Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
My 1st real attempt at a serious Naruto fic.
Twisted Reality.
15 years after after the 4th shinobi war the ninja world is enjoying an unparalleled time of peace and prosperity. Though in the far reaches of fire country a series of minor earthquakes is causing concern. Deep within some ancient ruins a monolithic gateway rumbles as desperate ninja's from a parallel world make a desperate plea for help.
Naruto stood in the office of the Hokage (Fire Shadow) looking out over Konohagakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Leaves), in the distance he saw the great forest's that surrounded his great village. These days the Forest of Death was nothing but a training ground often used when Konoha hosted the great Chunin exams 2nd stage. Usually as a war games scenario though the objectives changed from exam to exam the general concept remained the same it was used as an area to pit chunin hopefuls against one another, though many years ago during the war torn days of the Shodai (Founder) Hokage, Senju Hashirama and his incredible Mokuton (Wood Release) ability the forests surrounding the great village were themselves known as the forests of death, entire army's had entered the forests with the intention of ending the era of hidden villages before it even began had never even reached the walls of Konoha, their name was well earned but like all things time went by and the Shodai eventually met his end, now many years later the 7th Hokage Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto was in charge of maintaining peace and prosperity in Konoha and he did it well.
Naruto sighed, it seemed that whenever he had a moment to think he was always drawn to thoughts of conflict, though this was something that was exceptionally rare during his reign he had fostered such good relations with the other nations that even his paperwork was considered minimal. 15 years of peace had also had other more interesting effects the rates of new ninja entering the acadamy had been declining for years in the eyes of children becoming a ninja was almost considered boring.
"and who could blame them" Naruto thought.
There had not been a confirmed ninja on ninja kill In almost 11 years not including missing nin's.
"How ironic, I actually succeeded in becoming the greatest Hokage ever and in doing so have removed the need for one..."
The job of the Hokage had become nothing but a fomality, this was not to say that he was not still incredibly respected ninja, though children did look at him with the same kind of awe that he used to view the 3rd. Narutos thoughts drifted to his predecessor, looking out over Hokage mountain his eyes settled onto the visage of the Professor, the God of shinobi.
"You would be so proud, old man. This world of peace and prosperity"
Naruto knew he should be proud of his achievements he had succeeded in realizing the dream of his late teacher Jiraiya one of the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary 3 Ninjas) and had stopped the circle of hatred that had for so long encompassed the 5 great nations.
But Naruto being the man he was had never grown out of his hyperactive ways and the prospect of sitting around in the Hokages office all day was not all that appealing. A void had begun to open in his life that needed filling, though he would never say it out loud there were days when he missed the constant fight for his life, the constant bouts with shinobi's knowing full well that their intention was to deprive you of your life. Naruto knew he should not think like that but he slowly began to realize that the void in his life was that he no longer felt alive he was not content with his life, sparring with Kakashi and Konohamaru only got you so far. Part of the reason was that he had seen almost all of his old friends had now settled down and started families even Kakashi. Though a wonderful girl had once confessed her love 2 him many years ago during the confrontation with Pain, she was now long gone and Naruto had never had the chance to try and develop that bond before she was cruelly taken away.
A knock at Hokages office door shook him out of his reverie.
"Come in" Naruto Spoke.
In walked a 14 year old slender girl with long sandy hair and a Konoha head band around her right arm, she wore a chunin flack jacket with many scrolls attached to it Haruka was also a teacher at the acadamy and was very fond of her superior.
"Haruka-Chan" Naruto greeted with a huge grin
"Please please please tell me theres been an attack or an explosion or someone has stolen the 4th Hokages head right off the mountain! Just tell me anything that sounds exciting... make it up if you have to"
Haruka smiled
"im sorry Hokage-sama nothing so serious or exciting im afraid" she said with a giggle.
"although I do have the Quarterly Report on the Fire Nation's Economic, Financial and Political status"
Naruto's head dropped, but only for a moment.
"just give me the highlights then please Haruka-chan and also I told u not to be so formal. Naruto is fine thats what everyone else calls me" he rounded off with his trademark grin"
"ok Naruto" she said
"you say that every time" Naruto said as he sighed.
"Trade from outside fire country is up 3%" she began
"theres a shock" Naruto interrupted sarcastically
"Trade from inside fire country is also up 5%, trade from specialized materials imported from Earth Country is"
"Highlights..." Naruto cut in with a grin
"Trade in general is way up, ninja missions in general are at an all time low"
Naruto groaned.
"and there have been reports of minor earthquakes from an eastern region of Fire Country though nothing serious its been brought to out attention because of the incredible consistency of these quakes occurring approximately every 33 hours and 23 minuets" she finished
"You probably should have started with that tidbit dear Haruka-Chan" Naruto said with a smile.
Haruka Blushed
"Interesting to say the least, I for one done believe in coincidences there has to be some kind of force behind them for them to be so consistent..." Naurto said with a thoughtful expression.
Naruto was keen to investigate this personally if only because hes barley had reason to set foot out of the village in the last 10 years and to get him out will take his mind of other things.
"How would you like a mission to Iwagakure Haruka-Chan?"
"...can I say no?" replied Haruka
"of course you can... but id consider it a personal favor and ill throw in A rank pay" he flashed a cheeky smile.
"...then I accept" she said with a groan.
"Wonderful Haruka-Chan I need you to travel to Iwa and speak to the Tsuchikage and tell him that we need a team of his best Doton geology experts to narrow down the location of these earthquakes."
"Troublesome..." she replied
"Now you sound like your father" he laughed.
"Don't hurry yourself too much Haruka this isn't really an A rank mission a real A rank mission hasn't been handed out in 3 years, but ill give you the usual 2 week time limit, get there as fast as you can should not take u more than 3 days, speak to the Tsichikage, tell him our needs and you can spend the next 11 days cloud watching if you want." naruto said.
Haruka knew there was a reason she thought the Hokage was awesome.
"Thank you Hokag... Naruto-Sama" she smiled.
"thats somewhat better I suppose"
Haruka turned and left, and Naruto was left to think once again.
Haruka wasnt the kind of girl who liked to dart across the rooftops in an effort to get where she was going, that required far far to much effort. She preferred walking there was no rush, not these days in any case.
She decided that because she was going to get such a fat paycheck the next time she was back here in Konoha she could afford to eat out tonight, so she set off to where she knew her father would likely be eating now with her favorite Uncle Chouji where she would eat her fill and then go home and prepare for her mission/vacation.
In a parallel universe
Twigs snapped as they rushed as fast as they could through the dense brush of eastern Fire Country they undoubtedly had more than a few Konoha Ninjas on their trails but he was confident that he had lost them, he was after up until 10 years ago one of them, 10 years ago he was considered one of the best ninjas Konoha had to offer he was faultless his methods considered too kind for Konohas standard. The 3rd hokage that had taught him Sarutobi Hiruzen had been known as the Black Professor and the God of Death many times he had scolded him for his "weak" methods though he had never seen the logic to his teachers belifs.
Flashback
"if you do not mutilate your enemies beyond recognition you will not be feared by your enemies Orochimaru."
Standing in front of him was a man who was bound and shaking violently the man spoke.
"P..please Hokage-s...sama im sorry I was late with my d..d..duty shift"
"Such blatant disregard will not be tolerated Mizuki" said the old man.
"do as I say Orochimaru! Make sure there is nothing left to identify this man as the Chunin Mizuki"
to disobey the 3rd was simply unthinkable and even if he though that he could take the old man in a fight there was no way he could defeat him. Orochimaru had no choice but to obey.
Orochimaru reached forward and slashed mizuki's throat
Mizuki fell to the floor, Orochimaru could he the man crying before he could no longer breathe and stopped moving. Orochimaru hated the mindless violence of it all the man had done nothing more than be late for his duty shift.
"you disappoint me Orochimaru, your kindness will be your downfall one day"
the old man dashed forward with incredible speed and with a spoon like tool had plucked Mizuki's eyes right out of his sockets, within moments the old man had lifted Mizuki's corpse over his head and with a curved blade had cut him from his neck to his pelvis, the entire contents of Mizukis body had spilled out all over the old man, and the onto the floor.
Orochimaru had seen this before it was the 3rd favorite way of killing a man. The old man walked over to Mizuki's kidneys and picked them up and sealed them into a scroll.
"Fresh kidneys are the best in a pie" said the old man with an insane smile.
As the old man left the room a feral looking woman walked in with 3 dogs behind her, though they didn't stay there for long they were soon eating what was left of Mizuki and the feral woman soon joined in.
10 mins after that there was nothing left of the man named Mizuki's who was late for his duty shift. Even the bones had been sealed away by the woman undoubtedly as a treat for her 3 dogs.
"You had better harden up Orochi-chan, Hiruzen-Sama wont put up with your weak attitude forever no matter how talented you are, and god forbid you ever cross paths with him. The old mans methods are tame by caparison." said the feral woman with blood all over her mouth as she departed
Orochimaru had no doubt's that he lived in a dark dark world, but this... surley there was something more true enough what he had heard of him was enough to know that he never wanted to wrong him. He had heard that he grew up tormented abused and beaten and regularly raped by multiple people every night. Until he was strong enough to exert his revenge on them he had purposely learned medical ninjutsu, kidnapped the people who had once tormented him, kidnapped their families and made them watch as he beat, tortured, raped them and then healed them. And did it again and again and again to their wives, their children and even their friends and their pets. Its said that he loved to make the children watch as he made their parents kill one another. It is also said that these are the nicer ways to die by his hand.
Orochimaru decided that night that he would leave konoha, he could not change who he was he didint want to particpate in mindless violence and he knew eventually that would lead him to fall under the glare of Hiruzen or him and they would not be kind.
Orochimaru left for him home packed his bags and left.
Flashback ends
Knowing that they had lost their tail. Orochimaru and his partner a missing nin also from Konoha by the name of Kurenai.
They had been on a mission to reconnoiter one of the outlying bases in fire country the closest base to their own base of operations based in some ruins in the far east of fire country the rebel base was well hidden behind several layers of very high level illusionary techniques their mission was to identify if the local base had any idea about their own operations. They were almost complete but his partner had got 2 close to the perimeter and had been spotted by a Hyuga and they had to make a run for it. They had retreated towards to west so as to not give any indication of their nearby base of operation and had eventually gave their perusers the slip.
"im sorry Orochimaru-kun, I almost got us killed" she said
"That you did..." he replied
"but whats done is done, in our old home you would have been executed for such a mistake"
Kurenai stared at the ground.
"But those barbaric ways are exactly why we are not a part of that village any more."
"Now rest and get your energy back, we need to be back at the ruins before noon tomorrow"
"The gateway that Nagato-Kun found deep within them requires that we feed chakra into it every 33 hours and 23 mins, in order to send a message"
"its a waste of our chakra, we have done it 20 times in a row now and nobody has responded" she said
"and even if we do nobody has enough chakra to actually activate the gate anyway"
"we can only hope that someone on the other end is capable I know the chances are slim but it provides us with hope and that is what we really need if we are to ever win this war." Orochimaru replied.
"ill take the 1st watch, you get some sleep and ill wake you in 5 hours"
Primary Universe
16 days had passed, Haruka had got back from her mission 2 days ago and reported that the Doton geologists had started their mission right away instead of coming to Konoha first. Naruto had received word that the Geologists had finished their mission and were en route to fill in the Hokage with the details.
Knock Knock
"Come in" Naruto Spoke
in walked a team of 3 rather burley looking men, who despite their appearance were actually very educated in the sciences of geology.
"Naruto-Sama, it is a great honor to meet you" said the tallest and who Naruto presumed was the leader of the trio.
To say that he was thrilled to be standing infront of such a legend was an understatement, Kanto had heard stories of this man all his life, stories that his father used to send him off to bed with as a child Naruto the saviour of the world, the greatest ninja who ever lived, there was even chatter amongst the various nations that a new alliance was soon to be agreed that would unite all the nations under 1 leader and that leader would likely be Naruto. The Shodai All Shadow.
"My name is Kanto, and this is Donto and Joto, we have finished our mission to investigate the minor earthquakes in eastern Fire Country and they are most interesting indeed, the remarkable consistency to the quakes was a mystery to us until we found the ruins in which they originated, we investigated deep into the ruins and found a remarkable cavern with ancient writings all around it, but by far the most interesting landmark was a huge rectangular object at the far end of the chamber, though I can only speculate at its purpose it appeared to be some kind of gateway"
Naruto raised an eyebrow things were finally getting interesting
"There also seemed to be a repeating message that appeared, although the ancient language stopped us from being able to decipher its meaning"
"My recommendation would be that a team of archaeologists be sent into the ruins to work on translating the text" Kanto finished
"Thank you very much for your services and your recommendation Kanto-san, Konoha will most certainly be sending in a group of archaeologists to decipher the ancient ruins."
Naruto threw a brown bag that was clearly full of money to Kanto
"your payment as agreed" Naruto Said
"Thank you once again, Naruto-Sama its been a great honor meeting you"
"The honor was mine Kanto-San"
The trio turned and left all 3 ecstatic to have met such a legend and surprised by his humble nature.
"Dog, Boar"
2 figures appeared in front of Naruto
"Hokage-Sama what is your wish?"
"Bring me Sharingan Kakashi and the jonin commander Shikamaru Nara" he said with a smile.
"yes, sir" and the 2 vanished.
10 mins later
Shikamaru arrives and looks around.
"Were waiting for Kakashi, so make yourself comfortable" said Naruto
"Troublesome..."
130 mins later
Kakashi Arrives
"yo" said Kakashi
"Because its peace time, your retired and your my old teacher ill let you off being nearly 3 hours late." said Naruto.
Kakashi did his usual eye smile.
"Well actually I ran into a man who had actually stole the 4th hokages head right off hokage monument, and I could not just let him keep it so I chased him down and retrieved it and put it back on the mountain"
Shikamaru stared incredulously
"Man you just get worse and worse dont you Kakashi... " he said
"The reason I have called you both here is that im going to be going on a mission to some ruins to the eastren end of fire country, I want you Kakashi to come with me and you Shikamaru to stay here and take over the day to day affairs of the village in my stead."
Once again Shikamaru stared incredulously
"You want me to run the village? troublesome..." he said
"mah mah, beats getting whipped by Temari and Haruka" Kakashi said with an eye smile
Shikamaru made and unintelligible sound.
"and since im semi retired I have been losing my edge a bit I need to stretch my legs every now and then" said Kakashi
"My thoughts exactly Kakashi-Sensei" Naruto flashed a grin
"We will be setting off tomorrow at dawn with a group of archaeologists"
"this is just what I need" thought Naruto.
"Your dismissed Shikamaru, Kakashi I need you to stay, " naruto said
As Shikamaru left Naruto said
"i just need to get a scroll from the library"
Naruto left leaving Kakashi on his own in the office, little did Kakashi know that naruto had to intention of coming back.
"Sucker" Naruto thought as he headed back home to get an early nights sleep.
Well thats the end of the 1st chapter. I hope you like it.