CHAPTER 56: HESITATION

Chapter 56: Hesitation

~~~

Naruto looked up to the sky, his gaze focused on the endless blue sky. A year ago, Naruto had made a theory that clashed with Madara's words from when he was just a little boy.

"Your father's Uchiha blood was defective. How? Who knows. All I know was that his Uchiha blood is inferior to yours."

Naruto didn't really think about that when he was younger, but now that he had time to think about it, there was no way Minato's Uchiha blood was defective as he said it was.

If that was the case, Naruto himself would carry on that defective blood. But that's not the case. His Uchiha blood was in full effect; working perfectly fine without a problem.

So, it made sense to Naruto.

Madara had lied. Those words that kept on telling him that his father had defective Uchiha blood was nothing but a simple lie that Madara had made to perhaps manipulate him.

One might say was so Naruto could directly inherit Madara's eyes, but that's the problem — the eyes that he had during his time parenting Naruto were simply eyes that weren't even his.

Eyes that he gotten from a disposable Uchiha.

It took me awhile, I managed to get my hands on father's eyes. Naruto thought, thinking back on his adventure on finding these eyes of his. His first thought was to go and dig up his body and see if his eyes were inside his sockets.

It was too risky and he could've left evidence of potential tampering with the grave of the Fourth. Then he resorted to something that got him his answer almost immediately.

Hiruzen was an old man with numerous amounts of secrets. He had not only become the Hokage, but resumed the position after Minato had died. And, well, Naruto had decided to snoop around and see if he could find anything.

You took care of these eyes very well. Naruto thought, thinking back when he found a small box hidden away in a very inconspicuous spot. It was so well hidden that the only reason Naruto had found it was because of him being extra careful not to miss anything important.

And in the end, father not only protected the village, but made extra precautions. Naruto thought, impressed with how articulate and calculative this all turned out to be. Naruto saw what was inside the box — a scroll and note right beside it.

When he unsealed the scroll, it revealed a jar of floating eyes. That moment confirmed his theory of Madara's lie that he had been so thoughtful about. Naruto read the note that was inside the box also, making him even more impressed than before.

It was obvious to Naruto that from the very beginning, Hiruzen knew about Minato being an Uchiha. He didn't tell anyone, not even Jiraiya. Absolutely nobody. The note was specifically written for Hiruzen with instructions if Minato did die.

That he would ensure the safety of his eyes. His body didn't matter; what mattered was his eyes. Minato with the assumption that Naruto was being raised in the village of Konoha. And his eyes were intended for Naruto.

And even though his assumption was incorrect, the eyes still managed to make it back to Naruto in the end. This wasn't an accidental plan that got through with sheer luck.

It was a plan that was created by a genius without a second thought. And the said plan survived through almost 2 decades until it made it way back to him.

"Ah, Naruto-san! Glade you could make it to this fine day!" Another sparring sessions was being held the day after the previous sparring sessions.. He nodded, seeing as he had free time to kill and watch these matches for the time being.

Naruto moved away, opting to lean on a tree just a few meters away from the group. After minutes of observing, someone had decided to confront him.

"Why aren't you with the rest of us? What you're doing right now looks rather. . . lonely?" Naruto looked to the side, seeing Sakura crouch down and sit on a tree. Naruto shrugged.

"This feels more natural to me. I'm not the greatest when interacting with others." Sakura had a puzzled look before nodding her head at that answer. A solemn smile appeared on her face as the day dimmed.

"I never really got to say this but thank you, Naruto." He raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was thanking him when they were just simply withholding a simple conversation.

"I do not follow?" He questioned her.

"Oh, what I mean was that when Satsuki left, I felt like I lost a friend. When I woke up on that stone bench after being knocked out easily by Satsuki, I berated myself for not trying hard enough." Sakura looked around, taking a glance at everyone.

"Then when the mission failed, I berated myself even more even when I wasn't even there. I locked myself for days, hating the fact that I was so. . . powerless. Then you and Kakashi-sensei managed to pull me up even though you did do most of the work for him." Naruto nodded, remembering when everyone was down to their lowest point.

He said a speech that went along the lines of:

"Maybe this self-loathing is deserved for not trying hard enough; or because you were not strong enough. But moping around won't change anything, will it? To be able to truly change and correct something, power and resilience is necessary. Not doing something about anything is worse than failing. It just means you gave up."

It may not be the exact same words, but it was a close enough replica to the point where it was credible. Soon enough, they had Naruto come up and fight someone.

"Why me?" Yawned Shikamaru, getting up from his laid down state. They just did a simple bet and he had lost, now having to spar with Naruto.

And following that lost in the best was another loss that he received from Naruto. Don't get him wrong, him and Naruto were very intelligent and were able to adapt to situations when needed, but when it came to Naruto -- he was overwhelming.

But, luckily, he managed to land a few hits that managed to make Naruto bleed. But in the end, the outcome was already decided from the beginning.

Of course, this was only a spar and wasn't anything serious on both ends. Naruto walked back to his spot, seeing them tend to Shikamaru. He sighed, seeing the abundance of cuts he had received.

He's gotten stronger. Naruto thought to himself, amused that such a lazy person like Shikamaru has gotten immensely more stronger.

"Ah. . . um. . . Naruto-kun?" Naruto heard someone call out to him. He turned around and saw Hinata approaching him with something in the grasp of her hands.

"You. . . got hurt. . . here." Her voice was timid and low. Hinata held out her hand, giving Naruto a healing ointment. Naruto nodded, accepting the ointment from Naruto.

"Thanks." Naruto then saw Hinata scurry away with her face being beet-red. He sighed, seeing two people appear right next to him.

Jiraiya and Kakashi.

"You know she does like you, right?" Jiraiya asked Naruto. He just simply sighed before he decided to give an actual response to that question.

"I know," stated Naruto.

"And will you respond to her feeling the way she is hoping for you to respond?" Kakashi asked, following up Jiraiya's previous question with a question of his own.

"No," Naruto said flatly. His reasoning was as simple as it could get.

"When we were little, I just saved her from a few bullies. Why she was getting bullied is out of my knowledge but I did know that she was getting bullied." If Naruto was correct, this event should've occurred during his early Academy years.

And after that, they have never had a conversation that lasted more than a minute.

"I only did it because the bullies were annoying. I didn't do it so she could treat it in a way that makes me look like a knight in shining armor." The night reigned over them all.

"I guess it's touching, but it doesn't change anything. She has other priorities to deal with that is easily more important than this. She has potential to be something more than just a love-struck person that fell in love with a person that is an idiot when it comes to the game called love." Naruto yawned soon after.

Don't get him wrong, Hinata isn't a bad person for liking him. It's just hindering her in the long run. She was a person that was born into the main branch of the Hyuga.

Her potential was already great, but her being adept to the shinobi arts is noticeably low. But, then again, that can also always change alongside that love-struck nature.

"I'll be going now," declared Naruto, walking away, tired due to the tiresome day.

Use these words well. Naruto thought, descending away, knowing that Hinata was eavesdropping the conversation.

~~~

Deidara glided over the Village Hidden in the Sand. With a grin, Deidara saw his hand-mouth spit out the clay that it has been chewing.

"Now," Deidara slowly said, forming the clay into numerous tiny spiders.

"I'll show you true art!" He threw the spiders towards the ground as he continued flying across the air.

From above, Deidara started to wield a few hand seals so he could detonate the clay.

Snake → Tiger

"C1!" Suddenly, numerous amounts of explosion appeared across the village in a matter of seconds. His grin turning into a manic one, his eyes reflecting against the abundance of explosions occurring.

Deidara caught sight of a patch of red hair. As he glided towards him, the bangs that covered his left eye revealed an eye scope.

"Now, this was where you were hiding." Staying at a long-range distance, Deidara stared at Gaara, whom was standing on top of a building with his hands crossed.

"A Jinchuriki being a Kazekage this young, huh?" The wings of his clay bird flapped wildly as Deidara looked down on Gaara.

"But can you handle my work of art?" An abundance of sand came out of the gourd that was on Gaara's back. With the sand making its way towards Deidara, he maneuvered around the sand as it trailed behind him.

"Your sand is a pain in the fucking ass!" Yelled Deidara, sending a couple of explosive clay-animals onto the trailing sand.

Releasing, the clay exploded, making the trailing sand slow down at a tremendous rate. His clay bird moved even faster than before. With his arms still crossed, Gaara started to rise up to the air, his sand acting as a platform him.

"You're good. But are you good enough?" Asked Gaara, columns of sand being commanded across the air. Deidara's clay bird dived down, gaining speed all the while avoiding the suffocating sand that was closely behind him.

"Good enough?! I'll show you something that even exceeds you." Deidara's eyes moved to the commander of the sand. Quickening his pace, Deidara gave the hand that was on his hand clay.

His current clay bird averted its direction and was now heading toward Gaara at fast speeds. His hand spat out the clay that he had gave it.

"Now, how will you like this?" Muttered Deidara, molding the clay into another small bird. As he closed in on Gaara, Deidara threw the small clay bird over Gaara.

With unnecessary flashiness, Deidara jumped up into the air and enlarged the bird. Flying away, he detonated the previous bird.

Looking back, he saw Gaara survive with his sand covering his body. Clicking his tongue, they were now back at square one.

Evading.

Suddenly, Deidara noticed that Gaara stopped sending his sand after him. Narrowing one of his eyes, he saw the sand from the very depths of the ground start to overflow.

"What the hell. . ." Deidara's voice trailed off, seeing limitless amounts of sand shadow over him and the village as the moon eyed the Earth.

Without any hesitation, Deidara made his clay bird rise up to the air, its speed ever-so increasing. Taking out even more clay, Deidara looked back and saw the hand form into that of a hand.

One that resembled that of the Ichibi's.

His hand spat out the clay that he soon used to form into more tiny clay insects that held a strong and overwhelming explosive output and power.

Throwing the clay insects and arachnids that attached themselves on to the arm of sand and the trailing sand. In a single second, the clay exploded, causing the arm of sand having to regain its hand.

After around 10 seconds, the arm of sand reformed to its former glory.

~~~

"You have a problem, Naruto," Kurama mentally told Naruto as Naruto kept on reading his book that he had yet to finish.

He hadn't slept. His mind has been caught up in so many things that he was practically suffering and damaging his own health.

"Maybe, but this is necessary. What I'm doing is dangerous and I can't fail." With a tinge of black bags underneath his eyes, he continued on, ignoring the protests from the annoyed Kurama.

"I can feel the negative emotions from within you. You may surround yourself with a steel wall that let nothing through, but I can feel it. Your doubt." Naruto sighed, slouching his body and looked at the candle in front of him.

It was the only thing that was creating light in a room full of darkness.

"I feel the doubt of your own actions -- your own mind. Interesting really. You're having second thoughts even when you act like you are resolved on those things." Naruto raised his hand up in the air, letting the book stay on his chest.

"I'm just. . . tired. I'm tired of the fact that I can't even recognize myself anymore. When I think back to the person I was over 10 years ago -- I've changed. And I don't know if it's for the better." Naruto had his hand up to the ceiling still.

"To think I'm making second thoughts makes me feel. . . insulted. I try and reassure myself that I haven't changed but it was clear as day to me -- I'm starting to care about the people that surround me." Kurama stayed silent, letting Naruto voice out his frustration.

"Then all I think about when the thought of killing Danzo is amount of memories and people I'm throwing away for my goal. And it goes back and forth. And now I'm a mess of a person." Kurama scoffed as Naruto brought down his hand back to the hard-cover of the book.

"You seem to be forcing yourself to do something that deep down you don't want to do. Then why do it?"

"I. . . don't. . .know. I don't feel like I'm forcing myself to do this, but at the same time, I know what will happen. The emotional baggage from all of this will affect me." Naruto looked beyond and into the darkness that surrounded him.

Naruto knew that this thoughts of his wouldn't stop until he was ready to confront himself and the regrets that he has built. With his eyes starting to grow heavy, he mentally transmitted his message to Kurama before he fell asleep.

"And that's why, deep within, other than just unifying the world, I want to experience the one thing I've never had: A family of my own."

After a few hours of sleeping, Naruto's eyes snapped open, awoken by the sound of a knock from his door. Naruto got up from the chair that he was on and walked off the tiredness that washed over him.

"Yo," greeted Kakashi as Naruto opened the door. Sakura stood next to Kakashi in her uniform. He knew what they were here for.

"I'm guessing Gaara's in trouble?" Questioned Naruto, getting 2 nods in return. It seems as though he was once again not sleeping for a few days.

"A messenger bird managed to get to Konoha and Inform Hokage-sama of their current predicament. They are sending us out now." Naruto was informed by Sakura.

She always had close ties with Tsunade.

"Alright, before I get ready, is there any other team that will be participating or will it just be us?" Naruto asked them directly.

"Yes, but no. Team Asuma and Team Guy are going to be backup teams incase we need it. We'll send a message back in any form if we need them. We'll be waiting at the gate." So now it was confirmed that this will be just them.

And with that, Naruto closed the door. Kakashi and Sakura disappeared and went to the direction of the Konoha Gate.

Naruto sighed, leaning on the door.

I guess I can use this mission as a way for me to get my mind of problems. I'll handle everything afterwards. Running away from his problems, Naruto got ready for the mission.

Once he finished getting ready, Naruto walked out of the door and jumped from the railing to make his way towards the Konoha Gate.

"Ready?" Asked Sakura, receiving a nod from Naruto.

He had a scent of nostalgia as he approached his former squad. (And a half). Once everything was okay, they all ran passed the gate, now initiating their new mission.

~~~

It was evident that the arm of sand was severely slower than that of the sand that had no real form to it. The reason was quite obvious.

It sacrificed its speed for more strength. Deidara was now on the borders of the village, ordering the clay bird to flip itself and go back the other way.

He threw a couple flying clay birds that homed themselves at Gaara. Unfortunately for Deidara, Gaara managed to come out without any serious injuries.

With his sand protecting him from all sides, Gaara moved his hand, soon tightly clenching it. Deidara looked from behind, soon widening his eyes.

"Sand Binding Prison!"

Limitless amounts of sand was enveloping over him. He tried escaping from its grasp, but failed to the strength that he was pulled in by the prison of sand.

Gritting his teeth, the prison of sand tightened and the pain from the strength of the sand was becoming unbearable.

As a desperate measure, Deidara exploded the bird that he was riding, finally letting out from bottomless sand that captured him.

Free-falling, Gaara managed to catch the falling blond. Without remorse, Gaara threw Deidara to same prison of sand that was reforming.

Reacting quickly, Deidara his hand spat out a chunk of clay. Forming the clay into a new bird, he enlarged it and landed right on top of it.

With his direction changing, Deidara used another chunk of clay and formed them into smaller batches of birds.

The sand prison swallowed the clay birds, letting Deidara to detonate the clay from inside the prison of sand. Suddenly, Deidara felt a sharp pain appear on his arm.

Looking at his arm, he saw that his arm was wrapped with Gaara's sand. As his clay bird flew him faster, the sand didn't lose its grip.

"AGH!" Deidara hissed, making up his mind and letting the sand take his arm. With only other arm with the mouth left, Deidara decided that it was time to end things.

Taking out a large chunk of clay out of his pouch, he let his other arm take it in. Even with only one arm, he managed to create his next and final explosive.

"C3!" The explosive was almost doll-like, with two arms crossing each other and was very large in terms of density. Throwing it, a large smoke clouded their vision, soon revealing the doll-like explosive larger than it previously was.

If it managed to explode upon impact, it could destroy a large chunk of Sunagakure in a single second. With its arms now horizontal, it started to fall.

Gaara widened his eyes, reacting quickly so he could protect his village. The sand overflowing in both strength and durability, Gaara sent the sand underneath the explosive.

The sand spread out, making the sand wider so he could captivate the area of effect. The explosive stopped in midair,exploding as light reigned upon Sunagakure.

"Now, this is art!" Yelled Deidara, wincing a bit afterwards due to his torn arm. As the explosion and smoke cleared, it revealed the village safe and sound with Gaara's sand just barely able to protect them.

But it seems as though Gaara was the opposite of well. Cracks were on his sand armor. The platform of sand was slowly disappearing as tiredness was seemingly overwhelming him and his entire body.

No. No. N- No longer able to think clearly and coherently, his vision became black, passing out unconscious as he severely injured Deidara caught him with his clay bird.

A victorious smirk appeared on his face.

"The capture of the Ichibi is complete."

~~~