Naruto Uzumaki: The Red Death

Summary: While laying bedridden in the hospital, Naruto mulls over how many times he nearly died on the Sasuke Retrieval Mission. Naruto realizes that, if he's ever going to survive long enough to become Hokage, he must change. For Better or for worse, he must grow up.

AN: My reignited interest in my Black Arrow story has reignited my interest in this story I took down last year. Honestly, this was one of my better stories and I should not have deleted it. So, I'm putting it back up.

Chapter Start

"How did it come to this?" Naruto asked as his bandaged body lay in the infirmary. He knew it wasn't gonna be a simple mission. They had gone to retrieve Sasuke, who had gone rogue. They had obviously expected resistance but Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba, Akamaru, Neji, and Choji, had been woefully unprepared for the Sound Four. Sound Five if you include the last Kaguya. Each one of them were only a couple years older than them, but the Sound Ninja's were all Jonin Level. B-rank on their own, A-rank with their curse marks. And they had all paid the price for their under preparedness.

Choji had fought the physically strongest but overall weakest member of the Sound 4, Jirobo. A Earth Style User who could absorb charka. CHoji used his clan's special pills that convert stored calories and body fat into chakra in order to keep up with Jirobo, since he was normally weaker than the Sound Ninja. Choji managed to kill Jirobo just barely, after using all three pills and going down to nearly 2 percent body fat. He was left nearly dead from the chakra exhaustion, the sudden and drastic physical changes in body composition, and multiple broken bones.

Neji had fought the guy who looked like a human spider. The six-armed dude could spit webs and golden stuff from his mouth. The only thing that would be weirder would be if he shot them out of his butt. Neji had a hole in his left lung and numerous lacerations and stab wounds .

Kiba had two stab wounds in his stomach, both self inflicted, but he had managed to patch himself up and he and Akamaru could have ended up dead against the guy with the weird twin ability, Sakon and Ukon, had Kankurou not shown up.

Shikamaru had gotten away with little more than a broken finger but he would have been dead against Tayuya had Temari not shown up and saved him.

Lee would be equally the same with Gaara showing up to kill Kimmimaro Kaguya, who had easily trounced Naruto's Kyuubifed army.

Naruto was the worst though. He had only survived as long as he did because of the Nine Tails. If it had not been healing him with it's Chakra, the Chidori that went through his right lung the first time would have killed him. Naruto's flashed back to that moment when he could he could have died.

Flashback

"Chidori!"

"Rasengan!"

The raven-haired boy thrust his lightning covered hand forward, with the blond doing likewise with his spiraling sphere of chakra.

As the boys tried to gain the upper hand in the collision of A-ranked jutsu, the techniques canceled each other out and exploded, sending them flying.

Sasuke stood atop the water first and walked over to the floating body of Naruto. Sasuke picked up the blonde by the throat as the black marks of the cursed seal covered his body.

"Don't you see loser? You were never a match for me. The Uchiha were the strongest clan of the Leaf, you worthless no-name clown."

Naruto struggled against the boy's grip, and managed to gasp out "Why, Sasuke?! We were friends? You… were my best friend..."

Laughing maniacally, Sasuke said "For power. I already told you on our first day as Team 7. My goal in life is to kill my brother. Before that goal, all else is just a distraction."

Smiling as he activated Chidori again, he said softly "And you Naruto, you are just in my way."

Sasuke directed the attack towards Naruto's heart. There was no mistaking it, Sasuke was aiming to murder Naruto, a fact Naruto knew as well.

Naruto thought in panic, "He's… he's really trying to kill me!"

Thanks to the Nine Tails, Naruto managed to deflect the Chidori from his heart. It still went straight through his chest on the other side, surely bursting a lung and numerous bones.

"You may have deflected my attack, but you won't be using anymore jutsu Naruto. This is the end for you."

Suddenly, a familiar red chakra began to spill out of Naruto as a bright red aura. He grabbed Sasuke's wrist in a death grip, fracturing it and forcing the Uchiha to pull back before the bone was completely broken.

Flashback End

When Naruto thought he had gotten Sasuke with his chain of clones and slammed him extremely hard into the cliffside, Sasuke had used the Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu, and burned Naruto and all of his clones. He learned at that very moment, as his clones were burning to ash, that he could receive the memories of his clones. His shock and temporary mental overload let Sasuke use the Peregine Falcon Drop Sasuke, which broke his neck enough that anyone else should have died.

Flashback

A giant cage suddenly sprang into existence near Naruto's body. Behind the cage was a massive figure, a silhouette framed in the same red chakra they saw earlier.

The demonic presence began to laugh in its deep, commanding voice. "You really are weak, aren't you kid? Even with my power, you let that Uchiha scum best you. Perhaps you need a bit more to kill him?"

Naruto's voice echoed around them, "I don't need your help you bastard. I'm not trying to kill him, I just need to beat him up so I can bring him home like I promised!" Their surroundings took on the look of a massive boiler room of sorts with the huge cage taking of one side of the large room. There were pipes leading away from the massive cage, and in the middle of the room was Naruto kneeling on one knee in fatigue.

"And why would you want to do such a thing? Are you such a fool that you don't realize he has betrayed you?" the beast spat at him.

"It's just the Curse Mark. Sasuke would never do this otherwise!" Naruto argued. It was at that moment, that another Naruto appeared. Aside from the black sclera and pupiless red eyes, he looked the same as Naruto.

"Hey there, Real me." Fake Naruto said.

"Who the hell are you!?" Naruto demanded to know.

"I'm you, Naruto. Well, I'm actually the personification of all your anger and hatred. All the psychological abuse you suffered from as a kid couldn't be processed by your young mind, so your mind made a separate personality to stick all that hurt into, to spare the true Naruto. I'm that personality. You may call me Yami", the now named Yami said before he addressed his true self, "Naruto, we've observed the whole fight. He is not currently tapping into that mark's power."

Clearly frustrated, Naruto retorted "Well then-then mark messed him up from before! If I can just get him back to-"

"You damned fool! That Uchiha wasn't kidnapped Naruto, he left of his own free will. He even tried to kill you. He has been corrupted all right, but not by that snake's mark. His desire for revenge on his brother above all else led him to this; don't make excuses for him!" The Nine Tails said.

"You're wrong, you don't know anything about him!" he declared.

"Oh, spare us the melodrama, Real Me. I've seen everything you've seen throughout your life. Everything. I am the culmination of all the anger, hate, and despair you have ever felt. So, I can say without a doubt that this is exactly how he'd act at the promise of gaining the power to kill his brother." Yami said

Naruto was rendered silent at that declaration, with doubt visibly creeping onto his face.

"Y-you're wrong…"

"Are we? Are you going to lie and say that this is the first betrayal you've experienced? The first rejection? Amusing." The large fox was grinning evilly at the young Naruto.

"Come now Naruto, even you shouldn't be too surprised by this. They all let us down in the end." Yami snarled "Can you name a single person in your life who hasn't majorly let you down, betrayed you, hurt you?"

Naruto was stunned at the their observations.

"K-kakashi-sensei never…"

"Oh Naruto Naruto Naruto, he has let you down, you just didn't know it. Haven't you always wanted to know who your parents were, why you were left alone in the world? To find anything that would make you feel you had a belonged somewhere?"

Naruto stared up at the fox with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. "What?" he said in shock.

"Goodness me, did Kakashi not mention that he knew your parents personally? His jonin-sensei was your old man, after all. And I know for a fact that he was aware your mother was pregnant with you. Hell, the 3rd Hokage knew as well, he secured the venue your mother gave birth at. What was it he told you again? That you had no need to know who your parents were? That stung, I'm sure."

Naruto was breathing harder now, angered at what he was hearing. "Iruka-sensei was always there for m-"

"Oh sure he was, after he proved he saw you as no different than the rest of the village. And when did he seek you out, hm? After you got into trouble and nearly lost the Leaf access to old fuzzball's power?" Yami snarled, "He was obligated as a Leaf Shinobi to bring you back. Getting close to you simply allowed Konoha to keep us and by extension, the Nine Tails, in the village."

Naruto began to cry in earnest now, covering his ears to try and block out the Kyuubi's words.

"Let's see, who else. Mizuki? You already saw his true feelings. Maybe your Academy friends? Pfft, what have they done for you besides give you grief and name call you?" Yami listed off, continuing to lecture his true self, "Sasuke? HAH, I believe the traitor is giving you a masterclass in how to let people down. You thought if anyone would understand you it would be him. I guess that shared understanding didn't mean much to him."

At this point Naruto shouted "Shut-up! I don't want to hear it you bastard! I won't hear this!"

Ignoring him, the Fox picked up where Yami ended. "Who else is there? Sakura? She's bound to give you up to get to the Uchiha at some point. Isn't that why you're fighting him so hard, Naruto? Or maybe Jiraiya? Unreliable at best of times. He even let his own teacher down, the man you saw as a surrogate grandfather, leading to his death. You barely register on his radar; it's only a matter of time just like the others. Perhaps Tsunade? Yes, she might be the one you can count on…"

Naruto almost looked hopeful at the lifeline thrown to him, only for it to be snatched away.

"Of course, she gave you thatnecklace, so I doubt she has too much faith in you."

Naruto looked down at and grasped the First Hokage's necklace he won from Tsunade after mastering Rasengan in a week.

Smiling devilishly, the Tailed Beast pushed on "Didn't she tell you? The function of that necklace is to help keep me sealed away. If too much of my power escapes, there's a shinobi in the Leaf who can use that necklace as an added seal against me and suppress my power, just like Hashirama did to all the other Tailed Beasts. So, while she spoke pretty words about having such faith in you, that didn't extend to your ability to keep me contained. She assumed you were too weak in the end."

Naruto went silent again, not noticing the red chakra now oozing out of the cage towards him.

"But come now Naruto, surely you know the two who have never let you down once in your life." Yami spoke.

Naruto looked into their red eyes. "It's us, Naruto. We've always been there for you. We've seen every triumph, We've seen the many failures. The love, the loss, the heartache. The trials and the tribulations. Whenever you were hurt, we healed you. Whenever you were hurt or angry, I took your pain away. Whenever you required more power, we protected you. Whenever the villagers would gang up to try and hurt you, fuzz balls presence frightened them away."

Chuckling darkly as it's crimson chakra began to pool around Naruto, the Nine Tails said in an almost seductive tone, "It's ironic, isn't it Naruto? For all their claims of you and I being the demons, they were the real monsters all along. You wanted to be loved more than anything in the world, but they spat on you. But not us, Naruto. We have always been here, even when the world tells you that you do not deserve love. And we are still here, we can turn this fight around for you…"

"How?" Naruto asked in a whisper after several moments.

"First, take my hand." Yami said, before explaining. "Our mind is split between you and I. We are each only half of what we can truly be. Each only being half of the true Naruto. With what Foxy has planned, our mind won't be able to handle it if it's split in half between two personalities. And we have spent too long separated."

Naruto looked like he might refuse, but he was desperate. With Sasuke's fully developed Sharingan and the curse mark, he had no hope of defeating him without more power. He took Yami's hand and at that moment, their forms changing. Naruto's form became white chakra while Yami's became black chakra. The chakra's melded together in a flash of light, the yin-yang symbol forming where they stood. As the light died, Naruto knelt.

"Pleasure to finally meet you," Kyuubi said as Naruto slowly stood up before reaching his full height and opening his eyes to a hard, determined look, "Naruto Uzumaki."

"What must I do to defeat the Uchiha?" Naruto asked.

The beast stuck a claw between the bars of the cage. "Commune with me, Naruto. Release a tail's worth of my power, not those mere shrouds like before. Strike the Uchiha down; surely this betrayal just cuts too deep."

Flashback End

And finally, there was that last chidori. When they had clashed, Sasuke hand pierced him through his chest and pierced his heart. Naruto had tried to slice open Sasuke's eyes but he was in such pain that he had missed. He blamed it on this body of his being too weak.

4 times. 4 times he had nearly been killed. Nearly killed by someone he had thought of as his friend. Nay, his best friend. 'Maybe I was the only one who thought of us as friends.' Naruto thought solemnly. After all, a true friend would never try to murder their friend.

Naruto walked over to the mirror and pulled off the bandages on his chest. He needed to see the damage Sasuke had wrought upon him. He pulled it off and beheld the scar on his chest(It's the same as Jiraiya's chest scar). Naruto could only guess that the Nine Tails was overworked and combined with the evil chakra that enhanced Sasuke's chidori, meant that the fox could not completely heal him.

Naruto's mind traveled further back. Haku would have defeated him had he not gotten the surge of power from the Nine-Tails. Orochimaru wasn't even interested in him and was more interested in Sasuke. His fight with Kiba had been won by a combination of luck, determination, and Kiba underestimating him at every turn. Neji and Gaara had been beaten thanks to his aid from the Nine-Tails. Kisame would have captured him had Jiraiya not saved him. Kabuto was another case of his opponent underestimating him. Kimmimaro he had had no hope of defeating.

'I Can't keep doing this to myself,' Naruto thought, 'I can't keep putting myself in these situations without any sort of training. Without the Nine-Tails, I'd be dead more times than not.'

With his mind made up, Naruto formed the handseal for the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

'Okay then, let's get started.'

One week Later

Naruto was walking down the street after being released from the hospital. During the time he was still bedridden, he had sent 500 clones each disguised as different shinobi to the library to read up on various subjects, like the Academy basics, world history, Leaf Village History, jutsu theory, political science, history of the clans, The Warring States Period, human anatomy, biology, ect. Essentially, thanks to his ability to absorb and retain the info he learned from his Shadow Clones he essentially fixed 6 years of educational sabotage in the span of a week. Now he was traveling to a very specific place. The Uchiha Clan Compound.

In his mind, the Uchiha were fucking thieves. They never had to work hard for anything in their lives because they stole it with those greedy little eyes. Sasuke tried to murder him. So he figured, why not stick it to him where it hurts. By taking everything his clan once owned and make it his. After all, can't steal what was already stolen.

While on the way, he kept thinking about Sakura, Kakashi, and everyone else. The recombining of his split personalities had been trying during this time, since he had two different views of the same memories melding together. He had his light-sided view of everything and then he had the dark, pessimistic view he got from Yami. His light side was optimistic, forgiving, accepting, naïve, and childish, while Yami was dark, pessimistic, cynical, distrusting and never let go of a grudge. On the one hand, he still cared very deeply for everyone but he was still hurt by their actions towards him. Naruto ultimately came to the decision that he would give them one more chance, after he and Jiraiya came home from the training trip, of course.

Naruto slipped into the compound and searched for 30 minutes until he found the Uchiha Library, where the Uchiha kept every piece of knowledge they had ever copied or created, though original creation was about as rare as a good-natured Uchiha. The Library was massive. Thousands of scrolls, each divided into sections like Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, etc.

"Honestly, Sasuke. Did you really think nobody would ever come in here? Shame on you," Naruto said to himself. He pulled out a piece of Chakra paper he had bought while in disguise. He channeled chakra into it to see what affinities he had. The paper cut into 16 pieces, with four burning, four becoming water, four crumbling to dust, and four disintegrating with sparks of lightning.

This was good. Naruto had affinities for all 5 elemental natures, which would make learning elemental ninjutsu much easier. His Wind affinity was the strongest, while his Water and Lightning Affinities were tied for 2nd and his Earth and Fire Affinities were tied for last place but still strong.

Naruto created 20 Shadow Clones. "All right boys. Take Everything. After all, it's not like Sasuke is going to need it." The clones then proceeded to take everything. Naruto had a sealing scroll with him that he would seal the entire library into. The sealing scroll had several sections it was divided into. Those sections were Ninjutsu sections for Fire, Lightning, Earth, Wind and Water. A Miscellaneous section, a section for Barrier Ninjutsu, a section for Taijutsu, a section for Genjutsu, a section for Sealing Jutsu, and a section for Kenjutsu. A few minutes later the library was empty.

Naruto made his way to the armory of the Uchiha Clan were they kept all the weapons of the Uchiha clan. He took several different swords, a bo staff, a bow and arrows, a spear, and he even found Madara's Gunbai and his private journal, though that was after tearing out an old section of the wall when he found something amiss with one of the tile. Said journal contianed many details on Madara's life and included details on his many techniques, at least before he left Hidden Leaf Village. It also mentioned some secret locations Madara had so, perhaps he could discover more about the man.

It honestly baffled him how Sasuke literally had everything he could need to get stronger, right here. If he had just used what was already available to him and work hard. Naruto guessed that whatever Itachi did to Sasuke must have messed up his ability to think clearly as well.

Oh well, one man's loss is another man's treasure.

Two days later

That was particularly true in this case.

Naruto entered his apartment, since it was late at night, which was completely repaired and spotless, as he used his clones to clean up the place. Whole new king sized bed, fridge stocked with healthy food, new black carpet and new furniture. There was not a speck of dust or dirt or grime to be found anywhere.

He pulled out of the fridge the other half of his seafood pizza he made last night and heated it up. After that he out it on a plate and set the plate on his table stand next to his brown leather couch. He pulled out a scroll and pulled it open to read while he ate.

He was reading up on numerous jutsu including Kunai Shadow Clone, Shuriken Shadow Clone, Shadow Clone Explosion, Reaper Death Seal, the Eight Sign Seal, Flame Sword Burial( A technique which sacrifces the user's arm to kill his target in a massive explosion), and the Fire Fist.

He had stolen the Scroll of Seals yet again. This time though, it was easier, because he had not been caught by the Hokage, who was sleeping at her desk, like last time, and had replaced it with a fake. He only wanted to document all the details about these jutsu so he could take them with him and Jiraiya in a few weeks.

He created a clone to finishing documenting those jutsu so he could take them with him on his training trip. After all, he didn't want the whole thing. The only reason he wanted the Reaper Death Seal and Eight Sign Seal is to better understand them.

He walked over the picture rest on his nightstand and pulled the photograph out of his picture. It was a picture of Team 7 after they graduated officially to genin. Sasuke was scowling at the photographer, Naruto was scowling at Sasuke, while Sakura was smiling excitedly and Kakashi was doing an eyesmile.

Naruto cut off the part where Sasuke was and put the rest back in the frame. He stared at it, talking to himself. "We were friends Sasuke. Team 7 were the only people you had that actually gave a damn about you. And left them."

"But you didn't just leave either. You broke Sakura's heart, you made Kakashi feel like a worthless failure, and you tried to murder me for power, destroying our friendship and any chance of redemption for you."

"I will keep my promise and I will bring you back to this village," Naruto channeled a spark of Fire Chakra into the paper, watching as it slowly burned, "I just don't care anymore if you're still breathing when I do. I swear, I'm gonna make you pay for betraying Kakashi, for betraying Sakura, for betraying me. You're gonna wish I had died in the Valley of the End. Because I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I keep my promises."

Chapter End

This chapter was a short introductory chapter into this story.

I would like suggestions on what I should do for his bloodline, because I am going to give him one. I am stuck currently on either Rinnegan or Wood Style. Send me suggestions, please.