The True Sage - Chapter 1 (8/15/2013)
Summary: The Fourth Shinobi war is over. The army is decimated by Obito as the jinchuuriki of the Juubi. Naruto barely escapes thanks to the sacrifice of Gyuuki. He stumbles upon a destroyed temple looking for somewhere to hide. Inside it, he meets with a being that claims to be the "ghost" of the Sage of Six Paths.
Naruto did not know where he was going. All he knew was he was running through a desert. He guessed he was somewhere in the Land of Wind and then stumbled upon a ruined temple. He was desperate for somewhere to hide, and this building if you could call it would just have to do. He swore it was at least a millennium old. The walls had cracks in it and the ceiling looked ready to fall down any time. As soon as he went inside, he collapsed in exhaustion. Not noticing the one spot of the temple that was perfectly fine, with no damage at all.
"Damn it! Everyone is gone! Sakura-chan, Baa-chan, everyone!" Tears flowed out of Naruto's eyes as he shouted out to no one in anger and grief.
"Calm down Naruto!" Kurama said mentally.
"How can you expect me to be calm? All my friends are dead! Octopops, Bushy brows, Sasuke-teme, Kakashi-sensei, Gaara, everyone! Even my dad and the other Hokages are gone now because Edo Tensei was nullified by Obito!" Naruto cried out.
"Look at your surroundings!" Kurama shouted.
"What are you talking about? This entire temple is probably older than you! Why would there be something special about this temple?" Naruto said.
"Calm down, you are letting your anger get ahead of you. And yes, this temple is older than me. This is where Father was on his death bed," Kurama said.
Reluctantly, Naruto closed his eyes and stopped thinking for a few minutes to calm down. He opened his eyes and said, "What do you mean by this Father was on his death bed? Weren't you Bijuu from the Juubi?"
"Look around. Do you see something abnormal in this destroyed temple?" Kurama stated.
Naruto gasped when he looked around carefully. There was a certain spot, undestroyed and looked like it was freshly taken care of daily. It was a small shrine, no harm done to it unlike the rest of the building. Naruto walked over to it and examined it. His eyes widened at what he saw.
"Kurama! The symbols! They're the same as the ones on Obito's back!" Naruto was puzzled at this fact. "Why would the symbols appear in some destroyed temple?"
Kurama mentally sighed. "As I said earlier, this is the place where Father was on his death bed. And these are the symbols of Father and the Juubi."
"Father?" Naruto had a questioning look on his face. The Bijuu had a father and mother? He assumed the Juubi and this 'Father' had a secret affair, but that thought quickly vanished when he realized that that would be a bit odd.
"Rikudo Sennin, our creator."
It took a few seconds for Naruto to process this information into his brain. "Does that mean you were born here?"
"In a way, yes."
"But why would this be here? What use would it be of? I don't think anyone would think about coming inside here."
"Then explain why you are in here? If I remember correctly, I believe Father said that this was supposed to be for…" Kurama paused for a few moments. "I don't remember…"
Naruto sweat dropped at that. "WHAT? But how could you not remember? This is really important too!"
"Well when you reach my age, you tend to forget a thing or two there and now," Kurama said with a thoughtful look.
"There's no way I would be able to live as long as you," Naruto deadpanned. He stared at the shrine for a few minutes. He saw a small seal that he didn't notice near the top of the shrine. Not knowing what could happen, Naruto raised a hand and poked a finger at the seal. Suddenly, the seal started to glow white and Naruto shielded his eyes from the light with his arms. Naruto then saw nothing but white and went unconscious.
"Are you awake?" A strange said. It seemed strange but yet familiar.
Naruto opened his eyes but instantly closed it due to the blinding white. He slowly opened them and saw nothing but endless white. He looked around and saw an old figure dressed in a haori like cloak with a necklace with six red magatama. The strange figure had horn like pieces of hair. Naruto nearly had a heart attack when he saw him rubbing a fox that anyone would call average except for the nine tails it had. Naruto deadpanned when he saw the fox in pure bliss by being rubbed on the head.
"Kurama? What's going on? How are you out here? Why are you so… tiny? Who's this old guy? Are you still sane right now?" Naruto had so many questions in his head right now.
"Hello Naruto," the old man talked in a kind and soothing voice.
"How do you know my name? Where are we?" Naruto was slightly panicked but the sight of Kurama looking very happy made it a bit worse. The Kurama he knew would've eaten Naruto in one gulp if he was seen by Naruto like that.
"This is Father, our creator," Kurama seemed in an especially good mood this time, which was a rare sight.
"I am known by many names, but most know me as Rikudo Sennin. I believe you may call me the 'ghost' of the Rikudo Sennin," Rikudo Sennin said. "To answer your other questions, we are in your mind scape. Before you question about the endless white, it is your mind. It can be anything you wish it to be. How I know your name, we all have our secrets."
"Ghost? What do you mean by ghost?" Naruto asked.
"I am merely just a piece of my conscious and chakra. I sealed a piece of myself in this shrine incase the Juubi was revived," Rikudo Sennin stated.
"Does that mean you knew of the future?" Naruto said.
"In a sense. The Rinnegan grants many abilities. I simply took advantage of it and prepared for a day like this. I have seen what have happened, and will happen. It is not something you would want to live in, though I'm not sure you would even be able to live in. This is why I have made some preparations before I died."
"Preparations?" Naruto questioned.
"Yes, but there are some other things we must discuss right now. I have fought with the Juubi and have defeated it by sealing it within me, making me the first Jinchuurki. However, I was required to severely wound it before doing so. I assume you know of its weakness?" Rikudo Sennin asked.
"Well… when Obito became it's Jinchuurki, no one could harm him until I saw Gamakichi spit some water at it with natural energy. I was able to hurt him by going into Sage Mode, but it was still no match for him," Naruto said.
Rikudo Sennin smiled. "Yes, the Juubi is a force of nature. As the saying goes, fight fire with fire, fight nature with nature. It is natural that it's weakness is itself. However, that will only get you so far. You will be over whelmed by the Juubi. To defeat the Juubi, you must become one with nature. Your Sage mode is merely borrowing the power of nature."
Naruto stayed quiet for a bit to memorize all of this, but it was short lived when he got confused with becoming one with nature. "What do you mean become one with nature?"
"Well, that's for you to find out. It wouldn't help if I told you everything, would it?"
Naruto pouted after hearing that. He decided to look over at Kurama and then suddenly wished for a camera for blackmail material after seeing Kurama in a dreamlike state asleep on Rikudo Sennin's lap.. Apparently he wasn't paying attention to what Rikudo Sennin said earlier about his mind and a camera appeared. He secretly took some pictures of him and stored it the back of his mind for the future. A thought came up just then and Naruto said, "What did you mean by preparations earlier? Plus all my friends are dead."
Naruto's sadness started to come back after remembering that all of his friends were dead and that he was alone.
"Knowledge is power. I will send you back in time to where your ninja career started. You will use the knowledge of this time to fix what has gone wrong. It would be wise to keep changes to a minimum unless necessary. You would not want to change the past to something you will not recognize, and then you would be lost," Rikudo Sennin explained.
"I… understand, does that mean I will see all my friends again? Even Sasuke-teme?" Naruto asked with a hopeful tone.
"Yes, but remember that everything will be back to the way it was when you first became a ninja. You will have to re forge bonds you have created now."
A grin covered almost Naruto's entire face when he heard this. He would be able to see his friends again! He strived to be accepted when he was a child, and after seeing all of his friends die and then have the chance to see them again meant everything to Naruto.
"Your soul will be sent back in time, and Kurama's will too since his soul is bound to yours. Do remember that you will have to retrain your body again. Muscle memory can be a good thing, but also a bad thing. You will have to relearn how to walk again with the body of a child," Rikudo Sennin paused. "I am afraid my time will be up soon. I can stay longer, but I am afraid I would not have enough chakra to send you back in time far enough. Kurama will know of the conversation even though he is asleep right now. He can look through your memories. I also suggest making contact with the Jinchuurki. The Juubi must not be revived again. If it does come to that, the only chance you have of defeating it is natural energy. Becoming one with nature will be harder than you think it is."
Suddenly, everything went black and then Naruto saw himself back in the real world. An astral like image of the Rikudo Sennin appeared next to Naruto.
"It is time. Are you ready?" Rikudo Sennin asked.
Naruto grimaced, but after a few seconds, he said with a confident smile, "You bet I am!"
"Remember Naruto. Knowledge is power. Become one with nature. Do not just know it, learn it, understand it."
Then, Rikudo Sennin's Rinnegan eyes shined like the moon light. "Trancension of Heavenly Time!"
A complex sealing matrix appeared under Naruto. It glowed a bright green and then slowly sucked Naruto in to it. Naruto then saw nothing but bright green.
A clock alarm went off and blasted Naruto's eardrums. He quickly placed his hand on it and turned it off. He grabbed it and put it in front of his face.
"Damn it! That alarm is so loud! I swear didn't I destroy it a long time ago?" Naruto asked himself. Then he stopped moving. "Time?"
…
… Kurama plugged his ears just to be safe.
"I'M BACK!" screamed Naruto to no one in particular, though loud enough for the entire village of Konoha to hear. A certain Haruno family would be proud to hear that.
"Quiet you demon!" shouted a voice.
Naruto's eyes widened for a second, but then went back to normal. "That's right, I'm back to square one now."
"It's not as bad as it seems, you have me now," Kurama said. "Oh, and I also have a question. After my peaceful nap with Father, I found a black box that has the tag "Black mail" on it near the back of your mind. Would you kindly explain what it is?"
"Uh…" Naruto thought sheepishly "It's a surprise for your birthday coming up soon!"
"I see," Kurama said. Then he thought, "My birthday was actually when we met Father."
Kurama decided to let it go though, knowing Naruto would show to him what is in that box sooner or later. Naruto decided to walk to his kitchen and get something to eat, but his legs thought otherwise. Naruto stood up and took one step and fell over. Kurama howled in laughter and took a snapshot of it with his camera and saved it in a red box named "Blackmail."
"Damn it! I need to learn how to walk again now!" Naruto said in an extremely frustrated way. He glanced at the clock after and checked the date.
"I guess it's time to go to the academy to get selected into my team. If I remember right, today is when I'm placed with Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme. I wish I could just show off my true strength and beat him!" Naruto whined.
"Ah yes, but first you must learn how to walk," Kurama said.
Naruto then got an idea and created a couple shadow clones since he couldn't have too many in his apartment.
"Now get to work and learn how to walk!" Naruto ordered.
Everyone near Naruto's neighborhood started to hear a bunch of crashing.
The original Naruto however smiled while watching his clones work. It was nice being back where his ninja career started.
"Maybe… maybe this time will be different. I will not let the Juubi be revived. If it comes to that, I will destroy it." Naruto said to himself with sheer determination.
Author's Notes
Haven't seen any stories focused on Naruto's sage mode, and I couldn't think of anything to write about, so I decided to do this. Please point any mistakes I made, just woke up and too lazy to re edit. I was up to 3 AM writing this. Accept constructive criticism, I want to improve my writing.
Chapter 2 status: Currently writing, I will update every few days. I play league of legends a lot and I write a bit after every game. 1658 words at the moment. This will be removed once Chapter 2 is up