Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Final Fantasy X
A/N: This is my first story. Please read and review and be kind. This is a crossover with Final Fantasy X. There will be a few oc's in later chapters. Now on with the story.
Chapter 1: A Guardian's Story Continues
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
He had done it. He had helped save Spira from Sin and now it was finally time to go to the farplane. Although Auron wished he could have had a better life, he was content with providing a better tommorow for future generations.
"I guess my story has finally come to its end," said Auron while on his path to the farplane. But as he was about to reach the farplane he was brought to a different place. All around he looked and saw nothing but white as far as he could see. "Where is this place? This isn't the farplane..." Auron asked himself, wondering what was going on.
"This is the border between life and death, mortal," replied a dark, icy voice that sent shivers up Auron's spine. He turned around toward the voice and came face to face with a large creature twice his size that had dark grey skin, white hair, wore a long white robe and had a dagger held between its many sharp teeth. This creature was simply known as the Shinigami.
"Who or what are you and what is it that you want with me?" asked a confused and very cautious Auron, having never seen this strange creature before.
"I am the shinigami and I am in charge of making sure the balance between life and death is not upset in the many realms of you mortals." replied the Shinigami. Auron was now very confused. There was never a Shinigami in Spira, as there was no need for one, and he didn't understand what the shinigami meant by 'many realms', so he had to ask,
"What do you mean? I don't understand what your saying." But the only response he received was,
"I do not have enough time to explain that to you. You will find out soon enough. I have brought you here because I have come to make you an offer. I only have enough time to explain the offer and aswer a few short questions you may have." Auron, wanting some kind of answer, asked,
"What is this offer?"
"I will give you your life back and give you a chance to start over. In return I ask you to complete two tasks for me." Being very intrigued by this offer Auron crossed his arms and started thinking of the possibilties of living again.
"What are these tasks that you would have me do?"
"You will be sent to another world and your first task is to ensure the balance of life and death. I need you to help the people in this other world to defeat a group of people that wish to escape my cold embrace." replied the shinigami.
"Why don't you kill them yourself? Why do you require my services?" asked Auron as he tilted his head in confusion at the Shinigami.
"Because I can not interfere in the mortal world directly. That is why I need you. Now, for your other task. I will need you to protect someone." The Shinigami then crossed his arms and looked at Auron awaiting his next question.
"Who is this person you need me to protect?" asked Auron while scratching his chin in great interest. The Shinigami then looked Auron in the eyes, causing him to be unsettled by his gaze, and responded,
"In the world I will send you to there are people of great power such as yourself called ninjas. One particularly strong ninja by the name of Minato Namikaze is busy fighting a great beast as we speak. The only way for him to defeat this beast is to summon me and offer his life to seal away this monster inside of his new-born son. Your second task is to help protect his son. I have seen what will happen if no one protects him and nobody should have to go through what he would have too. And as for the people you need to defeat, they will be after this child because of the terrible burden that will be placed on him." After the explanation Auron crossed his arms and looked up in thought. As a former guardian he felt it was his duty to protect the weak so, needless to say, Auron thought that he would be perfect for the job. Plus, being able to have life again was very appealing.
"When do we leave for this world?" Auron asked, as he looked at the Shinigami with great resolve in his eyes. The Shinigami grinned in a knowing manner. By the look in Auron's eyes, he had picked the perfect protector for the son of Minato.
"We leave immediately. But before we go you should know that at your current level of power you will not be able to fight these people on equal terms due to how powerful they are compared to you. Also a few of your abilities will no longer be available to you, so in order to give you time to get stronger I'm going to change your age and give you a gift to use all elemental abilities in their world." Auron, started getting nervous about having his age changed. He started to get sweaty palms and kept fidgeting his body so he asked the shinigami,
"How old are you going to make me?"
"I'm going to turn you into a five-year-old. That way you not only have time to get stronger and get used to the new abilties you have, but also give you a chance to restart your life the way you wanted to live it." the Shinigami replied. Auron, not wanting to go through an entire lifetime of losing friends again. Plus he really didn't like the idea of having to go through puberty again, once was enough. "Isn't there another way that we can go about this?" asked Auron
"I'm afraid there is no other way. If I gave you the power to defeat them now that would be direct interference in their world and as I have said before icannot directly interfere. I am only bending the rules this way." With that answer Auron let out a defeated sigh "Looks like there is no other well then. Let us be on our way. The quicker we get this over with, the better." said Auron.
And with that the Shinigami opened a portal to the land of ninjas and both the Shinigami and Auron stepped through to go complete their separate tasks.
It was October 10th just outside of the village of Konaha. The nine-tailed fox had just been sealed away, and Hiruzen Sarutobi and Kakashi Hatake were both on their way to where the Fourth Hokage's body and his new born son should be. They were both jumping through the trees as fast as they could in case anybody tried to get to Minato's son Naruto. When they got there they expected any number of things but definitely not a small boy no older than five holding the new born baby Naruto, trying in vain to comfort him.
Getting over his confusion first Sarutobi asked the young boy, "What are you doing here, child, and why aren't you in the civilian shelter?" The young boy had slightly spiked charcoal black hair, dark maroon eyes with a scar on his right eye, similar to kakashi's eye, and wore a long red coat with one of his arms out of the sleeve. "And who might you be?" asked the boy. "I am the third Hokage of Konoha. Now are you going to answer my question young man?". Sarutobi asked in a stern fatherly type voice.
A small form of recognition came across the young boy's face as he heard who Sarutobi was.
"You're the third Hokage? The Shinigami told me I should find and talk to you before we parted ways." Replied the young boy. At the mention of the shinigami both shinobi went on alert and narrowed their eyes in suspicion while keeping a close eye on the boy. "What do you mean about the shinigami and who are you anyway?" Kakashi cautiously asked the boy.
"My name is Auron. As for the mentioning of the shinigami well this should tell you everything. The Shinigami gave me this and a few other things just before we parted ways." Auron replied while pulling something out of his pocket. The object looked like a smaller version of Sarutobi's glass spying ball. Auron handed the ball to Sarutobi and before he could ask what it was a small ghost like projection of the shinigami himself came from the small sphere and started to deliver a message.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage of Konoha, I am the shinigami and the boy you see before you is a warrior I brought to you from another world. He was supposed to die in his world but in order to protect the son of the man you know as the Fourth Hokage. I gave him new life and brought him to your world to help protect Minato's legacy from certain people that have defied my will. He knows nothing of your world and needs to be trained in your shinobi arts to have a better chance at helping protect your Fourth Hokages son. He has the ability to use all the elemental affinities and has a powerful swordstyle as well as a few other special abilties which should give him clan status in your village. Auron, as this boy is called, also has a few scrolls on him that I have given him. In these scrolls I have sealed away a few of the weapons he collected from his world as well as a few other items and a complete documentation of his sword style. I leave it up to you to decide whether or not to tell everyone in your village about him. Untill we meet again, mortal." And with that the message stopped and left a very shocked Sarutobi and Kakashi.
"Hokage-sama, I suggest we get to the Hokage tower as soon as possible before anybody finds sensei's son." Stated Kakashi once he regained his composure. After finally overcoming his surprise Sarutobi nodded his head in acknowledgement. He then walked over to Auron and the baby Naruto and put his hand on Auron's shoulder only for all three to dissapear in a swirl of wind and leaves as Kakashi made a single hand and disapeared in the same way. They all reappeared in the Hokage's office inside of the Hokage's tower.
"Maybe you could tell us more about who you are exactly, Auron-kun," Sarutobi said. Auron sat down in one of the chairs in the office after handing the baby to Sarutobi and said
"Instead of telling you about myself, how about I show you instead? Would you be so kind as to give me back my sphere?" Sarutobi reached into his pocket and gave the small crystalline orb back to Auron. 'What is he planning on showing us with that crystal ball?' Sarutobi thought.
Auron after recieving his sphere held it out in front of everyone in the room and suddenly the sphere glew very bright. The light made everyone momentarily close thier eyes and when they opened their eyes they saw nothing but white. "This is called a memory sphere in my world. The Shinigami gave this one to me before we parted ways. It allows me to show others my memories and talk to the shinigami if I need to. I'm going to show you a few of my memories so you will know what I can do and know more about me in general." Auron said. Auron then started to think of a few key moments and the sphere then started to show everyone Auron's memories, from watching his best friends give their lives to defeat Sin, to Auron getting struck down by Yunalesca, to going to Zanarkand for ten years and finally being swallowed by Sin, all in a matter of moments.
At that point Auron stopped the sphere by putting it in his pocket and returned everybody to the office. "Is that sufficient enough information about me?" Auron asked with a grin. After seeing all the memories of Auron there was one question that both shinobi wanted to ask.
"Why are you so much older in your memories than you are now?" Kakashi asked before Sarutobi could.
"The reason I am so young right now is because the Shinigami wanted me to start my life over and become stronger." Auron said.
After hearing this both shinobi knew not to question the will of the Shinigami. Sarutobi turned his head to look out of the window and noticed that the sun was rising. Knowing that he had a lot to do tommorow he decided to end their questioning.
"I think we should stop questioning the boy Kakashi and get to other details. The Shinigami said you have abilities that would qualify you for clan status. So I'm going to give you clan status, but before I can do that I'll need to know what your abilities are and have you give a demonstration of those abilities to the council. Also I'll need to know the name of your clan." Sarutobi asked.
Auron looked to be in deep thought. He didn't know what the name of his clan should be, then an idea came to him and he thought it would be perfect.
"My clan shall be known as The Ryuujin clan." Auron said.
"Very well you shall be known as Auron Ryuujin from now on. We'll take care of the details of a demonstration of your abilities later. Now we only need a cover story of how we found Auron, as I doubt anyone will believe he was sent here by the Shinigami." Sarutobi thought out loud.
"Hokage-sama, I have an idea." Kakashi stated. "What if we told everyone that we found Auron on our way to find sensei's body and discovered that both of his parents were dead because of the kyuubi? You could even forge a letter that states Auron's abilities and new clan name and say that Auron had the letter on him when we found him." Sarutobi sat behind his desk and rubbed his bearded chin in thought.
"That could work, and as for Naruto, with all the death and destruction there will be alot of orphans. We could put Naruto in an orphanage and give him his mother's last name so that any of Minato's enemies wouldn't come looking to kill the Yellow Flash's son." Sarutobi said.
Auron looked at Sarutobi in confusion at his suggestion towards Naruto.
"Why not just make him a ward of my clan?" Auron asked,
"I'm afraid that cannot work. It would seem rather suspicous to see a five year old taking care of a new born baby. But do not worry. I believe that Naruto's mother Kushina asked one of her friends to take care of Naruto in case something happened to her. My idea is a last resort in case something should happen to her as well." Sarutobi stated.
Auron relaxed a little with this statment.
"What happened to Naruto's mother?" Auron asked the two ninja. Sarutobi and Kakashi both became somber at this question and Kakashi answered Auron's question "Naruto's mother died giving birth to him." and Sarutobi also responded "Yes, due to the kyuubi's malevolent chakra and the stress of giving birth, Kushina's body couldn't sustain itself and she died shortly after giving birth to Naruto. Now as for who is supposed to take care of Naruto, that would be Kushina's personel doctor and best friend, my former student Tsunade."
Sarutobi carefully stood to avoid waking a now sleeping Naruto.
"I think we've spent enough time talking. Let us go and find Tsunade. She should still be at the hospital." Sarutobi said, 'And she'll need all the help she can get to get over both Kushina's and Minato's deaths.' thought Sarutobi. "I think she would want to start taking care of both you and Naruto immediately anyway." Sarutobi said to Auron, who had a confused look on his face due to Sarutobi's statment. "What do you mean take care of both of us?" Auron asked suspiciously.
Sarutobi grinned as he made his way to the door. "Well, seeing as you are only five years old, have no family in this world and will need to wait till an appropiate clan home can be provided for you, you will need to be in the care of someone. I think Tsunade would love to take care of both you and Naruto. She is also one the strongest shinobi in this village and can help teach you in the ninja arts as you attend the academy."
After Sartuobi explained this to Auron he slumped his shoulders and let out an auidible sigh. 'Maybe I should have just stayed dead. Oh well, I guess it could be worse, I could go for some candy right about now though... Damn, now I'm starting to think like a five year old kid again. If I'm starting to think like a kid again then that means I'll start acting like one too. Damn Shinigami!' Auron thought.
Before Auron turned to leave with Sarutobi and Kakashi he took one last look out the window to see the sun just rising over the horizon and smiled for the first time in a long time and said "I guess my story is only just begining." and turned to follow the two shinobi to the hospital to find Tsunade and begin his new life.