Naruto: Path Through Peace. Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I get no profit from this. None of these characters are mine.
As soon as Naruto made it back to his apartment in a neighborhood that was surprisingly untouched compared to the rest of the village, he crashed onto the bed and immediately started snoring. Anyone that saw what he had done during the sand/sound invasion would not be surprised at this action at all. In fact, they would have expected it considering that he fought and defeated one of Konoha's prodegies and came out victorious, while in the same day he defeated a tailed beast with the help of a giant toad without receiving much injury. Summoning the large toad alone required lots of chakra alone, but right before he did that he summoned a countless army of shadow clones that were known to take huge amounts of chakra to even survive the summoning of two shadow clones, let alone an army of them. Naruto at this moment believed he deserved to rest.
Suddenly, Naruto heard a voice, "Greetings, Naruto Uzumaki."
As soon as Naruto registered the voice, he immediately opened his eyes and was about to ask how the individual got inside of his house when he realized that he was no longer in his aparment, let alone Konoha. Naruto was in a place that he could only describe as a dark void. He couldn't see a thing, only darkness.
"Hey! Where the heck am I?" Naruto demanded, while turning around looking for the voice that just spoke to him.
'Darn, this is really scary. I can't see anything!' Naruto thought.
"I have brought you here so that I may test you. The way you treated Gaara during your fight was quite interesting. Your actions in that duration have piqued my interest and has brought up the need to test you." the illusive voice spoke.
"That still doesn't tell me where the heck I am!" Naruto shouted, "Let me out of here!"
The voice chuckled, "Very attentive ... for a child. But you still didn't listen to what I said, and I hate being ignored."
Suddenly, Naruto felt his arms and legs being restrained by invisable arms while the ground left his feet. Now Naruto was in a dark room that he couldn't see in, he was being hoisted into the air by who knows what, and he still could not find out where the voice was coming from.
"AAH!" Naruto shouted in surprise, "What the heck do you want with me you weirdo!"
"It's not what I want 'with' you, it's what I want 'from' you ... and what I want from you is your attention ... directed to what I am about to say." the voice replied.
'What the heck is going on! This guy doesn't want to kill me, but he restrained me anyway! Did someone capture me? How am I going to get out of this!' Naruto thought desperately.
"Are you going to pay attention? Naruto Uzumaki?" the voice asked.
"I don't think I have a choice at this point." Naruto replied instantly.
"Good." the voice spoke, "Now listen carefully to what I am about to tell you."
"What I am about to do is show you the history of the elemental nations, monumental moments in history. Wars, massacres, and murders. For now, you will only receive some of it. Later, you will learn of all of them." the voice said.
"Why do you want me to learn all of that?" Naruto asked.
"You will know the answer to that soon enough child." it replied,"Now let me tell you the story of Kumo's sandaime raikage and how he died."
"Kumo was about to be invaded by ten thousand Iwa shinobi", it continued, "the village had to be moved otherwise its people would have been destroyed."
"But I thought-" Naruto spoke.
The voice replied predicting Naruto's question, "Yes, Kumo would have been able to put up a fight if it was at its full strength. But its main force was putting an offensive on Konoha's north-eastern border at the time, leaving Kumo with a force of only five hundred shinobi. It would have been twenty to one favoring Iwa. It would have been a massacre if it wasn't for the kage sacrificing himself to face the ten thousand shinobi alone."
"No way! One man versus ten thousand? All for his village? Wow! That's amazing!" Naruto said in awe.
"It happened just as I am about to show you. His death was not in vain, he was able to delay the approaching army for three whole days before he keeled over and died of exhaustion. His village was able to regroup with most of its army, forcing the approaching Iwa army to retreat." the voice spoke.
"Wait, show me?" Naruto asked.
"Yes." it replied.
Without warning, Naruto's eyes squeezed shut and the next thing he knew, he heard warcries. Naruto forced his eyes open and saw a strongly built man wearing a kumo headband surrounded by many other men intent on killing him. The man's most obvious feature was not his build nor his headband, but what covered his body. The man was covered in blood. Most likely from the many shinobi that he killed. Naruto took note of the many bodies that surrounded the man.
'I guess this is the raikage.' Naruto thought.
"If this is how strong Iwa shinobi are, you will fall under the might of Kumogakure!" A yelled out as he plowed straight through multiple men.
'So he actually fought them. No hit and run, no traps, no plan ... he ran straight in there and started killing people. This is his third day and he still looks like he won't tire out! This man is unreal! He fought and killed for the last days of his life! What a way to go out though. This must be what it takes to be a kage!' Naruto thought in awe.
Suddenly, four extremely tall stone walls rose around the raikage's position.
"Fill it with mud!" someone shouted.
The raikage chose that moment to bust out of the wall. He then once again plowed through multiple shinobi with his insane speed and strength. Some shinobi who were highly unfortunate were even thrown into the air!
"Come on! I'm not done with you all yet!" the sandaime raikage shouted.
'Why hasn't anyone put the raikage in a genjutsu yet? He has no team mates to help him at all. Maybe it has to do with his speed?' Naruto thought.
Naruto noticed at that moment, the raikage was performing hand seals. After performing the last seal, his hands were shrouded in lightning chakra. The shinobi around him saw that this was the moment to attack. Whenever a shinobi made it within arms reach of the raikage, he would turn and punch them and they would fall twitching. Weapons were thrown at him, but they did not stick to his skin. No, they bounced off of his skin, leaving his skin unharmed.
'What! Impossible! Were weapons really that bad back then? ... No, they look exactly like kunai from our time. How strong is this guy!?' Naruto pondered in awe of the strength that was being shown by this man.
The raikage was just too fast, he was swatting shinobi away like they were flies, leaving them in a twitching state with only what seemed like a weak jab. None of the shinobi could react fast enough to deliver a glancing blow to the monster before them. They could only try to swarm him, and swarm him they tried to do. The space around the raikage seemed to start getting smaller as Iwa shinobi tried to restrict the movement of the kage as much as possible.
'I've never even heard of this guy before, but he took on a whole army by himself head on! This is ridiculous!'
All of a sudden, the raikage started sinking into the ground. While this happened, all the iwa shinobi around the raikage started spitting mud at him. Right before the mud shots hit, the raikage turned on his lightning armor and soared out of the pit and the mud shots. Right when he landed, he turned off his lightning armor.
'What the heck was that? That was so cool! Can I learn that?' Naruto thought.
Naruto noticed that raikage started to spit up blood on the ground.
"He is weakening! Keep up the assault!" an Iwa shinobi shouted.
The raikage suddenly started sinking again, but this time some fireballs were being shot straight at the raikage along with some mudshots.
"This again? You wont get me like this!" A shouted as he jumped out of the mud puddle ultimately dodging the mudshots and the fireballs.
Immediately after the raikage landed he was surrounded by shinobi once again. After a little bit of hesitation, the iwa shinobi started charging at the raikage. The arms of the raikage were once again covered in lightning chakra.
"You idiots! Use long range attacks! Close combat is SUICIDE!" someone shouted.
"Long range attacks don't even scratch the guy!" a shinobi yelled back.
Once again, as the shinobi made it close enough to the raikage, they were immediately knocked out with light punches without the raikage even receiving a scratch.
Suddenly, the raikage started performing hand seals extremely rapidly.
"Attack Now! Idiots! Stop that jutsu!" someone yelled.
Mudshots started raining down on the raikage, but he just stood there still performing hand seals while attempting to dodge.
"He's slowing down!" a shinobi shouted, "Kill him!"
"Lightning Style: Electronic Pulse!" the raikage shouted as he concluded his hand seals.
Suddenly, the raikage was covered in a shroud of lightning once again. But this time, the shroud of lightning started striking every shinobi in range. Every time one shinobi fell down, the shroud of lightning moved on in order to attack someone else.
"This jutsu kills everything within a 100 meter range. This is the price of betraying our treaty, Iwa scum!" the raikage shouted.
Naruto saw what could only be described as a huge bug-zapper designed to zap humans. Every human that was remotely close to the raikage was electrocuted and burned to a crisp. It was quite a sight to see.
Naruto was shocked into silence.
'This man was a freaking god! I can't believe a jutsu could kill that many people at once!' Naruto thought.
Suddenly, the raikage fell face-down onto the ground.
One shinobi ran up to the body and stabbed it right in the head. No resistance met.
"He's dead! The third raikage of Kumo is dead! Onwards to Kumo!" an Iwa shinobi shouted.
This was where the vision ended as Naruto was back inside of the dark room, completely unrestrained.
"Hello?! Anybody here?" Naruto asked out to the void.
"Hello again Naruto Uzumaki." the voice from earlier spoke out.
"It's you again!" Naruto said.
"What are your thoughts?" the voice asked.
"My thoughts on what? The fight?" Naruto asked.
"Yes." it replied.
"Well, I mean, the raikage was amazing ... What's the point of this question?" Naruto asked.
"Well, what about the families of the people the raikage killed? What about the village that lost their leader?" the voice asked.
"What about them?" Naruto asked.
"I don't think you get it." the voice stated.
Suddenly, Naruto started hearing sobbing voices echoing around the dark void.
"No ... it can't be ... This wouldn't have happened if Kumo didn't just die!"
"It's not true! He can't be dead! We just got engaged! He's not dead! He can't be!"
"Mommy? Why are you crying? Is daddy coming back?"
"Damn you Iwa! Cowards! Backstabbing bastards deserve to burn in hell!"
And immediately, the voices halted abruptly.
"Nothing good comes out of war. In that battle, Kumo bred hatred for Iwa and Iwa also harbored hatred for Kumo in return for the lives lost that day." the voice continued.
"I'll fix that when I become Hokage! There will be no more wars while i'm wearing that hat!" Naruto yelled out enthusiastically.
"Your energy is welcome, but do remember that many kages before you have said the same thing." the voice told Naruto.
"Now, I have not made my point yet, so let's move on ... Minato Namikaze, better known as the fourth hokage of the hidden leaf village, is a hero in his village for what he did in the third shinobi war. Do you know what he did Naruto?" the voice asked.
"Yes I do! He beat up a huge chunk of Iwa's army in order to save his comrades that were low in supply!" Naruto said.
"You were close." the voice said, "Minato Namikaze killed thousands of shinobi in order to support his comrades that were in need of support."
Naruto sweatdropped, "I just said that..."
"Whatever ... Now, you will see that battle in all its bloody glory!" the voice announced.
Naruto's eyes were forced shut once again. When he opened his eyes, he was in a dark forest save for a small area illuminated with a campfire. The trees were extremely tall with long and thick branches. Naruto looked harder into the branches and saw humanoid figures on them.
Suddenly, Naruto saw an explosive note fly into the middle of the camp and created an explosion effectively destroying the camp. Naruto looked back up at the tree to see many shinobi that did not have headbands that belonged to Konoha.
The trees suddenly became more active. Bodies started falling from the trees lifelessly only to be stopped by the ground underneath. Clashes and clanks of swords and kunai could be heard in the distance.
All of a sudden, a huge rain of kunai fell throughout the whole forest. These kunai hit many people but mostly got lodged into trees and the ground. Then it became clear to Naruto when he stared at one of the kunai. It was a three pronged kunai. Kunai that belonged to only one person.
Naruto frantically scanned the shadows for a sight of his hero but none could be found. That was, until he saw a yellow flash.
"AAAAAAH!" Naruto heard a scream of pain coming from the trees followed by a thump as the body hit the ground in a bloody heap with blood spraying from a wound on the deceased shinobi's neck.
Naruto started seeing the forest lit up by yellow flashes. It was happening so fast Naruto could only see the flashes of yellow and the blood glistening in the flashes of light.
"RETREAT! RETREAT NOW!" someone yelled.
"And that is all you will see for now." the elusive voice spoke.
The dark forest gone, Naruto was back in the dark void once again. (AN: Redo this fight. I know I can do better (-_-))
"STOP DOING THAT!" Naruto yelled out.
"You have no power to tell me to stop doing ANYTHING!" the voiced replied, "You are in my world now, you have no control over it, now get used to it."
Suddenly, Naruto heard angry shouts and sad sobs once again. Naruto heard only a few out of the many.
"Damn you Yellow Flash!"
"The Yellow Demon ... Should go burn in the deepest pits of hell!"
"Damn you Konoha! Creating so many demons and unleashing them in war! Monsters! All of them! MONSTERS!"
Once again, the sobs ceased abruptly.
"Most of Iwa now remembers and hates Minato Namikaze and in turn, hates Konoha as well while citizens of Konoha also return that hatred." the voice explained.
"What is the point in letting me hear this?" Naruto asked.
"Knowing the answer to that question is unnecessary and ruins the point of my test." the voice replied coldy.
"This is a test?! Man, I hate tests! They always make me think too hard!" Naruto complained.
"I said that it was a test when you came in here ... imbecile." the voice said.
"You said that you brought me here to test me, but you never started the test though." Naruto replied.
"Fool! That is not the focus of this conversation!" the voiced yelled out "Now, let us get back on track."
"Uzushiogakure was home to the Uzumaki clan." the voice said.
"I HAD A CLAN!?" Naruto blurted out.
"They were skilled masters of seals and traps. Really dangerous, really powerful. They were related to the senju clan and were allies with Konoha. But the village was destoryed by Kiri and Kumo because they were threatened by the village's expertise in the art of sealing." the voice continued, "So the village was pillaged but Kiri and Kumo could not salvage anything of value from the village."
"How? They won right? They destroyed the village!" Naruto asked.
"As I have said before, the Uzumaki were masters of seals and traps. Kiri and Kumo put Uzushiogakure under siege for months. The Uzumaki knew that the army would break through eventually, so they turned the inside of the village into a deathtrap for non-Uzumaki intruders. The siege gave them all of the time they needed in order to set that up. All of the shinobi of the Uzumaki clan stayed behind in order to let their bretheren escape the soon-to-fall village. All of the shinobi sacrificed themselves to take out the majority of the attacking force. They did not have enough people to handle the , it is time for you to-"
"Wait! They were allies with Konoha? Why didn't Konoha help? Uzushiogakure was under siege for a whole month and Konoha didn't know about it? Something's wrong here." Naruto asked.
"The pleas for help never made it to Konoha. Uzu was surrounded, no messages got out. Konoha did not revieve any message or any hint that Uzushio was in trouble. Now watch."
Naruto's eyes were closed against his will once again. Naruto opened his eyes to see a dark courtyard. He heard warcries from the distance. Naruto kept looking around for any person at all.
Naruto saw a female ninja bearing the headband that resembled a spiral wrapped around her forehead. She had blood-red hair tied up into a pony-tail. She wore a jet-black vest with pants the same color. Naruto saw a company of ninja behind her.
"Okay boys! Every hit we take, we give back ten times harder!"
"YEAH!"
"For Uzu!"
"FOR UZU!"
"FOR UZU!"
Naruto heard an explosion and saw a wall crumbling and falling. As the wall was falling ninja started jumping over the wall and pouring into the courtyard.
Suddenly, a series of explosions blew up multiple ninja from under their feet. When more ninja tried to run in through the torn wall, they were impaled by multiple waves of kunai.
"The traps will reload in a few minutes! Remember the plan boys!" the woman yelled out as she pulled out two kunai charged towards the breached wall alongside some of her comrades.
The instant a shinobi ran in front of the red-headed kunoichi, she cut straight through them with her kunai. She pierced through the army. Naruto looked at her trail and saw symbols on every one of her footsteps. She then held up a handsign.
Suddenly, a trail of explosions came from the cloud of ninja behind her.
'Did she do that? Did she make all those explosions?' Naruto thought.
"You bitch!"
The red-headed kunoichi was charged by a man but he was launched straight back to where he came from before Naruto could see the lady move.
"Water Style: Tidal Wave combination: Water Dragon Jutsu!" yelled out a large group of Kiri shinobi.
Several water dragons suddenly appeared and started flowing towards the Uzumaki ninja. The dragons all smashed into one another and became an extremely tall and wide tidal wave.
There was no escape. The ninja tried to move out of the way but the way was too wide and too tall. All of the Uzumaki army were caught inside of the tidal wave.
The Kiri shinobi performed some more handsigns.
"Water Style: Thick Water Prison Jutsu!"
"Zap them now!"
"Lightning style: Lightning palm!"
Naruto saw several kumo shinobi with lightning chakra shrouding their hands. They walked towards the big puddle of water and they all thrusted their arms into the water at the exact same time.
Naruto winced as he say each of the Uzumaki ninja open their mouths in order to scream out in pain, but Naruto could not hear them, only bubbles came out of their mouths. It was a cruel combination. Drowning and getting electrecuted at the same time. There was no holding your breath against this. You were dead if you were caught.
'No one. Not even my enemies. Deserves to die like that.' Naruto thought.
"I will make you all pay! Here and now! For daring to fight our village! Prepare to see the might of Uzushiogakure!" A female voice shouted.
Naruto saw the woman he saw earlier, holding a bag. She then ran straight towards the army, head first. Suddenly, explosions came from under the Kiri and Kumo ninja and a huge chunk of them were taken out. Waves of kunai shortly followed afterwards shaving off a few more of their numbers.
Naruto kept watching the woman, she ran between people, jumped over jutsu, slid under swords, all the while placing random bits of paper onto the ground. She continued doing this until there was paper around every single shinobi she could see. She then threw the bag up into the air and all of the paper inside of it spilled out, flying everywhere.
"GET AWAY FROM THE PAPER! NOW!"
"It's too late! Say your prayers assholes! Sealing Art: Hellzone Grenade! For Uzushio-!" She shouted.
Naruto saw one hell of an explosion. The explosion could be seen for miles.
"The rest of it is history. The Kiri and Kumo shinobi found the Uzu civilians and attacked them. Only some of them escaped. Some of your clan may be out there somewhere. Konoha now has a grudge against Kumo and Kiri because of this incident. Peace in this world is impossible because of the amount of hatred that resides in this world. Now for the test: Based on the information I gave you, How would you bring peace to the elemental nations?"
"That's a little out of the blue!" Naruto shouted out, "You just showed me multiple instances of people killing each other, and then you suddenly ask how to stop it from happening? What kind of stupid test is this?!"
"That is not all I showed you. Think, Naruto Uzumaki."
'Let's see, Kumo vs. Iwa. Kumo's Kage got killed not by Iwa, but by exhaustion. Kumo hates Iwa and Iwa hates Kumo. I think it was Konoha vs. Iwa, Konoha won in the end. Iwa hates Konoha, especially the yellow flash, and Konoha hates Iwa.' Naruto took a deep breath.
'Kumo and Kiri vs. Uzu. Uzushiogakure lost in the end. Konoha hates Kumo and Kiri because they lost their ally but... Wait. Hatred disappeared because one side disappeared? Of course it did! The other side is DEAD! They can't hate anymore!'
"By what you are showing me, you are suggesting that someone destroys the elemental nations!"
Naruto could hear the voice laughing.
"I didn't suggest anything Naruto Uzumaki, you are the one who created that assumption by yourself."
"You are wrong! You don't have to destroy so many people in order to gain peace in this world. When I become stronger, I will prove it to you! That is my ultimate promise! This world will find peace without the distruction of the elemental nations. That is my vow! My Promise! And I never go back on my word!" Naruto shouted.
"My my Naruto, you are certainly different from the others. You say you only need strength in order to bring peace to the elemental nations? Are you sure Naruto?"
"Did you hear me at all! When I get stronger, I will be able to bring peace to the elemental nations." Naruto declared.
"What if I told you I would be able to give you the strength that you seek, The power many can only dream of?"
"Are you trying to take my soul?" Naruto asked.
"Why the hell would I want your soul?" the voice asked back.
"No reason, just checking." Naruto said quickly, "I would either think you were lying about giving me power, or would want something in exchange. Nothing comes for free."
"Well, the power in question, when in the right hands, with the right person with a noble goal wields it, the power is more than many can handle. I could tell you the way to unlock it as long as you promise me."
"Promise what?" Naruto asked.
"Promise to bring peace to the elemental nations. But since you have already vowed and given me what looks like an irrevocable promise, you will work hard to bring this peace I ask for. Now Promise me, you will work hard to bring peace to the elemental nations."
"I promise!"
"Very well Naruto Uzumaki. Ask your teacher about sage mode. As soon as you unlock it, you will gain power, knowledge, and strength of the legendary sage. The path to unlock this strength is not easy. Failure to unlock this power will be fatal. The path to unlock it will be much harder for you. There will be multiple and difficult tests that will stretch the limits of your integrity. But, once you master this power, do not forget your promise and your mission otherwise you will be punished. I am holding you to your promise now Naruto. It wouldn't be very hard for you since you never go back on your word, isn't that right? Naruto Uzumaki."
"I'll do it! Uh, who the heck are you though?"
Naruto's eyes opened and he realized he was back in his room on his bed.
'Everything that happened is fresh in my mind. What the heck was that?' Naruto thought.
Naruto looked outside and saw that it was still dark.
'I guess i'll go ask Jiraiya tomorrow.' Naruto thought as lay back down on his bed.
If you liked the story, please review! If You liked it, say something. If you didn't please tell me what I can improve or tell me what I did wrong.