Chapter 29: Cycle

"Are you sure you're still the hero of this story?"  That voice spoke in his head. "Are you sure you're still the hero of this story?"

Over and over again. 

"Are you sure you're still the hero of this story?"

Naruto looked down at his hands, shaking slightly. "Oh my god," He saw his hands turn red, stained with blood. "What have I done?" 

The Village Hidden in the Rain was no more, flattened and destroyed. 

Blood poured off of Naruto's hands and onto the wooden floor beneath him, pooling under his feet. "They were right," He whispered to himself. "The villagers were right about me." He sat on the floor, his hands grabbing at his hair as his bloodshot eyes widened uncontrollably. "I really am. . ." 

"A monster."

"You destroyed the entirety of the Hidden Rain," Tsunade began with a tone of disbelief, her eyes wide and filled with sadness as she met Naruto's dead eyes. They were surrounded on all sides by several council members as well as Team 7, Obito, Sakura, and Sai, who were to be witnesses. 

"Men, women, children, shinobi and civilian, do you know how much political face we just lost boy?" Koharu practically shouted. "This is against international law!" 

"Do you have anything to say for yourself Uzumaki?" Homura said as he closed his eyes, his face holding a permanent frown. 

"No," Naruto answered, drawing looks of surprise from the council members. "I don't really care. I did what I had to do in order to secure a better future for the Leaf." 

"Resulting in wiping an entire ninja village off the map?" Danzo asked the blond. Naruto didn't react nor answer Danzo's rhetorical question. He didn't need to.

"Naruto," Tsunade began grimly. "Do you know how serious this is? The Daimyo will ask for your head." 

"And?" Naruto asked lazily, his eyes half-lidded and his body slumping in his seat, the hood only resting atop of his head and revealing his face. 

"Quit the apathetic attitude brat!" Tsume Inuzuka barked. "I don't think you see the severity of the situation you're in right now! You committed war crimes! You killed thousands of innocent civilians when your only mission was to retrieve a pair of damn eyes that nobody has even seen yet!" 

"I did what I had to do." Naruto said as he lurched forward, propping his elbows up on the table and resting his chin in his palm. "And I will always keep doing what I have to do. What would have happened if I simply just killed their leader and stolen the power which had brought them safety and peace? It would have bred a hatred for Konoha almost like none other before. 

"That hatred would thrive and eventually they would strike and do what we did to them. They'd cripple us. And what will that do to Konoha? Our own people would then in turn feel that same hatred the Rain did to them but only reversed. What I did wasn't only the best option, but it was also a mercy. I ended the Hidden Rain's cycle of hatred by not leaving a single survivor." 

"And now you will reap what you sowed, that being your ultimate demise. We have to give you to the Daimyo as soon as he asks, you understand that right?" Koharu hissed. Naruto met the old woman's eyes and for the first time that day a smirk crawled upon his lips, unnerving everyone in the room as single canine was shown from the smile. 

"I possess the ultimate doujutsu this world has ever seen. As long as I live I won't be touched unless I want to. No shinobi alive can fight on par with me anymore. You could throw up an entire village against me and guess what?" He suddenly chuckled. "Oh wait, you already know the answer to that one!" 

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted. "This isn't you! Stop acting like this!" 

"Naruto, hand over the Rinnegan," Tsunade pleaded as she sent him a begging look. 

"Naruto just calm down," Obito eased. "It's just your PTSD acting up, calm down. Take a deep breath Naruto." 

"Please Naruto stop this!" Sakura cried out. Naruto grit his teeth in a frown before shouting. 

"MY NAME ISN'T NARUTO!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. "That boy you knew before we became Genin, that ignorant weakling," He looked up, his pupils smaller than usual, his eyes bloodshot. "Is dead! That Naruto Uzumaki doesn't exist in this world any longer! I'm not the same Naruto Uzumaki he was!" 

He took several deep breaths, letting the looks of shock wash over him before touching his temple lightly. "I'm taking the Rinnegan and I'm going to implant one into my skull," He whispered calmly. "I'm going to kill that masked man and save this world from Madara, then you can do whatever you want with me, until then, I'm going to keep moving forward until I reach my goals." 

"That's treason!" Homura shouted. "Anbu arrest Naruto Uzumaki!" 

"You have a lot of nerve," Naruto whispered as two swords were held at his throat. "Calling me a traitor, you of all people." Everyone looked at Naruto with confused faces so the teen continued. "I know the truth of what happened that night, I know everything. You along with Danzo and Koharu came up with an arrangement for Itachi Uchiha. He either kills everyone in the clan except for Sasuke Uchiha, or your Root forces would kill every last Uchiha including Sasuke. You're responsible for most of the shit Sasuke went through because you didn't even wait to talk things out!" He yelled. 

"W-What?" Obito stuttered as he looked at Naruto. "Naruto, who's Sasuke?" Naruto froze. 

Sasuke Uchiha. . .

No longer existed in this world. 

"If you ever cross me again," Naruto whispered menacingly as he glared at Danzo, Koharu, and Homura. "I'll kill your entire family and see how you like it." 

"Naruto!" Tsunade shouted. "Stop this at once!" 

"I refuse!" He shouted joyfully. "I'm going to go home and enjoy the rest of my night! And remember if you kill me," Killing intent flooded the room and forced everyone to begin choking, unable to withstand the pressure. "Then the Kyuubi will be released once again, and this time, you don't have my father to seal him away." With that, he vanished in a flash of light. 

Everyone had stunned looks on their faces before Obito frowned and sent out Killing Intent into the air as he glared furiously at Danzo, Koharu, and Homura. "Now that that's over, tell us all exactly what you ordered Itachi Uchiha to do." 

"No," Sayuri whispered, her eyes wide with shock. "Itachi was. . .evil?" The masked figure standing in the dimly lit candle light chuckled at her ignorance.

"No. The elders of the village gave Itachi a choice. Either kill his entire clan himself and spare his younger sister, or Danzo's Root would swoop in and kill every last Uchiha, including you." The masked man took a step closer and bent down, his elbows resting on his knees as his single eye hole peered into Sayuri's disbelief-filled coal black. "And do you want to know the worse part about this little ugly truth?" 

". . ." Sayuri didn't speak. She couldn't. Her brother was forced to destroy her clan? No, that couldn't be possible. There's no way, no way. . .

Sayuri was panting, looking at her older brother with wide eyes filled with betrayal. "Why?" She shouted at his turned back. "Tell me why brother!" Itachi glanced back at her and she saw a stream of tears go down his cheek before he disappeared from the compound. 

"Oh god," She whispered to herself. "You're right." 

"I know," The masked man replied. "But like I was saying, do you want to know the worse part about this?" Sayuri slowly turned her head to the masked man and he continued. "Your little friend, Naruto Uzumaki, knew the truth from the very beginning. Back when he was trying to find Tsunade, Kisame told me that Naruto had known the truth about Itachi and chose not to say anything to you before you left the village." 

"You're lying," She whispered as tears crossed her face. "There's no way he could've, he would have told me the truth! Naruto isn't-" 

"I don't give a shit about your Kamui!" Naruto shouted as he immediately backed off. "I know it hurts you!" He said as he looked at Obito's face, smirking even further as he noticed that his right eye was bleeding.

"I don't know how you know what my technique is called," Obito said as his Mangekyou immediately changed back to his three tomoed Sharingan. "But you know too much about a lot of things, don't you?" 

"Don't you want to kill Itachi? If so then you need to get all the power you can get. I'm not going to make the decisions for you, Sayuri. But one day you're going to need to see the things that aren't just in the village. Let me give you a bit of advice," He wasn't speaking any louder than he had to, this was for Sayuri's ears and Sayuri's ears only.

"Your best chance at getting stronger is going to Orochimaru." He whispered. Her mouth opened slightly. How had he read her mind? What was he?

"You're not him," She whispered, the marks on her face disappearing back into the curse mark. "You're not Naruto!" She shouted as tears welled up in her eyes.

"No," She tried denying it. "He couldn't have. . ." Her tone was broken. The one person in the world who she thought understood her, the one person on this world she could tolerate, the single person on this planet that she genuinely liked. . . knew that Itachi was innocent. 

What was sadness turned into anger. That anger bled further through her heart until it was a burning hatred. Her Sharingan unconsciously activated and morphed into an atom-like symbol as she unlocked her Mangekyou Sharingan.

"I'm going to destroy the Leaf to avenge my brother," She whispered as tears crawled down her face, her eyes wide as her Mangekyou Sharingan spun. "And I will kill Naruto Uzumaki for all of this pain in my heart!" 

And done. How was it? Good? Bad? You didn't think I forgot about lil ole Sayuri now did you? She's an important character! 

And now what's next hmmmmmm?? Wouldn't you all like to know what I have planned. 

Also btw, the final battle for this story is going to be my best one yet. 

Til next time my lil demons!