章 278: 278: Naruto (1)

Chapter 278: Naruto (1)

—

[More than a week ago]

Naruto Uzumaki woke up in a bed, realising he was tied against it. However, he didn't freak out. Strangely, he didn't feel any danger.

"You are finally up?" asked a voice, the owner of which stepped out of the shadow to stand against the wall.

A man wearing a swirling, orange mask. Naruto recalled hearing something about that mask, but he couldn't really remember what. However, even without that information, the fact that the man was wearing the Akatsuki uniform already made Naruto understand this guy wasn't anyone good.

Yet, again, strangely, he didn't feel fear.

"Did you bring me here?" asked Naruto, immediately frowning to himself as he realised how deep and confident his voice sounded now. "...What did you do to me?"

"I did nothing." the man said, his voice high-pitched as he shrugged. "It was all Neji Hyuga who did this to you."

Naruto frowned. Neji? What did he-

His eyes widened as he remembered.

That's right. Sakura and Neji were…

Naruto's body shook, the restraints on the bed doing their best to stop it, as he felt a yellow cloak of chakra appear and reappear around him.

"Neji! Neji! Neji! Free me, I will kill him!" Naruto cried, roaring in the voice of a beast that had merged with him. "You! Free me! I will have to kill Neji! Sakura as well! Free me!!!"

"Haaah," the masked man sighed, shaking his head- before he abruptly looked at Naruto's eyes, his one single eye shining in a familiar red hue, as Naruto froze. A deep, booming voice erupted from the masked man, "Calm down, Naruto."

Naruto, pausing for a moment, released a grunt as the yellow cloak started to vanish from around him.

— -

After calming down, Naruto had a long talk with the man wielding the Sharingan.

He was the leader of Akatsuki, Obito Uchiha, who's using the alias of Madara Uchiha.

First time, the man had lied about being Madara. But Naruto could sense emotions now, strangely, which allowed him to tell if someone was lying or not. This 'Tobi' fellow was lying to him at first, and when Naruto pointed that out he had fallen silent for a long while before revealing his true identity, one where Naruto found him telling the truth.

As proof, he even showed Naruto a picture of the former Team 7, the one which Kakashi was part of. Along with Obito and a girl named Rin. Most of all, the team was led by Minato Namikaze– the 4th Hokage who was also… Naruto's father.

Naruto met the man before waking up. Actually, he met two people before waking up. First was the Sage of the Six Paths himself, and then it was the 4th Hokage.

The Sage of Six Paths, an exotic-looking old man, told him how he died. That he was shot by another world'er woman, who worked under Neji, and that had… died as a result.

Naruto couldn't understand. Did Neji plan this? Was that bastard not satisfied with Sakura alone and so he wanted him dead as well? That backstabber!

The Sage of Six Paths had no answer to that, apparently, he didn't know everything. However, he promised Naruto another chance, where he would live, where he would be revived, and his goal would be to put an end to something that is called the Cycle of Hate surrounding him and Sasuke.

Naruto didn't mind that. He was fine with that. After all, if he got a second chance, along with a power boost, he could take revenge against Neji.

After the Sage of Six Paths vanished, there came someone else. The 4th Hokage, his own father, the man who had sealed the demonic beast inside him.

Naruto hated that man.

He ended that meeting after throwing a flurry of insults and curses at that man. In a way, wasn't this guy at fault for everything Naruto went through? Even the thing with Neji and Sakura, it was also caused by him in a way. If he never sealed the demon inside Naruto, everyone– including Sakura– would have loved him. Right?

Naruto had punched the man a couple of times, and he had accepted the punches without retaliating. At least he knew his mistake. That didn't stop Naruto from ending that meeting right there, though.

"I see." Obito Uchiha said after hearing his story. "It does seem I was right. Since the fox's chakra mixed with yours, you are a lot different than before. Both power-wise and… personality-wise as well. You are very aggressive."

"I am very calm." Naruto said softly. "Now continue with the story. Convince me why I should work with you, and if you can really help me kill Neji."

Obito chuckled at his tone, but just shook his head softly. After that, Naruto learned about Obito's life story. It… angered him. Made him angry at both Minato and Kakashi. Minato, because, he was such an incompetent Sensei– and Kakashi because he was worse than Sasuke.

Naruto still liked Sasuke. Iruka Sensei too… and the supposedly dead Jiraiya as well. Excluding them, there weren't many people he liked anymore. Still, he would admit that Sasuke was a prick at the start, and now knowing Kakashi's backstory, Naruto knew he was also one. Was that why Kakashi favoured Sasuke more than him?

"..."

Kakashi was such a spiteful man.

Naruto felt his anger boil.

Kakashi knew- he knew that Naruto was Minato's son! Yet, he never lent out a helping hand to him before. Kakashi could have helped him so many times over the years, for example training Naruto before he became his official team leader. But he didn't do that.

Kakashi knew the truth about what happened on the night that the Nine Tails attacked, he knew that Naruto was the hero, yet he never tried to preach about it. It angered Naruto, it reminded him of how Neji bought the Nine-Tails down on the village again just a few days ago. It was his maid in the front, but Naruto was sure Neji had hands behind that too.

Now that he thought about it they– Kakashi and Neji– did look very similar. That was infuriating.

With his eyes burning, Naruto decided. Kakashi must die.

After a long story of this and that, Obito finished speaking and fell silent. The silence seemed to stretch endlessly before the man, whose one side of the face was destroyed, spoke again.

"So what do you think?" Obito Uchiha asked, reaching out a hand to Naruto. "I can help you. With any revenge you want. Some you may want to do by yourself, I won't interfere, but I will still help you. We can even bring Konoha down together. You realise how similar we are right? Let's help each other, Naruto, let's erase everyone we hate while at the same time making this world a better place."

Naruto's eyes gleamed blood red as he looked at that hand.

This man had noble goals. Naruto had to admit. It didn't fall on Naruto's former style, his former ninja way– but that was the point, they were his 'former' traits. Now? He felt very much like Obito. Now this lonely man might have a person to look after his back.

Naruto reached out to accept Obito's hands. But he hesitated as he remembered some certain people back in Konoha. For a second, countless doubts flashed throughout his mind, but… in the end, Naruto smiled and accepted the hand.

"Thank you," Naruto said to Obito. "Let's make this world a better place… By destroying everything that would be a thorn to our path towards peace"

It just so happened that Konoha was at the top of that list of 'thorns'.

— - —

That fancy goal was brought down to rubble when Naruto heard Konoha was destroyed.

He was somewhat angry that Obito had sent other people to go to Konoha, but he figured the man had no other choice at that moment.

The bigger problem was that the Rain Village was destroyed too. By what seemed like Nagato's own doing at first, but later on he learned it was done by Neji Hyuga.

"Neji probably implanted one of the Rinnegans in his own eye socket before using Almighty Push." said Obito, his eyes focused on the jar in his hand that held the Rinnegan inside. "I can't think of anybody else who would be able to do all this. Problem is, why did he leave one eye behind? What is he planning?"

"Implant that onto me." Naruto said from beside him. "It may be a trap. But with my Chakra, I should be fine even if that's the case."

Obito laughed. "No, it's not a trap of that sort. It's a scheme, sure, but this Rinnegan is the real thing. I will be taking this. Instead, since you suggested getting an eye, how about the Sharingan?"

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"The Sharingan. I have a bunch of those. Sasuke's father had the Mangekyo Sharingan. You can have them. What do you say?" Obito looked at him, and though he was wearing a mask, Naruto could tell he was smirking.

Naruto looked serious. "I see. Alright then, if that stops Sasuke from constantly bragging about his eyes anymore."

After that, Naruto gladly received both of Fugaku's Sharingans. He was delighted at the Sharingan's special Mangekyou abilities as well… That just made him so much more powerful.

— -

Days later, Naruto was teleported to Konoha with Obito. Konoha, which could only be recognised because of the Hokage faces carved in the mountain.

"..." Naruto stayed silent as he observed the desert that was once his village.

He had complicated feelings about this. The cause of all this destruction was Nagato Uzumaki, and the same person had killed Jiraiya as well. Technically, both of those incidents happened because of Obito. It stripped Naruto off the satisfaction that he would have felt by bringing Konoha down with his own hands. He also killed one of the only people he was grateful to.

Naruto channelled this fire of rage within him, hammering it down as if to make it a weapon. No, Obito had all the reason to do what he did back then– after all, he and Naruto didn't even know each other before. It was natural for Obito to eliminate Jiraiya, after all Naruto had also gone against the akatsuki. He shouldn't be a hypocrite and blame Obito for that.

"Oh my, look at this." Obito said from the side and Naruto turned around to look, blinking. "There are some shelters here. I sense the use of Wood Style. It was Neji, I saw him use Woodstyle in the battle after you were killed."

Naruto's eyes shone. "That means…"

"That means some of the Konoha people still live." He said. "As long as they live, Konoha will live along. If we want to destroy Konoha, we need to destroy them as well."

"Do you know who is still alive, though?"

"Why?" Obito turned to him. "Is there any exception to your revenge? Naruto, please, that'd be disappointing."

"..." Naruto scowled. "I can't kill Iruka Sensei. No matter what. If he survived, I won't kill him. Nobody would. He deserves to be a part of our new world order."

Iruka-sensei was the only person from Konoha (other than Jiraiya) to whom he was grateful. He was more of a father to him than Minato ever would be. Naruto wouldn't be able to bring himself to kill that man, if he survived.

Obito stayed silent before shrugging. "Sure."

At that moment, the ground trembled and Naruto was alarmed as he sensed a presence starting to appear from under the ground. Obito raised a hand to gesture to Naruto to stop making the Rasengan he was making.

"It's one of us," Obito said, just as a figure whose left side was black and right was white, erupted from the ground. "Zetsu."

"We found the whereabouts of Neji Hyuga," said Zetsu. "I have been following the group of Konoha Ninjas, and they seem to have figured out his moving pattern."

Naruto frowned while Obito hummed. "Report."

"After defeating the Raikage, Neji had left without any sign to help us track him. After you intervened in the battle and saved Sasuke, the Konoha Ninjas managed to escape at the right time. Since then, they have been naming theories of what Neji is after and have finally figured it out. It seems Neji is heading towards the Land of Rock to steal the Tsuchikage's [Particle Release] Kekkei Genkai."

Naruto frowned and turned to Obito. "What is he talking about?"

"Ah, right." Obito nodded. "You were out of work because of your eye transplant. Things happened between that time." He said. "Neji Hyuga attacked Raikage, defeated him, and then left with lots of Jutsus from the Cloud Village. Later on, Sasuke's team went hunting the Eight Tails' Jinchuriki. He was losing the battle, however, right then a batch of Konoha Ninjas appeared to aid him. They won the battle, but then Raikage appeared, and they managed to win that as well. I teleported Sasuke away from there because one of the Konoha Ninjas wanted to kill him. Now, those Konoha Ninjas are after Neji, for whatever reasons."

Naruto's frown didn't lessen. "Who wanted to kill Sasuke?"

"Kakashi Hatake, you might know him." Obito chuckled. "He probably is mad that Sasuke tried to kill Sakura in the same way he killed Rin. But yes, that's what happened."

"Kakashi is alive…" Naruto felt his chakra start to grow hotter. "Who else is in that Konoha team?"

"Might Guy and Rock Lee. Team Asuma. Team Kurenai, but Kurenai is pregnant so Kakashi is leading that team." Obito said, very casually. "You wanna go after them?"

Naruto's immediate response would have been 'Yes', but he stopped himself from saying that. He rather started to think.

"No…" Naruto said. "Those people will surely start to gather the remaining Konoha people soon. Since we will be hunting Konoha anyway, it's better to hunt them all at once rather than search for them one by one and do it. We let them live, and they reform Konoha, and then we strike after that."

"You really hate Konoha, huh?" Obito asked with a chuckle. He did the same, after all.

"I do." Naruto nodded. "They made my life hell, they made it hard for me to get to sleep at night… I spent days after days with an empty stomach. Even though I am the son of the village hero, they treated me worse than a dog. It's only natural I repay them for all that. Konoha, each and every one of its citizens, must die by my hands. Otherwise, I would still not be able to sleep at night."

Obito stayed silent, staring at him, but Naruto could see the hint of a smirk under his mask. He looked proud.

"Besides," Naruto hmphed. "It's about time I meet Sasuke, too."

"..."

— -

Naruto hated his former village. He said such grand things as destroying all remaining Konoha citizens.

So, days after that speech, when Hinata Hyuga suddenly appeared in front of him, her form as timid as ever– Naruto didn't even hesitate.

"Where is your cousin?!" Naruto leashed at Hinata. "You better have an answer for that!" Then, his feet landed on the girl's side, making her ribs crack loudly, as she was thrown metres to the far. "Tell me, where is Neji Hyuga?!"

Naruto's blood was boiling.