The full moon threw his light onto the battlefield. Many Ninjas with different headbands from all mayor villages stood together. To face their strongest foe yet, ninjas from all villages had finally united before the seemingly untouchable man. Said man had long and wild black hair. He was the ancestor of the Uchiha clan, Madara Uchiha. Madara just finished his fight with Hashirama, coming out victorious and was now going in the direction of Sasuke and Naruto. Noticing him nearing both prepared themselves to fight against him. Nobody noticed Naruto being much less tense than Sasuke, who looked very serious. Surprising everyone Madara stopped about 25 feet before them instead of directly attacking. With his back to the moon the light framed Madaras body, making it seem like he was glowing. Everyone held their breath, awaiting anxiously what was about to happen. When he began to talk, they were very surprised. What was Madara doing? Was it some special trick or anything? Nobody doubted that Madara was the strongest here on the battlefield. He was strong, stronger than most of them and looking at his smug smirk he knew it too. The words were spoken in a scaringly soft voice which seemed out of character for the powerful and unmoving man before them.
"I think now would be the best time to stop fighting for a moment and I’ll introduce my prince? He worked so hard for me these last year’s, constantly giving me information so I should give him his reward, don’t you think?"
"What do you mean?"
Madara looked in the direction of the voice and saw Tsunade there, looking unhappy while saying these words. Madara laughs, loud and sharp while his face twists into a nasty grin.
"Are you just pretending to be dumb or are you actually this dumb? Obviously I want to say that I have a spy in your rows. You know, I still don't understand how nobody recognized his incredible talents. How nobody saw his talents in all those years, I will always wonder. Instead, your narrowmindedness drove him away and to me. Though, if you did recognize it, I probably could never have gotten my hands on him."
With a frown at her face Tsunade looks at the people around her. She knows and would trust all of them to have her back in any given moment. Adding to that, all of them look surprised as well. Now she looks back at the Uchiha; angry. Her next words are spoken determined, but the most observative of them could see the glint of worry in her eyes. But before her words left her mouth another voice rang out, sounding cold with an almost icy undertone.
"You must be lying!"
Madara lets his eyes wander through the crowd till they settle on Sasuke. He looked angry as he followed with another sentence.
“Everybody here is against you. You must be trying to sow mistrust!”
A few people breathed out, trying to deceive themselves into believing. They didn’t want to doubt their friends they spent their life with, shared intimacy in many cases.
However, there were also many skeptical ones, including the five Kage. They realized that Madara joking about something like this was unlikely because he was so strong. He simply had no need to lie. And the chance that one of their trusted aides was the supposed spy was very high. A low-level ninja wouldn’t do for Madara to hold him in such high regard. The next words from Madara were hardening their doubts. Preparing themselves for an even harder fight, cause that person could only be strong to be seen as talented by the Madara Uchiha, they tensed simultaneously.
“Deluding yourself like that will be your death sentence.”
Madara grinned a big and predatory grin.
“Then let’s get the play started, why don’t you?”
After a few silent and anxious seconds, a soft gasp could be heard, echoing in the air. Many heads turned around to see the origin. After finding it they widened, not quite believing what they were seeing. Shocked silence till a loud and high scream tore the battlefield, ending the silence. It was Sakura, looking next to her.
“Kakashi- sensei!”
Seeing a bloody hand coming out of his chest and holding Kakashi’s heart before his chest in the air, she followed the arm till she found the owner.
“Naruto, what are you doing?”
Her voice trembled. Tears building up in her eyes. She didn’t want to believe the most obvious solution to her question, namely that Naruto betrayed them and killed Kakashi as his last act of being undercover. An important asset on their side. Naruto didn’t bother answering her and looked at Sasuke. Sasuke was pale and looked ready to faint.
“Naruto …”
Now his voice didn’t sound cold anymore. Instead, it was quiet and disbelieving.
Sasuke couldn’t, no, didn’t want to grasp the reality. Naruto, who brought him back after he went with Orochimaru, who was always laughing and never lost hope, was the spy? The concept was so foreign, it just didn’t fit with the picture he had of the blond sunshine. The cold expression on Naruto’s face looked like it was an entirely different person standing there.
To think that Naruto fought so hard to bring him back just to betray Konoha himself. Sasuke chuckled bitterly, thinking back. It was ironical. Naruto had always preached friendship and unity and believe, just to go against it in the last moment.
In the back Gaara was looking at Naruto, sadly but understanding. He knew the suffering of being a jinjuriki since he was one himself. But when Naruto had helped him he thought the blond was able to overcome the hate and that it probably wasn’t as bad as in his village. He remembered now, that back then, he thought he had seen a dark glint in Naruto’s eyes, but forgot it soon after, not deeming it important.
Now seeing Naruto like this made him remember his darker childhood days when he was excluded and hated for being the monster sealed in him. Naruto must have had it very hard as well, maybe even worse, otherwise he wouldn’t betray everyone in siding with Madara.
The Kazekage looked at Tsunade, who he believed was very close to the young man. She looked pale, shocked. No doubt believing Naruto to be the sunny and always laughing ninja he seemed to be. He was sure she saw him like a son or something similar. Naruto always had the talent to draw people to him with his open and friendly attitude. After the shock her expression was replaced by unwilling understanding. It seemed he guessed right, and Naruto had it worse than thought when he was a child if the woman made such a face.
Letting his gaze wander, he saw many disbelieving, shocked and angry ninjas. A few looked sad or understanding, which were mostly a few from the older generation from Konoha. They probably knew why Naruto would do this and betray them. But more than all most ninjas looked hopeless. He could understand why. Naruto was a big factor in bringing them together, with friends in many villages. He could be said to be like a figurehead on their side. His ‘never lose hope’ attitude before helped boosting the moral greatly.
A voice brought him out of his thoughts, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Like he knew he heard the voice thousands of times, but now it sounded alien to him. A sharpness never heard in it. He looked at Naruto, who was looking at Sakura.
“Yes, I am with Madara. Though I am surprised why you are so surprised. With how you treated me over the years.” At that point he looked away from Sakura and to the Konoha Ninjas. “Well, the normal villagers were a big part as well. The whole village is just fucked up anyway. Also,” He looked back to Madara “didn’t we agree to be partners? Why am I back to prince now? Also, you still need to answer my question from when we met last time!”
Madara didn’t lose his grin, though now it spoke of amusement.
“Don’t you think it sounds much better? Especially in this situation; it’s really entertaining to watch this ‘show’.”
Naruto sight over the dramatics of his partner was fond, speaking of many experiences with it. Not waiting any longer, he pulls his hand out of Kakashi’s chest, who is breathing heavily, pain of the betrayal visible in his lidded eyes. As Naruto pulls out of Kakashi’s chest the white-haired Ninja sinks to the ground, his leg not able to hold him any longer. Then he walks over to Madara to stand next to him.
Now there was no way not to realize that now Naruto was the enemy and apparently had been since quite some time ago. That meant they would be fighting him from now on, which brought a troubled expression on many faces. Many Ninjas were friends of Naruto so fighting him with the goal to kill would be hard for most. Naruto on the other hand had no problems killing his former allies and friends like he had shown already in killing Kakashi without remorse.
Kakashi meanwhile lay on the ground, growing weaker by the second. He knew there was no saving him. He blamed himself, not recognizing Naruto’s pain until it was too late. He failed him, just like Obito. Now he lost two good people and friends to Madara, the second piercing his heart not any less than his former teammate. He was his disciple after all. He wished he could do it all over again, making sure not to repeat his mistakes. But alas, there was no second chance.
“I’m sorry Naruto, Obito…I failed you…”
With these his breathing slowed even more and ended short after.
Naruto, who heard it looked angry for a moment. Talking to Kurama, he laughed in a bitter tone.
“Now he is apologizing. What a joke!”
The fox huffed.
“He did try his best, Naruto. It just wasn’t enough. He made too many mistakes which he regrets now.”
Naruto looked thoughtful.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. It still doesn’t change the choices he made. Actually, he was one of the few back in the village who didn’t hate me and he even was nice sometimes. But he didn’t try to help me either, so I can’t quite forgive him.”
There was also the fact, that he took Sasuke, the traitor and trained with him. It was high likely that it was the command of the council to train Sasuke, but that didn’t mean he had to ignore Naruto and Sakura.
Without Kurama, he would’ve probably died back then, when he was still a child. The villagers letting their anger for their deceased out on him often resulted in grievous injuries, which Kurama helped healing, even though he couldn’t talk with him back then.
He hated the cowardice of the people in the village. Blaming a child for something said child had no control over. They were adults so even if they were angry, they shouldn’t have resorted to violence on a child for their hate and anger. And the other half, who never did anything to help wasn’t any better. Especially his ‘grandpa’, the Hokage back then. He cared for him in the background, but there was so much more he should have done. He was the Hokage for fuck’s sake. He could have clarified that Naruto wasn’t the fox reborn or something, and that he was the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. Just this simple act would have bettered his life so much. Instead, he held it secret even from himself. This was something Naruto could never forgive. He brought his attention back to the scene before him.
It was funny, how they all reacted so shocked. Wasn’t betrayal a natural choice for a boy who was abused and talked down his whole life. Did they think he couldn’t hate? He looked at Tsunade, who looked at him, sad and pitying. He narrowed his eyes. He didn’t want pity. Especially not after all this. He hated her pity. He choose his way from when he was little, without Kurama or Madara manipulating him or anything. He did it with a clear head and he would never regret it. There was no way he wanted to be pitied.
Looking at Gaara, he was happy to see him having nothing but sad understanding in his eyes. Gaara was someone he liked. They were incredibly similar, but so different at the same time.
Most of the other except his former friends he didn’t care about. Though, even his friends didn’t know as much as people like Kakashi, Tsunade or Gaara.
He came to a halt next to Madara, who was grinning and looking proud over the chaos in general.
After a few seconds of waiting, Gaara was able to pull himself back together. His words brought most of them back to reality.
“Everybody who doesn’t believe himself capable to fight Naruto helps with Madara!”
The Ninjas slowly sorted themselves into two halves. Naruto and Madara, who took advantage of the disorder began cutting their numbers, beginning with the weakest ones. But before the pair could continue they were held up by the Kage’s on Madara’s side and Sasuke and Sakura on Naruto’s side.
“Naruto! Stop this nonsense! You have no chance against all of us!”
Sasuke uttered as he clashed weapons with Naruto, who was holding a staff now. Sakura came from his back, swinging her fist, which Naruto evade easily. Suddenly he appeared behind Sakura and brought his fist down on her head fast enough so that she could no longer avoid it by dodging. She held her hands up to defend herself, but still got launched in the ground, making a deep hole. Shocked she looked at her hands, which were shaking, the bones broken from Naruto’s single punch.
“When did he get so strong?”
After she was able to get out, which took some time because her head felt dizzy from the impact she saw Naruto appearing behind Sasuke.
“Be careful Sasuke, he is much stronger than before!”
To which the dark haired nodded and evaded Naruto instead of defending. Naruto made a hand symbol and within seconds copies of him surrounded them. While Sasuke could still defend himself because of his Sharingan, Sakura lost quickly, not being able to fight so many stronger enemies. Soon after Sasuke lost under Naruto ‘s fast and never-ending attacks as well, not being able to keep up with the blonde.
Naruto looked at Madara, who was winning despite being against most of the Kage’s. Not watching any longer, he turned to the next person attacking him and restarted his own fight.
The full moon in the background was shining like a red flower, immersing the battlefield in a scary red glow.
Madara jumped back and looked at the moon, activating his Kekkei Genkai. Naruto stopped and went back as well, stopping his fight to watch the Uchiha.
But instead of what was supposed to happen, Madara’s hair grew, the black fading to white. It straightened, losing the wild look. Then his clothes changed. When ‘Madara’ turned around, it wasn’t him anymore. Instead, there stood a woman, blinking her eyes open.
Naruto groaned silent, before taking a kunai out. Before he moved, black Zetsu came out and happily told them all about his masterplan.
Naruto narrowed his eyes when he looked at Zetsu, who felt the killing intent and threw a gloating look at Naruto. Then he hid himself in the sleeve of his mother, now known as princess Kaguya.
Now Naruto laughed malicious and walked in front of the man turned woman.
“Why so proud? You gloat at your achievements like this but hide behind a woman as soon as it gets serious.”
Obviously his words were only supposed to enrage the black mass.
And without another word he attacked with the kunai he took out earlier. But contrary to how normal it looked it was a special weapon, made for bringing Madara back. When Naruto met black Zetsu for the first time he didn’t quite trust him because Kurama told him that he is suspicious. He told Madara what Kurama said, who was skeptical.
But a few months later, when Zetsu came back to report from a mission he never told Madara everything. Naruto who was there at that time and had a similar mission and after Madara gave the black being a new mission, Naruto told Madara that his ‘supposed manifested will’ couldn’t be his because it lied. Then Madara got suspicious. Together with the help of Kurama they puzzled together his real identity and intentions.
After that Naruto buried his himself into learning seals and studied them thoroughly. He even went to the destroyed village of his mother’s family to learn more. This way they made a kunai with incredibly complicated seals and special material, just for the moment that they thought would happen most likely. That was Kaguya taking over Madara’s body in some way.
Kaguya, not suspecting anything saw one of the humans attacking her. To her he was just a tiny insect who could do nothing against her. She was the strongest being after finally being reborn. She decided to let the attack hit her, since there was no way it could do any real damage to her. This way she could show her superiority and kill him with one move when he was near enough. As proud and lofty she was she underestimated her enemy.
When the kunai grazed her skin she was controlling her hair to kill the mortal before her. Suddenly she let out a surprised sound as her control over her chakra got worse and worse and then she could feel her self-consciousness fading. An enraging scream echoed through the stunned audience. What did he do to her? How dare this lowly being poisoning her? Wasn’t she immune to all poison?
Before their eyes the supposedly godly being transformed back into Madara, who soon opened his eyes. And Zetsu stood there, looking gob smacked. Before he could flee Naruto pinned him down.
“Well, look at what we have here!” he laughed “not so cocky anymore, are you?”
Before the black puddle could flee he was pinned down by the person who destroyed his mother. As he felt his power leaving his body he got panicked. What happened to his power? Why was it disappearing?
Then he heard something from the blond he never thought would be able to destroy him or his mothers body.
“You won’t be fleeing now. We’ll make sure that you won’t be able to. This weapon is specialized to work against Kaguya, so obviously it is very effective against you as well, being the physical manifestation of her will.”
Before he could utter another word his head was turned back, face to face with Madara who kissed him. After they separated Madara smiled gently against Naruto’s lips, who was blushing slightly. Neither paid attention to their surroundings.
“Thank you for the help, partner” and added in a soft voice so that nobody could hear “And to answer your question, yes, I love you too. And I would be honored to be your other half from now on.”