Prologue: Legend
The Hokage monument.
To the citizens of Konoha it represents its capable rulers, past and present. To its shinobi, some of their greatest leaders and legends. To Naruto Uzumaki it represented his childhood dream. One day his face would be on that mountain, watching over the village and keeping its citizens safe from its many enemies.
Looking at the monument from the Hokage's office, our hero can't help but feel elated. He had achieved his childhood dream. He had become the Rokudaime Hokage of Konohagakure. Even six years after he had first donned the coveted hat, looking at the monument would fill him with pride.
"Oi brat, you ready?" Said a female voice from behind him.
Turning towards the speaker, a long-haired blonde with gravity defying breasts who looked far younger than she actually was, he spoke. "You know, calling the Hokage a brat is considered disrespectful."
"And calling the Hokage an old bat wasn't?" Tsunade quipped.
"Touché."
This banter seemed almost at odds with what would happen that day.
"Are you sure this will work?" Another voice questioned.
"I tested the seals. Twice. It should end its threat on the world once and for all." Our hero proclaimed to his audience of five.
"I'm more worried about the fact Kakashi-Sensei is early. It feels like an bad omen." Sakura, his former pink-haired teammate, said with a worried face.
The man in question didn't bother to reply to such a wild accusation. His being on time could bring bad luck. As if! That sounded even more preposterous than that secret Icha Icha: Yaoi Edition rumor going around a few weeks ago.
"The seals keeping it at bay are worsening every day, we cannot afford to wait." Our hero stated with a determined expression.
"Can't someone else do it?" pleaded Konohamaru "Most of Konoha would gladly give their lives to finish it!"
"That is why I will do it!" Snapped our hero "I have the largest chakra reserves in Konoha, the seal is to dangerous for anyone else. I have the highest chance of success. The highest chance to survive the sealing."
"But even if you survive the sealing, your chakra reserves would be at the level of a academy student! It would take decades to get back at your current level of strength." Insisted Konohamaru.
Faking hurt, our hero replied "That little faith in me, why, I feel wounded."
"This isn't a laughing matter!"
"And that is why tomorrow, you will greet the village as the Shichidaime Hokage." Announced our hero. The shocked look our hero was hoping for on Konohamaru's face was sadly not present. Konohamaru had suspected Naruto would want him to protect the village in his stead.
"Are your ready?" Asked Yamato.
Giving one last look out the window and seeing his own face staring back at him, he knew it was time.
"I am Uzumaki Naruto, Rokudaime Hokage of Kohonagakure. And today, I will end the threat of the tailed beasts once and for all."
The cave in front of them looked like any other cave in the area. But behind a hidden and heavily sealed door stood their target.
The Gedõ Mazõ. The demonic statue containing the tailed beasts.
Or as Konohamaru called it, 'the seriously freaky statue that contains very bad things'. That had been the moment Naruto realized Moegi would be naming their children. Or at least he hoped she would.
Even outside the shinobi could feel the foulness in the air.
As they were walking toward the cave, Naruto thought back to how he came to this moment.
After successfully defeating Pain, Naruto was lauded as a hero. But being the last jichuuriki left alive put a large target upon his back. Agreeing with Tsunade that continuing his training at a hidden location until the conflict started would be best, he left with a protection detail of Anbu. Only to be ambushed by Uchiha Madara and Yakushi Kabuto.
After a long battle Naruto had managed to seriously wound Kabuto. Madara seeing that Kabuto was in danger focused his attention on Naruto. After several minutes of intensive combat, he successfully incapacitates him. Looking back at where he last saw Kabuto, he couldn't help but feel dread.
The few remaining Anbu had managed to kill Kabuto in that short time-frame, putting a serious damper on Madara's plans. Without Kabuto's Impure World Reincarnation technique, the combined forces of the five great villages would overwhelm even someone as powerful as him.
Once again cursing the surprising ability of Konoha's shinobi to go beyond anyone's expectations, he took the unconscious Naruto with him to the hidden location holding the Gedõ Mazõ.
What followed was what felt like an eternity of pain to Naruto. Having the Kyuubi extracted from him over several days was more painful than he could have imagined. Not giving in to the Kyuubi's demands to tear the seal off was the most difficult thing he had ever done in his life.
After many days of pain Naruto felt like he was floating. He wasn't certain if what he heard during that time was real or fake, but he would swear to his dying day to have heard Sasuke scream at Madara about avenging Naruto's death. Whatever might have happened, he woke up to the sight of Madara Uchiha lying on the floor with Sasuke's bloody sword extending from his back.
While seriously weakened, he searched the cave to find a large array of seals keeping the tailed beasts inside a large, evil looking statue. The rest of the cave was filled with even more seals to keep anyone outside of the chamber from sensing anything that took place inside the cave.
After making sure he could still find the cave in the future, he returned to Konoha with Madara's corpse to inform Tsunade of what had happened to him and his Anbu guard.
Tsunade had been despairing over Naruto's loss when he returned only slightly winded. After a customary trip out the window for worrying her, he told her what had happened. His story of what happened seemed to be too farfetched even for Naruto, but after having personally investigated Madara's remains, she could only conclude he was telling the truth.
In order to keep the tailed beasts out of the hands of those who would abuse their power, they convinced the world that the beasts had been permanently destroyed. While Tsunade would work to keep the the truth from becoming known, Naruto tried to recover from having the Kyuubi removed before trying to find a way to remove the tailed beasts from the realm of the living.
While recovering, Naruto came to a startling conclusion.
His chakra reserves had dwindled to barely a tenth of their former size. While he still had the largest chakra reserves in the village, it wasn't nearly the massive amount it was before the Kyuubi's extraction. While he had suspected he might have been weaker without the Kyuubi sealed inside of him, he had severely underestimated his dependance on the Kyuubi's chakra.
He almost collapsed the first time he made a 100 kage bunshin!
It wasn't until Shikamaru commented on his increasing shogi skill that Naruto realized he had an easier time learning things. When he mentioned this to Tsunade she, naturally, mocked him. But when she realized he was serious, she showed him a basic medical chakra exercise that he had been unable to learn before.
When he showed her the completed exercise a two days later, she was pleasantly surprised. And very happy.
Naruto was not.
Naruto was getting sick from the countless medical tests and exams Tsunade was putting him through, but she just expressed her desire to want to find out where his sudden ability to learn and understand things more difficult than a children's math book came from.
The test result showed that the small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra that managed to leak through the seal, kept his entire mind as unhealthy as possible. Without its debilitating effect, the damage was slowly recovering.
While Tsunade predicted he would never be a genius on Shikamaru's level, he could very well come close to the intelligence his father had shown before his death. She pointed out that he had shown rare moments of brilliance. There were most likely his natural intelligence momentarily breaking through.
While he would spend most of his time outside of missions learning more about the art of fuinjutsu, his increasing intelligence and learning ability eventually made him branch out to other subjects that had been impossible for him to do or enjoy before.
When he could actually understand the contents of books, he realized the usefulness of Konoha's large library. As a child, he had said reading books boring. Yet he now went through an average of two books a day. He later gained Jiraiya's passion for writing and decided to continue his teacher's Icha Icha line of books.
In his subsequent stay in the hospital he was informed by Tsunade that he could continue his sensei's books, as long as she never found out about any 'research' being done. It was one of his most fondest and most terrifying memories to date.
His lower chakra reserves and his increased intelligence also allowed him to greatly improve his chakra control. Allowing him to learn many techniques that where impossible to perform before.
When he tricked Konohamaru into thinking his bath wasn't actually filled with cow dung, he was ecstatic. The prank war that followed was even more fun the when he was still in the academy.
When he had asked Tsunade if she would be willing to teach him about her specialty, Tsunade had been happy to teach Naruto more about medical jutsu. He might not have been on Sakura or Shizune's level, but she was finally able to teach Naruto most of her abilities.
When he bet Tsunade he could learn the basics of her strength technique before he turned 17, she scoffed and told him that if he could do that, she would make him the Hokage. The fact she was slightly drunk at time would not allow her to renege on her bet.
When he flicked the door of the Hokage's office of its hinges a few minutes before his 17th birthday, Tsunade didn't know what to think. While he wouldn't be on her level of instinctive control for years, he had the basics down.
Four months later Naruto was officially instated as Konoha's Rokudaime Hokage.
When he convinced Gaara to go out for a drink he had almost caused a Suna-Konoha war. When Tsunade heard Naruto had made Gaara an alcoholic she exploded in anger, at least until he informed her that the Suna council would be limiting alcohol importation in Suna, increasing Konoha's alcohol import.
A drunk Gaara was even more scary then a drunk Lee. The damage that had to be repaired after Lee swore to master drinking alcohol was almost as large as the Orochimaru invasion had been. Just a lot more traumatizing.
Tsunade often told Naruto that he had improved beyond her wildest expectations.
He would only continue to do so.
Naruto was brought out of his reminiscing by Yamato's gruff voice.
"We've arrived."
In front of them stood a heavily sealed door. The original seals placed by Madara several years ago had been long gone and replaced with his own improved seals. After placing his hand upon the center seal and channeling his chakra through it, the group was rewarded with the sound of a seal dissipating and a door opening.
Looking at his companions, Naruto asked "Ready?"
Receiving a firm nod from his friends, Naruto looked back at the passage in front of them.
Walking forward he spoke with determination "Let's do this."
After he had made sure all the preparations had been checked, double-checked, and triple-checked for good measure, Naruto moved in front of the statue.
The reason the tailed beast were considered immortal was quite simple. Their chakra would always return after physical body was destroyed. Eventually this allowed them to simply create a new body.
After years of intensive study, he had created a plan. A plan which was simplicity itself.
Stop the energy from leaving with a barrier and destroy all the tailed beasts chakra inside the barrier.
Of course, this was easier said than done.
The Yondaime had used the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style to seal the Kyuubi inside of him. The seal was created by combining two Four Symbol Seals. Adding an element to the Four Symbol Seal was not easy.
The newly dubbed Elemental Symbol Seal could actually absorb and store an indefinite amount of it's corresponding elemental chakra, while preventing external use of its corresponding elemental chakra.
Using a Elemental Symbol Seal for each of the five main elements was under normal circumstances impossible. One would need mastery in an element before being capable of creating, let alone using its Elemental Symbol Seal variant.
Naruto spent eight months mastering the five main elements.
But using five different Elemental Symbol Seals in one sealing required not just mastery in each of the five elements, but required the user to be capable of mixing the elements together.
At the same time.
This was by many considered impossible to do in a entire lifetime. Mixed chakra natures were often considered bloodlines. With good cause, in order to mix a two main elements, one needed to master both those main elements before mastering the mixed element. For a most shinobi it took years to master even a single element let alone two.
Being born to a clan with a bloodline was like being born with an affinity for said mixed chakra element. Because it was their main chakra nature, it allowed them to use a mixed element without mastering the two main elements first. So while many considered it impossible to learn in a single lifetime, many people tried and successfully gained such 'bloodlines' over multiple generations.
Naruto spent four years mastering the mixing of different elemental chakra natures.
No one was surprised when Naruto needed only four months to master both yin and yang type chakra.
His sage mode would give him mastery over nature chakra.
Eight different Elemental Symbol Seals would be combined to create the Chakra Symbol Seal. Capable of absorbing and storing all forms of chakra. Preventing any form of external chakra use.
Or in this case, tailed beast chakra.
The barrier issue was solved by Tsunade. To prevent the Akatsuki from capturing the Sanbi she created the Four-Corner Sealing Barrier. While the barrier was powerful, it wasn't powerful enough for Naruto's goal. By creating an inverted Five-Corner Sealing Barrier, it would have both the power to resist any attempted attack from inside its containment field and would keep all chakra inside the barrier. He would need the help of five capable and trusted shinobi to operate it. The choice was easy to make. Tsunade and Sakura were capable medic-nin. Kakashi and Yamoto had both been top Anbu in the past. And Konohamaru would be the next Hokage. His trust in them had never been in question.
The Chakra Symbol Seal would be applied to a wooden box slightly larger than a human head. While he was charging it, all chakra inside the barrier would be absorbed by it. In order to prevent his own chakra from being absorbed, he would channel all nature chakra through his body. The absorption rate was high enough to prevent him from turning into a toad.
Once the energy of the tailed beasts was sealed inside it, a time-delayed nature release was activated. Its chakra would be absorbed by the earth itself. This would create an extremely large concentration of natural energy similar to Mount Myõboku. Creating a new area that could be considered sacred land.
Without the corruption of the tailed beasts.
This was the moment he had been preparing for. What he had spent countless hours thinking about.
His friends where standing in their predetermined corner, ready to start the Inverted Five-Corner Sealing Barrier.
Naruto was standing in the center of the room, between the chakra sealing box and the statue.
Everyone was silent. They all realized this would become one of the greatest moments in history. They were about to do what even the legendary Sage of the Six Paths could not.
Naruto gave one last look to each of his friends before facing the statue again.
He would succeed in destroying these abominations of chakra.
"All right, let's go!"
While his companions started their designated hand seals, Naruto closed his eyes and started gathering natural chakra. The tailed beasts tainted chakra that was in the air was giving him some minor problems, but he would not be deterred.
"Activating sage mode."
With sage mode activated, Naruto could feel the corrupted chakra that had been leaking out of the statue over the past few years trying to corrupt him. He had to stop himself from retching. It was a truly horrible feeling.
The amount of foul chakra entering his body was larger than he had hoped, but well within his calculations. Pushing the demons chakra out of his system, he tried to achieve balance. When the physical, spiritual and nature energy in his body were in harmony, he was ready to start the next phase of the plan.
"Sage mode stable."
Opening his eyes, he could see the barrier was up. Even with his sage mode activated he could sense nothing beyond its walls. Which meant the barrier was working as intended.
Focusing their energy on the statue might have allowed the tailed beasts to free themselves, but it would have also hurt them immensely. Their struggling would have also weakened them so they would have risked being sealed into a human container again.
That was something the tailed beasts would do everything to prevent. Even if it meant being stuck in a statue for years. They would just erode the defensive seals placed on the statue over time. They were at most months away from freedom.
"Keep the barrier up no matter what. If these beasts give up without a struggle, I'll eat a mountain of Sakura's special handmade nutrient meals."
Konohamaru blanched at Naruto's claim. Sakura's nutrient meals were supposed to be even worse than her handmade soldier pills. Rumor had it that the fire Daimyo's wife had died after having eaten one of her meals. It always impressed him how someone could create something so horrible by trying to create something so healthy.
Luckily for Naruto, Sakura was too occupied with maintaining her corner of the barrier to respond to his claim.
"Activating fire seal!"
As they had expected, the statue started trembling. The imprisoned beasts inside the statue might not have known what was happening outside the statue, but feeling a drain on their strength would be cause for alarm.
Naruto could start feeling the seal trying to drain his chakra, but he was able to allow the nature chakra flowing through him to be absorbed instead.
"Activating wind seal!"
Small cracks started appearing in the center of the statues chest. Before the eyes of all present, foul reddish chakra started to seep out of the small cracks.
The drain on his chakra increased further. It took effort to keep it entirely focused on the nature portion of his chakra.
"Activating lightning seal!"
The chakra that had seeped out of the statue started assaulting the barrier set around it. Maintaining the barrier became more difficult then they had predicted. But they couldn't give up. The world was depending on them. Naruto was depending on them.
"Activating earth seal!"
The crack in the center of the statue started getting larger, causing more of that vile chakra to leave the statue.
Everything was going as expected.
"Activating water seal!"
Unfortunately, it seemed Sakura's worries were about to prove themselves accurate.
"What is that?" shouted Konohamaru.
In the small opening in the center of the statue's chest, an eye had appeared that was watching Naruto.
"Keep your focus on the barrier!" yelled Naruto.
That eye was scaring him. According to all records of the tailed beasts he was able to gather, they all had the eyes of animals. Enraged homicidal animals, but animals nonetheless.
The eye that was gazing upon him was not the eye of an animal.
That single eye reminded him of both Madara and Nagato. A mixture of sharingan and rinnegan. According to the few ancient records he managed to uncover on the tailed beasts, they were created when the Sage of the Six Paths split the ten-tailed Jyuubi in nine smaller and weaker beings. The records had claimed it had only a single eye. An eye that had traits of both the rinnegan and the sharingan.
Waiting or stopping wasn't an option however. So Naruto continued on.
"Activating yang seal!"
Immediately, the statue started shaking. Cracks starting appearing on its surface. The eye kept watching him. While the eye kept looking at him with an unreadable look, its chakra kept trying to escape.
The strain of the beasts chakra trying to disrupt his own stability was enormous. If it weren't for the wrongness of the chakra in the air, he would have believed he was back at mount Myõboku covered in toad oil and trying to balance the different chakra sources.
Only without Fukasaku and his special staff.
"Activating yin seal!"
The barrier keeping the chakra contained was starting to strain. Despite the seal already draining almost all forms of chakra inside the barrier. The amount of chakra flowing from the statue was far larger than rate at which the Chakra Symbol Seal could absorb it.
The seal was also starting to drain his own reserves now. He couldn't keep his chakra balanced while letting it only drain the nature portion of his chakra.
"Activating nature seal!"
Slowly the statue stopped shaking, new cracks stopped appearing and hole in its chest stopped expanding. The foul chakra in the air started dissipating.
But the eye kept watching him.
When the eye first appeared it contained confused rage. It knew something was occurring and it would not like whatever was going to happen, but it didn't understand exactly what was happening or who was doing it.
But now that eye was filled with something he had hoped to never see again.
Naruto couldn't remember most details about the days Madara used to extract the Kyuubi from him. But there was one thing he could remember clearly. The Kyuubi's eyes.
At first the Kyuubi's eyes were filled with hate and rage. Hate for him and rage because he would not rip the seal off. But just before he was completely gone, the Kyuubi's eyes showed him a sight that would never fail to cause him nightmares.
The eye in front of him had that same look.
It was looking at him with enraged understanding.
It knew Naruto was responsible.
And it would make him pay for preventing its freedom.
Suddenly a powerful, otherworldly voice came from the opening in the statues chest.
"You..."
It send a shiver down the backs of everyone present. And Naruto started feeling the drain on his reserves lessen. Which terrified him. The drain was caused by the beast's foul chakra trying to enter his body. That could only mean one thing.
The beast had given up.
"...You will pay..."
The confidence in its voice was disconcerting. The seal was rapidly absorbing its chakra. Any attack on Naruto would simply be absorbed. And coming here, Naruto had prepared himself for the possibility of dying. What could it possibly do to Naruto?
Naruto could feel a spike of energy coming from the beast that would temporarily overwhelm the absorption rate of the seal.
"...Death..."
Like most shinobi, Naruto had faced death many times in his life. But the beast's next words made his blood run cold.
"...is not your punishment..."
Kakashi looked at Naruto with horror. He had recognized the feel of that energy.
"Naruto! It looks like Kamui!"
Naruto had suspected it, but having it confirmed was still shocking. Kamui was a sharingan based attack that pulled its target to another dimension from which it was impossible to return. The beast must have realized it was at the end of its life and decided to take Naruto with him. Naruto was skilled enough to evade Kakashi's Kamui even when tired.
The extended sage mode, the wicked chakra in the air, the drain on his reserves, had completely exhausted him to the point he could barely keep standing. Naruto was thinking fast. He had to continue the sealing, but the Kamui-like attack would most likely pull him to another dimension. Being pulled in another dimension would break the connection and interrupt the sealing. The beast would lose almost all its power, but it would still eventually reform and recover.
Naruto would not allow that to happen.
Pushing all his gathered nature chakra into the seal, he deactivated his sage mode.
"Keep up the barrier! It won't survive past this attack!"
"...No... Your punishment..."
While the Kamui-like attack increased its pull on him, Naruto kept his focus on the seal. While the extra nature chakra he had pushed into the seal would increase the rate of absorption, it left him defenseless to the Kamui trying to pull him into oblivion.
"...Is much worse!"
His friends could only look on in shock as the Kamui pulled Naruto to another dimension. One moment he was there and then he was gone. Not even a body to bury.
His sacrifice was not in vain, as mere moments after Naruto disappeared the eye was absorbed into the seal. When the Chakra Symbol Seal started glowing with a soft green light, they knew Naruto's plan had worked.
Uzumaki Naruto had caused the death of the world's most powerful immortal in the Elemental Nations.
Looking at the monument from the Hokage's office, the Hokage can't help but feel elated. Like his predecessor before him, he had achieved his childhood dream. He had become the Shichidaime Hokage of Konohagakure. Seeing his own face looking back at him would always fill him with pride. Like his grandfather before him, he would always be watching over the village.
"Hokage-Sama, the finals of the Chuunin Exam are about to start."
The chuunin bringing the news looked understandably nervous, this is the first chuunin exam since the Rokudaime had died. Konoha must once again prove that their will of fire can withstand any tragedy.
"Go on ahead Arima-kun, I will be leaving shortly."
Seeing the chuunin leave, the Hokage turns his gaze back to the monument.
Konoha would be alright.
Another hero would be guiding them.
Giving one last glance to the face next to his own, Sarutobi Konohamaru set off for the stadium holding the chuunin hopefuls.
A legend would be watching over the village.
In this story, the battle between Killer B and Taka was more extreme and the real Killer B was captured by Sasuke, but the rest of Taka died in the battle. Tsunade didn't fall into a coma, it seemed like a convenient way to temporarily get rid of Tsunade so Danzo could gain more screen time before he was killed. Instead of waiting for the war to capture the last Jinchuuriki, Madara and Kabuto tried to capture Naruto. When Madara had extracted the Kyuubi, he mixed the tailed beasts to recreate the Jyuubi. Before he could become its Jinchuuriki, Sasuke arrived after having recovered from his injuries in the fight with Killer B. He saw a seemingly dead Naruto in front of Madara and his emotions got the best of him (remember, here he still cared about and wasn't able to save his Taka teammates). Madara being distracted from the Jyuubi's excess energies, doesn't notice Sasuke and gets stabbed in the back. In his insanity he sends Sasuke to his inescapable pocket dimension. He then dies of the wound Sasuke inflicted upon him and the corrupting chakra coming out of the statue.