Back to the Beginning (Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter 50

Kakashi, Obito and Rin were watching over the villagers that they had escorted to safety earlier. They could hear the explosions from all of the fighting, but knew they had to protect everyone else, no matter how much they wanted to fight.

"Kakashi! Are you sure they can handle this?" Obito was getting more worried the more they had to wait. His voice filled with unease. "I know that Naruto and Minato-sensei said that they could handle it, but it just doesn't sit right with me."

"I don't like it either Obito, but we have to protect all the villagers just in case the enemy comes here. We are the only ones that can."

Rin was watching Obito and Kakashi talk to each other, wrapping her arms around herself. She knew both of them were right and she did have a bad feeling, but she knew that they had to stay. "I want to go help too Obito, more than you can imagine, but we have to stay here. We can leave once things calm down."

The three of them continued to listen as the explosions continued, their hearts heavy as they thought about their friends fighting as well as the unease they all felt.

* * * * * *

"It's okay Sasuke, I've got you!" Itachi was running through the forest just outside of the village. He and Sasuke had been locked up somewhere by Danzo, but once he knew that they were all gone, he was easily able to escape. "We've got to find dad and get him to stop before it's too late."

He continued to run through the streets of the village, avoiding the foundation members and Leaf shinobi that were fighting with each other. He was headed directly towards the nine-tails, knowing that his dad would be close by.

Finally as he reached a small clearing between the buildings that was away from the main fighting, he saw his dad sitting down on the front steps of a ruined house. "Dad!" Itachi yelled as loud as he could in order to get his dad's attention, luckily having it work.

"Itachi? Sasuke?" Fugaku came running towards them, gathering them up into his arms and holding them tightly, tears running down his face. "You're here. How did you get away?"

"Well, once everyone started fighting, there weren't any guards around. It was pretty easy after that."

"Is Sasuke okay?" The worry on Fugaku's face was clear as he looked at his two sons.

Itachi gave a bright smile as he looked up at his dad. "Don't worry, we're both okay. For now, can we just leave this be and go find mom?"

Fugaku didn't even think before he smiled and nodded at Itachi. "Yeah, let's go." Without looking back, he ran through the streets of the village, guiding Itachi away from danger. Once they were just about to the hideout that the rest of the villagers use, he finally let his grip on the nine-tails fall, having faith that they could continue to hold it back until he could be taken care of. Good luck. Once again, I'm so sorry.

* * * * * *

"Wind style: Rasenshuriken!" Naruto threw his jutsu at Sasuke, finally hitting his mark and bracing against the explosion that followed it. Once the dust had settled Naruto could see Sasuke lying on the ground not too far from where he had been standing before.

Naruto carefully walked up to Sasuke, kneeling down beside him. Carefully he grabbed onto his hand, holding it between his own and putting it to his forehead solemnly. "I'm sorry Sasuke. I never wanted you to die for me." Tears quietly started to fall from Naruto's face as he looked at the face of his friend. "I never got a chance to say goodbye to you. Thanks for being my friend, Sasuke."

Naruto held out his right hand, forming a rasengan in his palm and while still holding onto Sasuke with his left hand he pushed the rasengan into Sasuke's chest. As the rasengan disappeared he watched slowly as the form of Sasuke slowly began to fade and turn into the familiar image of a white Zetsu creature and a tree rising from the corpse. Naruto bowed his head as he stood up, his thoughts drifting quickly through his memories of his friend before whispering softly to himself: "Bye Sasuke."