Beginning of the End

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The stadium was filled as people from all over the land had come to watch the fight's between one woman and to all comers. Till now and up to when the exams started again it would be nothing but one fight between Niamh and anyone who wants her services. Many lords and nobles had come to place bets and to see if their fighter's would be able to defeat the woman soldier from across the sea. The way that the fighter was picked was for everyone fighting her to draw a number printed on a ball that would be place in a bin. From there a shovel full would be place in a lotto turn wheel, where it would be turned and one ball would fall out and would be repeated till there were no more balls inside and would end the day's fights. (1)

In the stands were many of the would be fighters that would do battle against Niamh. They came from many different backgrounds some are hired killers, ninjas, missing nins, thieves, all fighting to gain the services of one woman. For the last five days they had been watching the fights between Niamh and some of the other fighters that were called up to fight her. Most of them ended quickly as Niamh's blood limit allowed her to quickly move past her foe's defenses and knock them out.

In the stands at a table where the turn stall lotto ball thing was at, Naruto and Hinata were seated there put in charge of turning the ball stall and calling out the number on the ball. In the seats below them were their friends who were still getting use to the idea that both Hinata and Naruto are engaged to be married once they're of age. Hunter, Ran, Maki and Meow were all back at the fort to keep an eye on the place with so many people in the village. The girls were all over Hinata for the details of the engagement, and were a little envies about it as they saw what Naruto is packing in his pants. Word had spread around the village about the size of Naruto's manhood and some of Hinata's clan members, girls around their ages had confirmed about his size. Needlessly all of the young men of the village were grumbling about the sudden girl magnet that Naruto had become.

In the level about the seats Kushina stared at her son who she had abandoned for so many years, letting the fears of the village get to her. Now learning the truth of the nature of the seal placed on Naruto by her husband, she could only feel sorrow for all that she has done and has failed to do. Now a deeper fear now overwhelms her to her very being. The fear was the prospect of being a mother.

She had felt this fear when she first found out she was with child but she had soon gotten over it. But now… now it was different… where as before there would be a process, from baby to child to adolescent and eventually adult it was a procedure it was somewhat charted ground and she would know him and he would know her as every mother and child should. But that didn't happen as she left him for dead once the demon was sealed inside of him by his father. Now however she has suddenly a mother to a person she has never even met, she had never came close to him always making sure she never sees his face only learning about him by second hand. While at first her anger, her confusion and her natural motherly instinct that had been long suppressed had driven her to go to him when her old teacher had told her the full effects of the sealing.

Where the hell does she go from here? She knew that they had to talk but when? She knows she has to tell him that she's his mother but after so many years would he want her? Looking at the woman Niamh who had taken him in without a second thought, she was more in the little time that she had met him up to this point of time had been more of a mother to her son then she had ever been. Whatever bond she may have had with Naruto had long been broken and there was nothing he needed from her anymore.

"Still thinking of how to break the news to him?" the Hokage said as he walks up to her.

"All of this time…" Kushina said staring at her son. "Once he learns about the truth of what the seal does to the demon, he will never trust me. He will only see me as attempt on the village part to make him happy."

"We need to tell him the truth before Butcher does," the Hokage said.

"Because that way you'll be able to tell him what you want him and when the Butcher tells him he won't know what is true," Kushina said making the Hokage flinch. "Either way he will never trust you ever again."

"Yes I know that," the Hokage said. "Once he knows he'll never trust anyone of the village."

"There is still Hinata," Kushina said seeing how close she was getting to her son once the engagement was made final. "But still, even if he does stay knowing that we're only treating him better now is because of the effects of the seal… Hinata's father did say that Niamh said that he might snap. And knowing that once he dies he can take the fox with him or let it go, with give him all the power he needs to do what he wants without and punishments for it would only make the fox stronger or with his death releases the fox."

"Yes a terror of our own making," the Hokage said feeling a chill going up his spine. "There is also if Naruto becomes the heir of Butcher's title. Once trained in his art combined with what Niamh has taught him there's no telling what the body count would be."

"If he's anything like his father he will surpass Butcher's body count," Kushina said staring at her son wondering if there's any hope of them being a family.

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Elsewhere –

In one of the large rooms of the stadium many of the Leaf's nins were watching the fights by a big TV screen. The room was normally wasn't use as it serves for those who were sick and couldn't be outside, or like these times when there's overcrowding. All eyes in the room were on the current fight between Niamh and Hoppered the Gauntlet, so far he's holding his own as he flew through the air trying to smash her under his shield. She was firing at him but her bullets just bounced off of his shield, and because of he was spinning so fast Niamh couldn't get near him.

"So far Hopper is holding himself well against Niamh," Ibiki said as he watched the fight. "I see why he's known as the unbreakable shield."

"Yes you wouldn't be able to last against for that long," Anko said watching. Niamh as she appears and disappears as she evaded Hoppers attacks.

"What is she doing?" Gai shouted out making everyone look at the big screen. Niamh was standing her ground as Hopper came at her spinning through the air with his shield out in front of him. At the last moment before impact Niamh thrust her arms forwards and Hopper was thrown backwards by an unseen force, a loud boom like a bomb going off was heard seconds afterwards. The force of Niamh's strange attack threw Hopper clear out of the stadium ending his fight with her.

"A sonic boom," Kurenai said gaining everyone's attention onto her. "She told me about how if something goes faster then the speed of sound a sonic boom is created. Like the sound of a whip cracking is a small sonic boom. Looks like she knows how to create a focus sonic boom with her arms, a sonic boom that effects a wide area can shatter glass and eardrums."

"That's a sonic boom?" Asuma said watching as the next fighter was called in to fight. "I wonder if she taught Naruto any of her speed tricks."

"Once he learns the truth I wonder how long it will take for him to use them against us," Iruka said as he took a drink from a jug. "It be all we can to please him."

"You're acting like it's already over," Kakashi said to him.

"Why don't you just go and train Sasuke. It's all you're good for anyways, and why you passed your first team only because he was on the team," Iruka said back to him.

Kakashi didn't say anything as he sat back into his seat wondering how he could make it up to Naruto. His teacher's son was on his team the whole time and he never even guessed. He should have known since he's looks so much like his father but he always paid Sasuke more attention then his other two students. Both of them had taken leaps and bounds in the short amount of time they had been with Niamh while he had never even trained them in more then just the basics.

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Elsewhere –

"So much to do and so little time to do it," Tsuande said to her fellow teammate Jiraiya. "Niamh and the others don't even know yet and keeping it from them any longer will only make it harder for us."

"I wonder what's the old man is waiting for," Jiraiya said. "It's better for them to know now before Butcher tells them."

In the fighting grounds the Land of Fang's Captain Bufias stood in front of Niamh, he's armed with a spear. Jiraiya knew of the captain for his cruelty to anyone but his higher ups, many people hated the man but because of his rank and service in the army made him a hard man to reach. Niamh stared at the man, and in least then a heartbeat drew her gun and fired a single round between his ears ending the fight once and for all for the captain.

"Looks like she knows about him too," Tsuande said as the captain's body was dragged out of the grounds. "Good thing all of the fighters signed the form about dying by her hands." Seeing first hand of the killing power of a gun Tsuande now knew that Gai was lucky that the one who shot him wasn't that good of a shot or he would had been killed from his encounter.

"That's the six one she has killed," Jiraiya said as he had watched Naimh kill five others since the start of the fights. All of them were like Captain Bufias or worse, and Niamh made sure to kill them for good.

"Are you up to take a student again?" Tsuande ask him.

"It's been awhile but I can do it, Jiraiya said.

"Remember not to anger him anymore then what's needed to train him," Tsuande said. "The last thing that we need is a bad teacher and student relationship. You'll have a hard enough time in getting him to do any of your training, impressing him with jutsus won't be that effective as Niamh has shown him that using jutsus isn't important where she comes from. I hadn't seen him use any jutsus but the ones that increase his speed."

"I know," Jiraiya said. "Trying to teach him like how I did with his father is going to be hard… since I can't make him angry or upset…"

"You can always try Naimh's teaching style," Tsuande said to him. "True her teaching style isn't anything like we know but all of her students like her and always show up on time for her lessons."

"Yeah there is that," Jiraiya said as the way Niamh taught the kids was more like the rules of a game where they had fun. (3)

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In the stands –

"When is my number going to be called?" Karura ask as she waited to be called to fight.

"Yes this is getting tiresome," Shenhua said.

"You have to be calm and in control to fight her," Twilight Suzuka said as she too waited for her turn to fight.

"At least we'll be able to watch her fight and see what her fighting skills are," Komatsuhime said as she works on her unstring bladed bow making sure it's in top form as any moment she could be called to fight. As with any good archer she kept her bow unstrunged when she wasn't using it so the bow wouldn't be bended out of shape. If the bow was kept strung for long periods, both the stave and the string would lose some of their tension, making the weapon less effective.

"It's her speed," Zabuza said as he watched the latest fight between Niamh and a Lightning nin. "The way to beat her is to slow her down."

"But the question is how to slow her down," Karura said.

"Make the ground under her feet uneven or slippery so she can't run," Haku said.

"You can always tangle her legs with rope," Zan said.

"But she can always stand where she is and fires her gun at you," Zaki said. The Lightning nin was knocked out as Niamh appears behind him and smash the butt of her overgrown knife into the back of his head.

"Number 52 please step up," Naruto voice called out from the speakers.

"That's Rai-Dei the Blade number,' Twilight Suzuka said. "He's good."

"But not good enough," Zabuza said as he waited for the swordfighter to appear. His eyes widen as everyone else who knew who came walking out of the entrance of the stadium floor.

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In the stadium floor –

Niamh stood waiting for her next foe, her friend Emmy had told her to watch out for this one as he can create sonic blast from swinging his sword. So far none of the fighters had shown her anything that would make her want to join them. Many of the other villages and lords had people make offers to her to throw the fight when their fighter was called to fight her. But none of them offer her anything that she wanted or needed. She wouldn't need any of that from where she's going to, once the fights were over.

The doors of the entrance of the battle grounds opened getting her attention but it wasn't the swordfighter that entered the ground. He was a big, burly man, dress in a green color leather vest and a matching pair of leather pants. He wore a gasmask covering his face, and carried a number of blades on him. She knew who he was the moment he entered the grounds as she heard enough of him to know what he looks like.

"You're the man they call Butcher," Niamh said as she faced the man in front of her.

In the stadium all of the fighters and nins stood up as they saw the man who killed so many during the last war that his name was always spoken in fear. All of the Leaf nins appeared weapons pulled out ready to fight the man who killed so many of their fellow nins. The other village's nins also were ready to fight as they too had a score to settle with the Butcher of ninjas.

"Not now," the Hokage said as he runs down to reach Naruto before it was too late.

"Yes I am," Butcher said holding a meat cleaver in one hand and a butcher's knife in the other. "Rai-Dei won't be fighting you, he told me to tell you, 'I killed him'."

"Hey what do you want!" Naruto shouted as he appears standing on the railing of the stadium with his gun pointing at Butcher.

"I came to beat your teacher Naruto," Butcher said surprising Niamh and Naruto that he knows his name.

"How do you know his name?" Niamh ask.

"I was there the day he was born," Butcher said.

"You know my parents?" Naruto ask.

"Didn't anyone ever told you?" Butcher asked looking up at Naruto. "To think the son of the only nin to ever fight at my level and no one has ever told you that you're his son."

"What?" Naruto eyes widen. All of the villagers of the Leaf, nins of different villages and non nins alike all were shock at the news. That would mean that Naruto is…

"Naruto is Minato son," Niamh said speaking the words that were on everyone's mind.

"He's… my… father?" Naruto said he had a shock look on his face as his body trembles.

"Yes he's your father the one who sealed the Nine tailed fox inside of you. I should know I'm the one who gave him the sealing scroll to begin with," Butcher said shocking everyone once again.

"I already knew that," Niamh said. "Naruto told me about it a long time ago."

"Really now do you want to know something else about the effects of the seal," Butcher said.

"Stop!" the Hokage shouted as he appeared with a group of the Leaf's strongest nins.

"Why?" Butcher asked without a hint of fear in his voice. "Don't want Naruto to know anymore secrets you have been keeping from him? Keeping him in the dark thinking that the only way to get people to see him more then just the demon his father sealed inside of him is to become a Hokage. Making him the prefect weapons for this village and all it takes is making sure one boy doesn't know about his past or think of a life outside of a nin."

"I won't!" Hoakge shouted but his voice was lost as a bullet shot his hat off of his head.

"Let him talk," Niamh said pointing her gun at the Leaf nins.

"As I was saying," Butcher said. "The effects of the seal is to weaken the demon sealed inside of the container in the course of a lifetime. But that only works as long as the container is happy the demon sealed inside of them won't be able to break free or using negative emotions to grow stronger. And thanks to the mistreatment of this village the amount of negative emotions built up inside of him has made the demon even stronger then it was before."

"You knew about this?" Niamh said aiming her gun barrel at the Hoakge. "And didn't even bother to tell me or Naruto?"

"I told them five days ago," Butcher said. "Looks like they have been trying to come up with a good story to tell Naruto so he would still trust them, trying to make sure he'll be happy to try to reverse the effects of the seal by making him happy. Oh yes when you die Naruto you get to choose whether or not that you take the demon with you or let it go free."

"All of these years…," Naruto said eyes lowered body shaking. "Then the engagement to Hianta is nothing more then a trick to make me happy."

"Naruto," the Hokage said to him.

"What?" Naruto snap eyes burning with the pent up hatred he held inside of him for so long. "More lies you want to tell me? Keep more things from me to suit you and this village needs! What else haven't you told me?"

"You're mother is still alive for one," Butcher spoke up.

"She's still alive," Naruto said as he started laughing slowly to himself. Without a word he leaped down to the ground floor of the stadium and ran through the open door that Butcher had used to get in.

"He's going to need time to adjust to what he has just learned," Niamh said watching Naruto's figure disappearing as he ran.

"Yes he will," Butcher said. "But for him to become stronger then his father he's going to need to see the world as it really is."

"With eyes unclouded for the truth always burns away the lies," Niamh finished.

"Now for the main event," Butcher said. Explosions tore through the village as a combine force of Sand and Sound nins stormed into the village.

"What's happening?" the Hokage shouted as the sky was soon filled with smoke.

"The downfall of the Leaf Village," Orochimaru said appearing on top of the stadium with his Sound Four nins.

"Orochimaru make sure you keep out of my way," Butcher shouted to the leader of the Sound Village. "I still have score to settle with Niamh here."

"By all means," Orochimaru said. "And make sure you have fun killing as many Leaf nins as you can."

"I'll will," Butcher said as he faces off with Niamh even as people in the stands ran for settler, and Leaf nins spring into action to fight off the invaders. The only thing real to either Niamh or Butcher was each other and only each other.

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Author's Notes –

1 – What are those things with the balls inside of them called?

2 – The term sonic boom is commonly used to refer to the shocks caused by the supersonic flight of a military aircraft or passenger transports such as Concorde (Mach 2.03,) and the Space Shuttle (up to Mach 27). Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion; typically the shock front may approach 167 megawatts per square meter, and may exceed 200 decibels. Thunder is a type of natural sonic boom, created by the rapid heating and expansion of air in a thunderstorm.

3 – Teachers who read this fic remember that people learn better with hands on training or when they have fun with it instead of just sitting down and have a book in front of them. That way the students won't just fall asleep in the class listening to you.

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