Not Sick Chapter 25
Love
Sasuke pulled Naruto from the guts of the Kyuubi with a sickening squelch, and the Bijuu screamed again.
BASTARD! it screeched, the sound far more horrible than the squelching of its stomach being torn apart. WRETCHED UCHIHA! I WAS FINALLY F-!
"Shut. Up," Sasuke commanded, and the Kyuubi fell silent, mouth still hanging open, glaring at the Uchiha. Its eyes twisted, the tomoe of the Sharingan swirling into them, and its gaze became glazed. The turbulent chakra across it died away, leaving matted, bloodlike fur.
Sasuke hefted Naruto over his shoulder and leapt from the beast's stomach, landing without a splash. The Kyuubi slovenly lumbered to its feet, the silence stark against its earlier threats. Slowly, it rumbled back towards the wide open set of bars, the flesh Sasuke had torn from its stomach drooping down below it. Gradually, the loose skin was being drawn up, stitching itself back together.
The Fox settled down, curling up with its tails framing its face. As Sasuke strode away from the cage, Minato raised his hand, fingers extended. He twisted it counterclockwise, and the great bars began to swing shut. The Kyuubi growled, its last bout of resistance, but slowly, its eyes began to droop closed, hiding the spinning tomoe. As the Bijuu's eyes finally slipped shut, the cage doors met with a resounding slam, sending ripples through the water. A kanji drew itself over the point where the two doors met, solidifying into paper, and then everything became still.
The Kyuubi was sealed.
Sasuke sighed, depositing Naruto on his feet. The blond swayed, as if drunk. One of his feet slipped back and he caught it, shaking his head. Naruto's stance strengthened. He looked up.
His skin was covered in burns, which were slowly steaming away. And his eyes…
Sasuke didn't look away, but he almost flinched at the look. He'd seen it before, in a lake just a week after his family's death.
"Sasuke?" Naruto said again, stretching out a hand, as if he could hardly believe it. Sasuke frowned, and grabbed his hand. Naruto sucked in a breath.
"How-?"
"That doesn't matter right now," Sasuke said, looking over Naruto's shoulder. The blond started to follow his gaze, confusion stacking on his confusion. "I have to go, Naruto."
He did. This wasn't his place or time.
Naruto's head snapped back towards him, terrified, and Sasuke shook his head. "I'll be right outside." He wondered if that was the right terminology. It didn't really matter, did it? Outside was outside. "When you're done here, wake up, will you? I think I might need your help."
"Done here?" Naruto echoed, blearily blinking. "What do you…"
"You have someone to talk to, I think," Sasuke said. He glanced at the redhead behind Naruto, who stood stock still, staring at the back of her son's head. The barest hint of a smile slipped onto Sasuke's face.
"My mother sends her regards, Kushina," he said, just loudly enough for the woman to hear. Then, he faded out of existence: there one moment, gone the next.
###
Naruto stared at where Sasuke had been. Then, he slowly turned around.
He stared some more.
His father, and a woman he didn't know, stared back.
"Hey," Minato said, as if he were talking about the weather. The greeting sunk into the newly won silence like a stone to the bottom of a pond.
Naruto blinked. "...Dad?"
"Oh, you say hello to him, but you just ignore me?" The redhead stormed forward, her face set in a fierce grimace. Minato watched her go with the slightest of grins. Naruto turned towards her, longheld instincts about angry women worming up through his numb shock.
"Who-?" he had time to ask, before the woman swept him into a rib-cracking hug.
"Don't ever do that again, you dumbass!" she said. She was crying, Naruto realized. Just barely, the withheld sobs lending her voice a jagged, faltering edge. Why was she-?
Naruto froze, his arms pinned at his sides. Someone pressing themselves against him, warm. Completely vulnerable, pinning him… and his father standing behind her, smiling at the both of them.
"Oh god," he said dully. Kushina. That was what Sasuke had called her. Kushina pulled back just the tiniest bit, and Naruto looked at her as if she'd just declared she was an alien goddess from beyond the stars.
"You're my mom, aren't you?"
Kushina smiled at him, her whole face lighting up. It looked vaguely familiar. "Hey, Minato!" she shouted back at the Yondaime, tears still leaking from her eyes. "Looks like he got your brains and your hair!"
Smiled at him.
Naruto couldn't tear his eyes away. It hadn't clicked with him before, but now… she looked just like him. Same jaw, same cheeks, same forehead, same nose-
No. He looked just like her.
Except for the eyes, and the hair. Grey-violet to blue, and vivid red to blond. Those, Naruto realized, he'd gotten from his dad. Not his mom.
His mom.
Oh god. His mother was hugging him. Naruto realized it all over again. His heart jumped.
What was he supposed to do here? Hug her back? Was that what you did?
Maybe he should. Just bring his arms up. How hard could it be?
Naruto tried. He really did.
His arms twitched, refusing to rise. His whole body was shaking. Was he hurt? No. Yes. He was definitely hurt. But that wasn't it. His eyes were burning.
He was crying. He hadn't even realized it. Why was he crying?
Oh, right. His parents were here.
Naruto collapsed.
Kushina caught him, her face twisting in concern.
"Hey, Naruto!" she said. "What-?"
He started laughing. Tears were freely flowing, but Naruto couldn't stop laughing.
"I can't believe it," Naruto said, his voice breaking up. The tears came stronger, but he didn't bother to wipe them away. His hand came up, cupping his forehead and hiding his eyes, and the Uzumaki stood, his feet to unstable to take him anywhere.
"I get to meet you. Finally. I've..." He swallowed heavily, but then gave up on the effort, breaking into a bout of manic giggling interspersed with the occasional sob. "I've been wanting to meet you my whole life. It was the first thing I ever remember wanting. I wanted to know who my parents were. I wanted to touch them, talk to them." The blond laughed. "And I finally get to…"
He broke off, his laughter ratcheting up. "But today?" The sound became more and more obvious as weeping. "I meet you today?! I get to meet you when I'm like this? It's not…"
Naruto gagged, his whole body shaking. He sank down, his hand remaining on his forehead. Kushina was still holding him. "It's not fair! I didn't want it to be like this!" He ripped his hand away from his face, revealing his torn expression. "I wanted to be something you guys could be proud of! Not some idiot who got his comrades killed!"
He snapped his head towards Minato. "And you're the Hokage. My dad was the Hokage! And I…" He looked back down at himself, then up at the golden not-sky. "I'm this?"
He shook his head. "It's not fair. It's not..."
Something overwhelmed him, and Naruto broke off, his voice failing. Kushina's grip silently tightened on his shoulder, and he gave up.
Naruto crushed himself into her, clutching his mother as tightly as he could. His whole body occasionally spasmed, desperately trying to hold back what he could feel welling up inside him. He didn't want to break down. Not right here, not right now. That wasn't-
Sobbing, weeping, wailing. It didn't matter what it was called. Naruto felt himself tearing open. All the helplessness, horror, rage, fear, agony, and desperation that had been building up inside him, not just since he'd entered Amegakure, but from his very first memories, from the first time he remembered trying to talk to someone and them just turning away in disgust from his excited babbling, from the very beginning-
It all poured out of him. It was completely overwhelming. He couldn't manage it. There was a red rage filling him, the kind of anger that would easily let him burn the whole world down and laugh as he did it, as his friends were torn apart and the villages fell to ashes around him. A horrible, gripping sorrow, like someone was crushing his heart, snapping his ribs and stabbing them into him over and over. And then, perversely-
An enormous, flowing warmth. Brighter than the sun, hotter than fire, closer than his own skin. It was filling him up, smothering the sorrow and choking the rage. He'd never felt anything like it. It was that instinct, the kind that gut feeling that everything living thing under the sun could hold within themselves, something as naturally as breathing, but that Naruto had never had the chance to familiarize himself with it.
His parents were here. Now, everything was going to be alright.
That didn't stop him from crying into his mother's shoulder. She didn't pull away. Her hand came down gently on his back, and he twitched at the touch.
"Shhh, Naruto," she whispered. "It's okay."
Somehow, that just made the sobbing worse.
Kushina helplessly glanced back at Minato. He just shrugged, stepping forward, and enveloped the both of them in a wide hug. Kushina stifled a giggle, but it was joined by more tears. She closed her eyes, and Minato tightened the hug.
Naruto's family stood huddled, arms wrapped around each other.
And Naruto wept.
"I don't know what to do."
Time moved oddly in golden place: it was impossible to judge precisely how long they had been there. Moments seemed to melt into hours and hours solidified into seconds, but everything moved with a kind of purposeful sluggishness.. There was only a vague sensation of it slipping by.
Nevertheless, Naruto had cried for a long time.
Now, his tears had finally died a dry death. He'd stepped back from the both of his parents. They'd remained shoulder to shoulder, just… grinning at him. He could tell they were feeling something just like he was.
But now, even if the confusion had dulled, even if his ribs weren't crushing themselves, even if he could stand up straight…
"I don't know what to do," Naruto repeated, quieter.
'Help me.'
He couldn't voice it, no matter how much he wanted. But that was what parents did, right? They helped their kids. They-
'Didn't put demons in them.'
"Did you mean what you said?" he asked, looking up at Minato. No, looking up at his father. He still couldn't make that connection in his head every time that 'His Father' and "The Yondaime" were the same person.
His father shifted. "What do you mean, Naruto?"
Naruto swallowed, one of his hands tightening into a shaking fist. He closed his eyes. "Back… right before I opened the seal. I said… things." His hand opened up again, deliberately relaxed. Minute twitches betrayed it. "I, uh, told you that parents didn't put things like the Kyuubi in their kids."
His parents shared a glance. Kushina pursed her lips. "Naruto…"
"But then... " Naruto continued, his muttering the only sound in the golden light. "You said that you knew I could handle it." He paused again, taking deep breaths, trying to keep himself under control, and opened his eyes. His father locked gazes with him, and for a moment, they stared at each other, the same shimmering blue reflected in each others.
"Did you really-?"
"Of course," Minato affirmed without hesitation. Naruto blinked.
'Because you're my son!'
"Because…"
"You're my son." Minato grinned gently, an unwitting echo of Naruto's memory. "I hope you'll forgive me for being arrogant, Naruto, but if anyone could handle the Kyuubi, it would be you." Kushina smirked at that.
Naruto just stared at them.
Minato's grin faded, just a little: burnished silver instead of shining steel. "Naruto, I need you to listen to me. We aren't going to have much time."
"What?" Naruto's heart dropped out of his chest, and he staggered forward. "Why-?"
"Sealing the Kyuubi wasn't an easy task, even with your friend's help," Minato explained. "It took up most of our chakra. So I need you to listen to me, Naruto. We'll have to leave soon."
Naruto stared, horrified. "That's not…" He froze, and then shook his head. There was a hollowness spreading inside him, eating his lungs and heart. "This is all my fault."
"Oh?" Minato asked. His smile stayed fixed, and there was no judgement in his voice. Naruto didn't understand why.
Naruto shook. "I messed up." He tilted his head back with a ragged breath, staring at the non-sky. "I messed up so badly that there's no way I can possibly make it right. Everyone died, and it was all my fault and... and I just…" He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. "Gave up. I just let the Fox out. I swore I'd never do it again and I just… and now you have to go-!"
He lowered his head, grabbing at his hair with a vicious violence. Minato and Kushina shared a glance. Minato frowned, and Kushina's eyes narrowed to slits. After a moment, Minato relaxed, subtly nodded. Naruto only distantly noted their glance in his peripheral vision, preoccupied with the acid boiling up through his lungs.
"I'm pathetic," he sneered, disgust and shame curdling his voice. "I'm sorry I let you down, Dad. I just-"
"Naruto."
Naruto looked up just in time to see his mother stepping forward with a placid look on her face. Then, she cocked her fist back. He had just enough time to make a single, confused sound.
"Eh?"
Kushina punched him in the face with every bit of her strength.
The impact was a flash of white fire, burning away the world for a single blinding second. This might not have been fully real, but it certainly felt like it was. Naruto fell backwards, jarringly crashing to the 'floor' with a pained grunt. Kushina took another step forward, standing over him, staring down with furious violet eyes. Naruto looked up, shocked.
"Don't talk shit about my son," his mother said.
"Wuh- what?" Naruto spat out, trying to scramble to his feet. "What the hell are you-!"
"You!" Kushina swept forward, seizing Naruto by the front of his jacket and jerking him forward. "Don't talk about yourself like that! Do you think I want to hear my kid say such terrible things about himself?!" She growled at the notion, her grip tightening. "You are not pathetic. Keep saying things like that, and you're just going to try and-!"
She broke off, biting her lip in unconscious mimicry of Naruto. "What?" he demanded.
"Kill yourself! Again!" Kushina let out, the words striking her son into a moment's stillness.
But only a moment's.
"Kill myself?" Naruto bit out through clenched teeth, his hands forming into fists again. Every inch of him tingled painfully. He didn't know what he was supposed to be feeling. Shouldn't he have been happy he wasn't dead? That Sasuke had saved him? He wasn't feeling- "I was trying to kill-!"
"Trying to kill Pain, right? So you let the Fox out?" Kushina cut him off. Naruto glared at her, unconsciously slipping his feet into a stance that would allow him to break her hold. They were almost truly alone: the Kyuubi was unconscious, Sasuke was gone, and Minato just watched, waiting to step in.
"It was the only way! I couldn't have done it alone!" Naruto yelled back, his teeth bared in fury. "I had to kill him! And-" he froze, thunderstruck by what had wanted to burst from his mouth.
'And I didn't want to live with them dead.'
"Even if that's true, that's not why you did it!" Naruto gaped at her, unable to say what was so desperately scrabbling at the inside of his head. How could he say something like that?
He didn't even know who this was. His mom? He'd met her today. She was still a stranger, wasn't she?
Naruto didn't move, remaining still, gazing ahead without seeing anything. Kushina pressed in, shaking him.
"Why'd you let the Kyuubi out, Naruto? Just so it would kill Pain? Even though doing so would kill you? Why would you-?"
Naruto tore his mother's hands away from his front with a single violent motion and an indistinct shout, staggering backwards. He curled over, looking as if he were about to throw up. His mother just watched him, crossing her arms with a huff. Minato stepped forward, extending his hand, his son's name on his lips.
"Naruto…"
"I didn't deserve to live!" Naruto shouted. Both of his parents recoiled. "After what I did?! Why the hell should I be alive when they aren't?! Every one of-!" His voice broke like cheap china and Naruto doubled over, panting, his whole body heaving. After a stunned pause, the blond shook his head, closing his eyes. "If I died, and Pain went with me…" He looked up at his parents, his eyes gleaming with loathing. "That was the best option!"
There was a deadly silence.
Kushina's eyes flared, her entire body shaking in rage.
"Bullshit."
Naruto went still, the word sending something ringing through him.
Kushina burst forward, tackling Naruto to the ground. One Uzumaki went down without resistance, the other holding him as close as possible.
"You can't really believe that!" Kushina screamed in his face, tears running freely from her eyes. Naruto stared blankly at her. "You can't believe such...!" Her voice broke, just as Naruto's had, and her last two words were reduced to a wretched, dragged out whisper. "-horrible things!"
Minato slowly walked forward, his shoulders gradually slumping, as though burdened by millions of tons. His hand gently descended onto his wife's shoulder, but Kushina ignored him, seizing Naruto's hands and pulling them close, cradling them.
"Stop lying!" she cried, her voice falling to pieces again. "Stop-!"
Naruto wasn't listening. He barely noticed his mother screaming and crying, his father squeezing her shoulder, the way his body was being violently rattled. He wasn't there anymore, in the gleaming golden plane with two shades of his parents desperately asking him why he'd just made a decision that would have killed him.
'Bullshit!'
He was somewhere else.
'B-bullshit.'
He was two weeks ago.
The golden world fled.
He was in a small town.
Kushina jerked up, looking around in confusion as the world shifted, a startled "What?" escaping her. Minato's hand dropped to his side, a casual ready position. Naruto stayed on the ground, just staring. No matter where he looked, he was seeing the same thing. And so were his parents.
A town that had once been a stronghold of the Uchiha: dominated by looming grey architecture and narrow, high-walled streets. Naruto was standing in the dead town with dead men and dead women.
Minato and Kushina suddenly weren't the only shades in the place between reality and nothingness. They were joined by young Konoha ninja, faded and pale, imperfectly remembered reflections of a long-perished moment. They appeared without a sound, snapping into existence with the same weariness that the rest of the world seemed to be painted in.
This was a moment. An echo, from the past and not set for the future. Naruto was about to make a decision that was going to kill him.
Pain was its architect, again. And just like the last, it revolved around the Kyuubi; Naruto's existence was set to swirl down the drain that the seal on his stomach had been spreading under him his whole life.
Minato looked around, taking in the memory, but Kushina was staring at something in particular. Of all the reflections, there was one that wasn't pale. Wasn't faded. Wasn't half remembered, imperfectly drawn. And unlike the others, which just silently watched, specters to the living's plight, it spoke.
'I said...'
That reflection stepped forward, her face drawn in a fierce frown. She spoke, each word delivered like a hammer blow to the foundations of the universe, and Naruto twitched.
'That. Is. Bullshit.'
"No…" Naruto muttered. "Not you. Please." Minato looked at him, realization flashing across his face.
The Hinata Hyuuga of two weeks ago, being dead, did not care about Naruto's plea. She stepped forward, her Byakugan activating in her anger.
'This is what you will do? This is your nindō? This is what…" Naruto trembled, his lips moving but nothing emerging. 'This is what I d-decided to be? Who I decided to follow? No. This IS BULLSHIT!'
A ghost of Pain watched the proceeding with clear interest. Minato stared at it, taking in the six men who had caused his son such agony. His hands instinctively curved around knives that weren't there. Kushina, meanwhile, continued to watch Hinata, along with Naruto. The blond slowly pulled himself to his feet, not taking his eyes off the dead girl. Off of the memory.
'What happened to never giving up? What happened to never running away? What happened to never going back on your word?' Naruto shook, reaching out towards the shade. There was muttering, all around him: his friends had been calling out encouragements, but he'd barely heard them. Now, in the memory, they were nothing more than wind brushing along his clothes.
"I can't…" he muttered. "How am I supposed to… I got you killed. Everything I did. I got everyone killed-"
'Naruto.'
His hand stopped an inch from Hinata's face. She was staring at him. Staring through him, but her eyes held the purest sincerity. Kushina sucked in a breath at the look.
'I know you don't want any of us to get hurt.' Naruto let out a sound like his lungs had been stabbed clean through, shaking. It just made Hinata's smile more paradoxical. 'And I'm glad. But please-' Her gaze hardened, and while Naruto just stared, lost, Kushina almost smiled. 'You can't stop believing in yourself just because things get difficult. No matter how much pain you've been in, no matter how much suffering you endured, you always got back up and always kept going.'
Naruto blinked.
'Don't stop now.'
The village melted away, the shades vanishing like smoke in the wind and the midday light replaced by brilliant gold once more. Hinata and Pain were the last to go, the Hyuuga's gentle smile and the god's gleaming Rinnegan fading in the same moment. Naruto's hand was left reaching for nothing. He stared at it, slowly turning it around so that the palm faced him.
There was one last echo in his mind. His parents didn't hear it.
'I've spent my life t-trying to catch up to you, and now… I won't let you throw yourself away when I'm so close.'
Naruto's eyes narrowed, and he let out a choking breath.
'You won't leave me behind, not ever again.'
As Naruto brought his hand closer to his chest, still staring at it, his eyes so intently fixed that his gaze might have pierced it, Kushina looked to husband.
"What was…?" She trailed off, unable to bring what she'd seen to words. She'd been there, in that memory. They all had been.
"Amazing," Minato whispered. "Jiraiya-Sensei talked about this. I think… I think we just saw something that hasn't been around for a long, long time."
Kushina cocked her head, but Minato just shook his. "It doesn't matter. Not really. What matters is what we saw." He looked to his son, who was still just staring at his palm, watching something only he could see. "Naruto?"
Naruto suddenly and violently closed his hand into a fist, his arm shaking with exertion. He took in a deep breath. His father was talking to him. He turned his head, not opening his fist.
"Who was that, Naruto?" Minato asked.
Who was that? Naruto turned the question over in his head. It wasn't as simple to answer as he would have considered it three weeks ago.
"Hinata," he decided on. "Hinata Hyuuga."
"One of your friends?" Minato asked.
Naruto nodded, finally unclenching his fist. "She was the last," he muttered. Minato winced.
"She's right, you know," he said. Naruto fully turned to look at him, his hand dropping to his side.
"Right?" Naruto parotted.
"You can't give up just because something has gone wrong."
"This isn't 'gone wrong,'" Naruto said, staring his father down. How could he not get that? "Things have gone so wrong they're never going to be right again. How can I get back up after something like this? It isn't…"
"So you're just going to lie down and die?" Minato cut him off as he searched for the next word.
"What else could I do?" It was a genuine question: Naruto had no idea what his father could possibly answer with.
"Fight."
Kushina stepped in with a lethally serious look on her face.
"You fight."
"Why?" Naruto asked. "After what I caused…"
He didn't expect an answer. But worming up through him, there was an undeniable hope that his mother would give him one anyway. He should have been dead. After getting pulled out of the Kyuubi's stomach…
Wait. Sasuke.
Naruto blinked. And then again.
'I think I might need your help.'
He'd practically forgotten, between his parents, the memory, and his own despair, that Sasuke was alive. That he'd saved him.
Naruto laughed. It almost didn't matter. It was the tiniest of victories against an enormous backdrop of failure. Saving Sasuke certainly wasn't worth getting everyone else killed.
"That girl loved you."
Naruto's thought process couldn't have been more thoroughly derailed if his mother had reached into his head and physically ripped his brain out. He jerked towards her, surprise sweeping across his face. Kushina just watched him with knowing eyes.
"I saw it," she said, continuing to advance on Naruto. "The way she looked at you. It couldn't have been more obvious." Her mouth quirked, but her eyes narrowed. "Did you know?"
Naruto's mouth was dry. "Y-yeah."
Kushina's lips pressed in a firm line. "And you're just going to ignore her now that she's gone?"
"Wuh… but I…" Naruto stammered.
How was he supposed to answer that?
"I understand, Naruto." Kushina stepped forward, looming over her son. Her eyes were warm and hard at the same time. Naruto couldn't look away, even as they burned into him. "I've been there. I was the Kyuubi container before you. And there were times when I felt like the whole thing was pointless: that I should have just uncaged the damn thing and laughed while the world burned down around me!" Kushina let out a tinkling little chuckle, and Minato flinched. "It would have been easier. But…"
She shook her head, reaching out to take his hand. Naruto didn't resist. His mother's hand was warm, and squeezed him forcefully. "It wouldn't have been right," she said with a bitter grin. "Just because you're hurting, doesn't mean you don't have things worth living for."
"My friends were what I lived for," Naruto muttered. "Now-"
"They're not all gone," Kushina said forcefully. "Sasuke needs your help. He said it himself." Naruto twitched, looking up at her. Kushina grabbed his chin, keeping his gaze fixed on her.
"And even if they were..." she said, refusing to let him look away. She bared her teeth, and it reminded Naruto of himself once more. "That would be a stupid way to die."
Naruto stared as his mother continued. "And I won't let you keep thinking that way!" Kushina declared. "There's no way my son is going to die over something as moronic as not knowing why he should keep fighting, when it's right in front of his face!"
"Naruto." Minato's voice cut down Kushina's towering presence, and sliced through Naruto's numbness like a knife. "Your mother's being a bit rude about it-" Kushina huffed, releasing Naruto and crossing her arms. "But she's right."
"I realize it seems hopeless. And that you feel you should punish yourself." Minato didn't walk forward to put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, as he had before: he just held his gaze with electric blue eyes. "Making decisions that lead to people's death is not something that can easily be ignored. Shouldn't be ignored."
"What-?" Naruto started to say, before he realized the obvious.
"You were the Hokage," he murmured.
Minato nodded. "Under my command, thirty-seven genin, fifty-two chunin, fifteen jonin, and two of my students died. Some of their deaths were my fault: I sent them after an objective they couldn't handle, or couldn't arrive in time to reinforce them. Some of them weren't." His mouth flattened out. "Sometimes, things just go wrong. It can't be escaped." His eyes creased. "And when that happens, it's not your fault. It is solely the fault of the enemy. You are not the one to be blaming right now."
Naruto stared at him, unable to decide what his face should be showing. "... I'm not?"
Minato shook his head, walking forward. "You didn't kill your friends. Pain did. And like your mother said-" he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and she shot him a smug grin, tempered by a deep sadness, "-choosing to die just because your friends followed you to the man that would kill them would be a stupid way to die. Even if the Kyuubi had defeated him, you still would have played right into his hands."
The Jinchūriki blinked. "I didn't-"
"Naruto."
"Wait," Naruto hissed, and his father frowned. The blond struggled for a moment, wracked by an internal war.
Was his father right?
He'd almost thrown it all away. Just to get back at Pain. Just because…
How stupid was he?
Naruto's eyes grew wide, and he gritted his teeth.
"I can't just… let them have died. For no reason. That would…"
"That would be a betrayal," Kushina said gently.
Naruto sucked in a breath. "And I can't go back on my word. I can't just… give up. Even if…"
'Don't stop now.'
"I can't let them down," he breathed out, straightening up.
'I can't let her down.'
"Especially if they're dead. I can't break a promise like that. That would be..."
Kushina frowned. "You can't fight out of guilt, Naruto," she said. "Don't get back up because it would shame the dead if you didn't. That won't carry you far enough. It can't be for revenge, or spite, or self-pity. You won't survive."
Naruto jerked, his hands clenching into fists. "But-"
"Oh, I know." Minato picked up Kushina's slack. "You must hate more now than you ever have before, don't you Naruto? Who could blame you. You're fully within your right." He drummed his fingers on his left thigh. "Pain's taken so much from you."
"I'm going to kill him," Naruto said. The words were as harsh as a winter's sea. "I can't… forgive him for something like this."
Minato nodded. "Good. He sounds like an enormous threat. If he really was powerful enough to force you into the eighth tail, neutralizing him now would be the best idea." Kushina glanced at her husband, and he nodded to her. "But Naruto… you have to be very careful."
"Careful?" Naruto whispered. "What is there to be careful about? I'm going to wake up. I'm going to help Sasuke. And then…" He blinked, and his expression fell into a murderous snarl. His hand strangled an invisible throat.
There was an awful crimson anger pulsing through him. But this wasn't the sickness that the Kyuubi pushed into him. This was completely human. It make his blood sting, his limbs tremble, his teeth ache. The murderous tide was filling him to the brim.
"I know, Naruto," Minato smiled warmly. Now, he stepped forward. His hand came up, cupping Naruto's face. "And you're right to do it. But you have to be careful. Revenge is a dangerous path."
"It's not revenge," Naruto muttered, unable to tear himself away from his father's hand.
"That's the trick, isn't it? You're going after a man who has hurt you so deeply you considered death better than continuing the fight. That is not something you can do without certain dangers." Minato closed his eyes.
"Don't let yourself be eaten by your grief," he whispered, bringing his face closer to his son's. "Jiraiya's talked to you about revenge, right?" Naruto nodded, and Minato grinned back. For the first time, he looked almost… scared.
"Don't become just another man looking for revenge," he implored. "You have so much potential within you, Naruto. More than just the Kyuubi." He sighed, as Naruto stared at him, almost awestruck. "You're our son: I know you're more than another pawn of that poisonous cycle."
"I…"
"No." Minato stopped Naruto in his tracks. "Keep moving forward. Don't give up. Don't ever give the world an inch." He bared his teeth in frustration. "I'm sorry. We're almost out of time."
"What? Already?! But-!" Naruto yelped, looking from his father to his mother.
"Listen, Naruto." The Yondaime's hands came down on both his shoulders. "Please. There are things I need to tell you."
Naruto squirmed, something bitter eating his mind. This wasn't fair. This was impossible. He'd just met them. They couldn't leave now. "But you're going to-!"
"Listen," Minato whispered, and Naruto stopped, his shoulders shaking. Minato kept him in a iron grip as Kushina approached the both of them.
"I've resealed the Kyuubi. The seal is tighter than it's ever been. You shouldn't have to worry about it influencing you for a time. But you're going to have to deal with it in a more permanent fashion eventually. No matter what, the cage won't hold forever."
Naruto's eyes narrowed, but he nodded.
"Secondly…" Minato trailed off as Kushina's arms slipped around him and Naruto. He was only silent for a moment, before he took a shaky breath and continued.
"The night I sealed the Fox into you… There was a man there." Naruto's glare intensified. "He attacked Kushina and I less than a minute after you were born, when her seal was at its weakest. He removed the Kyuubi from your mother, and forced me to seal it in you or doom the village."
"Who…" Naruto glanced between his parents, the red fury in his blood only thrumming louder.
Minato shook his head. "I don't know. He was an Uchiha, wearing a mask." Naruto's eyes went wide as his father continued. "He had some sort of jutsu that made him impossible to touch. Space-Time techniques more versatile than my Hiraishin-"
"I've met him." Naruto spat out the words as if they were burning his mouth. Minato's mouth snapped shut.
"You've met-?"
"He's the guy who took Sasuke here." Naruto took a deep breath. "He's the one who lured me in. Pain is one of his men. They have this plan to-"
Minato raised one of his hands off of Naruto's shoulder, holding it in the air as a clear sign to stop. "Specifics doesn't matter, Naruto. They're clearly planning something bad if they need the Kyuubi." He frowned. "I don't want to put this on you. Not now, not ever. It's a cruel joke that a father has to ask his son to complete his work."
"You need me to stop him?" Naruto asked.
Minato wordlessly nodded.
For the first time in what seemed like a long, long time, Naruto smiled. It wasn't much of one: a gaunt grin, stretched unnaturally in places and without any sort of inner light to back it. But it was a smile nonetheless.
"I promise, Dad. I'll take care of him."
Minato stared at him for a moment, and then nodded and returned the smile.
"I believe you, Naruto. " He tightened his grip into a true hug, bringing his son close. "I believe in you."
"We believe in you," Kushina growled, crushing the both of them. Minato let out a pained chuckle, and Naruto just closed his eyes. There were tears budding behind them once more. "Don't forget that, okay?"
"I won't." Naruto trembled, tightening the hug even further. "I swear. I won't let either of you down. Ever again."
Kushina smiled, ignoring her own tears. "There's no need for that, Naruto," she said gently. Her son looked up at her.
"Just live," she grinned. "We know you'll do your best."
"That's all we can ask."
Naruto laughed, a sound that was both painful and short.
"I'll try."
They remained like that for what could have been five seconds or five hours. It didn't really matter which. However long it was, it wasn't as long as Naruto wished it could be.
Golden motes, like frozen sunlight, began to rise from Kushina's shoulder. Minato glanced at them, and then at the back of his own hand with a weary resignation as it began emit the same light. Naruto opened his eyes, and watched the motes go with a special kind of terror.
It was now or never.
"Thank you," he blurted out. Both of his parents shifted to watch him. Naruto stared back, trembling.
"Just… thank you for saving me. And having me. And thinking I'm not some…"
He broke off, his throat closing off. "This is so stupid. You shouldn't have to leave so soon-!"
"It's not fair, Naruto," Kushina whispered. "We know. You never deserved this."
"The world is not a just place," Minato said with a gentle smile. "I'm sorry that you had to realize this so young, Naruto." His grin widened. "But it doesn't have to be. And remember-"
Kushina looked up, and despite her tears, despite Naruto's terror, she smiled. Then she looked to her husband. They were practically transparent now. But as she looked back to Naruto and spoke as one with Minato, the force of their words imposed reality on the world as surely as iron would have.
"We love you."
Then, they both burst into a gleaming cloud of dancing golden chakra, washing over their son. The warmth poured over him, and Naruto closed his eyes, clutching at something that was no longer there. Each touch of the light felt like a gentle stroke, a loving kiss, thousands of them prickling his body.
And then, the light passed over him, and his parents were gone.
The golden plain vanished. The dull, coppery water and the enormous cage returned, and Naruto was left with the Kyuubi once more.
Alone. Again.
He let out a single, vicious sob, hanging his head and clenching his fists so hard his palms bled. Behind him, the Kyuubi slept.
Naruto's head slipped back, and he looked up, without really seeing anything. His parent's words echoed through his head, hammering into the cracks and smoothing over the crevices.
Slowly, his hands unclenched. He closed his eyes, tears still leaking from them, and let his entire body relax, going slack. His breath began to slow, finally evening out.
Naruto breathed everything out, and was left with a single word.
'Fight.'
"Bye mom," he whispered to the prison. "Bye dad."
There was a still moment in the purgatory, and then Naruto sighed, opening his eyes.
"Thank you."
Then, Naruto Uzumaki woke up.