Disclaimer- I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden or any of its characters…
First of all, this is a what-if story, but with a more comprehensive outlook into the butterfly effect. How the life would have changed if a single event, in the beginning, or in the end, had differed, how it would affect the timeline. This is also going to be a grey yet fun story with a lot of conversations, strips of comedy and some rare mind-blowing action sequences. If you are a SasuSaku or a NaruSaku fan or if you even prefer Sasuke and Sakura, please leave immediately, this story isn't for you. I won't bash Sasuke or Sakura much, but needless to say, the story won't be centred on or around them. Alternate Universe… Alternate Reality…
To be frank, in this story, Naruto will become a badass grey protagonist, in time. I believe all stories should be minimally realistic yet in an absolutely unbelievable way, it shouldn't be written, it should be developed. I dig the idea of using the most commonly used cliché filled ideas for stories and then give it a semi-lifelike background to build upon.
In my opinion, Kishimoto should have named the series as Sasuke instead of Naruto, if so; he would have had a better reason to justify his blatant favouritism towards the Uchiha in general. However, it is his story, so he can write it any way he wants to write and so this is my fanfic and I can write it any way I want.
Age of Tsukuyomi: Year 25-
A fifty-six-year-old spiky silver-haired man clad in dark blue pants, a long-sleeve shirt and a black armoured flak jacket was lying on his bed with his eyes closed. Atop his left eye, there was a vertical scar; the lower half of his face was covered with a mask that covered up to his nose. He was none other than the famed shinobi of the moniker Copy Ninja Kakashi.
The entire world was stuck in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and there was no way to dispel it because the one person who could do it was dead. His wayward former student Sasuke Uchiha was dead and with him, the Rinnegan too had died. As of this day, it's been twenty-five years since the Genjutsu had been cast on this world. He had endured twenty-five years of isolation, more than two decades of loneliness, all because his arrogant student couldn't see reason.
All of this was a result of one crucial day's event. Still today, he can remember that fateful day to its very last detail.
Valley of the End-
The legendary battle between Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha had taken a pause when Naruto's ultimate technique, the Six Paths: Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken had taken a head-on collision with Sasuke's ultimate technique, the Indra's Arrow. The resultant blast was so titanic that it completely stripped off Naruto's Senjutsu enhanced Tailed-Beast Mode and Sasuke's Indra Susanoo. Having been stripped of their respective prowess both fell down to the floor of an almost-destroyed Valley of the End.
"Ugh…" Sasuke grunted furiously as he struggled to get up from the ground because the explosion had stripped away the Indra Susanoo, and all the tailed-beast chakra with it, he got on all fours but his legs failed him as he stumbled down once again.
The Uchiha looked up only to see as the dust cleared, far away in the distance, Naruto was exactly opposite to him supporting himself up on one knee with his body straight.
Naruto took deep breaths; he was so tired that he didn't have any energy left within him, "Sasuke, stop this…"
Sasuke focused his left eye on his former teammate and channelled chakra, "Amaterasu..." In the distance, Naruto raised his right hand to block the black flames and his arm was suddenly on fire.
He pulled on Kurama's chakra and the level 1 Kurama chakra cloak appeared and slipped the Amaterasu flames off his hand.
Sasuke bellowed angrily as he clutched on his right eye which stung as if several needles were piercing into his eye, "Why don't you just die?"
"Sasuke, stop...!"
"No…! I will destroy and create this world as I see fit. This world only deserves my new world order."
And then, there was silence, it prevailed for a few minutes in the destroyed valley.
"Will my life satisfy you, Sasuke? Will it redeem you? Will that, give this world another chance?" Naruto asked tiredly as if he had enough of everything.
"Is that all that you can offer me, Naruto?" The Uchiha asked angrily.
"Yes…!" Naruto replied sadly yet frankly, but he continued further, "Will you give our world another chance if I give my life in return for it?"
"And you'll still trust me to keep my end?"
"Always..."
Again silence prevailed over them as a long moment's passed, Sasuke spoke softly than before yet sounding very unsure, as he gave his answer, "Maybe…"
Naruto didn't hesitate, he took his kunai almost instantly and held it to his heart, but before he stabbed himself, he gave Sasuke one final stare and smiled contently as a single tear rolled down his cheek. Naruto closed his eyes and recalled his promises, he wouldn't be becoming Hokage, he wouldn't be bringing Sasuke back to the village, and he wouldn't be there to see the peace that he promised to Nagato, Jiraiya-sensei, Obito, old man Sage and Kurama. For a moment, his resolve faltered but he quickly regained his bearings because he believed that his death would inspire Sasuke to give this world another chance and for that he felt like giving his life was worth it.
And then, in a flash, Naruto pulled out and punched the kunai deep into his heart. He didn't stop there as he further forced it in as he coughed up blood. Sasuke watched on in absolute shock at what had transpired in front of his very eyes. The Uchiha mustered up every bit of strength he had left in his body and ran towards the Kyuubi Jinchuriki, but just when he was three feet away, Naruto collapsed backwards as life slowly drained of his eyes.
Sasuke stopped still on approach; he clenched his hands and closed his eyes as only one thought went through his head, "Does this world deserve Naruto's life?"
Sasuke opened his eyes with a determined resolve and walked closer to his downed opponent and then he stooped down to Naruto's dying form and placed his right hand on Naruto's forehead. Sasuke used his Rinnegan's chakra absorption ability to absorb whatever chakra Naruto had left in his body and when there was no more chakra to spare; Sasuke further went on to absorbing the blonde's life-force until it was dry. As all the chakra was drained out, Naruto's healing factor stopped and so did the body's ability to regenerate and repair, while his soul left the body and moved on to the pure land.
Meanwhile, Kakashi's heart wrenched at seeing the 'light of their world' sacrificing himself hoping that it would redeem his wayward student. A sudden surge of determination filled the Jonin, a sense of anger coupled with a sense of duty he owed to the world and to his sensei's son. Naruto never gave up hope until the very end; he never wavered in his belief that Sasuke could be redeemed, he never doubted in his ability. It added so much more grief when he realised that Naruto's sacrifice had no effect on Sasuke, whatsoever.
Kakashi's regular eyes morphed into the Sharingan and then it further transformed into the Mangekyōu design with the three stretched triangles evenly spaced around the pupil that each one of the triangles curved towards the right at the very top around the eye to form a circle, making it similar to a pinwheel. His Sharingan eyes were Obito's final gift along with Naruto's brilliance, just as Obito's chakra took hold of him; Naruto used the Six Paths Yang chakra to permanently transmute both his eyes into Obito's Sharingan and strengthened his chakra core permanently, which not only matured his eyes and the chakra pathways around it, it also gave him the ability to deactivate and activate both his Sharingan eyes at will.
Sakura collapsed to her knees in tears as she was torn at her core. She loved Sasuke so much that she didn't have the strength to face him, but at the same time, she cared for Naruto that she wanted vengeance for Naruto's death. Furthermore, she couldn't digest the fact that Naruto's sacrifice literally had no effect on Sasuke as it didn't instigate any change.
Kakashi instinctively used the 'Kamui' with so much finesse that rivalled Obito's skill at peak as he warped towards Sasuke without alerting the latter in any way. Kakashi warped back to reality appearing just about ten feet away from Sasuke, that's when he heard Sasuke's comment intended for the corpse of his most talented student, which made his blood run cold, "A naïve bastard to the very end, you were…Naruto."
Kakashi took a kunai out in his right hand and charged it with lighting chakra in anger because he no longer believed that his wayward student deserved to live, especially if that life came at a cost of Naruto's sacrifice. Just as he was about to take a step forward, Sasuke turned his head sideways and looked directly at him and asked mockingly, "Planning to die are you, Kakashi-sensei?"
Sasuke moved his left leg backwards and twisted his body sideways as he stood battle ready taking his battle stance, knowing that his former sensei was about to engage him in combat. At this point, Sasuke didn't feel like Kakashi would be any significant threat to him even if he was beyond exhausted. And he was right to be confident because he had the Rinnegan and the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan at his disposal, he was confident that he can counter anything Kakashi may concoct to beat him. Sasuke's arrogance and overconfidence blinded him so much that he didn't notice the hand appearing via the portal behind him.
"They say that people can see their entire life right before they die, I would like to know if that's true and I think you can clear that up for me, Kakashi." Sasuke infused chakra at the sole of his feet so that he can move at blinding speeds in order to end Kakashi once and for all. Just as Sasuke shot forward via his chakra-enhanced speed, the Uchiha suddenly stopped not one foot from his initial position as he hung in mid-air, and he looked down only to see Kakashi's hand covered in lightning sticking out through the centre of his chest.
Sasuke couldn't believe it; Kakashi had done the unpredictable yet again. The Uchiha stared at the Jonin standing before him, just then the man dispelled and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sasuke thought that Kakashi had lost Obito Uchiha's eyes because both of Kakashi's eyes went back to looking normal after Kakashi's Susanoo because he knew that a non-Uchiha couldn't deactivate their Sharingan at will. He had expected so many things from Kakashi, but a combination of technique so common, and that, he hadn't prepared for…, because he was sure that Kakashi wouldn't exercise such overused techniques if at all possible especially against someone like him. Sasuke was so confident that he could now distinguish the original from a shadow clone; hence he didn't think for a second that the person he had bragged to all along was a clone. It really hurt his pride to think that he had fell prey to such simple and overused combo of jutsus. For a man who had two of the strongest of Dojutsus at his disposal, he sure was blind. The Uchiha coughed blood and all of a sudden the hole in his chest grew as the flesh was being warped away bit by bit to a pocket dimension.
Sasuke quickly used his Rinnegan's gravity manipulation ability to propel himself out of Kakashi's arm that was impaled in through his chest and he pushed away from Kakashi and his Kamui. Kakashi meanwhile used the repelling force of Sasuke's 'Shinra Tensei' to safely warp away into the pocket dimension once again. Kakashi was using the full extent of Kamui because now he had both of Obito's eyes and a stronger chakra core; this was what allowed him to open a portal of considerable size enough to sneak his hand out from his pocket dimension and deliver a killing blow to Sasuke all the while without losing his hand. Kakashi knew that he wouldn't be able to fight and win against Sasuke in a straight out fight, so when he warped away towards Sasuke from a distance, he made a shadow clone and sent it out through the Kamui, while he stayed inside the pocket dimension waiting for the right moment. He then converted the Kamui into a peephole and waited for the right moment. Sasuke's over-confidence made him so arrogant that he left his guard down when he shot forwards aiming to attack and that's when Kakashi capitalised on his advantage and punched Sasuke using his Raikiri; even then he didn't activate the Raikiri until the very last moment so to avoid detection.
Sasuke was going to use the Rinnegan's power the 'Rinne Rebirth technique' to heal his mortal wound. As a Rinnegan user, he could use this technique to resurrect anyone and to heal himself no matter how severe his injuries may be. But before he could do so, the Kamui opened yet again and Kakashi warped out of the pocket void and immediately Sasuke felt a foreign pressure in his eyes. Kakashi watched as his Kamui once again warped both of Sasuke's eyes out, and in seconds, both of Sasuke's eyes were mangled and ripped out of his eye sockets. A moment later, Sasuke fell forward on the ground, like a puppet with its strings cut, both blind and with a huge hole in his chest. Sasuke coughed up blood through his mouth as he tried to breathe, but he couldn't, and finally, after a few minutes of desperate struggling, Sasuke died an agonising death.
Kakashi opened his eyes with a deep breath as he immediately sat up on his bed in reflex. He remembered the memories of the events once again. At that time, he had destroyed Sasuke's eyes fearing that Sasuke would come back to life using the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan's ability called the 'Izanagi' or the Rinnegan's 'Rinne Rebirth' technique. He knew that Izanagi was what Madara used to come back to life after the legendary battle at the Valley of the End. He had thought that if Madara did it, what would hold Sasuke from doing the same thing, hence he decided not to take that risk when he destroyed the Rinnegan. He knew that if Sasuke survived that day, he wouldn't have been able to stop him a second time, the only reason he managed to kill Sasuke the first time was because the Uchiha was beyond the point of physical exhaustion and above all, the boy was arrogant, especially with Naruto's demise just moments prior to his attack.
However, it had come at a cost, killing Sasuke and destroying the Rinnegan had left the world in the eternal balance of the Infinite Tsukuyomi with no possible way out. However, the best thing about Sasuke's death was that it released the genjutsu on all the Tailed Beasts and that in turn gave the tailed-beasts their powers back which enabled the beasts to break out of their imprisonment.
All the Tailed Beasts that were released made their home in and around what was once a battlefield. Sasuke's death caused Sakura to walk away into the empty world alone, and he hadn't seen her since then. The tailed-beasts used their chakra collectively and connected him to the Sage of Six Paths who gave him instructions to follow. After long discussions with the Sage and all the nine tailed-beasts, they all came to the conclusion that they were going to violate the laws of space and time itself in order for them to save the world. They briefly even wondered if there was a way to bring the Sage into their world so that he can dispel the genjutsu for them, but the Sage had put that idea to rest by explaining that he can't come to the world since every avenue of possible chakra-teleportation into the living world was closed for the Sage. According to the Sage, it would take another few centuries for the man to build up enough natural chakra to make another physical transition into the living world and that he would also need a medium to do it, someone with the same genes as the Sage, reincarnates like Naruto or Sasuke.
Initially, they all had their doubts about their plan, but all their doubts came to a close when a man named Toneri Ootsutsuki came to take control of all the chakra in the world, two years into the Tsukuyomi. It took him quite a few tries to defeat the man, but with the help of all the bijuus and their chakra, he succeeded in defeating and killing the Ootsutsuki. However, from Toneri he came to know about the existence of other stronger Ootsutsuki clan members with godly prowess scattered across other dimensions waiting to take control of other lush worlds.
The Sage explained to him and the bijuus of how his mother Kaguya feared the other gods out there. It took everything he had in him to defeat Toneri and he struggled even though he had the help of all the tailed-beasts, he didn't how he would fare if he went up against other Ootsutsuki members from other worlds. And being the sole protector of the world, it was his responsibility to fight and win; he had no other choices but to win.
After the events with Toneri, all the doubts they had or might have had about their plan went out the window and they became fully involved with it afterwards, since then, they saw it as a necessity if anything else. Nevertheless, he didn't want to be unprepared if any member of the Ootsutsuki clan found the way into their world. So he trained several hours a day, every day for the last twenty-three years. He cultivated Hashirama Senju's cells from white Zetsu's tissue and grafted it to his body to get a better healing factor and to get better control over Obito's Mangekyou techniques. The tailed-beasts would often lend him chakra and replenish his reserves so that he can continue their work. He took a page from Naruto's book and used his eidetic recall along with shadow clone's memory feedback effect to get into all the hidden villages, separate clans storages and from there he found his way into the villages' jutsu vaults and clans' forbidden archives. He used the centuries of trial and error data he acquired to research on chakra, chakra natures, Fuinjutsu, ninjutsu, Kekkai ninjutsu and Jikūkan ninjutsu and so much more. And after twenty-five years of preparation, he was finally here, and at long last they were ready.
With that, he stood up and walked out of his room and to the bathroom, he freshened himself and then he walked out through the empty corridors lit by several fire-torches on the walls beside him. He reached the only door at the end of the corridor, he opened it and he walked out.
Altar of Time-
A huge stone altar was located at the centre of what was once a battlefield. The altar itself had a diameter of several miles. It was surrounded by lush green forests on all the sides, the huge stone altar had nine pillars equally spaced at the brim of the structure.
Kakashi diligently walked towards the stone structure's front entrance and as he walked towards the structure, one by one all the tailed-beasts proceeded towards the structure from all directions. Each one of the beasts sequentially took their respective positions around the altar just before the stone pillars that surrounded it.
Kakashi took one step into the slightly elevated stone floor of the structure and he immediately gazed to his left aiming at the one-tailed Tanuki and he began with a full bow, "Shukaku…" And the tailed-beast bowed its head back at the respect given by the shinobi.
Kakashi then straightened himself and gazed at the two-tailed Cat and spoke respectfully, "Matatabi…" The cat being honoured by the gesture bowed back to the ninja, as Shukaku had done before it.
"Isobu…" Kakashi continued with another bow and the three-tailed Turtle bowed back showing its acceptance.
"Son Gokū…" Kakashi spoke and bowed to the four-tailed Monkey and the beast bowed its head accepting Kakashi's respect.
"Kokuō…" Kakashi resumed as he turned to the five-tailed Horse and bowed, while the beast bowed its head in acceptance for Kakashi's show of respect.
The former-cyclopean sole survivor continued to respect the six-tailed Slug, "Saiken…" And the beast readily accepted Kakashi's respect and bowed back to the ninja.
"Chōmei…" Kakashi bowed in respect to the seven-tailed Beetle and the beast energetically bowed back to show its acceptance.
"Gyūki…" Kakashi followed by bowing to the eight-tailed Octopus in respect and the Ushi-oni gave its acceptance to Kakashi in the form of a short bob of its head.
Finally, Kakashi came to the nine-tailed Fox that stood taller than all the other tailed-beasts. At the time of Naruto's death, the Yin part of the fox that was sealed inside of the jinchuriki dissipated into the earth on his death and it returned to the fox. With the Yin and Yang parts merging, the Fox grew back to its original size and towered over all the beasts. Kakashi bowed to the Fox and spoke its name, "Kurama…" The fox wasted no time to bow back to the ninja.
A tall and pale-skinned elderly man, who had deep wrinkles and a strong jawline with spiky, shoulder-length, pale brown hair, and a chin-length, braided lock hanging in front of his left ear. The elderly man sported a long goatee; he also had a pair of horn-like protrusions extending from either side of his forehead. He had a red Rinnegan-like marking in the centre of his forehead and two Rinnegan eyes. The man wore a white, full-length kimono with a pattern of six black magatamas around a high collar, beneath which, he wore a necklace which was also made up of six black magatamas. On the back of his kimono was a larger, black Rinnegan marking with a pattern of nine magatamas arranged in three rows of three beneath it. This man was none other than Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, also known as the Sage of Six Paths. The Sage appeared beside Kakashi in a translucent image, the millennia-old sage was sitting cross-legged in mid-air.
"Kakashi…" The sage called out to the ninja.
"Hagoromo-sama…" Kakashi responded respectfully.
The Sage asked carefully, "Have you calibrated and set the seal?"
"Yes, I have!"
The sage continued with the questions, "Destination year?"
"Five years before Tsukuyomi…" Kakashi answered swiftly.
"Month and date…?"
"24th of July…"
"And time…?"
Kakashi answered confidently, "Around nine o'clock in the morning."
"And destination venue?"
"Land of Waves…"
"Do you have everything you need, Kakashi?" The illusionary image of the sage asked for clarification.
"Yes, Hagoromo-sama…I have everything."
The sage then turned his gaze towards the tailed-beasts and began, "Everyone, keep your chakra flow uniform, any variation will lead to the portal being destabilised and if the portal closes ahead of time, Kakashi will be pulled back before he can make the change. Remember, our job is to buy Kakashi as much time as we possibly can."
"YES, FATHER…" All the bijuus simultaneously agreed to the sage.
Meanwhile, Kakashi went through a series of one hundred and forty-four hand seals in a matter of seconds and ended it with Dragon seal and then he separated his hands and slapped them both on the ground. Fuinjutsu seals appeared on the ground where Kakashi's hands came in contact with, and from there it diverged out and the stream of seals that moved quickly through the stone structure and surrounded the ground around the tailed beasts' and formed a complete circle.
The sage reminded Kakashi once again, "Remember, we can only give you a few hours at best!"
"I only need one, Hagoromo-sama."
"LET'S GO!" Kurama yelled and all the tailed-beasts followed Kurama's lead and started channelling chakra via the seals that encircled them.
Kakashi watched from the entrance, he viewed just above the stone table, at the centre of the structure; space-time itself began to warp just like his Kamui. He shifted his gaze to the sage's image that was levitating beside him and the wise sage gave him the go-sign with a nod of his head. And with that, he took a running start as he shot towards the portal that was open just above the stone table. Within seconds, he covered the distance and reached the portal and just when he was three feet away, he jumped into the portal and disappeared.
Land of Waves (Thirty Years in the Past)-
A barely visible swirling vortex in space-time approximately the size of a tree appeared out of nowhere in the sky just a couple of miles outside of the Land of Waves. A figure was thrown out of the vortex as soon the portal became visible, and then, the portal's size reduced to that of a pinhole, but it stayed active. The figure that was thrown out was plummeting towards the ground at a high velocity. A few feets before ground impact, the figure flipped in mid-air and landed gracefully on the surface of the water of what seemed like an intersection between the sea and a river. In the instant of the figure's landing, the force of impact on the water sent a whiplash through the forest on both the banks of the river. The whiplash created a huge wave that climbed on the banks of the river and flooded the forest for a few minutes until the wave began to slowly recede back into the river.
It was Kakashi; he was standing there on top of the water while breathing heavily. The armoured black flak-jacket and the left side of his pants were burnt badly; only the left shoulder side of the flak-jacket remained intact and the left side of his pants remained up to his knees. Kakashi paid no mind to his appearance, the man's eyes simply morphed into Mangekyou and Kakashi disappeared through the swirling space-time technique.
In another part of the country at the very same second, Kakashi reappeared back through his Kamui. He reappeared in what seemed like another bank of another river, and before him, there was a river barely visible through the heavy mist that surrounded the whole area. Since he was pretty close by, he sensed several active chakra signatures to his left, but they were all far above ground level. Kakashi realised that his younger-self along with his genin team was fighting against Zabuza and Haku atop the bridge.
Kakashi immediately took a seal-tag which had a 'kanji for energy' written on it. The seal-tag held one-tail worth of chakra from all the nine tailed-beasts; all mixed together using the pure form of Natural energy as a medium of adhesion.
He folded the seal in half and stuck it to the centre of his forehead, and then he held a tiger-seal and a moment later, he overlapped his middle fingers around his pointer fingers and connected the tips together. Chakra began transferring from the seal into his eyes; however, since he timed it carefully with Naruto's outburst of Kyuubi's chakra that came from inside Haku's Ice structure, the chakra from his seal was masked from both Zabuza and younger-Kakashi. The Mangekyou patterns in his eyes began spinning wildly in an anti-clockwise direction and he muttered, "Mangekyou: Jikan-shin…" And the world stopped completely, everything froze as time stopped flowing.
The Time-God technique allowed him to stop, accelerate and reverse time to his will with his physical body being dimensionally exempt to that 'manipulation', but the technique would cost him a lot of chakra and it also had a time-limit. His technique was an advanced time-manipulation jutsu, it required a paired Sharingan eyes with Eternal Mangekyou maturity to it. He didn't have EMS level maturity to his eyes as it would require a deteriorating vision followed by a transplantation of eyes from a close sibling, but however, his Mangekyou was far more matured than any other Mangekyou Sharingan, also with the Shodaime Hokage's cells and the strong chakra stored in the seal-tag helped him bypass the requirements needed for casting the jutsu.
When he first discovered the technique while fighting against Toneri Ōtsutsuki, he could only do it for about ten seconds, but with years of practice, now he can use it and keep the jutsu active for up to three minutes in a single stretch and still fight at eighty per cent physical efficiency.
As soon as time stopped flowing, Kakashi Kamui-ed himself to Naruto who was frozen in time along with everything else, Naruto was mid-way into stopping the punch that he was going to deliver on Haku just as the Nine-tails chakra was dissipating. The time-traveller took another seal-tag which also had a kanji for energy written on it, however, this one was slightly bigger in size meaning that it had fifty times the chakra stored in it than the one he used on himself. Kakashi folded it in half and placed it on Naruto's left chest, exactly between Naruto's chakra core and the 'eighth gate of death'; the chakra transferred into Naruto's body within an instant and formed a failsafe contingency for an event that Kakashi was sure it would come. Once the chakra from the tag was transferred completely, the writings on the tag disappeared and the tag itself dissolved into thin air. Kakashi then moved towards the bridge's side and jumped on the railing and then he closed his right eye and stared at his blonde student with his left Mangekyou which stopped spinning, and suddenly, the space around Naruto began shimmering violently for a few moments before it went back to normal. Then the time-traveller's left eye lost its colour and became full white, meaning that the eye had lost its vision.
Izanagi was a technique that will alter the reality around the user, but with the wood-release cells and a chakra source close to that of the ten-tails' chakra, he could extend the range of his technique to several feet around him, even project it on someone else entirely.
However, since the Time-God technique required paired Sharingan eyes just like the Susanoo, as soon as Kakashi's left eye lost its vision, the jutsu came undone and time once again began flowing forward normally.
At the exact moment, time began flowing; Kakashi's body slowly disappeared out of existence. The butterfly effect had led to a different timeline than that of future-Kakashi's world, it took effect the moment the time began moving once again free of Kakashi's jutsu. Meanwhile, Kakashi's soul held on for as long as possible willing itself to see the saviour of their world one last time before his erasure.
From the distance, through the mist, he saw Naruto speaking to a downed Haku with confusion etched on the boy's face; he then smiled at the boy as he remembered a conversation between him and the Sage, a conversation which had changed his mind about a few things.
"The portal could be pointed to anywhere in the past. We could just target it at Black Zetsu in the past and travel to it; we could end this war long before it even begins." Kakashi argued to the Sage.
The Sage of Six Paths replied calmly, "No, the war must happen, it's not your job to bring about peace, its Naruto's, I entrusted the future of this world to Asura and his descendants so it's Naruto who should end the war… The prophecies must be fulfilled. Besides, I don't think that unity between all the nations would last if the war doesn't happen…! True peace isn't achieved Kakashi, it's forged…, forged through love, hardships, suffering and pain. One must feel all of this before one can realise true peace. Besides, will you commit to killing Obito? A person who we know that can be redeemed…? And killing Obito ahead of time is the only way to 'prevent' the war from happening as you suggest."
The Sage paused for a brief second to view Kakashi and the continued softly, "Do you want to end this war…? Then trust in Naruto, he will be the one to end it."
Kakashi seemed unsure, he wanted to trust in Naruto, but there was no guarantee that their plan would instigate a good change in Naruto, a change that could lead to a better set of events than what happened in their timeline, "How can you hope, Hagoromo-sama? Even after all of this…?"
"Because I trust in Naruto…! The first time I met him, I told him that he was the reincarnation of Asura, my younger son, my successor, the one I entrusted Ninshu to, the Ninja Creed. What I didn't tell Naruto was that he was the reincarnation of my son in mind only, not in body. It was all because of Madara, he interfered in the cycle of reincarnation when he cheated death using the Izanagi. If Madara had died in the Valley of End and Hashirama out of old age, the cycle wouldn't have been misaligned, but with Madara cheating death, he interrupted the natural cycle, an entire generation of rebirths were skipped, and then with the awakening of his Rinnegan, it had a lasting effect on the next reincarnation. That was why Sasuke gained all the abilities of Indra while Naruto gained none of the abilities of Asura. Madara's deeds created an imbalance and that's what you're going to correct, Kakashi. Naruto has the mind of my son Asura but not his body, he will need it if he's going to put an end to all the wars and bring about lasting peace. Your Izanagi will awaken two dormant genetic sequences in Naruto's genome and that will trigger a huge change in him. In time, it will transform Naruto's bone structure into resembling his father's, and eventually his cells, his body and his senses will mature to that of a Senju's, and his chakra core will deepen and become denser while his chakra reserves itself will grow in sizes similar to that of an actual Uzumaki's, his mother's. Only then will he be the full reincarnation of Asura Ōtsutsuki."
Kakashi interrupted there, "Hagoromo-sama, I know these changes will instigate a change in Naruto's mind, but how do you know it will be for the better."
The Sage smiled at him and replied, "Because he's the saviour, all he needs is a little push."
Kakashi smiled as he kept watching Naruto, he realised that he had done whatever that was humanly possible for him and that there was nothing more he could do but trust in his student. Kakashi closed his eyes and smiled serenely as he muttered to himself, "You are the saviour Naruto. Everything is up to you, now…" With that, the consciousness of the time-travelling ninja was forever erased along with the timeline that he came from.
Tazuna's House-
Land of Waves was a small island country between the Land of Fire and the Land of Noodles. Until very recently, the country was under the control of a criminal business tyrant named Gato. The country and its occupants thrived on three basic industries, shipping, fishing and some marginal farming. Shipping was the major industry, followed shortly by fishing with farming in the last. Gato had taken control over the entire shipping industry with the help of his private army of thugs, soon he used his position to completely isolate the island nation from any form of trade and monopolised the entire country, and for all intents and purposes, he brought it to its knees.
Having the country under his control, he then started the more elaborate schemes that brought him his huge profits, he brought drugs into the country and used the place as the central hub to route his illegal products to his buyers all over the elemental nations. He forced the local woman into prostitution, created organised crime and with his private army of thugs; he enforced the general populace into paying very high taxes under the pretence of protection.
A concerned citizen named Tazuna, a bridge builder to be exact, understood that Gato would eventually suck the place dry and move on while leaving them to die painfully with whatever that is left. To counter all of this, Tazuna resolved to build a bridge that would connect the Land of Waves to the mainland which would provide them with the much-needed trade to shake off Gato's control over the country and to get the same security the mainland got from the neighbouring countries with ninja villages. As such, Tazuna had hired the genin Team 7 with whatever money he had left and lied to the team about the threat level in order to protect himself from Gato and his associates.
And just a few hours ago, Gato the business tyrant was killed by Zabuza Momochi, a rogue ninja of Kirigakure who had turned against the tyrant himself after being under brief employment for Gato, all the while, the rest of Gato's thugs were overpowered and ousted collectively by the villagers who had mustered enough will to fight against injustice.
Now, on the first floor of the bridge builder's house, in the east corner room, a silver-haired cyclopean Jonin was resting on the bed after having suffered a mild case of chakra exhaustion yet again. In the nearby room, a raven-haired Uchiha genin was resting soundly after having suffered the ice-user Haku's signature senbon attack, death-like stasis, which needless to say had heaved a very heavy strain on the boy's body. Downstairs, by the kitchen, a pink-haired genin kunoichi was chatting lightly with the bridge builder's daughter Tsunami-san, having done nothing to help her teammates in the last fight, so she was still fairly energetic. Finally, in the last room, a blonde-haired boy clad in orange with strange whisker marks on his cheeks was tiredly resting from the day's taxing events. Unknown to himself and the other occupants of the house, Naruto Uzumaki was suffering from heavy fever and paralysis.
The interesting thing about this was that the blonde-haired genin named Naruto Uzumaki was the Kyuubi Jinchuriki; he held the Nine-tailed beast that is sealed inside him at bay. And being a jinchuriki, the boy had huge stamina, huge chakra reserves and a higher healing factor than others, the chances of him being tired or having a fever that would cause paralysis wasn't in any case, a common scenario. In fact, the demon's chakra had always healed the boy and always kept him from suffering the adverse effects of acute malnutrition.
However, fate had something interesting in mind for Naruto. The meddling of a certain time-traveller instigated a transformation inside Naruto's body caused by the now-active genes of his parents that were dormant in him before today. The fever quickly sky-rocketed and went well past the safety limit. Deep inside him, his chakra coils began changing, his chakra core became denser, his life-force grew stronger and several genetic skills began implanting itself into the code of his cells, skills that were purely genetic.
Little did the boy know that great changes were happening in his body, every day a small infinitesimal bit of Kyuubi's chakra would seep into Naruto's chakra system causing imbalance to the flow of chakra, every day his chakra reserves would grow just a little bit, which was what made it nearly impossible for him to get a good control his own chakra. This had adverse side effects to his body, due to the chakra imbalance in his system, he got a lot of energy and stamina, which if left unused made him oversensitive at his core. Atop that, the demonic chakra infused into his chakra stream overdeveloped his senses, touch, scent, sight and sound, everything was out of tune to his perception, that the slightest disturbance in the outside world would put him in a depressed mood. Meanwhile, his violent mood swings brought his attention span to near zero making it almost impossible for him to concentrate on a task singularly and making it impossible for him to multi-task.
All of this was now changing; his body had long ago adapted to handle the constant infusion of demonic chakra but now it found a way to work at a higher efficiency level so to balance his chakra system. His chakra core became denser and the chakra system itself stabilised. The stable chakra system, in turn, calmed his mind and slowed the constant mood swings that made him obnoxious.
Anyone inside the room would have heard the sped up heartbeat, a noise so audible that it could be heard from the outside. The physical change that was taking place inside his body was so intense that it had the extremely physically durable jinchuriki paralysed in bed, which was something that went completely unnoticed to the other occupants in the house.
This pain he was feeling and these changes that were happening was about to change the life of one Naruto Uzumaki for the better, he just didn't know it yet.
Hi guys, I've written fanfic one-shots before in other platforms, but this is my first time in fanfiction dot net. And so I approached my cousin who wrote unpopular fanfictions that I liked very much, so I asked to borrow pieces of his work to write my first work here.
And one more thing, I'll say this ahead of time…the way of the story's opening is for the long-term benefit of the protagonist and not the short-term, so don't worry. Naruto won't be an immediately OP badass ninja right from the next day, he will get there eventually but only by years of endless training, and I once again apologise in advance for the exaggeration of this chapter.
Request: Please try to be patient as you read it…