[The Renegade] Chapter 31 - Epilogue (Patreon)

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Four arms burst out from his torso, for a total of six, and he slapped his palms together, two by two, like in prayer.

“Chibaku Tensei!” 

As his six hands parted, three black spheres of chakra came from between his palms and rose high up into the air. 

The surface of the lake distorted as the water, along with entire chunks of rock, sand, and earth started levitating, heading straight to the black spheres floating in the air. 

Screams of panic and terror erupted from the thousands of ninjas surrounding Amegakure as they all lost control over their bodies and got pulled up into the air too, slamming into the bodies of rock and water forming around the black spheres. 

The ninja of Amegakure watched in a mixture of shock, awe, and reverent fear from the safety of the Four Crimson Ray Formation as thousands of their enemies met a brutal end, smashed into a gory paste or buried alive inside the three massive rock formations forming above the Lake. 

⁂

Twenty thousand Shinobi, together with their Kages, were crushed to death under the gravitational pull of the three Planetary Devastation techniques. The full might of two of the Five Great Nations lost to the might of the Rinnegan. 

Despite being a Jinchuuriki, a Sage, and a Uzumaki, Naruto was now feeling the drain as he levitated the three planetoids to the shore of the lake.

He did not want to merely let them sink into the lake. He did not want the war that day to remain a mere legend that would circulate through word of mouth.

Each planetoid created by his Chibaku Tensei jutsu was spherical and over 200 metres in diameter. The three planetoids stacked together were massive; given the Land of Rain’s flat lands, they could be seen from very long distances. 

The three enormous spheres of rock and earth would be placed on the shore of the Lake of Amegakure, serving as a monument and as a stern warning for everyone brave or stupid enough to attack his homeland again in the future.

Once he put the planetoids down, he used his Deva Path’s ability to fly, heading straight towards Amegakure. 

But the closer he got to the village, the more his flying speed slowed down. Nervousness started eating at him. 

He had fought against the reanimated Akatsuki, fearsome shinobi stronger than some kage, he had battled against the legendary Uchiha Madara, and he even took on two great nations’ armies, all alone. However, he had never been nervous, not even for a second. 

However, upon arriving in front of the door leading to Konan’s hospital room, his heart was beating as if to jump out of his chest. 

Finally, he pushed open the door. 

He wasn’t aware of how dry his throat was until he called out Konan’s name and heard how raspy his voice sounded. 

“Konan.”

She raised her eyes from the two babies in her arms to gaze at Naruto. He looked like a mess. His cloak was soaked and ripped all over, his blonde hair was soggy with water, and his face was stained with sweat and dirt. 

“Naruto.”

Overwhelmed by emotion, neither could find their voice after that. 

He alternated between looking at Konan’s tired but happy face and the two little bundles in her arms. The tender, pale skin, the soft-looking blue hair on their heads, and their orange eyes, identical to those of their mother, left Naruto awestruck.

But when he took the first step inside the room, the midwife hesitantly walked in front of him, stopping him from getting closer. 

“Lord Uzumaki, please, it’s not safe for the babies. Newborn babies’ immune system is very weak. I’m afraid that…” she trailed off. 

It was only then that he realised his deplorable state. He had been so desperate to see Konan and the babies in person that he hadn’t thought about himself at all. 

Konan smiled at him. “Go have a shower. We’ll be waiting for you here.”

Her words made his expression dim a little.

“I can’t. I have to go,” he said. “Mount Myoboku is under attack. The situation is probably not critical since the Toads haven’t asked me for help yet, but I can’t just leave them to their fate.”

He stepped past the midwife, who didn’t dare stop him. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t touch them,” he reassured her. “I just want to get a closer look at my sons.”

Konan smiled as she sat up straighter and turned toward Naruto, who crouched next to the bed so that he could see them better. 

The twin babies were looking at him curiously with their big orange eyes and making all sorts of cute noises while flailing their arms, seemingly wanting to touch him. 

“They know you’re their daddy,” Konan whispered. 

Naruto felt his eyes stinging as he teared up. 

“They got your eyes,” he said, his voice choked with emotion. 

It was as if his emotional state was contagious because Konan teared up too. But she was smiling wider and more happily than ever. 

“This is Aoi,” she said, raising the boy in her right arm a bit. ”He is the elder brother. And this is Sora, younger by 7 minutes.”

“They’re beautiful,” he uttered, looking at them in wonder. 

He couldn’t believe that they were his sons. That he was a father. That he had a family. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to get in bed together with Konan, take all three of them in his arms, and never let them go. 

Alas, he could not afford to do so. Eventually, he let out a grunt and stood up. He had to go help the Toads in their war against the Snakes. 

⁂

Even before Naruto’s arrival at Mount Myoboku, the Toads were more than holding their own against the invaders. While the Snakes were larger than the Toads, the fact that the Toads could wield weapons like ninjas evened the odds, which led to a stalemate. That being said, Naruto’s intervention instantly brought the war to an end. 

While Naruto was starting to run low on chakra after all the intense battles he had gone through that day, it took only one Shinra Tensei for the Snakes to understand that they were punching above their weightclass in that war. They turned tail and fled. 

Now, two weeks later, things appeared to have finally calmed down. However, that short but brutal war left a deep mark on the Ninja World. 

Other than the few troops they left behind to defend their borders, Kirigakure and Kumogakure had lost nearly 90% of their able-bodied ninja. The Land of Lightning and the Land of Water were two of the greatest five nations in the world, but their Hidden Villages fell to the bottom. Nowadays, the Daimyos of those two countries were forced to hire the services of other Hidden Villages due to their own shinobi being unable to meet all their demands. 

That being said, Iwagakure was not faring much better than them either. Although they had not attacked Amegakure together with Kiri and Kumo a second time, Iwagakure had failed to defeat Sunagakure in their war. 

The new and brash Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi, had miscalculated greatly by attacking Sunagakure. Leading her troops into the desert had been no different than leading them to their grave when the Kazekage had such tremendous control over the sand.  

Originally believed to be one of the weaker Hidden Villages among the Five Elemental Nations, Gaara of the Desert had spread his name all over the Elemental Nations when Iwagakure suffered a complete defeat at his hands. 

By working together with Shukaku, the One-Tailed Sand Racoon, and by making full use of his home advantage, Gaara’s Sand Tsunami and Quicksand Jutsu had become unstoppable. It was a short-lived battle where Iwagakure suffered a crushing defeat, with most of them being buried alive and crushed under the weight of Gaara’s sand. Only the Tsuchikage and a few hundred ninjas escaped, with almost half of those still dying before they could leave the desert due to the Suna ninjas’ poisoned weapons. 

No one would dare underestimate Sunagakure from then on. It was the opposite. With Iwa, Kiri, and Kumo’s armies being decimated and Konoha getting razed off the surface of the earth a second time, Sunagakure was the only one among the Five Great Nations who still stood strong. 

⁂

Currently, Uzumaki Naruto, Sabaku no Gaara, and Hatake Kakashi were seated at a U-shaped table and talking. 

Now that the post-war Kage Summit came to an end, Mifune, Kurotsuchi, Killer Bee (the newly elected Raikage), and the newly elected Mizukage (a kunoichi from the Yuki Clan) left. However, Gaara, Naruto, and Kakashi stayed behind for a little while to catch up. After all, it was not often that people like them had the opportunity to talk to each other in person. 

“I was expecting the Tsuchikage to make a lot more problems,” said Kakashi as he took off his Hokage hat and put it on the table in front of him. “The amount of war reparations that Iwagakure was asked to pay was not small.”

‘I wasn’t surprised. She was terrified. She couldn’t even look Gaara in the eyes,’ Naruto thought, knowing what the Tsuchikage felt due to his Negative Emotion Sensing. But he kept his thoughts to himself and asked instead:

“How is Granny Tsunade?”

“Her vitals were getting better, but she had yet to awaken when I left for this Kage Summit,” Kakashi replied. “It was a miracle that Nagato revived everyone the first time Akatsuki invaded Konoha… I wish there was a second miracle like that… too many people lost their lives when Kabuto invaded with his army of Edo Tensei.”

“If you need help with anything, the Land of Rain and Rivers will support you with provisions and labourers to rebuild the village,” Naruto offered.

“As will Sunagakure,” Gaara added. “The Tsuchikage was foolish to attack us when Shukaku and I have dominion over the sand of the entire desert. Therefore, we were fortunate enough to not have lost many people or material possessions in this war… After my father was killed by Orochimaru, Konoha and Lady Tsunade had been an invaluable help to Sunagakure, despite that we had attacked them together with Otogakure. I have not forgotten her magnanimity. My village and I will do our best to help you in these trying times.”

“On behalf of my village, I am grateful,” Kakashi said sincerely. 

“What about you, Naruto? How do you feel now that you’re the leader of a village as well? Now that you are a kage?” Gaara asked. 

Naruto glanced at the purple Kage hat on the table in front of him with the Kanji for Rain and Rivers drawn on it. Nobody dared to say that the leader of the Land of Rain and Rivers did not deserve to be called a Kage anymore. 

“It’s not as fun as I thought it would be when I was young.”

Kakashi, Gaara, and even their bodyguards, who were hidden behind the fake wall behind them, all chuckled at his words. 

“But it’s fine. I won’t be doing this job forever. Konan gave birth two weeks ago. Soon, she will get back in the office while I’ll spend time home, spoiling our sons rotten.”

Kakashi sighed wistfully. 

“To think I’ve lived to see my knucklehead student mature, be chosen as the leader of a village, and become a father too…”

“How does it feel to be a father?” Gaara asked curiously. 

“It’s a dream come true. I’ve always wanted a family,” Naruto said, smiling. “Aoi and Sora are more important to me than the light of my eyes.”

“Speaking of family, when will you come to Konoha to visit Lady Tsunade? Konohamaru would be glad to see you too,” Kakashi said. 

“Konohamaru survived too?” Naruto asked, happy to hear that his old ‘pupil’ of sorts had not lost his life during Kabuto’s attack on Konoha. “Among the people I know, who else survived?”

“Yes, he was one of the lucky ones. Most didn’t make it. Of your graduation year, Hinata and Shino are the only ones who made it.”

Naruto’s face became downcast. He had left his old life behind years ago. His loyalty was unquestionably to the Land of Rain and Rivers now, but that did not mean that he would rejoice at the news that his former comrades had perished. 

Inwardly, Kakashi had expected Naruto to show a bigger reaction to finding out that Sakura was dead, considering how badly Naruto had crushed on her as a teenager. But then, he shook his head. 

‘No, it’s been years since Naruto left Konoha. He’s a grown-up man now. He is married, and he just got two sons too.’

It made him all the more aware of how much time had passed and how different the man sitting next to him was now compared to how he had been as a kid. 

Kakashi, Gaara, and the bodyguards hidden behind the fake wall in the room all flinched when Naruto suddenly jumped up from his seat and shouted: 

“Konan!”

Before any of them could ask what happened, he smashed his way through the wall of the room and left a deafening shockwave behind him as he launched himself into the air, flying many times faster than the speed of sound. 

⁂

Back in Amegakure, while Naruto and the leaders of the Elemental Nations were in the middle of the Kage Summit in the Land of Iron, Konan was sitting on the sofa in the living room, making faces and playing with Aoi in her arms. 

Next to her, a shadow clone of Naruto was holding Sora in his arms and swaying gently with him. Every now and then, his eyes darted to Konan, his cold Rinnegan eyes filled with unspeakable gentleness and love. 

The gloomy and stoic woman from before was nowhere to be seen anymore. Her delightful laughter and the innocent giggles of the baby in her arms filled the room. 

Soon, it was time for the babies to eat, and the clone brought Sora to Konan, who was getting in position with a special breastfeeding pillow so that she could feed the twins simultaneously. 

Seeing as she was wearing nothing but a comfortable, baggy purple dress with a very low-cut cleavage, Konan easily took out her heavy breasts and guided them to the children’s mouths.

“How long till Naruto comes back, dear?” Konan asked the shadow clone, who was doing his best to pretend he was reading from a scroll instead of gawking at her. 

If Konan noticed his behaviour, she did not call him out on it. But the tiny curve at the corner of her lips betrayed the fact that she was very much aware of the effect she was having on him. 

A soft and motherly look appeared on her face when she gazed down at her children. 

Yahiko had died when the two of them were only 15 years old. Many would say that it was just puppy love between teenagers. Nevertheless, Konan had never been with another man in the decades to come… until she met Naruto, that is. 

She had never thought that she would fall in love with someone again at her age, much less that she would become a mother. Even in her dreams, she had never been able to imagine that she would one day be so happy. After all, Konan, Nagato, and the rest of the people living in the Land of Rain had learned of the cruelty and brutality of the ninja world from a very young age. 

Yet there she was, in love with the sweetest and most caring man in the world, and the proud mother of the two most beautiful children she had ever seen. 

‘Is it alright for me to be this happy?’

Amegakure was experiencing a period of economic and social growth like never before in its entire history; she was married, her relationship with Naruto was stronger than ever, and she had even become a mother, giving birth to two completely healthy and incredibly beautiful children. 

Everything was going well. Too well. 

Whenever a ray of sun somehow pierced through the gloomy skies of her life, a terrible rain would follow, stealing away her light and reminding her of the meaning of despair. It was always like that.

Things have been going great not just for Amegakure but for herself too, for years now.

Konan was afraid. She was on edge, wondering why the next calamity still had not befallen them after all this time. 

Involuntarily, she tightened her hands on the breastfeeding pillow holding her two babies. 

Sensing the rise of the dark emotions in her heart thanks to Kurama’s sensory ability, the clone Naruto glanced at her in worry. But he didn’t have the chance to ask if she was alright because, a moment later, a powerful, malevolent emotion came from the kitchen. 

He was not the only one who noticed it either. Konan’s sensory ability also picked up an intruder’s chakra signature. 

She stopped breastfeeding the children, clothed herself, and quickly created a protective sphere of paper around the two babies before standing up together with Naruto and heading towards the kitchen. In the meantime, Naruto entered the Sage Mode, preparing himself for battle. 

As they arrived in front of the door and Konan was about to put her hand on the doorknob, Naruto stopped her.

“Better safe than sorry,” he mouthed, only moving his lips and not making a sound. 

He was going to blast the entire kitchen away, together with the intruder, regardless of the damage he was going to deal to the building. 

Konan nodded at him, and the clone raised his hand. 

But clone Naruto didn’t even have the chance to cast his Almighty Push before an extremely powerful, high-pitched sound burst from the kitchen, shattering all the windows, mirrors, and glasses in the apartment. 

The door exploded, the walls and the ceiling cracked... and Naruto’s eardrums were shattered too. The clone was dispelled in a puff of smoke, unable to resist the powerful sound attack. 

Konan too desperately covered her ears with her hands and squinted her eyes from the blinding light coming from the kitchen.

However, even then, she did not stay idle. 

A part of her body dispersed into a swarm of paper tags that took the children away, flying through the open window, and another swarm of paper tags flew into the blinding light, into the kitchen, exploding with a great bang, and blasting the entire room to pieces, alerting the entirety of Amegakure.

The sound attack suddenly stopped, and the mocking laughter of a man came from the kitchen. 

“Exploding tags? Really?”

Once he stepped out of the kitchen, Konan got to see who he really was: rather tall and slender, with scaly, pale white skin, slick black hair, and a pair of unmistakable red eyes. Although he had the physical appearance of Uchiha Sasuke, Konan knew from Naruto that that body was being possessed by Yakushi Kabuto. 

“Come on, you can do better than that,” Kabuto said, his stage 1 purple Susanoo glowing around him. 

Just as he said those words, a dense cloud of purple poison burst from the many paper tags filling the air, courtesy of Konan. 

It was Hanzo’s Salamander poison, one of the deadliest poisons in the Ninja World. 

However, that didn’t work on Kabuto, who had long since modified his body to gain immunity to all poisons. 

“Salamander poison, huh? This might’ve even brought a kage to their knees. It’s just unfortunate for you that it doesn’t work on me. I’m the worst opponent you could’ve possibly encountered,” Kabuto gloated, and the Susanoo around him grew a skeletal arm before throwing a massive punch at Konan. 

Before the skeletal punch could touch her, her body dispersed into a swarm of countless paper butterflies and flew out through the open window. 

“Yes, run! Make it entertaining for me!” Kabuto laughed. 

At that moment, six ANBU shinobi and kunoichi appeared with a body flicker movement and surrounded ‘Uchiha Sasuke’ (Kabuto) from all sides. Konan blowing up the entire kitchen may not have harmed Kabuto due to his Susanoo, but it certainly served as a signal to the ANBU that she was under attack. 

Kabuto wasn’t in the mood to play around with them. Forming a Ram seal with his hands, over 10 enormous snakes with bodies thicker than a grown man’s waist suddenly burst from his torso and ripped the unfortunate Rain shinobi to pieces. He had slaughtered those six Jonins in the blink of an eye. 

Not wasting a second, he formed a Bird and Snake seal with his hand before saying:

“Sage Transformation: Winged Dragon.”

Two draconic wings ripped the back of his dark red cloak open and crushed what remained of the still standing walls of the apartment, making the ceiling of the building collapse. Then, he launched himself upwards, his wings beating the air powerfully as he chased after Konan’s form. 

But Konan had far more experience than Kabuto when it came to flying. Even with his Sage Transformation, he couldn’t close the distance and catch up from behind. Left with no other choice, he willed his eyes to turn into the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and a tear of blood fell down his cheek as he said:

“Amaterasu!”

Black flames suddenly engulfed Konan’s body in the distance, and she screamed in agony, her wings beating the air helplessly as she crashed down from the sky like a wounded bird, making a dent into the rooftop of a tall tower. 

Nonetheless, despite the agonising pain, Konan had the presence of mind to remove the outer layer of her paper body, shedding away the paper skin that was burning, and ridding herself of the inextinguishable flames. 

Alas, it took a few seconds for her to do that, and Kabuto finally managed to catch up from behind. Just as several snakes came out of his body to capture her, Konan dispersed into a swarm of paper butterflies again. 

But Kabuto was prepared for her special paper Kawarimi this time, and a white mucus came out of his mouth and covered the sky like a web. It was an ability from one of Orochimaru’s Sound Four shinobi, Kidomaru. Kabuto had implanted his DNA into himself. 

The large spiderweb cut off Konan’s way of retreat and he was forced to rematerialize her body again, lest all her paper got caught in the spiderweb. 

Two chakrams of paper formed above her hands, and Kabuto was surprised to see his Spider Web Unrolling Jutsu get cut to pieces by the two chakrams before homing in on him as if they were remote-controlled. 

Nonetheless, his Susanoo appeared around his body once again, with the paper chakrams clashing helplessly against the chakra avatar. Simultaneously, Kabuto placed his hands down on the rooftop and said:

“Sage Art: Inorganic Transformation!”

Konan didn’t have time to react before the building’s rooftop seemed to turn into mud and quickly rose to engulf her entire body, up until her neck. 

Not wanting to make the mistake of underestimating her again and giving her another opportunity to escape, Kabuto rushed at her and grabbed her face with both hands, forcing her to look into his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan eyes. 

Konan’s body appeared to slump over as Kabuto cast his most powerful Sharingan genjutsu on her. 

It was only then that he finally allowed himself to relax. His Susanoo disappeared, and he also cancelled his Senjutsu technique. The rooftop of the building returned to normal, and Konan fell down on her knees, unresponsive, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. 

“What a troublesome woman! You almost got away,” Kabuto said as he crouched to be on the same level as the kneeling Konan. 

He smirked as he grabbed her by the chin, making her look at him. 

“But I got you now. I wonder, what is Naruto-kun’s face going to look like when he finally gets here and sees his wife on her knees in front of another man?”

He let out an evil cackle. 

“But I have to say, I’m almost envious of him. You are a very beautiful woman, Konan,” he said, his eyes drawn to the voluptuous mounds barely hidden by the deep cleavage of her dress. “Once I take out his Rinnegan, maybe I’ll keep you around.”

He let out another cackle and a deranged look appeared on his face as his long snake tongue dropped out of his mouth. But when his tongue was about to touch her cheek, a wet, squelching, sickening sound was heard and Konan shouted:

“Don’t you dare touch me, you disgusting bastard!”

Kabuto looked down, his eyes wide with shock when he realized where the squelching sound had come from: Konan’s arm was now buried elbow-deep into his chest. 

His Susanoo instantly burst out of his body, and Konan was smacked away violently, smashing her into a neighbouring building, making a human imprint on its wall. 

“H-How?!” he asked, choking with a mouthful of blood that came up his throat. 

He had cast the strongest genjutsu he was capable of with his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. There was not a single person in the ninja world who could resist its effects after looking into his eyes unless they were jinchuuriki. Even a tailed beast would become no different from an obedient puppy after one look into a Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan. 

What Kabuto didn’t know, however, was that the piecing in Konan’s lower lip was, in fact, a tiny Outer Path black rod. Just like the rest of the tailed beasts, whose chakra was always connected to Naruto through the Outer Path black rods on their bodies, it was the same for Konan too. Neither the bijuu nor Konan could be put under genjutsu anymore.

After Kabuto cast his EMS genjutsu on her, Konan played possum, pretending to be under his total control. She deceived him perfectly. It was only after Kabuto let his guard down that she struck like a viper, catching him completely off-guard. 

The DNA that Kabuto had implanted into his body from Uzumaki Karin and Juugo granted him a very powerful self-regeneration ability, but even with that, it wasn’t easy for him to regenerate a fist-sized hole into his chest. 

Not only had his heart been obliterated, but at the moment when she was flung away, Konan detached her paper arm, leaving it inside Kabuto’s chest. That paper arm turned into countless, tiny paper blades barely visible to the naked eye and started shredding the insides of his body, making him feel like he was being stabbed by tens of thousands of needles everywhere. 

Kabuto was groaning in agony, still in the middle of regenerating his body and expelling the thousands of microscopic paper blades, when Konan regained consciousness. 

The crash against the wall had been so violent that she went out cold for a moment. It was only her desperation to survive, her worry for her children, and her fear of leaving them and Naruto alone that brought her back to reality. 

She let out a moan of pain, but she did not waste her energy or time trying to ascertain the state of her body. She bit her thumb, and her hand formed the seals of the Summoning Technique as fast as she could in her current state. 

“Kucyose no Jutsu!” her voice came out weakly as she placed her hand on the wall of the building.  

A puff of smoke appeared, and with it, a massive, violent, and oppressive chakra blanketed the air. 

His body covered in a dense cloak of crimson red chakra, Naruto’s eyes turned into the slit, savage eyes of a fox when he saw Konan’s deplorable state.

It was at that moment that Kabuto knew: he fucked up. 

Originally, his plan had been to capture Konan and her children and use them to blackmail Naruto into gouging his Rinnegan eyes out in exchange for their lives. But everything could not have gone any worse. Kabuto didn’t even have time to utter a word before a Senjutsu-enhanced uppercut smashed into his chin, hurling him into the air like a rocket. 

Naruto’s Shunshin no Jutsu was so fast that it seemed as if he had teleported as he reappeared above Kabuto and grabbed him from the back of his neck. 

Kabuto desperately tried to liquefy his body with the kekkei genkai of the Hozuki clan in order to get away from his grasp. However, he realised, to his horror, that more than half of his chakra reserves were drained out in less than a second by Naruto through his Preta Path. 

Two extra arms grew out of Naruto’s torso thanks to his Asura Path, and they formed the hand seals for the Shadow Clone technique, making three clones appear next to him, floating in the air just like him. 

Kabuto's face took on an expression of terror as Naruto and his three shadow clones placed their hands on his back and chest and suddenly pulled back at the same time. 

“NO! NOOO!” he screamed in a hoarse voice as he felt his soul getting pulled out of his body in four different directions. 

“You had gotten away the last time. You could have laid low and lived a quiet life, away from my eyes, in safety. But you chose to attack me again, going after my family. I told you that you would die. I told you that I would rip your soul to shreds,” Naruto said darkly.

If his old mentor, Jiraiya, or the old Sandaime had been there to see Naruto at that moment, they would have paled in disbelief at what he was about to do. 

He wasn’t going to just kill Kabuto. He would not even be able to enter the cycle of reincarnation, for there would be nothing left of him. He was going to extinguish his soul, ending his existence.

An inhuman scream came from Kabuto, as the pain of having his soul ripped surpassed anything he might have experienced in his life until then. 

As the four Narutos continued pulling their hands away from Kabuto’s body, his soul finally could not take it anymore and broke into four pieces before getting absorbed into the Rinnegan’s King of Hell. 

In his rage, he was tempted to throw his corpse into the air and hurl his most devastating attack at his remains, turning it all into ash. However, he reigned in his anger and didn’t mutilate his body for no reason. After all, studying the many bloodlines in that corpse would be of great service to Amegakure’s medical nins. 

Leaving Kabuto’s lifeless corpse in the hands of his clones, Naruto flew to the broken wall where Konan lay and gently took her into his arms. 

He had not witnessed it, but he could tell from the destruction in his surroundings that Konan had put up a hell of a fight in his absence. The fact that Kabuto had been groaning in pain and unable to move when he arrived was certainly because of Konan too.  

“The children are safe,” Konan said, smiling weakly. “I sent them with my paper to Hayate.”

Hayate was one of the members of the Uzumaki clan, also known as the new wielder of Samehada and the strongest Jonin of Amegakure. But more importantly, he was someone that Naruto and Konan trusted. 

“Thank God,” he said in relief. “What about you? Are you injured badly?”

“I don’t know. I think I have a concussion. But I’ll live. Let’s get our sons first.”

“Are you sure? You don’t look well-”

The look in her amber eyes swiftly prompted him to shut up. He could tell that her worry for their children greatly outweighed her worry for her own well-being. 

He smiled and pecked her on the forehead before flying towards Hayate Uzumaki’s home. Inwardly, however, he resolved himself to increase the security of his home and family sevenfold from that moment on. 

‘Shadow Clones may not be enough.’

Kabuto’s sound attack had proved that fact to him today. His clone had not even seen it coming before it was dispelled. 

But that was a matter for another day. For now, he wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the day together with his family. As long as he was with them, nobody would be able to hurt them. And he was not going to let them out of his sight anytime soon. 

The End.

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: "Aoi" means "Blue" and "Sora" means "Sky".

The names of the two children put together would mean "Blue Sky". It's a metaphor for how Naruto had brought a 'blue sky' - happiness - to Konan's gloomy, lonely life.

Konan's fate was so tragic in the anime. She deserved so much better! It's one of the main reasons why I decided to start writing this fic.

Thank you, everyone, for sticking with this story and encouraging me to keep on writing it until the end. I also want to express my gratitude to you who decided to support me here, on Patreon!

PS 1: in case you didn't know, I have started working on a new Naruto/Justice League story, a fic that will have a Naruto/Starfire/Supergirl pairing. There are only 4 chapters so far, you can find them in the [Eclipsed] collection on this website.

PS 2: I would like to write some side-stories for [The Renegade] in the future, something similar to what I did for [Caterpillar]. It's not a promise though because I haven't come up with an interesting plot for those side-stories yet. But I'm letting you know that there might be some extra content for this fic in the future.


Someone on my discord found a pic of Naruto, Konan, and a blue-haired child. I thought it was cute so I attached it to this chapter too :)