Ghost of an uncertain future
The world is a beast of a burden, but it's a weight that Naruto has carried all her life without regret. And yet more than anything than this moment she feels weary and hammered down.
This is the last resort.
The world she once carried now has the lingering stench of decay, ash falls freely in a mockery of light rain, and the earth cracks with a thirst for sun and water. The only sound is the howling wind as she steps on this dry earth steadily making her way to what represented the pinnacle of shinobi civilization. There are not even ruins to allude to once stood here, what it represented, the will of the people who built it, nor those who inhabited it and carried on the will of fire.
But there yonder.
Yonder is the rocky precipice, the mountain that proudly boasted the faces of the fire shadows that led the Village Hidden in The Leaves. Now beyond there lies nothing, the mountain is gone, gone, gone.
Naruto comes to stand before it, and then looks around her.
Uchiha Madara has finally made the world in his image.
And Naruto will undo all his hard work.
'Kurama, will this work?'
In the ether Kurama stirs, he ruminates on giving her the response he's given her for every time she voiced this question. To Kurama it matters not, he was there at the beginning, he will be there at the end. He is primordial, he is eternal, and at the root of his being that has grown apathetic with the passage of time something stirs, for Naruto is different. In every cycle of humanity, he meets an extraordinary human, but Naruto's shadow encompasses them all.
'Yes.' The wily fox grins at her sharp intake of breath. She'd been bracing herself for a negative response, but this will work, Kurama will make it so. Bend the rules that bind him in this cycle and use those seldom used powers that would drive humanity to madness. Just a touch, and perhaps Naruto will come away from this unscathed.
Naruto nods and straightens, she bites her thumb and runs the bloodied appendage down her arm. Ink appears in intricate matrixes, dancing across her skin before coalescing at her feet and spreading into a seal. Naruto proceeds to draw on chakra that would require a platoon of jonin, and with it comes Kurama's ancient essence, triggering the seal.
The world around her explodes into awesome hues, and before her the very fabric of the space time continuum yawns open, Naruto does not hesitate to step through.
With a shock she awakens. However, there's an evil moment, where her vision blurs, the shadows seem to lengthen, and black spots appear. But then she blinks and takes in the wooden ceiling with wide eyes, clutching her bed sheets with white knuckles. Sweat beads at her brow, and blonde hair lays matted to her forehead and neck. She strips the sheets away and stumbles to the restroom. The light flickers on, she looks at the step stool, and feels hysteria bubbling forth. Trembling legs carry her upward, she takes one look in the mirror, and stares hard.
Kurama makes a noise of interest, 'It worked after all, and you weren't driven insane.'
Naruto finally gives into the hysteria, laughing so hard that she clutches the edge of the sink, and then falls onto the tile floors in tears. "Holy fucking shit! It worked!"
'Much,' Kurama notes wryly.
If the ANBU who guard Konoha's jinnchuriki wonder why she is laughing uproariously at 3:17 A.M. in the morning, well they've seen stranger things where she is concerned.
And it's going to get stranger.
