Notes: All of my least favorite Naruto moments involve Naruto, powerful ninja that he is, using absolutely none of it, all for the sake of a "friend" that would sooner kill him than thank him for it. This is one of those moments, the way I think it could have gone, had the Raikage: A) not been in a hurry, B) realized exactly who he was putting down, or C) realized that having the "last" free jinchuriki might slow down Akatsuki's plans a bit.

Warning: This story isn't meant to generate positive reviews. I wrote it because I was mad at Naruto (or perhaps just the person who dictates his behavior). At any rate, this story is by no means positive, happy, or seeking to be well-liked. I'm not so much ashamed that I wrote it as I am appalled by the circumstances that led me to do so.

Summary: The Raikage agrees to forgive Sasuke on one condition: that Naruto offer up his own life as payment. Naruto is prepared to die, but what the Raikage has in mind is far worse.

Bet Your Life

A Naruto Fanfic by

Nate Grey (xman0123-at-aol-dot-com)

The snow was freezing cold against his skin, and Naruto could think of a million more comfortable ways to beg for his friend's life. But he was begging, and it was Sasuke's life on the line. Nothing else mattered.

Or so he thought at the time.

The Raikage was listening. Not favorably, or with any visible sign of interest, but he was he listening, and no longer trying to leave. Naruto was touched by the words that Kakashi and Yamato offered on his behalf. Surely a lesser man would have given in.

But no Kage was a lesser man.

The Raikage did not respond right away. He took a step toward Naruto's bowed form, and then another.

The answer did not come in words, but in the form of a heavy foot slamming down on Naruto's back. If not for the flare of killing intent, he would have been completely unprepared for the attack. Even so, he felt as if twenty Rock Lees had driven him into the snow.

"You have no pride as a ninja," the Raikage growled, "and in my eyes, you ceased to be one the second you hit your knees. I have no use for a foreign commoner in my village. What could you possibly offer me that would equal Uchiha Sasuke's life?"

It took all Naruto had to keep his tone respectful. "I am a ninja of Konoha, and my life is equal to Sasuke's. I was the only genin in our village that fought him to a draw. No one else knows him better, and no one else is willing to do more for his sake. If you still doubt my abilities, ask your ninja. They'll tell you that I defeated Akatsuki's leader."

"Your power is nothing if you don't have brains enough to know when to use it," the Raikage snorted. "If you had come to me with your head high, demanded that I forgive Sasuke, and attacked me with all your might, I would at least respect your determination while I pounded you into the snow. But to beg at my feet like a child humiliates you, your companions, and your entire village. Is your friend's life really worth such shame?"

Naruto hesitated, both because he wasn't sure of the answer, and because he sensed that the Raikage was wavering. "Yes, it is," he replied.

The Raikage removed his foot from Naruto's back. "Then these are the terms: your life for Sasuke's. From now until the day I say that you die, you will be nothing more than my village's trash. If you do anything other than what I command, either you will be put to death, or you'll spend the rest of your days in a cell with only Sasuke's severed head for company. If you agree and keep your word, my village will not pursue Sasuke."

"I agree," Naruto said before his companions could stop him, "and I never go back on my word. That is my ninja way."

"Wrong. It was your ninja way, before you became trash."

Something heavy slammed into Naruto's head, and the last thing he heard was Yamato's shout of protest.

Naruto woke up in a cave. He was not restrained in any way, save for the genjutsu that seemed to activate if he proceeded too far in any one direction. The pain the hallucinations gave him felt far too real to ignore, so Naruto learned to stay put.

He was brought food, but never at the same times, and certainly not regularly. There was no way to keep track of how much time had passed, since the guards were all masked and unremarkable otherwise.

At one point, an old man appeared and began to lecture Naruto. He talked of the Great Ninja Wars, and the lows that each of the five great powers sunk to in order to obtain victory. He told Naruto, in explicit detail, how maidens from various clans were kidnapped, brought to the Cloud, and raped until they bore children. The women were then harvested for any valuable organs they might still possess, and their children were raised to hate the nations that had supposedly abandoned them. History had never been Naruto's strong point, but he recognized the description of the women with overly large, milky eyes all too well.

Naruto thought that the old man was only there to torture his ears and mind. As it turned out, the old man had been preparing him.

The old women were far more cruel, with their cold, wrinkled hands and cups. Their words were few and clear: their purpose was to collect genetic material to produce a new generation of ninja. If Naruto resisted in any way, Sasuke would be hunted down like a dog. With no way of knowing whether Sasuke was already dead or not, Naruto gave in.

The first time that Naruto saw a boy with his own eyes, twisted by hatred and pain, he understood that the price he'd paid had been too great. What good did it do to save Sasuke, if he himself had just created a new generation of ninja lusting for blood and vengeance?

It eventually became commonplace to have the rejects of Naruto's genetic stock deliver his food. He grew especially fond of a skinny, fair-haired girl named Mari. She at least had the decency (or perhaps the nerve) to spit in his food right in front of him. When she suddenly stopped coming, Naruto convinced one of the guards to inform him that she'd tried to use her "special chakra" in a fight and burned down a fourth of the village, herself included.

Naruto learned which guards took pity on him and gave him fleeting updates of the outside world. For weeks it seemed, he asked about Konoha, only to receive blank looks.

One guard finally clued him in with the cool response of: "Konoha? That damned Uchiha wiped that place off the map years ago. Good thing, too. We never would have caught him if he hadn't been exhausted from killing the last Hokage."

Naruto stopped asking after that, which could only be a good thing. He never had to learn that many of Konoha's kunoichi and civilian women had been taken prisoner by the Cloud. He never found out that Sakura was among them. He never knew that she had bitten off her own tongue and bled to death, escaping the horrid fate of her comrades in the only way left to her. He never had to hear that Hinata had given birth to a blue-eyed boy whose fondest wish was to become Raikage, so he could finally escape the eternal shame of ever having been his father's son.

The End.

Endnotes:

Um, none, really. This is one of the few stories where I might expect flames. Though in this case, what I really expect is to find out that I'm not the only one that had a problem with some of Naruto's choices.