"Coming of the tide"

By Quick-n-Popular

Disclaimer: "Sailor Moon" and "Naruto" are properties of their respective owners. I own only this story I've concocted.

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at this type of a crossover. Not too sure how it'll be recieved or if the concept is sound. Ah, well, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?

Chapter One: A life unlike any other

It was the dead of night in the village hidden in the leaves, the stars making their presence known, shining brightly in the night sky.

However, tonight was to be a night unlike any other night, as amongst the bright stars, a light came to be with them that shined even brighter. This light, at first set amongst the others that illuminated the night's sky, hovered before descending down. Some that may be stargazing could have sworn that it was nothing out of the ordinary, just merely a shooting star.

This "star" soon came down to the earth below, particularly in a place known as the village hidden in the leaves. The bright ball of light shined a bright purple color before it slowly decanted and revealed a transparent person. This person, a girl, her dark long flowing hair sweeping in the night's breeze; looked around with her magenta-colored eyes around at the sleeping village.

There were people out, some shinobi doing patrols, a couple out for an evening stroll, and, of course, the bar patrons going to relieve themselves.

Nodding to herself, the girl, wearing a unique sailor-fuku outfit, carrying a tall silver glaive, walked down the street, her features subdued as she walked unseen. Her journey took her to a tall ascending tower with the kanji symbol for "fire" large and in black on its rooftop. Going inside, she proceeded through up the staircase, passing men dressed in black cloaks and armor, wearing white porcelain masks resembling animals. Her venture took her to a room in the top of the tower where two of these persons dressed as such were standing guard in front of a large twin set of doors. Undeterred, the young woman simply fazed right through the men and the doors themselves and thus entered the room.

The room was quite large. A large desk sat at the back in front of a patio was the main focus of the room as it stood out the most. Sitting on the desk were piles of paperwork, scrolls, and an odd shaped hat with the kanji for fire shadow in red on the front. Other things worth mentioning in the room were the large portraits of three men, all with serious expressions on their faces.

The glaive-wielder paused and looked at these photos for a moment before her eyes went back to looking around the room until they settled on something of interest on the side of the room. That something was a couch that had two sleeping occupants. One was a male, dressed in a green flak jacket with a white coat over it emblazoned with red flames at hem on the bottom. He had spiky blond hair and murmuring softly as he slept. In his arms was the other person, a woman with long red hair dressed in casual civilian clothes, whose body momentarily stirred and brought itself closer to the source of warmth next to her.

The girl observing the two smiled to herself, apparently having reached her objective. She walked closer to the two and came to a stop in front of them, then got down on one knee, her left hand still holding onto her glaive.

"Hello Namikaze-san, Uzumaki-san, it's wonderful to finally meet you two, even if we're not conversing nor will we ever have the chance to. All the same, I like that I get to see the people who'll help me in my dilemma." She turned her gaze to the red head, "Kushina Uzumaki, I Sailor Saturn, had a vision of a woman who longed to start a family with the man she loves. Unfortunately for her, she could not conceive a child and had lost all hope." She closed her eyes, "I've watched the two of you for a while before my arrival. The two of you are extraordinary people and it only feels right that I full fill both our wishes."

Saturn closed her eyes, biting her bottom lip as she laid her hand on Kushina's.

"I am Sailor Saturn, the senshi of silence, the senshi of death, and the senshi of birth." She sighed as she opened her eyes, "Life of a senshi is difficult. Our life, while seemingly endless, is always filled with battle as the solar system attracts many monstrous beings. As people, we try and compensate that with love and friendship." Her hand tightened, luckily her hand just phased through the sleeping redhead's. "All senshi of the universe are female, whether this was some deity's intention or not, I'm not certain. However, ironically enough, it means that all our offspring as senshi are female. Males are nonexistent, as if any of us were to conceive a male it wouldn't make it through the growth development as our body seems to reject the gender." A tear appeared at the corner of the sailor's eye and glistened as it ran down her cheek as she gave a sad smile. "This will be my first child and more than anything in my life I want for it to live. He deserves to live." She wiped the wet residual from her face and looked upon Kushina's slumbering face again. "It's been a difficult time since I learned of my blessing. Many of the other senshi, my friends, have been wonderful in their comforting but most of them are telling me to expect the inevitable. I had prepared myself for it until I had the vision, of you two, and had an epiphany."

She wished the woman and her husband could be awake for this conversation but it was better this way.

"Kushina, Minato, I'm happy that not only that my son will live but that I'm able to fulfill the wish of two people who deserve happiness. I'm confident that he'll be surrounded by love that the two of you will bring him."

Placing her unoccupied hand on her abdomen, when lifted, it carried with it a sparkling energy of white and purple. Suddenly a mist of orange came from the sleeping Kushina and vapor of blue came from Minato, the two floating over to the sparkling energy in Saturn's hand, combining with it and turning it into a dazzling array of colors.

"I can tell he'll become a person of great importance, an outstanding individual. He's the product of the three of us, after all." Another tear appeared in her eye as she lowered her hand with the energy to the surface of Kushina's covered abdomen, the multi-colored spark soon grew bright as it began to sink into the surface and then disappeared. Kushina shifted a bit, whether out of subconscious awareness was unknown. Saturn soon stood, "Like I said, the life of a senshi is difficult, one that we cannot escape from. I took many risks in this endeavor of mine and if found out I'll most likely be punished severely, maybe even going as far as they might ask for my death." Turning away, she took a couple of steps before stopping and turning her head to get one last glimpse of the two, three, as of now; sighing despondently. "My duty prevents me from returning, so I'll never be able to see him." Turning her head back, she said one more thing, "Take care of our son." Saturn, then, soon glowed brightly and turned back into light that flew out of the room, into the sky, and soon disappeared amongst the stars in the night's sky.

In but a few weeks, Kushina Uzumaki would learn of her pregnancy which brought joy and confusion to both her and her spouse, the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze. Tsunade Senju, her physician, found it incomprehensible that the woman was able to achieve pregnancy but congratulated her all the same. However, the couple's blessing was kept secret as being the wife of the Hokage as well, for security reasons and political ones.

Kushina Uzumaki couldn't be happier in her life. Married to a wonderful man and now, after months of bitter sadness after being informed of her less than likely chances of having a child, was now getting her wish. Like everyone else, she was mystified as to how this was possible but decided not to question what God had granted her.

After all, it had to be divine intervention; both she and Minato could feel it. One thing that they had kept amongst themselves was that they shared a dream together, a dream where a stranger had met them, a person, or in their conclusion, God; had come to them to save them from their heartache. Although, from what Kushina could remember, or rather, feel from that dream was that it was both a happy and somewhat sad situation. It was hard to describe but it felt as if there was sadness from the gift-giver's side. For a while Kushina had pondered this feeling but, after a short while and a discussion with Minato, she decided to put it in the back of her mind.

After all, both she and Minato had a lot to look forward to and they were going to have a child. The future was surely to be bright.

Sixteen years later…

Konoha was in turmoil.

It was the fourth shinobi war and Konoha, along with the other Elemental Nations, were pitted against an organization comprised of deadly, if not dangerous, Nuke-nin calling themselves Akatsuki. These individuals' goal was to capture the Jinjuuriki and extract the Bijuu that were sealed inside them. Before the announcement of the war, the group had been successful in capturing seven of the nine Jinjuuriki in the Elemental Nations and, in the process, the hosts themselves died in the process. Akatsuki's goals were made clear by a man called Madara Uchiha, one of the founders of the village hidden in the leaves, which he himself, wished to be a Jinjuuriki, one that held the Juubi, the ten tailed monster that had been divided up into the tailed beasts that existed in the present time. With this power, he would unleash an untold mind control over the entire human race and have everyone conform to his ideals.

Konoha had met these dangerous individuals on more than one occasion and had successfully killed or stopped seven of their nine members. However, they weren't able to stop them in their activities which in turn allowed them to continue to capture the Jinjuuriki and cause the deaths of countless others. They were successful in manipulating others to join their cause, such as renegade, missing-nin Sasuke Uchiha, former leaf-nin.

Through thick and thin they had managed to prevail against the group until it was just the leader and Sasuke himself. However in the struggle in Suna, Madara's last loyal follower fell when Sasuke's own teammate Sakura Haruno dealt the final blow but at the cost of her own life. Although, this merely just slowed Madara's progress until he had created his own army.

Madara's army was massive. Comprised of cloned Zetsu soldiers, he had taken the Elemental Nations by swarms. The deaths were high and many of the Hidden shinobi villages were rendered to smoldering ashes. All that stood left were Konoha and Suna and Suna's line of defense was flailing.

Once Suna had fallen, it seemed that Konoha was all that stood between certain annihilation and utter destruction.

Konoha's defenses held out for a good week before the last line had been broken through and the large platoon of Zetsus ran through the outskirts and into the already evacuated village of the, once, prestigious, shinobi.

Outside of the village, a group of shinobi were making their fast track away from their home. The leader of this group, one Shikamaru Nara winced as they landed in an outcropping in the forested area, his already sprained ankle responding to the harsh landing. He soon called for an immediate halt in their travel.

"We'll rest here for five minutes, and then we'll proceed on towards Wave."

The rest of the group nodded, wearily, all finding a different place to rest while some set themselves in a perimeter around the site to stand guard. The ones that rested, some which were injured, groaned in relief at the reprieve from the excruciating travel.

Shikamaru, while tending to his injury, looked over his group. His teammate Ino Yamanaka was unusually quiet as she assisted Shizune in tending to the dislocation in Kiba Inuzuka's arm, while the man's canine partner, Akamaru, stood by whimpering. To the right of them, Genma was helping the unconscious former Kazekage, Sabuku no Gaara, sit up as his sister Temari was wrapping a splint on his leg. A little farther away from them, Tenten was going over her weapons supply before getting up and joining the rejuvenated Kiba in standing watch. Shikamaru's eyes soon traveled behind him where one Hinata Hyuuga was holding a young blond-haired man that had a nasty gash on his forehead, her bloodline, the Byakugan, activated and helping keeping watch over their temporary settlement, whilst cradling the unconscious boy who meant everything to her, Naruto Uzumaki.

Shikamaru's focus was set on the teenaged male, whose breathing was erratic, dressed in black and orange with a red overcoat that had black flames on the bottom hem. This teen, whom the Nara has known since the two, plus Kiba, Hinata, and Ino, had attended the academy as children; was the source of this terrible war. It wasn't until two years ago when Shikamaru learned of Naruto's status as a Jinjuuriki, along with the others Naruto knew, and as to what Akatsuki wanted. Thus began their long struggle with the deadly organization, one that had cost them the lives of many of their talented shinobi. Asuma Sarutobi, Shikamaru and Ino's sensei, and Jiraya, Naruto's sensei and Godfather were the beginning of the names that followed in the wake of Akatsuki's first move against Konoha and the nations in order to obtain the last two Jinjuuriki that were left in the Elemental Nations. Gaara had been a Jinjuuriki and had miraculously come back to life after the extraction of his Bijuu and in turn a member of Akatsuki had been defeated by the combined efforts of Suna and Konoha; this would mark the first overall victory against group of missing-nin. Konoha later faced several other Akatsuki members, including their defacto-leader who nearly had wiped out Konoha altogether, and prevailed against them.

However, with the decrease in their numbers Akatsuki still remained adamant in their goals for world domination. Their leader, Madara Uchiha, appeared and gave an ultimatum. That the remaining Jinjuuriki would be given to him and Akatsuki or it would mean total annihilation for the entire Elemental Nations. When he was refused, Madara made a declaration of war and thus the Fourth Shinobi War started.

Konoha had allied themselves with the other Shinobi villages and thus they had the numbers to go against Madara. Madara, in lieu of the villages' joint strategy, created an army out of his subordinate Zetsu to go against the nation. His army was overwhelming and could disguise themselves to infiltrate the ranks of the opposition, which was the beginning of the nightmare. Countless deaths soon followed after, including the Daimyo's of the Elemental Nations, the Mizukage, and the generals of Kumogakure. The Raikage and the Tsuchikage decided to take charge with a platoon of five hundred each, determined to take the fight to Madara and end the war immediately. Their deaths caused a wild fire of low morale amongst the ranks and soon everything went to hell.

Like a swarm of locusts, Madara and his army came through and wiped out everything within their sights. All that were left of the five great nations were Suna and Konoha. Spurred on by the deaths of his two teammates, early in the battle in Suna, Naruto, with Gaara, decided that they would stop Madara there once and for all. With the addition of Naruto's kage bushins to the ranks, Suna held for several weeks before Madara himself appeared on the battlefield. It was a fight to be seen. With Gaara at his side, the two managed to surprise and stop Madara at several intervals but in the end seemed powerless to stop the maniacal madman. If it weren't quick thinking on Gai and Rock Lee's part, Naruto would have been captured and Gaara would have been dead, unfortunately, in doing so, cost the life of Gai himself.

It was Gaara's sister, Temari's, decision to call an immediate retreat from the village hidden in the sand as Gaara was incapacitated and their numbers were dwindling. Whatever survivors were left came with the leaf Nin back to Konoha where, as Tsunade put it, was the last high ground left in the Elemental Nations. From there, the main focus point was to heal both forces so that they stood a fighting chance against Madara. Blockades were set up slow down the tide that was going to sweep through. When the first four blockades had been rend asunder, Tsunade had made a difficult choice. A council meeting took place between the civilian council members, the Clan Heads, and the generals of Konoha's might where it was decided upon what should be done once Madara's army got through the last lines and would enter the village itself. They, after two hours of deliberation came to a decision. This is where Shikamaru had found himself when he was brought into the Hokage's office along with Genma. His order? To safe guard the one thing that Madara wanted and to slip out of the village secretly along with how many others he trusted to keep them all alive as they went into hiding. She made a choice for two such candidates, much to one person's reluctance, choosing Shizune for her medical skills to help, the other, Genma, who simply shrugged and agreed to the mission.

To Shikamaru, he was confused as to why this was necessary as it would help Konoha's chances for survival if Naruto was there to assist, that and he could bet all of the ramen in the Elemental Nations that the blond haired Jinjuuriki would be opposed for turning tail and run from the forces that were going to attack his place of birth. He voiced his opinion but was immediately dismissed by the Godaime Hokage with the words "It's an order, whether he likes it or not". It was all troublesome, but Shikamaru swallowed his skepticism and went to find out the perfect candidates for this, possibly, last assignment. The Nara was no fool, Tsunade and the others in the meeting had come to the conclusion that Konoha, more than likely, was not going to last this onslaught and the only hope left was to keep Naruto away and safe for as long as possible for the sake of their world. To the shadow user, it was both a humbling and depressing thought, however being a Nara and all that he had experienced in his career as a shinobi for Konoha, he had shed his innocence and naivety long ago. With this mindset, he set out to find those that would be a part of what he dubbed, the "Protectors of the Will of Fire". The first person he had approached was Ino, due to her being his last living teammate and someone he trusted with his very life. Ironically, when it came to Naruto's safety in mind, choosing Hinata was the best choice since she would do everything that she would be capable of to protect the person she loved the most. Kiba was a coincidence as he was with his female teammate when he approached her and talked his way into joining the party. Upon learning that Hinata was going on this mission from Ino's loose lips, Tenten, having promised her late teammate, Hinata's cousin, Neji, that she would do everything in her power to protect her from harm; approached Shikamaru and demanded to be placed on the team. Gathering the people was the easiest part; the hardest was getting the person they were to protect to agree to this mission. Naruto was, as always, stubborn and quickly refused to do what the Hokage asked being adamant that he was needed to protect the village and that was nothing was going to change his mind about it. While both Shikamaru and Ino argued for seemingly on end with him is when Madara had broken through the lines and broken through the gate's perimeter. Naruto abandoned the discussion and quickly went to meet the enemy with fifty of his kage bushins flanking him. His survival being paramount, Shikamaru and Ino followed after to ensure his safety and, in Ino's words, drag the "bull-headed" idiot away and begin their journey out of the village. What happened next was a blur, but soon Naruto had become overwhelmed by the opposing forces and was knocked into the air like a rag doll and came with a harsh landing. Genma arrived soon and picked up the boy and the group of volunteers soon joined and made their way to the hidden passage that would lead outside the village. Along the way they met with Temari who was defending her brother who had also got injured in the scuffle. Without exchanging words, she soon followed them with her brother in tow and the ten had made their way to whatever fate befell them.

Never even once would Shikamaru blame his friend, that he has known for so long, for their predicament, nor would he think that any of those present guarding him would either. It was all just so…..troublesome.

Sighing, Shikamaru removed himself from the ground and walked over to the blond, whose protector was bleary-eyed from having to use her doujutsu for so long, yet her reserve was steel and she kept her protective hold on her still love interest strong.

"How're you holding up?"

His question slightly jarred her and she blinked rapidly before turning to him, her bloodline deactivating as she tried to get her breath back.

"I-I'm fine, I guess."

Shikamaru nodded, he then turned his attention to the person in her arms. "How is he?"

Hinata sighed, taking a hand and brushing a few strands of hair away from the boy's head affectionately before she answered.

"The Kyuubi seems to be healing his wounds alright but what's going on, on the inside, I don't know."

"Well, whenever the knucklehead wakes up, I'm sure he's going to be a baka and demand to go back to the village." Ino said, joining them and attending to Hinata's cuts.

Shizune chuckled as she ran a green chakra-infused hand over the boy's body before removing it. "Well, he seems to be doing ok. Kazekage-sama is coming around soon so I think we all should be ready to go soon."

Shikamaru nodded and turned away to go speak with Temari when Hinata spoke up.

"Everybody! We're being surrounded!"

Shikamaru spun around and then called out to everybody, "Formations!"

Everyone save the two unresponsive boys and the women shielding them, formed a circle around the two and brought out their kunai as they lay waiting for the enemy. It wasn't long until they could see the creepy visage of the Zetsus' coming into sight around them.

"Surrender the Jinjuuriki at once and we'll make your death swift!" One of them called out.

"Shit, Shika, what are we going to do? There's too many of them!" Ino growled.

"This doesn't look good…" Kiba growled as well.

For the first time in his life, Shikamaru Nara's mind drew a blank and fear was over coming him.

In the deep recesses of Naruto's mind lay a series of tunnels that led to an open chamber where in it was a massive gate sealed by a paper with the kanji for "seal" on it. Behind that gate lay the Kyuubi whose massive eyes were half-lidded as it had been concentrating its energy in the effort to recover its host. However, within this chamber an unknown presence made itself known, however it still being cloaked in the darkness made little of its physical shape known.

The Kyuubi, sensing something else in its vicinity that was not its jailor, opened its eyes and growled, menacingly.

"Who's out there!"

Nothing was said, with the exception of something heavy and metallic being slammed against the ground which echoed everywhere. Then, the Kyuubi began yowling in pain as its collective energy soon began being drawn, forcefully, towards the unnamed person by heaps.

Hinata, frantic upon what to do, soon looked at the person she loved the most for unspoken guidance, looked on in shock as a symbol appeared on his brow, that of a cross that had an extended wavy line, which illuminated in a soft purple color. The boy's eyes soon sprung open and, equally shocking the Hyuuga heiress, they were pupil-less, much like her own, but glowing a deep purple color.

"Naruto!" She shouted.

All eyes of the Konoha and Suna survivors turned their eyes away from their enemies and lay them upon the startled girl and the boy in her arms and the bizarre thing that was occurring.

Naruto's hand moved mechanically from his body and then the hand slammed against the ground. This, in turn, caused a purple, black, and red orb come spiraling out of his body. It rotated constantly and grew till it expanded and dwarfed all of the persons surrounding him. Then it collapsed into itself and the ten that were there soon vanished.

In a shrine, a young woman with raven hair was performing her daily ritual when suddenly she stopped and gaped at the sudden imagary that came to life in the fire, showing her a series of events with various characters. Some of these people she knew, others were completely foriegn.

However, one person was a constant, in the series of imagary. That of a blond haired boy and city of Tokyo surrounding him engulfed in flames...

To be contined...

A/N: Well, what do you think? Please leave a review.

Q-n-P