21 A Seal Release

"What Separates A Man from A Slave?"

Naruto

He listened to Anko's story from beginning to end; she spoke of her time first meeting with Orochimaru, how excited she had been to be taught by someone like him.

"I regret many things but going with Orochimaru when he betrayed the village is what I regret the most, and if he hadn't abandoned me. I ... I" she stopped feeling tears in her eyes. Naruto put his hands on her shoulder.

"You don't have to continue, I understand it," Naruto spoke with a smile, a real one, a smile he showed to Kurama, and he used to show it to his Uchiha Family.

Anko smiled back, "After he put the Curse Mark on me, he abandoned me, and I returned back to Konoha. The rest is history," She finished wanting to be done with this story as soon as possible.

After she was done, she expected Naruto to look at her with disgust, the same way many still looked at her, but she saw concern and anger, but not directed at her but at the man who did this to her.

"You followed your sensei, the man you thought was right all the time. I don't blame you for that," Naruto spoke.

Anko shook her head in denial, and she knew what she was doing; she had betrayed the village when she chose to follow the Snake; if it weren't for The Third Hokage being merciful to her, she would either be in prison or executed for treason by now.

"Thank You for not looking at me differently Naruto, I appreciate it," she spoke with a smile, her face brightened up like a candle.

Naruto saw something new in her face; she looked different to him suddenly, the air of anger and self-hatred that seemed to be around her all the time seemed to have disappeared.

"Anko, I know you don't know me for long, but I never go back on my word; I always keep it. Therefore I give you my word; I will destroy that seal that has prisoned you for so long," Naruto promised with an open hand where his heart was on his chest.

Anko sighed, knowing there was no way he could actually do anything to help her.

"I appreciate your words Naruto, but this," she spoke as she touched the Seal on her shoulder. "Is a prison I can never get rid off; I made my peace with it, I know you're talented, but Even Jiraiya-sama couldn't do anything to this; all he could do was use a Seal to prevent this one ever to take control of me ever again," She spoke with sadness.

But the face she saw in Naruto wasn't the one she expected.

"You're wrong, and any seal can be destroyed. I will prove it to you." Naruto spoke with confidence.

Anko sighed sadly, knowing her student would not change his mind no matter what she said; all she could do was go along with it and hope he gives up soon and sees that he can't do anything to help her. No one can help me, This is what I deserve for betraying my village, and following that lunatic, Anko thought.

"Very well, but we are still waking up at 7 AM tomorrow to train," Anko said with a chuckle at the end, easing the bad atmosphere around them.

Naruto chuckled before turning to leave. "Good Night Anko," Naruto said, waving his hand at her before disappearing.

"Good Night, Naruto," Anko said after he disappeared, seeing leaves left behind.

Naruto - After Two Months

Another explosion happened inside his house, and Naruto coughed like crazy, another explosion, another failed seal.

He quickly ran and opened the window, letting the smoke outside; he couldn't believe after two months, he still wasn't able to do anything.

"Why am I doing wrong?" Naruto asked himself out loud, rubbing his long blonde hair. His hair had grown at the sides of his head, two fangs reaching his eye level.

Naruto sat on the floor as he tried to come up with something to help; despite trying everything, he couldn't do anything. He had used one thousand clones every day just to study Fuinjtsu; despite all that, he still kept failing.

Hitting the floor with his fist, Naruto sighed, tired, but he had not given up yet.

"Kurama, any idea?" Naruto suddenly asked mentally, he had sought his friend's help since he started this, but to his confusion, his very big brother was mostly quiet or just said he wasn't sure.

"I... Don't you think you should give up Naruto? I understand you want to help her, but..." "No", Naruto interjected immediately with a slightly harsh tone.

"I gave my word Kurama, what kind of man I'm if my word means nothing, especially in a world where people lie and deceive all the time," Naruto spoke, his tone firm and not bulging, not even in the slightest.

The words he heard brought a smile to Kurama's face, reminding him of his father.

"I might know a way to help, but I need you to listen closely," Kurama spoke with a severe tone.

Anko's House

She sat in her bed; Naruto sent her a clone telling her that he wanted to meet her in her house.

Anko sat nervously, chewing her lower lip enough to draw blood, as she had her mind full of thoughts. Has he really found a way? Is it even possible? Anko asked herself, not wanting to give herself hope.

She bit her nail when she heard the door opening; the footsteps sound came closer as Naruto walked inside her main room.

Naruto turned his eyes at her, but the way he looked at her, she knew this was something severe.

"Anko-san, I might have found a way to destroy the stupid curse seal," Naruto spoke with a low tone.

Anko found the corner of her lips twitched upwards, hope-filled her body like a warm blanket, as her heartbeat in her throat.

"But, you should know it comes with a big danger; if I fail, you will Lose your chakra, you will never be able to use Chakra ever again," Naruto warned her with an ice tone.

Anko gulped at the consequences; just the thought of losing her chakra made her want to deny; her hand instinctively touched her curse mark.

She thought back to when all of this started...

"Aaaah! Damn it!" Anko was clutching at her shoulder. It had started to throb and hurt like hell at random the attacks were getting shorter, and the attacks seemed to be getting more intense.

"It's all right," she panted, clutching at her shoulder. "I'm a ninja. I can deal with pain. What cannot be changed can be endured."

The words brought little consolation as the seal suddenly throbbed.

"Aaaahh!" She clenched her shoulder so hard that her nails drew blood.

"Why me? Why have I got to be the lucky one?" She was tough but not a masochist, no matter what some people thought.

Then without warning, it had started to hurt for no apparent reason. The attacks had been coming quicker, lasting longer, and were becoming more and more violent. What scared her even more than the pain was the evidence something was happening.

The skin around her curse mark had turned a sickening shade of grey; the mark itself had grown its inky lines spreading out to form a complex pattern within the area of infected skin. When she touched the mark, she could feel the heat coming from it, as though that one part of her body was fevered.

"Something is happening to me," she muttered fearfully. "I'm changing."

She kept screaming out in pain for hours to no end, not stopping.

He was looking down at her with one of those slight, playful grins she had come to recognise as not being a sign of good humour but a sign of interest. His yellow snake eyes measured her, saw through her, read her thoughts with casual ease. She'd never been able to keep any secrets from him. Looking up at him now, she felt that same old certainty that he could read her like an open book.

"So full of pain and rage, little Anko," sensei said in his soft lilting whisper. "Tell me... what is it that fills you with such fury?"

He was a traitor. He had abandoned her and thrown her aside as if she were garbage. She hated him.

She also loved him, just as a child loves the parent no matter how much she'd suffered for it. On some level, she'd always hungered for his approval. Always wondered why her love had been rejected. She simply did not know how to stop caring about him.

"Why?" She asked in her little girl voice. "Why did you do this to me?" It was a stupid question and not worthy of a shinobi, but it was the truth. She had loved with her whole heart. She had always done her best. She had always been loyal.

Weren't all those things supposed to be rewarded?

Why was she alone condemned?

His eyes glittered, and she was certain he could read her thoughts. "You suffer because you are a failure," he answered simply. "I thought you might prove worthy to be my apprentice, but you lacked the will to seek power. So I used you as a test subject, and even there, you disappointed me." He let out a sigh. "You are nothing but a failed experiment."

With that, he walked away, leaving her on the ground on her own, alone in her pain and loneliness; the light disappeared as the door closed in front of her, leaving her alone in the darkness.

Anko breathed, calming herself, sweating bullets, Biting her lower lip again; all could be gone, all the pain, all the sleepless night, Everything, I can be Free.

She looked at Naruto again, and she nodded her head, sweat rolling down her cheek like a waterfall.

"How will this work?" Anko found herself asking.

"I will use Kyuubi's chakra to destroy it," Naruto said, taking Anko by surprise; her eyes widened, he knows??

She opened her mouth to ask him, but Before she could ask how he knew about the demon fox, Naruto raised his hand to stop her.

"I know about him, I will explain it later, but I need to know if you're up to this," Naruto spoke, not wanting to waste time.

Anko avoided his eyes as her mind went back to all the restless nights, every night. She woke up with her body almost in fire from the pain, so much pain that she had thought to cut it out the part of her skin.

Taking a deep breath, the thought of getting rid of it eased the tension she felt.

"I want to do this," she decided with confidence; Naruto nodded his head in understanding.

"I will need you to sit with your legs crossed on the floor, and... and ... and remove your top," Naruto said as he was avoiding her eyes, his face as red as blood.

Anko found herself bursting out laughing before nodding. "I'm fine with it," she spoke; if it meant that her Curse would disappear, she wouldn't be bothered.

Taking her top off, her back turned at Naruto, who held his head down to not look.

It was another half an hour before the brush left her skin for the last time; much like the Fūinjutsu on the floor beneath her, the markings on her body were made up of intricate markings with barely any space between them, from afar it would just look like they were lines made up of small blobs, but looking closer you could easily see each mark was made up of hundreds of other symbols, this was a testament to just how good Naruto had become with Fūinjutsu over the years he'd be studying, there were six lines of these all directed to the curse mark on Anko's shoulder with a ring of them around the curse seal, each line was placed so it lined up with the array drawn on the floor and he had done it all with incredible accuracy and speed.

Putting the ink jar to the side along with the brush Naruto took a deep breath as he stood behind Anko. "Alright, we're all set; this is going to hurt like hell for the first few minutes and then hurt like the fire of hell for the rest of it, so brace yourself, Anko, cause once I start, I can't stop."

Anko nodded; she had no fantasies about it not hurting. When the mark was placed on her the hours after had been the most painful of her life, so, of course, removing it would be just as painful if not more so, "Alright Naruto, let's get this show on the road already"

With a nod, Naruto took another breath before exhaling quickly as his hands burst into movement as he weaved through over a hundred hand signs in under several seconds before placing his right hand over the seal and braced it with his left arm, "Uzumaki Style: Seal Forbidden" Naruto called out as the array of Fūinjutsu glowed a dangerous red all around the pair.

Naruto started, and she had braced, waiting for the pain, but after three seconds, nothing had happened. She had thought for a second perhaps they'd been mistaken, but then she found out otherwise; it hit her on the seventh second, pain everywhere it felt as though someone was stabbing her all over.

Her eyes bulged, and she screamed out in pain, which was only enhanced by the room's acoustics as it echoed. Luckily the room was made soundproof by a number of seals; otherwise, they would have had people coming to find out what the screaming was all about.

Hearing her in pain made Naruto want to complete this as soon as possible, but Naruto knew he had to keep going no matter what; the risk to her, if he stopped, was too significant. He risked frying out her whole chakra network if he did.

He had tried for so long to try to find a painless way to remove the mark, but there was none. Using Kurama's chakra would cause her to feel like she was burning.

Thankfully a Curse mark could never be placed in a Jinchuuriki. Therefore Naruto used Kurama's chakra to help, and there would have been so many things that could have gone wrong.

Kurama's chakra would work and go to The chakra in the cursed mark, and the worst part was that the chakra of the Snake was still spread around her chakra points; Naruto needed to burn every last bit of the Chakra left by the cursed mark, every time he burned chakra, the pain Anko felt like someone was tearing her skin apart.

As one of the lines of Fūinjutsu started glowing orange, Naruto knew that the seal had started to break down; pulling back his left arm, he started to cycle through the second series of single-hand signs before putting his hand left hand beside his right and closing his eyes.

"Uzumaki Style Soul Seal", Naruto called out as his chakra flowed out of his hand and turned a dark purple as Anko screamed in pain even more as the second process began.

It was a Jutsu his clan had made for dealing with Juinjutsu, some Uzumaki's had strayed down that path but had been expunged from the clan, and this Jutsu made to remove their twisted creations. Still, it had been ladled a forbidden art due to the extreme pain it caused the victim with the curse mark, but it was the only method Naruto could find that worked.

The process continued for another two hours as slowly, each line of Fūinjutsu on Anko's body turned orange. As the final one turned, they all flashed a bright blinding blue before disappearing completely as Anko and Naruto collapsed on the ground, their energies completely.

Looking to Anko's neck, he smiled. It was slightly red from the heat of the removal process, but it was done; the curse mark was completely destroyed.

Anko lay on the ground panting, not even having the energy to cover her chest as she strained her voice to speak, "i-is it gone?" she asked as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

Naruto nodded, "it's gone, Anko, you're finally free from him; your all your own now," he said with a slight smile on his lips, one that was matched by Anko as she slowly fell asleep as exhaustion took her.

Naruto saw she had fallen asleep, releasing a sigh of relief, he stood up, Kurama filling him with chakra, he walked over to her, Naruto quickly put a blanket over her naked chest, grabbing her on his arms, he put her back to her bed, making sure she wasn't cold, he released the silent seals around the room.

He glanced at her again, making sure she was fine.

Naruto left the house, reaching his home, falling asleep the moment his body touched the bed.

Itachi

Control. It was all about control. Years of it, raised in it, cultivated and honed stronger and sharper than steel in Itachi, it was entrenched. It was his weapon and his armor, and it served him well. Kept him efficient. Kept him alert. Always ready, always useful to someone, always on the move. Always one step ahead.

He would be intangible. Never completely understood. Never in reach of the hands that grabbed at him from every direction.

He would be like smoke. Curling softly in shadow, the fire unseen.

Control was all that ever kept it from burning him alive. Try as he might to smother it, he had only to wait for nightfall, for the early morning hours when exhaustion wore him down. And then control was slipping from his fingers, and he was tumbling backward into the abyss, crystal-clear memory rising up to meet him like river rocks.

The first time Itachi woke up in a cold sweat was the morning after Shisui died. He'd been sure he wouldn't sleep at all that night (didn't think he'd ever sleep again), but he didn't yet know how exhausting the Mangekyou Sharingan could be. Didn't know how to handle it at all, didn't know how to turn it off, but then again, he didn't know how to stand, either, until after he'd cried himself numb.

They came to question him later that day. Pushed him 'til he snapped. It was a calculated move, of course, on his part, letting the cracks show. It didn't change the fact that he shook with rage and grief, and there was no faking that.

He had no choice. He had no choice. He had to do it. He had to tell himself this, every day, every hour, just to keep waking up for a while. He would never admit how long. He would never admit a lot of things.

To kill an Uchiha, one must be stronger than him.

To kill every Uchiha, one must be stronger than them all.

For a thirteen-year-old boy, even a prodigy, that is a near-impossible task. Only with his newly-awakened eyes could he accomplish it. And they remembered it all in nauseating clarity. Every wound, every ruined house, every child's cry. Pleas for mercy. Solemn curses in the old gods' names.

Like he wasn't already cursed from the first drop spilled.

In his waking life, the lie was simple. He was Uchiha Itachi, a traitor of the glorious clan, painted villain, painted black and red, hated and hunted, wanted dead or alive. He upheld this image stunningly because control was all he had, and everything (every little thing ) hinged on the lie becoming truth.

In his dreams, the truth shattered into a thousand pieces that slotted back together in terrible ways.

One night he found Shisui's body, cold and lifeless in the snow. He took off his own cloak to try to warm him up, but it turned into crows before it could touch him, crows that pecked at Shisui's glassy eyes until the sockets were bloody. Itachi tried to stop them, but he couldn't move. Couldn't scream when they turned to him and started eating him alive.

When he woke up, his throat was hoarse, like he'd worn out his voice while he slept. He wondered briefly, chagrined if he really had screamed. Ten minutes later, standing over the sink and spitting out blood from his lungs, he didn't wonder anymore.

Another night it was Naruto he found instead. Only he wasn't too late — checked his pulse, and it fluttered under his fingertips. He took him inside and wrapped him in blankets, brought him something warm to drink, but Naruto wouldn't take it. Wouldn't speak to him, wouldn't look at him, wouldn't even acknowledge he was there. He started to think that maybe he wasn't.

Morning dawned with the feeling that he hadn't much time left.

In this dream, death was coming for him in the way it was supposed to — in the body of his brother, blade in hand and righteous fire in his eyes. And maybe it was death so near that the boundary blurred, but he could finally see them. Every one of his clansmen, waiting just on the other side. Naruto closed in, and for the first time, he felt a trickle of panic.

In the dream, Itachi saw his Clan getting killed by a small shadow with a sword; Itachi ran to his parent's house to save them.

Opening the door, he would see the shadow behind his parents.

Nooo, Itachi wanted to scream but no words, no screams, Nothing. He couldn't speak, he couldn't move, he couldn't stop this.

The bodies of his parents fell on the floor as the shadow removed his mask. Itachi gasped at seeing Naruto behind the mask with strange eyes.

His eyes looked like the Rinnegan, but they were red like blood, his smile twisted.

"Now to kill your little brother," the twisted Naruto spoke with a chuckle at the end.

Itachi ran and tried to stop him, but his hand went through his body as if he was a ghost. Dark Naruto laughed; walking upstairs, they reached a room; Itachi didn't remember to have been there before.

Opening the door, Itachi saw another Naruto sleeping peacefully in the bed, a smile on his lips.

"No, Stop This," Itachi begged and tried desperately tried to grab Naruto and leave, but his hands just went through him.

Itachi fell on his knees as the Dark, twisted Naruto plunged his sword deep into his heart...

Opening his eyes, Itachi felt the sun shining down on him, gasping; he stood up immediately, he released a sigh of relief, knowing it was a dream.

He slapped himself, making sure this was the end of his nightmare.

"The masked man is not the real one,"

The words of his little brother ringing on his head like bells.

This world is War, and will not stop. I want your help to stop this Cycle of Wars

Itachi had heard his little brother; clearly, Naruto told him the masked man wasn't Madara, but when Itachi had asked how could he know that Naruto had stood silent.

The only response he got was that he would find his answers, but he needed him to do something first.

Itachi had understood he wouldn't speak more of it. As Itachi washed his face, he remembered one thing clearly.

"I will unite this World."

Itachi remembered those words more clearly than anything else.

Taking a deep breath, Itachi was ready to do his part of the job and Watch...