A/N: Hello readers~
Decided it was best to get this up before I got on the plane up to work, seeing as I'm not sure if I'll be able to upload while I'm there (the site isn't blocked, but the internet connection is not at all the greatest.)
Hope you all enjoy~
Prologue II: An Insane Proposition
Drip
What?
Drip
"Ne… Naruto?" Soft. Unsure.
Drip
"Naruko?" Just as unsure, and clearly confused.
"We're supposed to be dead right?" the now tremulous female voice asked. Light splashing sounds could be heard as feet moved along the surface of water below them. "I mean… I thought that's what would happen when it went pitch black." The soprano voice grew a bit louder, and the feet moved faster on the water's surface. "Dead means not feeling anything anymore right? Or like… going to the pure world, or something that this clearly isn't, dattebayo!" The feet stopped, and silence stretched until they were aware of each others breathing.
"Maybe this is what it's like to be dead?" Naruto found himself responding. He could feel the frown on his face, but he couldn't see anything at all. Not even the blonde woman he knew was only a few feet in front of him.
There was a scoff unmistakably from that woman. "An eternity in our darkened mind-scape mash up? Sorry but I don't buy it, ttebayo" the woman responded, and he could practically picture her rolling her eyes. But there was something else he came to the realization of. Her voice was smooth, although still confused. It showed none of the fatigue that had been there before all fell into inky darkness. "I mean, I like you and all Naru-nii, but we're a bit too alike to get along for an eternity here in the dark."
Naruto grimaced at the idea. She was definitively right. If the lack of sight didn't drive either of them crazy, then that coupled with spending the rest of eternity with someone annoying similar to yourself was sure to drive a person crazy. Sure, Naruto liked Naruko. Thought of her sort of like a little sister, but that didn't mean he could stand being around her absolutely ever minute of every day even for a few days, yet alone with no end. Ever. "That would suck, ttebayo" He muttered, but the hum of acknowledgment told him she had heard it anyway. "Well at least you don't sound like your about to croak anymore."
"You too," the response came immediately, and there was relief in it. "That scratchy croaky voice sounded like crap. Sooo aggravating ttebayo." A sigh followed these words, before the sound of feet hitting water reached Naruto's ears again. "You looked even worse though… still hurt?"
Naruto shook his head, and then remembered that nothing could be scene. "No. Stopped awhile ago actually."
"Mmm… me to… So maybe this really is what death is like then…" A low groan followed these words, followed by a loud splash that was unmistakably Naruko stomping a foot. Naruto had to bite back a snicker. It had been awhile since she'd acted so childishly.
Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but no sound came out. Not because it couldn't, but because he stopped himself, lips still slightly parted, but eyes narrowing against what moments before he thought was impossible.
The water was emitting a soft yellow light. Although it wasn't much of a light, it was more than enough to hurt his eyes after the utter darkness of moments before. However there was another reason why this light made him hesitate. It was all to familiar.
The light of his minds-scape from years ago.
On one specific visit to be exact.
Exhaling sharply, Naruto snapped his head to his right, seeking out the figure of Naruko, fearing that she had disappeared and he was now alone. But she still stood there, her features blurry and and indistinguishable… but there. Gradually his vision cleared… or perhaps the light brightened. Naruto wasn't sure which, but he was soon able to make out Naruko's expression. Which was just as shocked and confused as his. Only she wasn't looking at him, but ahead of her.
"Who?"
The question that the blonde woman posed was to soft to have been intentional, but it hung in the air none the less. And had Naruto's gaze flying back ahead of him, searching.
Two figures that were little more than silhouettes were before them. One standing, the other sitting. Both didn't touch the surface of the water, floating just above it. But what stuck out the most was what both figures had in common. They either had horned head plates adorning their brows, or they actually had horns. And both had spheres floating around them.
The Horns immediately made him think of the Otsutsuki.
The spheres made him think of the Truth-seeker orbs.
"... Hagoromo o-jiji?" Naruko's clear but confused tone broke the silence, voicing what Naruto had been thinking.
There was a light laugh, as the features of the man who was floating in a seated position began to come into view. "Indeed." Moments later they could clearly make out the aged faced of the Sage of Six paths, who almost appeared to be grinning. "And one you do not yet know, but know of."
"Again with the confusing speech, ttebayo" Naruko muttered, but her attention had clearly already gone to the yet identified figure. "Well… judging by the orbs and horns and stuff, You're another Otsutsuki. And the only one that I can think of that I just know of would be Hamura."
"That would be myself," The second figure spoke, and slowly his pale features came into focus as well. White skin. Pale Byakugan eyes, and age that seemed to rival his older brother, strangely.
Naruto furrowed his brow in utter confusion. "What are you two doing here? I mean… last time I saw O-jiji over there was during the war," he stated point blank, pointing a figure at the older (yet younger appearing) brother. "And I only thought I was dead then. So… am I… are we not dead?"
Hagoromo's expression sobered, although it wasn't a frown either. More neutral, but in the eyes of the two Uzumaki's it was a bit daunting and forboding. "Well… Not yet at least. But this time I am afraid I must inform you both that there will be no recovery to fight again in either of your worlds."
A sharp intake of breath.
A slow exhale.
Naruko worried her bottom lip, eyes falling to the water's surface rather than look at the sage any longer. "So pretty much we are dead then," her voice quivered as she uttered the words lowly.
"Essentially, I would say so," another old, sort of gravely voice spoke. "We have nor come to grant you some miraculous escape from death, our a portion of our powers this time. Our mother is not there to be sealed once more." Hamura stated matter of factly. "Since the two of you lost consciousness in your worlds it's only been a matter of seconds. In two or three more you will die."
"Seconds?" Naruto found himself repeating incredulously. It felt like hours. He stared at byakugan wielding Otsutuki, willing him to amend his statement. That it was not true. Simply because another five or so hours of this before it was finally over would be torturous.
"Yes, that is indeed the case," The man said much to Naruto's displeasure. He felt the glare forming, and Hamura clearly noticed at, as a wry smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Naruto's glower darkened. "Time will pass more quickly from this moment onward, Male Child of Prophecy. Regardless of what course of action you or your female counterpart decide on pursuing."
A sigh of relief sounded from beside him, but the blonde man didn't bother to look at Naruko to see her expression. He was more interested in the multiple courses of action they apparently had if what this… slightly infuriating old mad hat to say was true. "So… What are the choices then?" He nearly snapped the question.
Hagoromo cleared his throat, drawing the two blonde's attention, although Naruto still clearly wore a glare. The older sage chose to ignore it. "Well, Either or both of you can decide that this is far enough for you, and move on to the pure world," He stated matter-of-factly. "Or you can choose to live new lives in another world, knowing you will never again set foot in the ones you were respectively born into. Or ever see your loved ones as you know them again."
Wide, incredulous blue eyes stared, mouths slightly agape. No response was immediately forth coming.
Drip
Still the two blondes stared, perhaps not truly absorbing what they had just been told, or completely disbelieving of it.
"Brother, you forgot to mention the new world would try and reject their souls and attempt to cast them out into an abyss somewhere not quite a part of any reality," Hamura deadpanned. The words were dry, mater of fact, and almost dismissive.
"What the hell, Dattebayo!" Two voices rang out together, previously widened eyes now narrowing into twin glares leveled on Hamura, who seemed completely unperturbed by the nearly seething, still utterly confused looks. Hagoromo didn't seemed at all concerned about his brothers words however.
"Well… There is that," the older of the two murmured softly. "However, it is of very little consequence. If it does occur, their souls will eventually drift into some pure world, somewhere." His words, like his brother's seemed rather dismissive of the little tidbit, "Some when."
"HEY! Why the hell would we wanna do that, Ttebayo!" Naruko shouted in exasperation, her blonde braid swinging with the sudden motion of her stomping a foot, kicking up quite a bit of water (splashing Naruto's ankles in the process), only to stomp again, fists clenched at her side. It was way too childish of a gesture for the grown woman that she was. Not that she cared.
"I cannot Fathom why either of you would make such a ludicrous choice," the younger brother responded boredly. "However, as both of you are lacking in certain departments of intelligence, my brother believes it is possible that you will choose to do so." His expression remained the same, but Naruto saw the slightest twitch in his torso, almost as if he had stopped himself from shrugging. "I am merely here to send you along if you make the highly unlikely and normally in-advisable choice to follow the aforementioned path."
Naruko practically growled at the man, her eyes narrowed into a beastly scowl. "Your words give me a head-ache…. Hey, o-Jiji! You take over explaining!" it didn't sound like a request, with how annoyed the woman clearly was.
Naruto certainly couldn't blame her though.
"Very well," Hagoromo responded, not at all bothered by her tone of voice, or the now slightly miffed expression his brother wore (although that disappeared moments later). "I shall start by saying… everything you have divined amongst yourselves about different realities is, a poor imitation of the truth at best, if not wholly wrong all together."
Silence from both blondes, aside from a short huff of Naruko.
"But The point of my brother and myself being here is not to educate you on the intricacies of other worlds and the flow of time that is likely beyond your comprehensions." Naruko's shoulders slumped at these words that were spoken in a tone near amusement. The movement seemed more one of relief than disappointment however. The corner of Hagoromo's mouth twitched, and his rinnegan eyes narrowed slightly in his amusement over her reaction. "Instead it is first to tell you that it is indeed possible to go to other realities, as you must have concluded when we spoke of a different path the two of you could take from here on out."
Silence, accompanied by a nod. Naruto felt that if he wasn't void of… well feeling, he'd probably have a bit of a headache. But so far he thought he was following most of it.
"Secondly, we have come to ask if the two of you will enter into one such world and live new lives there… creating a divergence from that world's path and thus birthing a new thread of reality," The sage explained.
And Naruto was lost. "Eeeh?" He clearly wasn't the only one.
The sage frowned for a moment, as if pondering how to make them understand, before he slowly began to speak once more, brow still furrowed (which sort of made the eye in his forehead bulge, which Naruko thought was creepy as all hell).
"There are many realities, and this is of necessity. Think of it as a tapestry, with versions of all the worlds being their own individual threads," the old man tried. Naruto scrunched up his own brow and tried to think of it like that. It sort of made sense. He nodded, and with a nod of his own the sage continued. "These thread intertwine together, creating and holding together the fabric of existence. When one ends the thread stops… but if too many end, then a hole will open up in the tapestry. Too many holes as the tapestry will start to fray before finally unraveling."
Naruto blinked. Naruko blinked. They looked at each other with furrowed brows, before Naruko looked back and spoke hesitantly. "So… existence is like a piece of cloth?"
The sage shook his head, causing Naruko to glower at him now. "It is far more complicated than that, however, if that is what you understand of it, then that suffices for our purposes."
"Cloth. Then." The female Nanadiame bit out vindictively. Naruto would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't concerned she'd stomp on his foot (not that he would even feel it.) "So… there's a world that came to an end and opened up a big hole in this cloth, is that what you're trying to say O-jiji?" Her voice sounded calmer now, but the twitch to her brow told Naruto otherwise. Well… they knew which one really had the shorter temper now.
"Yes, that understanding is sufficient. A hole has opened, and it is causing other realities to warp. If left alone, some of the threads could collide, which will make this 'hole' worse. So the hole must some how be pulled shut," Hagoromo explained calmly.
And Naruto thought he finally understood what the old man was saying.
"So… in other words you want to send us to this world that ended, some time before it ended and stop it from ending, right?" That had to be it right?
Hamura's shoulder twitched, but this time Naruto thought it was from stopping something else. His eyes narrowed at what that something else likely was.
Laughter.
"You cannot stop a world from ending when the thread has already been cut, no matter how far back in time you go," Hamura said almost condescendingly. Naruko and Naruto both glared at him once more. If their looks could kill (regardless of the fact that the man was still dead), Hamura would have died a dozen times over during this conversation. "the Threads cannot extend past where they end… but a new thread can split off from any thread before that end is reached."
What? New thread?
Hagoromo cleared his throat again, and the pair of blonds turned their once more confused looks back to him. "That is correct. You cannot stop that world from ending. We want you to instead create a new world thread that branches off from the one that has been cut."
Silence again. Naruto and Naruko looked back to each other, confused frowns and questioning looks were shared, and they both came to the conclusion that the other still had the same question. "Why us?"
It didn't matter which of them asked.
"Well, your two worlds happen to be two of the closest threads to the one that was cut," Hamura stated again in his no-nonsense, straight to the point, yet some how dismissive tone. Naruto decided he didn't like him. The sharp glare that returned to Naruko's gaze told him she agreed.
"So… I take it that this hole could some how… hurt our worlds then?" Naruto asked. He had to. He had to know if this would somehow risk his important people.
Hagoromo nodded gravely. "Your worlds will be fine some decades to come, but they are already starting to tangle. In six decades it is likely the barrier between them will break and the threads will try to merge." The grim look told the pair of hokage's that merging threads was not at all a good thing, though they had no idea why.
"Okay… So I'll do it, dattebayo," Naruto said with a shrug. "I mean, if I don't than it could screw up things for everyone else." Possibly kill them. Well, they would all die eventually. And sixty years down the road probably would mean all his friends were dead… but his kids. And their friends, future children, and grandchildren. They were all important to Naruto even if he hadn't met them yet.
Even though he would now never get the chance to.
He looked over to Naruko to see if she agreed, but found himself staring at a furrowed brow and uncertain eyes.
"O-jiji… if we go what exactly are we supposed to do there?" The woman's uncertainty was plain as day in her voice, and caused a frowning Naruto to look at her hands. They were trembling.
"Whatever you wish, so long as it causes a divergence from the ended world's time-line," It was Hamura who answered, but this time Naruko did not glare at him. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth, worrying it as she closed her eyes.
"Okay…. so when did it end then?" Naruto found himself asking. He needed to assuage some of Naruko's concerns, whatever they were. So she could make the choice for herself, whatever her decision might be.
"Six decades hence from your deaths," again, Hamura. Damn, he pissed Naruto off. Wait… what?
"How the hell are we supposed to stop something that happened after we died, dattebayo?!" Damn it, these Otsutsuki needed to stop catching him off guard with crazy words, and ridiculous expectations.
"Naruto, calm down," Hagoromo spoke gently, and with a sigh, the blue eyed man turned his attention back to the sage. "It is very simple. You two will be sent back to a time before your births. This world, like Naruko's and your own, originated from the same thread. It split from that thread in a time before your two worlds split when your genders were determined."
What.
"That's supposed to mean what, Jiji?" He was losing his patience. Though he didn't quite glare… all the glaring and confusion was honestly wearing him out (odd, could a nearly dead person in their mind-scape really experience fatigue when they felt no pain?)
"It means that it has not been separate from your world long enough to have a drastically changed history. In fact, the history is a near clone of the two of yours, with only a few, not as significant changes, such as personalities," again, Hamura. Shut up byakugan Ji-ji.
"Which means?" his irritation laced his voice heavily, although he didn't glare at the other old man this time. His eyes remained fixed on the sage instead.
"Change a major part of the history you know, and you will create a divergence," And there it was. At last.
Change the history that he knew. Right. Simple enough he supposed? Maybe? Depending on how far back they were sent? Because he wasn't a history buff.
He nodded.
Never giving up was who he was. He was going to do this.
"Will you go, Female child of prophecy?" Hamura. Again. Seriously.
Naruko's eyes snapped open, and she glared into the pale ones of the younger brother.
"Damn straight, I'm going! Now shut up and send us, dattebayo!"
Word Count: 3334
To the Reviewers:
LucilliaNovaDreyar: I'm glad you've taken and interest and are enjoying it so far. Thank you for your kind words~
Thanks for the reveiws~
