OP:Scar/let by ReoNa
"How did you break out of my genjutsu, Naruto Uzumaki?" asked Itachi, the red-haired Chunin shouting, "YOU MADE ME WATCH HER DIE!"
"This power isn't chakra, but ki!?" said a surprised Chiyo. "Inconceivable! No mere shinobi from any of the five Hidden Villages can utilize ki, especially one as dark as this!"
"Kakashi-sensei, what's going on with Naruto?" asked a worried Sakura.
"I don't know. This is the first time I've seen this," Kakashi told Sakura while keeping his guard up. "He's not only using the Kyuubi's chakra, but that dark power as well. If those energies put together is enough to make me this hesitant to move..."
[Ninja Gaiden 2 Soundtrack - Dark Aura]
Itachi quickly weaved hand signs and performed the Fireball Technique, spewing a large ball of intense flames at Naruto, who knocking the technique into the sky with a swipe of his right hand.
"What!?" Before he knew it, Naruto disappeared and reappeared above the Uchiha, executing a front flip as he brought the heel of his left leg down upon his opponent's right shoulder, fracturing Itachi's right collarbone. Before Naruto could touch the ground, he delivers a dropkick to his enemy's chest, knocking him away and landing on his feet. Itachi had to take out a kunai and stab it into the ground to stop himself from flying backward. This left him open as Naruto uses an upward right kick to send Itachi up into the air. Magic circuits appeared around Naruto's right fist as he reappeared above the Uchiha and punched his opponent into the ground below, the force of the impact creating several cracks in the ground, which form the kanji for Heaven. To his anger, the Itachi Naruto was fighting turned out to be a clone, the original hiding behind a tree.
"Satsui no Hado...Naruto is letting that power control him. This is bad..." Itachi dodged immediately as Naruto pinpointed his location and came close to decapitating him with a horizontal karate chop, destroying the tree he was behind just now.
"COWARD! FIGHT ME!" Naruto demands as he constantly kept Itachi on the defensive. If it weren't for his Mangekyo Sharingan anticipating the blond's movement's far better than his younger brother's regular Sharingan, he'd already been dead from Naruto's first attack.
Summoning chakra and ki in his right hand, Naruto does three swiping motions, sending three slicing chakra waves at Itachi, who nearly gets cut by the last one while dodging the projectiles. Naruto doesn't relent when he uses Wind Release: Multiple Air Grenades, throwing a ball of compressed air that scatters into several small put powerful balls of air that explode upon contact with the ground, leaving behind small craters.
The force of one of them knocked the Uchiha back, who recovers while falling backward, throwing four kunais, with explosive tags wrapped around the handles, at Naruto. Infusing with and condensing a mass amount of wind-chakra to form a massive red and demonic-like claw extending from his left hand, Naruto grabs the kunais with it and lets them harmlessly explode in it before releasing the smoke caused by the explosion at Itachi, disrupting his field of vision. Itachi stayed on high alert, wondering where the red-haired demon Naruto went. Seeing a shuriken fly at him from above, the Uchiha jumps back as it embeds itself into the ground.
The shuriken opens up, releasing a powerful sonic attack that disrupted the Uchiha's balance as Naruto ran into the smoke and brought his right fist down on him and knocked him to the ground with a left uppercut.
"Sensei, why are we standing here instead of fighting with Naruto?" Sakura asked Kakashi, wanting to help her teammate and unwilling to be a spectator.
"Sakura, if we join in now, we'll die," Kakashi warned, Sakura's eyes widening in shock from Kakashi's answer. He was scared of Naruto? "With the way he is now, I don't know if I'll be able to subdue him without killing him."
"That boy's ki, coupled with the use of the Kyuubi's chakra, is consuming his very soul, not only making him a danger to Itachi, but to himself, and us as well," Chiyo revealed. "If this keeps up, he'll be far too gone to save."
"What can we do to help him!?" Sakura asked the old lady.
"We're lucky he hasn't been in this state for long. If he was, we wouldn't stand a chance. The only way to save him is to calm him down, and to do that, we need to bring out a strong and positive memory within his mind, one that means the most to him." Kakashi tells Chiyo it wasn't going to be an option since none of them knew any genjutsu or ninjutsu that could do that.
"Amateurs," Chiyo called the two. "How about I show you what a true puppeteer can do with the Puppet Technique?" While Naruto was distracted with Itachi, Chiyo was able to imbed her chakra strings into the back of his head. The Uchiha looked confused as Chiyo sent signals into the blond's brain with her chakra, forcing him to remember a memory that meant the most to him. As Naruto was incapacitated, Itachi seized this moment to attack the blond, only for Kakashi to get in his way.
"I don't think so," He told the former Hidden Leaf ninja.
[Music End]
3 years ago
Tokyo, Japan
Jiraiya's House
"Moka's a nice girl, isn't she?" Kureha asked Naruto as they sat next to each other, non-alcoholic drinks in hand, while watching Moka and Compa talk to Rin, having just met the latter today.
"You think so?" he asked, to the shrine maiden's surprise. After a few seconds, Kureha laughed at him, much to the blond's confusion.
"You're so cute when you're hopeless," she said to him in a gentle voice.
"What does that mean?" Kureha doesn't give him an answer, instead, she tells him, "I'm sure you'll figure it out. It'll be quite a shocker if you take more than a year to do so."
"I'm sure I'll find the answer..."
"I look forward to hearing it when you find it...Moka asked me if I was your mother." Naruto's ears perked up when Kureha told him that. Smiling to herself, the shrine maiden takes a sip out of her glass of cranberry juice. "To think Moka made this by hand...I couldn't really answer her. Sure I joke about how I act like one to you, calling you a Momma's Boy and all, but I never really thought about it. I always thought of myself as your older sister...but a Mother...Not sure if I am Mother-material."
"...I think you are."
[Kimetsu no Yaiba OST - Nezuko's Theme]
Kureha's eyes widened as Naruto went on with why he said that.
"You cooked meals for and with me, you carried me on your back whenever I overdid my training, nursed me when I was injured, got angry with me whenever I said or did something you didn't like or disapproved of, called me to make sure I am doing well and was making friends and made time to come here to visit. I don't know what my mother was like, but if I did, I think she'd be like you, and I'd be very proud to have you as my mother, Kureha." The shrine maiden said no words as tears of happiness flowed down her cheeks. With her left hand, Kureha gestured Naruto to come close to her so she could give him a hug.
Now
As the powerful memory enveloped him, Naruto stopped his rampage, the Satsui no Hado receding as Naruto's hair, eyes and clothes go back to their usual colors, the others watching on, surprised Chiyo was able to return him to his usual self.
"How did..." While Naruto was distracted by Chiyo's method of saving him, Kakashi, who had a shadow clone keeping Itachi in place, called out to him.
"Naruto! Pull yourself together! Attack him and my clone before he breaks free!" Snapping out of his thoughts, Naruto immediately forms a Giant Rasengan in his right hand and strikes Itachi with it, creating a large crater around him and the Uchiha underneath the powerful technique.
[Music End]
Once Itachi was defeated, Naruto's allies walk over to him to inspect his body. To Chiyo's shock, and Kakashi and Sakura's confusion, it wasn't Itachi Naruto killed, but a Hidden Sand Jonin named Yura.
"I was wondering why Itachi was too easy to handle," said Naruto. "Even while I was on a rampage, I noticed he wasn't as strong as when I first encountered him with Pervy Sage. If it was him, he would've used stronger ocular techniques."
"How can this be?" asked Sakura, wanting to know how Yura was able to use the techniques of Itachi Uchiha, Chiyo telling her she didn't know herself.
"Was Yura a spy for them?" Kakashi asked.
"Can't be...He served the village for four years."
"Whatever the case, we should get moving again before Akatsuki finishes extracting Shukaku from Gaara's body," Kakashi told them before they resumed their mission.
With Itachi
Elsewhere
You're done too?" Kisame asked Itachi, having had his impersonator killed by Might Guy.
"Yes. I'm out of chakra, but that was enough to delay both teams,"
"We did give the "sacrifices" 30 percent of our chakra."
"It is a useful technique," Itachi admits to his partner. "However, the impersonators are limited in strength and in the techniques they use since we don't grant them much chakra." As the pair resumed helping their fellow Akatsuki members extract the demon inside of Gaara, Itachi was reminded of the dark power Naruto utilized, the Uchiha recalling a demon-like fighter he faced who utilized the same dark power, whom he defeated, but spared.
"A loss of someone who truly cared for you, and rediscovered emotions that came out after realizing what you've truly lost...Will your soul be saved? Or will it be swallowed by the darkness..."
Night
With Kakashi
"Hey, Old Lady Chiyo..." The old lady turned to Naruto as she and the others made their way to Akatsuki's hideout. "Thank you, for...you know, what you did."
"It was no trouble at all...That memory of yours, I saw it too." Naruto's eyes widened when the old lady told him she saw what he remembered. "It was beautiful..."
"Thanks..."
"Lady Chiyo, what did you do exactly?" asked Sakura, curious about Chiyo's method of getting Naruto to calm down.
"I simply embedded my chakra strings into his brain and sent signals into it to have him remember a good memory," the old woman answered before explaining it further. "The drawback is that I view the memory I order him to remember as well. It can be a good technique or a bad one depending on who you're using it on. It's an original technique of mine I created after years of being a puppeteer."
"That's incredible," said Kakashi.
"To be honest, I was hoping to use it on the White Fang so he can recall the memory of him killing my son and his wife before I kill him." Kakashi sweats a little, knowing the reason why she invented the technique. "A shame he's not alive for me to do so."
"...If it means anything, I am sorry my Father killed your son." Chiyo looked very surprised when Kakashi apologized on behalf of his late father. "As his son, I carry his sins with me..." Chiyo lets out a sigh and tells him, "You just had to go on and apologize. It makes me less angry with your father...What he did was unforgivable, even if he was following orders...But now I have no reason to get angry after an apology from The White Fang's son." Naruto couldn't get how just a simple apology from Kakashi was enough to quell the anger Chiyo had towards his sensei's father. She had it for several years, and it just vanished right here and now. Naruto's focus on Chiyo switches to Sakura when her stomach growls, to her embarrassment.
"We should gather some food and fill our stomachs before resting up. Naruto-"
"Got it..." Kakashi grew concerned as Naruto got up right away and left to forage for anything edible in the forest.
"...I should go help him out. Just to make sure he doesn't bring anything poisonous back." Once Chiyo left to help the blond chunin, Sakura took the time to ask Kakashi about Naruto.
"Kakashi-sensei, what did Naruto see in his genjutsu? He mentioned a "she" when he shouted at that Fake Itachi. Who was he referring to that made him that way?"
"...Sakura, do you ever pay attention to who Naruto hangs out with?" Kakashi asked the pink-haired kunoichi. "Naruto even got angry with Sasuke when he threatened her. That time, his ki wasn't as dark as it was now."
"Sorry..."
"...Do you remember the attack on the Hayabusa Village several months ago?" Kakashi asked Sakura, who told him she did remember since everyone in the Hidden Leaf was talking about it.
"Naruto was close to the shrine maiden there. She could be considered his mother, given the way Naruto would listen to her and worry about her safety, like any son towards their mom. She was...one of the strongest shrine maidens I've ever met, along with one being one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen." Kakashi goes off topic a bit talking about how he had a chance to get to know her, though it wasn't a date he adds.
"...She was one of the casualties of the attack." Sakura's face looked horrified, now getting what was triggering Naruto's dark powers. "Jiraiya gave me a report on his condition following news reaching to him. On the outside, he looked fine, but inside...it took some time for him to realize just how broken up he was about it, a side effect of the village's influence on him. Ever since her death, he's been keeping up appearances for the sake of those close to him in Japan. Now that he's back here..."
"Kakashi-sensei? Will Naruto become like Sasuke?" Sakura asked her sensei.
"...I don't know. At the moment, he's able to be subdued, but from here on, anything is up to fate. I only hope he can find a way to move beyond the suffering he's become victim to..."
With Naruto
Naruto had eight rabbits he killed and skinned, along with several herbs he picked out. He had just killed a deer with a kunai to its jugular, walking over to it and carrying it over his shoulder.
"You're quite the hunter..." Naruto tells Chiyo he knew she wasn't here to help him while preparing to walk back to the others.
"I'm well aware that you want to talk about me," he replied.
"I'd rather talk about this Kureha woman you hold in high regards," she told him.
"...I rather not." Naruto turned his back to her as he made his way back to camp with the bounty he gathered, Chiyo following him from behind.
"Tell me, why continue being angry with the unfairness of the world? From the bits of memories I was going through, you're aware that her killer was destroyed by Ryu of the Hayabusa Clan, your ki master. Why hold onto it? Can an old woman at least understand that? I may not have much time left to live with the age I'm at."
"...I had no one. No one to come home to. I have friends, peers, and yet, I still feel all alone. Kureha was the first person to tell me she'd be the person I could go back to. I felt happy to hear those words, but as much as I hate to say it, I couldn't convey the emotion well. As time went on, she became an important influence on my life. She could have gone back to the Hayabusa Village after the Sand and Sound attacked, but she stayed for me, for my sake. Kureha gave me the feeling of what it was like to have a mom, a parent, to come home to and say, "Tadaima", and get a response, to say "You're doing a good job!" and "You can do it!". I had known her for two and a half years, yet...I always wanted her to stay with everyone forever. I wanted her to continue living so she could celebrate my birthdays, continue to cook meals together, see me graduate, read my books, even get married. Now it won't happen. She's gone, and I'm left with a reminder that I wasn't there when she needed me as I needed her..."
"It never gets easy when you lose someone very dear to you," Chiyo said in an understanding tone. "Same for me, and the same for you. I wanted my son and his wife to continue living for their son, Sasori, up until they grow old, like me. Unfortunately, that never happened. My son and my daughter-in-law are dead, and Sasori deserted the village and became part of the Akatsuki...I was furious, and sad, just like you. The pain we both feel is deep...but it won't always last forever."
"Is that why it was so easy to forgive Kakashi-sensei's father? Despite what he did to your family?" Naruto asked.
"It was a long time ago, and it was during a time where every Hidden Village was at war with each other. Tell you the truth, I had long given up on my hatred for the White Fang after hearing of his death. When I thought your sensei looked like his father, I thought of it as a means to come to terms with my loss, and you know how that turned out since you stopped me."
"Sorry..." Chiyo assured Naruto it was okay and that making mistakes was natural for teens his age.
"...The fiend that killed her is dead. I am glad Master Ryu was the one to kill him, yet...I wanted to do it, to avenge her. But since I can't get my revenge...what am I supposed to do with all this rage and emotions Old Lady Chiyo?"
"Naruto-boy...Only you can find that out yourself. Others can tell you how to cope with this, but it's ultimately up to you to solve the question of how to move past the suffering in your heart." Naruto looked like he took the old woman's words to heart, who told him they should hurry back to camp.
"Right..."
"A word of advice before we regroup with your team, Naruto-boy. Getting your revenge won't always give you the closure you need. You have to think about how the dead should feel. Remember that." Finally regrouping with Sakura and Kakashi, the latter tells Naruto he and Chiyo took their time gathering food.
"Just be patient for a few more minutes," Naruto told the hungry Jonin. Once Naruto finished cooking, everyone dug into the cooked deer, and rabbits Naruto made for them, making sounds as if they tasted heaven as they dug into the cooked meat.
"By the way Naruto, that shuriken you used in your fight with...Fake Itachi, what are they?"
"They're tech shurikens. Made them myself. They either explode, scatter, or create a flash of blinding light. I used one on Kakashi when we did the bell test." When asked if she could inspect one of his tech shurikens, Naruto pulled one out of his utility belt and allowed his teammate to inspect it.
"This is very cool. You think you can mass-produce it for others?" Sakura asked.
"No, my tech stays with me. I am not going to let anyone else use it unless they're people I trust." When asked if he trusted hem, he revealed he trusts Kakashi and Chiyo. For Sakura...
"50/50."
"What? Why?"
"No comment..."
The next morning
"We're getting close to the hideout," Kakashi informed the others as they followed behind him. Jumping from tree branch to tree branch, Naruto noticed Chiyo was looking very gloomy.
"You okay there, Old Lady Chiyo?"
"...The technique that sealed Shukaku inside of Gaara...I did it..." Naruto and the others' eyes widened in shock. "I did it to protect my village, and the people suffered for it. The things I have done may have very well been mistakes...I came on this mission, not just to stop Sasori, but to find some sort of redemption. A means to atone."
"...You're quite something to admit this to us," said Kakashi. "Perhaps there may be something you can do once we get to our destination." Up ahead, they see Team Guy inspecting a seal on a large boulder in front of them.
"Kakashi, you're late," Guy told his rival in a friendly manner.
"We had some complications on the way here."
"Naruto, hey! It's good to see you again!" Lee happily shouts.
"You as well, Bushy Brows."
"Naruto, it's good to see you." Naruto nods at Neji before Tenten jumped in and said hello to him.
"Like the suit you're wearing," she adds.
"Thanks, I made it myself." When asked who Chiyo was, Naruto told Team Guy she was an ambassador of the Hidden Sand as Kakashi inspected the seal, discovering it was a Five-Seal Barrier.
"Until we peel them all off, we can't do a thing about the barrier," Kakashi adds. Using his Byakugan, Neji located the remaining four talismans keeping the barrier up. Once Guy and his team put on their wireless radios, they scattered to locate the talismans before ripping it out with Kakashi at the same time. Once the barrier was down, Kakashi gave Sakura the order to destroy the boulder, doing so with one powerful punch. Once inside, they came face to face with Akatsuki members Deidara and Sasori. Seeing Gaara's corpse, Kakashis sadly informed his team they were too late to stop them. Noticing how Deidara was using the dead Kazekage as a seat angered Naruto, who told Deidara to get off him or he'll make him.
"Let's be honest, he knew what he signed up for when he became the Ichibi's Jinchuuriki," Deidara told the blond chunin. "We gave him a choice. To come with us peacefully or have the Hidden Sand suffer several of my artistic explosions."
"If we recall. Itachi and Kisame were planning to get you to come with them using fear, but they underestimated you," Sasori adds. "And it wasn't our fault people got involved in our business because you refused to come with us. You jinchuuriki brought them into it, that's why they get hurt, why they die."
"Enough talk, we're taking you both down, and-"
"It's a shame that you didn't come to us when we attacked the Hayabusa Village like planned." Silence took over following this revelation. Hearing this from Deidara, Naruto's eyes slowly widened in shock.
"What...did you just say?"
"You didn't know?" replied a surprised Deidara, who smirked at this.
[Song: YouSeeBIGGIRL/T:T by Hiroyuki Sawano]
"We aided the Vigoorian Empire with the attack on the Hayabusa Village in an attempt to get you to come to us. We got word from one of our spies that you were strongly attached to the head shrine maiden. A waste that she had to die, she was quite beautiful." Deidara said, the mocking smirk of his never leaving his face.
Naruto could only stare in shock as he recalls that day in his head. The moment he heard the news. He was in Japan and wasn't told of the attack. He remembered Momiji crying when she informed him of Kureha's death, Naruto falling to his knees in disbelief as Jiraiya said nothing and Moka watched, not knowing what happened but looking worried. The powerlessness he felt when he saw her grave. He remembered the rage and anger he felt as he mercilessly beat down several criminals in his grief.
Once he fully processed the full attack on the Hayabusa Village, Naruto fell to his knees, tears flowing down his face. He sees flashes of the memories he had with Kureha, from meeting her for the first time, the time she carried him back to the Hayabusa Village when he was tired and out of energy, and all the times they had ramen together, up to the last time he saw her warm and loving smile.
"I...It was my fault she died...I killed her..."
"Naruto...Naruto listen to me," Kakashi told him. "You need to calm down. You can't fight them if-" Kakashi wasn't able to finish as Naruto knocked him back with a surge of red chakra, which forms into a two-tailed red cloak around the blond.
"That's it Naruto. Give in to your rage. Direct it towards the Akatsuki, the ones responsible for Kureha's death. They killed her. They did this to you..."
Clenching his teeth in anger, Naruto glares at Deidara and Sasori, his eye now red and slitted, and his hair going from natural blond to glowing red. His canine teeth got sharper and his nails extended into claws. The orange parts of his attire also began to glow red from the influence of the Kyuubi's chakra. Finally, the Satsui no Hado enveloped his cloaked body. Kakashi, Sakura, and Chiyo could only look at Naruto in shock and terror as he got up, sensing his killing intent rising to untold levels. Even Deidara and Sasori were in shock by the power they were sensing.
"What is this?" asked Deidara. "Is this the Kyuubi's power?"
"No, it's not just the Kyuubi." Sasori answered. "This power is also coming from the boy..."
With Team Guy
On their way to regroup with the others, Team Guy sensed Naruto immense killing intent from where they were.
"This power..." - Neji
"What's going on there? I can sense so much pain and anger. What's it coming from?" - Tenten
"What is happening there, Naruto, Sakura?" - Lee
"What is this darkness I am sensing? It can't be from the Akatsuki or Kakashi..." - Guy
With Tomoe
"The Satsui no Hado is getting stronger within Naruto's body," Tomoe told herself, having sensed its power spiking, raising her speed with her ki to get to her destination a bit faster.
With Naruto
"Akatsuki...I'm going to kill all of you...Every single member of the Akatsuki, starting with YOU (Deidara)!" Naruto shouts as he instantly appeared in front of a surprised Deidara. Naruto swipes at him, only to destroy Sasori's puppet, Hiruko, shocking the puppeteer.
"With just a single swipe!?" Deidara and the now exposed Sasori ready themselves as Naruto prepares to attack again.
"MESSATSU!"
[Music End]
ED: Cold Sun by Aimer
I know I could give more details on most of this Arc, but this is about Naruto. We all know what went down in the canon, so I didn't want to repeat it. The only difference is that Deidara will die early. For Sasori, his end may stay the same, just how it gets from start to finish is different.
Deidara's death will be quite something. He will push Naruto's anger in ways that will not go well for him.
The talk between Naruto and Chiyo was original in some form. With age comes wisdom. I felt Chiyo was the right person to talk to him and give him some advice that may help him when the time comes. For now, it was for naught due to the revelations brought upon him by Deidara.
"YouSeeBIGGIRL/T:T by Hiroyuki Sawano" was the only OST I could think of that gave it an emotional impact when Deidara said Akatsuki aided in the attack on the Hayabusa Village. Naruto didn't know it, but now that he does, this truth hits him really hard and truly makes it personal for him, which further feeds his hatred for the Akatsuki.
"Nezuko's Theme" was also in mind when writing Naruto's memory of Kureha. There were others, but after hearing mewsic's English cover of it, I had to apply it to what I was writing. I couldn't picture myself finishing that scene without it.
I really like getting into Part III because this is Naruto acting on his emotions, and not just with logic or reasoning. It's truly unlike him to act this way.
In the scene where Chiyo manages to stick the chakra strings into Naruto's head, while he could have dodged it autonomously, this is Naruto influenced by anger and sadness, so he's not fighting how he would, in comparison to Part I or II. Once he's back to normal, he'll be fighting how he should I believe.
For most of the first act, he'll be fighting this way before people very close to Naruto come in and save him, piece by piece. They'll also keep him sane and Human as well. Remember, Ayane's still angry at him, and she's dealing with DOATEC while Naruto's facing Akatsuki alone. Ryu is occupied with the events of Ninja Gaiden and DOA. Kasumi is a Runaway Ninja, and there's almost no one in the village, except for Hinata, maybe Tsunade, and Shikamaru, whom he can talk to about how or what he's feeling. I want to limit as many interactions with these characters as possible, with the exception of Momiji and Tomoe. There's a chance I may have an original male character in there, who may be a Jonin or someone his age.