“Sasuke! Sasuke!!!”
“What, dobe. What do you want”
“I..I have something to tell you. It’s important”
“Hnn. What?”
“Iloveyousasuke!”
“What did you say?”
“I...I...I said I love you. Please don’t make fun of me.”
“Tch. Dobe, I’ve been waiting forever for you to tell me that. I love you too.”
“I suppose you’re wondering how I got here. How you got here. How everything we worked so hard to build was destroyed.
It’s simple. It’s a very simple story.
Please, indulge me. Let me tell you how I became the most infamous ninja ever.
I didn’t want to be this, you know. I never once thought of becoming this. If anyone had told me just a few years ago that this is where I would be, I would have laughed in their face and proclaimed that I could never become that. I would be the Hokage.
However, things change. People do to.
But, I digress.
Let me start from the very beginning.
Bear with me, for it will seem as though I am talking to someone who has no idea about any of the events in my life. As if I’m not talking to you at all. But, it’s so much easier to tell the story this way.”
“I was 16 years old; a loyal Konoha ninja, supposedly on the path to greatness.
Sasuke had been gone for nearly four years, and I had never stopped searching. Eventually, I got lucky. I found him, beat him within an inch of his life and dragged him home.
Me, being the naive little boy I was, thought that it would take convincing, but Konoha would let Sasuke back and I would be proclaimed a hero.
But things just don’t work out how I plan them.
I arrived home, and was instantly detained. Sasuke, on the other hand, was given a full pardon. No jail, no punishment. Not even a slap on the wrist.
He was Konoha’s golden boy after all. However, I was put under a special ‘probation’ of sorts for using excessive force and attempted murder.
But that didn’t matter to me. I pushed on. I had Sasuke, after all. I had love. What else could I have possibly needed?
That lasted for quite a while. I was content, if not full blown happy. Then that magic moment came where my dreams were supposed to come true. Where I was to prove to the whole village I wasn’t the monster inside of me
Again, nothing goes to plan.”
“Naruto!! Did you hear?! Tsunade-sama has decided to retire and is going to name the new Hokage!”
“Really?!”
“Yeah! It looks like your dream is going to come true! Hurry and get to her office, she wants you there when she names the next person”
---
“Fellow shinobi. As you all know I am stepping down and naming a new Hokage. After a long talk with the council, we have come to a decision. The new Hokage, if they accept the position, will be...Uchiha Sasuke.”
“I remember everything about that night. Every detail.
The shocked look on all my friends faces. The sorrowful look on Tsunade’s. I left as soon as the announcement was made.
Later that night Tsunade found me. She explained how hard she fought the council to make me Hokage, but that they wouldn’t budge.
That apparently they would rather have a traitor who allied with the man that killed the 3rd than a boy with a demon trapped inside him as Hokage. That they abhorred the thought so much that they made sure to permanently restrict me from any position of power, including being ANBU captain or even a school teacher.
I lost a bit of myself that day. Yet, I pushed on. My dreams may have been crushed, but in some other form I could prove to everyone I wasn’t the demon inside me.
Sasuke took on the Hokage position with grace and poise. But in that, I lost him. I lost him as a friend, a companion, a rival and a lover.
He slowly drifted from me, never looking back. And as he moved father away from me, I moved farther into the darkness of my own heart.
More often than not I came close to snapping at everyday things.
It wasn’t until I finally confronted Sasuke about what was happening.
That day will always be ingrained into my brain.”
“Sasuke. We need to talk”
“Hnn. Make it quick, Naruto, I have business to attend to.”
“Hai. I came here to find out why you’re pulling away from me Sasuke. Why? What is going on?”
“:sigh: I’m glad you brought it up. I’m very sorry you got passed up, but there is nothing I can do about it. This isn’t exactly what I wanted to happen, but it did. Now, I have to take full responsibility in this position, and that includes our relationship.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t be with you anymore.”
“...wh...what?”
"I can’t. I’m sorry. Being Hokage, I must be an influence on the people of this village. If we were to be together, it would cause too much trouble for the both of us. I’m sorry Naruto, but it must be this way. For both our sakes. Please, remember that I still love you. I always will”
“That damn Uchiha. He chose his damn pride over me, once again.
That’s when I snapped. That night I packed my bags and I ran, never looking back.
I was ambushed over and over by missing-nins and random looters alike. Even some weird guy with a mask and orange and black swirls attacked me. Yet no matter what happened, no matter how hard I fought, how much damage was done, I never grew tired, I always killed them and I never ran out of Chakra.
Eventually I became a good day ahead of Konoha. I found a nice spot to camp in, and went in search for a pond or river to bathe in.
It was that day I realized what I had become.
I’m not sure if it happened when Sasuke left me, or afterwards. I don’t know if it was abrupt, or a slow change that crept along me, all I knew was that I was different.
Staring into the pond, I gazed into my own reflection.
I was different.
Nothing major, really. I looked almost exactly the same, everything was the same. Everything but my eyes.
Blood red orbs stared back from my reflection, slits for pupils.
I knew it had something to do with the Kyuubi.
Entering my mind, I searched and searched for it.
All I found was an empty cell where it used to be. Then it hit me.
Memories flooded into me; a conversation I wasn’t supposed to hear.”
“..what are we going to do if this happens, Hokage-sama?!”
“Jiraya-san, we’ll deal with it in stride. We’ll look for the signs. He didn’t merge when Sasuke left, and that was a hard enough strain on him. You and I both know that’s what it takes for them to merge.”
“We were one.
Just to double check, I lifted my shirt to look at my seal.
It was gone.
At that point, I could sense familiar chakra all around me. Grabbing my kunai, I turned and fell into a fighting stance.
I knew what was waiting for me, who was after me.
Akatsuki.I finally had my chance. They couldn’t take my demon now. Perhaps, with their help, I could become greater than Sasuke and all of Konoha. Hell, greater than all of the Kages.”
“Come out, come out where ever you are!”
“Ku ku ku, Naruto. Always in a rush, aren’t you”
“Hai. It’s such a pleasure to see you again, Itachi-sama”
“Hnn. What’s this? Respect?”
“But of course, Itachi-sama. I have nothing to fear from you, or your organization, anymore. You can’t take my demon from me now”
“And what makes you say that? The only ninja able to do that is the leader, and I know he hasn’t laid a finger on you”
“True, but how can you take something from me that is no longer trapped inside of me, but a part of me?”
“What?!”
“Look for yourself, and see the truth. Kyuubi and I are one.”
---
“Leader, a situation has developed.”
“What is it, Zetsu-san?”
“Itachi-san has found the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki Naruto.”
“And?”
“It appears that the Bijuu and Uzumaki have, well, merged. There is no way for us to extract the demon now. To top it off, Itachi-san is bringing the child here. Apparantly he wants to become one of us after being completely betrayed by his own village.”
“Ku ku ku, this is interesting”
“Itachi-san brought me to their hideout, where I was introduced to all of the members, the leader included.
After explaining my situation to the leader, and an extreme examination by Itachi, I was deemed trustworthy, and allowed to join. It was especially convenient for them, due to the recent, ahem, murder of their colleague Tobi.
For 3 years I trained with them. Every day I grew stronger. Every day my emotions disappeared. Love, loyalty and precious people were a thing of the past. I had no more bonds. This group, they helped me realize the real potential I held. Something Konoha had never done.
I spent three whole years in bliss. We killed, we maimed, we destroyed. I hadn’t heard a single word from the village I once called home that whole time.
But, alas, all good things come to an end.
It was a routine scout. We had finally obtained all but one Bijuu, the 7 tails. There were rumors of it being in fire country, and so Deidara-san and I were sent out to find it.
That’s where trouble began.
Apparently it was a trap, and we were expected.
We were fortunate enough to spot the Konoha-nins before they spotted us.
Luckily, Deidara-san is very good with bombs.
We wiped nearly all of them out before they even knew what had gone wrong.
While Deidara went to contact the rest of the group, I examined the area for survivors.
There was one.”
“Nnnnn”
“Ku ku ku, what do we have here? A survivor!”
“Na..Na..Naru?”
“Hai, it’s me. So good to see you again, Hinata-Kun. How are you? That’s a very serious wound. Looks painful.”
“Wha? Why? Why Naruto?”
“Why? WHY!? Perhaps it was the constant betrayal. Perhaps it was the lies, and his pride. In any case, I knew I wasn’t needed, nor wanted. So I left and found people who accepted me. People who wanted me.”
“But...We looked...so...He cried...”
“What a shame but, alas, I shed too many tears for that bastard to care anymore. I’ll leave you here, and perhaps you’ll be rescued. Then you can till Sasuke-Kun exactly who wiped out your entire team. You can tell him, and the rest of that damned village, exactly what they created.”
“That night we met with the leader, reporting exactly what happened. Life returned to normal after that. At least, for a while. Turned out, Hinata-kun was rescued, and managed to pass on my message. From that day forth we were hunted with extreme bias.
Apparantly Sasuke kept my membership with Akatsuki a secret from most of Konoha. I guess he was afraid of what they're reaction would be.
That was how our precious leader died.
For all his strength and all his influence, he was killed by a damn Chuunin.
So embarrassing.
Escaping to the land of thunder, we recuperated and discussed the future of our organization. Turned out, our leader did have something planned in the event of his death.
That plan was me.
I was named the new leader, and there were no objections.
Life changed so much. I was 25 and the leader of the most infamous and wanted organization around.
Even though the leader was dead, we still had the knowledge of extracting and placing Bijuus. At least he left us that much.
We had to find the 7 tails, and find the 7 tails we did.
Turned out our original information was correct. The 7 tails was not only in the fire country, but hidden within the Konoha village itself.
That meant it was time to go home.
Knowing that inflitrating Konoha would end up with the decimation of the entire village, I decided to get in touch with our sleeper agents in Konoha, and all 9 of us would attack instead of the usual two man cell.
Luckily for us, we seemed to have a good dozen agents currently alive in the village.
We planned and planned for months to get it right.
We decided the perfect time to attack, October 10th.
Konoha would be busy celebrating the success in defeating the Kyuubi, and wouldn’t see an attack coming, especially by it’s former container.
I found it to be a very meaningful thing, to finally show the village what they created, for the second time, on the very same day as the first time.
Every detail was arranged, the day of the attack steadily approaching. The anticipation and nervousness was thick between us. Itachi-san was the most excited, excluding me. He was looking forward to seeing his home again, and proving to himself just how much more powerful he was.
Finally, the day arrived. This very day. I sent Zetsu-san to Konoha to do some reconnaissance and inform our agents of the details. Once Zetsu confirmed that everything was in order, we set off.”
They attacked quietly and quickly. The festival had only just begun, and many of the people were enjoying all the games and shows.
Jumping from roof to roof the missing nins killed all who crossed their path, one with more hatred and hostility than the rest.
Soon word got out to all the villagers of the invasion. Ninja’s of all rank were armed to the teeth and sent out to kill the 9 missing-nins and the 12 betrayers.
Yet, none expected the massacre that lay ahead.
Blood was shed, limbs ripped from their respective places, bombs destroyed block after block.
It was worse than when Kyuubi attacked, more devastation than when Orochimaru and the sound ninjas infiltrated.
Ninjas fell left and right, Gennin and Jounin alike. There was no hesitation from the attackers. No sparing the woman and children.
ANBU scrambled as fast as they could to reach the Hokage tower. They had to protect Sasuke.
It was a shame that Tsunade and Jiraya were away. They could have helped Konoha exponentially.
While most of the attackers were busy destroying the city and trying to find the last Jinchuuriki, one headed for the tower. Only one had a thirst for vengeance and vengeance alone.
He arrived at the tower quicker than expected.
With a Near flick of his wrist, over two dozen ANBU members were dead. Feeling around him, the leader of this atrocious group of criminals searched for the target in question: Uchiha Sasuke.
Quickly he located the object of his desires and rushed to him.
Unfortunately, he was intercepted by someone else. Someone more interesting. His physical strength was nothing compared to hers, but he knew it would be a quick fight, and again in his favor.
“Good evening, Sakura-chan. Isn’t it a perfect time for a massacre?”
“So the rumors were true then, Naruto. You really did turn against your village.”
“Indeed. It’s been a wonderful time with these men. Absolutely wonderful”
“How could you do this to us?! Your precious people that you swore to protect?! What happened to your dreams? Your ambitions?”
“Ku ku ku, this village, the council, Uchiha Sasuke. That’s what happened to it all. I was tired of being shunned. Tired of being left out, and I was damn tired of being betrayed by that piece of scum. So please, stop with this idle banter. I have a mission to complete, and you’re only in my way”
The fight seemed to last for hours in Naruto’s opinon. However, only a few minutes after it began, it ended. All that was left from the battle was broken walls and floor, and a maimed body ripped to shreds.
Finally Naruto made it to his target. After instantly killing all of the ANBU protecting the Hokage, he paused.
Naruto wanted this fight to last. He wanted to remember it forever.
It was Chidori vs Rasengan all over. The valley of the end once again.
Only this time, the outcome was different.
This time it was Sasuke with the hole in his stomache.
The glee etched into Naruto’s face was enough to make Sasuke break.
Falling to the floor, Sasuke watched as Naruto brought up a chair, sitting it next to him.
Clearing his throat, Naruto began to talk.
“I suppose you’re wondering how I got here. How you got here. How everything we worked so hard to build was destroyed.
It’s simple. It’s a very simple story...”
--------------
“Are you curious as to how we managed to bypass security? Well, we are missing-nins after all. That, and our nice agents whom you trusted to keep this shit hole of a village safe.
I couldn’t believe the look on everyone’s face when they found out that so many trusted ninja’s had betrayed them.
But what was even more entertaining was seeing everyone’s faces as we squeezed the life out of them. Knowing that the last thing they saw, the last thing they thought of was me, and my betrayal.
Knowing that in the end they created exactly what they feared.”
“So Sasuke, tell me, how do you feel knowing that you created this? Tell me what you feel after hearing my story.
How do you feel?”
“I...I’m so...so...sorry Naruto. I...ne..ver wanted this”
“Ku ku ku. This is what you wanted, Sasuke. You chose your pride and your honor over me. And now look at where we are. There is no honor in this death, Sasuke-Kun. No honor in your life either. I loved you, with every ounce of me, and you threw it away for something that wasn’t your own dream. Goodbye.”
The last thing Sasuke ever saw a ball of bright, glowing blue.
--------------
Smoke rose from the village; once full of life and love, all that was left was ash, rubble, blood and gore. No one survived.
“Has it been done?”
“Yes, Naruto-sama. We captured the Jinchuuriki, and all preparations were made to extract the Bijuu.”
“So be it. There’s nothing left for us here anymore Itachi-San. Did you enjoy yourself, at least?”
“Immensely. I only wish that I would have had the opportunity to fight my brother. But if he fell as quickly as you said he did, then there would have been no enjoyment in it for me”
“Hai. Sadly we can’t always get what we want.”
“Will you always love me, Sasuke-kun?”
“Always, Naru-chan. You’ll always be mine, and I’ll always be yours. Nothing will tear us apart. I promise.”