The Lives Worth Saving

Chapter 1 - To Live Again

Hoarse coughs disrupted the heavy surroundings as dying flames crackled quietly across the corpse-littered ground. A body stirred amongst the rubble and ash as one bloodied hand reached up to sweep aside dirtied locks of blond hair.

'Is he dead, Kurama?'

The demon fox's voice was faint when the answer came. 'As dead as he possibly can be, Kit. Even his body's been completely destroyed.' A pause followed for several heartbeats. 'But we're not far behind either.'

A dry half-chuckle was offered at this statement as Naruto heaved himself into a sitting position, ignoring the blood that dripped from his wounds and joined the dark crimson already staining the battlefield. 'No doubt. I can practically feel our chakra leaking away. Can't believe how strong that bastard is.'

The fox didn't reply, and under normal circumstances, Naruto would've been worried that the demon merged with him now found it too exhausting to even speak. Instead, the blond turned dull blue eyes to the broken figure lying only a few feet away, a hole in his chest, limbs twisted in an ugly rendition of a ragdoll.

Naruto released a bitter scoff at this, too drained to even consider crying for his fallen best friend. He hadn't cried since his godfather had died. The irony here was painful. Once upon a time, he had been the one struck down like this, almost killed by the very attack that Madara had slaughtered Sasuke with not even an hour ago. And the Chidori hadn't even been aimed at the raven-haired ANBU General in the first place. His stupidly proud, unbelievably protective, brilliant best friend had jumped in the way at the last second.

'Hey Kit,'

Naruto blinked slowly, pulling his wayward thoughts back together as the Kyuubi's soft, almost wavering voice thrummed in his mind. 'What is it?'

'What do you think you're doing?'

Naruto blinked slowly, pulling his wayward thoughts back together as the Kyuubi's soft, almost wavering voice thrummed in his mind. 'What is it?'

'What do you think you're doing?'

The blond frowned, dragging himself over to some leftover debris to lean against a slab of fallen rock. He doubted he could stand anymore. 'What does it look like? There's nothing left. Konoha's gone. Madara's gone. Not much left to do but wait until I go too.'

A feeble snort batted at him, somehow managing to convey the same amount of annoyance the Kyuubi once did at full strength. 'That's a pathetic way to die. And I for one am not going to just roll over and wait until death takes us like some common dog.'

Naruto would've rolled his eyes if he had the energy left to do so. 'Don't think we have much choice, Kurama. Unless you want me to commit traditional suicide.'

A growl berated him. 'Think, you damn brat! Last time I checked, you were a Fuuinjutsu Master. What were you working on after that pervert of a Sannin was killed?'

Naruto blinked, mind sluggishly retrieving the memory of a complex seal he had started on after Jiraiya had died. In his grief, he had holed himself up in his apartment and had gone through stacks of paper and numerous jars of ink in a half-crazed attempt at reversing the event of the Toad Sannin's death. It had been a stupid thing to do, and he had always known, in the back of his mind, that he would never go through with it. One man's death, no matter how precious to him, was not worth erasing his other friends' futures. He had put it aside after a week and a furious beat down from a subtly panicking Sasuke once the Uchiha had managed to break through his seals and into his apartment. But now...

Now, what was there to lose?

'I have no paper, no ink,' He thought stupidly even as he cleared a rough patch of ground in front of him. 'And it takes a huge amount of chakra. And it might not even work.'