Kuroyashi

A/N- Hehe, I finally put the chapter in

Disclaimer- Do I have to? Its so deppressing to have to admit it...

Warning- Um, language for now...

Chapter 1- To Live

When Naruto woke up, he could see nothing but white. Panic hit him hard; he thought he’d gone blind. ‘Wait, don’t blind people see black?’, Naruto tried to reassure himself. Taking a deep, calming breath, he looked to the right. Naruto sighed in relief when he saw a small white table that had a lamp on it. He blinked a few times, trying to figure out where he was. The room was fairly simple, just a bed, table, and white sheet that made up one of the walls.
He heard a light snoring, and when he sat up he found that he was not alone in the small cubical. Iruka was sitting in a wooden chair next to the bed. Naruto smiled evilly. Getting on his hands and knees he crawled closer to his former sensei. Placing a hand on Iuka’s shoulder, Naruto gently pushed him over.
Surprisingly enough, Iruka stayed fitfully asleep until he hit the floor with a loud crash. “Gya-a-a! Nani, Nani!?” Iruka sat up, rubbing the back of his head and looking around confusedly.
“Hi sensei!” Naruto cried cheerfully. “Ano, am I in a hospital?” he asked.
“Hai. You’ve been asleep for three days. Are you feeling better?”
Naruto felt fine thanks to the Kyuubi, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember why he was here.
It hit him. He had followed after Sasuke when he left. Sasuke had refused to come; he wanted more power from Orochimaru. Even after Naruto had threatened to break his legs and drag him home, Sasuke still refused. So, Naruto did the only thing he could think of. He beat the shit out of Sasuke and made good of his threat of dragging his sorry ass back to Konaha. As soon as Naruto had reached the front gates, he passed out from exerting his chakera because even though Naruto had won, Sasuke did put up a good fight.
Naruto looked back at Iruka “Where’s Sasuke?”
Iruka began to fidget, “Ano, I believe he’s training.”
“So, they didn’t kill him for becoming a missing Nin?”
“No the charges were dropped because of his cursed seal. They said that it impaired his judgment.” Iruka explained.
Naruto scowled, ‘Chosen to forget it?’ Why the hell were they being so lenient with him? They treated Naruto like scum every chance they got for something that wasn’t his fault, and here was Sasuke, betraying the entire village and they had “Chosen to forget it’? What kind of injustice is that?
Naruto sighed. Leaning back against his pillows, he met Iuka’s gaze, “When do I get to leave?”
“You can leave now if you’re up to it. All you have to do is sign some release papers.” said Iruka.
Naruto nodded. Getting up, he put on his usual orange jumpsuit and standard Konaha sandals.
“I’m ready.” stated Naruto simply. Leading the way out of the room, Naruto began to think about how the villagers would react to him now that he had brought them back their precious Sasuke. ‘They will finally begin to accept me. Bringing Sasuke back to them will them grateful if nothing else.’
With a new spring in his step, Naruto signed the release papers and smiled all the way to the door.

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An hour later, Naruto sat up against a large tree in the Konaha forest, watching the sun set. He felt wary and drained.
Naruto gave a long tired sigh as he twirled a kunai in his fingers. He thought back to how the villagers had greeted him. As he walked down the street from Ichikarus, his favorite ramen stand, the villagers had given him cold glares and disgusted sneers.
It turned out that the villagers in fact blamed him for Sasuke’s abandonment of the village.
Naruto chuckled lightly, no matter how many times he put his life on the line for this village they would never acknowledge him. They would always treat him like dirt and walk all over his feelings.
Naruto stopped twirling the kunai in his fingers. He looked down at the dark blade, smiling grimly. For most of his life Naruto had had thoughts of just dying and ending all of his pain. The only thing that kept him from actually doing it was his dream of becoming Hokage. He had been positive that getting such an honorable position would make the villagers change their minds about him.
Naruto gave another hallow laugh, today’s events had showed him that no matter what he did, they would still scorn him.
Bringing the kunai to his wrist, Naruto let the tip of the blade bite into his skin. As he watched the first drop of blood fall to the grass, he idly wondered how many people really knew he was capable of killing himself. ‘None of them’, Naruto thought disgustedly, no one really knew the true him. He kept his mask on for everyone to see. People seemed to respond better to a silently suffering Naruto who smiled to hide it. Not that they ever responded well to him. These villagers didn’t know how lucky they were that he hadn’t turned out like Gaara and just embraced his inner demons, because if he did that he’d probably end up releasing the Kyuubi and killing them all.
Naruto gritted his teeth and shoved the kunai into his wrist. Normally this kind of wound wouldn’t be harmful to the blonde, but since he didn’t take the blade out, Kyuubi couldn’t stop the blood flow and close it.
[What the hell do you think you’re doing, you stupid boy!?]
Naruto closed his eyes as he listened to the Kyuubi’s angry voice. “I’m giving them what they want.” he answered out loud.
[So you’re just going to give in? Heh, I thought you were better that that. Well, if you can give up and quit this easily they're right, you don’t deserve to be Hokage.] Kyuubi growled scornfully.
Naruto began to get angry, “Just shut up. I’ve tried and tried to make them see past you to me, but I just can’t. I’ve had enough. My entire life I’ve been kicked and spit on and I didn’t even know why until a couple of months ago. Hell, you could’ve told me you were there or something. Ugh, besides, you’re just trying to get me to stop because you don’t want to die with me.”
[…That’s not true, kit. I don’t want you to die, no matter what you think. I’m not as evil as you think I am. Oh, and about the whole ‘not telling you I’m here thing,’ well, you had to come to me to break the mental bonds that came along with the seal.]
Naruto blinked. Well, that explained some things. He closed his eyes again and leaned his head against the tree. “It’s too late Kyuubi, there’s nothing for me anymore. The villagers will never change their minds.”
[But what about your friends?], asked Kyuubi.
Naruto laughed. “None of them are my friends. They all think I’m an annoying prankster.”
[No they don’t. They respect you kit, they’ve seen what you’re capable of, they know you’re strong.]
Naruto chuckled again.
[What about Sasuke-kun?], asked Kyuubi softly.
Naruto opened his eyes slightly, “He’ll never forgive me for making him come back, and even if he did our friendship is ruined. I have no chance with him relationship-wise either because I highly doubt he thinks of me that way.”
[Kit, I may be a demon, but I’m still a fox. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, acts around you.]
Naruto frowned. It was becoming increasingly hard to form coherent thoughts past the large amount of blood he had lost, but, he could have sworn he heard someone approach.
With some effort, Naruto opened his eyes all the way and looked around. Oddly enough he had been right, kind of. Instead of just one person like he thought, there was three. He heard them talking softly.
“God that’s a lot of blood,” said one.
“Ya, look at it all….its so beautiful!” said another
“Megumi! Do you have to be so gross!?” chided a third.
“Sorry Mika-chan,” Megumi apologized.
“Amika, he doesn’t have much longer, are you going to save him or not?” asked the first.
“You’re right, let’s do this.”, responded Amika.
Naruto saw the blurry shape of Amika lean down in front of him and grab his wrist. Naruto didn’t have the strength to fight back or talk. He felt the warm hand on his wrist turn suddenly icy. He looked down and watched as Amika gingerly pulled the kunai out. Naruto couldn’t be sure but he thought he saw her hands emitting a white, glowing mist. He then watched as Amika placed her glowing hand over his wound.
Naruto gasped as his entire wrist went almost numbingly cold and then his whole world went black.

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“Hey! Hey! You with the face! Wake up!”
Naruto then felt multiple slaps to his cheek. Opening his eyes, he saw the girl they called Megumi sitting on his chest cross legged. Naruto frowned up at her; there was something eerily familiar about her pupalless silver eyes. He sat up quickly, sending Megumi flying a couple of feet in front of him. She landed in a twisted heap of body parts that looked quite painful. After much grunting and cursing, she managed to untangle herself and sit up right. Rubbing the back of her head, she glared at him.
“What the hell was that for!? I was comfy you know,” she pouted.
“Ya? Well, I couldn’t breath,” retorted Naruto.
Megumi gave him a death glare, “Are you trying to say something???”, She hissed dangerously.
Naruto was about to respond when the two girls Megumi had been with earlier showed up.
“How’s he doing?” asked Amika kindly.
“He’s fine,” said Megumi regretfully, as if she didn’t want to admit it.
Naruto looked over at Satan’s Spawn wide eyed. This girl had serious issues; he would even go so far as to say ‘mentally unstable.’ He looked at each of them in turn, “Who are you people?” he asked?
The girl who had yet to be identified immediately put a hand over her kunai pouch, “Why?” she asked suspiciously.
“Kayoko! No! It’s ok, he’s not going to try anything!”, reassured Amika as she grabbed Kayoko’s wrist to keep her from doing anything. Kayoko looked from Amika back to Naruto, and then calmly sat down as if nothing had happened.
“Don’t mind her, she’s crazy.” Megumi loudly whispered to Naruto.
Kayoko gave Megumi a droll stare, “Say’s the girl who coated her cat in butter out of sheer boredom.”
“Shut up you paranoid schizophrenic!”, retorted Megumi.
Kayoko glared, “You’d better watch it…Hy-u-u-ug-a-a.”
“What did you call me!? You stuck-up Uchiha!”
“Excuse me?!”, screamed Kayoko.
Naruto looked on in mute fascination as he watched the dirtiest cat fight ever. There was biting, pinching, scratching, gouging, pulling, and he could have sworn Kayoko kicked Megumi in the shin…right before she was tackled to the ground and had her head pounded into the dirt.
Amika sighed. “Not again...”
Naruto sat and stared at the spectacle as it began to get bloody. Both girls had drawn kunai’s and were cutting all bare skin, this was no easy task for Kayoko since all skin on Megumi that was not blocked by actual clothing was covered in fishnet and wrappings. So Kayoko opted to just cut through the fishnet.
“Aren’t you going to stop them?” Naruto asked, not taking his eyes off the fight.
“No, they’ll stop in a few minutes. Besides, they’re not seriously fighting,” said Amika calmly.
Naruto’s eyes widened in amazement as he looked back and forth from Amika and the dueling pair. “Are you kidding me? They’re cutting each other up!”
“No, this is nothing. This is their way of letting off steam. They purposely piss eachother off just to spar. If they were serious, they would call on their bloodline limits, but they would never do that except in actual battle. Well, sometimes with each other, but that’s just when they haven’t had real combat in a while and they want a serious training session.”
Naruto nodded, then frowned, “Bloodline limits? What kind?” He had heard them call each other Hyuuga and Uchiha, and Megumi did have the trademark Hyuuga eyes, but that was just impossible. Sasuke was the last of the Uchiha, and all of the Hyuuga clan was still in Konaha. Wasn’t he? Weren’t they?
“You’ll have to ask them yourself. Now, whether they tell you or not is another story.” Amika looked down at him, “By the way, how is your wrist?”
Naruto looked up at her and then down to his wound. Surprisingly enough, it already had a thick white scar about two inches long. He suddenly remembered why he was in the forest with these strange girls, they had saved his life. Well, technically Amika had, but that wasn’t the point right now. Looking up he asked angrily, “Why did you stop me, I wanted to die! You have no idea what kind of pain I’ve been through. I wanted it to end!”
Amika slowly turned to meat his gaze. Naruto froze when he saw her eyes, her painful, all too familiar eyes. It was gone the instant he saw it," As corny as it sounds, it wasn’t your time to die,” she said softly.
Naruto’s anger flared up again,"And who says you get to decide for me, huh?” Naruto yelled angrily. He stood up and started stalking towards her, “You don’t get to-“ Naruto’s words were cut off by his sudden loss of oxygen.
Naruto could feel his arms painfully pinned behind him as someone else had a tight hold of his throat. He looked down at the arm in front of him, tracing it back up to the face of its owner. Naruto paled at the sight of the angry Sharingon Master’s face. As shocked as he was to see the Sharingon, he was more shocked by the fact that they belonged to Kayoko. There was a nasty gash running down her right temple, making her look even more frightening.
Apparently Megumi was behind him, because she hissed into his ear, “No one touches Amika.”
Both girls released their holds on him at the same time, making Naruto fall to his knees. He coughed and rubbed his throat, then looked behind him to Megumi. Naruto couldn’t believe what he was seeing; she had the Byakugan, activated and ready to go. Megumi had a cut going from the center of her nose to across her brow bone, the dark crimson of her blood clashing with the metallic silver of her eyes.
Okay, so maybe getting mad at Amika wasn’t the smartest thing to do. Well at least he got a few questions answered, like what bloodline limits they had.
Naruto turned back around. Kayoko was standing there, nonchalant, like nothing had happened, wiping blood from her temple. Amika gave him an apologetic look and then turned to Kayoko. She raised a glowing white hand to Kayoko’s temple and covered the wound. When Amika dropped her hand the gash was no longer there, the only thing left was some blood that was promptly wiped away by Kayoko’s hand. Amika walked over to Megumi and did the same to the slash on her nose and brow.
Naruto noticed that there were no scars left behind from the girls’ wounds. Looking down at his own wrist, he stared at the pearly white scar as he spoke up, “Why do I have a scar, even after you healed me, when they don’t?”
“Ummmm, well, it was too deep to completely erase externally. But don’t worry! All internal damage was repaired,” answered Amika mater-of-factly.
Naruto closed his eyes and dropped his arm,”Why did you save me? I have nothing to live for.” he quietly repeated. He opened his eyes again as he heard someone approach and kneel in front of him. He raised his eyes to meet the calm, calculating gaze of Kayoko. She had deactivated her Sharingon and no longer looked ready to tear his throat out.
“Naruto-kun,” she began slowly, “what would you do if I said I could give you reason to live?”
Naruto looked at Kayoko skeptically, not sure what she was playing at. “That depends on what I would be doing,” he replied.
Kayoko gave a small grin, “You would be protecting your village, keeping it safe.”
“Ya, ya, but what would I be doing?” asked Naruto impatiently.
Megumi apparently caught on to whatever Kayoko was getting at and smirked, “You sure he could handle it? He is just a boy after all. I’m not sure he would have the guts.” She said coolly, almost teasingly.
Naruto frowned, ‘Who the hell do they think they are? I’m the same age as them by the looks of it.’ Naruto spoke up, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I can and will do it, whatever it is.”
Kayoko stroked her chin in thought, sizing him up. “Well, what do you think, Megumi-chan, do you think he has what it takes to protect Konaha?” she asked never taking her eyes off of Naruto’s face.
Megumi looked at her friend, apparently annoyed, “Is that not what I just asked you?” she drolled.
“Ya, I just wanted to piss you off. Anyway, from what I see, Naruto is ready. He will begin training on Monday, bright and early, that should give us the time needed to organize a few things and make all this official.”
Naruto looked over at Kayoko in confusion. It was already Friday evening, what would take all the way till Monday to get ready?
“You still haven’t answered my question, what will I be training for?” he asked confusedly.
Kayoko looked back at Naruto and gave him a wicked smile, “Assassination.”

TBC...

Uh, sooo, what do you think?

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