CHAPTER 46: SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING

Chapter 46: Since the very Beginning

~~~

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he looked up right towards the air, seeing many feathers quickly falling down from the sky above. he knew what exactly this was.

Genjutsu. Naruto thought, before releasing the genjutsu that was about to trap him in a sleep. Looking down once more, Naruto saw Gaara get surrounded by his siblings.

Then his sensei, Baki, soon followed after them and stood right in front of them.

Baki soon looked over at Naruto with a fierce look on his face. It seemed like Baki had the very intention of protecting Gaara from Naruto.

"Gaara needs to recover. He is an asset for the whole plan," said Baki, gesturing them to get away from the area to give Gaara some time to recuperate somewhere else.

Naruto started to walk right towards them with a careful manner. This got Baki to bring his guard up. He may be a genin, but Naruto was dangerous and it could prove to be dangerous for Baki.

"Hm? A betrayal of sorts, I see," said Naruto, whispering to himself as he prepared to go after Gaara. He didn't need to fight Baki, it was just simply not needed.

"You're in my way," Naruto said to Baki, readying himself for a way to get through this layer of defense right in front of him. Turning on his Mangekyou Sharingan, Naruto started to look around the arena.

They'll go to the tunnel — no — they'll go the simple route and run up the wall and runaway while Baki holds me up. Tch. Useless. Naruto thought, preparing for a plan to intersect and stop them from getting the help Gaara needed to recuperate.

Naruto then launched himself right towards them once Gaara had been moved to go away from the center-point of the whole mess. Without any hesitation, Baki jumped right towards Naruto as well.

"I can't let get to him," said Baki, throwing a multitude of kunai right towards Naruto. Without flinching or stopping, Naruto dodged the kunais with fluid movement with him rotating his body through the narrow pathways in-between the kunais.

Baki then through a punch right at Naruto as his back was facing him.

"Sorry," said Naruto, also dodging that punch by moving his body just slightly to the side, having the punch just brush passed his shirt. This made Baki widened his eyes.

Naruto then appeared right behind Baki, letting Genma to take over the fight.

"But you don't have a choice," Naruto finished, jumping away from the fight to let Genma to take the fight with Baki instead of himself. Baki looked back with his eyes widened.

That distorted movement — it's like he knew I was going to punch his back. Or did he prepare for that just incase? Baki thought, gritting his teeth as he now has to fight Genma himself.

~~~

That hurt. Naruto thought, putting a hand on his eye for a second or two before lifted it off and away and continued his way to the direction of the Sand siblings.

He wiped his cheek and fastened his pace and kept following their lead. He had no way of tracking them, so he had been resorting to a much more dangerous method within his arsenal.

And it was currently costing him quite the bit.

Naruto soon caught up to the sand siblings in a quick manner. They looked behind and saw his face. They immediately started to grit on their teeth.

"I'll hold him off! Go!" Yelled Kankuro, stopping just a tree away from Naruto to instigate a battle with him. Temari nodded and continued her way with Gaara to help him recuperate.

"You'll be battling me!" Kankuro yelled, bringing out a puppet for him to control. This puppet that he was currently wielding is named Karasu.

Attaching chakra threads on the puppet, he was now ready to battle Naruto. With quick movement, Kankuro made Karasu move right towards Naruto.

As the puppet made its way towards Naruto, Kankuro made it stretch its hand and let a sharp needle come out with dripping purple liquid oozing all throughout the needle.

Poison? Naruto thought, moving to side to dodge the puppet and the needle that was truly aimed at him to potentially poison him without any hesitation.

For the kill, huh? Naruto thought, jumping in the air to dodge the needle once again. Without much thought, Naruto predetermined what was about to happen and weaved himself through the air.

And as expected, the needle missed him once again and he managed to land back on the tree without any serious repercussions on his body.

I need to end this more quickly. Naruto thought, looking to the side of, he saw Kankuro meticulously controlling the puppet. Naruto channeled chakra to his feet.

He then maneuvered his way and ducked down around the large tree branch. Naruto then jumped to the main part of the tree — the tree trunk.

He then started to run up the tree trunk. Naruto then slowly pulled out a kunai. Without any faltering or hesitation laced in his actions, Naruto threw it right towards the wielder, Kankuro.

This caused him to have to let go of the chakra threads and back away. The puppet was now out of reach.

Naruto saw this and made his way right towards Kankuro with a simple jump once he landed on the large tree branch that was sticking on the side of the trunk.

"On, no you donn't!" Yelled Kankuro, jumping to the next tree in an instant and quickly reforming the lost chakra threads that used to connect the two of them.

"You became careless." The head of Karasu then popped off and came straight towards Naruto at a very fast paced. A mechanism then started and revealed a needle that was hidden within Karasu's mouth.

The same purple substance was dripping down the needle.

"I win!" Sweat dripped down his head as he could practically see the win in his eyes. All he needed to do was not make a single mistake with these few seconds of actions.

"Careless?" Naruto questioned, not even flinching at the sight of the needle that could exact his death.

"Sorry, Kankuro, but," said Naruto, hardening his features just a bit before unleashing an incomplete Skeletal-Susano'o with a large skeletal hand that took the head of Karasu.

Naruto launched the head of Karasu right at Kankuro, though avoiding hitting him with the needle — Naruto did not have any intention of killing Kankuro at all.

Naruto capitalized on his current advantageous position and jumped off of the tree branch once more and threw Kankuro at the trunk of the tree with the large hand of his Susano'o.

"I'm always hundreds of steps ahead of everyone," said Naruto, voice devoid of pity, but the only thing that existed was the tone and voice of apathy.

He turned off his Susano'o and briefly glanced at the downed Kankuro before jumping away from him and continuing his way behind Gaara and Temari.

His plan to take me out was flawed from the very beginning. Naruto thought, jumping off of another tree, constantly following them as they gained a large margin of distance from Naruto.

Naruto was slowly but surely reaching them once again.

The final attack that was done by Kankuro would've worked on a lot of other people. But unfortunately for him, Naruto was not part of that margin of people.

In fact, Naruto already had numerous plans that would give him a win in that single moment of time.

Though it may seem exaggerated, Naruto did have a few plans that he had created on a whim in such pressure. Even though he didn't feel much pressure at that moment either.

He could've summoned a Shadow Clone as a sacrifice and halt the speed of the head of Karasu, allowing Naruto to crush it without much effort needed.

Or use a clone to propel him forward, allowing for Naruto to take the kill.

Though, in the end, Naruto opted to using his Susano'o even though he knew it would surely cost him just a bit of his sight as the cost of using it.

~~~

"Wow, you look like shit," said Satsuki, looking down at Kankuro. He saw blood dripping from his mouth and his body aching from unwavering pain that Naruto gave him.

He would've died if Naruto didn't show him mercy.

"Your. . . friend. . . he's fucking. . . insane," said Kankuro, coughing up some blood on the tree branch that he had fell on after he had been thrown to the tree.

"Uh-huh, we knew that already. So troublesome," said Shikamaru as Sakura slowly picked Kankuro up from the ground that he had been originally laid on just a few seconds ago.

"I'll turn him in," said Sakura, receiving a few nods from Shikamaru and Satsuki. And on that note, they split ways, with Satsuki and Shikamaru moving forward after Naruto.

And Sakura going back to turn Kankuro in.

"How far do you think has he gone?" Satsuki asked Shikamaru. As a response, Shikamaru yawned then sighed just after. This irritated Satsuki as she wanted a straight answer.

"I don't know. The injuries on that Kankuro guy seemed fairly new — probably just 10 minutes or so. Who knows." Satsuki nodded, seeing that as a solid answer from someone like Shikamaru.

Who doesn't like giving out solid answers — or any at all.

~~~

"Shit," said Temari, catching sight of Naruto, who was close behind their tails. She gritted her teeth, wondering how Naruto was able to catch up to them so easily.

Well, that question was a very easy question that could be answered.

Naruto just did a classic Shadow Clone and propelled himself forward with numerous clones to catch up to them easily. And Naruto was still doing that.

Thus, stretching the duration of the time before Satsuki and Shikamaru would finally reach him.

First, split them apart. Naruto thought, finally reaching the two. Appeared right above the two, Naruto threw a punch right towards Temari, making her having to split away from Gaara.

"Tch!" Temari was grinding her teeth against each other, completely annoyed with Naruto and the amount of persistence that he was giving to defeat the 3 of them.

"Your brother — Kankuro — he's down for the count. I crushed him. He is currently in a critical condition — worst, he could die." Naruto was certainly exaggerating on the last few parts.

Naruto saw Temari grow even more tense. He saw pure hesitation. Naruto had thrown her off of her focus. He had been intentionally aiming for that to happen.

Implant something in her mind — thus lowering her morale and focus in an single instant. Naruto thought, summoning a few clones right beside him to fight off Temari.

As long as the words that Naruto said to Temari sat in her mind, she'll fight at a lower-level than she originally would. Her lost was already predetermined from the very beginning.

The real Naruto then looked at Gaara; who was quickly losing his mind.

"You! Ahihcu Naruto!" Temari had originally thrown Gaara to the next tree to create distance between him and Naruto. Though that wouldn't help much now that the two of them were about to battle it out against each other.

Gaara had his hand on his head — he was feeling unwavering pain.

"You. . . who has unwavering power."

His facial features were starting to twitch due to the excruciating pain that he was feeling from within. It was soon becoming way too uncontrollable.

"You. . . who is a nobody." He fell down on his knees, feeling pain ever-so increase from his head.

"You. . . who is like me — a monster!"

A crack was starting to form on his face, and his eyes widening a very good extent. Temari widened her eyes at this development. The operation was going out of hand way too fast for their own good.

Sooner or later, the situation will be out of their own control — one that was going to be beyond their understanding.

No! Temari thought. Not only did Naruto plant such extreme amount of mental pressure on her, but now she has to worry not to let Gaara go out of control.

Which was quickly proving to be impossible.

"Gaara! The operation! You can't break it!" She yelled, feeling the increasing pressure of Naruto's clones as she was kicked away from one clone, then punched right towards a tree from another clone.

Blood spilled from her mouth.

"Naruto! You don't know what the hell you're doing!" Temari yelled at him, just barely dodging the attacks from the numerous Naruto clones that he had summoned.

Naruto didn't listen to her.

"What the hell! He's going berserk! He's going to be way to fucking strong!" Naruto still didn't continue to listen to her, opting to getting ready to battle Gaara instead.

"No. . . It's better this way," said Naruto, glancing over at Temari the moment she was crashed into a tree from clone that the clones had summoned.

"Wha. . . what?" She questioned in utter disbelief. What was Naruto saying? His actions was putting everyone in grave danger. But he doesn't seem to. . .

care?

Temari gained a second to breathe and caught sight of Naruto and his current expression. It was devoid of care or emotion — only apathy remained from him. He didn't care about the amount of humans that could be killed from this development.

"Sad. . . Isn't it?" Naruto asked, directing his question towards Temari as his back faced her. She was then punched away once more with the abundance of clones surrounding her.

"This operation of yours is failing, hasn't it?" Temari widened her eyes at that following question. How. . . did he know? Was their way of acting too conspicuous and not too inconspicuous.

Truly said that they were being manipulated by Orochimaru. Naruto thought. With very little help from the lazy fox, Naruto had quickly connected the pieces together and found out about the investigation just through basic abilities of thinking.

Orochimaru was a very key component for him to lead to this conclusion. Without him revealing himself, Naruto would've never saw through their plans.

Well, he didn't know the exact details due to him quitting after finding out of the operation but he does know one thing. He messed their operation up. Once single action from him caused them to pivot to another direction.

"You don't need to know how I found out. No one ratted you out, I simply found out myself. That's all you need to know," Naruto said, batting an eye at Temari before turning back to Gaara.

"By. . . defeating you. . . my existence. . . it will be proven!" Gaara then screamed, feeling the pain course through his body. Instead of resisting the pain from within. . .

He embraced it.

In a quick second, Gaara had semi-transformed. Half of his body had transformed into something that resembled the Ichibi. Slowly but surely, he was going to fully turn into the Ichibi.

It was only a matter of time before that happens. But, as usual, Naruto kept on wearing his poker face and didn't even flinch at this sight of this.

"Is this what you wanted?! Everything is turning into shit!" It truly has — everything from the failed operation, to Gaara slowly transforming into the Ichibi.

And it was. . .

"All according to plan," said Naruto, making Temari freeze in that very second. What did he mean by that? All according to his plan? What was the meaning of this?

~~~

1st Person: Naruto.

"You might be wondering what I mean by that," I said, directing these words to both Temari and Gaara. I looked down at Gaara with a bored look on my face.

Though I was certainly not bored at all.

"From the very beginning — my lateness, the battle with Gaara, and almost everything from that moment was meticulously planned and dictated by me."

A jaw-dropping claim and statement that I had said. The lateness part may have been an accident, but I made it my advantage. I had many reasons for not arriving quickly and choosing to arrive later than expected.

I wanted to past the time, was to lazy, but most of all, scout the area for anything that will hinder my plans. Like I said, it was not originally planned this way, but I added it due to it being an option for me.

I wanted to scout the area for anything like any ROOT Anbu on stand-by. If my clones that I had scout found any of them around, my plans would certainly be greatly hindered to a very large extent.

They would most certainly follow me if anything like this happened. That alone would weaken me due to me having to hold back on using my Mangekyou Sharingan.

There is no doubt Danzo know about the wonder of the Mangekyou Sharingan. I have an inkling feeling that he does. He has large involvement in the affairs of the village, there is no doubt he knows the secrets of our clan.

"Though while I did not know much about your operation of sorts, I did know that Gaara was most certainly a large part of your plan. His purpose may be shrouded in mystery, but still a large part of the plan."

It didn't matter if they planned to unleash the Ichibi in full course in the village, what mattered was that I had driven him off from the village before he could transform.

"Why do you think you operation is going so poorly? It's because of my doings. I created plan the moment I found some details about your unique operation. That plan was to. . ."

"Break Gaara of the Sand." Temari now realized what was going on.

"So. . . that means — you wanted this to happen!" She yelled in disbelief. Without hiding anything, Naruto nodded at her, confirming her suspicion with just one gesture.

"Correct. From my battle with him earlier, I planted seeds within his mind that slowly broke him down and his mental state more than it already was. I was slowly creating a situation that was being carefully weaved by. . . me."

I did this by just simply calling him inferior and calling myself the better monster — which is most certainly true on the most part of the spectrum.

"I then expected him to be retreated due to my sneaking suspicion of his high value to Suna. Of course, I got passed your sensei and followed you all to this forest. Of course, I didn't plan for us to fight in this forest, we just coincidentally did fight here."

The last part was true.

"Then brought the two people protecting him, you and Kankuro," I said, dodging Gaara has he broke the branch that I was originally standing on. I then hid behind a tree.

"But it didn't really need to be that way, you two just coincidentally just happened to want to protect him and have him recuperate his strength." I ran up against the side of the tree and jumped away to get closer to Temari.

"Of course, I didn't have to do much else, since Gaara's mental state was already quickly deteriorating at a constant rate because of my existence alone."

And just like that, everything was carefully planned by me and me alone. I stood here now, letting everything around me to be dictated by me and my actions.

Where I alone stand now — it was what I wanted as I looked down on Gaara from above as I move my way through the trees that Gaara was quickly breaking.

Why I did all of this just for this one moment? I did it for one reason and one reason alone.

To fix him by breaking him into pieces.

Doing this will ensure that he will no longer be a threat to my future goals in the future. He's strong and his strength can prove an obstacle and a hinderance to me in the future.

One step closer to breaking him.

One step closer to my absolute victory.

~~~