Chapter 14
The tree unconscious teenagers are brought to the hospital.
“shut up!”, he says inside his mind scape.
A paradisiacal forest, extending as far as the eye can see, filled with great trees, clearings, rivers, lakes and waterfalls and rabbit holes from where legions of soft white rabbits would come out in search for food and hide at the first sigh of the tenant living there.
Tenant who was now looking at Izuku with a smug expression.
“I didn’t said a thing”, Kurama smirks, still smugly looking at Izuku.
When Izuku found Kurama, roughly a week after he had recovered himself enough to not pass out from all of his cells starving for sustenance, the fox was withering away, emaciated from burning itself to keep Naruto’s body at least somewhat alive enough to slowly heal.
It would never work and Kurama knew it, especially with all the chakra seals put on Naruto’s body, her soul would burn out of existence before the bacteria inside the dead boy’s gut would finish eating the corpse from inside out.
She knew that maybe she could just let him die and wait to be reborn somewhere else or even hope that she would cross the veil and see her father again, but she knew that more likely than not, she would be just hunt down again and resealed inside someone else.
That’s when Izuku stepped in and extended his hand.
Now Kurama is no longer a chakra construct, instead she is an aetherial, a soul bearing aether construct.
Her fur, once flaming orange-red now was silver as the moon, shimmering in a cold silvery light compared to the stars, from head to toe except for the very tip of her tails that instead where blood red, just like her eyes.
“but you were thinking about it!”, Izuku says.
“oh, that I am, how can the all mighty wizard forget to ward himself against the sharingan?”, Kurama snickers.
“are you speaking from experience?”, Izuku asks.
“you mean the fact I know how treacherous those cursed eyes can be?”, Kurama retorts, “so yes, I am and now you got caught”.
“who fucking cares?”, Izuku scoffs, “ain’t no grave can hold my body down”.
“why do I even bother, it’s not like they can hold any of us down anymore”, Kurama says, “but I would rather not have a hunting party on my ass”.
“been there, done that, do not recommend”, Izuku says with a sigh.
“yeah, by the way, what are we going to do about him?”, Kurama points to the second tenant who was calmly napping under the shade of a tree, “Not that I mind having little Asura here”.
“oh, I’m totally resurrecting his ass and his bitch of a brother’s ass too, they started this mess, they can clean it”, Izuku says, “speaking of mess, aren’t you a little too old to be surf couching inside someone else’s mindscape?”.
“Naruto, I am too old and dead to actually care about what is and what is not appropriate behavior from someone is my age”, says an echo of Hiruzen’s soul that got stuck inside Naruto during the sealing, “and again, I’m deeply sorry for everything that happened to you ever since that night, to think Danzo would stood so low as to not only kill one of his team mates, commit bloodline theft and use a genjutsu on recovering parents and newborn babies is sickening”.
“that it is, but that’s not the problem here”, Naruto says, looking at the man who was wearing an Hawaiian shirt so ugly it made his eyes hurt.
For someone who was basically in two limbos, Hiruzen was taking it in stride, laying under the shade of a tree, sipping on some long island iced tea, wearing said accursed Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts, flip flops, shades and a straw hat while also smoking his pipe and reading a copy of the most recent volume of Icha Icha Paradise.
How he got that only kami knows.
“and what would said problem be, I’m here to help”, Hiruzen says, blowing a ring of smoke.
“to begin with, I’m sensing a lot of tailed beast chakra coming from you”, Naruto says, pointing to Kurama, “while at the same time I’m sensing the tailed beast chakra on Menma and Nemuri fading”.
“as from the chakra coming from me, despite me being made of aether now, I’m still able to produce chakra and in higher quantities since my physical and spiritual energy are purer, I think I’ll be back at my full power chakra wise at best, by tomorrow”, Kurama explains, flaring her chakra a little, which now, just like her aether, was silvery, almost white, “as for you siblings… I don’t know”.
“well, that’s a bummer”, Hiruzen says, taking another sip of his drink, “by the way, you better wake up, you have company”.
Naruto opens his eyes, he can feel his wrists restrained and the familiar weight of the seals paralyzing his body, which only served as an annoyance.
When his vision clears he sees the familiar visage of Tsunade running a checkup.
“wow, what an honor for little old me to be attended by the Slug Princess herself”, Naruto says, his tone being one of fake amusement with a sad smile on his face.
Tsunade says nothing, opting to just continue his checkup.
Oh, how it irked him to no end, not the lack of reaction, but her eyes.
He could see the way she looked at him, he could see in her eyes a mix of regret, pity and just a hint of relief.
“your vitals are weak”, she says, her voice serious and as firm as I could, but with an under tone of worry.
“I’m not exactly alive”, Naruto answers bluntly with a dry chuckle, “the foot I have in the grave won’t move out”.
There’s a second of silence before Tsunade turns around.
“Naruto I’m so, sorry I did everything I could…”, Tsunade starts saying with tears building up on her eyes.
“why are you apologizing for something that’s not your fault?”, Naruto asks, surprising the woman.
“because if I had been stronger you wouldn’t have…”, she says, with a frantic tone, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“died?”, Naruto completes, his tone, “please, don’t cry, I’m not worthy of your tears”.
He wasn’t lying, Tsunade was one of the few people who were actually good to him. Hiruzen had been her teacher and despite the man’s shortcomings, she loved him dearly, as if he was a second father or even a second grandfather to her.
Losing him was painful hit to her, don’t get her wrong, she knew Hiruzen wouldn’t be around forever but no matter how long it took, to her it would always feel like he had died too early.
She was also there, like many other she heard when the Shinigami made the offer, and she watched as Hiruzen refused it, choosing to sacrifice himself.
For a few days, she too hated Naruto for having the gall of surviving at the cost of her sensei, but unlike the others, he could not bear the tough of hating a child for something they had no input on, she could not look at herself for having harbored hate in her heart for a new born and as the years passed her disgust only grew as she saw how the village and his own parents treated Naruto.
Oh, how she raged and cried when the little boy she came to care for, the same one who gave a thousand percent of himself for even a smidge of love and recognition was betrayed by the ones he considered his important people.
How her heart broke when she saw him. When she saw that nothing of the lovely sunshine boy was left and that remained was a thin, broken and sick child from the unspeakable nightmares done to him during his imprisonment.
How she felt useless for not being able to help him, to sooth his pains to calm him, hold him in her arms and assure him that everything would be ok, she wasn’t even allowed to say good bye when he was so gruesomely executed.
Oh and how did she enjoyed beating Minato and Kushina to an inch of their lives when the truth came out, how satisfying it was to tore them a new one, to rampage through the council, consequences be damned, she was on a war path and if they wanted to stop her than they would have to kill her, heck, even Jiraiya wasn’t going to lift a finger to save the asses of his student and his wife, in fact he took upon himself to humble the twin jinchuriki.
Even now, she could see that the Naruto who came out of that grave wasn’t the same.
“don’t beat yourself over something you have no control over”, Naruto says.
“if had been just a little stronger this wouldn’t have had happen, you wouldn’t had to go through that”, Tsunade says, her voice filled with sorrow.
“again, stop beating yourself over it”, Naruto replies, with a tone a little more firm, “if anything else, I’m grateful for what I’ve gone through, it really helped open my eyes…well, my eye. As bad as it was, it woke me up to reality and made finally see the world as it is not as it should be”.
Tsunade didn’t knew how to react, that tone, she ever had heard that tone come out of the mouth of veterans, people who had lived in lifetime more than a normal person could ever live in thousand.
Coincidentally, that was the same tone she usually hear her own toughs.
“and what exactly is the reality you woke for?”, she asks.
“you know, ever since I was able of cognitive tough, I’ve heard a voice in my head, a voice telling me to fight or be forgotten”, Naruto explain, the tone of his voice a mix of calm and serenity, “and that voice was right”.
Tsunade stops and looks at Naruto with confused eyes.
“day in and day out, the voice told me, fight or be forgotten and day in and day out, it proved to be telling the truth”, Naruto continues, “fight or be forgotten and fight I did”.
“I know you did”, Tsunade lets out a pained chuckle, “I was there to patch you up”.
“and for that you have my eternal gratitude”, Naruto complements with a polite bow, “where I was? Oh, yeah. My life revolved around those words until well… everything went to hell”.
The air inside the room turns sober, like if all the warmth had been sucked off and replaced with cold.
“when I died, it finally clicked, I was fighting for the wrong people, in my desperate need of love and acceptance, I forgot that first and foremost, I should love myself. Because if I don’t have myself, then I have nothing”, Naruto says.
Honestly, Tsunade was actually proud that he realized it.
“love has to come from somewhere”, Tsunade says, she was a woman who had loved and lost, she could grasp what Naruto was saying, “more importantly, it has to come from you”.
“yes and once a rekindles that little flame of self-respect, everything I ever achieved started look different, looking better”, Naruto says, his tone a peaceful one, “I finally understood that, if anything I should fight to make myself proud of who I am, and the life I lived after I died proved me right”.
“yeah the… what?!”, Tsunade asks, her eyes going wide.
“yeah, I lived a whole other life during the time I was six feet under after I’ve got my post mortem epiphany, a life free of the shackles of everything that held me down on this one”, Naruto says, with joyful smile, “a life were I was allowed to live, to love and hate without the tittle of demon or Hokage killer burdening my shoulders… then, I came and the rest is history”.
“can we go back a little to the part where you said you lived another life?”, Tsunade asks, confused.
“nope”, is Naruto’s answer.
“and now you are back?”, Tsunade says, groaning as she wasn’t going to get more answers.
“back from the dead and without a single fuck to spare about biting back”, Naruto says with an amused chuckle, “so, if the villagers think they can jump me for old time’s sake, then they have another thing coming”.
“to be fair, they had it coming”, Tsunade says with a sigh, “just try not make me do overtime, I’m already up to my eyeballs with reckless idiots”.
“no promises made, but I’ll try not cripple them permanently”, Naruto promises, “by the way, it’s very impolite to eardrop on someone’s conversation, Lady Kushina!”.
“Sochi…”, Kushina walks in, tears rolling down her cheeks as she sees Naruto on the bad.
She tries to rush at him to give him the first of many, many hugs… only to hit an invisible wall.
Like a bird who hits a glass door, complete with sound of a glass door being hit, she falls on her ass.
“yeah I don’t think so”, Naruto states, making perfectly clear he was the one who raised the wall.
Suddenly, the seals spread all over his body burst into flames, vanishing into ashes as he gets up from the bed.
“it was really nice to see you again granny”, Naruto says.
Before he could go away, he feels a presence behind him.
“by the sage’s balls, don’t you have a pile of paperwork to sign or something?”, Naruto asks as he turns around to see Minato.
“Naruto we…”, Minato says.
“we what? Lord Fourth”, Naruto asks, sounding utterly annoyed.
“why are you talking like this”, Kushina says, after getting up and being unable to break the invisible wall in front of her, “Sochi, we are your parents”.
“excuse me, last I checked, I was excommunicated and disowned by both of you”, that makes both Kushina and Minato flintch.
“I’m sorry Naruto we were…”, Minato, with his voice trembling starts saying.
“under a genjutsu, yes I know, but that doesn’t make things any better”, Naruto says turning to Kushina, “especially considering how much you and your Uzumaki blessed children liked to gloat how awesome it was that you were blessed with the mind’s eye of the Kagura”.
“w-we gonna make up to you, I promise”, Minato says, he himself was starting to cry.
“make up for what?”, Naruto asks, “there’s nothing to make up for, if you did not noticed, it is too late we could never be a family because I do not trust any of you”.
“then give us a chance to win your trust”, Minato says, looking into his eyes, “give us a chance to at least try being the family you deserve”.
Izuku hated it, he hated how sincere their words were, he hated how the sorrow in their voices wasn’t forced and he hated even more that he was faltering, that the last echo of the Naruto who used to inhabit this body was reacting to those words and begging him to take their offer.
Worse of all, he was tempted to accept it, even if it was just so that Naruto could fully pass away into the afterlife and have a better life when his turn on the reincarnation wheels arrived.
“fine”, Izuku agrees, so that Naruto can finally rest in peace, “but’s on my terms!”.
Then the flying raijin seal he had put on Naruto’s bursts into flames and he vanishes.