Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Reflection of Oneself ❯ Revitalization ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The Reflection of Oneself

Chapter 2: Revitalization

Guilt.

It is one of the most hated emotions.

Even after all these years, it can bring you down, leavening you the telltale signs of a beast eating away at your heart - little fangs that would gnaw at you while your mind wanders back to the days when things had been simpler, trivial.

Back before you did whatever you have come to regret.

But guilt isn't an emotion easily escaped, even for the shinobi who is trained to be killers from a very young age. Sometimes it makes you feel the pain in order to make you see the wrongs you have committed in life so that you can try to make them right before you die. Everyone knows that karma can be a bitch and really, who needs debts after they kick the bucket?

So before making some ill-fated decision, be wary of the repercussions before it is too late now. If you don't, then you should never expect the outcome to be anything less then ominous. You'd very well be selling your soul to the devil. Because when guilt finds you and wraps you up in wickedly clawed clutches, you will only have yourself blame for what had happened…

“You were a fool, admit it”

His spirit ached.

Sasuke sighed, toying with a stray piece of thread that came loose from his blanket. What was wrong? Why did the pain have to hurt so much? It didn't make any sense and still didn't have an answer to that timeless question. As he lay in bed, alone within the darkened room that had been issued to him by Orochimaru upon his awakening in Otogakure two weeks ago.

The shadowy ceiling cast a gloom upon him, forcing him to relive the final moments of Naruto life… the moments before he had taken it. He couldn't stop thinking about Naruto. It was an impossible task.

`W-was it worth it Sasuke?'

He could still recall the blonde's last words as if the other boy was standing next to him. Naruto's eyes, so brilliant blue in life, had become glassy with approaching death. He had smiled and it was that cheesy smiled, the one that he constantly slapped upon his face, but rather one of pained understanding.

`Make s-sure you kill him t-teme. D-don't let my d-death have been in vain'

Naruto had known.

Their battle had been fierce, a true clash of the titans and Sasuke couldn't have asked for a better opponent. The younger boy given up dreams for him, at the expense of his own life. All of that just to bring him back to Konoha. It had been futile, but it was what Naruto believed in. He had been precious the blonde, the older brother the other boy had never had. It was only now that Naruto was dead did he realize how much they had been kindred spirits.

He had killed his best friend - his little brother.

“No better then Itachi…”

He tossed fitfully, burying his head into his pillow to try to block the thoughts out of his mind. His forsaken journey was complete now. He was a monster as bad as Itachi. With that in mind, he wasn't sure where his life was going anymore.

There was no going home. Even if Orochimaru let him go, which he wouldn't, there was no hope in hell that he would survive going back to Konoha. Which Naruto dead by his hands, the dobe was no longer there to protect him from Tsunade's wrath. It was well known that the Godaime Hokage had considered the blonde a brother.

She would smote him the moment he came within reach and as much as he cursed his existence these days, there was no way he was going to let that old lady kill him now, not after this. He still had to pay Naruto back. He owed the other boy that much.

Closing his eyes once more, the young Uchiha finally allowed the darkness of sleep to consume him. As he was fading into oblivion, however, only last thought crossed him mind.

`I promise I'll repay you somehow dobe, whether it be in this life or the next'

-.ooOoo.-

Twelve Years Later:

It was the moment he had been waiting twelve long years for.

Yakushi Kabuto paced in front of a small incubator, feeling impatient for the first time in a very long time. Ever since he had taken that blood from young Naruto's corpse all those years ago, he had been waiting to see the fruits of his labour.

Any minute now and he would be become the world's best medic-nin ever. Even with his past exposits, his talents as a medic were so infamous throughout the Elemental Countries that people said they were on par with Tsunade's.

Taping his fingers on the clipboard he held in his hand, he smirked knowingly. Described on the clamped pages of the clipboard were the details of exactly what the incubator before him held. Paper-clipped in the upper right corner was also a picture. The picture showed the slightly blurred image of what appeared to a pre-adolescent human boy.

He turned, looking back at the child within the incubator itself. There was much better detail when one looked at him in person. The strongest features on the sleeping boy was a shock of shoulder length hair and a set of fine whisker-like marking adorned each lightly tanned cheek.

This specimen was the only survivor of nine original experiments.

He had begun this project as soon as he had returned to Sound Village in order to deliver the unconscious Uchiha Sasuke to Orochimaru. Dividing the blood he had extracted from the deceased Naruto into nine equal parts, he had set out to clone the young jinchuuriki.

Unfortunately, due to the modifications he had tried on them, the other eight had perished during various stages of their development due to complications. But this one was perfect. He had persisted were the others had not. It was most likely that he survived solely on the fact that he was so close to the original - no gene augmentation with like his eight older brothers.

Just a clone - a perfect copy of the boy he once was… or had been during his last life…

Uzumaki Naruto.

This boy was going to be the final blow that took Konoha down.

This project was going to change everything. It was so going to make him really famous. When he had told Orochimaru of his undertaking, the Snake Sannin had been pleased by the turn of events. Kabuto had known right away that his master would be please. Knowing Tsunade and Jiraiya's attachment young blonde and how his death had devastated them both, using Uzumaki Naruto's clone would be the ultimate act of physiological warfare. Soon enough, the boy would become Otogakure's greatest super weapon…

BEEP!! BEEP!! BEEP!!

The gray haired man smiled the beeper signifying that the specimen was about to be `born', blared. There was a loud suction sound that the water was drained from the incubator. Smiling, the medic reached for a nearby towel, removed the seal on the door of glass chamber and remover the golden haired child that had resided within it for the last twelve years.

The boy groaned, twitching slightly in his arms.

That was a good sign. With the blonde in his arms, the older man turned and left the laboratory, seeking out the observation rooms across the hall. Orochimaru would be pleased know that one of his experiments had been a success.

-.ooOoo.-

`You gone and made a right mess of your life, you know that baka?'

Sasuke sighed bitterly, staring forlornly up at the inky black sky. Stars dotted the ebony backdrop like flickering flames, a reminder of what he had left behind. It had been many years since he had woken up in Otogakure after Naruto's death - no, murder. It had been nearly twelve years to be exact.

Every night the young man would escape the confines of Orochimaru's vast estate and seek out the highest point in Oto. There he lay back and just stare at the stars for hours. While he lay there, the memories of birth country and his misbegotten childhood would haunt his waking dreams and plague him with thoughts of what might have been if he had suffered from that moment of weakness all those years ago.

He had long since come to realize that his clan would have been disappointed in him, appalled by his choice. Of all the Uchiha to come before him, they hadn't become so desperate that they were willing to sacrifice their pride and crawl to another for power - they had gotten their power on their own and had brought honor to the clan.

Even Itachi, in his own twisted way, had been a better Uchiha then him.

The raven-haired man muttered to himself, pulling his cloak tighter about himself as a northerly wind crept upon his outpost. Even at twenty-five years of age, he still didn't have the mind to dress warmly. Only a pair of baggy black pants and a loose fitting white shit covered him, thus the dark cloak he wore over top offered little protection from the elements. The early autumn winds blew lazily through Rice Country weren't as bad as some from the colder countries like Snow, but they could still be vicious when they wanted to, chilling you to bone with an icy touch.

`Its as though you're trying to freeze yourself to death, insufferable fool' his conscience chided.

Now matter how many times that bothersome little voice bickered, he ignored it anyway.

He tensed ever so slightly as he felt the charka signature of an approaching figure. Sitting up from his reclined position, he allowed his hands to hover over his weapons as one of Orochimaru's chuunin messengers alighted on the edge of Otogakure's tallest tower next him. He gazed coolly at the younger man, how had the decency to quail under the harshness of his impenetrable gaze.

“Sasuke-sama”

“Yes?” he asked briskly.

Sasuke found himself irritated that his moment of contemplation had been disrupted.

The chuunin gulped nervously. “Orochimaru wishes your audience immediately”

“Did he say way?”

The Uchiha stood.

“Not much, only that is very important. I gather it has something to do with the war”

The raven-haired man nodded. “Very well. You may go”

The chuunin nodded, bowed and then vanished in cloud of smoke. As soon as he was gone, Sasuke heaved a sigh. He really doubted it had anything to do with the war. After many years of ongoing war between Oto and Konoha, the two superpowers had finally reached a stalemate.

For the better part of six months, the fighting had transgressed into a cold war, with Konoha fearing when Oto would strike next. They didn't, however, leaving the Leaf Village in a constant state of apprehension. From what information he was privy to as one of the top three most important people in the village, which wasn't much, Orochimaru had returned to conducting experiments on willing and unwilling volunteers.

Sasuke shuddered.

He had been one of those people once.

Yet he had to admit, that was his own fault.

-.ooOoo.-

Sasuke entered the endless corridor that led to Orochimaru's main audience chamber twenty minutes later, he wondering why exactly the sannin had called. He saw many a whispering chuunin, jounin and ANBU. They all went deathly silent as he past, as though they had a secret wasn't supposed to known.

It was as though their silence seemed to be mocking him.

Focusing on the task at hand, the Uchiha past them without word or glance. Stopping before the large carved doors that guarded the snake's glorified throne room, he knocked once. Seconds later they swung soundlessly open, revealing the dimly lit room swathed in dark greens and purples.

At the opposite end, Orochimaru was seated a large mahogany desk, currently conversing with an apparently excited Kabuto. The medic was waving his arms enthusiastically - like he had just discovered the Fountain of Youth. The fact that Orochimaru was literately hanging off his right hand man's ever word meant that whatever Kabuto was saying was extremely important.

As he approached the pair, Orochimaru looked him in the eye and stared at him with a slow, revolting smile.

“Ah, I see you've finally arrived Sasuke” the pale man purred. “

It was rare that Sasuke ever received this smile in particular and meant that the Snake Sannin had something truly diabolical in mind. He could only imagine what.

He nodded. “Yes Orochimaru-sama”

The Snake Sannin stood.

“Very well then. Kabuto has so very good news for us this evening. Apparently his ongoing project has finally been completed and he's eager to show off his accomplishment”

“Oh?” Sasuke replied, raising an eye. “And why must I present?”

“You will find out in time”

The Uchiha inwardly rolled his eyes at the cryptic message. The snake always did things like that rather then giving a strait answer.

Nonetheless he followed the pair, Kabuto leading the way down the long expanse of halls, journeying towards the gray haired medic's spacious laboratory and the observation/recovery wing. As they approached their destination, the raven haired young man could feel the hair on the back of rising much like a cat's when it was angered, only his was due to foreboding.

There was something terribly wrong - he could feel it. Orochimaru and Kabuto must have sensed his unease because the pair shared a smirk

“Oh come now Sasuke-kun, why such the long face?” Kabuto mocked. “This night is going to go down in history”

Sasuke merely snorted in reply.

It wasn't that much long after, stopped only by the occasional lackey that needed directions in their duties, that they finally reached the observation wing. The young man would practically feel the waves of morbid glee coming from the two other men.

What in the world could be so important?

Kabuto paused before a large one-way window in the hall and smiled.

“Beyond this window is outcome of my endless experimentation. Now that I've finally completed my experiment,” the medic said, and then gestured into the room beyond. “I wish to present you with our newest weapon. As you already know, the first eight specimens died while the ninth specimen was the only one to survive. He just came out of the incubator ten minutes ago and should awaken in a day or so”

The Uchiha had been ignoring the older man, his arms crossed and his head turned away from whatever Kabuto was so proud of.

“Aren't you going to take a look Sasuke-kun?”

Not bothering to stall any longer, he turned around.

But when Sasuke finally looked into room, he swore his heart skipped several beats. Sleeping peacefully on the only bed that occupied the room was a young boy who couldn't possibly be there at all. Breaking free of his momentary paralysis, Sasuke turned sharply to face Kabuto, his visage a mired of emotions. The forefront however, was anger.

He needed answers and he would have them now.

The look on the older man's face was one of smug pride. “So Sasuke-kun, do you like my little creation?