinnegan couldn't track it, reducing yet more buildings of Amegakure's entertainment sector to so much rubble. Pain panted, his lone arm lowering, slack.
The Kyuubi roared, and the man shook himself, straightening up. He watched as the beast tore itself from tons of rubble, swatting aside the concrete like it was nothing. Several of his summons went to intercept it, and it treated them much the same as the concrete: a five story elephant was torn in two as Pain watched thoughtfully, seeing the summon's death through its eyes.
A sixth tail had emerged. The Kyuubi's body, twitching and red, was completely overlaid with its skeleton now, half-physical ribs, spine, and limbs floating just above it, connected by thick strings of orange chakra. A canine skull fell over the monster's face, like a helm. The bone-white contrasted dramatically with the red. Any water for dozens of meters around the Kyuubi was instantly vaporized by the heat it was giving off. If Yahiko had been alive, he would have instantly gotten a mild sunburn.
Pain frowned.
'If this keeps up, things could get interesting.'
"Oh my god," Chōji whispered. Kiba glanced at him, placing Sai as gently as he could on the ground, propped up against a wall. The pale boy spat up another clot of blood with a wet hacking sound, and Kiba winced.
"How's Ino?" he asked, standing up. He'd done all he could to stop Sai's bleeding.
They'd only had a minute or so since Naruto had transformed and pushed Pain back farther into the village, but Kiba had spent it as well as he could. He'd woken up to find Naruto replaced by a monster, Pain in a fighting retreat, and…
Kiba's hands balled into fists, and he closed his eyes, grinding his fangs.
Akamaru had collected Ino, and Kiba had carried Sai away, finding Chōji moments later as the Akimichi barreled through a wall towards Naruto and Pain.
And Hinata…
She was lying there, on the ground. Kiba hadn't been able to remove the rod Pain had driven through her heart. Shino was right next to her, holes punched through his shoulder and gut, but unlike Hinata he didn't have any obvious fatal injuries. It was like he'd just stopped breathing.
They'd brought Team Gai with them as well. But there hadn't been enough left of Shikamaru to carry back. Chōji wouldn't stop crying. Kiba wished he would shut up.
The Inuzuka looked up into the starless sky, feeling something cold and angry ball up inside him. He felt like the emptiness above him was a mirror. He felt like he should have been raging. Been crying, like Chōji. Bawling his heart out. Been doing his best to do something. But he just felt…
Empty. Empty as the sky.
Maybe he'd start crying later. Kiba hoped so. Maybe he'd break the concrete at his feet with his fists, hunt down everyone Pain had ever known and tear out their throats with his teeth. Maybe he'd find Pain's main body himself.
Oh god. He'd have to tell Kurenai that they were dead. She'd lost Asuma, and then more than half her team. He was useless, useless. Just taking a nap while they'd needed him, letting Pain take them. What would his mom say?
Hinata was dead, along with Shino. They'd failed. And now Naruto was nothing more than a monster, chasing after Pain and leaving them behind.
What a joke.
Kiba shook his head hard enough for his vision to blur, and then spun to Chōji, repeating his question more forcibly.
"Chōji. How's Ino."
"She's… she's better," Chōji said slowly, shaking his head. "She's barely bleeding anymore. Her lungs still messed up, but…" He took a shuddering breath, his tears finally tapering off. "Kiba, you've got to see this."
"What is it?" His hand settled on Akamaru's head as he limped forward to stand next to Chōji, and his partner whimpered, nuzzling at his side. Kiba closed his eyes. Everything hurt: his whole body felt like it had been turned inside out, and with Sakura gone, that wouldn't be changing anytime soon.
And he was in the best shape of anyone left.
"Chōji, what is it?"
"It's Naruto," the Akimichi breathed out.
Kiba reached Chōji, and saw what he had.
"Oh shit."
The Kyuubi was firing chakra lasers.
That was… unexpected.
Pain grimaced and struck out, wrapping himself in gravity's harsh protection. The crimson beam glanced off his arm and shot away at a seventy degree angle, effortlessly cutting through a nearby tower's right side. The structure began to sag, leaning away from Pain as it began its inevitable descent.
Just another destroyed building. He could rebuild them after this thing was sealed. All of them, and more.
But sealing the monster in the first place…
Pain had drawn the Kyuubi farther from the center of the village. Here, in the midst of the residential sector, the buildings were shorter, and tightly packed together. If you weren't in a street, you were in an alley. If you were on a rooftop, it was a mere hop to reach the next one over. It was an atypical area of the village, where the skyline was relatively "flat" for about a kilometer, with towers spiking up at the edges of the district once more.
It should have been the perfect battlefield for him. So long as he could see the Fox coming, he could negate it, and he was slowly but surely draining more and more of its chakra. Soon enough, it would be weakened enough for the final sealing.
But the Kyuubi wasn't doing what he'd expected of it. Instead of charging into the maze of residential blocks to be taken apart by the Path's superior numbers and maneuverability, it had systematically begun leveling everything in its way in an attempt to reach him.
And then the damn lasers had come out.
Now, there wasn't much left.
There was a screech, and the Kyuubi came again, effortlessly tearing through several tons of concrete on its way towards the Deva Path. It was a blaze in the darkness of the village, spitting red energy everywhere, lighting up the streets like a menacing sunset. Everywhere the monster touched, thick steam rose in blinding clouds: the evaporated remains of weeks of fallen rainwater, cloaking its approach. Pain stood his ground, and leveled his hand.
The Shinra Tensei hit the Kyuubi, two unstoppable forces clashing, and Pain strained, his lips peeling back. The Kyuubi made a sound, an awful, world-ripping sound, like one thousand nails across one thousand blackboards, and pushed forward just an inch.
The Rinnegan widened.
It was like the last time. The beast was resisting the jutsu, denying Pain's will. But this this time-
The Kyuubi howled, and something invisible snapped.
The Shinra Tensei rebounded, its unstoppable force turned aside and sent for its source, and Pain careened backwards, tumbling across the wreckage of his village and leaving divots in the concrete wherever he struck. His body refused to slow down. Through four buildings, five, six, seven… Pain lost count, the world becoming nothing more than a series of sudden crashes and flashing impacts, before the Deva Path finally rolled to a halt. For all the trip had done, it had only come away with a broken rib, easily ignored.
The Kyuubi stalked forward, before the Human Path went after it, followed by the Asura. The screech came again, and the first Path was bowled backwards, thrown by the sheer strength of the Kyuubi's roar.
The Asura grinned, its body splitting open like an obscene flower and revealing an enormous cluster of missiles growing out of its back. They lit and flew, intent on the monster.
The Kyuubi just roared again, and from its mouth spat a series of scarlet blasts of violent chakra. The orbs met the missiles in midair and exploded, taking the projectiles with them. Then, the Kyuubi turned towards the Asura, more of the scattershot blasts gleaming in its mouth.
It spat, but instead of the mechanical Path being blown away, the Preta leapt in front of it from a nearby rooftop, and the scattershot bijuu-blasts were absorbed, their destructive energy rendered harmless.
Which was why Pain was so irritated when a claw comprised of pure bubbling chakra burst from beneath the ground and disemboweled the Preta Path, leaving the Asura open to the last of the scattershot, which tore both the bodies apart in an explosion of fierce red chakra and old, cold blood.
The Kyuubi was clever, despite its animalistic nature. That was the second time it had pulled a trick like that.
It had been more enjoyable fighting Naruto. At least Naruto had had things to say, even if they were grating and hopelessly naive. The Kyuubi was just endless rage and tortured screeches.
And lasers. Burning, city block-destroying, unnaturally keening lasers.
Another of which was coming right at him.
Pain used the same technique he had before, sheathing himself in gravity. But unlike before, he did his best to aim the reflected attack, sending the beam of malicious chakra right back at the Kyuubi.
The laser bit into the shoulder of the Kyuubi's skeleton, still floating above the flayed puppet that Naruto's physical body had become, and the monster screamed, instantly cutting the attack and breaking into a run towards the Deva Path.
It ripped apart three summons that tried to intercept it on the way there, tearing a monstrous bird from the sky with more scattershot, tangling itself in an enormous bear's guts, and decapitating a chameleon. Then it was upon him, trailing blood and who knew what else, its blank white eyes still unerringly wide and thirsting for his death.
This time, Pain didn't use the Shinra Tensei. He just kicked it in the face instead.
He broke off two of the monsters snaggle-teeth, eliciting another scream. The Kyuubi lashed out with a rending claw, and Pain rolled over it, ignoring his burning skin. He landed another spinning kick on the monster's face in the middle of the roll, removing more of its teeth.
Which was when a chakra claw burst from its chest, seized his leg, and slammed Pain into the ground hard enough that everything ten meters around jumped a foot or two into the air.
Pain smiled.
'Now.'
All five of the other Paths of Pain struck from the sky like the fist of god, driving black rods into the Kyuubi's spine and limbs, smashing it to the ground with a screech and creating a wide crater. The monster squirmed as the Preta and Human Path set to it, drawing its energy out. The Deva Path rolled away.
They'd leapt from nearby skyscrapers, fresh bodies added to the fight. Pain had given up on reviving fallen Paths: the Kyuubi was too fierce and left too little, and it cost less chakra to simply divert his energy to one of his backup bodies. Now, he had twenty-four left. More than enough.
The Kyuubi roared, and Pain straightened up, watching it with interest. His chakra was filling it, pumped in through the rods buried in it. And with the Preta Path drawing its chakra away in spades while the Human Path weakened it, it couldn't resist much-
More hands sprouted from the Kyuubi's back, along with an additional tail, ribbed in bloody bone. Pain blinked.
In the time it took his eyes to slide back open, the Kyuubi tore the rods from itself and stabbed them deeply into the Preta Path and Human Path's Rinnegan, utterly destroying them. The remaining rod was slashed through the Path's throats, and then the Kyuubi pulled, decapitating them both in a welter of blood.
Then it turned and hurled each of the heads, now little more than bloody pincushions, at the nearest Paths.
The Animal Path took one of the heads to the chest and staggered back, the Preta's face firmly pinned over his heart. The Naraka attempted to strike the projectile out of the way, but the Human Path's head was moving too fast for even Pain to track effectively: the deflection missed, just sending the head spinning on a new course, and the rods stuck themselves in the Path's upper arm… before the head continued onward, and took a chunk of the Path's arm with it.
Then the Kyuubi moved, and the Animal Path was suddenly little more than paste, a wide arc of blood splattering out behind him as everything above the waist disintegrated before the Fox's rage.
All this in the time it took Pain to raise his hand.
The Kyuubi turned towards him. Bare muscles had joined the bones wreathing it, falling over the floating skeleton. It was starting to look like a nightmarish anatomy lesson, various layers pulled back to reveal the red horror underneath. The concrete under its feet cracked, and boiling steam was still constantly rising around it, colored crimson by the monster's aura.
The Deva Path took a step back while the Asura charged in, its arms transforming into an endless series of blades, chains, and energy weapons.
"I have to use it, Konan. Now."
"In the village? Are you sure-"
"It's not slowing down. I thought it would have tired by now, but it's just growing angrier."
"Nagato-!"
"Don't worry. I have a plan."
The Asura Path lasted about two seconds before the seven-tailed Kyuubi reduced it to spare parts.
Those two seconds were all the time Pain needed. He brought his hands together, looking like he was muttering a prayer. One of his hands drew back in a fist, an un-light radiating from between the loosely closed fingers.
Then he charged.
The Kyuubi saw him coming, and sent its tails after him with a snarl. Pain danced between them, drawing closer. Grasping hands erupted from beneath the ground, and he vaulted over them, steadily making his way to the beast. A bout of scattershot burst from the Kyuubi's mouth, and Pain leapt clear through the blast.
The dodge didn't slow the man down. He reached the Kyuubi, and the beast reared back to slam its entire body down on top of him and crush Pain beneath its boiling weight. Pain thrust his closed fist upward, driving it into the Kyuubi's chest.
Then, he opened his hand, revealing the tiny orb of nothing there. It drew even the light into it, appearing as a small void in the darkness of Amegakure's streets.
The orb flew up out of his hand, and it pushed the Kyuubi in the sky, carrying the monster with it. The thing screeched, shaking the air, and lashed around with its claws and tails, but it couldn't escape the orb, and was steadily drawn ever higher.
Pain watched it go with just a hint of grim satisfaction. Then, he raised his hand, pointing it at the orb and the Kyuubi, both rapidly growing small in the distance.
And he made a fist and said, quite clearly, in a voice that demanded obedience-
"Chibaku Tensei."
There was a pregnant silence.
And then, quite suddenly, the rubble from any destroyed buildings for kilometers around raised itself into the air, rocketing towards the Kyuubi. Hundreds of tons of concrete and steel, floating through the air, growing faster and faster as it drew closer to the un-light of the orb.
The rubble smashed into the Kyuubi, crushing the monster down, and it screamed even louder. Fire and hate built up around it, melting the closest rubble down to little more than slag, but more and more metal and concrete poured on, and soon the Kyuubi was entirely obscured, covered by the quickly heating remains of dozens of Amegakure's buildings. They formed a smashed orb around it, about one-hundred meters in circumference.
Pain took a deep breath. Now came the tricky part.
He pulled.
Across Amegakure, from its great reservoirs, smashed water towers, from the great lake surrounding the village, and even from simple puddles, great spirals of water rose into the air, drawn towards the orb. They wormed through the sky like hungry roots, drawing closer and closer to the Chibaku Tensei.
Then, with a speed that seemed infinitely slow due to the distance, they began to wrap around the orb, wreathing it in clear, utterly flawless water. Within ten seconds, the sphere had doubled in size. Then tripled. Then quadrupled.
Pain pushed, and the water pressed in, compressing to a ludicrous degree. More spiral swept up to feed the orb, and it continued to grow in size. Pain could feel the Kyuubi, deep within, being crushed under the utterly unreal pressure of the hundreds of thousands of tons of liquid pressing in on the rubble already encasing it.
Pain tightened his fist, grunting with effort, and added another hundred thousand tons just to be safe.
Nagato panted, blood slipping from his nose and mouth.
"There," he choked, sounding like a man who'd just run a marathon or two and then fallen down a long flight of stairs. "That should do it."
Konan looked out the window, taking in the product of Nagato's will. It was an enormous silvery sphere, almost one thousand meters in diameter, composed of rippling, almost flawless water. If she looked closely, she could see just the barest hint of the core of concrete and steel in the center, containing the Kyuubi. It hovered over the village like a divine pearl, in complete defiance of gravity, held up solely by Nagato's will.
"It's huge," she said, entranced. "Did it really need to be so…"
"The Kyuubi was moving to eight tails," Nagato explained, trying to straighten up and even out his breathing. He was failing at both. "I had to use as much to contain it as possible: any less might have been too weak."
"And now?" Konan asked with concern.
Nagato smirked, ignoring the blood still trickling from his nose.
"There's no way it will escape."
Outside, everything was pain and pressure. Naruto resembled a crushed soda can more than a person: he was wreathed in chakra that had boiled away his skin and was working on his muscles, the press of the rubble and water had reduced several of his bones to little more than paste, and it was all crushing in closer every moment.
But inside, it was quiet.
Naruto was drowning.
Somewhat literally, in that his head was submerged in copper, foul smelling water that gleamed in the low light of the sewer-prison, but mostly in loathing.
His own loathing, and the loathing of the looming darkness behind the towering bars before him.
PATHETIC.
Naruto raised his head from the water. The filthy stuff ran from his hair over his glazed eyes. The blue remained untouched, for now, but the pupil's black had been replaced by crimson: it stared out, a red pinprick, steadily expanding, in a blue sea.
YOU CAME HERE JUST TO SAVE ONE PERSON, AND AN UCHIHA BESIDES. The Kyuubi snorted, shifting its paws and laying one over the other. It laid its enormous head down on them, the only thing clearly visible behind the bars. The rest of its body was cloaked in shadows. Its slit pupil eyes glared out, filled with mocking amusement.
AND IN RETURN, YOU LOST EVERYONE WHO CARED ABOUT YOU, it sniffed.
"Not everyone," Naruto offered in monotone, rising to his feet. The water lapped at his ankles. "I still have Kakashi-sensei. Jiraiya. Sasuke is somewhere out there…"
The Kyuubi chuckled, baring teeth the size of Naruto. YOU NEVER FAIL TO AMUSE ME, NARUTO, it laughed. DO YOU REALLY THINK THEY'LL TAKE YOU BACK? AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE?
Naruto blankly stared at it. The last trace of blue in his eyes was wiped away, replaced by the Kyuubi's scarlet. His jacket tore open, and the Seal on his gut was revealed. The ink looked like it was writhing.
YOU KILLED EVERYONE, the Fox laughed. ALL THE TIME THINKING YOU WERE SAVING THEM. AND NOW, YOU CAN'T EVEN HURT THE MAN WHO TOOK THEM.
Naruto took a shuffling step forward, towards the cage. The Kyuubi watched him come with a frightful smile. Slowly, the seal on Naruto's stomach was melting, the intricate spirals becoming nothing more than a gaping, pitch black hole in his gut.
YOU'RE STILL WEAK, the Fox growled. YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING, CAN YOU NARUTO? ALL YOU CAN DO IS GET PEOPLE KILLED.
"All I can do…" Naruto muttered. A single tear ran from his crimson eyes, quickly forgotten. The hole in his gut began to spill ink, coloring the fetid water around him.
THAT HYUUGA GIRL, the Kyuubi pressed. Naruto had nearly reached the cage, his shuffling that of a sleepwalker. The water around his feet rolled, ripples dancing away from him. They carried the ink that poured from his gut with them, slowly shifting the color of the rest of the water just as black. SHE TRUSTED YOU SO MUCH. SHE WANTED TO SPEND THE REST OF HER LIFE WITH YOU. I COULD FEEL IT. AND ALL THAT GAVE HER WAS A QUICK DEATH.
Naruto's hands balled into fists.
"Pain," he said, shaking violently. The water began to quake, the whole prison trembling. A bit of stone fell from the ceiling, and the bars vibrated.
He looked up at the Kyuubi. "I can't kill him," he said. Tears were leaking from his eyes freely. "I'm not strong enough. He took them. I can't… I can't…"
YOU CAN'T, the Kyuubi said softly. I CAN.
It rose to its full height, whipping its tails about behind it, casting a shadow darker than the dark over Naruto, and stared down at him, its eyes gleaming and its teeth shining in the not-light. Naruto took one last step forward, and suddenly, the shaking throughout the prison stopped. The water stilled, the ripples dying away. It was entirely black now: the abyss surrounded Naruto on all sides, with the only light lying in the gleaming red eyes of the Kyuubi.
I CAN DO WHAT YOU CANNOT, the Nine-Tailed Fox said as Naruto stared up at it. I CAN AVENGE YOUR FRIENDS: I CAN MAKE PAIN PAY FOR WHAT HE DID TO YOU.
AND ALL YOU NEED TO DO, NARUTO, IS REMOVE THE SEAL.
Naruto's gaze drifted down, away from the Kyuubi. To the scrap of paper adorning the centerpiece of the great gate keeping him and the beast separated, with a single kanji adorning it.
Such a tiny thing. Tiny and fragile, yet it held back something like the Fox.
Naruto's hand reached forward, almost of its own accord. He watched it go with a detached interest.
If he tore that Seal off, he would die. Without a doubt. But so would Pain.
And right now, what was Naruto worth compared to that?
His fingers slid behind the paper, and he pulled. The Seal began to tear away from the bars, slowly, like it was resisting him. One strong tug, and Pain would die.
A hand dropped onto Naruto's shoulder, and he stiffened, his fingers freezing. The Seal remained where it was.
"Naruto."
A voice.
A voice he didn't know. It was male, and strong: it spoke his name like an old friend would, but Naruto had never heard the man before in his life. And the way the voice's hand clutched his shoulder was unlike anything Naruto had ever felt. It was warm. The hand fit him.
Naruto turned, not letting go of the Seal, and found himself staring into the face of the Yondaime Hokage.
He let go of the Seal. His arms dropped to his sides, and the red receded from his eyes.
"What?"
"Hey." The dead Hokage smiled, like Naruto was the best thing he'd seen in his life. He was his own light in the abyss of the sewer, his hair just as blond as Naruto's own.
"What're you doing, Naruto?"
The Yondaime Hokage, dead for sixteen years, the man who had sealed the Kyuubi inside of him, asked Naruto Uzumaki what he was doing. Naruto shook his head, blinking. The ink had stopped pouring from his gut. His eyes were blue again, the pupils no longer slit.
"What am I… doing?" the teen echoed back, his arms limp at his sides. "What… what are you doing?" he asked, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. "You're dead!"
"Yup," Minato Namikaze carelessly admitted.
"But… what?" Naruto murmured, stepping back. The Kyuubi watched him go, growling lowly.
YONDAIME HOKAGE… it rumbled, lowering its head to glare at the man. YOU WOULD FOLLOW ME EVEN HERE?
The Yondaime turned his head just slightly towards the monster, looking over Naruto's shoulder. "Apparently," he said flatly.
The Kyuubi snorted. WHY DON'T YOU FOLLOW ME A BIT CLOSER, THEN? it said, its malice pouring through the bars of its cage. PERHAPS WITHIN REACH OF MY TEETH.
"I'll stay over here, if that's alright with you," Minato said with a bare, mocking grin.
Naruto just stared between the man and the monster having an unpleasant conversation in his head.
"What…" he said, his voice a husk of itself. "What's happening?"
"You tripped the safeguard," Minato explained with a calm smile.
"Safeguard?" Naruto whispered.
"I worked it into the Seal," the Yondaime said, maintaining his content smile. He hadn't removed his hand from Naruto's shoulder. "In case it was ever unraveled to the point that the eighth tail would emerge. You'd have to be in serious trouble for that to happen, of course," he added.
He looked at the Kyuubi again. "Not exactly pleasant to meet with that loud jerk again, or know that you're in so much trouble…" The Yondaime smiled, for real this time. "But I can't lie: I did look forward to seeing you, Naruto."
"Why would you... " Naruto muttered.
Minato took a deep breath as Naruto watched him with alarmed eyes. "It's not every day a dead man gets to meet his son."
'his son.'
Meaning, of course, 'my son.'
Talking to him. The Yondaime Hokage, in his head, talking to him about safeguards and seals and seeing-
'My son.'
That didn't make any sense. Not at all.
He couldn't be the Yondaime's son.
"You are."
Had he said that out loud? He couldn't tell anymore.
"You said that too."
Naruto shook himself, along with the Yondaime's hand from his shoulder. The man let it happen, continuing to watch him with a calm smile.
And that's why his smile was so calm, wasn't it? Because he was seeing his son for the first time, meeting his son.. trying to…
Trying to what?
TRYING TO STOP YOU.
Naruto looked around. The Yondaime (his dad) didn't react to the voice. He hadn't heard it.
The Kyuubi was in his head. Distantly, it seemed like that wasn't a good-
TRYING TO KEEP YOU FROM KILLING PAIN.
No, that wasn't right. That wasn't…
But…
"You… the Yondaime Hokage is my dad?" Naruto whispered.
Minato squeezed his shoulder, giving him all the answer he needed. But Naruto didn't feel any sort of relief at the contact.
Instead, he just felt a bitter chill slip down his spine.
His dad was here, but it was too late.
"And I'm looking forward to learning about who my son has grown into," the Yondaime said, his smile widening. "But first, we should probably go somewhere a bit quieter, huh? That guy–" he indicated the Kyuubi, "can get a little–"
"Where were you?" Naruto interrupted.
Minato turned his head in a slight question. "What do you mean?"
Naruto surged forward, seizing his father by his shoulders. "Where were you?" he asked intensely. Minato blinked, taken aback by the desperation of Naruto's question.
"I… Naruto, I've been dead for your whole life," Minato said, raising one of his hands to his sons. For the first time, he sounded uncertain. "I don't-"
"Why did you die?!" Naruto asked. He was starting to cry thick tears. "Just to seal that thing inside me?!" He pointed at the Kyuubi, the gesture violent, and the Fox's ears flattened. "Do you know what I had to go through because of you?! My own dad?!"
Minato just stared as Naruto's voice grew louder, becoming a shout. His eyes narrowed slightly, and his smile faded. He looked concerned. Naruto didn't care. He released his father's shoulders.
"Everyone in the village hated me! I had to work as hard as I could, everyday, trying to get their respect, trying to prove I could be someone, just so they'd stop looking at me like I was trash! Like I was just something to get kicked out of the way on the street! But it didn't matter what I did! They just kept watching me with those eyes, and all because they thought I was a monster!"
Naruto sniffed, taking a deep breath, and Minato didn't interrupt him. "But then, things started to get better! I made friends, I proved myself to my teachers, I got on a team! But people still thought I was trash, still thought I was dead-last, so I worked harder, and harder, and harder, and I showed them what I could do, but it was never enough! And then Sasuke left-"
Minato shifted at the name, but Naruto barely noticed. He crumbled to his knees, clutching at his head.
"And I left the village with Pervy Sage to get even stronger, so I could get him back! But then these guys called the Akatsuki came after me-" He looked up, his eyes furious and sad. "And then I got Sasuke back, I got strong, I had friends, I trained…"
AND THEN YOU THREW IT ALL AWAY.
"And then I came here and threw it all away!" Naruto roared. "I wasn't strong enough to protect Sasuke, wasn't strong enough to protect my friends, wasn't strong enough to fight Pain-!" He started punching the ground repeatedly, shaking the whole prison. "Never strong enough! I still can't win!"
He looked up again, his whole body shaking. "And you know what?! Now, all those people who looked at me with dead eyes, who wouldn't talk to me, who called me a monster behind my back… they're all right!"
At that, Minato finally moved. He crouched down, reaching for his son. "Naruto. You can't really think-"
The blond hiccuped, tears pouring freely. "'Cause I am trash! I am a monster! I got my friends killed because I was too stupid to listen to them, and now Sakura and Shikamaru and Shino and Lee and Neji and Sai and Tenten and Hinata are dead! All because of me!"
He shot to his feet, knocking Minato over. The Yondaime hit the ground with a splash, watching his son with horrified eyes. "Naruto! You have to calm-!"
"And I can't do anything about it!" Naruto shouted to the invisible ceiling of the prison, weeping, his hands curled into trembling fists. "I'm still too weak!"
BUT NOT I.
Naruto stiffened, his whole frame freezing. His father watched in horror as his eyes flashed back to red again. The teen shuffled around, and his father sprung to his feet, grabbing his son's hand.
"Naruto! Listen to me! The Kyuubi is-!" the shade of the Yondaime said desperately, squeezing Naruto's hand.
Naruto turned, and punched his father in the face as hard as he could. The Yondaime fell back with a shocked look, and the Jinchūriki loomed over him, his eyes gates to hell itself.
"And you!" Naruto said in a voice that was barely his own as his father reeled. "You're no better! You put the Kyuubi in your own son! You died for your village, but didn't give a damn about your kid! And now, when everything is already over, when there's nothing you can do, you come in and say 'Hey Naruto, what're you up to?!'" Minato stared in horror as thick red chakra began oozing from Naruto's mouth along with his words.
Naruto snarled. "You're not my dad! Parents are supposed to look out for their kids! They're supposed to protect them, not shove demons in them!"
"I was protecting you!" Minato shouted, scrambling to his feet. The light in the prison, what little remained, flickered. "I was giving you the power you'd need! I knew you'd be able to handle it-"
Naruto stepped forward into another punch. Minato caught it, pushing their hands down between them. "Handle it?!" Naruto screamed. He yanked his hand back, and an dark abyss spread between the father and the son, the water coursing with new blackness. "How the hell could you know that I could 'handle it'?"
"Because you're my son!"
Naruto blinked, and for a moment there was utter silence in the prison.
The red faded from the blond's eyes, and chakra ceased seeping from his mouth. He stared at his father, his eyes flat and sad.
"You're the only person in the whole world who thought I was worth something," he said, as if he had just realized one of the universe's greatest secrets.
"That's right, Naruto." Minato stepped forward, reaching out. The abyss shrank back. "You're my son. I knew you'd be able to use the Kyuubi-"
"You were wrong."
Minato stopped, stricken.
"That thing has been nothing but trouble. And now because of it…" Naruto paused, swaying on his feet. "It would have been better if I'd died that night," he finally said flatly, his words hammering his father back. "At least then, my friends wouldn't be dead now."
And then he turned away, striding for the Kyuubi's cage.
"Naruto, you can't!" Minato shouted, chasing after his son. The prison stretched out, the field of water becoming an infinite plain of darkness, and Naruto's hand slipped just beyond his father's. Minato couldn't reach him, no matter how hard he tried. The Kyuubi grinned, its eyes glowing in the darkness. "You still have people left! You still have friends, mentors-!"
"They deserve better," Naruto said, not looking back.
He reached the cage, his hand coming up to rest over the Seal. He paused, and then turned back to his father, still an infinite distance away, and yet close enough to touch.
"I'm sorry, dad," he said. Naruto wasn't crying anymore. His face looked glazed over, the gaze of a sleepwalker. "That you were wrong."
"Don't!" Minato screamed. The prison quaked, and the Kyuubi smiled, baring its man-sized teeth. "Naruto, please don't-!"
Naruto Uzumaki ripped off the Seal.
The cage flew open, and the prison became raging air and deep, menacing rumbling. Minato's hair blew back, and the water exploded away, a tidal wave that melted into the abyss.
HEH.
The Kyuubi stepped forward, leering. Its lips pulled back unnaturally, revealing more and more teeth. Naruto fell to his knees, convulsing, and the shade of Minato took a step backwards, watching in horror.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The Kyuubi threw back its head, roaring in laughter. All nine of its tails flared out behind it, and its mirth shook the whole prison, bringing down bits of the roof and turning what water was left choppy as it shifted to a vibrant, baleful red.
The laughter slammed Minato to his knees. It never seemed to end, pouring over him and making his bones feel like they were made of lead, like his blood had turned to plasma. The Yondaime twitched, and pulled himself back to his feet.
The Kyuubi leaned down, still laughing, and Minato leveled a finger at it.
"Kyuubi!" he declared. "If you touch my son, you will not be forgiven!"
The monster glared at him with a single red eye, its smile still stretching, taking up more than half its face.
BUT HOKAGE-SAMA, it said, turning the title into a slur. YOU GAVE HIM TO ME. IT WOULD BE RUDE NOT TO ACCEPT A GIFT.
Then it opened its mouth, and as Minato watched, unable to do anything but scream in fury, it swallowed Naruto whole.
The Kyuubi reared back up, and Minato's son was gone.
THE BOTH OF YOU, JUST USELESS, the monster sneered, striding forward. The full extent of its monstrous bulk was gradually revealed, nearly two hundred meters of malevolent fox slinking out of the darkness. YOU COULD HAVE RESEALED ME, LITTLE FOOL. ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS OVERPOWER YOUR SON, BUT YOU WERE UNABLE TO. YOU LET ME GET TOO MUCH OF A HOLD. AND NOW...
Minato just stared, trying not to sink back to his knees.
He'd failed. Completely and utterly. Naruto was gone, the village had lost the Kyuubi, and now the Bijuu stood over him, the only victor. All he could manage as a shade was watch his achievements in life crumble around him.
THOUGH EVEN USELESS, YOU'RE STILL A HASSLE, the Kyuubi observed. YOU CAN'T HOPE TO RESEAL ME NOW, BUT YOUR PRESENCE IS KEEPING ME FROM ASSUMING COMPLETE CONTROL. The Fox frowned. THAT MORON WON'T BE GONE UNTIL YOU ARE.
The Kyuubi raised on of its monstrous claws, drawing a shadow over Minato.
BUT THAT'S EASY TO FIX, the Bijuu growled.
Then, the claw struck for Minato with blinding speed. The Yondaime dodged, leaping out of the way, but the beast's tails swept around, and he was forced to leap high to avoid him. Which was when the Kyuubi's other hand came around, its claws set on his chest. Minato watched it grimly. His hand came back, an eerie blue swirl forming in the darkness of the collapsing seal. He couldn't dodge now: the only way to stop the claw would be to meet it with his own attack.
The fatal blow stopped barely a foot from his chest, and Minato fell, landing safely. The Kyuubi didn't press the attack.
The Yondaime looked up without comprehension, maintaining the oversized Rasengan in his right hand. The Kyuubi's arm was wrapped in gleaming golden chains, with fearsome spikes buried in its flesh. The Fox snarled, unable to move its arm even an inch, and then opened its mouth in a frustrated roar.
YOU!?
And then, Minato heard a voice he'd never thought he'd be lucky enough to hear again.
"Me, you jackass!"
WRETCHED WOMAN! RELEASE ME! I'LL TEAR YOU APART!
Minato turned his head, and started as a familiar hand settled on his shoulder. The Rasengan faded.
"You're here too?" he breathed.
"You put me in here, numbskull." The woman sounded like she was on the razor edge of rage and amusement.
"Heh." Minato rubbed the back of his head. "That must have been after I got inserted. I didn't know."
"Very considerate of you, giving us a chance to be together like this." The hand squeezed his shoulder. "Where's Naruto?"
Minato flinched, and then indicated the Kyuubi. "In it."
The air froze, and the grip on his shoulder became very painful. "Can we get him out?"
Minato narrowed his eyes. "His chakra is still present. And…" He looked around, taking in the cracked, quaking prison. "The seal is still somewhat intact. So long as we keep the Kyuubi here, within the seal..."
"He won't die," Kushina said distantly, like a hypothermic batting at a life raft. She looked around. "But it's already breaking down."
There was a pause, to which Minato had nothing to offer. It was true. The Shinigami's Seal was breaking down: even if they kept the Kyuubi within its shattered remains, it would eventually collapse on its own. Then the beast would be truly free, and Naruto would be as good as dead.
All they could do was borrow time.
He heard a slow breath, and then a deep, unladylike laugh. The prison trembled, the water kicking itself up into a frenzy, and for just a moment, the Nine-Tails looked worried.
"Well then. Guess we got no choice but to try, right?"
Kushina Uzumaki stepped forward to stand beside her husband, the golden chains sprouting from her back still snaring the Kyuubi.
She bared her teeth, and for a second she looked more like the Fox than it did.
"C'mon, Minato. Let's go save our son."
Okay.
Enough with the hope crushing.
Let's do something cool instead.
Serendipity, out.