Naruto couldn't stop himself from smiling as he felt his body go cold, he could literally feel the life seeping out of him but he knew one thing, he had at least managed to seriously wound that traitor Kabuto.
So it was with a grin that he felt his life slipping away, knowing that he had fulfilled Tsunade's requirement for her to return to Konoha and heal Sasuke and Lee. So despite knowing that he would never become Hokage, he would die happy in the knowledge that at least his friends would carry on.
Suddenly he found himself suddenly jerked back to consciousness and with surprising energy bolted upright, only to see something that made him confused.
A buxom blonde with a jewel on her forehead and her hair tied into a pair of ponytails was looking at the ground behind him with gritted teeth and watering eyes, prompting him to look at where she was looking before his mind froze.
There, laying on the ground, was himself, a large metal chain attached to his chest that he noted connected with one on his own. It didn't take long for him to come to a simple conclusion, he had finally died, a conclusion that was reinforced by Tsunade's cries of 'you can't die here, come on'.
Once again he couldn't stop himself from smiling, he now knew that at the very least he had died with someone that cared at his side.
He was suddenly broken out of his musings upon seeing a pale skinned man he knew as Orochimaru practically flying towards the woman with a sword erupting from a snake in his mouth.
Instantly he knew that the dark haired sannin was aiming to kill the blonde that was trying desperately to save him, however the first thought that popped into his head was simple, "wait! If I'm a ghost then… how can I help Baa-chan?!"
It was with gritted teeth that he tried to come up with something that could help the slug sannin, quickly forcing himself to try and gather chakra in his hand like he did with his rasengan.
Feeling nothing coming and still seeing the treacherous snake zooming towards the medical professional, Naruto closed his eyes and focused even more, only to feel something he had never felt before, making his eyes jerk open.
The sight that greeted him was most certainly not what he expected, instead of seeing the open plain ravaged by the battle of the three legendary ninja, he was instead in what looked almost like a throne room.
"Huh?" was all that escaped his mouth before he suddenly found himself being tackled to the (surprisingly soft) ground.
"SHUKUN(1)! I'M SO HAPPY YOU'VE FINALLY ARRIVED!" the yell was deafening and the spiky haired blond could do little more than try to wrap his head around what this stranger had said… before his body went rigid upon realising what this person had called him.
"Wait! Who are…" he suddenly found his words caught in his throat upon seeing the person before him. It was a young girl, with peachy skin, a heart shaped face, long blonde hair tied into a pair of large pig tails, while her bright blue eyes shone at him with nothing but adoration. The final part of her appearance that made Naruto freeze however was the set of whisker like birthmarks marring her cheeks.
"Y-you're," he started only to get cut off by the girl who he refused to look at the body of.
"Yep! I'm (bzzt)," the girl said with a grin reminiscent of his own, while her name seemed to be blocked out by a strange static sound, "it's so great to finally get to meet you when you're conscious."
"I… I… I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch your name," the spiky haired youth said as his entire body shook with barely restrained nerves… honestly how the hell had his Oiroke no jutsu appeared here? And just for clarity where the hell was here in the first place?
Upon hearing the young genin's statement the girl suddenly looked down with a small hint of depression written on her face.
"I see, so you're not ready to hear my name yet," she muttered quietly before giving a firm nod and looking back up at him and offering a smile, "well that doesn't matter, we've got all the time in the world for that."
"S-sorry but can you please explain what's going on?" the whiskered boy asked what could probably only be described as his counterpart.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot, anyway, this place is your mindscape," she informed the other blond with an infectious smile that was promptly ignored in favour of a firm statement.
"No it isn't," Naruto may have been an idiot but he wasn't a fool, he had already been to his mindscape and knew what it looked like during his encounter with his tenant and this was completely different.
"Tell me shukun, what does this look like to you?" she asked him while spreading her arms to indicate the room they currently occupied, making the young boy look at her body only to let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that she was wearing what appeared to be a dancers outfit of a bright orange bra, with a matching ankle length skirt with a slit going down the side to display enough leg to be erotic, while a pair of raised heel sandals adorned her feet.
"Uh… a throne room," he quickly said earning a nod off the orange clad woman.
"Correct, now where would you find a throne room?" she asked him, once again making him think about where she was going with this line of questioning.
"A palace," once again she nodded before asking her final question.
"And what do you find underneath a palace?" it was that question that explained everything to the blond.
"A dungeon… the Kyūbi's in a dungeon!" the happy smile he received in exchange for his answer made him accept that it did actually make sense however what really didn't make any sense was this woman's presence here, "so who are you?"
"I am (bzzt) the sword of your soul," she informed him with a soft tone, "as soon as you pull out your true power, I can be with you outside of this palace."
"If I pull out my 'true power' as you call it, will I be able to protect Tsunade-obaachan?" the answer he received wasn't what he expected.
"I don't know…" it was obvious that the woman wasn't lying to him, however she also seemed rather sad at her statement, "I don't know if you'll be able to interact with the physical world or not in a spirit body, which is exactly what you are but it won't hurt to try will it?"
"Yeah, you're right, so how do I find this power you're talking about?" the orange clad shinobi asked her, earning a warm smile from her.
"It is your power, feel it out and pull on it like you would with your chakra," she explained to him, earning a grateful smile off the blond who simply closed his eyes and tried to locate a source of great power within his body.
Despite his focus on finding this new power he had no idea about, his mind kept thinking back to the whole reason he was here, Tsunade needed him to save her and he didn't know what had happened since his death.
It was with haste in his soul that he found a power unlike anything he had ever felt before and with a sharp tug, it was released.
"Congratulations shukun, please visit me again soon," the unnamed sword said with a bright smile as his form faded from existence.
XXX XXX XXX
Outside of his mindscape Naruto underwent a rather dramatic change as his orange jumpsuit was instantly replaced by a set of clothes consisting of a black kimono and hakama with a pair of simple straw sandals protecting his feet.
At his wait was a katana perfectly proportioned to his height and arm length, with an elegant orange sheath, with a blue painting of a tree filled with stylized leaves wrapping around the wood. The handle of the blade was no different, possessing a bright orange hue with more blue leaves stitched into the course grip.
Despite the change in his clothes, the real change was the burst of power that erupted from his form, barely a tenth of his chakra capacity in life but far more potent from what he could tell.
Opening his eyes he was greeted by a sight that made his non-existent blood run cold, Tsunade had been impaled by the treacherous snake sannin. However he was snapped out of his stupor upon witnessing the older blonde grip her old teammates sword before pulling it forward, bringing the pale skinned man rocketing towards her where a single elbow impacted with his head.
The sickening crunch that came from the impact was evidence that the snake summoner took a powerful hit, even if he had spat out the snake and leaned backwards to minimise the blow. It was because of that that the sick traitor was able to stand up after receiving the normally lethal strike.
Despite this the blond still couldn't stop himself from feeling fear about the older blonde's injury, that is until he noticed strange markings covering her body and all her injuries closing in a matter of seconds, evidence of her immense talent in the art of Iryō jutsu.
"Whoa," was the only word to escape his mouth upon seeing the legendary medic heal right before his eyes and wondering if she really was good enough to resurrect him… that was when a certain thought struck him.
"Wait… even if she could revive me… is it possible if I'm not in my body?" that thought immediately made him blink before he decided to see if his body would reaccept his soul.
Calmly laying down upon his body, he was relieved to feel the soft warmth of his chakra return and without any hesitation he opened his eyes and sat up, shocking the two sannin that were facing his direction.
Immediately the spiky haired youth felt for his new sword, quickly looking around upon realising that it wasn't there.
"W-what?! Soul Sword, where are you?" the whiskered boy asked in his mind as he tried to find out where the blade had vanished to.
"I'm right here Shukun," came the silent response to the blonds question.
"I meant why isn't your sword form here?" silence reigned in the blonds mind as he blatantly ignored everything the others in the clearing were saying.
"I don't know…" she eventually admitted with a moan of disappointment, "I… I wanted to be of use to Shukun but I'm useless, useless!"
"Uh… well I don't have a clue what's going on either so I can't really call you useless," the blue eyed genin thought before he was snapped out of his mental conversation by a shout.
"DAMMIT NARUTO MOVE!" looking up upon hearing Jiraiya's yell, the whiskered child's eyes widened upon seeing the a tree flying at him courtesy of the battle of the summons.
With a loud yelp of surprise he practically threw himself out of the way of the oncoming wood, landing in an undignified heap as the tree crashed not far from him.
"Dammit…" was the only word that escaped his lips before he found himself getting dragged back to his feet and away from the conflict, making him look up to see a young woman with short black hair, a black kimono and a pig in her arms.
"Wha? Shizune, what are you doing?" the spiky haired youth quickly asked upon seeing the woman dragging him away from the battle of titanic proportions.
"Getting us out of here, staying is a death wish when the legendary three are fighting," the young woman stated seriously without even bothering to turn around.
Upon hearing that, the genin couldn't stop himself from feeling frustrated. Why was he always so weak? Why was it that he was so out of his league here when he had managed to defeat Gaara? But then it struck him, he didn't really defeat Gaara, the Kyūbi was completely necessary in that win, Neji was the same, and Haku… every time he managed to win a fight against a decent foe, he had always needed the Kyūbi's chakra to save him.
He was weak.
"Shukun! Stop thinking like that! You have something much more special than just being able to fight!" the voice of the unnamed sword said within his mind, making his eyes widen in surprise.
"And what do I have that's so special?" he asked as he began to fall back into depression.
"You have the power to change people," immediately Naruto stumbled physically, though he was certain Shizune assumed it was either due to fatigue of because she was pulling him too fast.
Honestly he had never once thought about that talent he seemed to possess, he was much more interested in fighting and making a name for himself as a powerful shinobi yet here he was being told that the power to change people was greater than the ability to fight… the worst part was that it was a part of himself that was saying such a thing.
So did that mean that he always knew deep down that he possessed this ability? Was that why he always liked talking to anyone that would listen?
"Does it matter? All that happened in the past, you need to focus on the present and the future," once again the blond was greeted by the spirit swords words and once again he began to feel better about himself.
"Yeah, I can't keep being so pathetic if I want to become the Hokage!" as he thought that he could've sworn he could feel the female version of himself smiling at him at his declaration.
"That's right and I promise, I'll always be there for you, no matter what happens," Naruto couldn't stop himself from smiling at that, sure he knew it was just another piece of him that was making that statement but it didn't change the fact that it made him feel better knowing that… whoever she was would be there for him.
Though he was still confused about the apparent lack of her manifestation outside of his mindscape, surely he should at the very least be capable of seeing her.
Hearing the crashes of the gargantuan battle getting further away, he decided to see if he could at the very least feel his new power, closing his eyes and searching for the currently unfamiliar feeling that flowed through his body in a manner similar but different to his chakra.
If he was to describe the two powers, he would describe his chakra as a lake located in his stomach that flowed throughout his body via a series of rivers, however this new power felt as if his entire body was the lake. So while his chakra was mostly concentrated at his abdomen, his new power simply flowed anywhere it wanted throughout his body, never condensing at any single point.
With calm breathing he tried to focus on drawing on this strange energy as he ran, quickly discovering something rather interesting, his new energy was actually significantly easier to draw on than chakra, however regulating it seemed more difficult.
Not only that, it would appear that Shizune was completely oblivious to his new power if her complete lack of reaction was anything to go by. So it was with a small grin forming on his face that he tried to push his strange power out of his body and into the form of the blade she had initially taken.
The results were not what he was expecting as he accidentally pushed a bit of chakra out with the new energy, drawing his 'chaperones' attention only for her to gape at the sight she laid her eyes on.
There, in his hand, the very same blade he managed to obtain while in his spirit form formed from the combination of energies, something the dark haired woman had never seen before.
Sure she had seen swords of chakra before, however they were always distinguishable from regular weapons, often possessing a wavy outline or at the very least, the colour of chakra, however this weapon created from the blonds chakra was orange of all colours.
"Naruto-kun, what did you just do?" she asked him with shock still present in her eyes as she slowed down and proceeded to reach out for the katana.
"NO!" with that yell reverberating through Naruto's head he couldn't stop himself from jerking the nameless spirit sword away from the young Iryō-nin, "I don't want anyone except you touching me."
"S-sorry Shizune, I don't want anyone touching my sword," Naruto said out loud, he didn't know why the spirit was being so averse to being touched but he did know one thing, he didn't want to hurt its feelings.
Shizune for her part didn't make any negative reaction to his apparent possessiveness of his new weapon, honestly she couldn't blame him for such a thing, it was a non-existent ability as far as she was aware so he was entitled to feel protective of it.
"It's alright, you're entitled to your secrets," the dark eyed woman said in a placating tone, instantly putting the blond back off guard around her, "anyway, it sounds like the fight's over, I hope Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama killed that snake."
Instantly the blond turned to face the direction they had come from, seeing that all three summons had vanished from the area, on top of that there was the matter of him no longer being able of hearing the crashes that indicated one of Tsunade's attacks.
"Anyway, do you want to wait here for them?" the kind young woman asked him, earning a nod of acceptance from the blond that she honestly couldn't believe had been knocking on deaths door less than half an hour ago.
"I wonder…" the whiskered child muttered before unsheathing his sword for the first time, instantly going starry eyed at the blade that came from the sheath, the sheer perfection in its crafting and above everything else, the slight orange tint that it gave off.
Fully unsheathing the blade Naruto couldn't stop himself from staring at the blade in awe before a grin erupted onto his face and he decided to see just how sharp the edge was.
With a single swing, his question was answers as it sliced through the trunk of a tree like it wasn't even there, proving to the boy that his new katana was truly deadly if the lack of resistance was anything to go by.
"You… are… AWESOME!" was the only thought that passed through the blonds mind as he stared at the perfectly sliced tree before him.
"YATTA! I can be useful to Shukun!" was the enthusiastic response he received from the spirit of the blade he currently possessed.
However while the two blonds were mentally celebrating, Shizune could only stare at the tree dumbfounded, not only was this sword formed in a manner completely different to anything she'd ever seen before but it was also incredibly sharp if the sheer lack of resistance offered by the tree was anything to go by.
Honestly the only time she'd seen a tree sliced with such little effort and by such a clean cut had been one of the few times she'd seen a wind master, however this cut was definitely made by a sword, her eyes had confirmed that for her.
Which meant that Naruto's sword was as sharp as blades of wind… something she had never heard of before, wind was well known as the best at cutting so for the blond to actually have something to match its cutting power was truly amazing as far as the ninja world was concerned.
It was when the blond grinned like a madman that she started to truly worry about what he was going to do as he moved over towards a large rock and with a single hand, performed exactly the same action he had with the tree, being greeted by exactly the same results as before.
However they were both brought out of their respective thought processes by a pair of familiar voices.
"Where the hell did you get that sword?!" immediately the younger duo turned to face a pair of surprised sannin starting at the blade in the blonds hand and the cleanly cut boulder in front of him.
"Hey ero-sennin," instantly the whiskered child knew the white haired man was being completely serious when instead of getting indignant at the nickname the blond had given him he simply continued to stare at him.
"Jiraiya-sama, I don't know how he did so but Naruto-kun somehow managed to create that sword from his chakra," Shizune informed the man making him face her with surprise written on his face at her wording, "can I ask what happened to Orochimaru?"
"He got away," Tsunade responded before the white haired pervert could say anything before quickly turning her gaze back towards the blade that the other blond now wielded.
It was actually rather surprising, to see this young boy accused of having no talent as a ninja perform two feats that should've been impossible for any normal person, first successfully using the rasengan and then creating a solid weapon out of chakra… sure it was possible the blade would disperse upon being stuck by another blade but its cutting power was very impressive from what she could see of the rock he had tried it against.
"Dammit, that sucks!" Naruto's statement immediately while crossing his arms and pouting, he truly did want that creepy snake man to die for what he did to the Hokage.
"Anyway, shouldn't we get back to the town? We can continue the conversation there right?" Shizune proceeded to say, sure she didn't have anything against staying there but they could at least get a comfortable seat if they went back to the inn.
"Yeah, you're right," the old man said with a smile before seeing his student look at Tsunade with a victorious smirk.
"But before that…" he put his hand out in front of himself with his palm facing up, "my necklace."
"Stupid brat," the older of the two blondes said with a small smile as she removed the jade necklace that hung from her neck, ignoring the outstretched hand and placing it over the spiky haired youths head, allowing it to slip onto his neck, "you win."
XXX XXX XXX
Naruto had to admit, the rest of the day was far more disturbing than he had hoped. It wasn't because of Jiraiya trying to get him to give his new sword to him for examination (apparently he didn't trust the blade), it was more to do with the odd person with a broken chain attached to their chest that he saw.
Then there was that strange person dressed like he was when he unlocked his new power, jumping around and hitting the broken chained people with the butt of his sword, creating a glowing light before the broken chained person vanished with a small glowing blue orb floating upwards from where they once were.
However what truly terrified him was when this strange person that no one else seemed capable of seeing did that to a shinobi with a broken chain… instead of vanishing like the others, a giant gate decorated by a pair of giant skeletons shot out of the ground and opened to reveal a scene that made the blond pale in fear, that is before a large sword shot out and impaled the shinobi while emitting a cold and cruel laugh, only to pull the deceased man inside where the gates closed and crumbled to dust.
The worst part was that his new sword seemed to understand what was going on, though only in the most basic of manners 'he's sending them to the afterlife', that was all she told him, when he asked how she knew that her response was rather clear 'it is part of my power to do the same thing'.
That had honestly shocked him, to think that he possessed the power to guide souls to the afterlife was definitely not something he had ever anticipated, especially given how little he had thought of death until now.
It was something he had always known of and accepted however he had never once thought about what dying actually meant until he had experienced it first-hand. He silently wondered if Sasuke had experienced a similar thing when he had been placed in that false death state by Haku… he silently decided to ask his teammate about it after he recovered from whatever Itachi did to him.
Though that situation with the broken chained shinobi worried him, why did he vanish differently to the others? What was that large gate? Was it hell and if so, did all shinobi go there? That was the real question as far as Naruto was concerned, were ninja automatically damned in the afterlife?
Shaking his head clear of those thoughts he simply decided that he needed to get some sleep after dealing with the broken chained woman that haunted the room.
XXX XXX XXX
(1) Shukun = Lord/Master