Chapter Text
Naruto trudged through the forest with Kakashi, who was carrying an unconscious Sasuke Uchiha, on their way to the Leaf following the brutal impromptu mission of retrieving Sasuke who tried to go AWOL.
“Finally, the gates of the village! I can’t wait to see the look on granny Tsunade’s face when she sees that I brought back the village’s pride and joy!” a surprisingly enthusiastic Naruto yelled in his upbeat voice.
Kakashi quickly eyed him as he spoke with his uncovered eye and although the older ninja always wore a mask, a glint of happiness was apparent on his face as his trademark eye smile would have been obvious to anybody, had they been looking.
“The fox’s healing factor that he gives Naruto is indeed impressive” Kakashi mused to himself, as he remembered how Naruto had looked to be on the verge of death when he arrived having taken multiple Chidori’s nearly to vital spots, in his clash.
Kakashi grimaced at the thought of his trademark technique that he entrusted to Sasuke as his only student with the ability to properly utilize it due to his dojutsu kekkai genkai, the Sharingan, having been used in that way. He felt an even deeper pang of guilt remembering that the same technique that he had used to take Rin’s life had now been used on his precious sensei’s only son by his teammate, the same sensei who had given his life to the village and had first told him not to use such a dangerous technique if he could not control it.
He would have to seriously look into how to punish the Uchiha once he recovered.
Shaking himself free of the trauma-riddled thoughts caused by his less-than-enviable past, Kakashi thought that it should not have been too surprising the states they were in. Kakashi remembered that as he was racing towards the Valley of the End, he felt an incredible surge of power.
He felt Sasuke’s bloodlust, which didn’t shake the seasoned ninja as much after his countless missions and fights with enemies that were after his life, if only a little surprised at feeling an oddly cursed power reminiscent of the infamous terrorist who Kakashi both hated and feared, Orochimaru, coming from Sasuke, which he had deduced before arriving and was confirmed by Naruto as they made their way back to the village, having been Sasuke using a more advanced stage of the curse mark, causing him to question the effectiveness of the curse mark seal’s that was placed on him.
However, the only thing that truly made him shudder, was when he felt that same chakra presence that he knew all too well from just over a decade prior coming from Naruto. It only got stronger as he approached until it slowly decreased, and that’s when he came upon an unconscious and badly beaten Sasuke Uchiha and a half-dead-looking Naruto holding up his teammate’s Leaf headband and scratching it horizontally, before turning around to see Kakashi, where he gave a large smile that looked like it took all the remaining strength left in him to do, before having the Nine-tail’s chakra fully fade visibly from him where he fell unconscious next to Sasuke.
Realizing their condition probably was not the best for moving around too much, and not wanting to bother Paku, his dog summon, having to help move two unconscious kids all the way back to Konohagakure (The Village Hidden in the Leaves), and after reassuring himself that neither’s wounds were fatal and after some basic first aid that he had picked up from his time during the Third Great Shinobi World War, even if Sasuke looked more in critical condition than Naruto, he decided to move the boys to dry land and set up camp for the night. Sending word to the village via Paku, and making note of where the other members of the Sasuke Retrieval squad were and that they would also be safe, he kept guard for any sound ninja that may have appeared, as he did not feel safe also sleeping and being exposed with being so close to an enemy village like Otogakure (The Village Hidden in the Sound), as it put him on edge thanks to his training, time in the Anbu, and general experience with high ranking missions.
He was surprised when only halfway through the night Naruto awoke and greeted him as he was watching for possible enemy movement.
“Hiya Kakashi-sensei! Where are we?” the knucklehead ninja said with a large grin on his face as he asked, looking around.
“Don’t move around so much Naruto!” Kakashi scolded.
“Those Chidori wounds might open up again!” Kakashi said immediately after but with a less aggressive touch than before as he turned around, only to be shocked to see a Naruto almost fully healed and moving around.
“I feel good as new Kakashi-sensei! You know what I always say, a good night's rest and I am back and good as new” Naruto loudly proclaimed, with a panicking Kakashi trying to quiet him down.
Naruto groaned in pain a bit after his sudden movements, and Kakashi realized that his body may have healed the most major injuries, but he probably was not completely back in top shape yet, which nobody could blame him for after his latest battle against his rival. Naruto took over guard duty much to his dismay, as Kakashi fell asleep from his own exhaustion before they started their long trek back to the village upon sunrise.
“Perhaps because of the amount of nine-tails chakra he must have used during his battle with Sasuke, the Nine-Tail’s healing factor was accelerated and able to act more aggressively to heal his host” Kakashi theorized to himself as they neared the gates.
“I can’t say for sure though, I never heard of Kushina ever healing this quick” before pausing and thinking. “Looking back though, I am not too sure she ever used the Nine-tail’s chakra. I know she cared about me somewhat, but she never did tell me much, probably because she favored Obito more and probably thought I was a stuck-up brat” he chuckled to himself quietly at his thought, ignoring the sadness that thinking of his old Uchiha teammate always bought, as he was just happy to be nearing home.
He was again shaken out of his thoughts as he approached and explained the situation to the gate guard’s dynamic duo of Kotetsu and Izumo. After filling them in on the initial report, they let the beaten and broken Team 7 enter the village, where Kakashi told Naruto to go to a hospital and take Sasuke, and for them to get checked out while he reported to the Hokage’s office to fill in Lady Tsunade on the events he could, and to see if he could hear Shikamaru’s report of the overall mission to get the full story. Using the Body Flicker Technique, Kakashi seemingly teleported away leaving a smiling Naruto slowly turning around to make his way to the hospital.
-
“I can’t wait to finally be done with this mission and see Sakura-chan, maybe even get some Ichiraku ramen!” Naruto thought to himself, as he walked toward the Konoha Hospital.
As he made his way through the bustling village, villagers turned their heads, some even looking disgusted as Naruto passed. This didn’t phase Naruto much anymore, as he was used to the villagers hating on him and he for the most part ignored it and kept himself in high spirits. The orange-clad ninja still did wonder why they looked so angry with him specifically today though. It wasn’t until he felt somebody throw a tomato at him and it knocked him square in the back of his head, that he turned around in surprise and annoyance.
“How dare you do that to poor Sasuke!” he heard, as she raised another tomato from her bag.
“Just rot in hell already you useless demon” she yelled before throwing the next tomato.
Alert now, Naruto easily dodged it, before responding “Hey lady! I don’t know who you think you are, but he did way worse to me.” before using one of his hands to show off the healing wound on his chest.
“I’m gonna be Hokage one day and protect the village, and then you will respect me, believe it!” Naruto proudly proclaimed like always.
The woman persisted though “Like we’d ever let a demon like you run this village into the ground, you deserved that scar Sasuke-kun gave you for killing the Fourth Hokage and my now ex-husband all those years ago, we shouldn’t let the stupid fox walk around freely hurting innocent and good shinobi like Sasuke-kun!“.
Naruto stood there bewildered not sure what to do, only turning around with an angry huff. It wasn’t every day that a villager bought up the fox that he had recently learned was unfortunately sealed into him for whatever reason.
This reaction of Naruto however seemingly brushing off his tormentor without much fighting only prompted other villagers to throw their support behind the unnamed widow, as other villagers who had been watching were emboldened and began yelling vile insults at Naruto and making their way towards him. Naruto was utterly stunned and suddenly felt somebody behind him snatch Sasuke away from him in his confusion, before seeing the growing angry mob was trying to corner him, and with his overall fatigue finally catching up with him after the day prior’s events and his early morning start, the villagers succeeded in cutting him off from the direction of the hospital.
Watching a group of strangers and some previous Sasuke fangirls he faintly could recall from the Academy quickly rushing Sasuke in the direction of the hospital, Naruto tried to object but was trapped and unable to do anything to defend himself.
“Is that how you treat a fellow teammate, huh? Who are we? The Rock Village?” he heard somebody yell, gathering screams of support, the villagers seemingly not realizing the hypocrisy of their words as they had shunned the White Fang of the Leaf, Sakumo Hatake, for prioritizing a friend over the mission and led him to take his own life, which on paper Naruto had done the opposite in bringing back his friend Sasuke at any cost to complete the mission.
“Yeah, what did Sasuke ever do to you? Of course, you don’t have any sense of honor as a demon the Nine Tails probably had something to do with Itachi killing his clan by driving him mad if anything Sasuke has a right to kill you!”, again gathering another mass of applause.
He suddenly felt villagers begin to throw anything they could get their hands on at him. The spiky-haired ninja tried to resist but he slowly felt his wounds start hurting slightly as he tried to move to escape the mob. This wasn’t the first time Naruto had been publicly abused verbally, but hardly anybody would lay a hand on him without Naruto giving them reason for fear of punishment, yet the verbal abuse was enough to rattle Naruto throughout his childhood, so they hardly felt a need.
“You worthless cretin! Why’d we ever let you wear our village’s proud headband?! That is for shinobi, not you who killed so many!” he heard a female voice scream.
He turned to retort, “I didn’t hurt anybody back then, I was barely born the day that the dang Fox attacked!”.
“That ought to set things right” Naruto smugly thought, only to realize that this remark seemed to have the opposite of the desired effect though, as he saw some villagers begin to march towards him.
Not sure what to do, he did the only thing he could think to do when he was in danger. “Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” (Shadow Clone Technique) Naruto yelled as there were suddenly five of him.
Some of the villagers approaching backed away in surprise. Taking advantage of that hesitation, the five identical clones quickly looked at each other, they knew exactly what to do, as two clones cleared a way through the crowd by running into villagers who quickly began retreating in fear of what the demon boy would do, while the other three seized the newly created exit and split up to confuse the few adamant and fearless villagers with a thirst for vengeance who attempted to pursue.
Naruto felt a clone disperse itself as usual when he got its chakra back and he suddenly felt he had heard “Damn you! Face judgment for killing the Fourth!” in what felt like moments ago from a gruff-sounding man right behind him.
Speeding up with a cheeky grin, he looked back in hopes of taunting the man but was puzzled when he didn’t see anybody close to him.
“That’s weird, I could have sworn he sounded closer to me just a second ago,” Naruto thought before turning back towards his intended route and thinking harder about it before realizing that he had heard it but when he had he had been running and facing the direction of the gates from which he had just come with Sasuke.
He scrunched his brow not sure why he seemed to have a concurrent memory going on at the same time as he ran in the opposite direction, but in a place where he, the real him at least, did not go.
Chalking it up to a weird sense of déjà vu, he shoved the idea back into his mind focusing on trying not to let the fatigue seep back into his aching muscles, and although it didn’t register as he ran across rooftops like he always had when pulling pranks a few months before, he unwillingly felt a small ache in his heart thinking back on some remarks, mostly what the initial widow had said.
“Like we’d ever let a demon like you run this village into the ground…”.
For the first time since becoming a ninja, Naruto felt shaken. The amount of support she had amassed after yelling that statement hurt the poor boy as he questioned the possibility of how he could achieve his increasingly far-off dream.
Shaking himself free of these thoughts on putting on his smile, he quickly made his way to the Konoha hospital using his motivation and remaining adrenaline to shake off his fatigue, knowing little of what was to come to pass that would alter his destiny forever.