Naruto : Monsters: Chapter 24

I rose up from my crouch and began pacing. "For a long while I wasn't sure what to do. I mean sure, I knew what my goals were and I knew I needed to grow strong if I wanted any chance of achieving them. 

So I trained. Trained my ass off like you wouldn't believe. But let's be real here, it wouldn't have been enough. Do you know how many enemies there are out there? Madara, Obito, Nagato, Danzo and, well, there were just too many to count really. 

This world was full of monsters, and all of them were playing this game. Training alone won't be enough to beat all of them. Had I just continued as I was, I would have ended up as nothing more than another piece on this board game that they played.

"Not a player but a piece. A valuable one, maybe, but that was there was no way I was ever going to allow that to happen.

"I was no one's piece.

"So I knew I had to act, to stop being just another piece on the board waiting to be played and step out of the game to become a player instead. To play the game instead of being played. And with all my knowledge about the future, I knew I could do it. I just needed to decide on how."

"So I asked myself, when should I act?" I began to pace, my arms crossed behind my back as I walked a few steps before I spun in place then repeated the action. 

"It was actually a much trickier question than it sounded. The butterfly effect was all too real here, so I knew if I made too great a change too early that all my future knowledge would be worthless. 

But let's face it, my very existence might have been enough to throw the entire plot out the window given enough time, so I knew I had to act soon and I had to make it count. I only got one shot at this. So once again I asked myself, at what point could I make the biggest difference for my benefit."

"And then it hit me." I snapped my fingers and pointed at the dead Sasuke. 

"You. In the future, you would become the biggest pain in the ass to, well, everybody. I don't think there was a single side or village that you didn't screw over in some way. 

You would join Akatsuki, become Tobi's lackey and that's not even mentioning your attempt to commit total genocide at a village filled with innocent people in a misguided attempt to avenge your family. 

In short you would become a serious threat one day. Not just to the Leaf or the Elemental Nations, but to me and my goals." I stopped my pacing and smiled down at him. 

"And that's why I had to stop you now, while you're still weak.

"You see, no matter how dangerous you become in the future, no matter how skilled you grow or how powerful a ninja you'll turn into, that's all in the future. Far off in the distant future, and it had nothing to do with the here and now. 

Because now, as in right in this moment, you're nothing but a boy. A helpless little child. So before you grew, before the boy became a man and a threat, I decided to nip you in the bud.

"But," I held up a finger, "but, I knew that wasn't as easy as it sounded." I resumed my pacing, "It is one thing to talk about killing and quite another thing to actually do it. 

And now while I didn't like you, and I never made a secret of that, a part of me still hesitated over killing you. I mean, could I really go through with it? Could I really kill a kid, a technically innocent little boy just for my own gains? 

Believe it or not I have never killed anyone before today and I wasn't sure I had it in me to go through with it. Not when it came to killing a child. But then I remember something." Again I stopped my pacing and leaned over Sasuke, "Something rather important.

"I remembered all of the things you did, all of the things you will do if I let you live. I remembered all the people you hurt and killed, all of those whose trust you betrayed. 

But most importantly, I remember the Valley of the End, where a friend and teammate appeared before you. 

She came to stop you, with no thoughts of profit or gains, for no other reason than friendship she came to save you from your own darkness, even risking her life to do so."

I smiled at him, it wasn't a pretty thing. "And do you remember what you did? Do you remember what you did to your teammate, your friend, your – and dare I even say it - so-called best friend? Do you remember? No. Then here, let me remind you." I raised my foot above him and held it there for a heartbeat before bringing it down, stomping on his chest so hard I felt several ribs snap beneath my heels.

"YOU SHOVED A FUCKING CHIDORI THROUGH HER CHEST YOU PRICK! THAT'S WHAT! YOU TORE A FIST-SIZED HOLE IN NARUTO'S CHEST! MY FRIEND'S FREAKING CHEST! DID YOU THINK I'D JUST SIT BACK AND LET YOU GET AWAY WITH IT!" I pressed my weight onto my foot as I grounded my heel into his chest, making sure to rub his shattered bones together in a way that would have been pure agony had he still been alive.

Then, like a flip being flicked in my mind, I suddenly stopped as the sheer absurdity of what I was doing hit me.

Removing my foot off Sasuke's chest, I forced myself to take a couple of steps back before turning away. With deep breaths I began to run through the mental steps of a mediation exercise that I had been taught as part of my training. It took longer than I expected, almost an entire minute, before I felt in control of myself to turn back around and face him.

"And that wasn't the worst of it." I continued pleasantly, as if I hadn't just caved his chest in, "As I distinctly remember you breaking Naruto's neck long before that happened. 

Right at the start of the fight, when you dive-bombed her straight into the rocky ground. Sure, it wasn't as flashy as the whole Chidori through the chest thing but I remember the event pretty vividly." Walking up to him, I stopped near his head and crouched down.

"And when I remembered that I realized that yes," I nodded, "I could kill you. I will kill you… and I did. I knew that if the Uchiha Massacre happened then that was it for you, that sooner or later you would have ended up being a monster in your own right and there was no going back. 

You would have done a whole lot worse to the world at large if I let you live. And let's face it," I raised my hand to his face before patting his cheek condescendingly. "I never did like you anyway," I smirked down at him before standing back up and resumed my pacing, an old habit that helped me think.

"And I knew just when to do it too. I couldn't kill you earlier, not when your family made up the entirety of the Konoha police force. Nor could I wait until later, when you grew strong enough to put up a fight. No, it had to be now. 

Right now, while Konoha was in too much of an uproar over the massacre of one of its most powerful Clans to think about guarding one orphaned child or even notice you're missing, and by the time they do, the trail would have long gone cold."

"And the best part is, I didn't have to do anything. Between you and your brother, you set everything up for me. You've even given me the perfect murder location." I raised my arms to indicate the room at large. 

"Look at this place, it's perfect. It's impossible to detect from the outside and, here is the kicker, no one alive in this village knows about it other than me." I turned to him, "Well, you too I suppose but you're not about to tell anyone about this place anytime soon, are you?

"I'm going to leave you here." Glancing around I took in the sight of the place as I started circling the room. "Look around you Sasuke, because this place is going to be your tomb. Your grave. When I walk out of here I'm going to shut the door behind me and never come back. 

No one will ever know you're in here. Hell, no one will even know for sure what happened to you. Did Itachi come back to finish the job? Did you run away? Get kidnapped? Commit suicide? Who knows?" I shrugged, "It's a total mystery."

"And here is the part that I really love about the whole thing. Even if they do eventually find out what happened to you, no one, and I mean no one will ever suspect me of killing you. Because I have no motive." I laughed. 

"That's right, even if my alibi, flimsy as it is, falls through no one will ever connect me to your murder. Why? Because why would I do it? For what possible reason would I, an eight-year-old child, murder you, a classmate that he hasn't spoken to in two years?"

"And then there are the other benefits your death would bring. With you gone, Orochimaru will never attack the leaf or at least is less likely to without the incentive of the Sharingan, which might mean that Sarutobi will survive the end of Chunin Exams. 

And then there is, of course, Itachi. As long as he doesn't have a breakdown over your death, then Itachi will dedicate the remainder of his life to protecting the Leaf, because let's face it, now that you're gone that's all he'll have left."

"Hell, what am I saying?" I turned to look at him, "Without you, without Uchiha Sasuke in this story, everything changes. With you gone, the entire future, the story's plotline, all of it gets thrown out the window. Your death will make all my knowledge of the future near worthless. And you know what?" I held my arms open, "I'm just fine with that."

"I could have sat back and done nothing, just stuck with the original plotline. But if I did, I would have been nothing but a puppet to fate, or to destiny or whatever you wanted to call it, and I refuse to be anyone's puppet. 

As if I'd ever allow myself to sit back and play my role as someone's obedient little bitch. So instead of dancing to the strings of fate known as 'canon', I'd rather forge my own path, my own story. After all, didn't I already say it?

"I'm the main character now. This is my story. Not anyone else's. This tale will no longer be about a lonely little child who dreams of becoming the Hokage, all so that she may one day be acknowledged. 

Nor is this a tale of an Avenger and his quest for revenge. No, this is the tale of Hyuuga Hikaru, the man who will one day obtain the Rinnegan and become a God."

"For you see," I pointed down at him, "what I want is not Nagato's Rinnegan, not Madara's. No, I have no interest in those fakes. What I want is the real thing, the true Rinnegan. I want Otsutsuki Kaguya's Rinnegan."

I looked up for a moment, lost in my memories, "I have seen her use it Sasuke, I have seen the power she can wield with those eyes and it is a thing of wonder to behold." I turned to look down at the boy. 

"I have seen her walk between dimensions as easily as you and I walk through doors, create entire worlds with but a thought, return to the world of the living as if death was nothing more than an inconvenience and create new life with but a flick of her finger.

"I want that power." Even to my own ears, the sheer longing in my voice was frightening.

"I will have that power. One day I will find her, I will reach out to whatever realm or plane of existence that Kaguya lives in and when I do, I will pluck those divine eyes straight out of her skull. And then the Rinnegan will be mine!" A wicked grin graced my face as I turned back to Sasuke.

"And…and…and," Slowly the grin began to melt away as it hit me, "and what the hell am I doing talking to a corpse for?" I blinked again before face-palming. "Please someone tell me I did not just monologue my entire plan like some kind of cliché Bond villain to a dead corpse?"

For the next few seconds, I just stood there with my face in my hand, before I doubled over in laughter. "Pfft-Hahahaha, oh my god that's hilarious. That has got be the most stupidest thing I've ever done." I turned to look to my one corpse audience. 

"I guess your death must have been a bigger shock to me than I expected, eh Sasuke? Hahahaha."

My laughter rang out in the room for the next several seconds until I managed to reign it in. Letting out one more snicker, I shook my head clear and I straightened up. After looking myself over for any signs of blood, and finding none, I turned to give Sasuke one final look, smiling as I did. 

"Well, it's been fun and all Sasuke but I've wasted enough time with you for one night so I'm heading back. But before I leave let me tell you this one final thing, for it will be the last thing you'll ever hear Uchiha Sasuke." The smile dropped from my lips and I stared down at him with cold eyes, "Goodbye."

Then I turned and left, and didn't look back.

I never saw Sasuke again.

The staircase rose before me, and I set my foot on the first step. Looking down I realised the symbolism immediately. I had finally done it, I had taken my first step towards my goal. The die has been cast and can't be taken back; I was in this for keeps now.

Good.

I took my second and third step up the stairs, leaving the light from the flames that illuminated the room behind me, ascending to the darkness above me, where the entrance to the Shrine lay.

Though no one may know it yet, a new player had stepped up to play this game. And I was playing for keeps.

A fourth and fifth step-up took me further away from the light.

And to all you hidden players who hide in the shadows, Pain, Obito, Madara, Kaguya, I have this to tell you.

You'll lose.

This board game is no longer yours, it's mine. The moment I had entered, all your destinies, all of your fates were ruined. Not God, not fate, not even Kishimoto himself will be able to save you from me.

When I finally reached the top and stepped through the door into the shrine, none of the light reached me. I had stepped into darkness.

I will win. I will beat you all. So come! Monsters of this world, come! For I challenge you. You are alone no longer, there is a new monster that roams the world and I will hunt and kill every single last one of you. And when that day comes, I will pile up your bleeding corpses and use them to ascend to Godhood.

On that day –

The Rinnegan will be mine!

Turning in place, I looked down at the open trap door on the floor, the one that led to the concealed room where the body of my first kill lay hidden.

That's one down. One enemy I've removed from the board game.

I wonder, how many more will I kill before this is all over?

The answer immediately came to me unbidden.

As many as it takes.

Then I kicked the door shut, sealing the room and leaving the body behind me forever.

=======================

End of Arc 1: Birth of a Monster

AN :

Ok, a show of hands. How many of you saw that coming?

I promise you a plot twist, and hopefully I delivered.

What is a monster?

A monster is not someone that is unfeeling, uncaring. No, In fact it's quite the opposite. A monster, a true monster, is someone who cares, someone who can laugh and cries alongside you even as he slits your throat. A monster is not something that is necessarily evil, in fact the best kind aren't. They just have to be horrifying.

But you know what? I love monster, especially the human kind. I find them fascinating to read about and fun as hell to write about them.

The first arc of the story had come and gone. So that's it for now, I'm nervous as hell about how this chapter and the entire arc would be taken so be sure tell me what you thought about it. What do you think of Hikaru? Like him? Hate him? Sasuke's Fate? And everyone else? I'm dying to know so I'd appreciate any comments.

...

If you like the story so far, please throw some power stones.

======================

If you want to support me, Or just read ahead of the public release, you can check my patreon :

 p atreon.com/sybife

 |● sybife