Royal flush

Tsunade was furious.

Because she had been outplayed. She knew of the Kazekage's preference of the boy, and she tolerated his insistence they collect all the evidence together.

But Naruto still escaped. She wondered if it had even been organised by Garaa, like she assumed, and even if it wasn't would he have escaped regardless. He was a far cry now from the boisterous boy that had brought her back, now hardened, powerful and smart and a traitor. Just like Orochimaru, like Itachi. He didn't have an excuse like Sasuke did either. He just wanted to kill his teammate.

When Sakura came to and told her about Naruto, what he had done, his desire to become Hokage running through her mouth, part of her wanted to deny it, and the other wondered why she hadn't seen it earlier. He had the appearance of Nawaki, the want to be hokage, to be something, but he had the ostracization of Orochimaru, feeling betrayed by his village, his sensei, his teammates. She always assumed he was like Jiraya, but that was because she couldn't see the pain he felt underneath. Never could.

Shikamaru said Naruto attacked her unprovoked, wanting to kill her, though Tsunade doubted he was eavesdropping like he said he was. It didn't fit. He would either barge in and ignore them or walk away, the situation too bothersome.

When Garaa wanted evidence, she had to ask everyone who knew Naruto to testify. It was biased, yes, but there were still a large number who said they couldn't believe Naruto would betray his friend. Shino, Kiba, Choji, Ino, even the shy and quiet Hinata stated it was false.

Tsunade guessed Naruto never would have attacked a friend. Just that he thought Sakura wasn't any more. It had been building up for years, ever since Sasuke left. Team 7 was a disaster, and so was the Leaf's prodigal system. Naruto, their latest, rumours building over his mission successes and power now tainted with the assumption that everyone with talent in the leaf wanted to leave. Tsunade herself included.

What she had to do left the taste of ash on her mouth. The image of Nawaki, Dan, overlayed with Naruto over them, by her hand. But she needed to do this. She needed to stop another monster like that snake from coming to be.

"Dragon. Send the hunter-nin."

…

Kakashi Hatake had, from a young age, had the ever important lessons of honour and responsibility drilled into him by his father, alongside gruelling training sessions of course. He recognized the toddler sized genius he had in Kakashi, and took to making sure he had a good sense of morality like his father before him.

When Sakumo Hatake killed himself, it made Kakashi question everything he had learnt. Because Kakashi resented him, resented his father for leaving him, for abandoning that lesson of honour and responsibility. Only one thing made him happy, which was getting better, stronger. It was the only thing from his father that wasn't tainted by hypocrisy, that eternal strength of his. People rumoured he could take on all of the sannin at once and survive, and even beyond the tainting edge of his death that legend stayed. So Kakashi decided to pursue it, become strong and smart and tall and everything.

Then Obito came, and Obito died, and Rin died, and Kushina died, and Minato died, and Kakashi decided he didn't care about strength anymore, because even the strongest person you know can die. He took to trying to end his own life, to kill himself on missions one after another, because he didn't deserve the bare threads of life he had somehow clung onto after all that loss.

And then one day, he realised he was his father. Strong, legend, but a hypocrite. He wanted allies, wanted to protect people, wanted to do well, so why was he on mission after mission trying to end himself? He should be there, he realised. He should be taking care of Naruto.

By the time he finally grew up, took to the Jonin roster and begged the hokage to let him be Naruto's sensei, he had already been away for too long. The little baby, toddler that knew him as inu and reached up to his mask with pudgy arms and innocent eyes when he babysat him, had been replaced by a spunky 12 year old, chaotic and too many problems to even list. He thought to himself, at least the boy was happy. It was his mistake, intentional maybe, that he couldn't recognize the boy's sunny smile to be the same fake one his father used in the last days of his life.

Then he changed. He told Kakashi he was a failure. That he had nearly killed Naruto by giving Sasuke the Chidori, may as well have pushed the fist through his chest himself. He needed to give him it, he told himself, needed to make sure Sasuke lived, but he was a traitor, tried to kill his teammate, and left the village for power alone. Naruto told him he didn't want to see him anymore, and Kakashi, ever the coward, ever self-hateful, did so.

He still saw him of course, but never face to face, and he looked determined, angry, but full of life.

Then he tried to kill Sakura. And he left. And this was no longer his personal problem, this was a case of national security. Naruto was a traitor, not just to the leaf but to his teammate too. He knew Sakura wasn't lying, the sharingan able to tell from the smallest facial movement, and Naruto claimed he fought in self-defence. Kakashi knew it was false, that his entire life had been a long stream of betrayals. His father, himself, his students.

All that was left is to mend his mistakes. To bring Naruto back to heaven, to see his parents again. Kakashi Hatake put on his old ANBU mask, equipped his tanto, and prepared to head the hunter nin squad. They would bring the boy back alive, hopefully, sealing the 9 tails in a new container. He was one of the candidates. He would accomplish his mission, without fault.

Because the only thing he had never failed was a mission.

…

Pink hair.

Sakura had hated it and loved it. Same thing with her chakra. It was easy to manipulate but lacked the power of others.

That was until she had been taken under the tutelage of Tsunade. Her combat style bloomed, the power of her punches incredible. Soon, she had nearly caught up to Naruto, at least she thought, in power. She knew he hated her, he had his faults, but she still cared for him. He was a fool though, she always knew. Instead of trying to make it up to him, she would prove herself, and he would have to admit she was important, that he was wrong.

But then he got jealous, not of her power but her position. The apprentice of the hokage, good at book work, more powerful by the day, and politically in a good position, from a ninja family so neutral to shinobi clans, friends with some of the clans heirs, and most likely supported by the non clan shinobi and civilians in droves.

But she never wanted it. Yet for that imagined possibility, he tried to kill her.

And through the skin of her teeth she lived. Both teammates left, both abandoned themselves and honour and sense for nothing. She despised that. She was the only one with any sense.

So she'd be the one to end them. First Sasuke, then Naruto.

And when she'd be done, she'd take being the hokage from him too.

Not out of spite, no. She'd take it because when she thought of it, she'd be a better one than him.

…

Orochimaru's body laid dead, shredded. Sasuke wondered why it was so easy to kill the man. He had been withering away for years, and now he was gone. Dead. A part of him was still inside him but soon that part would be gone too.

Sasuke killed him when he got the news. That Naruto had left the Leaf. Well, not exactly, more like he decided to kill him. Orochimaru instantly tried to take him over, but Sasuke always had a good control over himself. He understood Orochimaru more than he understood himself.

But he didn't move from the bed he was sat on, Orochimaru's corpse just a bit away because he couldn't stop reading the note.

Naruto Uzumaki; Traitor.

It defied sense. He was the one that left, the new Itachi following in his footsteps to get enough power to kill him but maybe he was the one who was wrong. He didn't want to be Itachi, he needed to know what made him tick, defeat a weaker version of him before he went to the lunatic himself.

And Naruto was that mini him. Sasuke thought of him as a younger version, always, maybe of Shisui but definitely Itachi. Sasuke initially wanted to steer him away from the same evil, and power Itachi had but the power Naruto seemingly gained over night, and the power Orochimaru was corrupting him with made him renege on that. He was the only one that could, and would kill Itachi, and that was all that mattered.

But Naruto was Itachi, wasn't he? A traitor, trying to kill Sakura, just like Itachi killed everyone he swore to love. A prodigy, because he had become stronger, Orochimaru's reports said, too strong for it to match up with the previous version of him. And most of all, he had lied. Wore a mask, must have, his skill increase, and personality change evident.

So to beat Itachi, all he needed was to beat Naruto. He would need to get stronger though. Find the bastard too. Everyone in the elemental nations wanted him, dead or alive. He was no different.

And if he matched up to his expectations, he would be harder to find that Itachi.

Doesn't matter really, never did. Sasuke would find him.

And in their rematch, he wouldn't miss his heart.

The black haired 16-year-old smiled, eyes bright red telling of his bloodlust, dark shadow on his face reflecting on the dark in his heart. He wanted, so badly to kill Naruto.

They really were like brothers.

…

October the 3rd. His birthday. He had learnt so much, about himself, about the world. He had parents, but they were gone and his father had sacrificed him. He learnt strength, but that it didn't matter, didn't get him any closer to becoming hokage. He found he was worthy of love, but not enough for Temari to chase him, to run after him.

He would come back for her, he knew. He didn't know when though. He needed to be strong, stronger than Tsunade, stronger than anyone else. And when he gets to that level, he would change the world. He would run right back to the Leaf and take it in a moment.

Because, if anything, he was Naruto Uzumaki, and he would never give up.

And in the end, he wouldn't. He would learn more about the nature around it, even its chakra. He would learn about the beast inside him, about the power the gates held back.

He would even learn what he had been born with, Sasuke with a twin power too.

And he would earn them both, and become a god with them.

That was his future, unbeknownst to him, as he removed a hand from the rock he had been resting from, revealing grass rapidly growing underneath. He didn't notice it, as he began to move once again. He had no plan for where he would go, but travel he would.

…

A/N: A sort of transitionary chapter. I decided to explore the characters of Tsunade, Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke, and their different views of Naruto. Tsunade thinks of him like Orochimaru, Kakashi thinks of him as a result of his failures, and Sakura thinks of him as an obstacle like Sasuke, to be overcome.

I was tempted to take inspiration from a few other stories and have Kakashi have a "I am Inu now, split personality" or whatever, where he changes his thoughts to be completely devoid of emotion but personally I prefer analysing him as a person. I believe Kakashi to be a very interesting person, the trauma's of his past tainting his every choice and decision. Naruto he thought was going to be one of the only ones he took for himself, training the son of his sensei because he wanted to provide something, though he failed at that. I wrote it so that even if you think Kakashi was a terrible trainer, or if you didn't, this still works. He is either wrong and hates himself or is right and hates himself. Same thing. The man is so self-loathing he blames everything on himself, so he deigns to take responsibility for his own mistakes, and decides to kill Naruto.

I have always though Naruto has an almost paradoxical relationship and parallel with Orochimaru and Itachi. All 3 are products of their village, all 3 were disdained by the wider public, all 3 are prodigies (one could argue Sasuke was the prodigy in team 7 but he only really gains a lot of power with a sensei and with the sharingan, I think Naruto doing crazy shit like learning a rasengan in a week makes him more prodigious.) and in this story, all 3 left the village after betraying someone. Naruto isn't like Orochimaru, he isn't as morally deplorable, and he isn't like Itachi, he isn't as loyal to the Leaf, but he has similarities which these characters find and assume mean a lot. The barrier means they have to speculate, and hence come to biased conclusions.

For what is to come, Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura are going to try to kill Naruto, though with differing priorities. Sakura wants to train and get stronger for example.

Remember to leave a review and thank you all for reading.