Hiruzen Sarutobi had seen a lot of things in his long career as a shinobi and his tenure as hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. He had fought and survived through war. He had seen entire clans and villages razed from existence in genocides of meaningless violence. He had seen the village he loved nearly razed from existence itself when the Kyuubi attacked it. All those experiences and the many darker ones he liked to not think about could not have prepared him for the sick scene he & his personal ANBU stumbled upon after a blood curdling scream had pierced the air minutes before, a scream he knew too well. Instead of finding his surrogate grandson Naruto near bleeding to death he found something that made his blood freeze and his ANBU go tense with their weapons drawn.
Naruto sat calmy on the ground covered in healing wounds surrounded by a rainbow like aura. One hand held a fox kit gently but firmly on his lap as he rubbed its ears comfortingly, the aura healing the young animals own injuries as well. The sickening part of the scene was the sinewy like monster that was flaying the civilians and shinobi alive one layer of skin at time. "Carnage, thats enough. The useless old fool is here with his puppets" the young boy said with an empty dry tone. The monster seemed to have a half a mind to continue but a flash of orange light seemed to make the monster think twice and return to the blonde child.
"Naruto-kun, what is-"
Naruto ignored the Sandaime as Carnage got within arms reach and lunged at him. Despite the sounds of concern from what he assumed was a female ANBU he had no fear as the monster that he called Carnage seemd to melt on contact with his skin and formed a set of clothes for him without smothering the fox kit on his lap. "Next time I'm attacked they will all die and I will let Carnage consume their bodies before I rip their souls to shreds. Good evening to you Hokage-sama, shadow puppets." Before they got the idea to stop him he was gone in a flash of purple light.
"Sir, what the hell was that...thing?" the lead Crow masked ANBU asked with an apathetic tone as he gave non-verbal orders to his squad to get the perpetrators, or were they technically now victims at the same time he pondered absently, to medical attention. Once they were fine he gave a secondary set of orders to get them to Anko, Ibiki and Inoichi for interrogation. Stiff nods were given before they were off to follow their orders though two lingered for a moment seemingly looking for something. The first of the two Anbu, both female and the only females on the team, had a cat-like mask while the other bore a distinctly unique dragon like visage where instead of regular 'scales' they appeared to be more petal-like; any florist would identify it as rose petal shaped to be precise.
"I wish I knew Karasu. Its a mystery to me but there is one thing we do know" the Sandaime said grimacing.
"Forgive my speaking out of turn Hokage-sama but what is it we know? That...thing is a complete unknown. Where it came from, why it was obeying Naruto-san, that strange aura surrounding him- we know nothing about it" the cat masked ANBU agent said as she watched her colleagues carting away barely conscious and unconscious perpetrators to the hospital with a wary eye.
"What we know is that whatever just happened, there was no sign of the Kyuubi being part of it. Whether that is a good or bad thing we have to ascertain for ourselves very quickly. Dragon, go to Narutos apartment and bring him to my office. We need to find out what happened and all that he can tell us about that thing he appears to be able to command" Hiruzen said looking at the second female ANBU who nodded sharply and disappeared in the breeze. "May Kami have mercy on us all."
"I didn't take you for a religious man Hokage-sama" Crow commented as a motion of his hands had the cat masked ANBU join the rest of the team in their orders.
"I'm not Itachi-kun." Hiruzen grimaced as they were left alone in the alley and his cut over to the ANBU captain. He questioned himself silently, not for the first either, why the young man chose to remain in the service of the village when he was the last remaining Uchiha after a massacre had killed every single Uchiha in the village; Itachi had been spared since he and his team had been out of the village on a Level 5 Priority mission. Officially speaking, a coup had been in the works by the Uchiha clans majority and forces had been disaptched to put down those involved. Unfortunately some of those involved were 'rehabilitated', or so he had thought, former ROOT ANBU who killed every Uchiha they came across in the compound, innocent woman child elderly or otherwise were not stayed from execution. To say the Sandaime was beyond furious was an understatement. Not only were the former ROOT ANBU that had been integrated back into regular ANBU forces executed but the death of Danzo followed and it was rather public.
"I see." Itachis sharigan eyes surveyed the scene slowly, his mind piecing together every clue as his eyes memorized the details to help paint an accurate enough picture for a theory before the perps were taken to interrogation & the truth was extracted.
"Have you considered retiring Itachi-kun? Settling down with that girl you were rather interested in?" Hiruzen asked as his eyes closed for just as moment as he kneaded the bridge of his nose.
"Is this a question about a restoration of the Uchiha clan and the Sharigan? Or are you asking me a serious question man to man?" Itachi asked as he tilted his mask to the side a little itching a spot on his chin. "If you wish my retirement Hokage-sama to begin with repopulation efforts all you have to do is ask. You are my commanding officer and your word is my command."
"No Itachi, this isn't a question about repopulating your clan or its bloodline back into the military forces. I am not a narrow minded war seeking idiot like Danzo was. Its been a month since you oversaw the cremation of your family and clan in accordance to Uchiha tradition. Even with Inoichis word that you are clear for service I can't help but see the same signs of what I did when I lost my first wife when I was slightly older than you" Hiruzen said, his eyes darkening at the memory. He had thrown himself into his work and his teacher the Nidaime had seen a skyrocket of mission successes as well as money pouring in hand over fist from some of the wealthiest clients they had on the books requesting him for his then fabled ruthless efficiency to get any job done in an inhumanely short amount of time.
"I don't follow Hokage-sama."
"You have not allowed yourself to grieve. You have thrown a hundred and fifty percent of all your energies into taking missions non-stop missions. Before what happened you were a spook among spooks. Now, now most of your comrades would rather steer clear of you. Must I remind you of your last mission outside the village?" Hiruzen asked with his lips drawing into a thin line.
Itachi grimaced behind his mask as his hands clenched behind his back as he closed his back. So what if he went overboard on the last solo mission he went on? It had been a simple mission to watch, bag the target, get all useful information he could out of them and dispose of the target in a way that wouldn't lead back to Konoha. So what if he beat the guy half to death with his bare hands using torture methods known to be used by Bloody Mist interrogators? So what if he dumped the half dead body in a bandit camp and erected earthen walls high enough to cut off all escape paths and flooded it to the brim with a suiton jutsu so that the murder of the target, a Kumo spy embedded in a large trade village within Hi no Kuni with a shinobi depot for jounins and above, and the large bandit camp would be blamed on Iwa & Kiri? "I followed my orders to the T" he said with a biting tone suggesting he did not like the insinuation the Sandaim was making.
Hiruzen sighed deeply and held a hand out to Itachi, palm up to the night sky. "Give me your mask, you're being retired from ANBU to jounin temporarily til you get your emotions sorted out. Following orders to the letter is one thing but your last solo mission tells me that you need to clear the baggage before you can committ to the necessary levels of brutal without crossing into the territory of overkill" he said.
Itachi said nothing and all but slammed the porcelain mask, engraved crow decorated front down, into the wrinkled hand of the Sandaime. "I have no 'baggage' that needs to be cleared out. We''re born, we live and we die. That how this pathetic game we call life goes" he spat before dispersing into a murder of crows.
"How wrong you are Itachi-kun. Just like Naruto-kun you have more emotional baggage to be rid of than most of anyone in this village. Myself, the old timers and even Anko included." Hiruzens eyes were both resigned, tired and upset equally upset as he looked to the moon, a half moon to precise, & sighed. "Just like Naruto-kun, you will forever be a walking time bomb to blow up in someones face unless you resolve it but sadly I fear neither of you will do so willingly."
At his apartment building Naruto sat upon the roof of it entertaining the orb floating above his hand. The attack earlier in the evening had awakened something in him that had been sleeping for who knows long. He took a moment to consider his reflection in the orb, the six floating minof orbs around it making his eye color changer as it passed his face. His slit eyes cycled in a kaleidoscope of colors like the aura from earlier. His ears were pointed at the tips like one of those elfs that kids in the parks pretended to be when they played their fantasy make believe games with their friends, his mind preferred the idea of them being pointed like his beloved kits ears. Whisker marks marred his cheeks though they were faint and thin, enough so that you would have to know they were there or really strain your eyes to notice them. "Mirror mirror on the ball" he drawled with a snicker to himself ignoring the light warning drops of rain to fall "where is the foulest demon of them all?"
"I wouldn't say anything so drastic Naruto-san."
Naruto turned his head slighlty as the orb absorbed back into his hand, his eyes settled mormentarily on an unsettling orange color. "Then what would you call me Petal Dragon? Ryo for your thoughts Ryu" he said raising an eyebrow. The minute of silence between them was enough for the fox kit in his shirt to let out a tired whine. "Back to bed with you Nina" he scolded gently as a finger lovingly rubbed the foxes ears to ease the kit back to slumber.
"I do not know. You defy conventional wisdom and generalizations, something that is both equal parts good & bad." The woman paused after she took a step closer to Naruto but a warning creak underfoot made her consider further paces. Obviously the building the Sandaime bought Naruto an apartment in was not up to code or the landlord was purposefully not doing ang work to maintain the place in hopes it would collapse and kill Naruto."Then you have that monster you-"
"Caranage is not a monster." Naruto opened the palm of his gloved hand as it formed a miniature head exposing his flesh hand. "Carnage is young and rough around the edges but not a monster. She is a loyal partner like any nin-ken the Inzuka use and has a similar relation to me like the kikaichu bugs do for the Aburame." He used his thumb to gently scratch under the symbiotes head and smiled softly at the hissing purr like sound that escaped. "She was protecting me in the only way she is ultimately familiar with, extreme violence. Fitting considering that is how this pit has deslt with me since before I could walk or talk."
Dragon felt a disturbed ripple in her stomach as the head like thing of the monster nuzzled against Narutos thumb. The monster was far more dangerous if it was symbiotic like the kikaichu bugs were for the Aburame. "Be that as it may Naruto-san the-"
"I already know. Or I have the most accurate guess anyway" Naruto began as orange eyes shifted to green and he motioned his fingers toward the sky almost whimsically. A few drops of rain fell down on the pair before the dark clouds that had threatened sheets of downpouring rain that would last into the early morning, according to the weather person on the radio earlier in the day, almost seemed like someone hit fast fast forward on a VCR as they passed over the village and rapidly away on the horizon. "Ah, much better. Never liked the rain much. Usually very depressing and...boring" he said as the green faded to empty dull crystal blue that the ANBU who watched him were familiar with. "The Sandaime wants to know what I did, how I did it, why I did it and about Carnage correct? Oh who am I kidding, of course I am. The man spies on every asset of value in the village to make sure it doesn't fall out of line with that crystal ball of his."
The ANBU said nothing reeling from the uncaring way that Naruto was talking about a man who up til a few hours ago he gleefully called 'Old Man Hokage' with a sense of respect and even admiration. How did he go from that to...this unfeeling child in a matter of hours? "As the commander of the village-".
"Don't give me that crap Kurenai. Your faith in men is on the same level as my faith in the majority of the human race, a hairs breadth away from bejng non-existent." Narutos voice was a hard edge as he cut the woman off, his eyes glowing orange once more as he glared at her. "Why do you think right now I have a very shallow opinion of him? I'm tired of lying to myself that the man who is supposed to protect every person in the village actually gives two shits about me. I am just another asset waiting to be trained and put into use as a nuclear deterent; just as the village viewed my mother before me when she was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi."
The woman felt her entire body go rigid at that that. How did Naruto know who she was? How did he know who his mother was? The Sandaime never told Naruto and to her knowledge Kushinas records had been classified at the Sandaimes order til he deemed Naruto ready to learn of his parents and the legacy left to him. Most important and alarmingly of all, how in the name of Kami did Naruto find out about the Kyuubi being sealed in him?!
"Its not that hard to figure out. I was born the day the biju attacks. People attack me calling me the fox itself. Some of my features are vulpine in looks, my eyes pointed ears and faint whisker like marks to name a few." Naruto paused as he looked at his nails, well they were more like claws really with how finely pointed and sharp they were, picking the dirt from under them. "Drunks talk too much as well, did you know that?" he asked rhetorically, his canines flashing like vulpine fangs in his mouth. "Only three Uzumakis have lived in this village. One married the Shodai after or around the time of Konohas founding. Then came Kushina Uzumaki who everyone regarded as 'that Uzu whore who hung her herself on the Yondaime' when she was sent here when Mito Uzumaki was reaching a ripe old Uzumaki age of a hundred and something close to two hundred & Uzushiogakure was wiped out by Kiri, Iwa and Kumo." His eyes cut up glowing a golden yellow and Carnage separated from him taking a form of a black & white skinned young woman behind him who pulled the young blonde into an embrace. "Public records lost track of her after she entered into the ninja forces. Then you have me."
Kurenai felt a bead of sweat on her brow. That was a lot of information that Naruto shouldn't know and the dark look in the symbiotic creatures eyes as it held the child protectively and possessively made her nervous. "The Hokage only wishes to understand" she said once she trusted her voice not to waver or give away to the uncertainty chewing at her gut.
"He can wish all he wants but I'm not going anywhere." Naruto leaned back into Carnages embrace and rested his head on her chest as his eyes closed. "The academy begins tomorrow and as much as I would like to have murdered my attempted murderers tonight I am satisfied, grateful even for what they did. As twisted at that sounds."
"Why is that?" Kurenai asked subtly pulsing chakra through her ANBU seal tattoo to sumoon back-up just to be safe.
"They took it a step too far this time by beating on Nina and nearly killing her in front of me awakening Carnage and the others to be at my beck & call. To help me understand and train these new abilities I now possess" Naruto said. "Begone now Kurenai, scadaddle like a good girl and tell the fossil I got a message for him from my father. Alpa Omega serialization 666. He'll understand what it means." There was a dark smile on his lips as his eyes opened a shade of not quite bloodthirsty evil but most certainly malevolent purple and he motioned dismissively at the woman who was gone in a flash of light. "Its time for bed Carnage. It won't do to show up to the academy tired or a mess now would it?"
Carnage looked down to her bonded host like he asked a stupid question. Her awakening, along with that of the stones influxing Naruto with the knowledge of their abilities separately & together as well as how to use them, should have been enough reason for the boy to abandon his once hopeful idea to be a ninja and gain the respect of the Leaf village. "Why are you sssssoo deadssssseeett on thissss again?" she asked, some of her words coming out in serpertine like hisses if they contain an 's' as she scooped up her hosts small frame and carried him inside. It wouldn't do for her host to claim his mother or fathers home this early even if the combination the mind and soul powers dumped essentially eons worth information into neat compact file cabinets in his mind he could call upon at a thought, among that information everything that had been in his mother and fathers arsenal of techniques all the way down to homes safe houses and the locations of secret caches of weapons & money.
"I may have the information but not the muscle memory or the training to survive out on my own by myself. We are weak with my bodies current state of being right now Carnage. For now we bide out time as I train and when the right time comes we'll see. As it stands there is only so much you and the others can do right now with the way my body is." Naruto pushed on one of Carnages hands to let him down and set Nina on the bed, the kit curling up on the pillow she had designated as her bed since he had first rescued her. He grabbed a light blanket, it was a discarded baby blanket he had meticuously washed with his limited hot water the day he found it after finding Nina, and placed it over her smiling a little as she curled up into it. His eyes caught the faint outline of six other figures, three male and three female, standing in the darkee edge of the room.
"And of the duty charged to you?" asked one of the female outline, the red one to be precise, as a shadowed outline of an arm brushed a hair from her featureless face.
"It will be fulfilled Kira. Destiny and duty are not to be ignored nor will they. I need to gain the necessary physical strength and training before I earnestly begin to grasp all your powers in full. If I were to do so now it would tear my body to shreds." Naruto watched the six outlines heads turn and the shape of eyebrows be raised. "Get used to the ideas of names. You all were deities and conscious beings before you were turned into your prisons. You may not remember your past names but denying your consciousness would be an egrigous crime on my part. Now if you would excuse me for the night, I have to sleep to catch." He watched the outlines fade before he stripped down to boxers, the only thing that hadn't been destroyed cut or shredded when he was assaulted with everything from kunai to butcher knives earlied, and climbed into bed settling his head near the sleeping kit & kissed her furry head on the sole black cresent moon mark on her other completely white form. "Keep an eye out for us while we sleep could you Carnage? I'd rather not overuse the others powers unconsciously and end up a bloody gorey mist."
Carnage rolled her eyes slightly and settled on the bed at the foot with her back pressed to the wall. "Ssssssleeep."
"Thanks, you can catch up the sleep while I'm in class bored out of my skull. The next four years will be torture since I already have the cirriculum in perfect passing flying colors in my head." Naruto nodded to Carnage who gave a sort of sarcastic kind of 'lifes a bitch ain't it' smirk.
'I'll hold you to that ssssquirt. Now sleep."
Hiruzen was on his feet in a moment when a bright flash of purple light filled his office. Prepared for near anything as far as it being enemey related he was relieved to see it was only the ANBU he sent afted Naruto. Only she didn't have him with her. And she seemee disturbed. "Dragon, where is Naruto? You were supposed to bring him back here so that-"
"Something is wrong here Hokage-sama and its not with Naruto -san in the way you think it is" Kurenai said pushing herself off the floor from her pile of tangled limbs. "He knows. Knows far too much that you had classified about his mother and I don't know how."
Hiruzen cursed intenrally at that and plopped down in his chair.
"He even accurately guesed why I was there and said that getting sleep for the academy in the morning was more important" Kurenai continued as she paced back and forth like a caged animal. "He sends a message too, said you would understand what it means."
"Whats the message?" Hiruzen asked with a hard look.
"Alpha Omega serialization 666" Kurenai said looking directly at her leader who went ash white. "Sir, are you-"
"You're certain thats what he said?" the old man asked with his eyes casing the room. No one but the Shinobi War Council, himself and Narutos father knew what Alpha Omega serialization 666 was supposed to be. It didn't even exist on paper except one place.
"Without a doubt Hokage-sama" Kurenai said looking confused and on edge seeing the Sandaimes eyes casing the room. "What is it si-"
"Alpha Omega serialization 666 known to those who helped me write it as the War Criminal Execution Protocol."
Kurenai whirled around, weapons drawn, as she heard a new voice and was immediately frozen in place. Standing before her were two of the Leaf villages greatest heroes, and Naruros parentsn the Yondaime Hokage Minato Namikaze and Kushina the 'Red Death' Uzumaki. "Who are you? Drop your disguises and surrender your weapons now!" she ordered as the muscles in her arms tensed.
The woman masquerading as Kushina chuckled for a moment before she snapped her fingers and from a hidden compartment under the couch a sword was summoned to her hand. "Benihime, my lovely friend. It has been too long" she said as her fingers traced the sheathes ornately carved image. "And Kurenai, I'm disappointed in you little Red Rose. You despised the idea of having to actively kill when you were still a genin and chunin yet here you are a shadow..." Kushina said with a sigh shaking her head. "Just like everyone else in the village then, sell your ideals and principles for a pay check."
The man beside the beside the redhead wrapped an around her as she shook her head at the woman. "Lament on your students sell-outness later love. Hiruzen, you have a lot of explaining to do. Where is our son and why is he telling one of your ANBU to relay you a message using Alpha Omega serialization 666? How does he know it?" he asked with sharp icy blue eyes
"You're not real... You two are dead! I found your body after...!"
"After I sacrificed my life to save this village from the Kyuubi. Now answer the question! Divine intervention is not as kind for some people as it is for others!"
A/N: ok, completely brand new something that may or may not be received well. Kinda got inspired by a guy who did a story where Harry Potter was born with the abilities to use the power of the Infinity Stones. I thought about it for a moment and I thought why not try something similar with Naruto since fucking with time, space, reality, peoples minds and even oro-pedos soul jumping is the standard cup of tea in the naruto universe?
Naruto will have his standard ninja skills but also the abilities of the Infinity Stones. I know this prolouge chapter may seem a bit heavy handed in using the gems powers without reprocussion but with their awakening the actionsnwere guided by the consciousness of the stones former selves when they were deities/entities of their own consciousness. Also, the symbiote that I'm calling Carnage is not the Carnage of canon comics. Obvious gender is different and despite being extremely violent still there is a tweak to the personality. Oh and last kind of important note. The 'essentially eons of information' put into Narutos head is basically going to be a file system of any & all hero or villian knowledge I think may benefit Naruto; some he can access right now but some he'll have to unlock through tasks or other means. Think of it like a combination kekkai genkai with the abilities of the stones which he will have to train to use for extended peiods of time, except power whose sole function increases the durability and physical strength of a person so I kinda can't 'turn off' that one, and unlocking the knowledge of heroes or villians buried in the filing cabinets which in my mind right now would be knowledge of their skills(like for example, say during the sasuke retrieval arc he beats the spide guy from the sound five that uses his spit for his archery style attacke. This would in mind be sufficient to open the file on Hawkeyes archer and supplemental skills. Just because he has the knowledge does not make him an automatic master, he will have to train skills he unlocks.)
Oh and before anyone asks why I'm copping out on Minato & Kushina being brought back 'Divine Intervention', its not a copnout. This is a relevant plot point that will be explored deeply throughout the story.