Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ To One in Paradise ❯ coming, going, and dissipating the maelstrom ( Chapter 2 )

A few little details for the curious: Orochimaru lured Tsunade out of the village. Shizune followed. He killed Shizune and fought Tsunade, but Tsunade won. What I only implied in Sakura and Tsunade's chapter is that Tsunade and Orochimaru were once in love (remember the line when they fought, “you were the one person I never intended to kill?), much like Sakura and Sasuke. The stories are meant to parallel each other.

 

To One in Paradise

 

Part Two: The Coming, the Going and the Dissipation of the Maelstrom

 

Ero-sennin began to get old. Naruto denied it for ages, but it got too obvious. Wrinkles appeared in his face, and he started moving more slowly. Naruto figures it might be partly because of what happened to Tsunade. After Shizune died, she never quite recovered. Jiraiya talked to her about what happened, and he returned different. He wouldn't talk to anyone. He disappeared for months at a time.

 

After Tsunade died, he barely lasted a week.

 

His funeral was smaller than Tsunade's, but Sakura came. A few others, who remembered what he'd done for the village. And it was over.

 

Naruto was very quiet after that. They offered him the position of Hokage, but by then he'd been in ANBU too long. Death had gotten into his blood. He was lost in faces—Sakura, Sasuke, Jiraiya, the whole goddamned village of Konoha—he'd let them down. He didn't deserve it now, and he wouldn't take it. Sarutobi Konohamaru would, and Sarutobi Konohamaru did.

 

Sakura joined his ANBU squad. Naruto didn't want her to. Sakura was mostly untainted by murder. But she had changed, and he became accustomed to seeing her close behind him when he fought, always reading to catch the first one to fall and go to work healing. He loved her, but she wasn't the green-eyed goddess of his dreams anymore. That time was over.

 

He grew used to his teammates. There was Neji, strong and swift and a hell of a tactician. Nothing on Shikamaru, but as he was off teaching genin, they had Neji instead. There was Sai, grim and ruthless and skilled, but no longer without emotions. There was a girl named Hotaru, a genjutsu genius. There was Sakura, strong as a bull in battle and quick and smart as a fox when she healed. And Naruto, filling in his role as the one who pulled them all together. A little slower than the others, but he had the guts and personality to make up for it, and the pure, raw power fueled by his determination.

 

They were a good team. They were wasted on him.

 

Sai and Hotaru died fast. Neji took a little while longer.

 

“They'll have you this time,” said their target, pointing at him.

 

Naruto saw him. He wanted to cry. But he was Uzumaki Naruto.

 

“Damn you, Sasuke!” he screamed. “What do you think you've done? What do you think you've accomplished? So what if Itachi's dead? You're no better than he was! You didn't kill him! You died when he did!”

 

Sasuke didn't speak. It made Naruto furious.

 

“Stay back, Sakura, he's mine.”

 

He attacked, and hard. Sasuke was stronger, and he had mastered more techniques. Rasengan met Chidori. Kyuubi met Curse Seal. Wind met lightning, fire met fire.

 

The fire was in Naruto, all around and inside him. It was hot and smelled of death and blood, but Naruto was used to it. In fact, he found himself enjoying it.

 

Then the fire turned on him. Naruto felt death, and he welcomed it with open arms.

 

And as the fire took him, he closed his eyes and crossed his fingers, hoping that in his next life he'd be stronger.

 

Ah, Dream too bright to last!

Ah starry Hope! that didst arise

But to be overcast!

A voice from out the future cries,

“On! on!”—but o'er the Past

(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies

Mute, motionless, aghast!