15Konoha Underground
Inspirational: Dark Hero
M for Mature, just in case…
Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and not me. If you think I do own it, then get a reality check. I am just playing for a while.
Konoha Underground is just a bunch of one-shots, drabbles, or scene ideas that I have cranked out, but know I am not going to finish.
Pairings: There is no one pairing, but the likelihood for Naruto/Hinata is very high.
Characters: I am fond of Naruto, Hinata, Sandaime, Ayame, and Tsunade. Just about anyone else may be edited, changed, overly OOC, and bashed. Of course, this is me so the likelihood of OOC of any and all characters is a definite.
Recommended story of this chapter:
The Wrath of a Woman Scorned
By: EDelta88
Summary: A Hidden Village is not a safe place for a little girl if nobody comes when she screams, one night the village goes too far and now Konoha shall reap what it has sown. Dark!Fem!Naru Pairings: Decided but secret
The Dark Hero
A dark Naruto that does not know love or trust.
Inspired by one of EDelta88's forum inspirationals…
No one would ever mention aloud the irony of Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uchiha Sasuke being on the same team. It was a harsh and dark mirror, a twisted incarnation of twenty something years before when Namikaze Minato, Hyuuga Hiashi, and Uchiha Fugaku were on a Gennin team under the Toad Sannin, Jiraiya. But then, Sasuke was the last Uchiha in the village and Hinata was nothing but useless to her father. And Naruto... well... no one would admit as to whose blood ran in his veins. Six scars on an unmarked yet ravaged body meant more than honoring the dead.
The night was cool and the streets of Konohagakure no Sato was as empty as any other night. Near the slums to the South-East of the Village Hidden in the Leaves a lone figure slid through the normal back alleys of the civilian paths, ignoring the ninja highway on the upper levels of the buildings due to the visibility of those unmarked pathways. There was no other man or woman outside near the lone figure and the houses were closed up for the night even in the poorer sections of the town.
A sandaled pair of feet moved without a sound through the thickening darkness, trailing through a dark puddle as if it were not there, solid as the flawless cement. Night was settling in like a bag of dark sludge being wrapped around the head of a tied-down captive. It tightened ever so slowly and the knots that were creaking could be heard in the calls of a night when the buildings were struck by fierce winds that swung open against locks by a fierce, oncoming storm.
One of the sidewalk lights that littered the area threw a weak beam at the moving figure. Even through the winds that were grabbing up litter in the streets like spare change did not cross this particular street light. The dim color hit a face that was bound to be nicely chiseled with a firm chin and almond eyes, if he got some proper nutrients into him.
Bold blonde hair edging on to the color yellow or cleaned gold ingots spiked up in messy fuzz. It had likely not been combed overly much and the air from moving rapidly had long since mussed it up further. As he passed further into the light, it became apparent that his identity was that of a well-known and hated figure within the ninja village of Fire Country. Uzumaki Naruto was young but his steps were firm and quiet. The vibrating world around him moved fitfully but did little to affect him. As he walked, his feet made not a sound as he graced the light momentarily like a ghost by the houses and apartment buildings in the area.
Then the boy was gone from the light, as if he was never noticed or paid any special attention by the solid objects, natural forces, or ninja in the village alike. There was no one around the slums where he lived to see him anyway. It was late and the night was empty save for those who drank the dark like poppies to sunlight. After all, there were buds and jasmine that bloomed under a glowing, yellow moon.
Behind the figure that had since disappeared trailed a thin layer of blood before stopping as he scuffed his shoed foot against a dirty door mat. Afterwards, there was no trace of him.
The storm bothered him little. After he disappeared from the one lamp in the slum of SE Konoha, the winds died down and the night was again still.
He stepped without a sound through the opening dawn morning. Dew that had collected on the walls and plants the night before gathered heavily against dirty windows just beginning to shine in the light. The daylight began its warming decent to the ground. A large bowl of fresh dango from a street stall was handed over without a word and he set the perfect amount of credits on the metal table like offerings to Kami and Yami. The cook behind the counter did his best not to whimper at the presence of the hated boy-thing, but knew better than to refuse him. It had been many years since any store had refused him anything. Between the two, no word was said and there was no actual contact. Uzumaki Naruto was not what one would call a regular but he had only gotten one order from the small stall since it had opened, and he was memorable.
He munched on the small meal as the sun inched above the far horizon that sparkled behind one particularly tall cropping of trees in the distance. The dango was acceptable, but mostly it was one of the few cheap and open eateries between the slums where his apartment was located and the Ninja Academy that he was traveling to.
Room 17 of the Ninja Academy dawned bright and early with a grouping of various newly tested Gennin.
Inuzuka Kiba flipped a flat coin in his hand as his companion animal watched from the cuddled space of his lap. Near him, the Nara heir leaned heavily against the top of his desk, softly snoring as if this was any other day. But then, he was always like that. Beside him, a large boy, and Akimichi, munched away on a family sized bag of potato chips as if they were only a handful. Every few moments there was a familiar sound of the bag being touched and moved, and a handful of potato chips being eaten comfortably. That first corner in the room was relatively quiet compared to the rest.
In contrast, the middle section of the classroom was somewhat loud. Sasuke sat with his head down and his hands over his ears doing his best to keep out the high pitch voices of the two girls- thankfully the only two of his fan girls that had passed the tests the day before. In a way, he was thankful. For one, it lessened the chances of him having to be on a team with some of the really perverted girls that were obsessed with him. On the other hand, he had a higher likelihood on being on a team with either of the two most loud and shrieking of them all.
He gave a sigh of annoyance as Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura screeched above him like banshees over something as stupid as who got the single seat next to him. Occasionally he was tempted to sit in the middle of the aisle instead of on the walkthrough, but had shivered so hard he had coughed at the thought of being surrounded by pre-Kunoichi with perverted thoughts about him on all sides. Some of them he knew were really clingy that taking a kunai to arms just had them convinced that self-harm was a turn-on.
It really, really wasn't.
It was times like those that had him wondering why he did not just ask Itachi nicely to put him out of his misery when he could have those few years ago.
On the far side of the room, Aburame Shino sat tall and almost lonely in his large coat. The buzzing of his insects was audible to his neighbors but most had learned to turn out that particular level of creepiness. Near him was Hyuuga Hinata with her dark hair pulled up in a tight pony-tail that was pulled like a fan to cascade down the sides of her face. Her bangs were cropped short and straight to hang over her forehead. It was only the light purple of her usual outfit that told the world that under the Hyuuga-dark hair she was a bluenette.
Hinata was staring out into the space of the front room like a statue with her pupiless, pale eyes. She was a quiet person, but whether it was a natural characteristic of the unusual Hyuuga girl or if it was an effect of the abuse her Clan Head of a father had heaped upon her since her mother died, as well as Hizashi, it was never quite clear.
Unlike the rest of the others in the class, however, Hinata was different in that she was not waiting for class to begin by sitting idly. No, she was watching the classrooms nearby and retracing walking patterns. She was waiting for someone. She was waiting for Him.
Her face gained a pink hue as if holding back a blush. Anyone that was paying attention would have noted the frequency of this because exactly three minutes later a golden-haired boy walked into the class at a comfortable pace of a daily stroll. There was a lull in the general classroom buzz as everyone turned to him in an unconscious acknowledgement before going back to their own actions as if it had never happened. Still, there was a vibrating current in the area now that every aspiring ninja could notice.
Uzumaki Naruto walked slowly to the far side of the room with his blue eyes near to closing. His black jacket and pants had a hint of dark orange subtleties like the usual Jounin swirls as well as a single patch of the same print in white. Many had wondered as to what the extra swirl was for but few took the time to think about it overly much. The basic swirling pattern could be found on any Jounin jacket, and while it was harder to find alternately, it was not completely unheard of. Anyone who cared to look would find the swirl on every outfit the young ninja owned, but not many paid it any attention.
Most adults hated him, his classmates knew, but for what reason it could not be said. Because at the same time, most feared him, and it made Uchiha Sasuke more worried than jealous because, those who saw him knew, that Naruto was a strange creature of both strength and mystique and if Jounin and grown ninja feared him, then what could they do about it?
Exactly.
At the same time though, the other rookies had gotten used to him, sort of expected him to show up with his presence occasionally in a live-and-let-live way that their older peers and parents had not adopted.
Pity for the stupid because mercy was not something Naruto dabbled in.
None of them really stopped to sit by him or talk with him specifically. He had no one that was more than a passing acquaintance. But at the same time… Uzumaki Naruto was the rookies version of an adopted madman. Well, to everyone but one person.
The mysterious boy moved to sit in the far row where Hinata was doing her best but failing not to look at him. I thank Kami for the Byakugan, Hinata thought to herself. She did not need to face him to see every inch of him from his blonde hair to his impressive physique to his- Kami, her face went red like one of Sasuke's favored tomatoes and she began to grow faint. But then, the class in particular had grown to expect that as well.
Naruto gave a sigh as the girl calmed herself down and looked up at him, watching as he moved to sit. He did not work to sit near her, but it was well-known where he would sit. The Ninja Academy did not have assigned seating but it was a natural psychological thing for humans and animals like them to put claim on things for an idea of normality. She was such a strange girl, always looking at him with those beaten doe eyes. And yet he never really tossed her aside.
He did not like her, or trust her. He did not consider her a friend. Truthfully, he just did not see the point. In the words of the only true naturally-born genius in the class, it would be too troublesome to toss her to the side. Some day, she might come in handy.
Hinata did not particularly bother him or cause him stress. There was just no reason why he should expand the energy to bat her away when she meant no harm in it.
Silently, he rushed through a bank of the damp, swampy area and headed for his female teammate. He could track the others by tracks in the mud or against the trunks of the trees where feet occasionally made a dent, but he did not. Naruto followed the scent of his female teammate, and the fluctuating chakra of a fight nearby. The hairs on his ears twitched as he flickered from tree stump to tree stump, never quite touching the alligator-infested waters below.
Although, even if he had, no animal would have tried to touch him. Maybe it was his confidence, maybe it was his skill, but there was just something about him that spoke of an aura of 'touch me and die.' Nothing truly animal-minded would ignore that unless they were starving or rabid.
Humans did not count. Humans were stupid. Humans had learned to ignore their baser instincts in a genius move that would likely kill them all off, eventually.
Quickly, he dodged a kunai and two senbon thrown in close quarters before the air around him moved like a second, or dozen, set of hands. They crushed an oncoming chain weapon like a ball of common mud. A ninja dressed in dark clothing from head to toe jumped out of the brush [and out of a genjutsu the ninja was hiding beneath] and prepared to take a deadly strike before the 34 inch hardwood bokken gave a harsh snap as it hit the shield of forced air that Naruto ejected away from himself.
Naruto's momentary opponent gave out a harsh breath and winced against the force of it. His fists still grasped around the bokken handle hit the air shield as well and was followed by the rest of the body. It was likely the harmed person was a young man slightly older than himself but Naruto felt nothing for the being but annoyance at holding him up, if only for a moment.
But experience told him that mere moments could be a week in battle time.
As the black clothed ninja ricochet off of the air shield along with his broken weapon, Naruto sent off a series of a dozen kunai and senbon created only out of air that cut through the body, killing the other almost instantly before he hit the ground to fall beneath the murky water. Uzumaki Naruto had hardly looked at his dead opponent, and has never stopped moving through an invisible path of the rough branches.
But he did not care that another had died-all ninja died and if he was a cause of a few deaths, it was nothing but others dismissing the danger they could sense. The Leaf ninja was heading forward by the time his weapons [created from his best and favored element] disintegrated back into transparent air. He was over a mile away by the time he began to register the sound of fighting. His pace increased to almost the speed of sound. Naruto found he was just in time to save his teammates in the act of defeating the enemy.
In an area rich of folding stumps, the Uchiha lay wounded on the ground. A red stream was beginning to flow from a spot on his chest. A rib had broken against skin, apparently. Naruto gave a look around the small wooded area. It took him less than a second to make a thorough detail of what had most likely occurred, something every survivor did or died without. One surprisingly ugly ninja wearing a headband marked with the crossed out musical note of Orochimaru's village above a single bloodshot eye had been standing over the Uchiha about to make a strike that would have possibly killed the ninja beloved by the Leaf when the female of Team 7 had shot out to kick the sword away.
She had been met with a sold kick to the belly but had saved her teammate for a brief moment. Fortunately for Team 7's survival, it had been just enough to save them. Naruto took a deep breath without looking away before activating one of the abilities of his air shield. Tiny fissures opened in his shield from every side, running through him and disappearing as if going into a sealed world beyond the normal world of the Elemental Nations. Each tube was curled and laced with chakra before he, for lack of a better word, pulled.
The air around him in a thirty foot diameter became very solid and the enemy Nin were frozen as if in time or concealed within translucent Jell-O. None of the eight trained people in the area could move or even breathe.
Although it only lasted about fifteen seconds, those moments were not empty. Hinata was pulled backwards, further away from the frontal enemy. In her path lay a vacant and still area, a vacuum in space. Her lungs tried to breathe in but it was as if the thickened air was no longer air. In contrast, Sasuke was not moved but a thin space of air directly above him thickened into a waxy consistency as if a gaseous substance danced above him, as if his soul had climbed out in the action and was fighting to get away. The Uchiha's body twitched as his lungs fought for air it could not get and it was likely if he did not get oxygen soon he might undergo a seizure that would negatively affect him further do to his smashed ribcage.
Veins popped out from the easygoing contours along Naruto's face and hands as he held the solid stage for more than a second of controlled time where people were within it that he did not intend to harm.
A section farthest from the air shield conductor began to falter and one of the enemy nin was killed immediately as some of the air fell down with the force of gravity and crushed the body like a grape, sinking it down into a completely flat construct equal only to the mass equal to the original shape.
In contrast, Naruto was not having as much trouble controlling another area far against the edge of his acquired space. One of the enemy in the back tried to conjure lightning in his gloves but it fizzled around him as if he was rubbed against a balloon to create simple static. When that one nin attempted to do the same thing again it backfired and instantly fried his hands that were doing the conducting. This one did not die but the man's own actions had put him out of action.
Veins had traveled down Naruto's body and had made themselves reach to his arms and even his hands had begun to bulge with overworked tubes. His chakra was massive so he was having no trouble with the amount, but the structures he was sending messages with, like synapses sending to the brain, were wearing down.
It only took a single thought to end it, but the air did no simply cease to exist or snap out of solidity. It seems to flow back towards Naruto as he breathed in sharply. He took all of the little air pockets he had created and all of the tubes he had used to pass on information like a secondary nervous system and pulled them in as if clenching a fist. However, everything has to go somewhere. Unlike the ninja with the bokken he had killed on the run, Uzumaki used his fists to direct a series of tiny senbon needle shapes towards restricted nin on the leader's left. One string of chakra the jinchuuriki waved over like a monkey's tail towards the other living enemy nin. It roped around the chest of the shortest of the lot and squeezed, downing the last of the group.
The rest of the stretched air Naruto directed seemed to coalesce en masse behind him, which would have frightened any person who had ever been willing to physically follow him because it decimated some and disintegrated other pieces of the wood and ground behind him in a clear five foot area. The rounded crater behind him steamed and the edges kept the thin layer of water from tumbling into it.
The missing ninja that had been in charge of physically harming his teammates was pulled into the vacuum that Naruto had left behind. Head-first, the tall missing ninja of Otogakure fell into the voided area. He did not disintegrate like the ash of the trees behind the yellow-haired Konoha nin. No. Instead, the first seven inches of him ceased to exist as the air yanked on him in a fine red mist that disappeared before it hit the beaten grass.
In the aftermath was a crew of five ninja taken down. A close range fighter had been decapitated, but there was no head in sight. Two more had been wounded and had died without much of a blink. Each had small holes that, if stood up, could be seen from the back and front without anything in-between. The other two enemies were standing only for a moment before both fell. Both looked strangely gaunt. The guy whose hands had been fried by friendly fire began screaming in pain as chakra traveled backwards on paths it should have never sparked that way. The hole in his stomach with a clean edge had been filled by his own intestines as the force of gravity pulled everything downwards. There was a wet sounding plop which was also the second loudest movement in the half-minute between Naruto arriving in the clearing and the majority of the enemy ninja passing into death. The other fell straight because his midsection, arms and chest, had been constricted inwards. It was likely he could not breathe still and likely would not last long. Thin pockets of air had solidified before knotting and braiding together to create an invisible sort of rope.
Naruto just gave him a glance around. He wondered if he should kill the guy who was screaming but had little to no actual preference to either so ignored it. There was no danger left in them, even if the screaming was getting annoying.
It was a simple movement of taking the air around them all and shifting the oxygen around the screaming nin to a point that would make the madman shut the fuck up. Death was something that would come to all ninja, but in the meantime, there were questions to be asked and information to be gotten… especially while the getting was still possible and worthwhile to the Konoha T&I.
Sasuke and Hinata were in better forms than the enemy but that wasn't saying much. Sasuke was wide eyed on the ground staring upwards into the sky as if it contained answers he was searching for before they fell as his head was too affected with gravity. As he neared his teammates, Naruto could see the wide-eyed stare of the other male Leaf nin whose eyes were pointed towards him in astonishment. In those eyes was fear and wariness that had not been so embraced before. Sasuke's breathing was harsh and irregular, saying to his teammates that even if there was only one broken rib, there was internal damage and a case of the shocks.
It was likely that the yellow haired young man would have grinned at him, sharpened incisors digging into red lips, as only an animal could show that prey and food and beings below him.. But Hyuuga Hinata was on all fours coughing up blood as her back spasmed.
"I'm going to want your opinions on what it felt like to be on the wrong side of my air shield," he said simply, instead. Sasuke was still looking at him, fear plain in his eyes as he fought to remain breathing. Hinata continued coughing but said nothing about it. The little doe had been beaten in her heart so bad that she did not even think of it.
"Na-" cough "Naruto." She took in a shaky breath and another. He said nothing, but went towards her. She did not seem to be acknowledging him, at first. She whispered in strangled segments his name but did not look for him. She tested words upon her lips like the blood that speckled her Hyuuga-pale skin until the words came out in credible pieces.
"Naruto." This time she bent her head and watched as he neared her broken figure. This time, she called for him, calling with her eyes and her voice and her curves of distress but she expected nothing.
He looked at her with the usual lack of emotion on his face, but also with a little of the scorn showing. "How are you going to get strong enough to survive if you keep sacrificing yourself?" he asked. It was a rhetorical question, not something to be answered.
"You came," she said softly, her voice soft and silent in wonder. Sasuke might have heard it if it wasn't for the strangled wheezing of the victim whose body was crushed. Naruto heard her easily with his over-active senses.
The air around them, though back to being usable oxygen, was still charged. Little bits of electricity in the form of skin shocks and static electricity that had built up. Sasuke's hair was crawling upwards from its messy abode. Hinata's own styled hair that had fallen away from its long braid had hair ends that were crawling away from the style. Naruto, in contrast, looked no different than usual. Despite the fact that he had moved positions, Naruto could feel the area around him as if a thousand fingers were tracing its shaky details. Without a hand sign, the jinchuuriki of the sleeping Kyuubi no Kitsune directed three Kage Bunshins out of the area. One threw an air senbon towards the screaming enemy nin to shut him up and he collapsed unconscious, hands still crispy black and shaking. The second Kage Bunshin gathered the deceased bodies and began looting through them. Though there was still one awake enemy-nin, the body was pushed against the corpses and divested of any obvious weapons. The body would be gone through when it died to be scavenged for useful information, usable items, and eventually a head for T&I to play around with.
The third Kage Bunshin went towards Sasuke to see if the Gennin would live. His death, as the Nara of the Rookie's year would say, would be "too troublesome to deal with."
Naruto himself kneeled next to the still coughing female who had attached herself to him, then laid a hand over her, pushing his index and center finger of his right hand into her back just where her lungs would be within her ribcage. He pushed inwards with more than just his digits, and the air, as she breathed got thicker with oxygen to make it easier on her throat and lungs for the moment. It was, she felt, like strings fell into her mouth and roped up what should not be there like extra blood and stray bits of water.
When she felt slightly better and stopped coughing up blood, she sat down on her knees and stood slowly. Naruto quit with his actions, wondering why he had helped her in the first place if she did not need it. But he shrugged and put the actions out of his mind. The only thing that separated the humans as a species from the monkeys, after all, was curiosity, or maybe stupidity.
Hinata began to infuse herself with the pale colored chakra of healing techniques and fixed the minor damage in herself before doing what she could for the single Konoha Uchiha.
It was only about ten minutes before Naruto divested the Snake Sannin's old ninja of their belongings that their Team Sensei broke through the newly made edge of the clearing. He stopped when he saw them to take stock of the damage before smiling brightly in a strange way and walking over to his dark haired students. Kakashi jumped slightly as a charged particle within the air jumped out and bit him like a friendly dog, finding an immediate connection. The Hatake did, after all, have a lightning-friendly chakra pattern.
His blonde student, Hatake Kakashi noticed, had sat himself on a stump to begin reading through the scrolls of the enemies. The spoils of battle were a ninja's main resource of jutsu not native to clan or country research besides what they were taught personally or created on their own.
They would question the unconscious enemy from the five-man-crew when he was sure the darker haired pair of Gennin were both alright.
Naruto looked down at the woman beneath him. Her dark hair framed her face against his pillow which contrasted against her pale skin laid bare. Her neck was long, like that of a swan and bared towards him as if even in her sleep she was begging him to claim her, to see worth in her she had never found in herself.
Completely naked, Uzumaki found he could gaze appreciating at all of her. He had a thought about her he found odd; that he would rather have her than the most beautiful or powerful or deadly woman in the world. Maybe he had just gotten used to her over time, like a foot dipped into frozen water for so long it burned within a room temperature pool. Like the way the hatred of the village fell weightlessly off of his back but any kind word was alien.
Or maybe he did love her. Maybe this string within him that led him towards her in a village full of people as if she was the only one around for miles was the sort of pull that she felt, that other people felt for their own spouses and friends.
Looking down had her midsection, he took an easy breath. He knew that it did not matter. In the end, he was an animal. He had a physical heart and lungs and the legs of any other homo sapien, and they were all animals. Naruto was just more honest about it. Because with the vaguely swelling section bare, he could admit to himself yet again that he had no problem being an animal. As the abused and tortured child of a village, the pariah always hated, he still faced certain... habits. He sought food and water, shelter, and to live. Then there was Hinata.
Sex was a familiar scene in his life, being from the streets and all, but he had never really looked at adding back to the gene pool of the future himself. He learned. He killed. He existed for the sake of existing. And yet... Hinata. It always came back to her when he became more than animal, or maybe the extracted animal within the human being. It was Hinata the made him more than animal, but also less.
With a quiet sigh he put his mouth to her open neck, laid bare before him, and proceeded to do what instincts within him that held no name had urged him to do for a long time. Carefully, he bit down with sharpened teeth. In her sleep, she gave a heady moan and leaned into him. It was so reflexive a thing built into her that her eyes did no more than flicker beneath eyelids. She did not wake as one arm reached for him and the other reached up to grip something else solid.
With the animal inside of him, he bit into her skin, a dollop of blood leaking out of his mouth and onto damp sheets. His tongue searched out the skin and rubbed at the reddened flesh as he let go. Through this, Hinata slept on, but even with her eyes closed and her mind resting, her naked body rubbed against his own in the way only a woman could conduct.
As he stood, naked as the day he was born, he pushed some of his blankets to her back to shape to her form in his place, and pulled up the comforter that had fallen on the floor in the night. Softly, he tucked his mate into the bed, his bed, with a quick touch to her belly.
He was an animal and a possessive one at that. It was time to defeat a beast before it could come after His.
END.
Okay, I wanted to do more, maybe flush out something for the Wave mission, and his reactions to his new team. I figure he could probably find out the idea of team work. If anyone wants to include these bits, go for it, just please inform me if you do.
I had planned to give him a sort of summon. A fox summons would be more obvious because he is slightly more in touch with his inner animal, even if it is not Kyuubi. However, with his strong connection to wind, I thought of some birds, but I could not really decide on what.
I do not like Sasuke, though I feel sorry for him about the fan girls. Those creatures are insane. Most of the other Rookies I can be fond of, but I am not particularly close to any of them, so if I use them, it is not going to be everywhere. Kakashi is a character I don't really care for either, but he there are good fics out there where he is cool.
I had planned to make Naruto's original trauma that completely changed him being the malignant burning of Ichiraku Ramen, Ayame, and Teuchi. I had a whole praying to a ramen shrine in a temple in my head where Naruto only ate the food of the gods once a day in large quantities. But I never got my fingers to go with it.
The 'Dark Hero' idea is from an inspirational forum which could use more comments on the character page of EDelta88. I recommend checking it out.
…another Short for Dark Hero… just a day in the life of a ninja. (I don't know where this came from. It was just already there. If there was a point to it, I don't remember what it was.)
Omake
A Naruto who does not know love is an animal. But even animals can react.
The failed Sound invasion had passed them without much fanfare. Nobody really wanted to thank Konoha's demon bastard and Uzumaki had not the heart or patience to reply to the not-so-hostile glares that his parents had been married, thank you very much.
Konoha was rebuilt with a steady pace and he asked for nothing. The people of the Leaf went on as normal. Life continued. Sarutobi Hiruzen still sat tall and withered in his seat as the third Hokage, but he healed from his Mistake's actions and almost seemed content that the Snake Sannin was finally dead.
Hatake Kakashi was out with the last of Konoha's beloved Uchiha to train him up as an apprentice. He had taken Naruto's words mostly to heart and looked away from trying to 'help' the blonde when he had ignored him as a child, but the jinchuuriki knew to be watchful. Hatake may well get bored and come to watch.
Naruto stayed in Konoha because it was his territory; he has no concept of a home. However, buildings could be destroyed and salvaged and then built upon again. They were replaceable. He could clearly build a home elsewhere.
But animals did not just up and move for no reason. He had claimed this place as his and unless there was a monster that defeated him to claim Konoha as their own, he would not give his place away.
Three weeks after the failed invasion, Naruto was called to meat with the Hokage.
"Can I help you with something, ANBU-san?" He did not look up from his meal of meat and vegetable curry that had barely been taken from the oven. He sipped a bit of the steaming meal from a large spoon.
A dark cloaked ninja with a feline mask handed over a scroll but said nothing. With professional experience, the ANBU said nothing that was not important. "A summons."
Naruto took the scroll after setting down his pan. Without looking up, he directed the ANBU to step in. "Come in, ANBU-san. I would not want you to get a creak." The stranger did so but stayed standing and alert.
On the red ribbon was a graceful seal holding it closed that he knew to be a direct line from Sarutobi Asuma's father. He opened it and peered at its written contents. He gave a nod to tell the ANBU that he was off to follow orders.
Behind him, the ANBU put the delicious smelling stew back in the oven to stay warm before leaving as if they had never been there. Naruto would likely not appreciate the food wasting away to flies, and the ANBU member had no wish to end up like the previous (and now deceased) Owl member who had eaten Naruto's batch of cookies a year back. Sure, it had reportedly been delicious, but it had not been worth the consequent humiliation and then death that vengeful cook had granted the man.
Real End.