Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any aspect of the DC Comics Universe.
Alright! Now we're cooking! Enjoy the "Light" Show!
Ch. 2: Rebirth
Naruto was dead.
And he knew it.
So why was he surrounded by blackness?
He thought the afterlife would be a bit…flashier.
The blonde jinchuriki couldn't help but feel disappointed.
'If there is a God, he has a sadistic sense of humor' Naruto thought to himself.
This was going to be one boring eternity.
Just then something unexpected happened.
The empty blackness that had surrounded him suddenly began to change rapidly. The abyss began flashing into different colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, a shade of color between blue and violet he did not recognize (indigo), violet, white, and then back to black again before repeating.
The colors were so bright and changed so fast Naruto thought he was going to have a seizure.
"Get up kit!" he heard a familiar voice call out to him, "This party's just getting started!"
Kyuubi.
Naruto suddenly felt that he was lying on something solid and stood up, only to gasp.
If this was his mindscape, it had changed substantially. What was once a dark, dank, sewer was now a vast open expanse of stars and planets as far as the eye could see.
Naruto then found himself engulfed in a "bubble" of green energy. Panicking, the blonde tried to force his way out but the sphere wouldn't budge. He called out for help, but no one answered. The bubble began moving at an amazing speed, carrying the distraught jinchuriki towards to closest planet to him, one that was covered in a green aura.
As he was carried to the world's surface, Naruto looked down and his jaw dropped.
On the surface of this world was an impossibly large city, filled with towers and buildings of all sizes, with some in shapes that should have been impossible. As he moved through the city, he saw that it was empty. No person in sight.
The bubble that was carrying him suddenly stopped above a large pit that seemed to be in the city center. The bubble shuddered and dropped down into the pit at a fast pace.
Before Naruto could even let out a cry of fear, his "ride" had suddenly stopped. The bubble vanished, unceremoniously dropping the blonde flat on his butt.
Naruto got up slowly, slightly dizzy from the ride.
He looked up at where the bubble had dropped him, "Thanks!" he shouted sarcastically, before dusting himself off. Naruto then looked around seeing a large temple of some sort, with several statues on the path leading up to it.
Naruto walked towards the temple, stopping to examine each statue.
The first depicted what looked like a cross between a whale and a shark, with gills on both sides of it and two fins emerging from either side of it. Whatever it was, it looked graceful.
The base of the statue had an inscription; Behold Ion, the Green Might of Will.
'Green Might of Will?' Naruto thought to himself.
The statue wasn't green; it was grey!
All of them were grey!
Shaking his head, the blonde jinchuriki looked at the statue across from "Ion."
This statue was far more imposing than the one across from it. It looked like a lizard with insect-like wings. It's face was carved into a menacing snarl.
Naruto read the inscription; Tremble Before the Might of Parallax, the Yellow Fire of Fear.
The blonde kept moving a read the inscriptions on the remaining staues.
A large yet elegant and serene bird; Gaze upon Adara and The Blue Rays of Hope.
A vicious and rabid looking bull, with tusks on it's face. It looked it had foam coming out of it's mouth; Feel the Wrath of The Butcher and The Red Throes of Rage.
A strange looking, almost dinosaur-like, lizard made of crystal; Embrace the Warmth of the Predator, the Violet Aura of Love.
An odd-looking octopus/squid-like beast; Bask in the Presence of Proselyte, the Indigo Glow of Compassion.
A large Snake (Naruto shuddered as it reminded him of the one he encountered in the Forest of Death); Beware the Iron Grip of Ophidian, The Orange Light of Avarice.
The last two were the most awe inspiring.
A demonic creature wielding a wicked-looking scythe, it's face set in an angry stare; Nekron, Death Given Form. Beware the Black Light of Death he Commands, for it is the End of All Things.
Naruto shuddered at that thought and looked the opposite, and final, statue.
It was a large humanoid being that was curled up as if the protect itself; Bow Mortal, for you are Gazing upon the Face of That Which Created All Things Living; The Entity. Just as Nekron is the Black Light of Death, The Entity is the White Light of Life.
Naruto could practically feel the power flowing from this statue and had to stop himself from bowing.
He always thought God would a little bit more…human.
Naruto shook off these thoughts and approached the temple entrance.
Above the door was a statue of the Kyuubi.
On the circular door itself, was a carving of two beings engaged in fierce combat.
One was a human in a trench who shone brightly with some form of light.
The other, a much smaller creature wearing robes, had a dark aura around itself.
Both had strange rings on their fingers.
(A/N: Boston Brand and Krona slugging it out)
Naruto was now extremely confused.
"What the fuck is going on!" he shouted at no one in particular.
The second he finished shouting, he heard an earsplitting, grinding noise; the door slid back before it rolled to the side, allowing entry (imagine the Vault Doors in the Fallout universe).
Seeing as there was nowhere else to go Naruto walked inside cautiously…only to have the entrance slam shut behind him!
'Not getting out that way', the blonde boy thought before looking around.
There were stain-glass paintings all along the walls, featuring the statues he had seen before in their respective colors, great battles, and other events he knew had some importance.
Naruto kept walking until, finally, the hallway led to a large, empty chamber.
Or, at least, he thought it was empty.
As soon as the Kyuubi Jinchuriki stepped inside, the room lit up to reveal a shocking sight.
There, in the center of the room, was Kyuubi's cage, with the smirking fox still inside.
"Welcome, my boy, welcome! So glad you could join us!" the fox said quite excitedly, "Please, do come in and make yourself at home! There is so much we need to discuss!"
Outside of Naruto's Mind, in Konoha, seconds after Naruto's "Death":
The gathered crowd was cheering louder than ever before.
It was over, the demon was finally dead!
Those who still cared for Naruto were in tears, with a devastated Hinata on her knees, crying her eyes out at her love's death. Her father, Hiashi, and her cousin Neji looked at her with nothing but contempt for foolishly loving that monster.
The only ones that didn't seem pleased, besides those were those who had remained loyal to Naruto, were (suprisingly) Jiraiya and Sasuke.
The Toad Sage had been watching from a nearby rooftop and looked away sadly.
'I'm sorry Naruto', the self-proclaimed Super Pervert, thought to himself, 'but this is how it has to be.'
The last "loyal" Uchiha, however, was in shock and had yet to remove his blood-stained hand from where he had pierced Naruto's body.
The dobe had outwitted him.
Again!
He had fooled Sasuke from the beginning and the Uchiha never saw it coming.
He hated to admit it almost as much as he hated his brother, but his now deceased teammate was right.
Naruto had robbed him of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Sasuke had lost once again.
'Damn you dobe! Damn you!' Sasuke cursed in his mind.
Tsunade turned her head away from the infuriated Uchiha and the deceased Uzumaki's corpse and was about to address the crowd.
Until something beyond unexpected happened.
She heard Sasuke cry out in pain and turned to see the Uchiha rip his hand out of Naruto's body, fell to his knees, and clutched it as if it were in pain.
Tsunade looked to see that Sasuke's hand was burned severely and was smoking slightly.
The Slug Sannin looked up at Naruto's body and gasped.
The deceased boy's corpse was now covered in a strange aura of multicolored energy. She saw a mixture or reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, a bit of a color she recognized as indigo, violets, and even a bit of black and white.
The aura was growing, she could feel the power radiating off of it.
As it grew stronger, the crowd began to notice it as well and stopped celebrating.
Jiraiya had noticed it to and shunshind onto the stage.
"Jiraiya, what the hell is that?" Tsunade asked, pointing unnecessarily at the energy exuding from the blonde boy's corpse.
"I don't know!" the Toad Sage shouted over the loud humming noise the aura was generating that became louder as the aura grew, "It's feels like the Kyuubi but it feels different somehow!" he explained.
Tsunade's eyes widened, "The fox is trying to escape!" she shouted, "Seal it before it-"
But a blast of energy interrupted her.
The force blew Jiraiya, Tsunade, and the injured Sasuke off the stage and into the crowd.
The aura was now an enormous pillar of multi-colored, swirling energy that reached into the sky, past the clouds.
The noise it produced was now deafening, with everyone in the village covering their ears.
At the front of the crowd, the people could feel the heat coming from it. The heat made the vortex unapproachable.
The Hyuuga's in the crowd, including Hiashi, Neji, Hinata, and Hinata's younger sister Hanabi, attempted to use their Byakugan to see into the vortex, but had to shut out the instant they looked into it.
'It's like trying to look into the sun!' Neji thought as he shielded himself from the light.
Everyone was frozen in fear where they stood.
Then, as the pillar reached full power, something even more unexpected happened.
A voice spoke.
"Naruto Uzumaki of Earth-53" it said in a calm tone that could somehow be heard clearly even over the noise, "You cannot die here, for you are destined for greatness" the strange voice continued.
"Be reborn."
At these words the pillar of light receded back into Naruto and created and explosion that knocked everyone off of their feet.
Several people were blown back by the force of the blast and some were badly injured.
After a few moments, Tsunade stood up groaning in pain from the impact. She heard the groaning of others around her as Jiraiya, Sasuke, and the rest of the crowd got up.
"What the hell happened?" Jiraiya groaned as he stood up.
The blonde Hokage looked around at the scene.
Where the stage once was, there was only a crater. Other than that, everything looked fine, aside from the injured in the crowd. The lack of severe damage was odd considering how powerful the explosion was.
"I don't know" Tsunade answered as she walked towards the crater.
When she reached the edge she looked down. She couldn't see how far down it was because of the dust and smoke, but she suspected it was pretty deep.
"Be careful hime" Jiraiya said as she looked down.
Before the blonde Hokage could respond she saw light shine from within the crater.
The light suddenly rose out of the crater rabidly, causing a rush of air as it soared up out of the crater and hover high above it.
Everyone looked up at it. It was emitting the same colors the pillar had but there was no noise coming from it.
The light then descended toward Tsunade and she backed up a good distance, never once taking her eyes off the strange light.
The light landed a couple of feet away from the edge of the crater and began to disappear, revealing that something was inside of it.
Or rather someone.
The person was tall, 5'6" at least, and was wearing average black shinobi pants and a black shirt that was covered by a black trench coat with multi-colored flames along the coattails. If this person had been facing away from the shocked crowd, they would have seen the white kanji for "Spectrum Master" on the back.
What surprised the crowd the most was the spiky blonde hair.
The figure looked up to reveal a pair of deep blue eyes and an expressionless face.
It was Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage.
Everyone gasped at what they saw. There was whispering among the crowd.
"Yondaime-sama!"
"It can't be!"
"He's supposed to be dead!"
"It's a miracle!"
"Yondaime-sama has returned to reward us for killing the Kyuubi!"
Kakashi couldn't believe his eye. He lifted up his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan.
He used the eye to see if this was some sort of horrible trick. His eye saw nothing, no genjutsu and no henge.
It was really him. Somehow, someway, his sensei and father-figure had returned from the grave.
"Sensei" Kakashi said out loud for all to hear, tears of joy forming in his eyes.
Jiraiya stared at his former student with his jaw dropped after seeing Kakashi confirm this was who they thought it was. He couldn't believe his eyes!
'Minato!' the Toad Sage thought in amazement.
Tsunade was in complete shock. Kushina's husband was still alive!
She took a few careful steps forward.
"Minato?" she asked hopefully, "Is that really you?"
The deceased kage looked her in the eyes, his expression still emotionless.
He then threw his fist forward shooting out what appeared to be a giant green fist that slammed into the Godaime's face before she could react.
Tsunade went flying and landed in front of the now horrified crowd.
Everyone gazed up at the Yondaime in shock. What the hell is going on?
"Nope!" "Minato" answered with a wicked smile before laughing manically.
That laughter was familiar.
It wasn't the Yondaime's.
Everyone in Konoha knew that laugh.
It was a laugh that was often heard after a certain someone had pulled a particularly devious prank.
The crowd felt the color drain out of their faces as they realized that it wasn't their greatest hero that returned from the dead.
It was their worst nightmare.
It was Naruto Uzumaki.
The "demon child" had returned from death.
Naruto looked at the crowd and grinned in an evil manner.
"Hey everyone! I'm baaack!"
The wicked smile in his face would haunt the villager's dreams for the rest of their lives.
However short they may be.
That's it for this chapter; the next chapter is when the fun really begins! Sorry it was so short; I couldn't find a way to extend it.
Everything important is in there.