Demon of Redemption
folder
Naruto › Yaoi - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
3
Views:
817
Reviews:
28
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Naruto › Yaoi - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
3
Views:
817
Reviews:
28
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2: A Legend is Born
They say that, even though one bad deed is enough to condemn a man, one good deed is not enough to redeem him. Naruto worked for years and years for salvation for all the lives he took when he was careless in guarding the Kyuubi. He took up the sword though not to hurt by it but to use it to protect the innocent. He never killed. Even with his destroyed spirit and soul, he still had the gift of conversion. He could make others see their wrong, “whip their asses into gear”, and even “remove the sticks shoved up their asses,” to quote a certain Demon of Redemption.
Naruto had honed his own skills and increased his own strength. He had no chakra to use- he had sealed it all away. Everything he did was on his own power alone, and he was great. The bad guys he met that he couldn’t convert into good-enough guys never fell to his hands. Instead, he rallied those the person had hurt to kill him. A just murder was better than one at his own hands, Naruto said.
Naruto had almost forgotten his name. No one had called him it in years. He traveled namelessly through the country, saving those he could, and, as he traveled, the people he helped asked him his name, and all he would tell them was that he was a Demon of Redemption. Still they begged him for a name, and still he gave none. So, soon they fashioned him a name of their own: Shoukinto- Redemption.
Naruto’s world became a lonely world (ironic because of his growing fame). His alias was a name whispered among the oppressed, the down-trodden, and those who had little hope left. People would send for his help, search high and low, but he only let those with good intentions find him. He never turned a justified need down.
Yet, he remained an enigma for all, but most of all for those sent to catch him. All that was known was that he always wore all black: Black boots, black pants, black belt, black tank top, black cloak, black sheath for his black sword, black mask (in honor of his late sensei), black bandana over his yellow locks, and a black ceramic mask like a hunter-nin of death.
“Why does he wear black? Why does he call himself a demon?” Some would ask. They would say to themselves, “He is our saving angel. Why does he not think of himself as so too?”
Naruto, or Shoukinto rather, had much renown. They say he was the one who destroyed all of Orochimaru’s foul labs- that he tried to cure all those tested upon inside, and those he couldn’t save, he granted a painless death. They say those are the only lives the Demon of Redemption ever took. They say he did not touch Orochimaru, but left him to all those he had deceived. They say Orochimaru was eventually killed by his own apprentice, that Uchiha.
They also say that he was there when the dark organization, Akatsuki, was destroyed. They say he organized the best ninja of all the countries together into an unbeatable team. They say Shoukinto only ordered for one of the members of the Dawn Organization to be left alive - Uchiha Itachi – and when asked why, he said, “For a friend.” It was heard that Itachi was killed only weeks later by his own brother.
He was there at every breaking of misused and abusive power, and so they began to call him a ghost. They said he could disappear within a second, only to reappear when someone else called out for his aide.
Naruto traveled through every country saving and helping anyone he could, regardless of their past or their beliefs.
Some believed he was a shinobi, others believed that he was just a samurai with his black sword that protected, but Shoukinto claimed allegiance to none.
But not everything ‘they said’ was true. They said he never spoke at all, but ‘they’ had not asked the right people. A young child would say that he had spoken soft words of comfort and support through a dark night when he had saved them. A converted enemy would say that he had spoken words of meaning and conviction when he had spared their lives.
It remained this way for a decade. He was a living legend. However, at 25, Naruto saved a person that would help him find his final redemption at last, and that person was a young boy of eight.
O0o.o0O
He was running, running faster than he ever had in his eight short years. He tried to push his blue-black bangs out of his obsidian eyes as he ran, but they just flopped stubbornly back into his vision. He should have listened to his father. He said to stay in the room where it was safe, not to venture off, they were in dangerous territory. His father had then went out to collect information from the village they were currently in, Grass.
His father was always out collecting information. He wanted to find some man. He had been searching for the man for years, always telling Susumu, his son, to wait where it was safe. As Susumu grew bored, he also grew rebellious. Even when his father left him a training exercise to do while he waited, it was never enough to keep him entertained. He was a child! Susumu wanted to explore the villages they stopped at!
Unfortunately, the village’s ninja didn’t want him exploring. Of course, they also did not take too kindly to the boy calling them “stiff bastards that needed to get the sticks surgically removed from their asses.” And if that wasn’t it, maybe it was that he had then proceeded to shoot them the bird while challenging, “I can take all of you. You’re Grass-nins, and even an eight-year-old like me knows that Grass is the weakest of all the hidden villages!”
Ninja do not like to be taunted, and these ninja especially did not like to be taunted about their strength by a foreigner, and, by their reckoning, a foreigner could easily go permanently missing by their hands, and no one would ever be more the wiser. Hence the running.
For as long as he could remember, Susumu’s father had taught him to train, taught him to fight, and taught him to survive. And all of that training paid off as all the group chasing him gave up, all except for one.
“Give it up, Taichi,” one of his comrades told the Grass-nin still chasing Susumu, “It’s just a brat. You don’t have to kill him, you know? He doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.”
Taichi responded as he jumped through the limbs in the forest, “That brat needs to learn his place! I don’t give any mercy to stupid people, even stupid little brats.”
Taichi’s companion gave up and returned to the village leaving Taichi to chase the boy by himself. Taichi would give the boy some credit- he certainly could give a good chase, but Taichi was older and had much more experience and endurance than the boy. The brat stood no chance.
Suddenly, the boy tripped over a root, and his exhaustion caught up with him. He was breathing heavily, trying to get back up on his feet. The killer intent leaking from his pursuer told him that the grass nin was serious, that the shinobi would kill him.
The grass nin burst into sight through some bushes.
“Ha! Gotcha now, you little runt! I’ll teach you not to disrespect your betters. It’ll be a lesson you can take to the afterlife!”
Taichi drew a deadly-looking curved sword, licking the blade for effect. The boy couldn’t help but shiver- this was the end for him. He was too tired from running to even defend himself. The grass nin pulled back his blade to kill the boy.
Susumu closed his eyes. He could not watch the final stroke that would end his short life.
Metal clashed on metal.
Susumu’s eyes flashed open to see a black blade meeting the curved one.
Taichi yelled, “What the Hell?”
Both the boy and the grass nin followed the black-metal blade up to an arm that protruded from beneath a black cloak and then to a black ceramic mask.
They were united in their gasp, “The Demon of Redemption.”
A quick twitch of the Living Legend’s wrist sent Taichi’s blade flying away from him.
Taichi backed away from the black-dressed figure. He had heard the stories. He knew who had caught him.
“Please, please, don’t kill me!” he begged, “have mercy!”
“Mercy?” asked Shoukinto, “Have you ever shown anyone mercy? Truthfully, now?”
“N-no,” stuttered Taichi. When Shoukinto asked for the truth, he got it. Such was his reputation. The grass nin was scared for his life. He begged again as the Demon took a step forward, “I’ll start! If you let me go, I promise I will start showing mercy. I promise!”
“Promises are easily forgotten and broken,” responded Shoukinto. His sword hand made four quick twitches and Taichi felt pain over his heart.
Oh Kami! He was going to die!
But then most of the pain receded. He looked down to see an “M” cut into his skin above his heart. His shirt was ripped to match.
“That ‘M’ stands for mercy. Remember your promise whenever you see it. If not, I will kill you the next time I see you,” Shoukinto threatened untruthfully. He didn’t kill, but the nin didn’t need to know that.
Taichi nodded frantically, not trusting his voice yet. He backed away bowing and then was gone from sight, jumping back through the trees.
That left Susumu alone with Shoukinto. He was still shaking all over, but now it was probably due to the cold. Winter’s in Grass Country got quite chilly.
Shoukinto picked the boy up off the ground and allowed him to share the warmth of his cloak. It surprised Naruto that the boy didn’t even flinch at his touch. He seemed familiar. The boy looked up at his masked face with curiosity and maybe a tad bit of awe.
The boy closed his mouth when he finally realized that it had been open.
“You spoke…earlier to the grass nin…you spoke!” The boy said excitably.
Naruto raised a quizzical brow only to remember that the boy wouldn’t be able to see it.
“I did,” he said simply.
“But they say you never speak!”
“They were misinformed,” said Naruto. He lied. Generally, he really didn’t speak. Mainly only to children did he ever care to. Being nice to a child can make all the worldof difference to them. Naruto knew that very well.
“How did you know where I was and that I needed you?” asked the boy amazed.
“I didn’t. You just happened to be on my way,” answered the Legendary Demon of Redemption.
They fell into silence as Naruto continued to carry the boy.
“You help people. You save them, right?”
Naruto nodded.
“Then why do you call yourself a demon? You’re more like an angel to me!” The boy said with an honest smile.
“You don’t know me, kid.”
“Does anyone?” the boy asked.
“You ask a lot of questions for a little boy,” Naruto said, messing up the kid’s hair.
The kid tried to fix his hair, saying, “You evade a lot of questions for a grown man.”
“Hmpf,” snorted Naruto behind his mask. “What’s your name, kid?”
“Susumu,” the boy answered.
“Okay, Sumusu-,”
“Susumu,” the boy corrected.
“Whatever, kid. Since you’re such a smart-talking young kid, I will allow you to ask just one more personal question about me, that's it,” offered Naruto.
“Really? Will you answer it?” asked the kid hopefully.
“Maybe.”
“Alright then, my question is: What’s behind your mask? Are you ugly or something?”
Naruto felt his eyebrow give an involuntary twitch.
“Smart ass brat,” muttered Shoukinto. Now, he had no choice but to take off his mask or the boy would go spreading the rumor that Shoukinto wore a mask because he was ugly. Luckily, however, he learned a tricked from his old sensei before he died.
Susumu’s eyes grew wide as he watched the Legendary Shoukinto put a hand up to his mask to remove it. He watched, not blinking lest he miss it.
“Under my mask, Susumu,” he said dramatically, “is…”
He pulled of the ceramic mask.
“…another mask.”
Which was true, but this mask was a fabric mask that showed Shoukinto’s tan skin from his blue eyes to his black bandana. So all he really saw was his blue eyes and blond eyebrows, great.
“Well, you don’t look like you’re ugly.”
Naruto put his mask back on.
“Not half as ugly as you at least,” Naruto chuckled. He was starting to warm up to the boy. And chuckle? It had been years since he last chuckled.
The laughter died down.
“So…where are we going?” Susumu asked. He had just been letting Shoukinto carry him to a place he didn’t know. If his father found out, he was sure to get a scolding, not that he wouldn’t already.
“Back to Grass,” Naruto answered.
“Why?”
“Because that is where you came from, is it not?”
“Yeah, my father and me are staying there for a while so that he can collect information.”
“Then I will bring you back to him. Who is he?” Naruto asked. That would forever take the top question for his list of ‘Questions-He-Wished-He-Had-Never-Asked.
The boy answered, “Uchiha Sasuke.”
O0o.TBC.o0O
They say that, even though one bad deed is enough to condemn a man, one good deed is not enough to redeem him. Naruto worked for years and years for salvation for all the lives he took when he was careless in guarding the Kyuubi. He took up the sword though not to hurt by it but to use it to protect the innocent. He never killed. Even with his destroyed spirit and soul, he still had the gift of conversion. He could make others see their wrong, “whip their asses into gear”, and even “remove the sticks shoved up their asses,” to quote a certain Demon of Redemption.
Naruto had honed his own skills and increased his own strength. He had no chakra to use- he had sealed it all away. Everything he did was on his own power alone, and he was great. The bad guys he met that he couldn’t convert into good-enough guys never fell to his hands. Instead, he rallied those the person had hurt to kill him. A just murder was better than one at his own hands, Naruto said.
Naruto had almost forgotten his name. No one had called him it in years. He traveled namelessly through the country, saving those he could, and, as he traveled, the people he helped asked him his name, and all he would tell them was that he was a Demon of Redemption. Still they begged him for a name, and still he gave none. So, soon they fashioned him a name of their own: Shoukinto- Redemption.
Naruto’s world became a lonely world (ironic because of his growing fame). His alias was a name whispered among the oppressed, the down-trodden, and those who had little hope left. People would send for his help, search high and low, but he only let those with good intentions find him. He never turned a justified need down.
Yet, he remained an enigma for all, but most of all for those sent to catch him. All that was known was that he always wore all black: Black boots, black pants, black belt, black tank top, black cloak, black sheath for his black sword, black mask (in honor of his late sensei), black bandana over his yellow locks, and a black ceramic mask like a hunter-nin of death.
“Why does he wear black? Why does he call himself a demon?” Some would ask. They would say to themselves, “He is our saving angel. Why does he not think of himself as so too?”
Naruto, or Shoukinto rather, had much renown. They say he was the one who destroyed all of Orochimaru’s foul labs- that he tried to cure all those tested upon inside, and those he couldn’t save, he granted a painless death. They say those are the only lives the Demon of Redemption ever took. They say he did not touch Orochimaru, but left him to all those he had deceived. They say Orochimaru was eventually killed by his own apprentice, that Uchiha.
They also say that he was there when the dark organization, Akatsuki, was destroyed. They say he organized the best ninja of all the countries together into an unbeatable team. They say Shoukinto only ordered for one of the members of the Dawn Organization to be left alive - Uchiha Itachi – and when asked why, he said, “For a friend.” It was heard that Itachi was killed only weeks later by his own brother.
He was there at every breaking of misused and abusive power, and so they began to call him a ghost. They said he could disappear within a second, only to reappear when someone else called out for his aide.
Naruto traveled through every country saving and helping anyone he could, regardless of their past or their beliefs.
Some believed he was a shinobi, others believed that he was just a samurai with his black sword that protected, but Shoukinto claimed allegiance to none.
But not everything ‘they said’ was true. They said he never spoke at all, but ‘they’ had not asked the right people. A young child would say that he had spoken soft words of comfort and support through a dark night when he had saved them. A converted enemy would say that he had spoken words of meaning and conviction when he had spared their lives.
It remained this way for a decade. He was a living legend. However, at 25, Naruto saved a person that would help him find his final redemption at last, and that person was a young boy of eight.
O0o.o0O
He was running, running faster than he ever had in his eight short years. He tried to push his blue-black bangs out of his obsidian eyes as he ran, but they just flopped stubbornly back into his vision. He should have listened to his father. He said to stay in the room where it was safe, not to venture off, they were in dangerous territory. His father had then went out to collect information from the village they were currently in, Grass.
His father was always out collecting information. He wanted to find some man. He had been searching for the man for years, always telling Susumu, his son, to wait where it was safe. As Susumu grew bored, he also grew rebellious. Even when his father left him a training exercise to do while he waited, it was never enough to keep him entertained. He was a child! Susumu wanted to explore the villages they stopped at!
Unfortunately, the village’s ninja didn’t want him exploring. Of course, they also did not take too kindly to the boy calling them “stiff bastards that needed to get the sticks surgically removed from their asses.” And if that wasn’t it, maybe it was that he had then proceeded to shoot them the bird while challenging, “I can take all of you. You’re Grass-nins, and even an eight-year-old like me knows that Grass is the weakest of all the hidden villages!”
Ninja do not like to be taunted, and these ninja especially did not like to be taunted about their strength by a foreigner, and, by their reckoning, a foreigner could easily go permanently missing by their hands, and no one would ever be more the wiser. Hence the running.
For as long as he could remember, Susumu’s father had taught him to train, taught him to fight, and taught him to survive. And all of that training paid off as all the group chasing him gave up, all except for one.
“Give it up, Taichi,” one of his comrades told the Grass-nin still chasing Susumu, “It’s just a brat. You don’t have to kill him, you know? He doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.”
Taichi responded as he jumped through the limbs in the forest, “That brat needs to learn his place! I don’t give any mercy to stupid people, even stupid little brats.”
Taichi’s companion gave up and returned to the village leaving Taichi to chase the boy by himself. Taichi would give the boy some credit- he certainly could give a good chase, but Taichi was older and had much more experience and endurance than the boy. The brat stood no chance.
Suddenly, the boy tripped over a root, and his exhaustion caught up with him. He was breathing heavily, trying to get back up on his feet. The killer intent leaking from his pursuer told him that the grass nin was serious, that the shinobi would kill him.
The grass nin burst into sight through some bushes.
“Ha! Gotcha now, you little runt! I’ll teach you not to disrespect your betters. It’ll be a lesson you can take to the afterlife!”
Taichi drew a deadly-looking curved sword, licking the blade for effect. The boy couldn’t help but shiver- this was the end for him. He was too tired from running to even defend himself. The grass nin pulled back his blade to kill the boy.
Susumu closed his eyes. He could not watch the final stroke that would end his short life.
Metal clashed on metal.
Susumu’s eyes flashed open to see a black blade meeting the curved one.
Taichi yelled, “What the Hell?”
Both the boy and the grass nin followed the black-metal blade up to an arm that protruded from beneath a black cloak and then to a black ceramic mask.
They were united in their gasp, “The Demon of Redemption.”
A quick twitch of the Living Legend’s wrist sent Taichi’s blade flying away from him.
Taichi backed away from the black-dressed figure. He had heard the stories. He knew who had caught him.
“Please, please, don’t kill me!” he begged, “have mercy!”
“Mercy?” asked Shoukinto, “Have you ever shown anyone mercy? Truthfully, now?”
“N-no,” stuttered Taichi. When Shoukinto asked for the truth, he got it. Such was his reputation. The grass nin was scared for his life. He begged again as the Demon took a step forward, “I’ll start! If you let me go, I promise I will start showing mercy. I promise!”
“Promises are easily forgotten and broken,” responded Shoukinto. His sword hand made four quick twitches and Taichi felt pain over his heart.
Oh Kami! He was going to die!
But then most of the pain receded. He looked down to see an “M” cut into his skin above his heart. His shirt was ripped to match.
“That ‘M’ stands for mercy. Remember your promise whenever you see it. If not, I will kill you the next time I see you,” Shoukinto threatened untruthfully. He didn’t kill, but the nin didn’t need to know that.
Taichi nodded frantically, not trusting his voice yet. He backed away bowing and then was gone from sight, jumping back through the trees.
That left Susumu alone with Shoukinto. He was still shaking all over, but now it was probably due to the cold. Winter’s in Grass Country got quite chilly.
Shoukinto picked the boy up off the ground and allowed him to share the warmth of his cloak. It surprised Naruto that the boy didn’t even flinch at his touch. He seemed familiar. The boy looked up at his masked face with curiosity and maybe a tad bit of awe.
The boy closed his mouth when he finally realized that it had been open.
“You spoke…earlier to the grass nin…you spoke!” The boy said excitably.
Naruto raised a quizzical brow only to remember that the boy wouldn’t be able to see it.
“I did,” he said simply.
“But they say you never speak!”
“They were misinformed,” said Naruto. He lied. Generally, he really didn’t speak. Mainly only to children did he ever care to. Being nice to a child can make all the worldof difference to them. Naruto knew that very well.
“How did you know where I was and that I needed you?” asked the boy amazed.
“I didn’t. You just happened to be on my way,” answered the Legendary Demon of Redemption.
They fell into silence as Naruto continued to carry the boy.
“You help people. You save them, right?”
Naruto nodded.
“Then why do you call yourself a demon? You’re more like an angel to me!” The boy said with an honest smile.
“You don’t know me, kid.”
“Does anyone?” the boy asked.
“You ask a lot of questions for a little boy,” Naruto said, messing up the kid’s hair.
The kid tried to fix his hair, saying, “You evade a lot of questions for a grown man.”
“Hmpf,” snorted Naruto behind his mask. “What’s your name, kid?”
“Susumu,” the boy answered.
“Okay, Sumusu-,”
“Susumu,” the boy corrected.
“Whatever, kid. Since you’re such a smart-talking young kid, I will allow you to ask just one more personal question about me, that's it,” offered Naruto.
“Really? Will you answer it?” asked the kid hopefully.
“Maybe.”
“Alright then, my question is: What’s behind your mask? Are you ugly or something?”
Naruto felt his eyebrow give an involuntary twitch.
“Smart ass brat,” muttered Shoukinto. Now, he had no choice but to take off his mask or the boy would go spreading the rumor that Shoukinto wore a mask because he was ugly. Luckily, however, he learned a tricked from his old sensei before he died.
Susumu’s eyes grew wide as he watched the Legendary Shoukinto put a hand up to his mask to remove it. He watched, not blinking lest he miss it.
“Under my mask, Susumu,” he said dramatically, “is…”
He pulled of the ceramic mask.
“…another mask.”
Which was true, but this mask was a fabric mask that showed Shoukinto’s tan skin from his blue eyes to his black bandana. So all he really saw was his blue eyes and blond eyebrows, great.
“Well, you don’t look like you’re ugly.”
Naruto put his mask back on.
“Not half as ugly as you at least,” Naruto chuckled. He was starting to warm up to the boy. And chuckle? It had been years since he last chuckled.
The laughter died down.
“So…where are we going?” Susumu asked. He had just been letting Shoukinto carry him to a place he didn’t know. If his father found out, he was sure to get a scolding, not that he wouldn’t already.
“Back to Grass,” Naruto answered.
“Why?”
“Because that is where you came from, is it not?”
“Yeah, my father and me are staying there for a while so that he can collect information.”
“Then I will bring you back to him. Who is he?” Naruto asked. That would forever take the top question for his list of ‘Questions-He-Wished-He-Had-Never-Asked.
The boy answered, “Uchiha Sasuke.”
O0o.TBC.o0O