Chapter 1 - The Rainbow is a Lie
Hey Guys! Voidfox is dead, hope you like this new one :D
'Thought'
"Human Dialogue"
"Demon Dialogue"
"Unknown"
"Celestial Dialogue"
"Technique"
Disclaimer: Oh! Oh! Oh! I own nothing. You know the drill. :(
A child of the flesh shall bring about the ruination of all existence
An obsidian sea of nothingness, that is what the Void is. Through this nothingness, all the worlds are connected, parallel to each other yet never knowing of the existence of the other. Through this abyss, new life is born and through this abyss, all existence is eradicated. In this nothingness, creation and destruction are in perfect equilibrium. A source of vast and utterly terrifying power, countless entities both eternal and mortal have tried and failed to control The Void.
We now turn our attention to the middle realm, the realm of mortals and the playground of those above. The Keepers have always overseen this realm, The Multiverse; a collection of worlds inhabited by mortals that stretched throughout the boundless space, each one with their own unique characteristics. The Keepers were created by the Allfather as servants to watch over the worlds, they are called Gods, Pantheons, Essences, Overseers and other such titles to indicate the power they each had in world they tended to. Tasked with tending to and protecting each of their respective worlds, the Allfather has bestowed upon them sufficient power and knowledge so that they can effectively do what has been tasked of them. While not having the same caliber of power as the Virtues, they were given enough power to warrant them the title they were given. At times, the Allfather's retainers use their power to influence events and steer the course of history to uphold the "Greater Good" at the will of the Allfather. Most of the time though, they just observe the comings and goings of the inhabitants of their respective realms, they watch, unseen and unknown.
Over time, however, the Keepers of this realm grew in power, more than what they were used to. And this in turn led them to arrogantly believe that they were more than enough to topple the Allfather. This thus led to the tragedy known as the Zodiac War. Twelve cosmic beings consisting of both Keepers and Virtues sought to dethrone the Allfather and wrest control over all. The war was waged for eons, many worlds were ravaged and it looked as if the middle realm was about to implode on itself. Then, the Allfather himself stepped in and in a massive display of power, utterly defeated the treacherous rebels.
The Old God did not destroy them though, instead they were cast down into the Gates of the Void where the father hoped that his children would redeem themselves…he was wrong. Now they wait, patiently recuperating their powers and recruiting denizens of the Void. Now they are one of the Warring Triad; three powerful groups seeking to take control of this under-realm. They wait and they scheme, hoping for their revenge and vindication.
The Zodiac War exhausted the Allfather's army, the Virtues; beings given immense power by the Allfather to battle the darkness. Now there is a fragile peace, the Allfather still struggles to replace all the lost Keepers and Virtues. Without anything stopping them, demons from the Void were now easily able to enter and cause trouble. With some of the remaining Keepers weak from the war or worse, corrupted, it would take a while before balance could be restored and things returned to normal.
"Hey, big sis, look what I found!" a voice that sounded like it belonged to a young boy echoed out
"A Class 2 demon…So what?" deadpanned a feminine one
"Why do you always ruin all the fun? And here I was thinking that you saw the light when we fought that Class 3" the boy mock pouted as he stared at the young woman
"That was a few million years ago. These days, existence feels so…dry" the young woman drawled, clearly disinterested in continuing the conversation any further
"Awww, you're no fun. Let's just release this on some unwitting human settlement and watch some blood and entrails fly" the boy said, positively giddy with excitement
"I got tired of that stunt a few thousand years ago" the woman said as she lazily closed her eyes
"But, But, But!" the kid sputtered
As the woman was about to leave, she tensed as she felt a certain energy signature that she hasn't felt in a few thousand years. She then turned to look at the bustling village of Konoha and the proverbial light bulb lit up as she thought of a sinister plan
'So that's where you are...Big Sis'
As she thought of that, the boy started on a tirade
"Come on, let's do something fun. Come on Come on Come on Come oooooooon! How about Kusa? Suna? Oh! Oh! Oh! Let's do Iwa again! The last time was hilarious! Anythiiiiiinnnng!" the kid was now shouting hoarsely and stamping his foot
"Fine Fine! Just shut that mouth of yours. But I want to do…this one" the sinister female said as she pointed at Konoha's general direction
"Oooooh, looks fun. Wanna make it more interesting? Hehe" the equally malicious boy said
"What do you want now?" the other voice groaned
"A bet as to whether Konoha will survive or burn to the ground" the child said
"Again? Don't you ever get tired of that?" the woman asked
The boy looked like he was about to go on another rant
"Fine Fine" the woman conceded
"The terms?" the annoyed lady asked, this kid is really getting on her nerves
"A thousand years?" it was more like a question, the kid knew he was in some hot water so he didn't want to push his luck
"Whatever. Let's just get on with this." the woman huffed, barely reining her anger
"Yaaaaaay!" the malevolent child cheered
The young woman snorted, what else could she do?
"Alrighty! But no intervention this time, that Seal Master guy you sent last time really killed all the fun" the first voice said as if pouting
She wanted to tell the boy that if not for her intervention then he would not have his playthings right now but didn't feel like going on a tirade.
"Let's just get on with it already" the woman said as she crossed her arms
And with that, a sound like that of snapping fingers was heard. The peace in Konoha was shattered when something huge came crashing down upon them.
Konoha's business district
With a small flicker of light and energy as the only warning signal, the populace of Konoha was caught unaware as a crazed Energy Demon descended upon them. As soon as the Demon materialized, everything in it's immediate vicinity got vaporized due to the massive energy it was exuding. It raised one of it's heavily clawed arms and sent it crashing down, creating an energy wave that demolished several buildings before it fizzled out.
After a few seconds of panic, stores and homes were abandoned as the civilians scrambled to the relative safety of the designated evacuation areas. As the civilians were being evacuated, Shinobi scrambled to the front lines to stave off this new threat to the village they cherished. The monster saw this and did only one thing, it roared and sent some of it's energy skyward. Before any of the defending Shinobi could mount a proper counter-attack, several streaks of energy fell from the sky and detonated with such force that it rocked the very foundations of Konoha. With the whole of the business district left in ruins, the engine of destruction moved on to lay waste to another district.
…15 Minutes later
The Yondaime's heart broke as he saw what lay before him, the prosperous village of Konohagakure no Sato left in tattered ruins before the might of a gigantic figure. The once bustling business district was now nothing more than a sorry pile of rubble. Hoarse screams and agonizing moans could be heard from the twisted wreckage of metal and concrete as more than a few civilians were trapped, buried under tons of concrete and metal.
"…HELP ME!"
"What did I do to deserve this?"
"I don't want to die here, help!"
"Kami fucked us up!"
He could hear the disembodied voices say. If this drags on for too long, they would be hauling out cold corpses instead of battered survivors.
Despair hung in the air and the young man felt like the weight of an entire ocean was strapped onto his back. The beast stalked for a few steps and stopped, it then appeared to absorb in something from the surrounding area, possibly ambient energy present in the atmosphere. Immediately, the aura it was discharging increased in its intensity.
The young Hokage moved in closer and as he did so, he saw the many brave shinobi try to stave off this new threat to the safety of the village. What he saw next only increased the feeling of dread pooling in his heart. Those who came close enough literally evaporated into thin air, not even a single speck of blood was left. He gasped in horror as the monster sprouted small whip-like tendrils from it's gigantic arm which proceeded to flay and stab at the offending Shinobi.
As the moon peeked from the clouds, he began to take in the entirety of the monster that stood there before him. It had a single glowing eye that seemed to be filled with an extreme amount of anger and sadistic glee. Said eye had concentric circles and a number of tomoe that dotted the aforementioned circles. It was gigantic, easily dwarfing the entire village and it had...ten tails?
"...!" the Yondaime was at a loss for words. The Jubi, an ancient entity that had almost put an end to human existence was more than just a myth! And it was attacking now of all times! His wife's water just broke a few minutes ago and the village was just recovering from vicious assault from Iwa.
This is a really fucky fucked up day, not the most fucked up but it's up there.
Sure he may have read about the Jubi when he was a child, even heard a few stories from the Village Chronicler but he didn't believe for a second that the Jubi would exist for real. Myths were just supposed to stay in books and told by senile old men...right?
But now was not the time to muse over his thoughts, something must be done, and fast. He saw with his eyes as the creature began to move, it stopped a short distance, charged up its energy and fired off a deceptively small projectile toward the east wall. The effect was unbelievable as what was once a 200 meter high wall that stretched for quite a distance was now nothing more than a smoking, molten crater.
Brute Force is definitely out on this so they had to be a little more creative. He exerted his chakra and with a bright yellow flash he was gone. During his first few days as Hokage, he set up several seals in strategic areas so he could teleport to them at a moment's notice. ("Hell yeah I'm efficient" he remembered himself say when he came up with the idea)
He appeared in the war room, countless scrolls and battle plans spread on every inch of the chamber, a bright yellow flash and a few scrolls flying away signifying his arrival.
"Doton Specialists have been sent out to rescue the buried civilians as you have ordered Hokage-Sama. Any developments on the frontline?" said Isei with a salute, one of the most experienced shinobi in the room
"SUSFU" said Hokage deadpanned
"On the bright side though, we're going to have a clear and unobstructed view of the sun tomorrow if we don't die horrible, painful deaths tonight" the Hokage added jokingly, a wide grin plastered on his face. This would have been hilarious if Konoha wasn't being attacked by a crazed demon beast thing at the time.
The room fell deathly silent and all eyes were set on him.
"Shouldn't have said that, so what do you know?" he said adopting a serious expression
"One of my men told me that conventional weapons or jutsus won't work, he said weapons simply passed through and whatever jutsus they threw at the monster simply got absorbed then fired back with greater power" Isei reported in a calm matter-of-fact tone
"So, from those reports we can assume that the Jubi is a sentient energy-based being and from what I've seen it will only grow stronger the more energy it absorbs" the Yondaime said, plans forming in his head
Many in the room gasped
"What do you mean Minato?" said a wrinkled old man
"Sarutobi-jiji? I thought you were retired already" asked the aforementioned Minato
"I should be, but the current situation we are in dictated that I do otherwise. At least for the time being" the old man added hastily, god he loved being away from that accursed paperwork.
"Oh, I see, well I hope we can resolve this quickly" Minato said while scratching the back of his head sheepishly
"So, you were saying Hokage-sama" Isei said as he cleared his throat
Minato then went on to explain that the Jubi absorbs the ambient energy present in the atmosphere and further adds it to its own already tremendous power.
"But it has a fatal flaw, being an energy construct without a solid vessel to reside in; it will eventually fizzle out into oblivion. That will take a lot of time though and I don't think the village can take any more of this. We can however use seals to...uhhhh...seal it, much like the way we use seals to store chakra or items, but the seal has to have a colossal amount of absorption capability to accommodate the obscene amounts of chakra we are going to pour into it" Minato finished with his monologue
"Guy really likes the sound of his own voice eh sis?"
"Shut up and just watch"
"Sheesh *cough* stingy*cough* Pass me some popcorn will ya?"
The young woman just looked rusty daggers at him
"We could make this work for us, imagine Konoha being the wielder of such awesome power, Iwa or any other Village for that matter will never again have the gall to attack us like it did a few days ago" said a nondescript figure behind a desk victoriously
"I see, containment seals and a very powerful one at that. Everyone up for it?" Sarutobi said as he went over to the strategies for their counterattack
The whole room suddenly became abuzz with activity as everyone either read up on more information, relayed further commands to the front line or designed seals that could hold the Jubi.
The Yondaime being the seal master that he is, finished the required seal in little over a minute. (Well, if you can make a seal that breaks the laws of time and space, making a seal that could hold untold amounts of power was a cakewalk)
As soon as he finished the seal, he disappeared in flash of yellow light and appeared once again in front of the Jubi. He needed to be able to get close enough to active the seal and start the sealing process, easy as pie.
The yellow haired flash then threw one of his special kunai at the colossal beast. Said beast did not even see him as a threat so it just went on with it's business, namely to lay waste to the worthless village and the pathetic humans that resided within it. He teleported and plastered the seal as close as he can to the Jubi and pumped it full of chakra to start the absorption. A brilliant flash of light ensued and the Jubi was sucked into the seal with all the force of a Black Hole. It tried to struggle, a vain attempt to free itself from the sudden and massive pull but the force just kept on sucking it in. The beast clawed at the ground, desperately trying to escape whatever force that was trying to capture it. Before it was fully sealed, it looked at Minato dead in the eyes, an ice- cold glare as if saying: "You die last"
After a few seconds more, the seal was victorious and not even a trace of the Jubi was left. Ruined buildings could be constructed again but the lost lives could never be brought back. Still, they survived and that's all that mattered.
A smile crept into his face, everyone was safe now. He couldn't believe it was that easy.
'But damn, we are going to need one hell of a cleanup after this. The village force was also weakened after that, hope no one attacks us for now' the young man thought
The seal worked! Konoha was saved and he had enough time to get to the missus before she notices that he's gone. Before he could teleport away though, the seal in front of him smoked and out exploded the mighty Jubi once more. It seems like simple capture seals were too weak to contain the Jubi after all, something stronger was needed, but what?
The Jubi snapped at him as it let out a surge of its power out. The Yondaime seeing this, did a half tiger handseal and vanished in a flash of yellow light before the monster's damaging energy reached him. Apparently it didn't like being sealed into paper scrolls.
He appeared a moment later in front of a house near the edge of the village where his wife was giving birth to their child. Before he could enter though, he heard an ear piercing roar and felt a huge amount of energy coming their way. Generally, a huge amount of energy barreling towards you is never a good thing. Without a second thought, he took hold of the house and teleported it a few meters out of harm's way. True to his instincts, a beam of the beast's energy came crashing down where he had been a few seconds ago. Because of the sheer force of the explosion, what was once a mountain that stood several miles is now just a molten, gaping hole on the ground a few meters deep.
'On the bright side, now I can have that view I always wanted. That pesky mountain always blocked my sun' the young shinobi snickered in his mind
The house was not left unscathed from the explosion as the roof and about a third of the house was blown away. The yellow flash stood up shakily, that last feat left him with about a quarter of his chakra reserves as the house he moved away was quite sizeable.
"This human is quite interesting, staying calm and collected in the face of adversity, plus he's really cute" said the feminine voice as she smacked her lips
"You always say that then you throw lightning bolts at people" deadpanned the other
"Hehe, We'll see how collected he is once he sees the carnage inside" she said with glee as they watched the scene unfold
The blonde Hokage hoped and prayed that the people inside were safe. He made his way inside the house and cleared out a bit of rubble. He went into the room his wife was supposed to be in and saw something he wasn't prepared to see. His wife, Kushina lying on the floor, covered with debris, heavily bleeding and clutching a crying baby.
He rushed to her and used a moderately powered Fūton: Daitoppa to get the debris off.
"Oh Kami-sama" was all the young man could say before his legs failed him, despite him being the strongest shinobi in the village, able to kill others without so much as batting an eyelash. In front of his dying wife though, he was naught but a broken man.
"It'll be okay Kiiro-chan, I've been through worse" Kushina said as she gave a weak smile
"I decided to name him Naruto, now don't argue with me or I'll beat you to a bloody pulp" Kushina joked, she expected the man to smile but there was no reaction
The young man could not find the words as tears started streaming down his face. He just sat there and cradled his wife, everything from that point just seemed so...unreal. His shock was so profound that he just shut out everything.
"No... Don't cry, I want you to be strong for Naruto. Where is the strong, bright and cheerful man I fell in love with?" she said as she hugged the baby known as Naruto closer to her chest. She tried to chuckle but it came out as a bloody cough.
After a few moments of silence, the man snapped out of his reverie.
"H...How...? Why now? Why us?" were the only things the man could say, his mind was still having trouble coming to terms with what lay before him. As he lay there in despair, Kushina's breathing became heavy and ragged.
"I don't have much time" Kushina said weakly as she gave the crying infant to her husband
"I love...you...Minato..." and with that said, Kushina breathed her last, a smile placed serenely on her face. If one were to look at her, she looked as if she was just sleeping. Safe from the harsh and unforgiving world.
Minato felt a click inside his mind and as if by some miracle, it suddenly cleared and information he did not have instantly flooded inside his head. Seals that seemed impossible a few moments ago were now possible, easy even. It was as if he was given near omniscient knowledge about seals.
"Naruto is special...so please" he heard a voice say inside his head. He looked lovingly at Kushina…only to find out that she wasn't there anymore.
His mind went a mile a minute, trying to explain what had happened.
'There would plenty of time for explanations later, please go' the voice spoke to his mind again
With renewed vigor, he stood up and held his child, a revelation dawning on him and a plan forming inside his head. He had to act fast or the village would not see the light of day.
He used Hiraishin and teleported a safe distance away from the monster so he could work safely and in peace.
He sent a chakra pulse to the war room that came with a message
"Hold the line. I am working on a solution to the problem, just give me a few minutes and this nightmare will all be over"
With the message was a schematic for seals to protect allied units from the beast's violent energy.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but you'll just have to bear this burden" Minato said to his child as he put him into a genjutsu induced sleep via Nemuri. This was needed because the subject needed to be stock still in order for the seals to be properly inscribed, any misstep in the inscription process would mean death to both inscriber and subject.
As soon as he was sure the child was sound asleep, he began the delicate process of infusing his child with another set of artificial chakra coils so the Jubi's energy would be able to flow around and comingle with the child's system. Setting it in a stationary position would have the danger of it pooling up and eventually exploding out, killing the host and unleashing this horror again.
First, he drew seals throughout the child's body, which would make a copy of the child's existing chakra coils. Once the seals were drawn, he pumped his chakra in a certain way. It flowed around and energized the seals adorning the boy's body. After the energy has permeated all of the seals, they were absorbed into the boy's skin. A bright flash of light followed and Naruto was granted his secondary tenketsu (chakra coils), he only needed to construct the seal to imprison the monolithic beast.
After a few minutes, the capture seal was finished, about forty seals were compounded to achieve a very specific and powerful effect. Finally, he imbued it with chakra so that it would behave the way he wanted it to. Dread formed in the valiant young man's heart as he felt Death's presence creeping ever closer. He knew that being a shinobi meant that Death was always a few steps away but he just couldn't shake the unease that he felt this time.
'Looks like I won't make it out alive, at least Naruto along with the village will be safe'
Minato, not wasting any more time in idle thought bit his thumb and exerted some of his chakra. A moment later he slammed his hand on the ground causing a system of seals to spiderweb from the point of contact. A large poof of smoke followed and Gamabunta appeared, still smoking his pipe.
"I need your help old friend" the yellow flash said as he jumped atop the toad boss' head
"What is it this time? Pissed your wife off again?" the giant toad joked, blowing smoke towards his young friend
Minato looked morosely to where the Jubi is again laying waste to his precious village
"She's...she's...gone, and if we don't hurry, the village will burn" the young man said grimly
A deafening roar echoed through the night sky and Gamabunta then sensed the gigantic amount of energy being emanated from within the center of the village. There, a gigantic creature was firing off blasts of concentrated energy towards some buildings, it isn't obviously seen but the gigantic beast was royally pissed.
'This energy feels familiar and yet different at the same time' Gamabunta thought with apprehension 'similar to the black shadow that attacked the summon realm'
"Let's go, there is precious little time left" Minato said as he cradled the still form of his son
"I understand" Gamabunta replied
As soon as the words were said, Gamabunta was off, moving far quicker than one would expect from a gargantuan toad. The Jubi sensed this and sent several energy waves raging toward the bounding toad, hoping to kill off the threat. The toad, in a display of it's superior agility, easily side-jumped the deadly projectiles and continued on his way. In almost no time at all, Minato was again face to face with the scourge that threatens to engulf his beloved village in darkness.
The young Hokage then sent a pulse of chakra telling the remaining shinobi in the area to evacuate.
"Focus your energies my friend, I will need a lot of power for this" the blond man whispered to the toad familiar
Gamabunta did not need telling twice as he formed a tiger seal and started channeling his chakra
Minato then used the last remaining bits of his chakra along with a significant portion of Gamabunta's to trace seals on the very air, before that click in his mind, this feat along with the artificial chakra coils, demon seal and protection seals would not have been possible but Minato did not give this any mind now. He needed to concentrate.
The Energy Monster tried flaring up it's energy to vaporize the toad that dared stand in it's way. The toad however was unfazed by this show of power thanks to the energy protection seals Minato had devised earlier. The monstrous form raised an arm and charged it's power, threatening to cleave the toad into tiny bite-sized pieces. But before the behemoth could strike, an invisible barrier was formed around it which stopped the Jubi stock still. Minato only has one chance at this. He then set off the seal that was to imprison the beast.
As the process started, Minato split the Jubi into two components, the energy it commanded and its consciousness. He sealed the energy inside Naruto, that's where the artificial coils came in, he only hoped that it would hold against the maelstrom of energy that is to be poured into it. That would leave Naruto with free reign over the energy and Minato knew that his son would do great things with that power.
As that was happening, he sealed the Jubi's malign consciousness inside him, this was to ensure that the Jubi would not influence the container and return again. He would take the beast along with him to the grave!
Before Minato met his end, he instructed Gamabunta to take Naruto to the Sandaime's home, the predecessor will know what to do afterwards.
"Thank you old friend, till me meet again in the afterworld"
A bright light exploded outward and moments later imploded. Peace was returned to Konoha but they paid a heavy price, many lives were lost, their leader joining the ranks of the fallen, the village was crippled. They survived, but just barely.
As the Jubi's potent energy raged within the boy, the artificial tenketsu buckled and cracked under the pressure, it could not hold the pressure of the beast's energy after all. As the energy leaked out, the boy's own energy supply acted up and started taking action independently to ensure Naruto's survival, as if it had a mind of it's own. It contained the volatile energy and merged with it, preventing it from damaging the prone child any further. Not all was contained though and flecks of the violent energy that were left bound themselves to his body, changing it's makeup. All was silent and it seemed as if peace had returned once again.
"Well that was anticlimactic, what's with the screen going all dead?" said the boy as he tapped on the screen a few times
"Don't ask me, you're the one who's supposed to know about these things" replied the woman
"Aww great and I lost too, this sucks" the boy said sounding a bit put off "I know you cheated, it's just not fair"
"I did not. And if you accuse me again, I assure you that you will regret it" rebutted the woman dangerously, apparently being accused of cheating angered her
"Well how can you explain the screen dying on us one second and the next, Konoha's all dandy again!" yelped the child shrilly
The sudden appearance of someone broke the two figures off from their bickering
"Well look what the cat dragged in. How's Earth? Did the humans treat you well?"
"Yaay other sis is back, I'm soooo gonna tell on you" said the boy as he stuck out his tongue
The Sandaime was visited by the giant toad and when he was delivered his successor's child, he knew what had happened. The aged man allowed himself to grieve over the loss of such a promising leader and a dear friend. He then gave the order for the civilians to vacate the shelters, they were in for one hell of a cleanup.
As the civilians emerged from the shelters, they saw with their own eyes the devastation that the demon has wrought. With heavy hearts, they wandered upon the broken village. Could they stand back up? Could they even last another day? Buildings were crumbled, houses were crushed and there were more than a few broken and unrecognizable corpses littering the streets.
Many knelt down and sobbed, others were just too paralyzed to say anything. This is the end, with no light to be seen at the end of the tunnel many contemplated just taking their own life and ending it then and there.
As though giving them a ray of hope and telling them not to give up, two rainbows formed over the horizon. Framing the sunrise and bathing the desolated village in it's delicate, otherworldly beauty
"Whoah! Double Rainbow!" a nondescript civilian announced as he pointed over yonder
"Double Rainbow Oh Kami!" said another as she took notice
"Double...Double...OH GOD DOUBLE!" cried another as he was barely able to restrain his emotions and knelt down, bawling like a baby
"It's So Bright and Vivid!" said another as he hugged a total stranger who surprisingly hugged him back. It was the magic of the moment
"DOUBLE RAAAAIIINBOOOOW!" chorused the rest of the people as they saw the majesty of the Double Rainbow
"What does this mean?" wailed a woman amid screams of Double Rainbow
"And it's starting to look like a TRIPLE RAINBOW! TRIPLE RAINBOW!" another woman squealed
"IT'S A DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE SKY!" wailed a young man as his knees failed him
"So Intense!" blubbered another before his consciousness left
"Look at that Rainbow. Just look at it's majesty. OH KAMI" a woman was moaning at the top of her voice, tears streaming down her face
"*sob*Double*sob*Double*sob*Rainbow*sob*" cried a woman, breaking down on the spot from sheer rapture
"That is the baddest fucking Rainbow I have ever seen" claimed one badass mountain man(1)
The village slowly picked up it's bearings and with some help from allied countries, Konoha was able to recover. The Jubi incident was kept as a secret from the other hidden villages and the populace was told that the Yondaime gave his life to kill the rampaging monstrosity. Everybody in Konoha was in mourning as they had lost their beloved leader, not even a corpse to be properly buried was left. No mention of Naruto and his situation was made to protect the boy from his father's enemies and others that would take advantage of the boy's curse.
The Sandaime got out of retirement again to take the helm of Hokage once again. Though he was busy with the rehabilitation of the village, he still found time to be with Naruto and play with him. As expected from the son of Minato, he is just as hyper active as his father was. As the years went on, the boy flourished along with the village that the both of them had come to love so much.
Naruto knew not of his father or of his lineage but the aged man resolved to tell it to him when he came of age, when Naruto had the wisdom to handle all of it.
In Sarutobi's free time, he taught young Naruto the basic fighting style and a few special moves. He knew the boy wanted to be a shinobi just like his father. The boy even claimed that he wanted to be Hokage after gran-gran was done. As Naruto moved on with his lessons, Sarutobi also taught him the basics of chakra and elemental and shape manipulation, in theory anyway. He did not yet teach Naruto any techniques as he felt that they would be unfair to the other children. This made Naruto sulk for the rest of the day, disappointed that he didn't learn any "Flashy SuperAwesome Technique", but he understood what his gran-gran said and did not push the subject further.
Naruto
Age:5
Naruto was practically giddy with excitement, today was the day that he was going to be sent off to the Preparatory School where he will have his first taste of shinobi life. Many kids were enrolled in this one year crash course to bolster the ranks of the shinobi in service, it operated under a simple credo: "Weed out the feeble and nurture the strong"
This facility served as a proving ground for many young shinobi, those who would fail here would simply be discharged and live on as one of the civilians. Those who would pass would go on and further their study of the deadly art in the Shinobi Academy. This way the village's commerce would not suffer from too much focus on military supremacy.
Konoha was once again one of the top dogs of the Elemental Nations and to keep that advantage they needed to produce more powerful ninja and they did that with funding which came from the civilian sector. Shinobi were basically tools of mass destruction, the more you have, the more powerful and fearsome you are. The more fearsome you are, the less enemies are inclined to attack you in fear of a mutually assured destruction on both sides. It works based on the saying that goes: "Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy."
A man entered the room, scars littering his whole body told those who saw him that this guy is not someone you would want to mess with. He wore a simple brown vest that barely covered his heavily muscled torso and a flowing black hakama that allowed ease of movement. He wore no footwear, why he did that, no one knew. The thing that made the kids really creeped out was the gray metal plate that covered the the left part of the man's forehead, on it was the kanji for blood in red ink.
"Ellow Maggots!" the heavily built man said as he entered the room
"Feeling comfortable?" he asked mockingly
"Yeeeees" The kids chorused
"Course ya are, yer sitting on a chair, NOW EVERYONE STAND YER ASSES UP!" the man bellowed sending a bit of killing intent seep into the air
Everyone stood at attention, half the class almost peed themselves when the man screamed so suddenly.
"I will teach ye how ta take lives in the bloodiest way possible, ye all will carve out yer names in a torrent of blood" the man said as he paced up front, giving a lot of emphasis on the word blood
"Ellow, what do we 'ave 'ere?" the man said as he eyed Naruto
Quicker than his untrained eyes could follow, the man was gone from where he stood and was behind Naruto with a kunai poised, ready to slit the boy's throat open. A pretty impressive feat (Well, in Naruto's eyes at least) considering Naruto sat at the far end of the room.
All eyes were now on him as he felt the man breathe down on his nape, it was warm, a bit moist and smelled like rotting meat.
"I see a lotta promise in ye gaki" the man breathed as he applied pressure on Naruto's throat, drawing a bit of blood
Naruto said nothing and kept his calm, he would strike at the most opportune moment. His Gran-gran always told to look for openings whenever he is outmatched. 'Look for a weakness and make your enemy suffer for it' he remembered his Gran-gran say. He knew this was some kind of test to gauge his skill level and he would not fail it.
A pink-haired girl let out an ear piercing shriek when she saw the razor sharp kunai draw some blood. This served as a distraction as the man looked in her direction. Naruto's heart was pounding, adrenalin was surging through his body and there was a weird ringing in his ears. Time seemed to slow for him and he gained an increased consciousness of his surroundings.
Naruto pushed the kunai away and slipped from the man's grasp, not a fluid motion, but it served its purpose of freeing him. With all the strength he could muster, he tried to hit the man with a clumsy roundhouse. The attack connected but Naruto's feeling of euphoria was cut short when two bloodshot eyes met his.
"Raiton: Hirageki no Jutsu" the man bellowed
A palm charged with lightning made its way to Naruto's chest, it connected and sent the boy flying. Waves of deadly electricity lanced through the boy's body, stopping his heart dead and frying his brain as he sailed through the air. Naruto landed in front of the room, body crumpled and electricity still dancing around his body here and there.
The man just laughed, a maniacal, mirthless laugh that filled the room and scared the shit out of the children. Not only was their classmate possibly dead but they were also stuck in a room with a deranged psychopath for god knows how long. What a great way to start the school year.
"Now, this is how ye gut yer opponents ta send thar allies a message" the man said gruffly as he took out a kunai and prepared to do a number on Naruto.
As he was about to make the first cut, Naruto's body pulsed with powerful electricity that threw the demented man back. Naruto then floated up, head slumped and arms dangling lifelessly much like a grotesque marionette. In an instant, a violent, dark purple energy flared from the suspended child, for a moment, it danced around the boy's body much like a soft silk robe cloak. It then exploded outward, engulfing the boy in a furious flame-like shroud. The shroud then moved as if it had a mind of its own and formed several jagged spikes that danced hypnotically on either side of the floating boy.
Faster than the eyes could see, the spikes made a beeline for the madman, he tried to slice away at the tendrils of pure energy only to find his kunai disintegrating as it made contact with the corrosive energy. The scarred man then jumped back and began to fly through a set of handseals.
"It'll more than that ta scayre me ya little runt!" the man bellowed as he launched his counter attack
"Katon: Kogasuyari no Jutsu" As soon as the words were said, multitudes of spears made entirely out of flame materialized and lanced toward Naruto. The kid made no effort to evade as the spears crashed down on him. The older combatant was flabbergasted as the shroud merely absorbed his most powerful attack, it swelled and then flared up, seemingly angry at being attacked.
The shroud added energy to the absorbed attack, accelerating it and adding to its destructive potential and shot forth a concentrated beam of black fire. The beam of flame hit before the deranged man could jump away and cut clean through him, vaporizing his entire midsection. The attack had such destructive power that even after mowing down the offending flesh bag, it had enough force to blow up the back of the room when it impacted. The explosion rocked the small building they were in and killed some unfortunate students who got caught up in the blast.
Before the man or rather, pieces of the man could fall, the tranced boy quickly lifted up his right hand, palm facing forward in a puppet-like fashion. The movement was followed by a bolt of pure lightning that issued from the appendage that incinerated the man where he stood. The distinctive metal plate shot out of the man's head and embedded itself to a nearby desk. A black spot on the ground being the only indication the fiendish guy had been there in the first place.
What was strange with this sudden display of power was that the last attack behaved like true lightning. No chakra based technique could ever hope to match the raw power that a real lightning bolt contained. Ninjutsu basically revolved around ordering your chakra: "Move like this", "Hit like this", etc. but one could only do so much with the limitations of human chakra. Chakra based techniques are like counterfeit Drugs, they behaved almost in the same way but the effect paled in comparison to the real thing. What Naruto did was more on the lines of "Be this" as opposed to "Behave like this" that most elemental ninja techniques tended to do.
Naruto then collapsed to the floor in a crumpled heap, apparently unaware that he had just ended a life even before class began. The class, or what remained of it, cowered away from the unconscious boy, fearing for their lives.
Not long after the explosion, ANBU surrounded the building in a perimeter waiting for further orders. This was starting to become a dangerous hostage situation, there were a lot of kids inside and from that blast earlier, the enemy may have killed off some to send a clear message.
The ANBU of course were being paranoid, but can you blame them? They had to be prepared for every single outcome, have a counter for everything the enemy might throw at them. Anticipating the worst made them plan their operations carefully, aiming for the path with the least collateral damage. It also helped them become more aware, efficient and precise in most of the operations they executed. Everyone was shocked as the Hokage himself took the lead for the whole operation. What would have made the strongest shinobi in Konoha come out here himself? Was this event more than what it appeared to be?
What they did not know what that the Hokage wanted to be there personally to make sure that Naruto would not be caught in the impending crossfire between his ninja and the hostage taker. The sagely man knew from experience that when shinobi engaged in combat, there was always the defenseless civilian that would be hit and he did not want Naruto to be exposed to that much danger. He knew his ANBU were one of the most efficient in the elemental countries but he did not want to take any chances.
The Hokage planned for a pincer strike, they would go through the doors and the others would storm in through the blown up opening in the back of the room. They broke down the door and ANBU quickly stormed the room. Imagine their surprise when all they found was an unconscious kid lying on the floor and the class cowering away from the aforementioned kid.
"What happened here" an ANBU with a Wolf mask asked the children in a soft tone, he did not want to distress the children any further.
The Hokage however moved closer to the child lying on the floor, kid was wearing black shorts and a white shirt with the symbol of Konoha emblazoned to it in gold.
"Oh Kami Naruto..!" the old man gasped as he recognized the shirt he gave Naruto for the boy's second birthday "Bring in the Medical Team!" he exclaimed, his voice ridden with panic
He knelt beside the boy and searched for a pulse...nothing. He then charged his hand with a weak lightning pulse to try to restart the boy's heart.
He brought his hand over the boy's chest. A loud crack issued as the lightning natured chakra entered the boy's system. But the effort carried no effect, the boy's heart stood stock still.
After two tries with no results. The elderly man had to give up, if he pushed it, he might just make the boy's heart pop. He knelt beside the boy, silently mourning all the while.
He had lost another one, first it was Minato then Naruto, he was getting too old for this. Two people he had come to call sons taken away far too early.
"Sir!" an ANBU with a boar mask saluted carrying a metal plate that he had retrieved from a desk. "We have reason to believe that an escaped criminal: Ranbou Kirite was killed here" reported the young man as he passed the old leader the metal plate. Sure enough, the kanji for blood was carved cleanly on it, the deranged man's defining characteristic.
"Debrief the children and bring in the cleanup team" the old Hokage ordered as he pocketed the plate.
The Medical Team arrived, but it was far too late. They moved in to bring the boy to The Morgue for analysis but they were abruptly stopped by their leader."I know what to do, let me be the one to take him" the aged man said weakly. He carried the child and made his way toward The Morgue, grief biting at his heart. He knew this was standard procedure, and being the leader, he was not going to be the one to break the law he himself put into effect. It didn't matter who you are, when you died they took you to The Morgue for analysis, no exception.
The Morgue
The Hokage left the child a few hours ago, they were going to examine him to determine the cause of death and hopefully devise a Technique that could prevent this from happening again in the future. They did more than just analyze corpses here, they also did some experimentation for the advancement of prototype Medical Techniques. Novice Medical Ninja also went here to study anatomy first hand, there is never a shortage of bodies here. Crude and barbaric yes, but this is the reason why Konoha has the best Medical Team in all of the Elemental Countries.
What happens in The Morgue is not exactly something you would be proud of, but this is what has to be done to make sure more of your soldiers returned home safely. After that, the body (if there was anything left of it) was given back to the family for a proper burial.
The room was dark and icy, heat absorption seals lined the walls sucking out heat and moisture, retarding the decomposition process. Tools for opening up and examining bodies lay neatly on small tables. Jars full of chemicals were put carefully inside glass cabinets for easy reference.
Naruto lay there motionlessly, his skin cold and sallow. A moment later, a familiar energy danced across his body, blowing the cloth off him. The energy surged before it re-entered his body and a moment later the boy took a deep gasping breath as he sat bolt upright. His eyes darted all over the place, trying to find out where he is. The last thing he remembered was a weird tingling in his chest then all went dark.
He hugged his knees close to his chest to conserve heat, an almost automatic reaction as he felt the biting cold in the room.
"What happened?" he asked no one in particular
And there you have the first chappie. I don't know when the next one will come out but stay tuned :D
WHOOO!
I really do hope this is better than Voidfox
1. If you know where this came from, virtual cookie for YOU! :D
It's good to be back!
R&R Plox :D
Techniques:
Doton – Earth Release
Fūton: Daitoppa no Jutsu- Wind Release: Great Breakthrough
Hiraishin - Flying Thunder God
Nemuri – Sleep
Raiton: Hirageki no Jutsu – Lightning Release: Shock Palm
Katon: Kogasuyari no Jutsu – Fire Release: Searing Spears
Comments? Suggestions? Violent Reactions?
Flames are welcome, within reason of course
Alright, Ill be seein' ya
Note: Wow, changed stuff this early…hope you guys'll forgive me for that :((
kthxbai