Lord of Akatsuki
Active member
Hello! This is a Naruto Time Travel Fanfic that I've only just started. Note that it's also on Fanfiction.net
Also, warn me if you notice any swear words that are showing up, for some reason the site has a habit of not censoring everything for me.
Disclaimer: I neither own nor need to own Naruto.
Legacy Anew
Two gods battled against one another within the Valley of the End. Their powers were beyond mere Shinobi now. The powers of the legendary God of Shinobi, Hagoromo Otsutsuki running through them like water.
The two young men while not completely matured, were the most powerful Shinobi alive, following in the footsteps of their very own transmigration's original forms, Indra and Ashura. The world had been rendered asunder, now nothing but a wasteland filled with the trees of Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Haggard and heaving, the last of the Uchiha and truest descendent of Indra stared down at the young man who was his rival and brother in all but blood. The one who was the only obstacle stopping him from achieving a revolution. His clothes which had been pristine were torn and caked in blood – blood that belonged to both him and his friend.
His right eye swirled into a deep onyx, cementing the fact that his chakra was heavily depleted. His left eye, which was the unique six tomoe Rinnegan granted to him by Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths, lay closed in order to conserve energy. He breathed heavily, the two had both fought against each other in this exact same place, though now unrecognisable, it was once known as the 'Valley of End,' their first battle paled in comparison to the current one.
No, unlike the old one, this one would decide the fate of the world, the fate that the two god's would deal out to it depending on who won and who lost.
Sasuke knew that to achieve his goal, his revolution that he'd have to kill his friend to archive it. Indeed, there was only one person in the entire world who stood in his way, Uzumaki Naruto.
The Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, Naruto, was in a worse state then his rival, breathing haggardly and his respire coming out in short, wheezing gasps. His forehead protector, which he had worn with inexorable pride on his head was inadvertently discarded, lost in the thaws of battle. The notorious orange jumpsuit that he was renowned for wearing was gone, utterly destroyed from Sasuke's onslaught. The only garment left adorning his torso was a simple long sleeved fishnet mesh top.
His face was bloodied and sported more than a few bruises, yet only his left eye was swollen despite the thrashing Sasuke had dealt upon him during their struggle. Even damaged his eyes were unyielding in their inexorable determination as he gave his once best friend and brother a glare.
"Naruto…"
A deep voice rumbled within his mind. His eyes snapped open, his respire coming out in short bursts. He looked towards his friend, a weightless sensation hammering through his being. Cerulean eyes blinked. The world ceased. "Kurama—" He croaked, his voice cracking in the wind.
"There's not a lot of time. I'm giving you what little chakra I have left. Use it wisely." Kurama replied.
"I…" He felt haggard and tired as his breath came out in a short burst. "Thank you, Kurama…." A sound escaped in the wind, a breathless form of respire that seemed cold as it left his mouth.
He smiled for the first time in hours as he felt the effects and rush of power. Bursting forth he stormed over towards Sasuke, enacting a viscous bout that made the world tremble. "Sassukkeeeee!" He roared as he brought his hand up to block the lone Uchiha's stab. "I'm gonna beat cha up till you stop being stupid!"
He didn't care as a murderous look crossed his friends face—he didn't care when he saw the dark look of gleefulness that showed on the last Uchiha—he just didn't care.
Because he had a friend—no, a brother to beat some sense into.
A blurring smear of gold flashed, hurtling across the landscape and crashing into a tumbling beam of darkened azure.
Grunting within the haze of power, he flipped around the swiping Susano'o strike and a flash of gold yellow formed in his hand as a haze of chakra swirled.
A flow of energy blasted into been as he took the last few forward dashes and shredded through the ethereal god known only as Susano'o.
The turbulent orbs of nothingness—of darkness morphed into caliginous staffs that appeared in his hands as he hefted them. With not a moment of hesitation he took the last charge and crashed his staffs downwards at Sasuke.
In the picosecond before the caliginous staffs could strike their target Sasuke's black lightning wreathed sword was already countering.
With a grunt he gasped as Sasuke's foot kicked out at his abdomen almost like his foot was made from steel.
Launched backwards, he careened as he dropped to the ground, lurching as he hurried up and blocked a viscous strike from his brother in all but blood.
His stomach fell. "Sasuke…" He heaved with a slight whisper as he pitched forwards, a chakra arm appearing and forming a yellow spiralling orb that was shaped like a shuriken.
Pausing in mid strike, he looked towards his friend. "Sasuke…please, just—" His breath halted as he looked at his friend. "Just….just stop."
"Stop? No."
He felt weak on his feet, as if he'd drop to his knees and never get back up again—like he'd been struck by lightning from a god. With a flash of certainty he realised he had been struck by a bolt of lightning that was unmatched in irony.
Whatever happened to defying fate? To defy destiny?
He swallowed hard, taking a step back. Inching upon a pedestal of utter pain, he remembered his godfather, Jiraiya.
He smiled one of those fake smiles that most around the village could remember.
He took a step forward, and with certainty, he knew he wouldn't step backwards ever again. "I guess I just have to beat you up some more!"
With a quick whip-whirl he twisted round and attacked with a step forward. Only to be forced back as he barely dodged the strike that surely would have sliced him in half. The glowing haze of practiced Chidori blackened with unimaginable power appeared in sight as it drove him to his knees.
Dazed he finally realised how exhausted he was. How could he even win? He drew upon a last ounce of power, a single rush of energy that stormed through him. Only for it to be drained.
His body writhed and his breath caught in his throat. His thoughts raced and his body felt numb. Gaping synapses snapped shut.
"This is one of the Rinnegan's powers." Sasuke spoke.
He looked up, his body writhing. "How much were you hiding before?" He replied, his voice coming out in a short rasp.
"A lot…"
"This—this is ridiculous…" He rasped, looking into his rivals eyes. 'How…' He choked, breath slowing and his sense of touch leaving him. 'How is he able to so quickly use those techniques without knowing them?'
"It is me, the one who has the eyes of the Uchiha who is destined to be the victor." Sasuke's arrogant words reached his ears, and all he could do was look up.
"You…prick…" He chocked in outright anger, such anger that it was coursing through his veins.
"A little…silly don't you think?" Sasuke replied.
"You're a profound bastard, you know."
"You can yap all you like, but fate has spoken, and the outcome decided."
"I was never the type to listen to fate." His voice croaked and cracked, yet in that moment he never wavered. "That's why…" His hands tightened, drawing blood as he gritted his teeth. "This dammed cycle…." He cut himself off for a moment, exhaling quickly. "Will end one way or another!"
"It's over…" A thousand chirps sounded around his friend's hand just as pure lightning crackled in Sasuke's left fist. "Goodbye…my only friend!"
He groaned before he deftly pivoted around the coming strike, swivelling up and delivering a swiftly sharp uppercut that knocked his friend backwards towards Uchiha Madara's decimated statue.
"Why the hell won't you just stay down!" Sasuke roared. "Just give me a break and ****ing die already!"
"No…" He responded, his chest rumbling. "I could never do that…" He trailed off, his voice imbuing with all of his emotions. "This is who—what I am. I will never give up, even if the world falls apart. You give up, on trying to make me give up!"
"Whatever happened to fighting fate? Because you've done a blasted good job of simply delaying the inevitable."
He looked up in his tiredness at his once best friend and brother. He grabbed at his heart.
He remembered his fight with Neji during the Chuunin exams, of how he had talked about defying fate.
He remembered how every day of his life to him was a war against destiny.
He clearly had lost.
With a choke, he remembered all those that had died on the battlefield for him. To fight towards a better future, a better world.
And he had led them astray.
"You're continuous fight against fate has done nothing but cause it to take its course, and to kill many in the process." Sasuke said with a smirk.
"What?" He asked shakenly.
Rippled eye glinting and seemingly staring into his mind, Sasuke replied. "An old man who loved you and trained you."
Tick.
His heart clenched tight.
"The same man who died for you—to give you a secret of an enemy who you later befriended."
Tick.
His ears ringed loudly, the words reaching his very being.
"Kakashi, giving his life in the line of duty. Fukasaku and most of the village dying to protect you."
Tick.
The world slowed down around him. Everything ceasing besides what he could hear and feel.
"All of them. Every single one."
Tick.
He could barely breathe, chest tightening and synapses splitting agape. He shook, as if overcome by a foreign feeling. He stared at Sasuke, unable to understand, to gauge everything. Or anything at all.
"All the ones that uselessly gave their lives for you."
His hands tightened on themselves, digging into his flesh as his heart pumped ever faster.
"The reason why they died was entirely your fault."
Tick.
"No!" He shouted, clawing for air.
He saw with clarity as Neji jumped in front of him, blocking the attack that was meant for him. With a struggle he looked down to find Neji's chest opened up like a portrait that foretold a story, a truth.
Tick.
He saw Tsunade, barely alive and sliced in half because of Madara. He saw the other Kage, all almost nearly dead, because of him, because he wasn't strong enough.
His heart twisted as if a knife had curled in and sliced through.
Tick.
He saw Hinata, skewered and near death as she saved him from Pain.
Than he saw her again, fighting against beings of white. For the world.
For him.
Tick.
He saw the world enveloped by the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Because he was weak, too weak and stupid.
His vision was distorted, and his connection with the beasts waned. He broke out into a fit of coughs as he funnelled out his chakra. The world tumbled into crimson. His hands shook and his heart thundered as he let out one last, earth shattering scream. The world turned white, brisk and became so brittle that it began to shatter.
His eyes flared up in pain, blood funnelling out just as it poured from his mouth. From his nose.
Boom.
The world lit up in white fire, shattered and becoming shards as the Genjutsu, one he knew well—Tsukuyomi, was ripped away. Breathing tiredly, he grabbed at his chest, clear liquids slipping from his bloody eyes.
"You ass." Naruto groaned out.
"You escaped?" Sasuke asked with a sigh. "So it has come to this..." Sasuke's voice boomed. "But I will end this—"
The Uchiha rocketed back from a hurtling punch.
"No!" Naruto roared. "I will! Right here, right now!"
The powers of the Bijuu coursed, burning and searing through his veins. "What happened to you?" Naruto shot forward, chakra spiralling forth into a Rasengan. "What about everyone's dreams?"
"Shut up!" Sasuke shot forward, arm crackling with lightning. "I'll make new ones!"
"Do you only care about yourself?" Naruto roared, milliseconds away from his attack meeting Sasuke's.
"I care for them all!" Sasuke returned briskly as their attacks finally met.
The ground unearthed on itself and the sky turned black. He, Naruto Uzumaki, was the last ember alit within sight.
For the very stars had died out.
The searing darkness of Sasuke's lightning overtook his bright spiralling sphere and unleashed a shockwave of such proportions that it shook the earth.
Spires of unique silver collapsed and mountain ranges tumbled down. Islands crumbled and the continent shattered to pieces. Like a fountainhead of the cosmos, the very world bridled into nothingness.
The dark is a very generous and patient being. Settling into the hearts of mankind and giving songful gifts.
In this single moment Naruto Uzumaki understood just what he was and what he was fighting.
Yin and Yang. Indra and Ashura. Darkness and Light.
"I will end this here…" Sasuke said, rocketing forth and sending him flying.
"No!" Naruto shouted. "I will!"
Sasuke smiled as he brought his hands together. "Chibaku Tensei." Sasuke whispered in reverence.
Just like that, spires of rumble and earth lifted towards the sky. Blackening the world further, and the last ray of light was snuffed from his fingers just as he began to lift towards the sky. His breath began to leave him as the world around him was pulled upwards. Mountains gone and lifted. Islands gone and crumbling away. The continent wiped off the map.
With the last remaining strength he had he forced himself back down, keeping himself floating in the air. "I won't let you destroy our memories—"
The blond Uzumaki was hurled backwards from a punch laced in lightning.
"I shall destroy the past!" Sasuke roared, lifting Naruto up with his powers. "And I will look to the future! For those who are beholdeth with what lies ahead are the true victors!"
Naruto felt his windpipe crush inwards on itself from the gravitational powers of his rival. "I won't let you win!" He pushed himself forwards and smacked his friend away with all his strength.
"Just die already!" Sasuke screamed as another black Chidori formed in his hand.
"I will never die." He answered his friend as he gripped the lone Kunai of his father, Namikaze Minato, and threw it.
"What do you think that will d—"
Naruto's hand appeared out the other end of Sasuke's shoulder blade in a flash of pure gold. "I won't let you win." He whispered into his friend's ear just as ear shattering screams of agony rose in the air. "Even if I have to beat you up so bad that every bone in your body is broken."
Sasuke lifted a hand and grabbed Naruto's own hand that was covered in blood. "I—I don't understand—"
"Shush." Naruto interrupted just as the gravitational pull from the much bigger second moon ended. "We will fix this." The golden glow disappeared, replaced with a bright glow that seemed to heal the hole.
The two gods fell to the earth.
(A Day Later — Valley of the End)
Eyes snapped agape.
He flew upwards quickly and let out a loud, wheezing gasp of air as he desperately tried to breathe.
"Stand."
He gasped as he tried to stand, but to no avail.
"Get up, boy. The world is ahead and doesn't wait. Fight." Kurama's voice rumbled in his ears with unbidden power that exuded an ancientness unknown to even himself.
He grimaced but stood anyway. His heart hammered and his lungs were brittle. His respire hampered and haggard. His eyes clouded over.
Sasuke Uchiha lay just metres away from him, in an even more hazardous condition.
He let out small laugh, though it was lost to even himself. "I—I won…" He began, disbelief rushing through his veins. "Kurama…."
'But at what cost?'
He felt cold, colder than he ever had as he took the slow, but sure steps towards Sasuke's prone form. Time slowed, and after a brief moment, he held out his right hand and gripped it with his left. "Senpō: Jiton Rasengan (Sage Art: Magnet Release Spiralling Sphere)." He numbly said softly as he drove his right hand into Sasuke's body.
"Wha…what the ****!" Sasuke's wheezing voice reached his ears, and he felt sick, so utterly sick. His agape eyes shut, the door to his soul closing painlessly. 'Don't look.' He thought absentmindedly as lifted his hand.
But his eyes opened unbidden by his soul, and he stared at the friend he had nearly killed, but successfully sealed. "Indeed…" He said, his breathe cracking. "It is over….I've won, this time." He slammed his hand back down onto Sasuke''s chest, watching as the cursed sealing markings of the Shakaku appeared around his teammate's entire frame.
"Gak…." His friend twisted violently in the air, coughing slightly, bile rose slightly in his throat.
"Well? Sasuke? Hello? You with me?" He cut out, waiting for some snarky reply from his old teammate.
But none came.
"So much for your so called revolution." He sneered slightly, his breathe harsh and deep. He felt so fake, so utterly fake. Who was he again? Oh yes, Uzumaki Naruto. He didn't deserve that name anymore, not now, not at the defining moment, he couldn't be the Uzumaki Naruto that he was before. He could only be what he was. What he is.
"You…" Sasuke began. "You still don't understand…"
"It seems you can speak." He said softly, his voice full of unbound anger, yet also conviction. "Your vision of a Hokage is nothing but a lie and a joke. You would seek to make the world no better than it is! You who wishes to replace the darkness with yourself?"
"You cannot and will never see things as I do," Sasuke's growl reached his ears. "I needed to cut myself off from everything, from all relations, from all those close to me. To get rid of all of the mistakes before and start anew. With this left eye of mine, I can see the very foundations of the earth, I have sight none alive have." Sasuke's voice was imbued with conviction as it reached his ears. "You are blind to it all, and that…is probably why you're the last one still standing in my way."
He understood and pried from his teammates eyes the scourge, the affliction, the disease. The very curse that had woven itself through the crevices of every cruel action, every drop of blood and every soulless eye that foresaw oblivion.
Suddenly, everything seemed small, minuscule. His opponent, his sensei, his other teammate, his friends, his comrades, a violet haired girl, the entire world, and even himself. All of it, was so tiny. So miniscule.
He stared into the very depths of Sasuke's rippled eye, and he saw the world. His friends had died. Those closest gone. His comrades gone. A part of him since birth now gone. The world in ruin.
He saw it all. He saw it all on a leaf among leaves. That single, illuminated leaf was a sickly black. His breath froze in tandem with the wind.
It was dying.
Then the world darkened and the wind heaved, and the leaf tumbled down into nothingness.
He wished that he could rescind into oblivion itself as he stared into the non-existence. He looked up. Above the leaves were trees, innumerable in amount, and above them, was the forest.
The single cultivation of it all wasn't burning. It wasn't ending with every last moment fighting against some foreign power. There was no enemy here. No fire to douse, no entity to blame.
It was simply dying.
His mouth dried. There was no fire, because there had never been a fire. Only the façade of one. Obito could never have been the envoy of destruction, even if for a time. Madara could never have murdered this world. Even Kaguya couldn't have been the one to have brought destruction in the world.
Everything, them, it all— it was just smoke – an imagination of fire. Fire that would never come. Because it wasn't fire that was killing it all. The entire cultivation was killing itself like a leech.
He felt his mind give out from within as his knees buckled.
"You…" Sasuke's voice reached his ears, snapping him from his trance. "Understand it all now, don't you? Why I must become the single thing that the smoulder is pointed at?"
He chuckled. "You say that as if you still have a chance of succeeding. You should've learned by now that I persevere, I persist till the end, and I win." He shook his head slightly, his breathe almost creaking in the wind.
"I don't care about that any more. You must understand. The Akatsuki didn't start this war, nor any country, not even Madara. This war is of us and within."
"We are the leaves within the forests." He murmured slightly, his eyes wide and agape.
"You know my plan." Sasuke began. "I will destroy the past mistakes and put all hatred onto a single construct, me. Because of this, the entire cycle will end! This single, cultivated entity will die out! This entity, this seamless forest will be turned into something different! I'll change it all! All of it, the cannibalism, the suffocating and the murdering, all of it will end!"
He snapped back slightly. "You'd change our very existence!"
"Peace can't be obtained through an abstract view. Peace is impossible if we are all to stay normal, if we humans vent our hate like we always have."
He shook his head slightly closing his eyes, reminding himself of Nagato and Jiraiya and his father, of all those that had instructed him with finding the answer. And he thought of the people he would never see again. He thought of the countess dead spread across all of the battlefields that he'd fought for in the war. He thought of death. He opened his eyes. He thought of every single person in the world. He thought of life.
And he knew the answer, finally. "You want to change the world so all hatred is directed at a single person? You wish to change us? So that friendship, humanity and love are replaced with this peace and hatred?" He shook his head. "I finally understand….the answer I've sought for."
"Hmm?" He heard Sasuke seemingly ask.
"A small smile directed at anyone and yet everything." He smiled, gaining strength. "A small bit of food gifted to you when you've lost your breakfast and are cold and hungry." He smiled a dark, yet serene one. "A…a shared Popsicle with a father figure when you're feeling completely alone."
He stopped, watching his friends face carefully, wondering if Sasuke would speak, and wondering if he would challenge his words.
"A kind old man coming to you daily and feeding you a bowl of Ramen with a smile."
"Shut up..."
"A shared smile among the leaves." He looked up. "All of the things I mentioned, they are the things that make us live! Where is any of this in your revolution?"
He grabbed Sasuke by the collar. "You don't want a single cultivated entity, a single overarching forest. You wish for something that can't move, that can't give anything but hatred. That can't take. That can't cause suffering and something that can feel nothing but hatred for a single person." He gritted his teeth. "How much is peace worth if we're not even truly living to live through it?"
"Give me war Sasuke, give me more war if it is to be, because you're peace is nothing but a farce!"
"Shut up!"
"You bastard, still not listening huh?" His voice croaked into the wind. He saw the gears in his teammates head turn and saw his friend lift his head.
But nothing came.
He let go of his friend in anger and took a step back. Struck mute. As if the world had frozen before him.
His hands tightened on themselves, blood leaking out as he finally went and grabbed Sasuke. "Dammit Sasuke! How can you so easily wish to destroy everything Itachi fought for? Everything we fought for!" He roared, his heart pulsating in agony.
Sasuke's heart thundered in the wind, groaning, as if it were in pain. His eyes thrummed with power, but a steadily losing power at that. His body was broken, mind left in shambles.
But at his friends words it was almost as if his heart clicked into place. As if his eyes boomed with an impregnable knowledge—of remembrance. As if his mind recalled it all and screamed at him.
His heart shook. "It hurts, Naruto." He breathed, slowly, the caliginous anger leaving as his pain overtook him.
Naruto looked up, he knew he didn't mean the physical pain, he always knew.
"I—I know…I've always known." He whispered into the wind. "And it hurts…"
"You…have?" Sasuke asked, broken heart desperately latching onto the one thing he could.
Naruto looked at the friend who had once been his brother, even if not through blood. "I always have…."
"I've known it….since the beginning." Sasuke whispered, as if everything made sense to him now. "Naruto, I knew that you were always alone in the past, like myself, the last Uchiha left, you were cast out…."
Naruto tried to open his mouth, but found himself mute. The single cultivation of everything, it all stemmed around them, the two Transmigrants, as it always had, it all was on them. It was off them, and through them.
"But after I saw you prank and do stupid things and get scolded….for some reason I decided to keep my eyes on you…" Sasuke choked slightly on his own saliva. "It was also at that time I realised…that your weakness had started to sink into me….I couldn't stop paying attention to you…and when I saw you doing everything you could to create bonds with others…it reminded me again of what I'd lost…my family."
Sasuke's head turned to the side. "Yet, for some reason I felt relieved…however, I also thought it was a weakness. So I trained hard to escape it and to become stronger. Stronger than Itachi, but then you ended up in the same team as me. And I was reminded again of my family. And I started to see Team 7 as being somewhat like my family. And so whenever I saw your suffering….I'd feel it too."
Naruto stared at Sasuke, confused yet relieved. "It was the same for me…"
Sasuke looked up. "When I understood you and your pain, for the very first time, I finally considered you as my comrade. But at the same time I couldn't let you become stronger…"
Naruto looked away, gritting his teeth before looking into his friend's eyes. "I also knew that you were always alone too, and I was relieved, so relieved to see someone else like me and I felt so happy I wanted to talk to you right away! But I didn't, because, at the time I was envious of you, of your skills….and so I decided that you'd be my rival! You were….no you became my goal, and for the first time I finally had a true bond." He lifted his hand to his face and clutched it, hard.
"It was during our first missions as Team 7 that I truly started reaching after you, because I wanted to become as strong and cool as you." He stopped cold as he truly stared at Sasuke's form.
"It was the opposite, I was the one envious of you! You had a strength I was missing, that I didn't, and couldn't have! And you always…always walked in front of me. Just like my brother!"
He gritted his teeth, tears slipping out of his eyes. "It—it hurts…" He said into the wind, his voice creaking and disappearing into the wind.
"I know…"
"Why…." He choked, heart pumping ever faster as he howled. "Why did any of this have to happen?" He screamed out at the top of his lungs.
"It doesn't matter anymore, I've….I've lost." Sasuke's head moved up. "And you have a Genjutsu to dispel."
"I have to dispel—" Naruto shook his head, confusion making way for certainty. "Don't….." He steeled his resolve. "Don't make me kill you, Sasuke…how about you help me fix this. All of this?"
He listened to the breath of the world itself, his heart and mind on edge. "What's your decision, Sasuke?" He asked finally after minutes passed by.
"I will do it, Naruto, I—I acknowledge your view of the word." Sasuke finally said, certainty in his voice.
He smiled a true smile, before becoming grim. "I will heal you, but first, you must promise me that you don't plan on backstabbing me."
"I promise you, Naruto, I'm not lying, I'll help." Sasuke said.
His eyes narrowed as he moved other and released his healing into Sasuke. "There, it's done."
He waited a few seconds to watch what his friend would do, and found himself satisfied as Sasuke stood and nodded. "You remember how to release the jutsu, Naruto?" Sasuke smirked slightly before stepping next to him, his hands moving into the Rat seal.
Naruto nodded as he began to bring his hand up in the Rat seal, and smiled as a slight heave appeared in the air. "It's done." He turned slightly as the Old Man appeared.
"Uzumaki Naruto…." The newly appeared Hagoromo spoke.
He waited, breath as even as he could possibly get it. He looked at the ancient being in front of him and felt the power crackling through the Sage.
He waited, but nothing came from the older man's mouth. Seconds. Minutes passed by in a blink of an eye as he awaited the words that surely should have come.
"Um…yes?" He asked in irritation, why was it always so dammed difficult talking with the Old Man?
Nothing came.
He grimaced grimly, the old man may have been ancient and powerful, but he had no social skills, at all. "What's up Old Man?"
"I…" The much older man finally began after minutes of absolute silence. "Put my faith in you to destroy Sasuke's hatred, Naruto." The Old Man smiled slightly. "Despite all of his power and his hatred, he has proven to be nothing against a Shinobi like you. Well done."
Sasuke looked down in defeat, head whirling as he took a few steps back, grabbing at his chest.
Naruto paused in mid thought and looked up, his eyes narrowing. "What do you mean by that? You make it sound like you knew Sasuke would do this."
"Because he told me." Hagoromo bluntly replied. "I talked with Sasuke just as I talked with you. When I asked for your answer, and you told me that you wanted to protect your friends. But, do you perhaps know what Sasuke's answer was?"
Something dark rose in his heart as he realised he probably already knew. "No…." Was the only reply he could give as his brittle heart creaked.
"He spoke truly, telling me that he intended to kill you."
He looked away. Away from the old man. Away from Sasuke, from everything. "Yet," He began, struggling to keep his breath even. "You still gave him your power….why?"
"Because I erred when I gave my power to my younger son, Ashura. I left everything with him instead of giving Indra something as well. I even made Ashura my successor! Because of this Indra began to despise both me and Ashura because of my mistakes."
He found himself almost groaning. "So you gave Sasuke all your power just because you felt bad about a mistake you made who knows how long ago? You gave him your power to make up for a mistake that, ultimately, led to all of this happening?"
Sasuke wanted to speak, but had found himself struck mute. He just….he just couldn't interrupt this discussion that his brother in all but blood and his ancestor were having, because they spoke nothing but the truth.
"Well, I wouldn't put it in those terms, but in light of all that's occurred, yes, that was probably another error on my part."
"Well…I don't know what to say old man, other than this is possibly the largest **** up I've ever heard off." He snapped back.
The Sage smiled grimly. "Is that so?"
"You messed up the first time all those years ago by only giving Ashura your inheritance. But in this case, Sasuke had a lot of hatred in him, thanks to what happened to his family and brother. Power was all he cared about, he even craved for it for years. Handing him even more power was not the solution."
The Sage gave a slight nod. "I've been watching you for some time now. You may not be perceived as the most intellectually capable, but you have proven yourself worthy as a successor to my legacy—"
Sasuke's resolve finally rose through his heart, and he took a few drastic steps towards the Sage. "I—I beseech you, Sage of the Six Paths, to do me this favour and give my eyes to Naruto as a gift…"
Naruto stepped back, his breath coming out fast. "Sasuke, what are you…"
The Sage seemed to smile slightly. "It seems I made the right choice after all…very well, Uchiha Sasuke."
"NO!" Naruto shouted. "I—I don't need your eyes Sasuke! I…." He croaked out, breath coming out faster than it should.
"Please Naruto, this is what I wish—no what I want to do." Sasuke said with a small smile.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki moved over to Sasuke, looking for any doubt. But found none. Satisfied, he began to work on taking Sasuke's eyes out of their sockets and placing them into Naruto's own.
"I have implanted my knowledge of how to use those eyes into them, Naruto." The Sage stated as the transplant was finally finished. "I will also seal Kurama's other half and the rest of the tailed beasts into your body. Finally, I will bestow upon you my Rikudō no Yō no Chikara (Six Paths Yang Power) once more, and as a gift grant you the power I gave Sasuke, the Rikudō no In no Chikara (Six Paths Yin Power) and the Yin-Yang powers that come with it."
"Old man I…."
"It's okay, Uzumaki Naruto," The Sage smiled, "Another thing, I will change your body so you can use that power properly."
"You can do that?" He asked softly.
"Of course I can. I may have given you my Yin-Yang chakra's before, but I didn't give you the same ones as Sasuke, you got half of my power, the Rikudou no Sennin Modo (Six Paths Sage Mode). Whereas he got the Rinnegan, the other half. But now, I'm giving you the other half of my power, do with it as you will." Having finally stopped talking, Hagoromo began sealing Kurama's Yang chakra within Naruto (fusing his Yin and Yang halves and making the Kyūbi 'whole' again) and sealing the other tailed beasts and making the fragments whole. Before once more endowing him with the Yang seal, and this time along with the Yin seal.
He stared at the old man and finally asked what he had wanted to ask for a while, but couldn't give himself the strength to. "What about Sasuke?"
"He will keep his power, for whatever use he can use it for without his eyes." The Sage briskly replied.
He nodded finally as he activated the Rinnegan in both eyes. "Very well, Old Man, am I to assume this is the end?"
The Sage smiled once more. "I am proud to call you my descendent." The Sage seemed to pause, before beginning again. "Goodbye." And the God of Shinobi, the Sage of the Six Paths, disappeared from the face of the earth.
"Wow, I—I feel incredible!" He exclaimed, his body brimming with an untold amount of power. Feeling like never before, he opened up his senses once more, feeling almost everyone stirring from their induced hypnosis at the hands of the mass Genjutsu. There was…something off about how they felt, but he shook his head and ignored it.
He couldn't help but let a bright smile slip onto his face as he turned and walked towards Sasuke, who had waited patiently while he had talked with Hagoromo.
"Sasuke?" He asked, looking at his rival who sat, not looking at anything particular considering he had no eyes.
"Yeah, Naruto?" Sasuke replied.
"Sakura and Kakashi have just gotten here." He said, a small smile on his lips.
And Sasuke showed something on his face he'd never seen before.
A true smile.
The Journal of Naruto Uzumaki.
That day was one of the happiest of my life, I had saved the world, saved myself, saved Sasuke, but it was also one of the worst.
When Kakashi and Sakura came, we all reconciled with each other, laughing and happy, and Team 7 was truly a team.
But the happiness was not to be.
Because every single human caught within the Infinite Tsukuyomi had been turned into a White Zetsu.
They had come like thunder as we all went to see our friends and people. Sakura, Kakashi and Sasuke hadn't known, but I had. I had sensed that something was off, but I had ignored it for happiness.
I killed the Shinobi world.
I killed my friends. My village, and our allies. I killed them all.
I killed the world.
I killed her. The one I had avoided. Her.
Hinata.
With nowhere to go, we, all of us, me, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakshi. Ran.
Just, ran.
We ran so fast.
Because in truth, we couldn't bear to kill them. So we went to the one place that we knew a way was possible to save it all.
We went to Uzushio to create a seal greater than anything before.
It defied belief, it was a marvel of the world. Every manner of its seal was perfect.
It was impossibly complex, combining as a foundation, the ancient Uzumaki designs with the Six Paths seals on my hands, and Sasuke gave an Uchiha seal array. One based on time itself, derived from the Mangekyo Sharingan's techniques.
It was more delicate than anything ever made. And it would hopefully deliver us all from the nightmare that had been plaguing my dreams for five years.
Five Years Later.
"You have to stop now! You've looked over it twenty times already!"
"It has to be perfect." He answered briskly, his heart hammering in his chest as he inspected the sealing array again.
"I know, but we have no time! You have to—"
"I need to make this perfect." He returned back, his heart pumping impossibly fast.
"Naruto, listen to me!" Sakura shouted, almost screamed at him as she grabbed his shoulder and whirled him around to look at her. Her bloodshot eyes staring into his. "You need to focus! There's no more time!"
His heart felt sour. "But Sakura, we hav—
"Dammit Naruto I know!" She snapped back. "I know, but there's nothing else that can be done. They're here….."
Sasuke stepped in, blindness not stopping him from walking across the podium towards them. "She's right…" Sasuke whispered. "They're here, and all of our defences are down."
Kakashi ran in, holding a kunai. "You must go! Now! All three of you! I will flank you!"
The golden shroud of his Six Paths Sage Mode coated his form, from his hair down to his toes. The hue of gold surged through his body like a living flame.
He felt it. Power, endlessly gargantuan and deep, surging through his form.
Everything was light.
The crackling power sent a shiver up his arms, like static electricity only without the stinging. He breathed hard as he pushed the chakra of the nine tailed beasts into the seal.
Then a hole appeared.
The seal seemed to thunder, to writhe and morph as the hole within reality split open further to reveal something, impossible.
There were two halves of the existence within the hole. One where an ocean of churning water whirled, with the brightest of starlight and the brightest of colours flowing. Another where the embers of wick were becoming extinguished, where the stars were dying out, where light was gone and the darkness crept. And he, in all of his power, couldn't even begin to grasp at what he was seeing.
It was the beginning of infinity
An end of infinity.
It was infinity itself.
"It's working!" He shouted in relief, turning to stare at Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi not too far away, holding the Zetsu's off.
Sakura gave him a strange look.
Sasuke sighed and nodded.
Kakashi merely whirled round and threw a kunai into the sealing array.
In a split second seals writhed and wreathed on his body, coiling around him and leashing him tightly. "What are you doing?" He asked in shock as he saw the tell-tale signs of Susano'o form into being around him like an impregnable wall. "Sasuke, what's going on?"
"Only what needs to be done." Sasuke cut back briskly.
Sakura stood besides Sasuke, a sad look on her face. "We're all doing this so you can get through."
He looked at the both of them, and a look of horror crossed onto his face. "No…" He whispered. "No! You all said that we would work through this together!"
"We lied." Sasuke replied.
"By my calculations, I found that even with all the power you have you wouldn't be able to bring us back with you, none of our bodies can handle the sheer force from the rip in reality besides you, because of this you wouldn't be transported further back then maybe a year ago." Sakura said.
"This is the only choice Naruto!" Kakashi shouted from the far end of his fight, bringing his hands down and creating a wall of rock as he runs towards Sasuke's Susano'o construct.
His wide, unblinking eyes grew wet with tears as his face became slack. 'Why…."
Sasuke stepped in front of him, facing the closed of doorway. "By my own calculations, to get to the hole in reality, every step is hazardous and is a form of an almost dying effect. If I'd had the Rinnegan I may have been able to take the trip with you, though it's doubtful. But now? Me, Sakura and Kakash? None of us can do it."
"But you all told me we could make it!" He cried out, his heart slowing down in his chest.
"We lied, Naruto." Kakashi said, breathing heavily.
His heart almost gave out at those words. "Then….." He paused, looking at them, before finishing with baited breath. "Will I be able to make all of the steps towards the hole?"
"If you're on your own, yes." They all said in tandem.
He shook his head frantically. "No, I—I'll get us all there! Please just believe in me."
"We have no time for this!" Sasuke shouted, slapping him on the back.
Sakura nodded walking over and stepping besides Sasuke, a burst of chakra crackling in her hands.
The door, blocked off by Kakashi's Doton and held into place by ten seals, busted open.
Then nothingness met them all.
Sakura let out a scream as her perception and senses roared at her. Her left hand grabbed onto Naruto, and her right onto Sasuke.
Up, down, darkness, light, smell, touch, heat, cold, sight, all of her senses screamed at her and ripped at her nerves, as if they were alive.
She was everything and nothing at all. Her chakra anchoring Naruto, Sasuke and herself to the very world, tethering them into existence even as they died an innumerable amount of times. Once the last amount of her chakra left her, Sasuke would do the same for Naruto.
They took a step, and her chakra and life started to slip away, as though her very life was worthless, so utterly worthless.
One of the White Zetsu used a Mokuton jutsu that appeared out of nowhere in front of them, ready to slice through all of their hearts before they could blink.
A fountain of blood rolled across the floor. The Zetsu's didn't hear their victim's words. But he, Sasuke and Sakura did. He stared into the dimly clouded raven eyes of Hatake Kakashi.
"I hope…that this is enough of an apology for being such an awful Sensei…"
Kakashi let out a laugh and smashed the three forwards into another two steps, though the dead man's humour is lost to him. Then the man slumps, and he is forced to not pay another thought as Sakura pushed them further forward.
"Dammit…." He croaked out, his heart dying. He looked over at Sakura, and his heart stopped. "….Sakura…?" He asked to no avail.
Sakura didn't look at him, she let a smile form on her lips, a brittle one that told the truth. "Goodbye….Sasuke…Naruto…"
Sasuke shook slightly as he gripped Sakura's arm tightly.
One last step.
Haruno Sakura died, her life and chakra drained away as she took a single whisper and faded into nothingness.
Sasuke's held back chakra surged to life after five years. The blind Uchiha could feel his feet being tugged down into the ground in the place that his dead teammate had been.
"No! Dammit why!"
The blind Uchiha ignored his last friend's curse and heavy breathing in place of pushing them both forwards.
Sasuke felt his Susano'o shrivel up from the force of the rip in reality, and he felt his utterly massive reserves and his life force sapped away, impossibly fast.
Eight steps away from the hole.
"Two steps." The Uchiha whispered.
Six steps left.
Blood flowed out of his empty eyes, and his innards began boiling inside him. Sasuke groaned.
Four steps.
"Dammit Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, choking. "I can get us both the rest of the way if you just unseal my power!"
The blind and dying Uchiha shook his head, his empty eye sockets open for the world to see as blood leached out, leaking and flowing. "I have….to make sure."
Two more steps, and the Susano'o began to evaporate. The last of the fiery flames dying away. Sasuke became hunched over, coughing up his own insides that become naught but dust within the arc of time.
"Dammit Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, his breath coming out fast. "I can get us the rest of the way, just let me out!"
"No Naruto! My time's over…"
"I don't ****ing care you b*****d!" He screamed out, his power desperately trying to break out of the seal, only for his power to betray him and stay in place.
Sasuke gave a brittle smile. "For what it's worth dobe…" Sasuke paused, choking on the words.
Damn cursed pride.
"I always have had to carry your damn sorry ass through it all…"
Before he could even shout out at Sasuke, his teammate and rival took two final steps into. Oblivion.
The Susano'o finally burst, and Sasuke opened his arms out. "I hope…that this is enough of a compensation for all of the shit I pulled." The blind Uchiha Sasuke died, ripped to pieces so utterly that nothing was left as his flesh peeled and disappearred.
The seals holding Naruto down disappeared, and he roared into the world, howling and crying into oblivion.
They were all gone now, every last person he had ever cared for.
Just, gone.
He growled in his throat, clawing at it as he cried at nothing and everything.
"You have to move, now!"
He didn't respond, and continued to stare into the nothingness in front of him.
"Will we die here?"
"No, now walk, boy."
He took a step, and began to sift into the hole.
"Kurama?"
"Move, you stupid, ****ing idiotic Ningen."
"Are you—are you going to die and leave me alone to?" He asked with baited breath. His heart was brittle as he howled into reality itself, challenging it, baiting it to kill him, to take another away from him.
"Move it, blasted boy."
He moved through the hole completely, allowing oblivion to swallow him whole.
Can't die.
You can't die.
I can't die.
"We will not die here!"
Eyes creaked open.
Shooting up, his body writhed as his eyes snapped agape. Caked in sweat, he took in the view of the world around him. His heart sped up as he shot up, recognising a room, to him, that he hadn't seen in an innumerable amount of years.
For an eternity of years he stared into those walls and smelled his badly washed beddings. His heart quivered as he heard the sounds of what used to be Konoha's early mornings before Pain's devastating attack.
After the eternity ended he moved, finally, heart pumping as he stood at the now open window, blinds drawn agape for him to stare at what was clearly the village of Konohagakure no Sato before Pain's attack.
Before the world was devastated by Kaguya.
He smiled blissfully, and turned towards the rest of his old humble abode. But then the smile on his lips traced away.
"Kurama?" He croaked out. Silence met his words and reality smacked him in the face. He suddenly found it hard to breathe as he ran his hands through his hair. "Kurama?" Tears flowed down his cheeks as he closed his eyes for the one friend he had left. "Kurama?" The boy looked at the floor, revelling in the sound of the fan overhead.
"Ku..." He stopped as he took a deep breath. Nobody left but him. He got up to see if the fruit of his effort worked. He walked into the bathroom, face with a mirror. In that mirror he found the face of his eight year old self staring back at him. In that mirror he found hope. He stared back, clenching his fists, calling out with renewed vigor.
"Kurama?"
He found his heart breaking into pieces as he finally noticed how quiet it was. But, he couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. Even though his body quivered at the possible truth.
"Dammit say something to me. Please." His throat felt tired, so utterly tired that it couldn't handle the weight of his own breath.
"Yes, boy?"
A smile wormed its way onto his lips, and he dropped to his knees, laughing in happiness.
"Thank you, Kurama…."
"For what?"
"For not leaving me alone." The pieces of his heart slowly began to reform into one once again. But a part of him was still dead, the part that had been that little, hyperactive boy.
The part of himself that he could never get back.
He may see his eight year old face in the mirror, but eyes not his see the truth, his eyes are that of the 22 year old man who had seen life and had become…
Dead.
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Legacy Anew
Two gods battled against one another within the Valley of the End. Their powers were beyond mere Shinobi now. The powers of the legendary God of Shinobi, Hagoromo Otsutsuki running through them like water.
The two young men while not completely matured, were the most powerful Shinobi alive, following in the footsteps of their very own transmigration's original forms, Indra and Ashura. The world had been rendered asunder, now nothing but a wasteland filled with the trees of Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Haggard and heaving, the last of the Uchiha and truest descendent of Indra stared down at the young man who was his rival and brother in all but blood. The one who was the only obstacle stopping him from achieving a revolution. His clothes which had been pristine were torn and caked in blood – blood that belonged to both him and his friend.
His right eye swirled into a deep onyx, cementing the fact that his chakra was heavily depleted. His left eye, which was the unique six tomoe Rinnegan granted to him by Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths, lay closed in order to conserve energy. He breathed heavily, the two had both fought against each other in this exact same place, though now unrecognisable, it was once known as the 'Valley of End,' their first battle paled in comparison to the current one.
No, unlike the old one, this one would decide the fate of the world, the fate that the two god's would deal out to it depending on who won and who lost.
Sasuke knew that to achieve his goal, his revolution that he'd have to kill his friend to archive it. Indeed, there was only one person in the entire world who stood in his way, Uzumaki Naruto.
The Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, Naruto, was in a worse state then his rival, breathing haggardly and his respire coming out in short, wheezing gasps. His forehead protector, which he had worn with inexorable pride on his head was inadvertently discarded, lost in the thaws of battle. The notorious orange jumpsuit that he was renowned for wearing was gone, utterly destroyed from Sasuke's onslaught. The only garment left adorning his torso was a simple long sleeved fishnet mesh top.
His face was bloodied and sported more than a few bruises, yet only his left eye was swollen despite the thrashing Sasuke had dealt upon him during their struggle. Even damaged his eyes were unyielding in their inexorable determination as he gave his once best friend and brother a glare.
"Naruto…"
A deep voice rumbled within his mind. His eyes snapped open, his respire coming out in short bursts. He looked towards his friend, a weightless sensation hammering through his being. Cerulean eyes blinked. The world ceased. "Kurama—" He croaked, his voice cracking in the wind.
"There's not a lot of time. I'm giving you what little chakra I have left. Use it wisely." Kurama replied.
"I…" He felt haggard and tired as his breath came out in a short burst. "Thank you, Kurama…." A sound escaped in the wind, a breathless form of respire that seemed cold as it left his mouth.
He smiled for the first time in hours as he felt the effects and rush of power. Bursting forth he stormed over towards Sasuke, enacting a viscous bout that made the world tremble. "Sassukkeeeee!" He roared as he brought his hand up to block the lone Uchiha's stab. "I'm gonna beat cha up till you stop being stupid!"
He didn't care as a murderous look crossed his friends face—he didn't care when he saw the dark look of gleefulness that showed on the last Uchiha—he just didn't care.
Because he had a friend—no, a brother to beat some sense into.
A blurring smear of gold flashed, hurtling across the landscape and crashing into a tumbling beam of darkened azure.
Grunting within the haze of power, he flipped around the swiping Susano'o strike and a flash of gold yellow formed in his hand as a haze of chakra swirled.
A flow of energy blasted into been as he took the last few forward dashes and shredded through the ethereal god known only as Susano'o.
The turbulent orbs of nothingness—of darkness morphed into caliginous staffs that appeared in his hands as he hefted them. With not a moment of hesitation he took the last charge and crashed his staffs downwards at Sasuke.
In the picosecond before the caliginous staffs could strike their target Sasuke's black lightning wreathed sword was already countering.
With a grunt he gasped as Sasuke's foot kicked out at his abdomen almost like his foot was made from steel.
Launched backwards, he careened as he dropped to the ground, lurching as he hurried up and blocked a viscous strike from his brother in all but blood.
His stomach fell. "Sasuke…" He heaved with a slight whisper as he pitched forwards, a chakra arm appearing and forming a yellow spiralling orb that was shaped like a shuriken.
Pausing in mid strike, he looked towards his friend. "Sasuke…please, just—" His breath halted as he looked at his friend. "Just….just stop."
"Stop? No."
He felt weak on his feet, as if he'd drop to his knees and never get back up again—like he'd been struck by lightning from a god. With a flash of certainty he realised he had been struck by a bolt of lightning that was unmatched in irony.
Whatever happened to defying fate? To defy destiny?
He swallowed hard, taking a step back. Inching upon a pedestal of utter pain, he remembered his godfather, Jiraiya.
He smiled one of those fake smiles that most around the village could remember.
He took a step forward, and with certainty, he knew he wouldn't step backwards ever again. "I guess I just have to beat you up some more!"
With a quick whip-whirl he twisted round and attacked with a step forward. Only to be forced back as he barely dodged the strike that surely would have sliced him in half. The glowing haze of practiced Chidori blackened with unimaginable power appeared in sight as it drove him to his knees.
Dazed he finally realised how exhausted he was. How could he even win? He drew upon a last ounce of power, a single rush of energy that stormed through him. Only for it to be drained.
His body writhed and his breath caught in his throat. His thoughts raced and his body felt numb. Gaping synapses snapped shut.
"This is one of the Rinnegan's powers." Sasuke spoke.
He looked up, his body writhing. "How much were you hiding before?" He replied, his voice coming out in a short rasp.
"A lot…"
"This—this is ridiculous…" He rasped, looking into his rivals eyes. 'How…' He choked, breath slowing and his sense of touch leaving him. 'How is he able to so quickly use those techniques without knowing them?'
"It is me, the one who has the eyes of the Uchiha who is destined to be the victor." Sasuke's arrogant words reached his ears, and all he could do was look up.
"You…prick…" He chocked in outright anger, such anger that it was coursing through his veins.
"A little…silly don't you think?" Sasuke replied.
"You're a profound bastard, you know."
"You can yap all you like, but fate has spoken, and the outcome decided."
"I was never the type to listen to fate." His voice croaked and cracked, yet in that moment he never wavered. "That's why…" His hands tightened, drawing blood as he gritted his teeth. "This dammed cycle…." He cut himself off for a moment, exhaling quickly. "Will end one way or another!"
"It's over…" A thousand chirps sounded around his friend's hand just as pure lightning crackled in Sasuke's left fist. "Goodbye…my only friend!"
He groaned before he deftly pivoted around the coming strike, swivelling up and delivering a swiftly sharp uppercut that knocked his friend backwards towards Uchiha Madara's decimated statue.
"Why the hell won't you just stay down!" Sasuke roared. "Just give me a break and ****ing die already!"
"No…" He responded, his chest rumbling. "I could never do that…" He trailed off, his voice imbuing with all of his emotions. "This is who—what I am. I will never give up, even if the world falls apart. You give up, on trying to make me give up!"
"Whatever happened to fighting fate? Because you've done a blasted good job of simply delaying the inevitable."
He looked up in his tiredness at his once best friend and brother. He grabbed at his heart.
He remembered his fight with Neji during the Chuunin exams, of how he had talked about defying fate.
He remembered how every day of his life to him was a war against destiny.
He clearly had lost.
With a choke, he remembered all those that had died on the battlefield for him. To fight towards a better future, a better world.
And he had led them astray.
"You're continuous fight against fate has done nothing but cause it to take its course, and to kill many in the process." Sasuke said with a smirk.
"What?" He asked shakenly.
Rippled eye glinting and seemingly staring into his mind, Sasuke replied. "An old man who loved you and trained you."
Tick.
His heart clenched tight.
"The same man who died for you—to give you a secret of an enemy who you later befriended."
Tick.
His ears ringed loudly, the words reaching his very being.
"Kakashi, giving his life in the line of duty. Fukasaku and most of the village dying to protect you."
Tick.
The world slowed down around him. Everything ceasing besides what he could hear and feel.
"All of them. Every single one."
Tick.
He could barely breathe, chest tightening and synapses splitting agape. He shook, as if overcome by a foreign feeling. He stared at Sasuke, unable to understand, to gauge everything. Or anything at all.
"All the ones that uselessly gave their lives for you."
His hands tightened on themselves, digging into his flesh as his heart pumped ever faster.
"The reason why they died was entirely your fault."
Tick.
"No!" He shouted, clawing for air.
He saw with clarity as Neji jumped in front of him, blocking the attack that was meant for him. With a struggle he looked down to find Neji's chest opened up like a portrait that foretold a story, a truth.
Tick.
He saw Tsunade, barely alive and sliced in half because of Madara. He saw the other Kage, all almost nearly dead, because of him, because he wasn't strong enough.
His heart twisted as if a knife had curled in and sliced through.
Tick.
He saw Hinata, skewered and near death as she saved him from Pain.
Than he saw her again, fighting against beings of white. For the world.
For him.
Tick.
He saw the world enveloped by the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Because he was weak, too weak and stupid.
His vision was distorted, and his connection with the beasts waned. He broke out into a fit of coughs as he funnelled out his chakra. The world tumbled into crimson. His hands shook and his heart thundered as he let out one last, earth shattering scream. The world turned white, brisk and became so brittle that it began to shatter.
His eyes flared up in pain, blood funnelling out just as it poured from his mouth. From his nose.
Boom.
The world lit up in white fire, shattered and becoming shards as the Genjutsu, one he knew well—Tsukuyomi, was ripped away. Breathing tiredly, he grabbed at his chest, clear liquids slipping from his bloody eyes.
"You ass." Naruto groaned out.
"You escaped?" Sasuke asked with a sigh. "So it has come to this..." Sasuke's voice boomed. "But I will end this—"
The Uchiha rocketed back from a hurtling punch.
"No!" Naruto roared. "I will! Right here, right now!"
The powers of the Bijuu coursed, burning and searing through his veins. "What happened to you?" Naruto shot forward, chakra spiralling forth into a Rasengan. "What about everyone's dreams?"
"Shut up!" Sasuke shot forward, arm crackling with lightning. "I'll make new ones!"
"Do you only care about yourself?" Naruto roared, milliseconds away from his attack meeting Sasuke's.
"I care for them all!" Sasuke returned briskly as their attacks finally met.
The ground unearthed on itself and the sky turned black. He, Naruto Uzumaki, was the last ember alit within sight.
For the very stars had died out.
The searing darkness of Sasuke's lightning overtook his bright spiralling sphere and unleashed a shockwave of such proportions that it shook the earth.
Spires of unique silver collapsed and mountain ranges tumbled down. Islands crumbled and the continent shattered to pieces. Like a fountainhead of the cosmos, the very world bridled into nothingness.
The dark is a very generous and patient being. Settling into the hearts of mankind and giving songful gifts.
In this single moment Naruto Uzumaki understood just what he was and what he was fighting.
Yin and Yang. Indra and Ashura. Darkness and Light.
"I will end this here…" Sasuke said, rocketing forth and sending him flying.
"No!" Naruto shouted. "I will!"
Sasuke smiled as he brought his hands together. "Chibaku Tensei." Sasuke whispered in reverence.
Just like that, spires of rumble and earth lifted towards the sky. Blackening the world further, and the last ray of light was snuffed from his fingers just as he began to lift towards the sky. His breath began to leave him as the world around him was pulled upwards. Mountains gone and lifted. Islands gone and crumbling away. The continent wiped off the map.
With the last remaining strength he had he forced himself back down, keeping himself floating in the air. "I won't let you destroy our memories—"
The blond Uzumaki was hurled backwards from a punch laced in lightning.
"I shall destroy the past!" Sasuke roared, lifting Naruto up with his powers. "And I will look to the future! For those who are beholdeth with what lies ahead are the true victors!"
Naruto felt his windpipe crush inwards on itself from the gravitational powers of his rival. "I won't let you win!" He pushed himself forwards and smacked his friend away with all his strength.
"Just die already!" Sasuke screamed as another black Chidori formed in his hand.
"I will never die." He answered his friend as he gripped the lone Kunai of his father, Namikaze Minato, and threw it.
"What do you think that will d—"
Naruto's hand appeared out the other end of Sasuke's shoulder blade in a flash of pure gold. "I won't let you win." He whispered into his friend's ear just as ear shattering screams of agony rose in the air. "Even if I have to beat you up so bad that every bone in your body is broken."
Sasuke lifted a hand and grabbed Naruto's own hand that was covered in blood. "I—I don't understand—"
"Shush." Naruto interrupted just as the gravitational pull from the much bigger second moon ended. "We will fix this." The golden glow disappeared, replaced with a bright glow that seemed to heal the hole.
The two gods fell to the earth.
(A Day Later — Valley of the End)
Eyes snapped agape.
He flew upwards quickly and let out a loud, wheezing gasp of air as he desperately tried to breathe.
"Stand."
He gasped as he tried to stand, but to no avail.
"Get up, boy. The world is ahead and doesn't wait. Fight." Kurama's voice rumbled in his ears with unbidden power that exuded an ancientness unknown to even himself.
He grimaced but stood anyway. His heart hammered and his lungs were brittle. His respire hampered and haggard. His eyes clouded over.
Sasuke Uchiha lay just metres away from him, in an even more hazardous condition.
He let out small laugh, though it was lost to even himself. "I—I won…" He began, disbelief rushing through his veins. "Kurama…."
'But at what cost?'
He felt cold, colder than he ever had as he took the slow, but sure steps towards Sasuke's prone form. Time slowed, and after a brief moment, he held out his right hand and gripped it with his left. "Senpō: Jiton Rasengan (Sage Art: Magnet Release Spiralling Sphere)." He numbly said softly as he drove his right hand into Sasuke's body.
"Wha…what the ****!" Sasuke's wheezing voice reached his ears, and he felt sick, so utterly sick. His agape eyes shut, the door to his soul closing painlessly. 'Don't look.' He thought absentmindedly as lifted his hand.
But his eyes opened unbidden by his soul, and he stared at the friend he had nearly killed, but successfully sealed. "Indeed…" He said, his breathe cracking. "It is over….I've won, this time." He slammed his hand back down onto Sasuke''s chest, watching as the cursed sealing markings of the Shakaku appeared around his teammate's entire frame.
"Gak…." His friend twisted violently in the air, coughing slightly, bile rose slightly in his throat.
"Well? Sasuke? Hello? You with me?" He cut out, waiting for some snarky reply from his old teammate.
But none came.
"So much for your so called revolution." He sneered slightly, his breathe harsh and deep. He felt so fake, so utterly fake. Who was he again? Oh yes, Uzumaki Naruto. He didn't deserve that name anymore, not now, not at the defining moment, he couldn't be the Uzumaki Naruto that he was before. He could only be what he was. What he is.
"You…" Sasuke began. "You still don't understand…"
"It seems you can speak." He said softly, his voice full of unbound anger, yet also conviction. "Your vision of a Hokage is nothing but a lie and a joke. You would seek to make the world no better than it is! You who wishes to replace the darkness with yourself?"
"You cannot and will never see things as I do," Sasuke's growl reached his ears. "I needed to cut myself off from everything, from all relations, from all those close to me. To get rid of all of the mistakes before and start anew. With this left eye of mine, I can see the very foundations of the earth, I have sight none alive have." Sasuke's voice was imbued with conviction as it reached his ears. "You are blind to it all, and that…is probably why you're the last one still standing in my way."
He understood and pried from his teammates eyes the scourge, the affliction, the disease. The very curse that had woven itself through the crevices of every cruel action, every drop of blood and every soulless eye that foresaw oblivion.
Suddenly, everything seemed small, minuscule. His opponent, his sensei, his other teammate, his friends, his comrades, a violet haired girl, the entire world, and even himself. All of it, was so tiny. So miniscule.
He stared into the very depths of Sasuke's rippled eye, and he saw the world. His friends had died. Those closest gone. His comrades gone. A part of him since birth now gone. The world in ruin.
He saw it all. He saw it all on a leaf among leaves. That single, illuminated leaf was a sickly black. His breath froze in tandem with the wind.
It was dying.
Then the world darkened and the wind heaved, and the leaf tumbled down into nothingness.
He wished that he could rescind into oblivion itself as he stared into the non-existence. He looked up. Above the leaves were trees, innumerable in amount, and above them, was the forest.
The single cultivation of it all wasn't burning. It wasn't ending with every last moment fighting against some foreign power. There was no enemy here. No fire to douse, no entity to blame.
It was simply dying.
His mouth dried. There was no fire, because there had never been a fire. Only the façade of one. Obito could never have been the envoy of destruction, even if for a time. Madara could never have murdered this world. Even Kaguya couldn't have been the one to have brought destruction in the world.
Everything, them, it all— it was just smoke – an imagination of fire. Fire that would never come. Because it wasn't fire that was killing it all. The entire cultivation was killing itself like a leech.
He felt his mind give out from within as his knees buckled.
"You…" Sasuke's voice reached his ears, snapping him from his trance. "Understand it all now, don't you? Why I must become the single thing that the smoulder is pointed at?"
He chuckled. "You say that as if you still have a chance of succeeding. You should've learned by now that I persevere, I persist till the end, and I win." He shook his head slightly, his breathe almost creaking in the wind.
"I don't care about that any more. You must understand. The Akatsuki didn't start this war, nor any country, not even Madara. This war is of us and within."
"We are the leaves within the forests." He murmured slightly, his eyes wide and agape.
"You know my plan." Sasuke began. "I will destroy the past mistakes and put all hatred onto a single construct, me. Because of this, the entire cycle will end! This single, cultivated entity will die out! This entity, this seamless forest will be turned into something different! I'll change it all! All of it, the cannibalism, the suffocating and the murdering, all of it will end!"
He snapped back slightly. "You'd change our very existence!"
"Peace can't be obtained through an abstract view. Peace is impossible if we are all to stay normal, if we humans vent our hate like we always have."
He shook his head slightly closing his eyes, reminding himself of Nagato and Jiraiya and his father, of all those that had instructed him with finding the answer. And he thought of the people he would never see again. He thought of the countess dead spread across all of the battlefields that he'd fought for in the war. He thought of death. He opened his eyes. He thought of every single person in the world. He thought of life.
And he knew the answer, finally. "You want to change the world so all hatred is directed at a single person? You wish to change us? So that friendship, humanity and love are replaced with this peace and hatred?" He shook his head. "I finally understand….the answer I've sought for."
"Hmm?" He heard Sasuke seemingly ask.
"A small smile directed at anyone and yet everything." He smiled, gaining strength. "A small bit of food gifted to you when you've lost your breakfast and are cold and hungry." He smiled a dark, yet serene one. "A…a shared Popsicle with a father figure when you're feeling completely alone."
He stopped, watching his friends face carefully, wondering if Sasuke would speak, and wondering if he would challenge his words.
"A kind old man coming to you daily and feeding you a bowl of Ramen with a smile."
"Shut up..."
"A shared smile among the leaves." He looked up. "All of the things I mentioned, they are the things that make us live! Where is any of this in your revolution?"
He grabbed Sasuke by the collar. "You don't want a single cultivated entity, a single overarching forest. You wish for something that can't move, that can't give anything but hatred. That can't take. That can't cause suffering and something that can feel nothing but hatred for a single person." He gritted his teeth. "How much is peace worth if we're not even truly living to live through it?"
"Give me war Sasuke, give me more war if it is to be, because you're peace is nothing but a farce!"
"Shut up!"
"You bastard, still not listening huh?" His voice croaked into the wind. He saw the gears in his teammates head turn and saw his friend lift his head.
But nothing came.
He let go of his friend in anger and took a step back. Struck mute. As if the world had frozen before him.
His hands tightened on themselves, blood leaking out as he finally went and grabbed Sasuke. "Dammit Sasuke! How can you so easily wish to destroy everything Itachi fought for? Everything we fought for!" He roared, his heart pulsating in agony.
Sasuke's heart thundered in the wind, groaning, as if it were in pain. His eyes thrummed with power, but a steadily losing power at that. His body was broken, mind left in shambles.
But at his friends words it was almost as if his heart clicked into place. As if his eyes boomed with an impregnable knowledge—of remembrance. As if his mind recalled it all and screamed at him.
His heart shook. "It hurts, Naruto." He breathed, slowly, the caliginous anger leaving as his pain overtook him.
Naruto looked up, he knew he didn't mean the physical pain, he always knew.
"I—I know…I've always known." He whispered into the wind. "And it hurts…"
"You…have?" Sasuke asked, broken heart desperately latching onto the one thing he could.
Naruto looked at the friend who had once been his brother, even if not through blood. "I always have…."
"I've known it….since the beginning." Sasuke whispered, as if everything made sense to him now. "Naruto, I knew that you were always alone in the past, like myself, the last Uchiha left, you were cast out…."
Naruto tried to open his mouth, but found himself mute. The single cultivation of everything, it all stemmed around them, the two Transmigrants, as it always had, it all was on them. It was off them, and through them.
"But after I saw you prank and do stupid things and get scolded….for some reason I decided to keep my eyes on you…" Sasuke choked slightly on his own saliva. "It was also at that time I realised…that your weakness had started to sink into me….I couldn't stop paying attention to you…and when I saw you doing everything you could to create bonds with others…it reminded me again of what I'd lost…my family."
Sasuke's head turned to the side. "Yet, for some reason I felt relieved…however, I also thought it was a weakness. So I trained hard to escape it and to become stronger. Stronger than Itachi, but then you ended up in the same team as me. And I was reminded again of my family. And I started to see Team 7 as being somewhat like my family. And so whenever I saw your suffering….I'd feel it too."
Naruto stared at Sasuke, confused yet relieved. "It was the same for me…"
Sasuke looked up. "When I understood you and your pain, for the very first time, I finally considered you as my comrade. But at the same time I couldn't let you become stronger…"
Naruto looked away, gritting his teeth before looking into his friend's eyes. "I also knew that you were always alone too, and I was relieved, so relieved to see someone else like me and I felt so happy I wanted to talk to you right away! But I didn't, because, at the time I was envious of you, of your skills….and so I decided that you'd be my rival! You were….no you became my goal, and for the first time I finally had a true bond." He lifted his hand to his face and clutched it, hard.
"It was during our first missions as Team 7 that I truly started reaching after you, because I wanted to become as strong and cool as you." He stopped cold as he truly stared at Sasuke's form.
"It was the opposite, I was the one envious of you! You had a strength I was missing, that I didn't, and couldn't have! And you always…always walked in front of me. Just like my brother!"
He gritted his teeth, tears slipping out of his eyes. "It—it hurts…" He said into the wind, his voice creaking and disappearing into the wind.
"I know…"
"Why…." He choked, heart pumping ever faster as he howled. "Why did any of this have to happen?" He screamed out at the top of his lungs.
"It doesn't matter anymore, I've….I've lost." Sasuke's head moved up. "And you have a Genjutsu to dispel."
"I have to dispel—" Naruto shook his head, confusion making way for certainty. "Don't….." He steeled his resolve. "Don't make me kill you, Sasuke…how about you help me fix this. All of this?"
He listened to the breath of the world itself, his heart and mind on edge. "What's your decision, Sasuke?" He asked finally after minutes passed by.
"I will do it, Naruto, I—I acknowledge your view of the word." Sasuke finally said, certainty in his voice.
He smiled a true smile, before becoming grim. "I will heal you, but first, you must promise me that you don't plan on backstabbing me."
"I promise you, Naruto, I'm not lying, I'll help." Sasuke said.
His eyes narrowed as he moved other and released his healing into Sasuke. "There, it's done."
He waited a few seconds to watch what his friend would do, and found himself satisfied as Sasuke stood and nodded. "You remember how to release the jutsu, Naruto?" Sasuke smirked slightly before stepping next to him, his hands moving into the Rat seal.
Naruto nodded as he began to bring his hand up in the Rat seal, and smiled as a slight heave appeared in the air. "It's done." He turned slightly as the Old Man appeared.
"Uzumaki Naruto…." The newly appeared Hagoromo spoke.
He waited, breath as even as he could possibly get it. He looked at the ancient being in front of him and felt the power crackling through the Sage.
He waited, but nothing came from the older man's mouth. Seconds. Minutes passed by in a blink of an eye as he awaited the words that surely should have come.
"Um…yes?" He asked in irritation, why was it always so dammed difficult talking with the Old Man?
Nothing came.
He grimaced grimly, the old man may have been ancient and powerful, but he had no social skills, at all. "What's up Old Man?"
"I…" The much older man finally began after minutes of absolute silence. "Put my faith in you to destroy Sasuke's hatred, Naruto." The Old Man smiled slightly. "Despite all of his power and his hatred, he has proven to be nothing against a Shinobi like you. Well done."
Sasuke looked down in defeat, head whirling as he took a few steps back, grabbing at his chest.
Naruto paused in mid thought and looked up, his eyes narrowing. "What do you mean by that? You make it sound like you knew Sasuke would do this."
"Because he told me." Hagoromo bluntly replied. "I talked with Sasuke just as I talked with you. When I asked for your answer, and you told me that you wanted to protect your friends. But, do you perhaps know what Sasuke's answer was?"
Something dark rose in his heart as he realised he probably already knew. "No…." Was the only reply he could give as his brittle heart creaked.
"He spoke truly, telling me that he intended to kill you."
He looked away. Away from the old man. Away from Sasuke, from everything. "Yet," He began, struggling to keep his breath even. "You still gave him your power….why?"
"Because I erred when I gave my power to my younger son, Ashura. I left everything with him instead of giving Indra something as well. I even made Ashura my successor! Because of this Indra began to despise both me and Ashura because of my mistakes."
He found himself almost groaning. "So you gave Sasuke all your power just because you felt bad about a mistake you made who knows how long ago? You gave him your power to make up for a mistake that, ultimately, led to all of this happening?"
Sasuke wanted to speak, but had found himself struck mute. He just….he just couldn't interrupt this discussion that his brother in all but blood and his ancestor were having, because they spoke nothing but the truth.
"Well, I wouldn't put it in those terms, but in light of all that's occurred, yes, that was probably another error on my part."
"Well…I don't know what to say old man, other than this is possibly the largest **** up I've ever heard off." He snapped back.
The Sage smiled grimly. "Is that so?"
"You messed up the first time all those years ago by only giving Ashura your inheritance. But in this case, Sasuke had a lot of hatred in him, thanks to what happened to his family and brother. Power was all he cared about, he even craved for it for years. Handing him even more power was not the solution."
The Sage gave a slight nod. "I've been watching you for some time now. You may not be perceived as the most intellectually capable, but you have proven yourself worthy as a successor to my legacy—"
Sasuke's resolve finally rose through his heart, and he took a few drastic steps towards the Sage. "I—I beseech you, Sage of the Six Paths, to do me this favour and give my eyes to Naruto as a gift…"
Naruto stepped back, his breath coming out fast. "Sasuke, what are you…"
The Sage seemed to smile slightly. "It seems I made the right choice after all…very well, Uchiha Sasuke."
"NO!" Naruto shouted. "I—I don't need your eyes Sasuke! I…." He croaked out, breath coming out faster than it should.
"Please Naruto, this is what I wish—no what I want to do." Sasuke said with a small smile.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki moved over to Sasuke, looking for any doubt. But found none. Satisfied, he began to work on taking Sasuke's eyes out of their sockets and placing them into Naruto's own.
"I have implanted my knowledge of how to use those eyes into them, Naruto." The Sage stated as the transplant was finally finished. "I will also seal Kurama's other half and the rest of the tailed beasts into your body. Finally, I will bestow upon you my Rikudō no Yō no Chikara (Six Paths Yang Power) once more, and as a gift grant you the power I gave Sasuke, the Rikudō no In no Chikara (Six Paths Yin Power) and the Yin-Yang powers that come with it."
"Old man I…."
"It's okay, Uzumaki Naruto," The Sage smiled, "Another thing, I will change your body so you can use that power properly."
"You can do that?" He asked softly.
"Of course I can. I may have given you my Yin-Yang chakra's before, but I didn't give you the same ones as Sasuke, you got half of my power, the Rikudou no Sennin Modo (Six Paths Sage Mode). Whereas he got the Rinnegan, the other half. But now, I'm giving you the other half of my power, do with it as you will." Having finally stopped talking, Hagoromo began sealing Kurama's Yang chakra within Naruto (fusing his Yin and Yang halves and making the Kyūbi 'whole' again) and sealing the other tailed beasts and making the fragments whole. Before once more endowing him with the Yang seal, and this time along with the Yin seal.
He stared at the old man and finally asked what he had wanted to ask for a while, but couldn't give himself the strength to. "What about Sasuke?"
"He will keep his power, for whatever use he can use it for without his eyes." The Sage briskly replied.
He nodded finally as he activated the Rinnegan in both eyes. "Very well, Old Man, am I to assume this is the end?"
The Sage smiled once more. "I am proud to call you my descendent." The Sage seemed to pause, before beginning again. "Goodbye." And the God of Shinobi, the Sage of the Six Paths, disappeared from the face of the earth.
"Wow, I—I feel incredible!" He exclaimed, his body brimming with an untold amount of power. Feeling like never before, he opened up his senses once more, feeling almost everyone stirring from their induced hypnosis at the hands of the mass Genjutsu. There was…something off about how they felt, but he shook his head and ignored it.
He couldn't help but let a bright smile slip onto his face as he turned and walked towards Sasuke, who had waited patiently while he had talked with Hagoromo.
"Sasuke?" He asked, looking at his rival who sat, not looking at anything particular considering he had no eyes.
"Yeah, Naruto?" Sasuke replied.
"Sakura and Kakashi have just gotten here." He said, a small smile on his lips.
And Sasuke showed something on his face he'd never seen before.
A true smile.
The Journal of Naruto Uzumaki.
That day was one of the happiest of my life, I had saved the world, saved myself, saved Sasuke, but it was also one of the worst.
When Kakashi and Sakura came, we all reconciled with each other, laughing and happy, and Team 7 was truly a team.
But the happiness was not to be.
Because every single human caught within the Infinite Tsukuyomi had been turned into a White Zetsu.
They had come like thunder as we all went to see our friends and people. Sakura, Kakashi and Sasuke hadn't known, but I had. I had sensed that something was off, but I had ignored it for happiness.
I killed the Shinobi world.
I killed my friends. My village, and our allies. I killed them all.
I killed the world.
I killed her. The one I had avoided. Her.
Hinata.
With nowhere to go, we, all of us, me, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakshi. Ran.
Just, ran.
We ran so fast.
Because in truth, we couldn't bear to kill them. So we went to the one place that we knew a way was possible to save it all.
We went to Uzushio to create a seal greater than anything before.
It defied belief, it was a marvel of the world. Every manner of its seal was perfect.
It was impossibly complex, combining as a foundation, the ancient Uzumaki designs with the Six Paths seals on my hands, and Sasuke gave an Uchiha seal array. One based on time itself, derived from the Mangekyo Sharingan's techniques.
It was more delicate than anything ever made. And it would hopefully deliver us all from the nightmare that had been plaguing my dreams for five years.
Five Years Later.
"You have to stop now! You've looked over it twenty times already!"
"It has to be perfect." He answered briskly, his heart hammering in his chest as he inspected the sealing array again.
"I know, but we have no time! You have to—"
"I need to make this perfect." He returned back, his heart pumping impossibly fast.
"Naruto, listen to me!" Sakura shouted, almost screamed at him as she grabbed his shoulder and whirled him around to look at her. Her bloodshot eyes staring into his. "You need to focus! There's no more time!"
His heart felt sour. "But Sakura, we hav—
"Dammit Naruto I know!" She snapped back. "I know, but there's nothing else that can be done. They're here….."
Sasuke stepped in, blindness not stopping him from walking across the podium towards them. "She's right…" Sasuke whispered. "They're here, and all of our defences are down."
Kakashi ran in, holding a kunai. "You must go! Now! All three of you! I will flank you!"
The golden shroud of his Six Paths Sage Mode coated his form, from his hair down to his toes. The hue of gold surged through his body like a living flame.
He felt it. Power, endlessly gargantuan and deep, surging through his form.
Everything was light.
The crackling power sent a shiver up his arms, like static electricity only without the stinging. He breathed hard as he pushed the chakra of the nine tailed beasts into the seal.
Then a hole appeared.
The seal seemed to thunder, to writhe and morph as the hole within reality split open further to reveal something, impossible.
There were two halves of the existence within the hole. One where an ocean of churning water whirled, with the brightest of starlight and the brightest of colours flowing. Another where the embers of wick were becoming extinguished, where the stars were dying out, where light was gone and the darkness crept. And he, in all of his power, couldn't even begin to grasp at what he was seeing.
It was the beginning of infinity
An end of infinity.
It was infinity itself.
"It's working!" He shouted in relief, turning to stare at Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi not too far away, holding the Zetsu's off.
Sakura gave him a strange look.
Sasuke sighed and nodded.
Kakashi merely whirled round and threw a kunai into the sealing array.
In a split second seals writhed and wreathed on his body, coiling around him and leashing him tightly. "What are you doing?" He asked in shock as he saw the tell-tale signs of Susano'o form into being around him like an impregnable wall. "Sasuke, what's going on?"
"Only what needs to be done." Sasuke cut back briskly.
Sakura stood besides Sasuke, a sad look on her face. "We're all doing this so you can get through."
He looked at the both of them, and a look of horror crossed onto his face. "No…" He whispered. "No! You all said that we would work through this together!"
"We lied." Sasuke replied.
"By my calculations, I found that even with all the power you have you wouldn't be able to bring us back with you, none of our bodies can handle the sheer force from the rip in reality besides you, because of this you wouldn't be transported further back then maybe a year ago." Sakura said.
"This is the only choice Naruto!" Kakashi shouted from the far end of his fight, bringing his hands down and creating a wall of rock as he runs towards Sasuke's Susano'o construct.
His wide, unblinking eyes grew wet with tears as his face became slack. 'Why…."
Sasuke stepped in front of him, facing the closed of doorway. "By my own calculations, to get to the hole in reality, every step is hazardous and is a form of an almost dying effect. If I'd had the Rinnegan I may have been able to take the trip with you, though it's doubtful. But now? Me, Sakura and Kakash? None of us can do it."
"But you all told me we could make it!" He cried out, his heart slowing down in his chest.
"We lied, Naruto." Kakashi said, breathing heavily.
His heart almost gave out at those words. "Then….." He paused, looking at them, before finishing with baited breath. "Will I be able to make all of the steps towards the hole?"
"If you're on your own, yes." They all said in tandem.
He shook his head frantically. "No, I—I'll get us all there! Please just believe in me."
"We have no time for this!" Sasuke shouted, slapping him on the back.
Sakura nodded walking over and stepping besides Sasuke, a burst of chakra crackling in her hands.
The door, blocked off by Kakashi's Doton and held into place by ten seals, busted open.
Then nothingness met them all.
Sakura let out a scream as her perception and senses roared at her. Her left hand grabbed onto Naruto, and her right onto Sasuke.
Up, down, darkness, light, smell, touch, heat, cold, sight, all of her senses screamed at her and ripped at her nerves, as if they were alive.
She was everything and nothing at all. Her chakra anchoring Naruto, Sasuke and herself to the very world, tethering them into existence even as they died an innumerable amount of times. Once the last amount of her chakra left her, Sasuke would do the same for Naruto.
They took a step, and her chakra and life started to slip away, as though her very life was worthless, so utterly worthless.
One of the White Zetsu used a Mokuton jutsu that appeared out of nowhere in front of them, ready to slice through all of their hearts before they could blink.
A fountain of blood rolled across the floor. The Zetsu's didn't hear their victim's words. But he, Sasuke and Sakura did. He stared into the dimly clouded raven eyes of Hatake Kakashi.
"I hope…that this is enough of an apology for being such an awful Sensei…"
Kakashi let out a laugh and smashed the three forwards into another two steps, though the dead man's humour is lost to him. Then the man slumps, and he is forced to not pay another thought as Sakura pushed them further forward.
"Dammit…." He croaked out, his heart dying. He looked over at Sakura, and his heart stopped. "….Sakura…?" He asked to no avail.
Sakura didn't look at him, she let a smile form on her lips, a brittle one that told the truth. "Goodbye….Sasuke…Naruto…"
Sasuke shook slightly as he gripped Sakura's arm tightly.
One last step.
Haruno Sakura died, her life and chakra drained away as she took a single whisper and faded into nothingness.
Sasuke's held back chakra surged to life after five years. The blind Uchiha could feel his feet being tugged down into the ground in the place that his dead teammate had been.
"No! Dammit why!"
The blind Uchiha ignored his last friend's curse and heavy breathing in place of pushing them both forwards.
Sasuke felt his Susano'o shrivel up from the force of the rip in reality, and he felt his utterly massive reserves and his life force sapped away, impossibly fast.
Eight steps away from the hole.
"Two steps." The Uchiha whispered.
Six steps left.
Blood flowed out of his empty eyes, and his innards began boiling inside him. Sasuke groaned.
Four steps.
"Dammit Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, choking. "I can get us both the rest of the way if you just unseal my power!"
The blind and dying Uchiha shook his head, his empty eye sockets open for the world to see as blood leached out, leaking and flowing. "I have….to make sure."
Two more steps, and the Susano'o began to evaporate. The last of the fiery flames dying away. Sasuke became hunched over, coughing up his own insides that become naught but dust within the arc of time.
"Dammit Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, his breath coming out fast. "I can get us the rest of the way, just let me out!"
"No Naruto! My time's over…"
"I don't ****ing care you b*****d!" He screamed out, his power desperately trying to break out of the seal, only for his power to betray him and stay in place.
Sasuke gave a brittle smile. "For what it's worth dobe…" Sasuke paused, choking on the words.
Damn cursed pride.
"I always have had to carry your damn sorry ass through it all…"
Before he could even shout out at Sasuke, his teammate and rival took two final steps into. Oblivion.
The Susano'o finally burst, and Sasuke opened his arms out. "I hope…that this is enough of a compensation for all of the shit I pulled." The blind Uchiha Sasuke died, ripped to pieces so utterly that nothing was left as his flesh peeled and disappearred.
The seals holding Naruto down disappeared, and he roared into the world, howling and crying into oblivion.
They were all gone now, every last person he had ever cared for.
Just, gone.
He growled in his throat, clawing at it as he cried at nothing and everything.
"You have to move, now!"
He didn't respond, and continued to stare into the nothingness in front of him.
"Will we die here?"
"No, now walk, boy."
He took a step, and began to sift into the hole.
"Kurama?"
"Move, you stupid, ****ing idiotic Ningen."
"Are you—are you going to die and leave me alone to?" He asked with baited breath. His heart was brittle as he howled into reality itself, challenging it, baiting it to kill him, to take another away from him.
"Move it, blasted boy."
He moved through the hole completely, allowing oblivion to swallow him whole.
Can't die.
You can't die.
I can't die.
"We will not die here!"
Eyes creaked open.
Shooting up, his body writhed as his eyes snapped agape. Caked in sweat, he took in the view of the world around him. His heart sped up as he shot up, recognising a room, to him, that he hadn't seen in an innumerable amount of years.
For an eternity of years he stared into those walls and smelled his badly washed beddings. His heart quivered as he heard the sounds of what used to be Konoha's early mornings before Pain's devastating attack.
After the eternity ended he moved, finally, heart pumping as he stood at the now open window, blinds drawn agape for him to stare at what was clearly the village of Konohagakure no Sato before Pain's attack.
Before the world was devastated by Kaguya.
He smiled blissfully, and turned towards the rest of his old humble abode. But then the smile on his lips traced away.
"Kurama?" He croaked out. Silence met his words and reality smacked him in the face. He suddenly found it hard to breathe as he ran his hands through his hair. "Kurama?" Tears flowed down his cheeks as he closed his eyes for the one friend he had left. "Kurama?" The boy looked at the floor, revelling in the sound of the fan overhead.
"Ku..." He stopped as he took a deep breath. Nobody left but him. He got up to see if the fruit of his effort worked. He walked into the bathroom, face with a mirror. In that mirror he found the face of his eight year old self staring back at him. In that mirror he found hope. He stared back, clenching his fists, calling out with renewed vigor.
"Kurama?"
He found his heart breaking into pieces as he finally noticed how quiet it was. But, he couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. Even though his body quivered at the possible truth.
"Dammit say something to me. Please." His throat felt tired, so utterly tired that it couldn't handle the weight of his own breath.
"Yes, boy?"
A smile wormed its way onto his lips, and he dropped to his knees, laughing in happiness.
"Thank you, Kurama…."
"For what?"
"For not leaving me alone." The pieces of his heart slowly began to reform into one once again. But a part of him was still dead, the part that had been that little, hyperactive boy.
The part of himself that he could never get back.
He may see his eight year old face in the mirror, but eyes not his see the truth, his eyes are that of the 22 year old man who had seen life and had become…
Dead.
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