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Prologue: A New Life
He stared at the ceiling, his face blank and carved from stone. Even in the darkness of the night, his eyes perceived the world as clearly as it was during the day. He continued to just stare, to make no other motion than to watch the ceiling.
Moments passed in silence, and he continued to stare. His mind urged him to move, to prepare himself and his companion for the hurdles they were bound to face. A need to do something, to gather information, to check his body for any strange effects.
But he did nothing.
He continued to lie on the recently-made bed, staring at the ceiling of a stranger's house. Even if he wanted to, his subconscious kept him pinned there, remembering what had happened in the past few hours of his life.
Looking back, he should've known something was wrong with Sasuke's abrupt entry into the war on their side. After all, every encounter they had prior to that had clearly shown how much Sasuke wanted to destroy Konoha. He should've thought a bit more about the bizarre contrast he was showing, but he had been too overjoyed at Team 7 finally being back after so many years.
Granted, they were in the midst of war and needed all the help they could get against the two Uchiha and the Juubi, but he had foolishly, honestly believed that Sasuke had changed. He had thought Shikamaru and the others were being too paranoid.
Once again, hindsight was a bitch.
Things went downhill very quickly, very badly. Madara, whom everyone had prioritized before Obito, had surprised them all by calmly settling down on the battlefield, saying that he wasn't the biggest threat to them. Several shinobi and Kunoichi had tried to seal him, to take advantage of the moment, but he simply slaughtered them with his Susano'o, which had still been active.
Then Obito appeared.
He had known that Kakashi had been dealing with Obito in the other dimension, and seeing him appear had made him quite worried for his sensei, since Obito had arrived alone.
Then shit really hit the fan.
Madara immediately used some unknown jutsu to force Obito to bring him back with the Rinne Tensei. The First Hokage and several others had tried to stop him, but a sudden attack from White Zetsu clones kept them occupied. Even his father, the fastest man in the world, had been unable to stop Madara's revival.
They had desperately clung to the hope that he could at least be killed; having discarded the immortal body and infinite chakra of the Edo Tensei, surely they had a chance now. They had the First, Second, Third and Fourth Hokage with them, all of whom were Edo Tensei constructs, meaning they had the advantage this time.
How utterly wrong they were.
What transpired was a massacre. A slaughter so inconceivable that even now, reliving those moments, he still couldn't believe what happened. Madara cut a path through everyone, dropping people like flies. It had been the most horrifying sight he had witnessed, watching his friends and comrades die in droves.
Things got even worse when Madara became the Juubi Jinchuuriki. Even though the Four Hokage tried their best, Madara managed to bring his plans to fruition by stealing the First's Sage chakra, which he put to devastating use.
Kurama and Gyuuki had been extracted and added to his already godlike chakra. He retrieved his Rinnegan back from Obito before having Zetsu take over his body.
Things got even stranger than that.
A movement from his side alerted him to his companion's awakening. She was slowly lifting herself up, though she seemed to lack perfect synchronicity with her body. Her lengthy dark blue hair fell over her face, crafting an image that immediately caught his attention. Lavender tinged white eyes stared at him, much more enchanting than he recalled them to be. A thin sheet covered her form, as he had needed to strip and heal her, which only highlighted her curvaceous figure.
He gave her a weak smile, something she returned. "Hinata…"
She woke up, her body feeling uncomfortably heavy and bloated. As she blinked away the last traces of sleep, her eyes honed in on the person lying next to her. For a terrible, chilling moment she didn't recognize his form. She froze, her heartbeat suddenly thundering in her ears.
Then, the moment passed. Recognition dispelled the fear, soothed her booming heartbeat to a calm lull. She blinked once, taking in the changes that had happened to him.
Blond, almost golden, spiky hair had been completely whitened, similar to what had happened to Obito. Under the moonlight, she had to admit that the silver locks made for a fetching sight. His whisker marks were still visible, something that she found herself grateful for. Even if it was a small feature, it was still one that made him unique and she didn't think she could bear it if he lost that small sense of self the whiskers gave him.
His clothing was tattered, revealing most of his upper body and legs. The revealed flesh was noticeably more muscular and chiseled than she remembered, yet lean and compact. Strangely, even though the sight of him in this state should've made her feel embarrassed, she didn't experience the usual reaction this time. No, if anything she was…somewhat interested.
Shaking the strange thoughts from the forefront of her mind, she slowly began to rise up. Her body, which still hadn't felt right, was slow and awkwardly unresponsive to her commands. Each part of her was just too heavy to properly move, like when she focused too much chakra to her limbs.
Like she thought, her movements caught his attention and he turned to face her. She resisted the flinch her body had almost made, staring right into the eyes that the Rabbit Goddess wielded. They shone with a menacing light, the nine tome surrounding the concentric circles creating an almost demonic appearance. Even though she believed their current wielder would never commit atrocities like Kaguya had, seeing those eyes still made her wary.
"Hinata…"
She tried to smile at him, but her lips twisted into something else. Trying once again, she managed to properly raise herself from the bed, only for the bed sheet covering her body to recede. As she felt the cool breeze on her naked skin, she paused and glanced downwards.
Like she thought, her upper body was bare to his gaze. Absently, she noted that her breasts were bigger than before. When the moment registered, she expected the powerful burst of embarrassment that would cause her to faint.
However, that never happened. Again, she felt strangely curious and nonchalant about the fact that the person she loved was getting an unobscured view of her naked chest.
"Um…sorry about that." She looked back to Naruto, who had gone back to staring at the ceiling, "I had to heal your wounds, and your clothes kinda got in the way so I took them off." He glanced over quickly, allowing her to catch the trace amounts of pink on his cheeks, "I didn't do anything else, I swear."
She smiled at that, another little action that solidified her belief that he hadn't drastically changed from the Naruto she knew. "It's alright, I know you wouldn't do something like that." Awkwardly wrapping the sheet around herself, she frowned thoughtfully. "Um, where are we?"
Naruto rose from the bed, sitting with his back still facing Hinata. He scratched his head as he answered, "Well, I'm not too sure myself. When I woke up, this house was the closest one to us so I decided to break in and heal you. I haven't met anyone in the house yet, so I doubt we'll have to leave just yet."
Her frown persisted as she glanced out of the closest window. The environment she saw was radically different from that of Konoha or any of the Hidden Villages. She watched, confused as lights in the distance continued to come and go at somewhat decent speeds.
This wasn't Konoha. Hell, this didn't resemble any region within the Elemental Nations, and she had the majority of them ingrained in her head since she was a child. Gathering chakra, albeit carefully since her chakra pathway system was being just as strange and awkward as her body, she activated her Byakugan to get a better view of their location.
Her first discovery was that she had activated her dōjutsu without the need of a handseal, almost instinctively in fact. Her second discovery was that the one weakness of the Byakugan, the blind spot, was not there. Third, she could see much farther than before. Her last discovery was that her chakra had changed.
It was greater, denser than before, but her chakra pathways hadn't finished growing to accommodate for the drastic increase in chakra capacity.
Naruto's chakra had also changed, even more drastically than hers had. She had always known that he had abnormally large reserves of chakra, but comparing his new reserves to back then was like comparing an ocean to a drop. His chakra, hidden deep within his very being, shone with an intensity that was blinding.
Yet, as she looked at the blinding sight, there was no discomfort in her eyes.
Interesting.
"Naruto-kun," he turned to face her, his new eyes focused on her, "it seems like we're no longer in the Elemental Nations anymore." She gestured to the view outside, "This world has no single speck of chakra for at least ten kilometers, something that would be an impossibility in the Elemental Nations. The humans here are even stranger; they don't have chakra, not even the amount necessary to live, but they are thriving."
Naruto frowned at that. Could there really be a world where chakra wasn't so integral to their lifestyles? His train of thought didn't go far before he heard Hinata gasp, an action that seemed louder than it should've been. "What is it?"
The veins around her temple bulged further, something he had never really caught unto before. "Certain areas of the land have some sort of mist concentrated there." She suddenly looked disbelieving, as though she had seen something really odd. "Um…what…I don't even…"
Naruto stood up and gazed out of the window, thankful that the darkness gave him cover. Unsure as to what he was supposed to be looking at, he decided to just pump chakra into his eyes and look in the same direction.
What he saw made him blink in shock.
A pack of huge, demonic canines prowled the streets, snarling and snapping at one another. They were about the size of a bear, though there were variations in size, and they had eerie, glowing red eyes. They walked through the crowd of busy humans, occasionally bumping into them with a growl or two, but the strange thing was that none of them even blinked at the creatures.
"This…what's going on? Why aren't any of them reacting to them?"
"Naruto-kun, I think that mist substance prevents them from noticing those creatures," Hinata mused. The sound of clothes ruffling made him turn around, just in time to see her slip on her mostly undamaged pants. Luckily her back was facing him, but he still felt his cheeks heat up.
As she pulled on her shirt, Hinata frowned as she felt the discomfort with her chest. She would have to obtain some new clothing soon. "Naruto-kun, what should we do? Should we stay here while gathering information, or would constant movement be the better plan?"
Glancing back at the pack and watching them disappear into the shadows, Naruto weighed his options. Staying in the area meant they would eventually come into contact with the owner of the house, which would force them to move anyway. Even if they could continue residing in the house without being discovered, it would still limit their movements to mere hours as opposed to if they were on the move.
On the other hand, they knew virtually nothing about the world they were in. Not only were they weaponless, penniless and physically different, but the language was more than likely something radically different and they would most likely just be roaming this new world like lost puppies. Still, they would at least be able to move freely, and they could always liberate items for their needs…
A memory nudged at his mind, a whisper that urged him to listen.
His eyes hardened. They had to survive. No matter the cost. He had lost too much to let his beliefs get in the way of their survival. "Let's rest here for the night, then see what to do tomorrow morning."
In the vast expanse of space that the three of them resided, all sisters watched intently at thin golden thread that had suddenly detached itself from the interwoven collection of seven threads. The detached thread coiled about itself as a mysterious black flame encased it, though the thread did not catch flame.
The middle one, who currently had their shared eye, frowned. "This is troubling. One of the Seven's fate has become distorted, jumbled and foggy."
The one on her right spoke, her reedy voice dripping with interest, "Oh? Well now, that certainly hasn't happened in a while…"
The one with the eye reached towards the thread, eyeing the flames apprehensively. As her fingers neared it, she felt the heat increase dramatically and quickly retracted her digits before they could be consumed.
As she watched the flames recede, the eldest sister narrowed her eye. Plucking the eyeball out like it was a garment, she passed it to her sister. "Atropos, do me a favor and have this one killed by the end of the week."
Atropos, the being on her left, pursed her lips as she plucked the eye in the socket and stared at the strange phenomenon. "Understood, Clotho."
Fate was absolute. Unchanging. Ironclad. It would never bend to the demands of another.
A/N: This is essentially the prototype to 'The Other Transcendent', but with very unique differences. Still hope you guys enjoy it.
Now, while part of my reason for having Hinata around is because of the NaruHina goodness that's been going on for a while, Hinata does have an important role to play in this fic. Those who don't like this, I can understand if you decide not to continue reading…but please be polite about it.
Naruto is no son of any god/goddess and has no relation to them (except maybe Kaguya, who I will be developing quite a bit in this fic). Furthermore, I am convinced that Base Naruto (meaning the one in The Last) should be able to handle most of the Olympians. Add in Kurama Mode, and I can honestly see him kicking all their asses. So…no, I won't be nerfing him and I won't make the gods stronger than they are.
Also, apparently NaruHina was planned from the beginning, and all the Ship Tease with Sakura was a Red Herring. While I think the execution needed more work, I can definitely see it now that I look back. Go to the Tv Tropes Naruto Forum, the link is on one of the more recent pages.
Read and Review,
MaelstromBankai