"The world will know real pain. The fear instilled by that pain would prevent wars. And the world would be on the road to stability and peace."
"But that kind of peace..." spoke out Naruto, "It's nothing but a fake!" Naruto had just finished his fight against the six paths of Pein.
"Humans are not the most intelligent of creatures. This is the only way that peace can be achieved." The last path of pain paused and stretched his arms out to the side, basking in his glory and achievement over the fallen Jinchuriki, "And after several decades, that pain too will eventually fade with time. That pain will no longer be a deterrent for war and humanity will resume it's own suffering. They will destroy each other and cause one another pain. And then peace will be restored again, for a time.
"So in this endless cycle of hatred that exists, pain will give rise to momentary peace. This is my dream." Pein finished explaining his ideal world over the defeated container of the Kyuubi. After which, Pein walked slightly closer to Naruto, and without waiting for any kind of reponse, Pein inserted six chakra rods into various points of Naruto's body.
Naruto didn't make so much as a sound throughout this. But Pein realized that this boy could become a serious problem if he could somehow escape from his rods and run away. So Pein decided that Naruto didn't need to be able to use his legs anymore.
Pein grabbed one last chakra rod and shoved it right through Naruto's spinal column at the base of his spine. Naruto's scream was deafening. Any remaining nature chakra in Naruto's body had already left by this point, meaning that their was no protection against the damage or pain of the intrusion.
"I've avoided any vital areas on your body. But you will no longer be able to move on your own."
"Snap out of it! Don't listen to what he says! You're the Child of Prophecy!" Yelled the elderly female toad, "Jiraya and Pa both sacrificed themselves because they believed that! So you cannot lose! If you give up now, I'll never forgive yo-"
Pein blasted the toad away with his left arm, "Noisy frog... I'll be taking you now." Pain's pupils began to dilate for his next ocular ability, when Hinata Hyuga ran up behind him and swung for a hit.
Hinata missed, but pain did take a large leap back to avoid the crushing blow that was even strong enough to create a small crater in the ground.
Naruto couldn't sense chakra without his sage mode, so he had to open his right eye to see who was foolish enough to try and fight Pein, "Hinata-eugh - what are you..." Naruto gasped out through his pain.
"Don't Naruto, I'm here because I want to be..." Hinata paused, remembering the time that Naruto saved her from bullies as a child, "This time I'm going to save you, Naruto. I was always crying, and giving up before even trying. I made the wrong turns so many times. But you helped me find my way and take the correct path, Naruto. I always chased after you. I wanted to catch up to you. You changed me, Naruto... Your smile is what saved me!
"That's why I'm not afraid to die, if it means that I can protect you!" Hinata took a moment to let her confession of devotion to sink in, "Because I love you, Naruto!" Only to blow him out of the water with her confession of love. Not even waiting for it to fully sink in to the damaged shinobi lying on the ground, Hinata activated her Byakugan and spun around to break off a chakra rod. However, only succeeding in breaking off the top half of the rod. Hinata was then immediately set tumbling away by Pain's Shinra Tensei.
Getting up, Hinata looked shocked at Pein's odd ability, having never faced it before or seen it prior. She activated her Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists technique and charged at Pein, who seemed reluctant to use his gravity technique again. This reluctance is what allowed Hinata to land a hit on the puppet body, giving her enough time to run over to Naruto and palm-hit a rod completely out of him. Only to be blown away again by another, more powerful Shinra Tensei.
Hinata was out of things for a few moments, only to be brought back by the sound of Naruto's voice, calling out to her and hoping that she was okay.
Getting up again, Hinata began stumbling her way over to Naruto's prone form again. Blood dripping from her forehead and lips.
"Hinata, please stop. Don't come, Hinata." Naruto mustered out, looking away from the tragic scene.
"I don't understand. Why would someone weak like you try to resist?" Pein watched as Hinata grasped her hands around the rod impaled in one of Naruto's hands and tried to pull it out, "Why fight me? Knowing... that you will die." Hinata was unable to take the rods out of Naruto's body.
"I. Stand by what I say." Whispered Hinata, just loud enough for both Naruto and Pein to hear it. "Because that's my Ninja Way." Naruto looked horror stricken, the reason for her sudden stupidity was because of him and his own beliefs. She will die, because of him. "Naruto, you are the only-"
Pein lifted Hinata into the sky with his gravity technique, and then threw her down into the ground making a large indent where she hit. '-one I've ever loved.' she continued in her head.
Not taking any chances on her getting back up, Pein took out another chakra rod and pierced her with it, right through the heart. Only taking a moment to look down at the pathetic human who tried to oppose god Pein continued, "It was just like that, that my parents were killed before my very eyes. By ninja of the hidden leaf." Pein slowly turned toward Naruto, "Out of love, sacrifice is born. From that sacrifice, hate is born. And we are able to know pain. Do you hate me?"
Naruto's mind sped up, sped through everything that had happened. His mind refused to believe that Hinata had died at first. But then he was left with a cold feeling throughout his being. He recalled what Hinata said at the end, "Naruto, you are the only-" one left. His mind finished the sentence for him.
Naruto couldn't feel anyone's chakra right now, because of his lack of sage mode. And since showing up here, he couldn't remember feeling anyone's chakra around the area. But Hinata had to have come from somewhere, maybe they were all someplace further away where he couldn't sense them. But then Hinata would've seen them and... "Naruto, you are the only one left." the phrase kept ringing through his head. They were dead, everyone was dead. Everyone died.
They're all dead.
"Yes... know pain."
A single moment later, an explosion ripped through the area of the village, anything within a few feet of the initial explosion was immediately vaporized. Winds blew out from the center of what was the heart of the Hidden Leaf Village. And after the winds and rubble settled, all those who remained alive in the ruins of the hidden leaf looked upon the sight of a long, thin crimson column of energy shooting straight up into the atmosphere from a small crimson bubble, the likely source of the explosion.
Pein watched as Naruto's skin was ripped off in giant chunks from the corrosive chakra of the Kyuubi. The blood mixed with the corrosive chakra, making it even more potent in form. As Naruto was transforming, he was having something like a breakdown in the realms of his mind. So severe was his trauma that he was beginning the stages of releasing the seal on the Kyuubi – effectively suicide.
Entering the four-tailed state right away, the Kyuubified-Naruto began to destroy everything, beginning first with the chakra rods holding Naruto down in his prone state, then instantly regenerating the lost connection of nerves between upper and lower parts of his body.
The moment Naruto was up and moving, he was launching rocks and boulders at Pein, chakra arms tried to deliver the corrosive chakra to him directly, but in all, it seemed that the four-tailed state wouldn't do it.
Less than thirty-seconds after entering the four-tailed state, Naruto began entering the six-tailed state. Lightning streaking across the sky, as a giant orb of pure crimson chakra landed on the Kyuubified-Naruto and surrounded him, which he then absorbed into him. Bones grew from the crimson chakra, the extra two tails were grown from his backside, and an entire skeleton was placed on the back of the kyuubi-form.
The tails further elongated, and the skeleton of the kyuubi set into place as a protective armor.
Pain seemed relatively sober to this whole experience, merely watching and observing, "Your actions are justified. But know this... my pain is greater than yours!"
The final puppet of Pein flooded the area with water, likely from the sewers of Konoha. Pein charged in moving at rapid speeds, only to almost immediately retreat from the arms of chakra that sought to end the puppet's pathetic existence.
Pein went on top of a tower of stone, created by the beast's chakra arms pounding on the ground. Pein went prone on the tower of stone, forming a transparent shield of chakra in front of him. This shield was put up just in time to intercept highly condensed chakra bullets from the enraged mini-kyuubi. These bullets came like hail upon the last of the puppet paths. This battle would not be easy for Nagato.
-==Break==-
As the battle continued, Naruto, trapped in his own mind, was breaking down.
Naruto looked up to the eyes of the Kyuubi within its cage, "Why... why did it have to come to this?"
The Kyuubi didn't have an answer.
"It hurts. I hate this. I don't know... What am I suppose to do? I don't know anything anymore! Somebody help me. Please, somebody please make the pain stop!" Naruto couldn't stand the pain, all the memories, the hatred and the sorrow. Everyone is dead. Hinata tried to save him to save the one she loved. Love. Pa tried to protect them so Pein could be defeated. Sacrifice. Ma tried to incite him to defeat Pein after Pa died. Hate. And in all this, he alone is left to bear everything remaining. Pain.
Out of love, sacrifice is born. From that sacrifice, hate is born. Only then will you be able to know pain.
Everyone is dead.
This is the cycle of hatred.
"Agh! Uck! It hurts!" As Naruto covered up the expanding hole in his stomach. "Please... help me please... I'll do anything." Naruto cringed up on himself, coiling around his own stomach. "Please..."
"Destroy everything. Make it so that nothing can hurt you anymore."
Naruto looked up shocked at the voice of the kyuubi.
"It has always worked for me..."
"Yes. Yes. That makes sense. Yes, I can do that. All I'd have to do it to free you right? Ugck. I'll die, I wont have to feel this way anymore, I can join everyone else in death." Naruto huffed as he felt agony sweep over him, he could do it. "Just have to destroy everything."
"You could just use my power to do that, take control of yourself right now and kill Pein, with a combination of our two powers."
Naruto couldn't hear the Kyuubi at that point, he put his hand on the seal and began tearing the seal off, the last phase of releasing the kyuubi was nigh-
A hand grasped Naruto's arm before he could finish the process, and in the hesitation of Naruto, the figure that owned that hand tackled Naruto to the floor below.
"You're..."
"The Fourth Hokage..." gasped Naruto, forgetting the pain of his situation and instead focusing entirely on his idol and role model for being a ninja.
"I worked it into the sealing jutsu so that I would appear in your psyche, should the seal be broken to the point of sprouting the eighth tail. But I really wanted to avoid that since I had no desire to see you again, Kyuubi." venomously explained the Fourth.
The Kyuubi roared it's indignation at such a venomous tone accompanying its name.
"Though, I did look forward to seeing my son as a young man. So I'll call it even."
"Fouth Hokage. Come over here so I can kill you..."
"Well. If that's the case, I'll stay over here. So then Naruto..."
Naruto was shocked, "Y-you, you know my name? How come the Fourth knows my name?"
"Well, that's easy. I'm the one who gave you that name. You are my son after all."
"Son? But that would make me..." Naruto smiled and started tearing up. Only to start going into a kind of sad and pathetic laughter. "Dad..." Naruto swiftly punched the Fourth Hokage as hard as he could in the stomach. "Why would you seal the Kyuubi inside of your own son? Do you know what I've had to go through because of that! I've had to go through so much pain and suffering, I was so alone with nobody there to help me! I cried by myself, I had birthdays by myself, I trained by myself, I had nobody! All the hatred, the contempt, the..." Naruto broke himself out of his rant, and just cried at the horror of everything.
The Fourth Hokage was shocked.
"Did you hate me?..." whispered out Naruto in a voice so low the dead Hokage almost missed it, "Do you hate me?... I-I. I understand if you do, I'm a failure. I've let everyone in the Leaf die." Naruto hung his head low, dropping to his knees.
In order to prevent any kind of interruption by the beast behind them in such a tense moment, Minato snapped his fingers and brought them to a brighter place for this, "No Naruto, no not at all, I could never hate you. You will never be a disappointment to me. I picked you to contain the Kyuubi because I knew that if anyone could be strong enough to live through everything, that I could only place my own son with that responsibility. But without any parents, or any real help... I'm sorry son, there's no words to describe my regret from all those years ago."
Naruto's tears dried up, "Well, I have an amazing hokage as a father, so I guess it's alright..." 'Even though I let everyone die.' Naruto finished his thought in his mind. But refused to vocalize his self-loathing to his father.
Minato laughed a bit, then sobered up right afterwards. He had seen the world through Naruto's eyes and understood that everyone in the leaf was likely dead and that it was weighing heavily on Naruto. "It's not alright Naruto, in fact. I'd like for you to meet someone very dear to me. Your mother, Kushina." As if that word held power to it, a woman with red fiery hair suddenly appeared next to Minato.
"Minato! I thought... wait, what's happening?" the woman was in shock, this wasn't really what was planned for when they sealed themselves in their son's mind.
"Kushina, you've been looking through Naruto's eyes as well haven't you?"
"Mom? Dad? Wha-" Naruto was glomped by his mother, combined with a shriek of his name, and then had the air hugged out of him. Which doesn't make sense since they're in his mind.
Kushina looked back at her husband and answered his question, "Yes, I have. What are you going to do?"
"We're going to help out Naruto. Do you remember the seal I was working on all those months before we died?"
Naruto looked on at the scene questioningly, not understanding what was going on. But understood that the burning in his chest was returning once more, as the seal was still breaking due to the movement of the Kyuubi's chakra still flowing through his physical body.
"Yeah? The high range transportation jutsu that only requires a sending seal? You were trying to get it to work so you could try to implement it to your Hiraishin and improve it's effectiveness. You want to send him somewhere? How's that going to work out for him?"
Minato ecstatically pointed out the possibilities of it, "No Kushina, you're thinking a bit too small here. Theoretically, we could send him to another dimension with it!"
Kushina was livid, "Theoretically?! Are you stupid! Why would we try that?!"
Naruto was very confused now, "Send me. To another dimension?"
Minato looked toward Naruto with a sympathetic look, "Yeah, son. Both your mother and I know that the leaf is destroyed and nobody is left living there, and neither of us blame you for that. We know that you're losing the fight against the Akatsuki and that you've suffered so much trying your best to make the most of this world. This is a cursed world, one that someone as amazing as you doesn't deserve to be forced into. If you stay there, you will die a young and unhealthy death. And we have an opportunity now to save you from that."
Kushina gave a brief smile to Naruto and nodded her agreement with Minato. However, she also realized the time constraints they have to work with and rushed back into this 'theory' that Minato had, "Okay Minato, say this theory of yours is guaranteed to work. What would we do?"
The Fouth gave a thoughtful look to his wife and spoke slowly, speaking while thinking, "Well, we would need lots of chakra, divine-like quantities of it. And we happen to have a direct link to the God of Death right here in Naruto's very mind, nice and loosened up for us to use as we see fit."
"And where would we send him? I don't want him being vaporized in a place with lava creatures, or suffering in who knows what kind of nightmares these dimensions could hold."
"Well that's where the God of Death itself comes in. By using the power of the Death God, it should call it to us as well, because it would want to find out why its power is being drawn so much. And as a god, it has to have some kind of ability to know what's in a universe or something right? Maybe it'll help out Naruto and take him to a better place for us!"
"Minato... that's such a stupid idea... that hardly even makes sense."
"Then how would you do it then?
"Just call the god of death here, have it take your soul again as the price, and then ask it nicely?"
"Wow... that was almost as stupid as my idea. How are we even suppose to summon the Death God in a person's mind anyways?"
Naruto just watched as his parents debated for the better idea, seeing his parents like this showed just how much they complimented one another. It was fantastic, and they were his parents! He couldn't be happier.
"Okay then Kushina. First we'll draw the seal for my transportation technique on the Death God's seal, use the seal itself as a catalyst for the transportation. We could then summon the Death God in Naruto's mind and it can take what remains of my soul since I'm about to run out of chakra anyways. You'll ask it to take Naruto to a better place. As a backup, we can use the seal and ask the Death God to simply guide him. Worst comes to worse, we leave our knowledge of the shinobi arts here for Naruto to use as he pleases!"
"Minato... we can definitely do this. I love you."
Naruto walked over to his parents and decided to voice himself to the two vibrant geniuses, "Mom, Dad. Before we do this I just want to thank you for trying this. I'm not completely comfortable with leaving the shinobi nations, I'm terrified really, but there isn't anything left for me here. I love you both, and thank you for everything you're trying to do for me. I'm sure you both would've been great parents and raised me the right way."
Kushina was just tearing up and hugged Naruto close. Minato himself was so happy that he had a tear rolling down his cheek. But he couldn't afford to waste anymore time with his chakra levels as low as they are, he began preforming the hand-signs for the Shiki Fuin.
Summoning the God of Death, Minato's life was successfully given the moment of the Death God's arrival, just before Minato's chakra died out.
The God of Death, in all its grizzly appearance looked down upon Mother and Son. Upon arrival, Kushina began explaining the predicament that they found themselves in and that they needed help with saving Naruto from a horrible, lonely fate.
"I can help your son. While Kami has plans for the boy in this dimension, it is clear that nothing will stop you from saving your son from this fate. I shall help you in guiding him to a better home. Know though, that as a child of prophecy, danger will always find him."
"If anyone can handle it, I know my son can. Could you take him now? Or should I..."
"I am incapable of interfering in the matters of the world directly, I may only eat the souls of the world. I can guide him outside of the dimension, but it is up to you to get him there. I have left you all that you need to know. I shall be leaving."
"Okay, Naruto. Come here." Kushina snapped her fingers, bringing them back to the fox in a box. Quickly thinking, Kushina chained the Kyuubi down and pressed her hand on the sealing tag, creating a new seal on top of the Shiki Fuin. "Naruto, I need you to put your hand on the cage, anywhere on it. Just grab the bars and hold on tight. And whatever you do, you cannot let go!"
Naruto nodded and gripped the bars tightly with both hands waited for the genius to happen that his mother was preforming.
With a quick few seals, the bars turned white and Naruto felt himself grow heavy with strain. The pain in his abdomen subsided with the disappearance of the paper seal from the cage. Though right afterward, Naruto felt himself beginning to lose consciousness.
"Hol.. n... -to" He heard his mother imploring him to stay awake, he felt his body growing numb, there was so much energy flowing through him, it was drowsing. "H.. on. -st a lit... -on-er!" Mere moments after that, Naruto saw no more.
-==Break==-
Huh, where am I?
Naruto heard a voice, "Huh, where am I?"
Who could that be?
"Who could that be?" Another voice...
Oh, it's just me. Alone again.
"You're not quite alone."
Naruto shot up at the sound of a deep rumble. He found himself in a damp sewer again, his mind. Naruto looked around and saw that there was no cage, in fact. It was just a hallway, the water barely came a centimeter off the floor.
"What you have done is unforgivable."
Naruto was confused, but word weren't really coming from his mouth so easily right now. It felt as if someone was crushing his windpipe.
"This is the worst thing that could have ever happened to me... you humans are vile, despicable beings. Can't keep your disease to yourself."
Only after rounding the corner did Naruto find out what was going on. The deep rumble was coming from a woman, a redheaded woman, with shoulder blade-length hair, a curvy figure that no person should have if they valued their internal organs, and a bust size that he really didn't want to think about right now.
"And now I'm being treated like a common prostitute on the street. Take a closer look why don't you!? Look at what your stupid mother did! I hate all you stupid humans, and now I look like one."
Only then did Naruto figure out that he was looking at the Kyuubi! What happened while he was out? And then he noticed further proof this woman was, in fact, the Kyuubi. Nine silky, blood-red tails swishing around behind her, two sets of whisker marks not unlike his own, and two small fox ears on top of her head "Wh- wh-. What h-happened."
"You were falling and lost grip of my cage.And your mother wasn't finished transferring the seal's power to you, so she needed a way to get you the last of the power you needed, in case what you already had wasn't enough. So she forced us both to partially-merge. She gave you a substantial portion of my power, and I got your chakra with the genome of your pathetic species tagging along with it."
Naruto couldn't help but look into the depths of Kyuubi's oddly shaped elliptical pupils, "But that's..."
"You have someone that wants to speak to you to your left."
Naruto heard a moaning in that direction and found his mother, slowly fading away. "Mom!"
"Ahh, Naruto. So glad you made it, I was worried. Don't worry, you should be traveling between the dimension now, with a god helping you get to a good place that you deserve."
Naruto was tearing up, he couldn't find anything to say to his mother in this situation. Kushina vanished shortly after she said her words. Only then did Naruto find the proper words for her, "I love you, mom." Naruto was tearing up more now, berating himself. He was always late! Late to finish his training, lat to save the villagers, late to save his friends. Always too late!
"As much as I enjoy seeing you in such a feeble state. I believe you have something to say to me." Kyuubi growled out in a fowl tone.
But Naruto hardly noticed, he wiped his tears and spoke honestly, "Thank you... Kyuubi. I didn't see my mother there, and if not for you, I wouldn't have had the chance to see her one last time." He had just met her too. He'd only been with her twice in his life, and both times both she and his father were here for him, and died because of him...
Kyuubi was slightly put off by the sincerity of his words, but recovered just as quickly, "Psht. Don't thank me yet human, once I learn how to use this absurdly over-complicated body and how to fight with it: I will kill you, take back my power, and return to my true form."
A question mark could have appeared over Naruto's head, "Why did you turn into a girl anyways?"
"Because I am a woman you dense moron!" the Kyuubi was understandably peeved.
Naruto was shocked, "But, your voice. It was so deep and... you threatened me and... you're a chakra construct so.. and... wait you're naked!"
The Kyuubi completely ignored the naked comment in favor of the more serious topics provoked "So you just ASSUMED?! I am a living being of chakra! Or.. was until I got this body. That doesn't mean I just don't have a gender, or feelings, or a life! I'm not some tool for people to use!"
Naruto was very confused how she got all of that from him having an understandable error in her gender, but he immediately understood the meaning of her words and what she meant. He was about to apologize, but he was interrupted by her.
"Just forget it. I don't need your sympathy. I don't particularly care for being alone anyways, but how about this. You don't completely avoid me, and I just may forgive you for everything you and your monkey species has done to me."
"Th- umm... it's a deal?"
Kyuubi just dismissed his stuttering, "You seemed pretty unsure. But I'll take it anyways. We have a long road ahead, I give us maybe a few decades at best."
"Decades?! I'll be an old man by the time I arrive to wherever we're going!"
"Oh relax, you have my chakra in you, you already had a largely extended lifespan before you took in my near-immortal essence. And the divine particles your body is flying through in your stasis may as well be making you immortal for the time being. So relax."
"A-alright?"
"Whatever, you just wait. I'll master your silly human arts of 'ninja' or 'shinobi' or 'kunoichi' or whatever your foolish monkey arts are. And then I'll kill you, and then I'll kill everyone in that paradise there. I'll have my form back and I'll be satisfied at last..." She emphasized this with the showing off of her abnormally sharp finger nails and canine teeth. She then turned around and strutted off. "Hope you like it here. Try to stay someplace where I'll know you'll be, your mind is a maze to get through."
Naruto just looked oddly at her, that 'kinda-insult' actually kind of stung. But he noticed while she was walking away... "Wait, why aren't you wearing any clothes?!"
"Do you see any around here? Stupid monkey."
-==Break==-
Each developed hobbies and things to train in within Naruto's mind.
Naruto enjoyed training with the leftover information that his parents gave him. While he didn't believe that he could ever truly master the Hiraishin just because of the amount of chakra he had that brought down his control, he believed over the course of decades he may be able to use it to some small degree. So Naruto was learning about seals and how to use them. He also loved learning about the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the various things he could do with the clones. Such as if he had a shadow clone, he could replace himself with it with no smoke at a fairly large range. There was a lot he wanted to try, but he needed a better body for them, and that was impossible at the moment. As he found out, exercising in his mind had mildly reduced effects, likely due to the preservation of his physical body.
He also loved exploring his own mind, and even changing the tunnels in his mind as needed. Because by this point in time, he had memorized every hallway and passage that existed, making it super fun to mess with Kyuubi by changing the tunnels around. She was a creature of habit, and hated it whenever he changed anything.
Continuing on with Kyuubi, she enjoyed training as well, using the very methods that Naruto used to learn in the Shinobi nations. But she quickly learned that it wasn't so easy to learn it. She frequently complained about how frail her body felt in comparison to her old form and blamed it solely on the fact she got Naruto's genes. Which Naruto would always rebuttal that she should easily be able to surpass him, since she has a mixture of his genes which could already accomplish the task, and her great chakra. She hated Naruto's snarky remarks.
She is able to use shadow clones already, but can't seem to learn the Rasengan without any kind of learning method like he had. Just using knowledge of how the technique works just wasn't enough to learn it. There was no sage mode or other abilities she could learn. But the one advantage she did have was that her physical body did exist inside Naruto's mind, so she could get in better shape.
The only issue was that she didn't like working out... So she was stuck on her own trying to learn new things from previous experiences. Generally failing. But she did always enjoy playing some nasty pranks on Naruto, like how she destroyed his clothing by 'accidentally slipping some of her acidic chakra on the clothing'. With his clothes destroyed, now he'd have to walk around naked as well, so he'd be humiliated like she is in her human body!
That was a very unsuccessful prank that led to an awkward situation where she learned about blushing.
And yet somehow Naruto managed to get his clothes back after the incident while she wasn't looking. He wouldn't even tell her how he did it. It's so unfair. One could only imagine why he wouldn't let her have clothes.
It was one month into their journey.
-==Break==-
About a year in, both had learned to accept the other's presence a bit more, and had begun to speak on more equal terms. Both discussed events in their lives previously, since Kyuubi has been locked in a cage for the last sixty or so years, it was exciting to learn about the forgotten past.
"You see, there was this one village. It kinda' annoyed me. So I burned it down. And this other human village! It kind of bothered me to, so I destroyed that one too."
Though Naruto did find that the grand majority of her stories were less than inspirational. Sometimes those stories even scared him because they were actual stories from her life. But he usually ignored the reality of those childish stories because he found it difficult to think of the woman in front of him as some natural disaster.
At some point, Kyuubi had finally gotten some clothes through dastardly and nefarious means (Demanding Naruto to get her some, persistantly for days). The clothes really weren't anything special, a simple orange shirt and a long skirt with slits running down the sides of it. Kyuubi was not pleased with the clothing, but she decided that it was better than nothing.
Both had also progressed in their natural abilities, but both also reached plateaus of learning. They needed more information and more inspiration. So they turned to each other, and in a week long debate, they decided to teach each other all that they knew. Naruto wanted to learn more about what kind of power he now held with the Kyuubi's chakra in him. And Kyuubi needed a teacher to help her progress further with her shinobi arts.
Kyuubi had thought that she would have the upper hand in any fight between the two of them because she was smarter and more cunning, so that even if power is even between them, she would win the fight. And when she'd been explaining this to Naruto in, what Naruto calls, one of her ego-tirades, well, the laughter was almost as loud as the angry slap that followed.
Though later into their training, Naruto was shocked to find that for all of Kyuubi's boasting, learning how to use her potent chakra was actually difficult. The corrosive nature of it made it extremely difficult to use at all. Fortunately they'd discovered that due to the merge, Naruto actually would replenish her chakra as if it was his own and that her chakra would continue to heal him. None of this came as a shock to Kyuubi however, she actually expected this because she was replenishing Naruto's 'monkey' chakra as her own. And it's because of this that she constantly scolded him, saying that she was a genius at utilizing chakra and was excelling far faster than he was, and he had her chakra to help!
That was a painful eye opener for Naruto, that while he may be better than her by far at shinobi arts. Her own school of abilities was something he was also nearly hopeless at.
Time moved along slowly for the two as both learned from each other.
-==Break==-
The two grew closer until they were almost inseparable. They'd often use the excuse that they couldn't let the other out of their sight, in case of a prank. And since neither had to sleep too often in Naruto's mind, they were always near each other and training together.
Naruto had learned how to materialize things inside of his mind, like his 'magically reappearing' clothing. It's through this that Kyuubi learned how to use the Rasengan after Naruto conjured the necessary training supplies. Making a Rasengan, as Kyuubi found, was oddly like making a Tailed Beast Bomb. Naruto had tried to show her how add an affinity to it, but it seemed impossible, because they couldn't figure out what affinity she would be. Naruto had tried to conjure an affinity paper, but it couldn't read either of their affinities. So that was pointless.
By this point, they both lost track of how long they'd been in Naruto's mind and didn't really care anymore. Kyuubi had made a guess that it would take a couple decades to get to where they were going, it wasn't very well calculated. Well, hey! Twenty-years on the dot! Here we are! No, they decided that they'd get there when they get there.
Naruto had mastered the Perfect Tailed Beast Cloak now, which is something that completely shocked the Kyuubi when she saw it in all of its shining glory. She'd never seen such a thing before. She had seen his other cloak, they both used it flawlessly more often than not. But this one seem to be pure and flawless; beautiful. A mixture of her demonic chakra, and Naruto's human chakra.
Naruto taught her how to do it as well. So when they both went into the form, they turned into a golden duo that was constantly emitting life's essence.
During their teamwork practice for them, where Naruto would spawn training dummies for them, they both realized that Kyuubi would still be stuck inside Naruto's head when they arrived at the new world. Neither Naruto nor Kyuubi liked to think about that, being separated from each other for so long.
Kyuubi threatened that she would kill him, so that she could return to her form and be free again in a world without seals. But by this point, Naruto understood that it was just a cover for the pain that the separation would cause. Naruto then began investing time into learning how to free Kyuubi from himself so that she could be free with him in the real world. But so far, he could only grant her a few of his senses (sight and hearing most importantly) through his body. Which they found out they couldn't use while in the stasis. The last time they tried, they could hear and see pure nothingness, to a maddening degree. They decided to hold off further testing on what to do about getting Kyuubi safely out of him until they arrive. Strangely, her want of killing him and being free, and her desire to assist him with releasing her safely, without killing him, didn't match up.
Before much longer, Naruto suddenly blacked out while walking down a corridor with Kyuubi. A sign of arrival at the new world.
-==Break==-
Summoner Jeffery O'Bleak was out on his morning stroll to find some clarity on who he should vote for in the upcoming Ionia versus Noxus match, where it will be decided whether or not trade from Ionia is coming too close to the borders of Noxus or not.
These sorts of events are held in the lower priorities of the league, summoners pick a faction to vote on and then choose which champions of the league represent each faction. It doesn't make things fair, but it does make things more exciting for those involved. He Teleported to Ionia this morning to try and get a feel for the atmosphere here to make his decision.
He could vote for anyone currently residing in the borders of the city state, or someone who has an affiliation to them. He was currently going to vote for Ahri, no doubt about that, she almost always participated in these matches when summoners were allowed to decide the champions. If only because she didn't usually participate in public 'for fun' matches or in extreme political matches, because she is only a resident of Ionia.
So Ahri was a given, he was also going to pick Shen for the extra durability on the team. Other great picks would be Irelia and Varus. Now all we would need is some sort of supporting champion. Which was why he was out here thinking, he never knew why he took this so seriously, but he liked to make his picks count. Sona, Soraka, or Karma... hmm.
The Varus-Sona control is tempting, and it would give more power to the front line. It also gives Varus some more peel, not quite as much as Kar-
A shock wave resounded across Ionia as a portal above the small norther island slowly began to open wider, revealing a grotesque mix of purple and black.
The summoner immediately understood what this was from his time in the league, it was a void portal.
Void champions like Kassadin and Malzahar are only allowed to open void portals out of a match when notifying the league at least twelve hours beforehand through specialized utilities, yet here's one now with no notification at all.
The summoner, remembering his basic training for these situations, quickly used the spell Clairvoyance and put down a Rally flag, a combination used to bring attention to an area of the world in emergencies.
The league was immediately notified.
Quickly, just as the institute saw and confirmed the emerging void portal through the Clairvoyance monitors, the institute Teleported a team of advanced summoners to subdue whatever monstrosity that may emerge from the portal.
However, as they looked up at the portal, it shot out a boy, wrapped in what could be a cloak of void-energy. The boy fell from the sky like a missile, faster than they'd ever seen before, crashing into the side of a nearby mountain.
The summoners Flashed over to the boy's landing zone and saw he was entirely unharmed, likely due to the void energy that was quickly receding from the boy's body.
-==Break==-
Naruto slowly awoke from his long stay within his own mind, to find an actual sun shining down on him. But unfortunately for him, having not been in direct sunlight for a long time, he was very photosensitive. The only thing he could see were blobby figures standing over him. He couldn't even understand what they were saying.
One of them touched a hand to his forehead. Naruto, hoping that the Death God sent him to a place that wouldn't kill him instantly, allowed them to do what they wanted for the moment.
A brief glow later, the first blob spoke, "Do you understand us now?"
"Y-Hck." Naruto couldn't respond as he coughed up some of the pure void energy, which also dissipated upon leaving his body. Naruto just settled for nodding in response while getting on his hands and knees trying to cough up the black and purple ooze.
One of the blobs stood out from the other blobs and commanded the rest, "Get him to the Institute, we need to figure out what happened here."
Naruto was grabbed and roughly tossed to the leading blob, who chanted a few indiscriminate words, in seconds they were off.
-==Break==-
Naruto quickly found himself strapped to a hospital bed after puking in the main lobby of this magnificent palace-thing. A doctor-looking person was looking over him trying to judge his humanity. Which they found that he was only a little over half human, and were unable to figure out the remaining parts of him and what kind of hybrid he would be with only half-human DNA. Though he at least looked human, which was good enough for the doctor to make him as humanoid and free to be released from his restraints. They didn't seem to take well to non-human living beings here.
"We're going to take you to the judgement room now, so we can figure out what to do with you."
"What do you mean: 'do with me'?"
"We're going to be deciding whether we're going to let you live here in Runeterra, send you back into the void, make you a champion, or kill you on the spot. It really depends on what the Antechamber Judges think."
"What do you mean judges? Who are they?"
"I don't really know, they don't usually do this sort of thing for more common people like me, I just help out here by healing people and escorting them to the chamber when called for. But don't worry too much."
The summoner-doctor led Naruto to the antechamber while talking. Once they reached the humble wooden door, the summoner opened it for him, waited for Naruto to enter the blacken room, then left after shutting the door.
Naruto stood there in the seemingly empty room for a few awkward moments.
A loud voice spoke out, "Speak your name."
Naruto did a little jump before responding, "Naruto Uzumaki."
"And how is it that you came here?"
"I was transported here through a dimension-portal at the cost of my parents' lives." The events seem to play themselves in his mind as he said them.
"And what is your purpose?"
Naruto was more or less stumped at that question, to be honest he didn't know what his purpose would be. He didn't answer.
"So you have no purpose. Then let us see..."
In the next moment, Naruto was back in the Valley of the End, facing Sasuke. Sasuke's Chidori charging at him and his Vermillion-Rasengan breaking toward Sasuke. This was a memory, but this didn't have true purpose to him, he was too young here to have learned his defining morals.
The next moment the scene changed and he was battling Pein, they were destroying things. He lost but his wild berserker kyuubi form had nearly won. Until he suddenly seemed to turn completely black and purple with this void stuff, and then collapse in on himself.
How was he viewing this? this wasn't a memory.
He suddenly saw a rapid images flicking past his view, too fast to tell what they were besides a large quantity of memories.
Naruto gasped as he was back in the dark antechamber, now looking on three people in front of him, all judging him for everything he was worth.
A raspy voice spoke up, "Do you want to join the League of Legends, Naruto?"
Naruto was panting for breath at the severity of the realism involved in those 'memories', "What is this League?"
"It's a culmination of people that help protect the balance of nations in the world. So that there is no war, no destruction, no loss of life. Just a game with those who win and those who lose."
"Sounds ridiculous and too good to be true. But it also sounds fun, right up my ally honestly."
A woman spoke up this time, "Very good, how does it feel to expose your mind like this?"
Naruto waved them off, "My past is nothing I care for anymore, I have moved on. And I have grown stronger from it. I have nothing to hide in my mind."
With that, the people disappeared in a mist and the antechamber's wooden door reopened on its own.
A loud raspy-male voice was heard overhead, not really coming from anywhere in particular; "This is a special world-announcement: There is a new champion that has arrived in the League of Legends, with association to Ionia and the Void. Welcome Naruto Uzumaki, the Fox Ninja."
A/N: The "Perfect Tailed Beast Cloak" is the same one as the avatar pic of this fic. Any questions, skeptics, or whatever; feel free to contact me about them! I love to answer questions. And if there are ANY errors in any of my chapters (excluding the author's notes, I don't proof-read these) please alert me! I will try fix it ASAP!
As for things I think will be brought up by skeptics at least semi-often;
1. Not everybody died in Pein's invasion, so why didn't Naruto sense them in his Sage Mode, or realize that some people were still alive and watching his battle with Pein?
-This actually isn't hard at all to explain, the reason why is because Naruto was fighting and battling Pein. He had to focus on the enemy and didn't have time to notice anyone else around. And by the time he started believing everyone to be dead, his sage mode was already gone/disrupted, meaning he couldn't tell if they were alive or not. And since he was strapped to the ground with no way to move, he couldn't look to see if he could find anyone watching.
2. Decades to travel between dimensions? With a technique that instantaneously teleports along with a multidimensional god intervening? Does the god also have to travel decades to get to the nearest dimension? I don't buy it.
-Fine, you caught me. I could make some excuse with the vastness of the distance between dimensions. But considering they had a multidimensional, teleporting God's help... I guess how horrible an excuse is that. Yes, I wanted time for Kyuubi and Naruto to develop a bond, enough time for Kyuubi to get over Naruto's humanity, and Naruto to get over her being a serial-mass murderer (kinda').
3. Why Ionia?
-Ahri. Fin', done, kaput. I wanted an easy, direct route to that. Next.
4. Why not a longer League Judgement? To make it closer to a real background.
-Riot doesn't make League Judgements anymore, actually they're getting rid of the Institue of War I hear, so I don't think it's good to say a "real" background. But I understand that I got lazy and I could do more. But I actually think that due to Naruto's background and the ambient energy around him (revealed later) that his mind is very difficult to read.
5. Is this a harem?
-Yes. I don't like doing them because it's unrealistic and quite unnerving to write for me. But I couldn't help the opportunity to do a foxy harem. :3 *squee~*
6. Do you have a complete outline for this story so you don't abandon it?
-I do. I wont. But updates can sometimes be slow when I'm in tense situations. I'm nearing finals again, so I'm more than a little afraid for my work load right now. But I promise I am trying!
7. Why did you make this system for League? (Like, with the summoners voting on champions and stuff) And why did you put a trading dispute as a lower case?!
-I made this system because it seemed fun! And it made it so that Summoners have something of a role in the League. And there's a lot to be revealed about this world. But just know that there's issues to be revealed later. There's lots of territory disputes and the like, with not very many limitations from the League.
8. Why did you quote that Naruto Episode? Why didn't you just begin with Naruto in his mind and start from there?
-Because this way, it creates a better atmosphere and helps you guys get use to my writing style before the story actually "begins", a short prologue to my story you could say (though this whole chapter is kind of a prologue to be honest).
9. Awfully convenient that Minato just happened to be working on that jutsu, and his wife just happens to know it also. And it just so happens to work.
-Strictly speaking, that's not a question. But I get your meaning. And I actually thought about this and figured that it's something that makes at least a bit of sense. - What's the weakness for Minato's Hiraishin? He has to have a marker to "flash" (no matter how easy it is to get a marker near/on someone, it is a weakness). If he could decimate an enemy with this, think of what he could do if he didn't even need the marker on someone. He'd just need a seal on a scroll or on himself to "flash" somewhere, anywhere on a battlefield! - And that was what he was researching how to do. But as you saw, they had difficulties coming up with a mechanism to "flash" to a specific place, because there's no way to know without a "landing zone". Which is where the Death God comes in. And that is my excuse for that plot-pusher. =^,^= (Guilty as charged).
The Fox Ninja v1.1 Patch Notes:
-Massive amounts of grammar fixes and misspelled word fixes.
-Fixed inconsistencies between the name "Pein" and "Pain", now there is only "Pein" (I hope).
-Made Naruto's reason for leaving more realistic and not quite as stupid and unbelievable.
-Gave Kyuubi clothing (oops).
-Added bold lettering to abilities that should've had them, but didn't.
-Nerfed Irelia.
-Bug fixes to Azir.
-Adding more "counterplay".
-Various other edits that I forgot to include in this list.
The Fox Ninja v1.1.1 Patch Notes:
-Moved Patch Notes to the end of the chapter, as to avoid any small spoilers I was already trying to avoid.
-Added in the name "Patch Notes" to the patch notes, rather than just having the version of the chapter.
-Increased max level of laziness and procrastination for the writer of this story to 9001 from 9000, since 9000 is not "over 9000".
-Fixed questions and answers to be a bit more readable and understandable.