Naruto; Well LC had the idea of a reverse travel fic.
Sasuke; Basically she's killing most of us off and making Naruto immortal.
LC; Not true!...He won't be immortal, just insanely awesome.
Sasuke; And that makes all the difference.
LC; It sure does! To me anyway!
Naruto; Why does everyone have to die though?
LC; Cause of the many, many bad guys after your cute whiskered self.
Naruto;...Why do they always go after me?
LC; Awesomeness is attracted to awesomeness. You just had the misfortune to be awesome.
Naruto;...That...made no sense at all.
Disclaimer; Nope, but the idea is mine.
Chapter 1; Get back up.
When Pein had realized that he was going to lose, he decided to try and take Niki with him. It didn't work that way. Yes, his jutsu successfully ravaged the lands, destroying life as they knew it.
Yes, all of her friends perished trying to run from it. And yes, even Madara finally died.
But Niki did not die.
She remained.
It took a day's worth of travel, but she made it to the mountain that still stood. The mountain that had always stood, and would always stand, showing the faces of four kage.
And there, there was the village, or really, the crator. But not a single person in the many tents around it.
For the last jutsu of Pein had been a jutsu that destroyed living flesh of the same being that had performed it. In this case, despite how twisted he was, Pein was human, so humans perished.
But Niki was no longer a human.
No, she was a demon.
She was a demon. But she lived in agonizing grief and despair. Her reasons for living, were gone. She was all alone again. Not even the Kyubi to annoy her and get her back on her feet.
For he had died saving her, not realizing he would die in the process anyway. It was a hollow victory. Niki survived but he unwittingly gave his own life for it.
And now, standing in all her fox majesty, was Niki Uzumaki-Namikaze.
Even as she explored the tents the people had been living in, she knew she would find none of them. No more would she hear the laughter of a child. No more the gentle scoldings of her teachers. No more the encouragements of her loving friends. No more the gentle caresses of her one love. No more the sounds of people just being there.
No more forever more would she bear the responsibility of their lives, for that right had been stolen from her. Pein had failed to kill her, but dying would have been preferable to the literal hell she now lived.
Niki, in her dazed, grief ridden state, lived in the old camp. Waiting for friends who would never return. Slowly, oh so slowly, she began to come back to awareness.
She was aware enough to forage for food among the supplies. Aware enough to allow water from a canteen to trickle down her throat. Enough to remember the good times they had shared and would never share again.
It was about a month after the apocolypse, when she began to wonder.
How far could a jutsu like that travel? Not even a biju could force a jutsu to cover the whole world. Could there be, somewhere, living people?
She pondered this for a week before making her decision. She would travel the world, in search of people. If she could find one, even one, life may be worth living again.
She left immediatly, taking enough food to last her to get to Suna.
She arrived, but found little more than ruins there as well. The people were gone, meaning they had probably died as well. Meaning Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro were dead too.
She nearly lost herself in her grief again, saved only by the thought that maybe she just had to travel farther. Maybe somewhere else, somewhere else people had survived?
She travelled to each of the villages in turn, but never found any people. Until finally the last one was Sound. It was the only underground village, and it held bad memories for her, but by now she was past caring.
It wasn't long before she began to hear things. Not exactly animals, but animalistic. Animal enough to not be completely human anyway.
And there, in the locked room down the hall, came the sounds of crying. Great racking sobs, as though the person inside was feeling great pain. Or had expierenced a greatly saddening thing.
She broke the door down and found a room full of children. They were young, and some were dead, but most were alive. The dead ones had apparently been weaker and had been partially eaten. There had probably been over a hundred, judging from the number of bones leftover from past meals.
Now the remaining fifty or so children were crying, until they saw her there.
They were young, the oldest ten years old. And not totally human either, though clearly humanoid. One girl had long blue hair and gills, she wore a water filter on her neck that connected to the gills, allowing her to breathe.
One boy had cat ears and slitted eyes along with small claws on his hands, he also had a tail poking out of his pants seat and was about five years old.
There was a boy with strange markings on his face that looked like someone had splashed his face with black paint. Another girl, who appeared to have shark like teeth and seemed to be ill. Two girls with red hair sat in a corner, hugging eachother tight. Their tears resembled little flames but that didn't seem to bother them.
Niki inspected each and every child while mentally hoping Orochimaru was going through intense torture in hell. He'd left them alone in a locked room, forcing them to eat eachother to survive!
Niki could've kicked herself when she realized if she had come here first most of them would still be alive. She vowed to do her best to do right by these remaining children and to save as many others as possible.
"Children, I am Niki Uzumaki-Namikaze." She introduced herself, squatting down in front of the crowd of curious kids. "Can you all tell me who you are and why your here?"
The ten year old boy came up first. He had white hair and dark eyes, and his shadow seemed to be moving independently.
"I've been here the longest." Clearly he hadn't had much chance to practice his english, as his voice sounded underused. "I am called Ex; 239."
Niki could have cried as she realized the kids didn't even have names, only numbers.
"We're all orphans who Orochimaru-sama took in and experimented on." He explained, speaking for everyone. It seemed he was the ringleader. "A long time ago, food stopped arriving. We lived for a while on left over stuff, things we saved, but eventually..." He trailed off, looking over to the half eaten corpses with regret and sadness. "We were kids who survived his experiments or had rare bloodlines that he liked."
Niki wished she had been in Sasuke's place when he had killed the bastard snake. He clearly did not deserve whatever was done to him, he deserved so much worse.
If there was one thing she could not stand, it was when someone messed with innocent life. This, definetely qualified.
After hearing each story, she began her own. She told the children of her travels, of her life, her friends and family, her entire life story.
"Young ones, I can not know you by number, so I will give you names or allow you to choose your own." She announced to them. "I will give you some time to think over possible names while we search for more survivors, come."
They followed the woman who was like a light in the dark to them through the base, finding several more still living experiments, none older than ten years old.
Finally, she led them into the sun.
After getting over their shock of how beautiful and bright the world was, or rediscovering it for the first time in years, Niki called for their attention.
"Children, we must get something straight." She said slowly, making sure they were all there, making sure none had wandered off to explore in the refreshing way children did when in a new place. "It is very likely we will see no other human beings, for the world is empty because of an evil man." Many of the kids looked scared, but she had their full attention now.
"I survived through special circumstances, and began a journey looking for people who had survived." She looked them over and felt again, that feeling. "I know many of you have seen and done what no child should ever see or do, but I want to help you all." That feeling, the one of being wanted. "I will take you all in and watch over you, train you, so that we might all live to see the world become again what it once was. My name is Niki Uzumaki-Namikaze, and now I will give each of you a name as well."
After much confusion, she had them all lined up to recieve a name. The first was the ten year old boy who had spoken to her. The one with white hair and dark eyes.
"I think your name should be Shiro." She told him, ruffling his white hair and smiling kindly. The next was the twin red heads. She turned first to the one on the right, then the left. "You are Faia and Kaji."
Next was the boy with cat features. "I think Hige would suit you."
She soon found herself seeing characteristics in them that reminded her names and found herself naming one boy Lee. Another became Kiba. Soon she used every name she could think of, wether she had met that person or if she'd simply read the name or something.
Finally she came to a little two year old carrying a teddy bear that was ragged and in need of stitches. He had blonde hair and blue eyes like hers. But she named him after her father of course.
"You little one, are Minato." He smiled and laughed, hugging his bear closer before running off to tell everyone who he was.
When that was done, Niki thought of what she would do for food and water. They were near a fresh water stream, so that was taken care of.
She would need to be sure no one fell in though, they probably didn't know how to swim and she couldn't have them drowning. It wasn't until she saw two eight year old boys attacking Minato that she realized how urgent the need for real food was.
She quickly saved the small boy and scolded the two boys.
Later that night, the kids had thier first meal in over a month that did not include their own friends. She chose right after they had finished and begun to play to explain a few rules to them.
"CHILDREN!" She shouted, getting all their attention immediatly. "I know the way you all survived up until now included eating your own, and I must say, I will not tolerate this!" She noticed gladly that the kids seemed somewhat relieved to hear this, even the two who had attacked Minato earlier. "I want you all to know that we will have more than enough food where we are going and I do not like it when my kids eat eachother. So we'll have none of that, alright?" The all nodded, happy to make their new 'mother' happy. For some sense of normalcy and security.
It took them three weeks, but finally, at long last, they reached the tent camp of the leaf. By now the animals had run through the camp, reclaiming the territory as their own.
Of course, the animals soon became food for the many hungry bellies Niki now had to fill. She managed to fix up most of the tents and made sleeping arrangements.
Now that she finally had time to herself, Niki thought about what she would do next.
Her village, her reason, was gone, yet she and a handful (coughahundredcough) of kids remained. For a while on her journey, she had contemplated suicide, wondering if she would even be able to die now she was a demon.
Of course, that was before she found so many lost and hopeless kids in need of a little TLC. She couldn't leave them to die. She began to wonder what she would do next though.
Obviously the kids needed to learn things. Like reading, writing, shinobi arts, and how to get their own food. She could start training some of them in the arts of shinobi now.
But if she did that, how would she take care of the younger kids? She didn't have a hundred eyes.
The sun was about to rise when Niki suddenly remembered something. 'DAMNIT! IT TOOK ME ALL NIGHT TO REMEMBER I COULD USE THE KAGE BUSHIN JUTSU! I CAN EASILY TAKE CARE OF A HUNDRED KIDS WITH THAT ONE!'
Having finally come up with a solution, she began to make breakfast for a family of a hundred. It was a lot easier than it had been the past three weeks with the bushins helping out.
'I'm the dumbest person that ever lived.' She mentally berated herself as she went around waking the kids up. 'My entire fighting style revolves around that useful little jutsu and I just now realize I can use it!'
As the kids ate, she told them again of being a shinobi and asked if they wanted to learn. "I won't force you, but I do require answers by lunch time." She told them all. "Until then, you are free to explore so long as you don't leave sight of the mountain faces."
It wasn't even ten minutes before they were all asking for training. Niki was a little surprised but guessed it had to do with her many stories about her life as a ninja. She made several clones to teach several classes while she and another dozen went to the 'library', while another ten roamed the area watching the little ones to make sure they didn't wander off or get hurt.
The 'library' was actually about ten tents that held all the jutsu scrolls and books that had been saved. The civilians had all pitched in to take the entire library away during the Pein invasion so they wouldn't be destroyed.
A few tents were even dedicated to clan libraries. She made a mental note to direct the boy she'd named Shikamaru to the Nara tent. He was the same boy who's shadow had so many unique properties, so he could probably use the techniques.
It helped that in her travels to the various ninja villages she had taken the liberty of sealing their libraries in scrolls as well.
Not like they would be missed, ne?
She and the bushins accompanying her began to read all the scrolls and books, anything to help in teaching her new students and providing for them a new future.
Though, now she wondered. Would the training even be needed in real battles, instead of just spars? Was there a reason to pass on the knowledge that killed so many people? Would it be wiser, to never let this knowledge again see the light of day?
Even as she thought it though, she thought of something else.
If being underground protected them from that jutsu, could there be others? If so, where were they? Who were they? Would she ever see them?
Would they ever threaten her or her children?
It took many weeks, but now they had a large mansion built for them to live in. Just in time for winter too. By now, many of the older kids had mastered reading and writing and were learning academy stuff.
Niki had gone on various voyages in search of useful comodities for them all. She no longer ignored a stray book. Even books old ero-sennin had written she memorized, before vowing not to let her kids read them...ever.
She learned how to make and work plumbing, build houses and other buildings, and other various things that would be useful in life.
On one trip, she found the village that supplied ninja weapons and couldn't believe her luck when she saw all the weapons just sitting there, begging to be used.
However, her travels also taught her something else. Even in the face of destruction, humanity found ways to survive. Like cockroaches.
Just when you think they're all gone, they grow back. The fresh blood was the first sign. Normally she would have dismissed it as animal blood, if not for the discarded shuriken she found lodged in a tree near the village hidden in the mist.
After finding it, she anxiously dismissed one of the many clones back home to make sure all was well there.
After that, Niki began to practice her underused stealth more often in order to not be caught off guard by whoever it was. Obviously it was a ninja, but was it one of Orochimaru's men? Or someone else?
She shook her head before focusing on the scene before her. Today was what she had decided was Minato's birthday, so they were all celebrating for the little blonde boy and his teddy, who he claimed was as old as him.
By now they had another building, the academy, and even a place where they could all eat outside without fear of the elements.
Her village was regrowing, probably somewhat similar to the first time. The only difference was it was being built by mainly one person and the other people were all kids.
"What do ya know, a group of demons and their mommy." Niki threw a barrage of kunai and shuriken at the just visible shapes entering the clearing.
"Please Shinobi-sans, I would prefer if you did not call my children demons." She said kindly, tilting her head and smiling. "You see, when you mess with a mother's babies, she always gets back at you."
The shapes had managed to avoid the barrage and were now standing in plain sight as the kids all looked on warily.
"So tell me, how did you survive the apocolypse?" Niki asked conversationally, as though asking how a wife was at home.
"We happened to sense the chakra and managed to get underground in time." The leader was wearing an Iwa headband. "You?"
"Oh me, I happened to be somewhere the jutsu could not reach me." She told them, as though divulging a huge secret.
The leader hadn't known what to think when he saw how much smoke was coming in the direction the Leaf village use to be in. About four months ago he and the remainder of his comrades had gone to check it out and found it empty.
But for a long time now they had seen that smoke and began to wonder, had some leaf ninja, like them, survived the blast?
And imagine their surprise when they saw a table of freaks chowing down to a large buffet with the only visible adult being a young red haired woman.
What was more, was she was clearly a very strong nin, and hadn't even been surprised when they revealed themselves. Genuske watched the woman intently as she stood and welcomed them, as though she hadn't tried her hand at killing them a moment ago.
He noticed her clothes were rather shabby, though he wasn't really complaning about her choice of ninja wear.
She wore a short kimono that barely reached her thighs, had bandages acting as thight socks that gave her a rather sexy look, the sleeves were long and hid her hands, so they couldn't see her making any signs if she made them.
The kimono was a deep blue, but over the heart was a red swirl. She had exotic looking whisker marks on each cheek. Her blue eyes seemed rather animalistic but showed a lot of love and kindness.
"I am Niki Uzumaki-Namikaze, it's a pleasure to meet you." She introduced herself, watching their reactions. First they exchanged some looks, seemed to come to a decision, picked up their cups simultaniously, and had a spit take.
"The yellow flash reproduced!" They all cried, shocked.
"Oh, you didn't know?" She asked them, sniggering despite herself. "So, what brought you here other than the smell of food?"
Genuske chose to answer for his men. "We were wondering if any leaf nins had survived." He looked over the weird kids before adding. "So, your the only one?"
"Sadly, yes." Niki frowned as she answered. "My comrades didn't have any warning, and they all perished because of a man named Pein."
The Iwa shinobi were ashamed of their motives when they heard Niki's story. How could they even think of attacking the children and lone woman!
"So tell me, have you come across any other survivors?" She asked them, calmly sipping her tea.
"There are a few from every village." They told her. "For Suna all that's left is a teen age girl. For Mist there's about five men and two women left. For Sound we found several mutants roaming the area. Their numbers are unknown. For Iwa there's just us. And we think there are survivors from Star but we haven't ventured there yet."
Niki couldn't help but smile when she heard how many people were still left in the world.
"Not so long ago, I myself ventured to Iwa." She told them. "I'd been collecting shinobi libraries, before I knew there were survivors. I'll hand them over to you if you want."
"That would be appreciated." Genuske told her. "Before we leave is there anything we can do for you and the kids?"
"Well, I'm sure they would enjoy seeing a real shinobi fight." She suggested. "We could hold a sort of tournament to show them the strength of a true shinobi."
This idea was seen as a good one so they made plans for the tournament to be held in the morning.
In their two connected tents, the Iwa shinobi talked about what they would do next. They were stupid to think that their village could ever return to what it had been.
For one, in their group, there was only one female and she had had her tubes tied long ago as she'd been a favorite for seduction missions and hadn't wanted to risk having to deal with an unwanted child.
"What about that woman out there or some of the kids?" One guy suggested.
Genuske thought about it for a few minutes before coming up with a possible solution.
"She can't be everywhere at once, and clones are easy to dispell." He pointed out to his teammates. "We could 'borrow' a couple girls and give Niki the option of taking their place."
"So what, your going to rape kids?" The lone kunoichi of the group asked. "What are you, a pedophile? They aren't even old enough to bear kids anyway."
"No, I don't condone raping a kid." Genuske agreed with her. "I meant we would threaten to torture them, but she could take their place in the 'torture'."
Niki would have had to be an idiot if she wasn't going to keep an eye and ear on her guests. Before they'd gone inside she'd made sure there was a spying seal inside.
The spying seal was at first made by her in case one of the kids had a nightmare, something that happened often enough.
Thanks to these wonderfully useful seals, she heard their plans and began thinking of ways to prevent them.
LINELINELINELINE'SLIELINELINE'SLIELINE'sLIELINELINELINELINELIONLINE!
LC; Chappie one finito!
Naruto; Whoa, you had me adopt a bunch of experiment kids?
LC; Hey, at least they have a valid reason for still being alive!
Sasuke; How come only one girl from Suna survived?
LC; All will be revealed soon young grasshopper!
Naruto;...Your ideas get freakier and freakier, you know that right?
LC; I aim to please!