A loud cheer sound from the gathered residents of the Land of Snow.
"CHARGE!" Shouts Sandayu as he begins to sprint down the snowy hill at the train. "FOR KOYUKI!"
"FOR KOYUKI!" The men answer his charge with one of their own.
"They're going to die." Tsunade's voice regretfully points out the obvious. "None of them can stand up to shinobi. Naruto is too far away to make a difference. Only you can save them."
"There's no need to save them." Orochimaru apathetically says. "They are worthless to you."
"I'm sorry Doto-sama, I thought we already suppressed all traces of a rebel faction." Nadare turns to Doto. "Shall I fix that?"
"No." Doto denies, he has something different in mind. "These kind of people only respond to one thing. A show of absolute force."
The sides of the train cars all open up to reveal a machine of sorts. I have no idea what it's made to do exactly but I can promise one thing, it's made to kill.
"What will you do?" Tsunade asks me. "Will you save them like the good person you truly are?"
"Or will you hide behind your mask of a monster and let them die like I would?" Orochimaru asks.
What will I do? Will I throw myself in harm's way to save the lives of fifty people or will I watch and do nothing? Will I step up or will I step aside?
"Orochimaru has sunk his fangs deep into you, hasn't he?" Anko says in disgust. "I remember you, before you left. You wouldn't idly stand by as others suffered."
"READY!" A strong voice shouts over the loudspeaker.
"She's right." Kakashi agrees with Anko. "Remember our first C-rank? I was set on returning to the village because we were lied to about what the mission entitled. But one of my genin, moments after taking a life for his first time, stood up and looked me straight in my eye and said 'we can't let a whole country die.' What happened to that shinobi? Where is he now that another country is in need?"
"AIM!" The strong voice says again.
"You used to call him sensei." Naruto alludes to Kakashi. "You used to call us allies. We fought together, we saved Konoha from being trampled by a jinchuriki. You used you own body as a shield for me and because of that you lost your original heart. Alvarcus I thought you died to protect me. Only one other person has ever shown me that kindness. Someone as good as that, someone willing to do anything to protect his friends, is who you are."
"FIRE!" The strong voice shouts for the last time as countless kunai launch out of the many holes on each train car. The charging men have no chance to stand up to that. If no one does something they'll die in the next three seconds.
"You're not him." Naruto viciously says. "You're not someone who stands by when he can make a difference. You're not this uncaring and disconnected person."
I suddenly appear between the charging men and the wall of cold steel with determination set on my face.
"I will not allow these people to die!" I fly through hand signs faster than I ever have before, so fast that only someone with a Sharingan could have a hope of seeing what signs I used. "BURDEN OF ATLAS!"
The wind bends to my iron will, it feels like the sky itself is falling down upon me. The snow blasts away from me and the ground cracks under the sudden all powerful force. The charging men are violently forced to the ground or thrown back the way they came. But most importantly, the entire wall of kunai that was launched out of the train is forced to the cold ground. Countless kunai are launched from the train and every single one of them are blown downwards the instant they come in range of my jutsu.
Yet my knees do not bend despite the intense pressure I'm subjecting myself to. I do not have the luxury of buckling like the rest of the civilians behind me because the moment I fold is the moment they all die.
So I will not fold. I will endure despite the humongous drain on my chakra. I will endure because I have had enough of not caring. I will endure because I refuse to be this apathetic monster that I've slowly turned into.
"NO MORE!" I roar over the buffeting winds of my jutsu. "No longer will I do nothing when someone is in need! No longer will I stand aside when someone needs my help! No longer will I be like Orochimaru! No longer will I be a monster!"
The sheer size of wind slamming down from the Heavens is staggering, the wall of kunai stretches thirty meters wide. My jutsu stretches forty.
"So send your kunai at me!" I roar at the train as a whole. "Send your shinobi at me! Send everything you have, spare nothing in your all out assault against me! You will not be the one to defeat me! I will not allow myself to be defeated by this! I will not yield! I will not stop fighting until my final breath is taken! I will go on until the end!"
"Interesting." Doto assess me, the one thing stopping him from slaughtering all of the people at my back. "I accept your challenge. Do not stop firing."
The train and I wage our war of endless metal against limitless wind for five grueling minutes.
Then I am awarded with the sounds of the machine clinking. They're run out of kunai, they launched them all at me and I stopped every single one of them.
"Ha!" I collapse down to my knees and heave out huge labored breaths. "Told you I'd win."
"Consider me impressed." Doto claps at my display of my strength. "The sheer amount of chakra at your command is staggering, to keep that large of a jutsu going for five minutes is commendable. But now you've exhausted yourself. You can barely move. You're wide open."
Doto rears back his own arm and throws a singular kunai at me. It's heading straight for my heart. I'm too exhausted to move, I threw everything I had into that jutsu and I was already down a heart to begin with. Looks like I'm going to be down two for a bit.
CLANG
"Kakashi-sensei?" I look up at his back. He's standing protectively before me and blocked the kunai that I couldn't dodge.
"You will not harm my favorite student." Even though Kakashi's back is to me I can feel the pride radiating off of him. "Well done Alvarcus. Rest for now, we'll take it from here."
A lone kunai flies through the air, but this one didn't come from the train. It came from behind me. It flies straight and true to embed itself into the very last train car and the slip of paper that's been tied to it ignites.
With a loud ground shaking explosion the car is destroyed. Someone blew it up. Using every ounce of willpower I have at the moment I turn my head to look at where the kunai came from.
"Shikamaru?" He's the one who threw it.
"You and I are not okay yet." He growls at me. "This one act of kindness does not clear you of what you've done. You've got some serious explaining to do before you earn my forgiveness."
"We're at a disadvantage." Doto decides. "We shall withdraw for now. Move the train." As if it's by his will alone, the train starts to move forwards.
BOOM
An explosion from high up on a cliffside knocks free tonnes of snow. All of it gathers momentum from the free fall and slams into the side of the train.
"Ino?" She set off that tag.
"You owe me an apology!" She shouts at me. "And my clothes!"
But Ino's tonnes of snow isn't enough to stop the train, after all it was built with these very conditions in mind. It powers through, chugging along the tracks to a bridge. The small avalanche only slowed it down.
BOOM
Another explosion goes off, this one is on a key support strut to the bridge that the train has only halfway crossed. As the bridge crumbles down the deep ravine it drags the train with it, but someone on the train was expecting something like this to happen. The half that has already made it across decouples from the rear train cars. Those rear train cars fall down to their doom.
"Anko?" Are they all here? Did they all come to help me?
"You… I don't actually have anything." I'm surprisingly not surprised. "Damn. I could have sworn I had something for this. Just don't pull any shit like that again and we'll be cool."
"Alvarcus!" An orange blur tackles me to the ground in a bear hug. "You're back!"
"OOF!" The air in my lungs forcibly leaves. "Naruto you're so lucky I can't move that well right now. I would have dodged that. Let's not make this a thing, I'm not really a touchy feely kind of a person."
"Shut up and let me hug my friend." He orders and I let him continue to squeeze the life out of me. "Who was it?"
"I'm sorry?" I ask him as he finally releases me and pulls me to my feet. "Who was what?"
"The person who pulled you from your darkness?" He eagerly asks me. "Who was it? Oh please say it was me!"
"Sorry Naruto, it wasn't you." I chuckle at his antics.
"Aw damn! That means it was Ino!" Naruto wilts dejectedly. "It's always her dammit!"
"It wasn't her either." I turn my eyes to a new figure that joins us. It's taller than everyone else here and is wearing a white cloak. Its face is covered by an equally white mask. "It was the Jiongu."
The water minion stops its walk towards me and tilts its head in question.
"That was you right?" I plead with the minion. "Please say that was you. I'm not actually schizophrenic right? Oh fuck fuck fuck say that was you!"
A pleasant shiver courses through my body.
~I suppose that using Tsunade and Orochimaru's voices to whisper into your mind was a bit extreme. But someone had to do something and like you've said before, I am the only one who truly understands you. No one else could fully comprehend what you needed to hear. So it fell to me to show you that you've slowly become the thing you hate and bring you out of your funk.~
My water minion discards the cloak and merges with me once more.
"Thank every deity in existence." My shoulders slump in relief. "I thought it was you after a while. Only you can talk in my head like that. That's a huge relief. Seriously I thought I really was insane for a moment there. Who the hell hears voices in their head like that?"
Everyone is looking at me in confusion. They have no idea what I'm talking about or they're just worried that the person saying their not insane is talking with himself. Because that is the epitome of sanity.
"Can we just go inside now?" I groan as I dejectedly hang my head. "And yes I know how bad that just looked."
Inside one of the Trucks
Every shinobi is present. They're all arranged in a semicircle around me, on the left most is Naruto. The only thing restraining him from pestering me about anything and everything is everyone else's less than pleasant mood.
Next in line is Shikamaru. He's wearing a disapproving frown and is blatantly cleaning a kunai. The kunai was clean when he pulled it out of his pouch, he wanted an excuse to hold a weapon while in my presence. I don't blame him.
In the middle of the semicircle is Kakashi and he seems happy yet also extremely nervous. I think he's glad that I've declared everything I did but he's worried how everyone else will respond to me. Since I did recently - just today in fact - threaten to slaughter the entire movie crew. So yeah, he's nervous for a good reason.
On Kakashi's right side is Ino. And she's pissed. That's going to be a joy to deal with, I guarantee she will have some very nasty things to say to me. That's fine, I deserve all of it.
Then on the far right is Anko. She seems surprisingly okay with everything that went down, maybe because of her own experiences? Konoha welcomed her back after she spent years with Orochimaru. I haven't been gone anywhere near that long so she might see this as less severe.
"So I have some explaining to do." I break the tense atmosphere.
"No shit." Shikamaru aggressively cuts in. "The hell is wrong with you?"
"A lot of stuff." I easily admit. "So many things that you would be hard pressed to write it all down. I don't know where to start really."
"Why you left Konoha." Ino scathingly provides a suggestion. "Start from the beginning."
"We're going to be here for a while." I sigh as I lean back into my chair. "So. Why did I leave Konoha? You all want to know that?"
I get an unanimous nod from everyone.
"Because Sasuke asked me to." I offer up an innocent shrug as three out of five jaws drop. Pity, if Kakashi and Ino didn't already know I bet I could have gotten all of them. "He came to my house in the middle of the night and said he's leaving. I couldn't let him go to Orochimaru alone, ironically out of fear he would become twisted into something dark."
"You left Konoha." Anko slowly says to make sure I understand exactly what she's saying. "You went to Orochimaru. You cut ties to everyone for Sasuke?"
"Yep!" I cheerfully smile at the still flabbergasted jonin. "Well he wasn't the only reason just the biggest one. Sasuke will become a very strong person, one that even Kages will learn to respect. I can't let him fall into evil, his entire life has been one big shitshow. Orochimaru would have easily tainted him so I decided to watch over him and keep him from being corrupted by Orochimaru. It worked, just not how I expected. Sasuke, while he's still rough around the edges, is inherently a good person. Orochimaru didn't work on corrupting him at all because Orochimaru had someone else that he wanted to corrupt more. Me. My presence pulled Orochimaru's attention off of Sasuke and onto me simply because Orochimaru wants me more."
"But doesn't Orochimaru desperately want a Sharingan?" Anko asks. "He became obsessed with it at the end of our... relationship."
"True, Orochimaru does desperately want a Sharingan." It's one hundred percent accurate. "But he wants something else more. He wants someone who will never betray him, someone who will stand as his equal, someone that is just as enthusiastic about his projects as Orochimaru is. He thinks he found that in me. Plus there's his whole child complex he has with me, that's not fucked up at all."
I'm not going to add that he wants that person to also be 'immortal.' He doesn't want to waste all of that effort for someone who will perish.
"You're a fucking asshole." Shikamaru growls out. "You never abandoned Konoha you left to protect Sasuke. Then why the fuck did you hurt everyone at the Chunin Exams?"
"Orochimaru thinks I am loyal only to him. How the hell was I supposed to react? Pull out a picnic basket and have happy conversations with everyone? No, I had to put everyone down. Violently. Even then I'm pretty sure he expected me to kill everyone. I've kinda established that reputation throughout Oto."
"Fine." Shikamaru snarls out. "Say I accept that as valid reasoning. Then why the hell are you so uncaring and violent!? How are you okay with threatening to slaughter people?! What happened to you since you've been gone to change you that much?"
"A long list of things that I'd prefer to not share." I admit with a great amount of shame. "Shikamaru, when I called myself a monster it's not because I barely resemble a human when you cut me open and look inside. It was because of the things I've done."
"You don't get to have the luxury of not sharing. Tell us exactly what you've done." Shikamaru demands with his full authority.
"Shikamaru." Naruto softly says to the shadow user. "Let this one go. You want him to relive all the horrors he's been through? If you ever valued your friendship with him please let this one go."
Naruto shoots me a pitiful look out of the corner of his eye as he addresses Shikamaru. He got just a taste of what I've done when we met down in the cargo hold.
"Fine." Shikamaru grunts out then falls silent.
"So now that you're back does this mean you're back back?" Naruto eagerly asks with hope etched onto his entire body. "Oh! I bet I can convince Jiraiya to take you with us! It worked once so why not again? It'll be so much fun!"
"Naruto I'm not going back to Konoha." I bluntly tell him and everyone present refocuses their attention on me. "Sasuke is still with Orochimaru. I'm not going to leave him there alone."
"You're talking like you have a choice." Shikamaru cuts in again. "News flash: You're an A-rank bounty. We're duty bound to bring you or your head in. Do you really think you can stand up to all five of us at once?"
"I bet I could take on four of you at once. Kakashi though, he's a whole different story." I look at my quiet sensei. "I don't think I can best him. Not yet at least. But I won't go quietly, I'll make you work your ass off to capture me."
"Hm. Work. No thanks." Kakashi easily denies. "I'd much rather spend that time reading. Or just not working, I'm not picky. This was supposed to be an easy mission for me too."
"Yeah." Anko cuts in with a cheeky grin. "I think I'm busy that day. My schedule is packed full I can't fit in taking down an A-ranked bounty anywhere."
"Well… I suppose he's got a point." Naruto admits. "Sasuke does need him. Can't help him if he's in jail."
"I will not try to force him back." Ino angrily growls out. Oh boy. I can't wait until she explodes on me. It's going to be legendary. "And you have no chance against him on your own so it's best to just let him go."
"You're all too soft." Shikamaru sighs in defeat. "Seriously, just because he's our friend doesn't mean we should bend the rules all the time for him. I'll let it happen just this once. Next time you're coming back."
"If you can defeat me I'll gladly go back." I promise Shikamaru. It's the exact same thing I've promised every other friend back in Konoha.
"So I'm going to ask the question that we should have asked when we first saw you." Anko speaks up. "Why the hell are you even here?"
"Yeah that's a good question. Why are you here?" Naruto asks too.
"Oh." Huh, that has never come up before. "Simple, I'm here to get a specific metal. Doto has some of it in his Chakra Armor so if you all could avoid destroying it that would be fantastic. There's probably more somewhere I just don't know where at."
"Then he's yours to deal with." Shikamaru barters. "If you want his armor you get to beat him."
"Sure." I easily agree. I did plan on dealing with him before but now it's official. He's my problem. "I've even got a few ideas on how to work around the chakra armor absorbing ninjutsu. It's going to be hilarious if it works."
"I'll be sure to watch then." Kakashi says. "Now I believe it's best that we go explain what's going on to everyone else."
"Yeah." Shikamaru rises with Kakashi. "Great. I can't wait until the Director demands that I be in his movie."
"I wanna be in the movie!" Naruto chases after the other two shinobi. "Wait! Lemme be in the movie!"
It's just Anko, Ino and I left in the room.
"Soooo… you two going to be okay in here if I leave too?" Anko asks as she shoots the both of us a very peculiar glance. It's nervous yet excited at the same time. I have no idea where the hell either of those came from.
"Oh yes." Ino doesn't spare Anko a glance. "We're going to be just perfect."
Great. I wanted to put this asschewing off until later. Too bad Ino wants to do it now.
"Uh… yeah?" I squeak out.
"Cool. I'm gonna go now. Have fun kids." Anko leaves the room too.
Now it's just Ino and I.
"Ino I'm sorry-"
SLAP
"I deserve that." I admit as my face stings. "I've been a massive ass and I'm sorry-"
"Shut up!" She demands then does something I don't expect.
She pulls me into a hug. A warm and tender hug.
"Just shut up." She says much softer this time. "Don't ever do that again."
"Which part? The whole asshole part or the saving people thing? Cuz I'd like to keep saving people."
"You ass." She laughs softly. "You know exactly what I meant. Quit trying to push everyone away. Quit trying to do everything alone. Let people in again, let them help you."
"I will." I assure her as I finally return her hug. "Thank you Ino."
"For what?" She asks. "Slapping you? Because I'm willing to do that again. It felt great. Amazing even."
"For not making me tell them about the spying. Or the plotting against Orochimaru. Or the War."
"They've had enough excitement for one day." Ino says as she buries her face into my shoulder. "Hell I've had enough excitement for the whole month and the mission isn't even over yet."
"Sorry? That's kinda my fault." I awkwardly admit. Hey it's tough to own up to all the shit I did.
"Yes." Ino instantly agrees. "Yes it is. It's completely your fault."
"I did warn everyone that I don't have normal missions. Everything goes wrong around me."
"You were so right." Ino laughs to herself again. "Seriously why the hell does nothing ever go smoothly for you?"
"I ask myself that question every day." Hold on a moment. She's cursing. Ino doesn't curse. "Well would you look at that. Anko must be a bad influence on you. First ass, then hell, and hell again. Ino you potty mouth!"
"You have no right to talk about me cursing." Ino says with an accusatory tone. "I've never heard anyone else come close to the things you say."
"Yeah I curse a fucking lot. Exhibit A, right there. Haha that was a good one! Wow I need to get out more."
"Yeah you really do."
"Uh… Ino?"
"Yes?"
"Is there a reason you're feeling up my back?" She's been running her hands up and down it for a while now.
"It's just so strange." She says distractedly. "Do you have any idea how weird it is to hug someone with five masks on their back? There's no good spot for me to put my arms."
"Well aren't you feeling confident. You have the balls to slap me then feel up my back within the same ten minutes?"
"Shut up or I slap you again." She threatens. "Seriously though aren't they extremely uncomfortable? Even sitting down in a chair they have to get in the way, not to mention laying down on your back."
"Eh you get used to it." I nonchalantly say. "So… just out of curiosity just how long are you going to keep hugging me? Not that it isn't nice but you don't want to send the wrong message."
"EEP!" Ino breaks the hug and quickly steps away with a blush of embarrassment on her cheeks. "I'mGoingToGoNowBye!"
With those inspiring parting words Ino flees from room.
"Fucking dammit!" I faintly hear on the wind, it sound suspiciously like Anko.
"Well. That wasn't strange at all." I shrug to myself and make my way out of the room too.
Later
I've wandered off on my own for a bit under the disguise of scouting for threats. I've move way ahead of the trucks to survey the terrain and what not but in reality I wanted to be alone for a bit. Or in my case just me and the Jiongu.
I need to have a conversation with it and I don't want to be overheard or seen as crazy. Again. Cuz I've definitely not done that recently.
"Hey Jiongu?"
~Yes Host?~
"Thanks. For everything."
~You don't need to thank me. You are my Host and I am your Parasite. One can no longer exist without the other so we protect each other. From all sources, pain, violence, and even yourself.~
"Still it has to be said. Thank you Jiongu."
~Sureddo.~
"I'm sorry?"
~Names are not something that someone decides for themselves, they are given. Before we left on this trip you referred to yourself as Sureddo be cause it was 'your thing.' But that thing you got the name from was me, hence you called me Sureddo. You've named me. So that is what I've decided upon. My name is Sureddo.~
"It's nice to meet you Sureddo." I affectionately say to my friend.
~It's nice to meet you Alvarcus.~
That's the first time that it has called me by my name.