Chapter 7: The Darkest Day
Cheers erupted from the crowd as Sasuke surged forward. He was always the first to strike, and it wouldn't be any different this time despite his intimidating opponent. He gathered chakra in his palm and formed blue lighting. The sparks crackled and popped so much that it sounded like birds chirping.
"Chidori!" Sasuke roared. He accelerated and ran up on the wall to evade the sand weaving behind him, but the sand was too slow. Jumping off the wall, he closed in on his opponent. A barrier of sand formed around Gaara as Sasuke punched him. Cracks formed in the shield as Sasuke's fist penetrated Gaara's defense.
BOOM!
Jumping back, Sasuke retreated to the other side of the arena and saw smoke filling the Kage Box. Deafening silence filled the arena.
Sasuke looked back to his opponent who gave him a menacing grin and disappeared in a swirl of mist. Without any pause for consideration, Sasuke left the arena to find his prey. Their fight was just getting started.
Meanwhile, most of the audience had fallen unconscious. A few nin, excluding Naruto, had been able to quickly dispel the genjutsu.
"Sakura," Kakashi called out. He leapt in front of Sakura and struck the sound nin charging towards her.
"Kakashi-sensei!" she exclaimed.
"It was well worth Itachi-senpai training you in genjutsu," he noted. "I want you to wake Naruto and Shikamaru and take them with you to find Sasuke and bring him back to the village. Consider this your first A-rank mission."
Sakura nodded. "Hai sensei."
"Before I forget, let me get someone who will help you track him." The jonin bit his thumb and pressed it to the ground.
Poof!
A small brown dog appeared. "Yo! I'm Pakkun." Sakura gasped, amazed that the dog had spoken.
"Here's a shred of Sasuke's shirt." Kakashi bent down and let the dog sniff the navy fabric. "Find him and bring him back to the village."
"You got it boss!" the pooch said.
Remembering her task, Sakura turned to her left and shook the blond awake. "Naruto, get up!" Grumbling and groaning, his eyes fluttered open.
"We have a mission." He shot up with wide eyes. "Awesome! What is it?"
"Hold on. Let me get Shikamaru, and I'll tell you once we get out of the arena." Sakura went up a row and found the lazy nin who was curled up in a ball with his eyes closed. Suddenly, Pakkun lept to Sakura's side and bit the seemingly sleeping nin.
"Ow!" Shikamaru sat up and flapped his arm in an attempt to get the dog off of him. Sakura's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Shikamaru, you were awake the whole time."
He scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Whatever, let's get Naruto and get on with the mission."
For once, Sakura agreed with Ino. Shikamaru was a lazy bum.
X
"Lord Danzo! The sand nin are attacking us along with the sound nin."
A porcelain cup shattered and brown liquid seeped onto the table.
"What is the meaning of this?" Danzo spat. His subordinate tried to not to gulp at his master's displeased reaction.
"It appears that Orochimaru has allied with Sunagakure in order to destroy the Leaf and overthrow the Sandaime. Sand and Sound nin are infiltrating the village as we speak."
Danzo growled and rose from his seat.
The snake sannin had conveniently not mentioned anything of an alliance with the Sand village or his intentions to kill the hokage and wreak havoc on Konoha. Their deal was that Danzo would provide Orochimaru and three of his subordinates proper documentation and clearance into the village under the guise of competing in the chunin exams. In exchange, Orochimaru would kidnap Sasuke and do what he pleased with the Uchiha. Attacking the village was not part of their agreement.
"Where is the Hokage?" he asked the nin.
"He's been trapped in some type of barrier with Orochimaru and some of his sound nin on top of Hokage Tower. So far, Anbu has been unable to breach the barrier."
"Summon and dispatch all squads to defend the borders." Danzo ordered. "If you have any more information, I'll be at the tower."
While he didn't always see eye to eye with Hiruzen, an assassination of the Hokage would only bring instability to the village. There was no current successor for the position, so other villages would try to take advantage of their vulnerable state and conquer Konoha. This scenario was unacceptable to Danzo. If he was quick, maybe he could salvage the situation.
He located the hokage and watched from the roof of a nearby building. Four sound nin were stationed at each corner of the tower's roof and seemed to be holding the barrier in place. Inside the opaque barrier, Hiruzen was fighting two figures that looked eerily similar to the first and second hokages. Spotting three coffins, two of which were open, Danzo concluded that Orochimaru had used a wretched forbidden jutsu.
"Damn it! I can't get in!" an Anbu shouted from above. He recognized that voice as Shisui Uchiha, one of his former agents who had managed to evade his grasp. It appeared that Shisui tried to strike through the wall with his chakra charged swords.
"Let him be. The Hokage can take care of himself. Go to the east and take care of those snakes. I'll stay on guard here," a deep masculine voice ordered from beside the body flicker nin. Shisui reluctantly acquiesced and left in a flash. Three anbu remained on the roof, one of them being Itachi Uchiha. If he and Shisui had been unable to break through the shield jutsu, it was unlikely that Danzo could do so. Unable to help the Hokage, Danzo decided to stay put because he could have an opening to take out Itachi. The Uchiha heir was a constant thorn in his side and undermined his ploys to pit the Uchiha against the village. While it was unlikely due to his young age, Itachi could be a real contender for Hokage because of his undeniable prowess as a nin. There were few in the world that could rival him. Obviously, it would be a problem if he took power because he knew of Root's existence and could take measures to eradicate Danzo's secret army without resistance. Sure, the Hokage had advisors, but the Hokage had the final say and those opposed had little room to protest. Currently, Danzo could argue and retaliate against Itachi but he would be much more limited if the man took power as Hokage.
Thus, Danzo resolved to wait to see the outcome of the battle between Hiruzen and Orochimaru. If Hiruzen fell, he would kill Itachi. If Orochimaru lost, there would be no one who could speak of his treason against Konoha. Either scenario gave Danzo something he wanted. For now, he would bide his time and leave the village defenses to the Konoha shinobi.
X
"I'm worried about Shikamaru. Maybe one of us should have stayed with him," Sakura spoke.
"Don't worry about him Sakura-chan. He may be a lazy bum, but he's smart and has that shadow jutsu. He'll be ok." Naruto gave her a reassuring grin as they continued to fly through the forest in search of their teammate.
Once they left the arena, nine Sound nin followed them out of the village, so Shikamaru stayed back to hold them off with his shadow paralysis jutsu. Sakura was having second thoughts about leaving him to fend for himself, but she had to trust in her comrade and push on and find Sasuke. There was no telling if Sasuke was ok. He had two targets on his back - Orochimaru and Gaara. One eager to steal him away, and the other on a mission to kill him. Sakura could feel the killer intent exuded by Gaara during his matches, so she had no doubt that his fight with Sasuke would end in death without a proctor or other leaf nin to stop them.
"Pakun, how far is the teme?"
The brown dog sniffed the air. "Not far. I'd say thirty meters west."
"When we get there, we take Sasuke and leave," the kunoichi commanded. Giving the blond a pointed look she continued, "No unnecessary fighting. We need to get back to the village and help."
"Yeah. I know. You don't have to worry about me, but you may want to let Sasuke know. He's the one who followed the psychopath to finish their fight," he countered.
"I have to worry about both of you," she murmured.
As they closed in on Sasuke, they heard loud thumps and the sound of sparks. Coming upon the clearing, Sasuke was chasing what appeared to be a giant blob of sand with his chidori.
"What the hell is that?" Naruto asked.
The sand materialized into a large right arm with four claws. When the sand ceased moving, Gaara's face was half visible while the right side of his face had morphed into a sandy texture.
"Must kill," Gaara growled.
He charged back at Sasuke with a speed that Sasuke could not match. He pinned Sasuke to a tree with his sand limb, but Sasuke used his chidori to slice through the arm and freed himself. However, he had also activated his curse seal in overusing his jutsu and fell to the ground as he grappled with the seal's searing pain.
Sakura and Pakun leapt to Sasuke's side while Naruto charged after Gaara.
"I'll kill all of you!" Gaara roared as he slid past the blond towards the other leaf nin. Sakura moved in front of Sasuke to defend him.
"Sakura-chan! Get out of the way!" Naruto yelled. She stayed put, ready to face the creepy half demon half human form. This was his ninja way. She would die to protect those close to her.
Gaara was a foot away from her when he got caught in Sakura's green eyes. He stilled and screamed. A whiplash of sand shot from his arm and pinned Sakura to the tree. The sand nin clutched his head and continued to scream as painful memories invaded his mind.
With both of his teammates out, Naruto decided to put his new training to the test. He bit his thumb and pressed it to the ground.
A small purple frog appeared, and Naruto groaned. "Gamakichi? Where is your dad?"
Offended by his dismissal, the frog stuck his tongue out. "You need more chakra to summon him, you dolt!"
Unimpressed by the summon, Gaara turned to Naruto and decided to make the battle more exciting. "You've got until that girl dies to defeat me." The corners of his lips turned into a fanged grin as his sand tightened around Sakura.
Without any pause, Gaara hurled Sand Shuriken at Naruto, who grabbed Gamakichi and barely evaded the attack. Sand shuriken continued to fly towards Naruto, but he was able to dodge. The throws stopped and Gaara's body became more sand than flesh. Two beastly arms appeared and his face became that of a monster's.
Naruto tried to strike him with kunai, but all of his attacks were ineffective against this new form. Frustrated, he decided to use his signature jutsu. It had gotten him out many tough situations before, and this battle definitely qualified as a tough one.
"Shadow clone jutsu!" Hundreds of clones appeared and descended upon Gaara. His opponent swatted the clones aside, but Naruto was able to distract Gaara and to place an explosive kunai under his tail. He vaguely remembered Sakura saying something about tails being many animals' weak spots when they were doing survival training with Kakashi.
Naruto flung himself from the ground to escape the explosion, but he got caught in the explosion. On course to crash into the surrounding trees, Sasuke caught him and landed on a tree near Sakura.
"Take her and run," the Uchiha instructed.
Recalling the numerous times Sasuke had saved him on prior missions, he shook his head. "No. You have risked your life for me too many times. You save Sakura, and let me handle Gaara. I have to be the one to fight him since we're pretty alike."
Sasuke looked like he wanted to protest, but he bit his tongue and nodded. He fled the scene and found the tree Sakura was confined to. He tried to free her unsuccessfully, so he stood beside her ready to catch her if she fell.
Gazing upon her, Sasuke reflected upon her bravery. For a while, he considered her to be a nuisance, a girl with a naive crush that would do anything to please him. In the past month, Sasuke was forced to reconsider his previous impressions of her. She stood up against him when he berated her decision to take the chunin exams. She took care of him in the forest when he first got the curse seal. She made a good confidant and hadn't told anyone of the mark. Then, she had defended him against a homicidal being when it was clear that she stood no chance.
This girl continued to surprise him. In fact, he had become quite fond of her. The thought of anyone laying a hand on her appalled him. Strands of pink hair covered her left cheek as a gentle breeze fluttered through the air. Instinctually, he reached out and tucked the wayward ocks behind her ear. His hand lingered and lightly caressed her cheek. He retracted his hand and turned to hear the creation of more clones. It was a mystery to Sasuke how he had managed to conjure that many clones with his low chakra reserves.
Hundreds of Narutos populated the forest. There had to be at least a thousand of them.
"I'll lay down my life to protect those precious to me!" they proclaimed.
The army of shadow clones launched waves of attacks at Gaara. Individually, a clone was harmless, but the sheer number of the clones and their attacks could wear down anyone.
Half of the clones remained, but Gaara was starting to show signs of fatigue with perspiration and panting. He roared and his entire form became consumed with sand. Some type of transformation occurred and a sand creature stood before Naruto. It growled and unleashed explosions of sand which destroyed all of the remaining clones. Now, it was just Naruto who could barely stand. He gripped the trunk of the tree for support and tried to catch his breath.
"Sand coffin!" A mass of sand encased Naruto.
"Blood. I want your blood," the creature shouted as it flashed its large fangs.
The sand had almost completely covered him, but Naruto reached deep inside himself and drew out his jinchuriki chakra. A bloodied hand struck the tree.
"Summoning jutsu!"
The sand coffin expanded and burst, effectively dispelling the jutsu. Sand when flying in every direction, and Sasuke crouched down to cover Sakura.
When the air cleared, Naruto stood atop a gigantic frog's head. Sasuke's eyes almost popped out of his head at the sight. He had never seen something so peculiar in his life - a red frog wearing a coat and smoking a pipe.
"Not you again! You're the sage's brat!" the frog spoke.
"Look, I need you to help me out!" Naruto said.
The frog laughed causing Naruto to stumble on his head. "Why should I help you?"
Before Naruto could answer, the small orange frog leapt onto the elder frog's head. "Pops! Naruto saved me from that monster over there," Gamakichi replied as he gestured to the sand demon. "Please help him!"
The large frog sighed and released a puff of smoke from his pipe. "I suppose I will. Anyone who would defend my son has my help."
Gamabunta unsheathed his sword and charged at Gaara.
"Hold on tight brat!" The summon put all of his force into his sword swing and cut off his foe's arm. He leapt back to his original position and waited.
Struck down, Gaara came out from the sand being's forehead and closed his eyes. Asleep, the sand demon fully emerged.
"Shukaku," Gamabunta growled.
Completely awakened, Shukaku was able to use its full power and abilities which the red frog was barely able to counter.
"I'm a toad, so I lack fangs or claws. Brat, transform me into something more capable of close combat." At this request, Naruto pressed his hand down on the toad's back and transformed him into the first animal that came to mind.
"You need to wake that brat up for Shukaku to disappear. I'll take care of the demon," he told Naruto.
Endowed with fangs and claws, Gamabunta, now a fox, bit and tore at Shukaku. Now more evenly matched, Naruto hopped down from Gamabunta's head to that of Shukaku and tried to punch Gaara awake. After several punches, Gaara woke up. He put his arms up and sand appeared and tried to trap Naruto.
Reverting to his original form, Gamabunta used his tongue to shield Naruto.
"Hurry up and save Sakura!" Sasuke shouted from a distance. Naruto turned to see the sand further constrict Sakura. Time was running out for her. Due to a primal urge to protect his friends, the fox chakra unleashed itself. Red energy radiated from Naruto's body.
He struck Gaara's streams of sand and ran to him. Gaara summoned more sand and restrained Naruto's hands and legs. Using his only available weapon, Naruto puts all of his energy into a headbutt.
Gaara gasped and fell back as his sand disintegrated. Sakura was now freed from her sand chains, so Sasuke easily caught her in his arms.
"Not bad brat. You're a fighter," Gamabunta commented. He collected his son and returned back to their home in the mountains.
The two genin fell, but each managed to land on neighbouring treetops. With the last of his energy, Naruto jumped across the divide and landed a punch on Gaara. The boys both fell to the ground, neither able to stand.
Crawling to his opponent, Naruto approached the sand nin.
"Stay away from me!" Gaara yelled. He wriggled around to try and move, but he couldn't escape the blond.
Mere inches from his form, blue eyes peered into his aqua eyes.
"I know the pain of being alone like you," Naruto spoke. Glancing at his teammates, he continued, "It sucks, but I found people who care about me and gave me hope."
He redirected his gaze on the red head. "If you ever again try to hurt any of my precious people, I will fight you again."
At a loss for words, Gaara realised that his opponent's strength came from his desire to help others, not himself.
Sasuke walked over to the pair and helped the blond up.
Likewise, Gaara's teammates and siblings collected him. The blond female supported Gaara's left side, and the boy with purple markings held up his right side.
"I'm sorry," Gaara apologized to his siblings.
X
Team Seven slowly approached the village gates, or rather what was left of the border. From the lack of noise, it was apparent that the invasion was over. Inside the village, entire streets had been destroyed. Broken glass, bricks, personal belongings, and people were strewn about the roads. It would take months to repair the village.
They traveled to Hokage Tower to find Kakashi. When they arrived, they found more corpses including that of the Hokage's.
A familiar figure approached the group and ushered them across the street. "I'm glad you are all back in one piece, but you should go home."
"What happened Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.
The jonin sighed and looked back at the group of shinobi crowded near the entrance of the tower.
"Orochimaru murdered the Hokage while Sound and Sand nin infiltrated the village. I'm afraid I can't say much more than that." Naruto and Sakura were visibly upset while Sasuke remained aloof. He was too in shock from the past 24 hours to display much emotion.
"I need to go help out, so I'm heading out. I expect to see you all at training tomorrow at the usual time and place." With a curt nod, Kakashi disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Hey!" Izumi approached the genin. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy as if she had been crying. "I'm so glad you guys are ok."
"Izumi, are you alright?" Sakura asked with concern.
"I - I'll be fine. I'm just exhausted." She paused and looked over her shoulder to see Shisui and Itachi walking towards them, both looking worse for wear.
"Aniki!" Sasuke exclaimed as he saw his brother. He had never seen his brother with so much as a hair out of place, so it was troubling to see him covered in soot and sweat. Itachi assessed Sasuke's equally ragged appearance and tightly gripped his shoulder.
"We need to get back to the compound." He looked over to Naruto and Sakura and gave them a sad smile. Sakura frowned. The fact that Itachi, the best nin in their village, was shaken did not sit well with her.
"Shisui, why don't you escort Sakura-chan to her home? We'll take Naruto-kun back to his apartment," the Anbu captain suggested.
Shisui nodded and gave Sakura a sincere smile. "No one should walk alone today."
"I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. Take care," the pinkette said. She waved at the group and left with Shisui.
Without a word, Itachi started walking in the direction of Naruto's apartment. The walk was silent. Even Naruto, who was a chatterbox, kept quiet. The news that the Hokage was murdered by Orochimaru gravely affected him. The Hokage was one of the few people who looked out for him and treated him with kindness and respect. He would miss the old man, and he knew that everyone else would as well. The Sandaime loved the village and everyone in it. His compassion, care, and kindness could not be questioned. It was disturbing that his own student had killed him - someone who he mentored and cared for had stabbed him in the back. The whole village would know of this crime and seek revenge against the snake man.
Once the group reached Naruto's apartment, Itachi finally spoke.
"What I am about to say does not leave this group, understood?" Naruto and Sasuke nodded while Izumi placed a comforting hand on Itachi's back.
"Stay away from Danzo. He is dangerous and is not above hurting others at the expense of his goals." Sasuke stared at his brother nonplussed. Avoiding someone who clearly had it out for his clan would not be a difficult task.
Clearly confused, Naruto scratched his head. "Sure, but who is Danzo?" Izumi and Itachi couldn't help but crack a smile at his obliviousness.
"Dobe, he's one of the village elders."
"Oh! He's one of those old people with the canes that are always with the Hokage!" Sasuke blinked, and Izumi giggled.
"That's one way of putting it," Itachi replied with amusement.
"I can definitely stay away from those old geezers, but why do you ask?"
Itachi sighed. "Danzo tried to kill me after Lord Hokage passed, but he stopped when he realized that my eyes changed."
"Why would he try to kill you? We're all on the same side!" Naruto exclaimed. It didn't make sense to him why another leaf shinobi would try to kill Itachi, but he didn't know the history between Danzo and Uchiha.
"I don't have time to explain, but it's complicated," Itachi replied.
"What happened to your eyes?" Sasuke inquired seriously.
Itachi blinked. Black eyes morphed into red and black pinwheels.
One month later
After the Hokage's funeral, the village was excited to appoint a new Hokage. Naruto's new sensei Jiraiya was put forward as the most popular candidate, but he refused the position. Instead, he offered to find a better candidate, his old teammate Tsunade. She was rumored to be the strongest and most beautiful kunoichi. As a student of the late Hiruzen, top medic nin, and legendary sannin, very few pushed back against her nomination. Even the Uchiha accepted her despite her Senju heritage. There was some talk of Itachi or Fugaku taking over as Hokage, but neither were interested in the position given the immense destruction to their compound and police station. Clan affairs currently took top priority .
Thus, Jiraiya and Naruto tracked down Tsunade and convinced her to return to the village as the Hokage. According to Naruto, it took some time to persuade her to become Hokage. He also complained about her being a drunk, irresponsible, and hot tempered, but Sakura didn't let his complaints stop her from seeking an apprenticeship with her.
After learning that both of her teammates had plans to travel with their teachers to train, Sakura decided that she needed to do the same but in the village. Her father had passed due to smoke inhalation, so it was just Sakura and her mother. While she was grief stricken, she needed to continue to grow as a ninja. Training with Tsuande would challenge her and permit her to stay in the village with her mother.
When she approached Tsunade, she had accepted her immediately and said she expected great things from her apprentice. Sakura had a feeling that Kakashi put in a good word for her since he felt a little guilty for leaving her in the village. Kakashi and Sasuke would travel together and train. Few details were given by her vague sense except that he expected them to return in two years. As for Naruto, he would train with Jiraiya, and they would be spending most of their time in the toad summons' mountain village.
Sakura was excited for her and her teammates to hone and develop their skills, but she eagerly awaited their return. Life would be less lively without the blond chatterbox, her stoic crush, and comically tardy sensei.
A/N: The next chapter will have significant time skip, so we will be getting into more mature/darker content including more SasuSaku! As always, please read and review. I love feedback! Stay safe and stay tuned!