Title: The Brother
By: The Right Stop
"Humans Speaking"
'Human Thinking'
Jutsu in Use
"Biju/Non-Human Talking"
'Biju/Non-Human Thinking'
AN: Thank you to all those that have reviewed and liked my story, your support means a lot. I won't write a long authors note that would be boring so instead, here is chapter seven.
NOTE: According to the Naruto Wiki, Hashirama actually got control of the bijū and gave them out to the Kage BEFORE he was confronted by Madara with the Kyūbi. I never knew that, I always thought he got them after. Huh.
XxXxXxX
Chapter Seven
Hashirama leapt through the trees of the forest at an alarming pace, his feet only touching each branch for a second before the Senju was already leaping to the next. The speed at which Hashirama was travelling at would make most people double-take, his body a blur to only the most skilled of shinobi, but the Senju heir didn't care about that, he was more concerned about what was about to happen.
'How could Tobirama have followed me without me knowing? I know I'm bad at sensing people but he would have made soft noises or other sounds that would have alerted me or Madara to his presence.' The Senju thought furiously, he continued on this line of thought, his body automatically jumping from tree to tree, before he tried to look at the brighter side of the situation. 'Well, at least they don't know about sensei, thank Kami that yesterday was our day to train on our own.' Nearly missing a branch made the Senju inwardly curse himself for nearly missing the branch, he then focused on jumping towards the river, maybe sensei would have an idea? If not, he didn't want to think about what would happen.
The two years of training that both Madara and himself had under Naruto had created a bond between the three, though with Hashirama connected more with Madara than his sensei. The days of training by themselves had made the two clan heirs gain a bond similar to one between two brothers.
Their sensei had become a kind of uncle to the two, the one they went to problems with when they couldn't get the answers from their family or fellow clan members.
Hashirama's thoughts came to a stop when he saw that he was nearing the river, the sound of water running giving away the location. He quickly leapt to the shore of the river that was in Senju territory, noticing that Madara was in the Uchiha side. 'Sensei isn't here.' Hashirama noticed. Their teacher would usually stand in the centre of the river, on top of the water, waiting for the two of them to arrive, or he would hide and watch to see what they would do when he wasn't there to guide them. 'Not the best time to be absent sensei.' Hashirama thought with mild irritation, out of all the times to see what they would do, now was not the best of times.
"From now on," Madara said grabbing Hashirama's attention. "Well skip rocks as a formal way of greeting one another." That was strange, why would Madara want to skip rocks to each other? They had been meeting like this for over two years, why would Madara want to change that? Hashirama put those thoughts out of his head, he need to get Madara the message he had on the rock they had skipped yesterday.
"Okay." Hashirama replied as he reached into his clothes to pull out the stone with message on it, while the Uchiha heir got out his own rock. On the count of three both skipped the stones at the same time across the river, both catching the rock that was skipped with one hand. Looking down at the rock in his hand, Hashirama froze as he read (AN: It's not red, it's read. Same spelling, different meaning) the small message on the rock.
Run
"My bad Hashirama, I just remembered I gotta run an errand today." Madara called, forcing Hashirama to look up to the Uchiha already walking away. Hashirama put on a fake smile to make his brother and father, behind some trees, seem like nothing was wrong.
"I see," Hashirama called back to his friend, sticking an arm up in wave. "Well then I won't keep you, catch up with you later." He said before glancing down at the rock in his hand one last time before turning and bolting back into the forest. He was about to enter the tree line when he heard a splash from the river, turning back, he was confronted by the worst possible situation. His father, Butsuma Senju and his brother, Tobirama, was facing off against what appeared to be Madara's father, Tajima Uchiha, and brother, Izuna.
'Shit.' Hashirama cursed, this was not how he wanted today to turnout. 'Kami damn it, where is sensei when you need him?' The Senju cursed his sensei wherever he was, if his brother ended up dead, Hashirama didn't know how he would survive. The Senju was sure that Madara was in the same boat as him right now.
It appeared that the Madara and his father must have had the conversation yesterday as Hashirama and his father. 'Isn't that good luck?' Hashirama thought sarcastically. The swish of a sharp object cutting through the air brought him out of his thoughts in time to see a small knife or dagger flying through the air towards his brother, Hashirama idly noted that there was another heading towards Izuna, Madara's brother. Seeing that the knife was going to kill his brother, Hashirama did the only thing he could to save him. He threw the rock in his hand with pin-point accuracy, hitting the descending knife with a clang while Madara did the same to save his own brother.
The two clan heirs leapt in front of their respective brothers, while their fathers stood behind them. "Even if it's you, harm on hair on my Otouto, and you'll face my wrath!" Madara snarled towards Hashirama. The two stared at each other before Madara sighed. "All of our talk of building our own village...Looks like it was nothing more than wishful thinking." Madara said sadly, Hashirama looked at his friend in shock, did he really feel that way over their dream? Something they had talked about over years, something that they hadn't even fully told their sensei...
Did Madara really want to just give it up?
"Madara..." The Senju heir said. "Do you really feel...?"
"For what it's worth," Madara admitted. "It may have been fleeting but I really did have a blast Hashirama." Madara tired to offer a small smile to his now ex-friend, but he just couldn't do it, so he resigned himself to give the Senju heir a sad smile.
"A part of me is shocked at your choice Madara," A voice sounded out in the forest, one that was alien to four, yet familiar to two. Those two then turned to look for the source which came from up stream. There, standing on top of the surface of the river, was a man with long hair, a frayed blindfold around his eyes that allowed those who looked hard enough to see the white eyes that lay beneath, and a brown cloak, with the hood down, that covered his clothing. "But another part of me understands that you would choose your brother over anything." The man finished with a small smile.
"Who are you?" Butsuma demanded while Tajima, Tobirama, Izuna and himself all slid into aggressive stances. Butsuma's question was answered when Hashirama and Madara both put their right hand into a closed fist and their left into a vertical open palm, then bringing them together before bowing towards the man.
"Naruto-sensei." They both greeted the man before the two clan heads. Both family heads reeled for a moment. Their children just called the white haired man before them sensei, why would their children let this man train them and just who was he that thought he could train their children? The man, Naruto, gave their children a small smile before he continued to talk.
"You both know what happens now don't you?" Both Hashirama and Madara shook their heads, forgetting what their teacher was talking about. Naruto, instead of getting slightly angry at his pupils forgetfulness, simply gave them both a sad smile. "Our training has been discovered; as such I will no longer be able to teach you both." Both Madara and Hashirama's eyes widened before both of them bowed their heads in sorrow. They were losing their sensei, someone who had trained them, made them what they where today. "Don't look so sad, I'm sure that we'll meet again someday." Naruto said with a small smile.
This was a lie.
Naruto, over the years, had foreseen this outcome coming, Madara choosing his brother over Hashirama and their dream. While there was a chance that Hashirama would choose the dream, he would make sure that Tobirama was safe before pursuing it. Madara on the other hand didn't want to take that chance and risk his brother.
With this both Hashirama and Madara would most likely fight each other like their ancestors did in the past, it was sad but true. Perhaps they could come together again but it would take an enormous amount of stubbornness on Hashirama's part or a massive change for Madara.
Right now though, it appeared that all his work was for nothing.
"Before I go, I have gifts for both of you." The white haired man announced. Both Uchiha and Senju focused on the man as he reached into his cloak before pulling out a large gunbai. The gunbai was in the shape of a wide fan with tomoe on the face and has a long handle with bandages wrapped around the base, as well as having a long chain attached to it. Naruto then tossed the fan towards the Uchiha heir while pulling out his next gift, a necklace made of a thin string that was threaded through a thin green crystal with two small baubles on either side of the crystal. Naruto then, with a simple motion, threw the necklace towards Hashirama, who caught it before holding it up to his face to examine the gift while Madara was doing the same to his large fan; all the while the other four people were watching the gifts and Naruto wearily. "Madara, Hashirama," Naruto called drawing attention from the people before him. "As you can guess I have given you both a gunbai and necklace respectively. Both have special abilities, the gunbai has the ability to redirect and block different attacks, while the necklace has the ability to enhance Mokuton techniques." Naruto said to his students before he looked up at the sun which was high in the sky, signalling that it was about noon. He missed the looks of awe that the children gave the gifts and the calculative glint in the clan heads'. "It is about time for me to leave." He turned to look at Hashirama and Madara giving them one last smile. "Goodbye Hashirama, Madara. I'm sorry that this isn't a proper farewell but I must be off. Keep training and live your lives how you want to." With that, Naruto reached to his hood, lifting it up to cover his face, before he turned around and began to walk to the east, in the direction of the Senju territory, the Land of Water was usually rather cool this time of year.
He only got several steps however before the Uchiha and Senju clan heads leapt in front of him, though judging by how they were keeping their bodies open, to have the ability to attack one another, they weren't doing this together, more like they had the same idea. After a moment of tense silence, Tajima Uchiha addressed the white haired man. "Who are you that you think you have the right or the ability to teach the Uchiha heir?" The man demanded while keeping a wary eye on the Senju to his right. Butsuma gave a small grunt in agreement though he was asking why Naruto would train his own child.
Turning towards the clan leaders, Naruto's friendly demeanour vanished, his postured became tensed and he pressed his aura over the two of Hagoromo's descendants in front of him. "You are not in a position to ask me anything Uchiha." Naruto sneered at the Sharingan user. "I hold no respect for you or your clan, I only hold any respect for your son, and he is the only reason that I don't kill most of the Uchiha I see."
Tajima's eyes narrowed but he was forced to take a step back from the pressure the Naruto was excluding. Butsuma gave a small snort in amusement, seeing the Uchiha but in his place, unfortunately for him, it got the attention of Naruto, who rounded on the man immediately.
"You think your any better Senju? The same goes for you and your clan, your son being the reason that I have not killed any of your members either." Naruto then split his attention between the two of them. "I have watched multiple times as your clan members attack and butcher each other like it was nothing. I have seen each clan kill children of the other, simply because of who they were born to. The only reason the two of you are still breathing is because of my generosity, do not think you can get me to give you anymore." The Uzumaki and Hyūga ancestor stated with barely restrained contempt.
He had stayed his hand because he didn't want Hashirama and Madara to lose any more people close them, but because he didn't know how close they were to any of them, he didn't want to take the risk and kill anyone. This included letting many atrocities go that he would normally kill the offenders for, this caused a lot of repressed anger in Naruto that was now spilling over.
Tajima and Butsuma gave a snarl towards the man that so easily admitted to killing members of their clan in the past. Both drew their own swords before Tajima spoke, his voice barely concealing the contempt he felt for the man in front of him. "While Butsuma and I find it hard to agree on anything, you find we both hate those that murder those of our clan, but I believe I can safely say that we are both going to kill you." Both Tajima and Butsuma then leapt at the man swords out, points towards the man. Neither man heard the eldest sons' warning, telling to not attack the man before them. If they had, they might have heard the urgency and slight fear that both their voices held and wondered what could have got their sons so scared.
But they didn't.
The man before them was fast. He moved so quickly that neither clan heir noticed that his arms in motion until their blades hit his forearms with a clang, like metal hitting metal, which surprised all those watching, though Butsuma and Tajima quickly put that thought out of their minds. Both men put more strength into their blades but it didn't do anything, the man's arms didn't even show any sign that there was something pressing on them except for the blades that were pressing on his arms. It was then, once they'd stopped moving that they heard their sons' yells.
"DON'T ATTACK HIM TOU-SAN!" Madara yelled at his father. "HE'LL DESTROY YOU."
"TOU-SAN, YOU'RE NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH TO ATTACK NARUTO-SENSEI. HE'LL ANNIHILATE YOU." Hashirama screamed.
Both Madara and Hashirama and seen the power of their sensei when he defeated the One-Tails and again over time when he took everything they could threw at him. The both knew, without a doubt that their fathers were nowhere near strong enough to defeat their, now former, sensei.
This was proven when Naruto, capitalising on the distraction Hashirama and Madara had, unintentionally, provided. Pushing his arms forward, Naruto made space between himself and the Uchiha and Senju. Both jumped back with their swords out to defend from an attack by Naruto, but what happened next shocked those who watched.
One moment, Naruto was in front of Butsuma and Tajima. The next, he was behind them. It was a display of speed that shocked even Hashirama and Madara; their former sensei had never displayed that level of speed when he sparred with them, not even when they went all out.
Twin cries of pain made the attention turn to the two clan heads, who were now face down on the ground with a small circle of blood pooling beneath them. The two children of each clan head each ran to their respective father, checking how injured they were, though the only wound they could find, besides the fact that both men were unconscious, was a clean, precise cut that ran across the chest of both males. A steady stream of blood leaked out of the cut, soaking the clothes the two were wearing.
"If you get them medical help, the will not die. However, they will not be able to move fight like they once did ever again." The voice of Naruto made his presence known, both Tobirama and Izuna stood up to face their father's attack, but a hand from their elder brothers made them stop. "I am not sorry that I attacked your fathers, Hashirama, Madara. But I am sorry that our last meeting will end like this." There was true regret in Naruto's voice, Madara and Hashirama could sense that much, as well as the fact that he truly didn't care about the wounds that he inflicted on their fathers. "Much of the time I have released my anger on those that cause harm without provocation, but not on your own clan due to you both being my pupils at the time. So instead, I was forced to watch as many of your clan members perform atrocities on the other simply because of the circumstances of birth. Hearing your tou-san speak as if he was above the rest Madara, when I had seen the horrors that he himself performed, made my blood boil but hearing your clan head agree with him Hashirama, brought me over the edge." Naruto took a deep breath, sighing before he turned to walk away. There was no reason to say goodbye again.
"Naruto-sensei." Madara called causing Naruto to stop and turn around slightly.
"I am not your sensei Madara." Naruto said back to the Uchiha clan heir.
"What weapon did you use?" Madara asked, ignoring what Naruto said. "You have never used a weapon during the entire time you trained us." Naruto gave a small smirk, not that Madara could see it with his hood up, before answering.
"I'll give both you and Hashirama one last lesson, Madara." He said before he walked up to a nearby tree, four pairs of eyes trailing him. Naruto stopped just before a tree that was easily the width of a full grown man; he extended his arm out slightly, showing a strange vambrace on his forearm that looked like it extended to his elbow. The vambrace was quiet thick, made of leather and metal, and looked like it weighed a far bit, strange for something that is meant to be light. "Always have your secrets Madara." With no extra movement or motion, a large blade shot out several centimetres over Naruto's fist from one of the vambraces, before in a blur of motion, the Naruto swung the blade at the tree. There was no sound, not of a blade hitting bark, not the crack of a tree breaking, Naruto's blade seemed to phase right through the wood, as if it wasn't even there. Naruto then turned around to look at his audience, who all had a confused look on their face over what that was meant to do. The former sensei of two gave a small smirk and placed a hand on the tree, that began to tilt to one side before it fell over with a thunderous boom that shook the forest and its inhabitants.
Once the four conscious people finally got over their shock and looked back to where Naruto was, they found the man gone, having left in the distraction that the falling tree caused.
All the proof they found that he was there were two injured clan heads and a clean cut tree stump.
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Naruto sighed as he walked down a poorly beaten path towards the east, his mind kept drifting back towards his most likely final encounter with Madara and Hashirama. He was still on the fence as to if he should give them gifts or not. He obviously decided to as he did give them gifts but now, looking back on it, he wasn't sure. The gunbai and the crystal necklace were quite powerful objects and he wondered if they would be used for the right reasons. He shook his head, it was up to Madara and Hashirama now to decided what they would be used for. Naruto could only hope.
The gifts that he had gotten both of his former students had been based on what he believed suited them the best. Hashirama had his Mokuton, therefore he got the crystal that help empower it, while Madara got the gunbai, a weapon that can be used primarily for defence or offence, to help Madara in his spars with Hashirama, as they were both equals, the fight would switch from offence to defence, so he gave Madara a weapon that would suit him in both situations.
Naruto always had planned to give them those gifts when they found out about each other's heritage. It was one of the reasons that there were three tomoe on the face of the gunbai. But he had hoped that neither would find out about the other for a couple more years, or at least that he could tell them about each other in a controlled environment, it was just bad luck that both were trailed on the one day that he was with Shukaku.
Speaking of Shukaku, Naruto and the One-Tail had working relationship now, were Naruto could safely call the Ichibi a friend. It also helped that he could talk to someone about the things that he couldn't talk to regular people about, like what he thought about how ninjutsu and how it was a mockery of everything his bother ever sacrificed in his life.
Unfortunately, he hadn't made any real headway in connecting with the rest of the bijū. Becoming friends with Shukaku had really showed Naruto that he should have looked out for the bijū more over the years, Shukaku was proof of this. But his training of Hashirama and Madara, his weekly meetings with Shukaku and the need to not expose himself, meant that he could only search so hard for the rest of the bijū. He had encountered Matatabi once, but the Two-Tails had simply run at the sight of him, he didn't know why but he was going to find out soon. Hopefully now that he was free of his promise to train Hashirama and Madara, he could go out and look for the rest of the bijū more thoroughly. Though he would still have his weekly meetings with Shukaku, he would have to search carefully though, if Matatabi's reaction was any indication they would run if they found out that he was searching for them.
But right now, Naruto just wanted a break, the final meeting with the Senju and Uchiha clan heads had been stressful and right now, Naruto just wanted to relax for a month or two.
Unfortunately for Naruto, that notion was immediately dropped when he heard a female scream ring through the air, coming from further east.
"Every freaking time," Naruto muttered. "Every time I want to relax, what am I the only one that can do things?" He grumbled before he took off in the direction of the scream, jumping from tree to tree as to not be spotted when he approached. Hopefully this wouldn't take long, then he could go back to walking towards Water Country, he really did like the weather there at this time of year.
After a minute of travelling, he came upon the source of the scream, a young girl, around the age of Hashirama and Madara, was tied to a tree with a gag in her mouth with several Hagoromo clan members around her setting up some sort of a camp, the clan members were identifiable because they had their clan symbol placed on the shoulders of their attire. Three of the members were setting up tents, two gathering firewood, while the final two were standing in front of their obvious prisoner, taunting her. Naruto remained hidden in the tree tops, using centuries of practise to evade the senses of the seven shinobi. Looking down on the scene, Naruto knew that he would have to save the girl. He was always going to save the girl, but a single glance at her made his self-objective of rescuing her that much more important.
She had red hair.
The Hagoromo clan wouldn't bother with kidnapping a civilian with red hair, there was no point unless they were the relative of someone with a high standing, but even then they wouldn't have come this far into Senju territory unless it was important and even a civilian of high standing wasn't important enough to travel into enemy territory. A clan heir was, and there was only one clan that had red hair within the region.
The Uzumaki clan.
It took all his mental strength not to jump down and slaughter the men below, but Naruto managed to restrain himself and began to analyse the situation. Seven targets, all distracted but keeping their senses open, three with their backs towards him, the ones taunting the Uzumaki and one of the two gathering firewood, all were armed and would most likely use their prisoner as a hostage if they got the chance.
The solution is to take out the ones closest to the Uzumaki first and guard her while dispatching the rest of the men. Easy.
Naruto carefully manoeuvred around the tree branches until he was resting on the same tree that the girl was tied to. Naruto didn't wait when he was in position, as soon as he felt he was ready, Naruto leapt down. The fluttering of his cloak alerted the seven Hagoromo clan members to his presence, but they didn't react fast enough to his surprise attack. Landing in front of the kidnapped girl, Naruto instinctively sends a small pulse of chakra to his top half of both of his forearms causing large blades to extend over his fists. The blades were then buried in the chests of two Hagoromo clan members before they violently ripped out spraying blood all over the ground, the now dead bodies fell to the ground with a thump. Naruto didn't wait for the rest of the clan members to regain their bearings, leaping into action, Naruto quickly decapitated a member another clan member to his left before deflect several thrown kunai with his blades, apparently the four surviving members of the Hagoromo clan had know gained their bearings faster than he thought. Pity it wouldn't do them any good.
"Prepare to die fool." One of the clan members spat, forgetting that he just killed three of the members in seconds. "You messed with the wrong clan." Seeing a chance to gain information, Naruto spoke.
"Why did you kidnap this girl?" Naruto spoke in a monotone voice while gesturing to the girl behind him.
"Like we'd tell you that?" The same person sneered. Naruto sighed.
"I'll just have to find out when I'm interrogating you later." In a blink Naruto disappeared before he reappeared in the same spot. The man just gave a nasty smile to Naruto.
"What was that meant to d-" The man was cut off by several thumps. Spinning around, the man found the three other Hagoromo clan members dead, their heads cut clean of their bodies with a pool of blood collecting beneath them. Turning around again to face Naruto, the man found Naruto standing right before him. Quicker than he could blink, the man then found himself hoisted off the ground and a hand around his neck that was slowly squeezing, constricting his windpipe. The man quickly found himself suffocating.
"I will ask you this once and only once, why did you kidnap the girl? Answer this and perhaps I won't kill you." Naruto said to the man in the same monotone voice. The once cocky clan member, seeing a way out, spilt his guts to Naruto.
"It was for leverage." He managed under the slow suffocation. "It was to get the Uzumaki clan to abandon their alliance with the Senju, that's all I know, that's all I know." The man croaked.
"Thank you." Naruto said in the same tone of voice before, with a swing of his arm, chopped the man's head off. Letting the body fall to the ground, Naruto turned to face the girl that was still tied to the tree. As he got closer, Naruto saw the fear present in her eyes and had to hold in a sigh. The girl obviously wasn't like Hashirama and Madara who already knew what death looked like, from the amount of fear that she was showing, what she just saw were probably her first taste of death. One part of Naruto was happy that she had managed to maintain her innocence this long while another was sad that he was the one to show her the ugly side of the world.
Though he wasn't very surprised that she hadn't seen death yet, the Uzumaki clan never really were a clan of violence. While they could fight incredibly well, his descendants preferred to keep their hands as clean as possible. Their focus on seals meant that they weren't primarily frontline fighters like the Uchiha or Senju, the Uzumaki were more support orientated, though their skill in kenjutsu meant that they could fight on the frontlines if the need arises. The Uzumaki were his only relatives, no matter how distant, that he was proud of, the Hyūga enslaved their own family while the Senju and Uchiha fought constantly.
The Uzumaki had built their reputation on their knowledge and practise of the sealing arts, known across the Elemental Nations as Seal Masters, meant to be able to seal anything. Because of this not many trifled with them for fear of retaliation from both them and the Senju clan, to which the Uzumaki clan have had close ties to for a century or two. The Uzumaki clan relied on the Senju due to the fact that they were an island clan, because of this, in the event of an invasion; the Uzumaki had nowhere to run, and so relied on the Senju as either a first line of defence, an added deterrent or a place to hide in case some does succeed in destroying their home.
This was part of what troubled Naruto, the Senju clan should have detected the Hagoromo clan approaching their island or the Senju should have intercepted the kidnappers before they got near the island, as they would have had to travel through Senju territory to reach the Uzumaki's island home to be able to kidnap this girl, assuming she was on the island. But even so, they should have gotten detected by the Senju clan before they gotten anywhere near the Uzumaki's island home.
Focusing back on the girl, Naruto could see that she looked like she was going to cry and was trying to make herself as small as possible. Naruto simply walked up to where the girl was tied and squatted down so that they were roughly eye level before he removed the hood from his cloak, showing his long white hair and frayed blindfold.
"Hey, it's okay, it's okay." Naruto said in a soothing voice to the girl, using the calm tone to make the child relax. It took some time but eventually the girl managed to calm down enough to not gaze at Naruto in complete fear, it was then that Naruto started talking again. "I'm sorry that you had to see what I just did but I needed to get rid of them so that you could be safe, okay?" The girl nodded, showing that she understood. "Alright, I'm going to untied you but you can't run away in case more of them are around." The girl nodded again, and Naruto travelled round to the back of the tree she was tied to and undid the rope before walking back to stand in front of her and squatting down to her eye level again. "What's your name, child?" Naruto questioned.
"Mito Uzumaki." The girl, Mito, replied. So he was right, she was an Uzumaki.
"Okay Mito, do you know how you were kidnapped?" She gave a slight nod of the head. "Can you tell me how?"
"I was taking a trip to the mainland with guards," She said hesitantly, apparently she was still nervous of about his presence. "When we were attacked, my guards told me to run and I did but they still caught me. They tied me up and told me how they killed all of my guards and started to insult them." There was heat when she spoke her last few words; apparently she wasn't as timid as he though she was. "They told me that I was a prisoner and that I would be used to get to Tou-san." So, she was used to get to her father, which implies that her father is someone of high standing. "Then you came along and..." She trailed off.
"Killed them." Naruto finished. Naruto felt no guilt over his actions, living for a millennia made you realise that people died every day. So why should he feel remorse over killing people who threatened his family, or relatives in this case.
"Yeah." Mito said back looking a little pale. Naruto could see that she was replaying her memory of him killing the kidnappers; she would most likely have nightmares for a while. Naruto let her stew in her thoughts for a little bit before he straightened up and tapped her on the head.
"Come on." He said before turning around and started walking towards the east. The girl was startled for minute before she called out to Naruto.
"Why should I go with you?" Mito asked with apprehension and a bit of fear in her voice. Naruto stopped before turning around and addressing Mito with a raised eyebrow that came over the blindfold.
"You want to go home don't you?" Mito nodded. "Well come with me, I'm passing by the Land of Whirlpools, so I may as well drop you there." Before he turned around and continued walking. Mito looked around for a moment before running to catch up with Naruto. The two of them proceeded to travel through the large forest towards the Uzumaki compound in silence, at least until Mito broke it.
"What's your name?" She questioned hesitantly, wringing her hands on her dirty kimono.
"Naruto." Said man replied. There was silence for a moment before Mito broke it again.
"Where are you going?" She questioned again.
"The Land of Whirlpools, that's where I'm taking you, isn't it?" Naruto said to the red headed girl. The girl huffed.
"I mean before you met me." She clarified.
"I was going to the Land of Water." Naruto answered, there was no harm in telling the girl where he was going though when they arrived at the Uzumaki's home island those plans would most likely change.
"Was?" She asked, asking what he meant by using the word was instead of am.
"I was going to the Land of Water," The white eyed man repeated before adding. "But I will most likely visit the Land of Whirlpools instead. I have plenty of time to do both." He said with a bit of false happiness. Over the years, Naruto has had plenty of time to come to terms with the fact that he will stay young while those around him would grow old and wither. It still, to this day, wasn't an easy concept to accept but he had gone on with his life, though he had refrained from having any children over the years, not wanting to see any more of his children die before him, nor was he willing to cheat on his wife though he knew that she would want him to be happy.
"Well I'd like you to meet Tou-san." That knocked Naruto out of his thoughts, why would Mito want him to meet her father? Stopping, Naruto turned to look directly at Mito with a questioning gaze, not that she could see it because of the blindfold. Perhaps he should take of the blind fold, all it did was in the way of his vision and he would just deny any accusations that he was related to the Hyūga. Naruto quickly returned from his thoughts and asked Mito a question.
"Why do you want me to meet your Tou-san?" He said as he brought his hands up to get rid of his blindfold.
"Well, not just Tou-san," She said observing him as he removed his blindfold, revealing his pure white eyes. The girl gave a startled gasp before staring at his eyes, though she quickly began turning red when Naruto cleared his throat with a raised eyebrow. She stuttered a bit at being found staring before Naruto gave a chuckle to help her relax, it was good that he tried to get her mind off the death that she had seen minutes before. Naruto knew that the fact that she had seen people die and been near dead people hadn't yet sunk in, and wouldn't until she truly thought over it which would most likely happen before she went to sleep. Naruto inwardly cursed when he realised that they were still at least two days away from the Land of Whirlpools, but decided that he would just use some a Summon to transport them before he turned back to let Mito finish. After regaining her confidence, she continued. "Anyway, it wouldn't just be Tou-san, there would be Kaa-san and Onee-san as well." She admitted, before she tried to change the subject with an accusation. "Why didn't you tell me you're blind?" She childishly demanded. Naruto simply gave another chuckle at the girl before he held up his hand for any more comments that would most likely follow from his chuckling.
"I've decided that I'll use a Summon to get us to your home quickly," He said. "Unless you'd rather walk." Naruto added while inwardly praying that she didn't, he had no wish to comfort a crying girl after the day that he had. Mito was silent for a moment before she answered.
"Summon please." Naruto inwardly gave sigh of relief.
"One Summon coming up." Naruto raised his right arm and pushed back the sleeve of the kimono he was wearing to reveal multiple kanji that spiralled around his bicep. Each one was quite large, about the size of his thumb, and each represented the symbol for an animal. Though Mito wasn't close enough to see them all, she did manage to identify a few; Bear, Eagle, Wasp, Panther, Kraken and Toad to name a few. Naruto bit a finger before he pressed it to the Eagle symbol and released a burst of chakra which resulted in a large puff of smoke appearing in front of Naruto, though thankfully not squashing Mito. When the smoke cleared, in place was a large eagle, easily several metres tall and a few in length; the eagle let out a screech before it spread out its wings and gave them an experimental flap. Mito stared open mouthed at the wing span of the bird of prey; it was easily twenty five metres across. The eagle folded its wings before it searched the area with its sharp gaze, which came to rest on Naruto and subsequently Mito, who was hiding behind the body of Naruto, a bit intimidated by the size and sharpness of the gaze that the mighty bird possessed. Naruto gave a chuckle at the bird before he greeted it.
"Hello Basama." Naruto greeted. "How have you been?" The bird stared at Naruto before its gaze lightened.
"I have been good Naruto-sama." The eagle, Basama, said. Naruto gave a small sigh at the suffix the giant bird placed after his name.
"I will forever curse your father for getting you to call me that." Naruto said in exasperation. Why did Mentasu have to be so serious about honour? Why couldn't he have been more laid back? The giant eagle merely gave a small snort towards Naruto.
"It is a sign of respect Naruto-sama, a sign of respect that all summon animals should give you and your brother for the rest of our existence." The eagle said as if it was chastising a small child.
"Hey don't speak down to me as if I'm a child because you know dam well I'm not." Naruto said, a bit irritated at how Basama was speaking to him. "Besides, we have company." Naruto announced while stepping to the side to allow Basama to have a good look at Mito, who gave a small squeak at being caught in the intimidating eagle's vision. "This is Mito Uzumaki, so be nice." Naruto introduced while sending Basama and underlying message which the eagle caught.
She's family, so we protect her and be nice to her.
Basama inwardly nodded at the message while trying to keep his own feeling to himself. Eagles, as Summons, were not the most social of the large animals, only ever truly trusting family, which to the eagles was only other eagles and Naruto. People that were related to Naruto didn't count. As such, the eagles didn't work the best with new people; this didn't look like it was going to change as the super-sized birds of prey also refused to have a summoner besides Naruto. The eagles also had too much pride to be at the beck and call of a lowly human, not classifying Naruto as one due to his large power. They had seen how the humans had used their brethren as weapons for conquest, for war, and it sickened them that the rest of the Summons would allow themselves to manipulated to such an extent, to become akin to puppets, dancing to the will of humans. It was because of this that the Eagle Summons had cut themselves off from the rest of the Summons, only maintaining correspondence with a few of the other summon animals.
"It is nice to meet you child." The giant eagle grumbled towards the girl. Just because he couldn't be mean to the girl didn't automatically mean that he would treat the girl like she was a princess. He bet that the girl would turn out just like the rest of the human race in the future.
"Hi." Mito squeaked, not really knowing what she could say to the eagle that had the power to crush her if it wished.
"Okay Mito, it's time to fly." Naruto announced before, in a swift motion, picked Mito up and leapt on to the back of Basama, placing Mito in front of him. "Okay Basama, let's fly."
"You got it!" The eagle exclaimed before, with a flap of its wings, the eagle leapt into the air and began to soar into the skies.
"W-A-I-T!" Mito screamed but no one heard her as voice was carried into the wind as the giant eagle soared through the air at unmatched speeds. Towards the Land of Whirlpools.
XxXxXxX
Kai Uzumaki was an elder man, one that still retained numerable amounts of power despite his highly advanced age. The man was past his prime yet still retained much of his youth despite his ninety six years of age, thanks to the Uzumaki longevity it was as if he was still forty two, but knew that it would soon be time to hand over the clan to his eldest daughter, Kashuma. He didn't believe that she would have any trouble with running the clan, she had been trained since she was a child about the duties that she would be tasked with when she was older, and the now twenty year old was ready for what was to come, but despite that, he was still worried about her.
Kai was standing in front of the massive gates of Kazama, named after the founder of the Uzumaki clan, Kazama Uzumaki. The man had long, white hair, moustache, and a squared-off goatee and was wearing armour that covered his front and back along with twin swords strapped to his back. Kai stared down the road that led to the docks that connected the island to the mainland that was flanked by trees on either side.
The Uzumaki clan head was lost in his thoughts, worried about his daughter, not his eldest but his youngest Mito. He could not help but think that he shouldn't have let her visit the mainland, but his daughter's pleas had made him fold, despite his gut telling him that letting her go was a mistake, that was no reason to worry. But as soon as he saw his daughter's ship disappear over the horizon, he knew that he had made a mistake. But he couldn't just do thinks on gut instinct; that would make him impulsive, she hadn't been gone for a day and she would most likely be gone for three or four. But he couldn't stop worrying about little Mito. She was his daughter.
She was still what one would call an innocent, someone who hadn't seen the horrors of the outside world, only hearing about it in stories. But there was plenty of difference between hearing about death, and watching as the life is drained from someone's eyes. He hoped that Mito would always have that sort of innocence in her eyes, but knew that it was only a matter of time before she lost it.
Kai released a sigh, perhaps nothing was wrong, maybe it just his old age setting in and his daughter was having a lovely time on the mainland before she came back... and he had to tell her the bad news.
The Uzumaki clan head turned around and prepared the journey back to his office. Turning back to the Gates of Kazama, Kai took his time to observe them before he asked the guards at the gate to open them up. He was always amazed by the gates.
The gates themselves were roughly ten or so meters with a width that was double that, connected to guard towers that controlled the gates, which in turn was joined to an incredible large stone wall, about the same height of the gate, that spanned the Uzumaki clan territory on the island. The guard towers and gate were taller than the trees that surrounded the Uzumaki clan compound, allowing the guards to be able to watch the skies. Contrary to popular belief, the Uzumaki did not actually occupy the island completely, there were plenty of civilians that farmed the land, paying a tax to the Uzumaki to guard them. The civilians all lived on coastal towns that littered the western side of the island, though there were a few that were located on the central and eastern sides of the island. They payed the Uzumaki to guard them from rival clans that would seek abuse and enslave them rather than let them live their lives like the Uzumaki do, and pirates that constantly lurk in the waters of the sea, willing to raid docks and boats to gain what they want. The Uzumaki usually to guard jobs on boats or around coastal towns, but there the occasional clients from the east or west that request the expertise of a fūinjutsu master, or Seal Master. It was because of the constant need for jobs within their own country that the Uzumaki had little to no enemies, as they didn't run into or interact with any other clans, with the exception of a few.
The gates were said to of been made during the earliest years of the Uzumaki clan's existence, when Kazama Uzumaki first settled on the island. Over the years the gate had been improved upon by numerous Uzumaki, using the use of seals to advance the protection that the walls provided. Strengthening seals; to keep the stone strong, Endurance seals; to prevent the stone from fall to the elements, and numerous other seals, including barrier seals, the information on each one was kept as a closely guarded secret by the acting clan head. The wall's barrier seals could be activated at a moment's notice, and in the event of an emergency, have the ability to go into lockdown, preventing anyone from the leaving the Uzumaki clan compound. However, most of the barrier seals are left deactivated as they require a constant charge of chakra to remain active.
After the clan head stared at the walls that had protected him as a child, he signalled the guards on wall duty to open the gates. With barely a sound, the gate swung open, showing the quality of the gates in the fact that after so long, they still worked as if they were made yesterday. As he was half way through the gate a shout from the guards drew his attention.
"Kai-sama, there is a large object flying towards the village, what are your orders?" One of the guards, that were stationed in one of the guard posts at the gates, asked, referring to highest ranking superior in the area. The clan head thought for several moments before addressing a nearby clan member.
"Go and bring our strongest shinobi to the gates, we must be ready to defend in case the object is hostile but do not attack unless attacked first. I repeat, do NOT attack unless attacked first. Now go." Kai signalled the man, who left without a word to gather the men the clan head requested.
Kai then turned around to face the potential threat that was slowly getting larger; he could make out the wings that were giving the object lift, indicating that it may be some sort of bird. Obviously it wasn't a regular bird, if it was a bird, as the guard tower wouldn't have pointed it out, the possible bird was already far larger than any other bird should be at the distance that it was from the Uzumaki compound and was already getting larger. The clan head felt the chakra signatures of the shinobi he asked for assembling behind him, Kai could only hope that they would be enough to ward off the incoming object should it prove to be hostile.
Within a minute later and Kai could finally make out the object, it was an eagle, in incredible large one, most likely a summoned creature. The eagle had a black coat of feathers that adorned its body with a set of pure white feathers that covered its head and a vicious set of claws. Kai also managed to spot two figures that appeared to be riding the eagle; one was small, suggesting that it was a child, while the other was larger, suggesting an adult though most likely the parent of the child.
As the Summon came closer, it began to slow down signalling that it was going to land. Kai gave his men the order to make space to allow the giant bird land inside the compound even though it was dangerous to let a possible enemy land in the compound, the bird nor its riders had showed any hostile actions.
"See kid, you made it so stop complaining about the ride." A distinctly male voice sounded, from the voice it sounded like a young man, though Kai couldn't be sure as the view of the passengers was blocked by the massive eagle that was staring at the numerous Uzumaki clan members. The beast was obviously uncomfortable with being here.
"Are you kidding me!?" Another voice said, though this one sounded incredibly younger than their companion and was definitely a girl's voice. Kai thought the voice resembled Mito's incredibly. "Do you have any idea of how fast we were going? I almost fell off twice!"
"Stop complaining Mito." The first voice reprimanded. Hearing the name of the second voice snapped Kai into action, he began to approach the eagle wanting to see someone who he was sure was his daughter. He didn't get far before the eagle reacted, seeing someone approach its rider, the Summon snapped at Kai causing all the Uzumaki members to tense and begin to advance on the bird, wanting to save their leader as well as take down a possible threat to their clan.
The eagle gave a screech, rearing back and flapping its wings, stopping the advancing shinobi and causing some minor damage to some shinobi who didn't use chakra to stick to the ground fast enough. The eagle continued to flap its wings until its male rider called out, causing the large Summon to stop.
"Basama!" The male voice commanded. "Stop. They didn't do anything." The large bird of prey grumbled causing many of the shinobi to go on guard again before it spoke, surprising many of them.
"As you wish Naruto-sama." The eagle, Basama, said, though everyone could see that eagle didn't feel sorry at all. The eagle simply stared at the surrounding ninja while its riders disembarked from its back.
The man, Naruto, came down first, his appearance was quite strange, long, white hair and pure white ey-.
Kai froze and all thoughts stopped.
It couldn't be. He wasn't meant to be real.
He couldn't be real.
Kai's father had told him of the man that was now before him. How he had power to rival the gods, the ability to take over the world if he so chose.
Yet here he was...Naruto Ōtsutsuki, the TRUE ancestor of the Uzumaki and the father of Kazama Uzumaki.
Kai was so shocked that it wasn't until his fellow Uzumaki pointed it out did he realise that he had been staring at the man for ten minutes.
XxXxXxXxX
The history of the Uzumaki was something that everyone born into the clan learns about from their parents. Every child learns how Kazama Uzumaki started the clan during the early years, when chakra was first brought to the world by Rikudō Sennin. How Kazama first came to what would be later known as the Land of Whirlpools and settled on the land with his family, which would later be known as the Uzumaki clan. This tale was told among many to the young of the clan.
The tales were told to children so that all knew the basic history of the clan, to prevent that same history from being lost.
However, what only the main family knew, or those inline to be the next clan head knew, was that while Kazama is the creator of the Uzumaki clan, it was his father that was the first Uzumaki. Naruto Ōtsutsuki was told from clan head to clan head, or so Kai's father had told him.
Kai, personally, found this hard to swallow when he found out, he had grown up hearing about Kazama Uzumaki and how he found the clan and was the first Uzumaki. It was hard to believe his father when the man was, at least partially, contradicting what the entire clan held as true. Kai had never held much truth in the tale, who could? A man of supposedly god-like power that had lived for millennia, it was something that anyone would have a hard time digesting.
Kai had told his father that he was crazy and was going to dismiss what he said as crazy, thinking that the man might be going a senile in his old age.
That was until his father roughly grabbed him around the shoulders from behind and, with surprising strength for a man that was nearing a century, turned him around and slammed him into the wall with enough strength to shake the clan head office they were in. Kai's father, Ilatama, looked into Kai's eyes with the most serious expression one could muster on his face and said, in a tone that sent shivers down his son's spine, words that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Kai, you may take many of my words as fact and many as false, but if you ever believe a word I say, believe this... Naruto Ōtsutsuki is a man that makes you look like dirt under an ant's finger nail. He has the ability to level the land, crush mountain and tame the seas, but never has he done any of those things in anger... If he ever comes to this island, must do everything in your power to not anger him... Or may Kami have mercy one you... Because Naruto certainly won't.
Kai and Ilatama had never spoken of that moment again, even in private. But over the years Kai had eventually stopped believing in Naruto Ōtsutsuki, having never seen the man in question and coupled with the passage of time, making him forget the seriousness in his father's eyes when he spoke to him, caused him to stop believing in the supposed living legend.
But know Kai had to rethink those thoughts now that the man was standing right beside him, the two of them gazing out over the Uzumaki clan's territory. The two of them were looking from a balcony on the clan head residence, with the building resting on a hill. The two were simply looking out over the Uzumaki clan as the sun slowly set on the horizon, ushering in the night. Naruto still in his brown cloak with his hood down, while Kai had taken off his amour and swords, taking to wearing a tunic with long pants instead.
"You know, before today I thought you didn't exist." The younger of the two broke the silence. "When my father first told me about I thought he was going senile. He's probably laughing at me from Kami's realm." The clan head gave a small chuckle at the comment while Naruto managed a small smile.
"Ilatama thought I was a myth as well like you did, except he flat out denied that I was real, he called me a liar and a fake. During that time I had just come out from mourning a...close friend...and didn't appreciate Ilatama call me out like that and to. My grief turned to rage when he call me a liar and, to my shame, I lashed out, resulting in your Tou-san developing a different image of me than previous clan heads did. He most likely passed this on to you which is why you have been acting like I was going to explode for the past hour." Naruto commented, not taking his eyes off the horizon. Kai's father had insulted him just after he came out of kind of one month mourning process for his brother that he did every year, it wouldn't always go on for a month, and sometimes it would go on for a day or a week. It all depended on how Naruto was feeling at the time. During this mourning time, Naruto would hole himself up in the monastery where they grew up and simply look at Hagoromo's grave or remember the good times that the two of them had together. Either way, he would be cut off from the rest of the world when that happened; it was a time when Naruto tried to block everything else out other than his memory of his brother.
"And you are not in mourning now?" Kai said with hesitancy laced in his voice and tenseness in his shoulders but on Naruto's nod, that tenseness left and Kai gave an audible sigh.
"There are several things about the clan I wish to know." Naruto asked the clan head, finally turning to face him with the clan head doing the same. "Why were the Senju not guarding your daughter on the mainland, surely that would have made more sense than sending you own men?"
Kai gave a sigh. "The Senju and Uzumaki relationship is not what it once was." The younger man admitted. "Butsama Senju is pushing for me to send him more than just seals for support, he wishes for me to start sending men to fight the Uchiha and Hagoromo clans, threatening to end the alliance we have, though he doesn't openly say it." Kai shook his head before turning back to look out over the Uzumaki clan. "I sent my own guard because I didn't fully trust that Butsama wouldn't do something drastic, turns out that I was right. From what you've told me, Butsama most likely let those Hagoromo clan members through deliberately as a way to but the pressure on me but to also to get me angry against the Hagoromo clan. If they had succeeded in their plan, I would have send my strongest to go wipe out the Hagoromo clan and get my daughter back, this gets Butsama what he wants, the Uzumaki involved in the fights. If I gave attacked the Hagoromo clan, then by extension I am attacking the Uchiha clan, as the two have an alliance of a sort. This would cause the Uchiha clan to begin to attack us and incite war, something that I don't want.
"The other theory is that Butsama would attack the kidnappers after they have my daughter 'saving' her and causing myself, and by extension the Uzumaki clan, to be indebted to the Senju. Butsama can use this to draw my family into the war." Kai finished with clenched fists. "And the worst thing is I can't do anything, there is no evidence to link Butsama or his clan to this, he could play all of this off as an accident. What is worse is that I can't break off the alliance, as much as I hate to admit it but we need the Senju clan. We need them as a first line of defence and as a deterrent for any possible enemies, just as the Senju need us for our seals against the Uchiha and Hagoromo clans. Our alliance is not as strong as it once was." Kai released a sigh that spoke of regret and sadness. "It is for this reason that I was forced to sign Mito over to the Senju clan in marital agreement with the clan head's eldest son." The Uzumaki clan head immediately tensed and waited for some sort of reaction from the man beside him ranging from a burst of anger to him levelling the entire clan. What he got instead was a sigh, one of disappointment, directed towards the clan head.
"You put your duty before your family." The older of the two stated. "Why?"
"Because it was the only thing I could do to make sure I keep my family safe. I couldn't have asked another to do what I could not, that wouldn't have been the right thing." Kai explained, still feeling immense guilt over what he had done. It was something that he had wished he would never have to do, but he did, and to his own daughter no less. Ever since he first made that contract, he had been having nightmares over how his daughter would be treated. Each one was worse than the last.
"I can but to rest some of the fears that I sense with in you." The first Uzumaki spoke, surprising the clan head with his words. "I have met the one that Mito will be wed with, Hashirama Senju, he is a good child, wishes for equality for everyone. He will at least treat you daughter correctly, the way that she deserves." Naruto confirmed. He knew from his experience with Hashirama would treat Mito right; he would treat her as a person, not a prize or trophy. Naruto's words seemed to ease the clan heads worries, at least slightly.
"Thank you for that, your words do offer me some comfort." The clan head thanked but Naruto just waved the man off. The two talked in relative silence about matters in the world before they were interrupted by the door to the balcony opening and a person stepping out onto the outdoor area.
"I am sorry for interrupting you Tou-san, but I require your assistance with Mito, she refuses to go to sleep and my presence does nothing for her." The person spoke. Naruto focused on the person and took in her appearance. Long red hair that went down to her mid back, violet eyes and wearing a black kimono with black pants to go with it, those articles of clothing did nothing to hide the fighting experience she had from Naruto's eyes however. The woman moved with slow calculated steps that showed deeply ingrained fighting experience, if Naruto had to guess, he would say that she would have lean yet firm muscles underneath he loose clothing.
"It is alright Kashuma, I'll deal with Mito." Kai spoke to the woman, his daughter, before turning around to address his guest. "I am sorry to cut our stop our conversation Naruto-sama," Kashuma's eyes widened at her father addressing someone as –sama before instincts from lessons past made her school her features. Naruto simply rolled his eyes at Kai, the man thought that he was being respectful when in reality, all he was doing was annoying him. "Perhaps we could continue it tomorrow?" Kai asked. Naruto gave the man a small smile.
"Of course Kai, we will continue it tomorrow morning." Naruto said before he turned to the only woman in the immediate vicinity. "Kashuma," Naruto addressed the person causing her to turn to face him. "You are the next clan head correct?" The woman gave a nod and Naruto gave her a small smile in return. "Good, in that case there are some things that I should give you." Kai raised an eyebrow at this, as did Kashuma, what did he have to give them? Naruto simply gave a small smile before he lifted his left arm out off his cloak and pushed back the sleeve of the kimono he was wearing underneath the cloak to reveal a vambrace around his forearm and what appeared to be the miniaturised arrays for storage scrolls drawn onto the skin around the bicep. From what the Uzumaki could see, there were several of them all around his bicep; each storage array was shrunk until all that was there was the kanji for 'store'.
"Amazing." Kai murmured as he looked at the small sealing arrays on Naruto's body, none of them overlapping. Kai managed to refrain himself from touching the arrays but not by much, the arrays were perfect, not a line out place, it was amazing. Kashuma simply stared in awe, body seals were much more complicated than regular seals because of the small amount of chakra that all things exert to some extent. Most of the time however this isn't a problem as the amount of chakra being released is either too small to interfere or the wrong chakra required. Sealing arrays place on the body required to have additional parts added onto the finished seal to adapt it to the human body so that the chakra that is constantly exerted doesn't interfere with the sealing. There are Uzumaki who can do this but they are all in their fifties or sixties, not in their twenties like the man before them, or so Kashuma thought.
As with the body seals, miniaturised seals were also made in the Uzumaki clan, but again this was done by the best of the best, people who are usually in their fifties and sixties. To miniaturise a seal, one had to able to write seals with incredible precision, this was because for the arrays to be miniature, the seals that made up the array had to be small as the name suggests. The skill that it takes to be able to write seals at the size required was enormous.
Combined with the fact that they were both combined into one showed the skill Naruto had in fūinjutsu. It was easily enough for him to rival the greatest Seal Masters that the Uzumaki clan had ever produced. Both Kai and Kashuma were knocked from their staring by Naruto pumping chakra into one of the storage arrays, resulting in a small puff of smoke.
As the smoke cleared, both father and daughter saw that Naruto's hand was now containing a scroll, the scroll itself wasn't large, around the same size as the a regular storage scroll what caught their attention was the small kanji for 'sealing arts' on the ends. Naruto then extended the hand with the scroll in it to Kashuma, the future clan head simply stared at the scroll for several seconds before she mutely pointed from herself to the scroll and back again. Naruto gave a nod and with a small child-like scream, Kashuma snatched up the scroll before greedily opening it with her father looking over her shoulder.
The red head's eyes started to rove over the contents of the scroll, greedily sucking in line after line of information. The more the female read, however, the wider her eyes went as her brain processed the information before she turned to the one who presented the scroll with a wide-eyed look. Naruto simply chuckled and explained.
"Every once and a while, I like to send the clan scrolls on fūinjutsu to help them with research." Naruto gave his reasons. "As you have read, that scroll contains my notes and instructions on how to make a communication array as well as an illusion array. The communication array will allow people to talk over long distances but they must be connected by via connection lines and it can't be on something like a piece of paper, it would have to be on something like a wall, were the chakra connection won't be broken easily. The illusion array works similarly to genjutsu in that it tricks people into thinking something is there even though it isn't, however it can only hide things so far, or make people see stuff that isn't there, it doesn't have the power to harm someone mentally like actually genjutsu does, so be careful in how you use it. I've listed other things to know about the two arrays in the scroll." When Naruto finished his explanation, he observed his audiences' faces, Kai's was one of amazement, while Kashuma had one of amazement and shock, most likely because he gave it to her and not her father. "If that is all, I will retire to my room for the night and will leave at first light tomorrow." With that, Naruto left leaving a shocked clan head and his successor.
True to his word, Naruto did leave at first light, without a word he simply walked out of the compound with gate guards being his only witness. Mito would be sad at first at her rescuer leaving before she could say goodbye but it was quickly forgotten when she was told that she would be marrying Hashirama Senju in order to tie the clans together and create a stronger alliance. After that, Mito was quite upset before being comforted by her father; Mito then threw herself into training, not wanting to have to be rescued by anyone ever again.
Around six years after Naruto left the Land of Whirlpools, Hashirama and Madara would create the first 'hidden village', Konohagakure, resulting in the other lands to create shinobi villages of their own, sparking clans across the world to begin to band together. Multiple clans would create hidden villages, all in a bid to try to match the might of the combined Senju and Uchiha clans. This resulted in the largest amount of alliances the Elemental Nations had ever seen.
A year after that, Mito and Hashirama both wed at the Uzumaki clan compound before the two of them moved to Konohagakure. It was shortly before this that Madara would leave the village and swear that he would raze it to the ground.
Yet throughout all this, Naruto would never show his face, never visit or check on his former students or that little girl that he rescued. He was simply going to let them live their lives, without his interference, it was what he had done with his own kids and it was what he would do now. He had heard about Hashirama and Madara's hidden village, Madara leaving and the Senju-Uzumaki marriage had happened, but he still didn't visit, believing that his interference would cause something to go wrong. So he didn't interfere.
If only he knew what not checking on his students or Mito would do to him in the future.
And it would be twelve years before he realised that.
But by then, the damage would already be done.
XxXxXxX
Naruto let out a sigh as he floated above the sands of the Land of Wind, travelling towards Shukaku's home-cave. The world's oldest man was in quite a sad mood, having just come out of his mourning period for Hagoromo, he spent a month blocked off to the world while Shukaku did the same, he was sure the other bijū did as well. Sometimes, Naruto honestly envied his brother, being dead while he was forced to wander the earth for an eternity. Naruto refused suicide as a way to end his problems, it was a coward's way out and he knew that he would never be able to face Hagoromo or his mother if he did. Suicide was for the shameful, and he wasn't shameful in the least.
Yet, that didn't stop how much he wished he could visit Hagoromo and his wife. He missed his sons. He wanted to be able to be with his mother, to be able to talk to her before the Jūbi happened.
Naruto simply gave a heavier sigh and banished the impossible dream from his head. It would do him no good to think about it, especially when he was meeting Shukaku. The last Ōtsutsuki sometimes wondered how the One-Tail would have survived if he didn't spend some time with the large tanuki. It was only after the first few years did he realise how lonely the sand raccoon must have been when he realised that it had stopped attacking villages after he began to talk to it.
Focusing back on the 'path' he was taking, Naruto travelled over the final sand dune to reach Shukaku's home. The man expected to see a giant hole in that was the Ichibi's home with maybe the bijū's head out to greet him, instead he was greet by the disturbed sand of a collapsed hole.
Naruto was immediately on guard, Shukaku had never moved his home in the entire time that Naruto had begun to visit the bijū, and if he did, Naruto was certain that the tanuki would have informed him first. The cave couldn't have collapsed on Shukaku as the bijū could simply will the sand to do as it wished, so Shukaku couldn't have moved because the cave collapsed. The only other option was that Shukaku was taken, and that left a bad taste in Naruto's mouth. Anyone that could take a bijū was bad news even if Shukaku was the weakest.
Naruto started to mentally calculate what to do in the situation he found himself in. The person that took Shukaku would have to be shinobi; they were the only ones that would be able to be powerful enough to be able to take down a bijū. In order to find Shukaku, his best bet would be to ask the nearest village if they knew anything about what happened to Shukaku, if they saw the Ichibi travelling anywhere. With his plan sorted for the moment, Naruto took off towards the east, towards the nearest town.
It only took Naruto an hour to reach the closest town, stopping just outside the borders before walking the rest of the way as to not attract attention of the citizens of the town. Walking into the village, Naruto observed the place, taking in the many mud sand buildings and quite lively populace; it was quite strange to see these people living so close to Shukaku so...joyful. He had visited this place once before and the people here were scared, constantly looking towards the west where Shukaku's home was located.
Walking towards the nearest person, an old man leaning on a building, Naruto asked the man a question. "Excuse me, can you tell me why everyone here is so joyful? The last time I was here, it was completely different." The old man gave a chuckle before he turned to Naruto, but get startled a bit by his hair and eyes, the man managed to compose himself a bit before answering.
"You must have been living under a rock for the past month young man." The elderly man commented and Naruto had to hold back a small smirk at the man's words, he was closer than he thought. The old man continued. "The Ichibi is gone." He explained joyfully.
"Gone!" Naruto exclaimed, surprised. "How could the Ichibi be gone?"
"Didn't you hear? Hashirama Senju gathered up the bijū and gave them to the hidden villages, all of them except the Kyūbi." The man exclaimed happily, ignorant of the Naruto's inner rage growing. "All of those demons, gone! Happy days."
"Yeah," Naruto murmured darkly. "Happy days." With that he turned around and began to leave the village, hands clenched into fists. As Naruto walked, his thoughts were only concerned with one thing. 'Hashirama broke a rule. Now, I'll break him.' With that, Naruto set out on his new goal.
Before he could find Hashirama however, he needed to find Kurama and make sure that the bijū was okay; he could only pray that he wasn't too late.
XxXxXxX
Hashirama Senju observed his once friend from the other side of their battle field, on the northern border of Fire Country. What was once a lush forest of trees was now turned into a barren wasteland stretching for miles in diameter, the result of the power the two shinobi had clashing again and again. Several hundred meters away was a large valley that was carved out from one of Hashirama's attacks, Chōjō Kebutsu (Top Transformed Buddha), turning what was once simply a river into a waterfall.
Madara hadn't changed much in the years since his departure from Konohagakure, the Uchiha looking mostly the same with the exception of his much darker attitude. Madara wore a black high collared, long sleeved mantle along with a white belt with armour plating on his chest, back, shoulders and thighs, while wielding the gunbai that Naruto-sensei had given him and a kama, both held in either hand. The spiky haired man had kept his Sharingan active during the entire confrontation so far, to keep a small advantage over Hashirama, but that meant little when the entire battle so far had been long ranged ninjutsu.
Hashirama was carrying the Scroll of Seals attached to the small of his back, and armour that covered similar places to Madara's own, that was placed over a simple black suit. A sword was in its sheath as his waist. Like Madara, Hashirama had not changed much since the two had parted years ago.
The Shodai Hokage and the outcast Uchiha had been fighting for hours, Madara using chakra to power his Sharingan in order to control the Kyūbi and Hashirama used his Mokuton jutsu to combat the Nine-Tails chakra. Their battles had travelled across the Land of Fire, from the eastern seaboard to the northern border, where they were now. Currently, Hashirama had managed to pin the Kyūbi beneath several tentacles of wood that held the beast to the ground with only its head being free. Fortunately for Kurama, Madara, seeing that his puppet would now be useless pinned, realised his control of it. Unfortunately, the large amount of wood chakra was suppressing its own, making it impossible to use any chakra related attacks, it didn't stop him from struggling against the wood that was wrapped around him, or snarling at the one that had controlled it as well as the one that was restraining it. The wood chakra wasn't strong enough or potent enough to make the nine tailed bijū lose consciousness like it would to its less powerful brethren, though the Kyūbi loathed calling them that. They were too weak to be related to someone as strong as it.
"Why Madara?" Hashirama called out to his former friend. "Why would you do this? Why destroy Konoha? Why not make them see you in a different light? Become the Nidaime instead if becoming Hokage means so much to." The Senju pleaded with the man on the opposite side of the battlefield, hoping to stop his pseudo-brother to stop this before anything else happened.
Madara simply shook his head as if he was disappointed in Hashirama. "It would be no use, Senju. The Uchiha will always be in the shadow of your clan, repressed and shunned. Me becoming Hokage will not change this, it won't even come close. Unless the Uchiha become equal to the Senju, but my clan won't listen. Konoha was, and is, a failed experiment, the only thing to do with it now is to cleanse it, along with the copies to ensure that this mistake never happens again." The Uchiha replied in a monotone voice.
"Konoha is not a failed experiment Madara!" Hashirama defended his home with vigour. "It is what the world should hope to be, a beacon of light and understanding. Why would you want to destroy that?" Hashirama asked his once friend and ally.
"I have been enlightened Hashirama." Madara revealed. "The tablet of the Naka Shrine has shown me that Konoha will not be able to spread the peace that we both want. The history of humanity has always been embroiled in war, hatred and misery, Konoha can only last so long before it too is swept away and consumed by the hatred that floods this world. The tablet showed me what was needed in order to survive, it showed me the only moments of true peace that the Elemental Nations ever experienced, and I intend to recreate that peace Hashirama. Why don't you join me? Together, Hashirama, we will be able to stop the fighting, the war, no child will ever have to see the battlefield, neither will adults. The world will be completely at peace." Madara tried to show Hashirama that his dream was still the same, simply in a different form and show that Konoha was doomed. But Hashirama didn't see it Madara's way.
"And you think that to obtain your kind of peace that you need to wipe out hundreds of people that have done nothing wrong other than come together in a way that isn't to your liking?!" Hashirama raised his voice with his anger at what Madara was saying, how he was so causally throwing away everything that they had worked for, that he had worked for. Hashirama was not about to waste years of blood, sweat and tears so Madara could get what he wanted, he wasn't going to let his loved ones and all those counting on him die. "I will never join you Madara, not until you realise what you're doing and come home." Madara gave a dark sort of chuckle.
"You think that Konoha is my home, that the Uchiha clan is my home?" Madara questioned. "They cast me out Hashirama, exiled. The Uchiha clan will never be my home. Konoha will never be my home. These are facts Hashirama, and you would do well to remember them." Madara was about to rush his opponent when something peculiar happened. The Kyūbi stopped thrashing.
It stilled and raised its head as high as it could, looking towards the west, in the direction of the Land of Wind were Sunagakure was in its final stages. Both opponents stopped solely focusing on each other and gave a small amount of attention to the Nine-Tails, whatever could gain its attention and get it to stop thrashing like it was could be a problem for either one of them. Both humans watched as the bijū's eyes widened for a split second before it dissolved into laughter, not the kind of funny laughter, but the dark kind where those on the receiving end knew that something bad was coming. Hashirama and Madara were immediately on guard and gave more attention to the Kyūbi. Finally after several minutes of dark laughter, Madara grew tired.
"Kyūbi!" The Uchiha snapped. "What are you laughing at?" Immediately, the Nine-Tails stopped laughing and began to snarl at the Uchiha, apparently its laughter hadn't made it forget just who it was around. The Kyūbi eventually stopped growling and a sinister smile broke across its fox-like features, one that told the two men before it that the demon knew something that they didn't.
"You do not command me anymore Uchiha so I'd watch my tongue if I were you... I don't know what either of you did,"The beast said with the grin still on its features as it addressed the founders of Konoha. "But one of you seriously pissed off the wrong person and I feel slightly sorry for you, but I will enjoy watching as he exterminates you both like the rates you are."
"What are you talking about, bijū?" Madara demanded, his eyes flashing dangerously at the attitude of the Kyūbi. The bijū didn't answer Madara's demand though, but instead continued to show Hashirama and Madara just how far its simile could stretch. Madara was about to ask again with an added threat of being enslaved again before and eerily familiar voice spoke from on top of the wooden tentacles that held the Kyūbi. The voice was cold as ice, yet the anger that was almost palpable within it almost made both ninja flinch.
"One rule, I gave you both one. Rule."
Both Madara and Hashirama's head shoot upwards to look at the new arrival, only for both of them to reel back in shock as the person that it came from. Standing atop the prison that held to most powerful of the bijū...was Naruto-sensei. Someone the two shinobi hadn't seen in years. The man was still wearing his brown cloak that was wrapped around his body with the hood up, but both Hashirama and Madara could make out the white eyes that glared at them both with anger
"Naruto-sensei." Hashirama breathed out, it was quite enough that he didn't think that anyone would hear him, evidently he was wrong as Naruto's head snapped to focus solely on him. The reaction he got from the man wasn't one that he was expecting.
"Never address me as Naruto-sensei again Hashirama!" Naruto snarled out. "You lost the right to call me that the moment you broke one of my rules." He hissed.
Hashirama was taken aback by the venom in his teacher's voice as well as the accusation that he broke one of his sensei's rules. What rule could he have possibly broken? "Sensei, I have broken no rule, why would you say that?" Hashirama said, hurt by his sensei's accusation. There was nothing he had done wrong.
"You think you haven't done anything wrong Hashirama?" Naruto narrowed his eyes at the Senju. "What do you call the enslavement of other beings Hashirama? Wasn't that one of the first rules that I gave you!?" Naruto screamed. "You captured and enslaved the bijū Hashirama, you turned what I gave you into something that enslaves others! That is what you did Hashirama, no matter which you put it!" Hashirama's eyes widened as his sensei told him what he did and Hashirama immediately went into explaining his actions to his mentor.
"I did it to protect those I love Naruto-sensei. They bijū constantly attack towns and clans whenever they feel bored and I didn't want that to happen to Konoha, where my family is, where those I love live. I then used them to prevent open war between the Hidden Villages and keep the peace. Isn't that what you want? Peace." Hashirama tried to explain. It seemed to work for a minute; the hatred in Naruto's eyes dimed slightly as his brain processed those words and put himself in Hashirama's position. It was a full minute before Naruto spoke again.
"While I understand your position Hashirama," Naruto said with significantly less anger. "You still took away and indirectly enslaved several living beings. I will discuss what to do with you later but I will tell you this now. You will not be sealing the Kyūbi." Naruto said, knowing that Kurama wouldn't like his name given out. While it was unspoken, it was obvious that Naruto was done with Hashirama now, and the ancestor of the Uzumaki and Hyūga turned to look at his other former student, Madara. As he laid eyes on him, the hatred in Naruto's eyes lit up again and he spoke with heat. "What do you have to say for yourself, Madara? For what reason would you remove the free will of a living being?" Naruto asked with narrowed eyes.
"That is simple Naruto-sensei." Madara said with no fear what so ever. "I have been enlightened, I have seen the way to truly achieve peace, and in order to do that, mistakes must be eliminated to ensure that no one copies that mistake. The Hidden Villages are those mistakes and I, therefore, must eliminate those mistakes, however, I know that I cannot do this alone so I went to the Kyūbi for help. When the beast didn't accept, however, after I showed it the reasons why, it accepted." The Nine-Tails growled as the Uchiha spoke, obviously not agreeing.
Naruto was silent throughout Madara's explanation allowing the Uchiha to speak as was Hashirama. When he finally finished Naruto question the Uchiha about something that stood out.
"Where did you achieve this enlightenment, Madara?" Naruto questioned, he had a feeling he knew what Madara was talking about and his suspicions were confirmed when Madara answer his question.
"From a tablet sacred to my former clan." The Uchiha answered. The answer immediately put Naruto on edge, the tablet that Madara spoke of was familiar to Naruto, but he had to be sure. Naruto could only hope that he was wrong.
"What was on this tablet Madara?" He demanded with his voice as cold as ice, this was not the time to beat around the bush.
"Enlightenment sensei." Madara replied in the same monotone voice, deflecting the question. "The true way to achieve peace in the world."
"And what is this way?" It was Hashirama that spoke this time, directing his question at the one he thought of as a brother.
"Power." Madara answered simply. Hashirama was surprised at the Uchiha's declaration, both Madara and himself had talked about understanding and being up front when they were younger and to hear that Madara wanted to gain peace in such a manner was a shock to the Senju.
Naruto, on the other hand, wasn't as surprised as Hashirama was, Indra's way of peace had been about power much like Madara's while Hashirama's way was much like Asura's own. While part of Naruto was surprised at the similarities of the situation that he was in now to the one that he was in millennia ago.
"Did you know that there have only been two true times of peace on our world, Naruto-sensei, Hashirama?" Madara questioned. Naruto felt a not settle into his gut at Madara's words, whatever the Uchiha was going on about wasn't good. "Do you know what both of these times had in common?" Madara questioned again before he continued, answering his own question. "They both had a single power that was supreme over all. Rikudō Sennin and the Usagi no Megami; the Sage of Six Paths and the Rabbit Goddess. Two powers that passively ruled over the world, inciting peace across the land whether through fear or worship, both were viewed as gods. I intend to do the same, become someone with unequal power to unite the lands and bring people together, but first I must wipe the slate clean so to speak, remove the stains from the earth before reimagining it. This is why I must destroy the Hidden Villages starting with Konoha, they are incorrect and therefore must be removed." When Madara finished Hashirama was in shock, his mouth wide open trying to figure out how someone that he considered a friend could change so much, to think that violence, on such a scale, was the answer to peace.
Naruto on the other hand was feeling barely restrained rage at Madara, at how the Uchiha had interpreted the image of his mother and brother. Naruto now knew without an inch of doubt what tablet Madara was talking about, the tablet was originally a gift for Indra, detailing about the history of the world before Hagoromo introduced chakra, including his mother's Infinite Tsukuyomi, as well as details about the battle against the Shinju from Hagoromo's point of view, though it didn't have much information on what he did because Hagoromo was focused on sealing the Jūbi. However, Indra added information to the tablet about the Mangekyō Sharingan, including how to activate it, use it and the abilities it possessed, as well as how it had the ability to control Kurama, something that Indra found out when he tried to use the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox against Asura in one of their battles, though Asura managed to break Indra's concentration enough for the Kyūbi to break free.
Naruto theorised that the reason the Sharingan possessed this ability was because of the link that both the bijū and the Sharingan had with the Jūbi's eye. The Sharingan was part of that eye while Kurama was part of the Jūbi's chakra, so the Sharingan had some sort of power of the Kyūbi because it possess that largest amount of the Shinju's chakra, meaning that it would have the largest reaction and be more susceptible to the Sharingan, while Shukaku might be able to throw off the ability the Sharingan has over the bijū. Though this was simply a theory and Naruto had no proof that it actually worked.
"So Hashirama, Naruto-sensei," Madara said, bring Naruto out of his thoughts. "You both can either join me in my goal or be destroyed by my might. The choice is yours." Madara gave the both an ultimatum. A choice of either him or them.
"Madara," Hashirama said. "Years ago you chose family over our dream with reluctance and resignation. Now I must return the favour. You threatened my family Madara, my loved ones. For that, I will never forgive you." Hashirama spoke with steel and anger in his voice though there was a touch of sadness as well. Madara didn't show any sign that he even turned to Hashirama, instead he focused on Naruto who was still standing on top of the makeshift prison that trapped the Nine-Tails.
"Madara," Naruto began, his eyes drilled into Madara's own, the shadows from his hood giving him a chilling effect. "Never in my lifetime have I seen someone who has fallen so far from grace than you." Naruto's eyes and tone gained a disappointed edge, like Madara had failed some sort of test that he couldn't see, before that vanished and the ice crept back into Naruto's gaze and voice. "For so blatantly breaking one of my rules and then having the arrogance to twist the images of others to suit your needs, I will kill you." The last part was said with venom and heat as Naruto unloaded pure killing intent into the air, though not enough to kill, as he was going to do that himself for someone who would so blatantly insult his memory of Hagoromo.
A spark of worry flashed through Madara's gaze before it was quickly covered up by a small smirk. "Sensei, you must be getting on in your old age to not realise that both myself and Hashirama have far surpassed your own level, added to the fact that you are getting old means that you stand no chance against either myself or Hashirama." At Madara's words, Naruto tilted his head slightly so that his eyes were covered by the rim of his hood, though Madara and Hashirama took it as the confirmation of Madara's words.
"He's right Naruto-sensei," Hashirama said, speaking to Naruto. "You retreat and I'll finish off Mada-" Hashirama was cut off by the Kyūbi laughing, not dark laughter like before, no there was something the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox found incredibly funny.
"What are you laughing at now, Fox?" Madara said with slight anger. The Kyūbi was simply laughing like it didn't have a care in the world, like it had heard the funniest thing in the world. Madara found it quite insulting that the demon thought that it could laugh at a time like this. Like with before, at the sound of Madara's voice commanding it to do something, the Kyūbi stopped laughing and started to snarl in Madara's direction.
"If I wasn't restrained I'd tear you limb from limb you stupid flesh-bag while injecting you with my own chakra and watch as your flesh peeled itself from you bones." The demon growled before it gave Madara another dark grin. "You say that you know of the Sage of Six Paths correct, human?" Amusement was clearly readable in the Nine-Tails voice. "So tell me then, did you know that he had a brother?" The Kyūbi said praying that Naruto would let him tell these stupid humans so that he could see their faces, especially Madara's; he wanted to see the shock and hopelessness on the Uchiha's face. When no reprimand came, the Kyūbi howled with delight on the inside. This was going to be more fun than it had in centuries.
At the Nine-Tails words Hashirama became open mouthed, he didn't know that Rikudō Sennin, someone who was a god in every sense of the word, had a brother. It was mind blowing and though he thought the Kyūbi was lying at first, he knew that it was the truth when Madara confirmed it with his response.
"So? I already knew that. Was that supposed to shock me somehow?" The Uchiha said in a monotone voice, though he raised his eyebrow an inch in question at the Kyūbi's words, wondering if that was meant to through him off somehow. But as soon as he saw the demon's grin spread that little bit wider, Madara knew that he said exactly what it wanted him to say.
"No," The demon said still grinning. "The fact that he's still alive is." The words rocked both Madara and Hashirama to the core; the brother of the Sage of Six Paths is still alive? Words could not describe how either of them were feeling, it was akin to shock, surprise, amazement and disbelief all at the same time. But neither got a chance to fully soak that in as the ninth bijū spoke again. "But do you both want to know the best part." Inquired the fox with that same cat-like grin on its face, which was in a way teasing both Hashirama and Madara. "He is standing above me." Two sets of eye widened as the fox finished speaking and shot to the only person it could be...
Naruto.
There was silence across the barren land as both Hashirama and Madara tried to soak in what they had just heard, that their sensei, one that they had been around for two years was one of the founders of the modern ninja world. Both were in shock with neither really knowing what to do in this situation. Though as it turned out, they didn't have to as Naruto made that choice for them, pulling his hood back, revealing his long white hair and pure white eyes with the new addition of a pair of horns that sprouted from his forehead.
"You wanted the power of a god Madara," Naruto spoke to the Uchiha. "Well then witness the power of a god!" With that Naruto leapt off of the wooden tentacles and onto Madara with a fist raised for a punch. Madara's eyes widened, as he remembered what his former teacher could do with a single punch, and he leapt away from the impact area , but was not fast enough as shockwave that resulted from Naruto's fist hitting the ground knocked the Uchiha away a hundred or so meters from Naruto.
Madara managed to flip in mid-air and successfully land on his feet, he then dropped the weapons he was holding in both his hand fired off as jutsu towards Naruto, after all, he couldn't use jutsu.
"Katon: Karyū Endan (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet)!" Madara shouted as a massive pillar of fire spewed out of his mouth before rushing towards Naruto, roughly taking the shape of a dragon as it flew. Within seconds the flames washed over Naruto's position and completely engulfed it in an explosion of flames as the technique exploded when it hit its target.
Madara felt slightly disappointed when he saw his sensei was taken out so easily, there was no way that Naruto was the brother of Sage of Six Paths, he'd read from the Naka Shrine that Naruto Ōtsutsuki was a meant to be incredibly powerful, having held off the Jūbi while his brother sealed it within himself. There was no way that-
Madara's inner monologue was cut off when an explosion of rock and fire happened from the impact zone of his technique, spraying rock, dust and fire around the area though Madara was far enough that none of the debris hit him. Madara picked up his weapons and was immediately on guard, he was sure that he hit Naruto so what was that? Madara idly noted that Hashirama was stuck between intervening and letting Naruto and himself fighting it out, if the expression on his face was any indication. The Senju never had been very good when it came to suppressing emotions.
Turning back to the slowly settling dust cloud, Madara activated his Sharingan before quickly morphing it into the Mangekyō, if the Naruto in front of him really was the brother of Rikudō Sennin then Madara couldn't afford to pull any punches when it came to fighting him.
"I have been alive for over three millennia Madara." A voice from the dust cloud said. "Do you think that such a simple technique would take me out?" Madara heard a questioning tone though passed it off as rhetorical. The dark outline of a man became visible within the dust cloud though the still floating dust cloud obscured the one behind it.
A sudden gust of wind quickly blew away the dust, though from where it came from Madara couldn't say.
Naruto's cloak was gone, showing the clothing that the white haired man was wearing underneath, the ancient man wore a light, full-length kimono with a pattern of six black magatama around a high collar and dark pants. Twin vambraces that covered the entire forearm were visible along with simple sandals on his feet.
"Madara, do you remember my last words to you both when you were kids?" Naruto asked the man across from him.
"Yes," Madara replied. "'Always have your secrets.' What does that have to do with this?" Madara questioned.
"Did you really think I showed you everything I could do when I was training the two of you? I said to the two of you that I never learned ninjutsu, did you really think that I was telling the whole truth." With that said, Naruto's eyes began to glow a fiery red as the heat in the air began to rise. The ground began to crack slightly, haze was visible in the air as the landscape was scorched. Then, with a simple exhale, Naruto blew out a plume of fire that was easily the size of the Kyūbi. Madara only got a second to react, dropping his kama and grasping his gunbai in two handsand channelling chakra through the shaft, creating a transparent blue barrier the curved around him. It was just in time as less than a second later the fire was upon him, licking at the edges of his shield and burning the very air he was breathing in.
But then it was gone and Madara let the shield drop with a pant, the heated air had affected him a lot more than it should have, making it harder to breath and concentrate of the technique he was using. But Madara's ability made itself known when less than a second later as the Uchiha regained his stability and with a roar, fire off a Mangekyō Sharingan technique.
"Amaterasu (Heavenly Illumination)!" The Uchiha yelled towards Naruto, black flames of hell roaring out of Madara's eyes, consuming anything in their path. That was until Naruto held up his hand, one eye glowing fiery red and the other having a white pupil with the rest of the eye being black, held up his hand and halted the flames with just the simple movement. Madara's flames seemed to hit an invisible wall and quell themselves, Madara realised that his technique was doing no good and quickly cancelled it.
'What is going on?' The Uchiha thought in mild panic. 'How can he simply dispel the flames of Amaterasu as if they were nothing? Is this truly the power of a god?' Madara quickly shook his head to dispel himself of those thoughts. 'No, the Sage of Six Paths proved that even a god can die, and the man before me is no god.' Without uttering a word, Madara quickly scooped up his kama and ran towards his former sensei and launched himself in the air. With a swish of his gunbai, Madara released a powerful wind that sprayed sand and dirt, covering in the area dust particles, obscuring both opponents view of each other. 'Though,' Madara thought as he reached the apex of his jump and began to descend. 'I have something that he doesn't... superior eyes!' The Uchiha thought with triumph as he tracked Naruto through the dust cloud, thanks to his Mangekyō, and descend on him like a hawk on prey. Madara raised his kama in preparation to strike at his foe.
However, just as Madara's kama was about to strike Naruto, it was blocked. The burst of air that resulted from the two objects meeting with such force, blew away the dust cloud that blocked vision, and allowed Madara to see what blocked his kama.
It was a staff, a staff of a dark blue colour that, if Madara had to guess, was made out of Naruto's chakra. Madara's eyes widened at the feat, being able to bring pure chakra into the world was no easy feat, it was something that few could do, some people even thought the ability was a bloodline. While chakra strings and other small amounts of pure chakra manipulation was something that most could do, bring out so much chakra that it has the ability to become solid and hold up against a physical object was not. If Madara wasn't in a life and death situation, he would be shocked.
Unfortunately for Madara, he underestimated Naruto's speed and was hit when Naruto twisted around and slammed his chakra staff into the side of his face with enough force to send him tumbling across the barren waste land, dazed.
Naruto slowly walked up to Madara, taking his time as he knew that the spiky haired Uchiha was finished. He was nowhere near powerful enough to challenge Naruto.
Naruto however stopped when the Kyūbi let out a roar of anger and defiance, the man quickly turned his head to face the bijū and found a red headed figure inscribing seals around the prison of the beast with Hashirama talking to them. Judging by Kurama's roars, what they were doing wasn't good.
Naruto quickly abandoned the down Madara and charged as the two people near the Nine-Tails, targeting the obvious Uzumaki Seal Master who was most likely planning to seal Kurama inside themself. As far as Naruto knew, an Uzumaki would be the only one with the body to be able to hold back such a powerful creature, any other person would have to be a baby. Naruto was so focused on charging towards the bijū that he didn't see the wooden dragon that barrelled into his side and launched him further away from Kurama.
Naruto flipped and righted himself before he landed on his feet and turned to the direction the technique came from, and came face to face with Hashirama. The Senju looked pained, like he didn't want to do what he was doing but Naruto didn't buy it, Hashirama could stop what he was doing and simply let Kurama go and not disturb, letting the bijū have its peace but instead he was imprisoning it.
"I am sorry sensei," Hashirama had sad but Naruto kept his face blank as he stared at his former student. "But Madara controlling the Kyūbi proves that it can't be let free, what if someone else takes control of the Kyūbi while I or another skilled Mokuton user isn't around, I can't let that happen." Naruto simply gave a small snarl at the Senju.
"If you truly wanted what was best for you stupid village, you could have simply asked the bijū to not attack you. All you have done now is ensure that as soon as the Kyūbi gets free that your precious hidden village will be the first to burn." Naruto shot back at Hashirama but it appeared that the Senju wasn't listening.
"It is a demon sensei, a bijū. It cannot be reasoned with." Hashirama said.
"Don't not call me sensei you stupid fool, how do you know that it can't be reasoned with? Have you tried? I think the simple fact that it can talk is enough proof that it can be reasoned with. Do you?" Naruto growled at the Shodai Hokage.
"It has destroyed millions of lives, perhaps even billions over its existence. Nothing you can say is going to change tha-" Hashirama was gut off when Naruto, full of anger at Hashirama's belief on the bijū, launched himself at the Senju, in order to get him to stop talking and get to Kurama to free him.
A staff materialised in Naruto's hand while Hashirama pulled out his sword, and the two weapons met with a clang as their users attacked one another. Naruto leapt back and slammed his foot into the ground, utilizing his enhanced strength to shake the ground, then, while Hashirama was off balance, rushing in to strike the Senju in the stomach with his chakra staff.
Hashirama tumbled backwards but managed to land on his feat where he then sheathed his sword as he realised that Naruto would have the advantage with his strength. The Senju clan head then rapidly went through hand signs before stopping as three large dragons erupted from the earth, the dragons than targeted Naruto before they began to fly at him with tremendous speed. Naruto simply stared at the approaching dragons with disinterest before his eyes glowed a dusty brown, and he held up his hands so that the palms faced each other. A clear cylinder quickly formed between Naruto's palms, one end being in between his palms while the other was extended out to point at the wooden dragons. A small light formed at Naruto's end of the cylinder before the light expanded rapidly a shot out the other end of the cylinder and hit the wood dragons, vaporising them.
That sequence took all of two seconds to accomplish.
Naruto stared at Hashirama, who had a look of shock on his face, with a blank stare.
"You want to fight me Hashirama," Naruto intoned. "Very well, you will feel my wrath." With that, Naruto began to rise of the ground and slowly float several meters in the air as the clouds darkened and thunder boomed. The wind began to pick up, the clouds began to swirl and lightning light up the clouds almost constantly.
Then there was silence. Like the world was holding its breath.
Everyone around the world from animals to humans, civilians to shinobi, adults to children went silent, as the felt the pure power being unleashed. The power of nature being bent to the will of a mortal. The power of a god.
But at that moment Hashirama knew none of that, all he knew was that he needed to do something quick. He flipped through hand seals as the wind began to gather around Naruto, who was still hovering in the air. The Senju clan head quickly finished his last hand seal, and shouted out his technique.
"Mokuton: Mokujin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Wood Human Technique)!" Hashirama shouted as a massive figure stepped out of the earth, it had an oni-like face with a wooden dragon wrapped around its torso. Hashirama was located on the bridge of nose on the massive technique. The Senju clan head was too late to stop whatever it was that Naruto was doing as he was finished.
Hashirama couldn't see Naruto anywhere on the figure that he had created, but frankly, it was figure he needed to worry about right know. It was large, as large as Hashirama's own technique, with the basic outline of a human, though that was where the similarities ended. Whatever it was that Naruto made was primarily made out of chakra, with arms that came out of its shoulder blades and bent over the shoulders, it had had an oni-like face that was more demonic looking than Hashirama's and had horns growing out of its forehead.
Hashirama was drawn out of his observation by a crack of lightning. The enormous chakra construct held out its hand, palms facing each other, much like Naruto was doing earlier, and the winds began to swirl faster and faster. Within less than three seconds, a tornado was formed between Naruto's hands, the natural disaster spun with such force that it began to carve itself into the ground. Suddenly, the tornado was engulfed in black flames that created a haze around the disaster, before the tornado was launched at Hashirama, the Senju quickly ordered his Wooden Human technique to get out of the way as all it would take was a glancing blow for that tornado of fire to tear his technique apart.
Once Hashirama had dodged the attack, he immediately ordered his battle avatar to rush Naruto's own, the wooden human quickly complied and rushed the other avatar, trying to tackle it to the ground, only to be held up by four arms. With a quick thought, Hashirama ordered the dragon wrapped around the torso to bite at the head of the enemy avatar, the dragon did as it was ordered and launched itself at the head while hands of the avatar was busy.
But Hashirama quickly found out that the avatar Naruto was using to fight him was far more flexible than his own, as a spear sprouted out of the body of the chakra figure and pierced the neck of the wood dragon, halting it from attacking the head.
The Senju clan head quickly went through other hand seals to true and take Naruto by surprise, wherever he was.
"Mokuton: Mokuryū n-" Hashirama was cut off by a sword made of chakra that sprouted from the stomach of Naruto's battle avatar. This wasn't one of Naruto's attacks, as the colour of the sword was different to that of Naruto's battle avatar.
The theory that it wasn't one of Naruto's swords was proven correct when the sword was sliced upwards and split straight through the head, splitting it in two, allowing Hashirama to Madara's Susanoo on the other side. The arms that sprouted from the shoulder blades then let go of Hashirama's wooden human technique before they then shot backwards and grabbed Madara's Susanoo on the upper arms. The head of Naruto's chakra construct then sealed back together, before another face sprouted out of the back of its head, so that it was now facing both Hashirama and Madara.
Both mouths from opened and spewed lava over both of the other avatars, Hashirama quickly leapt off his avatar as the lava splashed onto where he was last sitting and quickly ate through the wood technique. Madara simply weathered the lava, his Susanoo's armour being enough to protect the Uchiha from the mixture of fire and earth.
Unfortunately for Madara, Hashirama jumping away meant that he was now the prime target for Naruto's chakra avatar. Madara quickly found out that the opposing avatar was quite flexible when one of its feet came up and slammed into his Susanoo's chest, while the extra arms let go of what they were holding, resulting in the Uchiha to be launched almost two kilometres away from the force of the kick, his Susanoo protected him when he impacted the ground.
The chakra construct then turned to look for Hashirama, only for a forest worth of trees to begin to wrap around the avatar, constricting it and limiting its movements. The many tree roots and limbs then transformed into wood dragons that begin to draw the chakra out of the construct. That plan was quickly halted when the avatar suddenly dissolved, the chakra that created it dispersing into the air harmlessly.
Back on the ground, Hashirama let his technique disperse before he quickly started to gather nature chakra, he would need everything he had for this. His sage marking quickly appeared on his face as nature chakra was introduced to his chakra pathways, heightening his already impressive attributes even further. It was thankful he did that because otherwise Hashirama would have been taken out when his sensei burst out of the ground with a raised fist, intending to punch Hashirama in the chin. The Senju clan head was fast enough to lean back so that the fist harmlessly passed in front of his face before, in lightning quick movement that was enhanced by sage mode, Hashirama kicked his sensei in the ribs, knocking him across the battlefield.
Naruto skidded across the ground once before he regained his footing, coming to a stop on two feet. The last Ōtsutsuki frowned at Hashirama, having been taken off guard by his former apprentice's ability to use nature chakra, the kick was faster than he expected. Shoving that thought out of his mind, Naruto focused his main problem, that being Hashirama, the Senju was preventing him from free Kurama. With his eyes glowing electric yellow, Naruto launched several bolts of lightning from his finger tips, each on mimicking their completely natural counterparts exactly.
Hashirama was hard pressed to dodge the bolts, even with sage mode active. The human body can only move so fast, even when enhanced, moving faster than the speed of light isn't something that the human body it meant to do naturally. Hashirama eventually began to feel the strain of moving his body at such speeds, his joint began to ach and his body began to hurt as it protested against the rapid movement. So it was obvious that the man was eventually going to get struck by one, fortunately for him, however, he was able to move so that instead of striking him in the stomach, like it was aimed to do, it struck him in the thigh instead, conducting along the metal thigh guards that he had on, which also lowered the power behind the lightning.
This still didn't do anything to stop the pain that Hashirama felt as the lightning jumped for his metal plating to his body. The Senju let out a horrible scream of pain as the electricity played havoc with his nervous system before he collapsed to the ground, an occasionally twitch being to only thing to show that he was alive. Thankfully though, Hashirama's clan had placed special coatings on all of their amours to help lower the affects that lightning has on metal, this special coat is the only thing that saved Hashirama from becoming paralysed from the waist down, the coating lowering the conductivity of metal as well as how much heat it absorbed.
Once Naruto was sure that Hashirama was incapacitated, he quickly began to search for where ever Kurama was, wanting to free the bijū as quickly as possible, knowing that the sealing of the Nine-Tails cannot be far from completion.
This was quickly proven true when Naruto heard a roar of pain from Kurama, snapping his head around, Naruto was only fast enough to watch as Kurama's body turned into red tinted chakra that was quickly absorbed into a seal that was placed on the stomach of the Uzumaki woman. Sprinting over to the woman, Naruto arrived just in time to catch her as she fell over from exhaustion. Naruto placed the woman on her back and took in her face.
The first thing that caught his attention were the two buns on either side of her head that her hair was braided into, three clips held back her hair on her left side and a purple mark on her forehead. Naruto remembered who she was, he had rescued her around a decade ago and comforted her father when he expressed his doubt over marrying Hashirama Senju. It was Uzumaki Mito.
"Mito," Naruto breathed, stunned that she would go through with this. "Why would you do something like this?" As if she could hear him, her eyelids began to move before they shot open, but what greeted Naruto wasn't what he was expecting. Instead of the pupil less eyes that he had remembered Mito having, Naruto was greeted by slitted red eyes, similar to that of Kurama.
As her eyes opened, Mito let out an almost guttural roar as a visible layer of red chakra exploded around her, launching Naruto away with the force. Mito began to scream in pain as the red chakra began to get denser and slowly begin to solidify, creating a kind of cloak around her with the vague shape of a fox with a single tail. Once Naruto had recovered from being launched, he immediately began to study what was happening to Mito, and the transformation she was undertaking.
It only took a few seconds for Naruto to analyse the situation and curse under his breath at, not only at Mito's stupidity, but at Hashirama for wanting to contain the bijū, as this was partially his fault as well. Obviously, Mito had tried to seal all of Kurama's chakra inside herself, but it wasn't working. The chakra of bijū is too strong for whatever seal Mito had used and the chakra was now breaking the seal. This presented a multitude of problems, one being that because Mito had fully assimilated the Kyūbi's chakra into her own chakra network and any attempt to remove said chakra will now cause her immense pain. While Naruto could have removed the bijū from her if it was say, Saiken, the Six-Tails, but Kurama simply had too much chakra for Naruto to remove from Mito for her to survive the process, the pain would become too much and kill her. If that wasn't enough, Kurama's chakra was actually poisoning Mito, as all foreign chakra, with the exception of sage chakra, is poisonous to the human body in large amounts, the body doesn't know what to do with the foreign chakra when it encounters it so it tries to reject it but if too much foreign chakra is in the system, it shuts down.
This is one of the reasons why when someone's chakra network is damaged, no one will try to heal it as the body would try to reject the incoming chakra and this would put more stress on the chakra network, halting any sort of healing.
Naruto's only option with her surviving is for him to tighten whatever seal she had placed on herself to seal Kurama... and in the process most likely get Kurama to hate him forever.
The second problem is that Kurama is most likely in a rage right now over being sealed inside something and is going to do everything in its power to break free. This meant getting someone to undo the seal, or kill the one in which it was contained, therefore, Mito.
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he focused on the situation, he needed to get in close seal Kurama back in to Mito, to do that he needed to get rid of the chakra cloak that was surrounding her.
Wood techniques it is.
At least he can show Hashirama how it's done. With a gathering of chakra, Naruto thrusted both of his hands forward as large roots burst out of the ground and started to travel towards the transforming jinchūriki, hoping to restrain her, only for her to jump over the roots and sprout another tail. Naruto curse when he saw that, obviously Mito's choice of seal was worse than he first thought if it was really breaking that quickly. The jinchūriki then started to sprint towards Naruto's position while the horned man's eyes glowed two different colours, one eye was dark green, with the other eye being a lighter green. Naruto quickly lifted off the ground as massive tree roots burst from the barren land, each one trying to catch Mito's possessed form as another tail grew, bring the total to three tails. Eventually, one managed to wrap around one of the legs of the chakra cloaked Uzumaki woman and slow her just enough for other roots to begin to solidify their grasp around and begin to suppress Kurama's chakra.
That was until a large scale fire technique was launched at the roots, burning many of them to cinders and weakening the others, this was enough for Mito to burst out from the vines with a forth tail. Naruto could now see various bones growing on top of the chakra cloak, a skull being the most prominent. Snapping towards where the technique came from, Naruto spied Madara sprinting across the barren wasteland, towards Mito in her chakra cloak.
A roar from the slowly forming Nine-Tails brought Naruto's attention back to it. Naruto was about to use more roots to cover up the jinchūriki and begin to suppress its chakra again when Madara landed right in front of it. As soon as he did, it stilled for a second before Naruto noticed a Sharingan appearing in the eye socket of the formerly raging jinchūriki, Madara then point a finger up at Naruto with the four tailed figure following where the finger was pointing, it then grew another tail before opening its mouth and forming a bijūdama in its maw.
Naruto immediately used his powers over wind to move out of the way of the tailed beast ball before it could be fired. Luckily he did because not a second later, the bijūdama flew right through the spot where he once was. As soon as that happened, Naruto knew he had to end this now if he wanted to save Mito.
Quickly gathering up the most amount of chakra he had in years, not wanting to leave anything to chance, Naruto's eyes glowed pure white.
With an upward thrust of his hands, Naruto made four large wooden walls that boxed in Madara and the controlled jinchūriki, the walls were easily ten meters thick and meet in the shape of a square that was several hundred meters high to prevent Madara from somehow jumping over it. Quickly flying so that he was above the only opening, Naruto held his hands out in front of him as a clear cylinder appeared pointing downwards, that had a spark up near the end closest to Naruto. Naruto quickly began to charge up the technique, aiming to destroy Madara as well as take out most of Kurama's power that was protecting Mito so he could get closer.
Madara, noticing what his sensei planned to do and mentally commanded his puppet to attack Naruto, it did as complied and quickly formed a bijūdama in its mouth before quickly firing it at Naruto.
Naruto, noticing the bijūdama approaching, simply smirked at the incoming projectile, before it smashed into him, causing the technique he was half-heartedly creating to explode, along with the tailed beast ball in a spectacular explosion that caused a large shockwave to explode out from the centre.
Madara simply stared up at the explosion, not believing for a second that it was over. He was right, as from the smoke came slim, tiny objects that glinted off the light from the explosion and where quickly descending towards his position on the ground, however as they got closer they began to stop until they were right in front of him, hundreds of tiny little shards of what appeared to be a clear shiny material.
As suddenly as they appeared, the crystal like shards suddenly began to group together until they formed a large, squarish mirror, roughly the size of a man. That was as far as Madara got before Naruto appeared from the in the mirror, the white haired man then leapt out of the mirror and, with a single punch, launched Madara into the wooden wall of square he was boxed into. Acting quickly, Naruto quickly created several large roots that burst from the ground and restrained Kurama, binding the bijū and made its chakra slowly begin to retreat back into the seal. As that was happening, Naruto kept an eye on Madara while the bijū chakra receded, the Uchiha was slowly getting up from the ground and trying to shake off the fuzziness that must have appeared as the result of Naruto's punch.
Naruto made a few chains out of chakra grow out of his back and make their way over to the Uchiha and wrap him, pinning his arms to his sides as well as his legs.
Naruto then lowered the wooden walls and, to his surprise, found Hashirama leaning heavily one leg just outside where his wooden walls used to reside. The Senju clan head's body had an occasional spasm as a result of the excess electricity still residing in his body, but his eyes were firmly locked onto Naruto, with his eyes drifting over to Madara for a second before snapping back.
Hashirama took several weak steps forward, wincing with each one, his body having not fully recovered for the lightning.
"Where is Mito?" Hashirama demanded, even though his body was weak, his eyes told Naruto that Hashirama was willing to go again if he didn't answer.
"She'll be fine." Naruto said in a monotone voice. "Though she will need to relax for several days after this, I'll have to tighten the seal that she put on herself as well, but other than that she'll be fine." Hashirama tensed at the sound of Naruto's voice before relaxing slightly when he heard that his wife would be okay, but his gaze slowly drifted over to the restrained Madara, who was looking at the two of them with his Mangekyō.
"What will we do with him?" Hashirama questioned, looking at the fallen Uchiha who was still restrained and looking at the two of them, neither of them noticed him eyeing a piece of rubble near Hashirama.
"Kill him." Naruto said simply, while Hashirama looked at his former mentor, momentarily shocked at the bluntness of his words. Hashirama was about to reply but was cut off when Madara disappeared with a puff of smoke and a piece of rubble took his place which fell to the ground.
Hashirama just managed to lean back as a sword scraped its way across his chest, cutting an inch or two through the armour he had over his chest and into his skin, drawing blood. Because he leaned back, the strike didn't kill Hashirama, but because his body, especially his legs, was still weak from the electric shock from earlier, his legs gave out from the sudden movement, unable to support the sudden weight change.
As he fell onto his back, Hashirama managed to look up in time to see, Madara, his former friend and unofficial brother, coming at him, with a back swing, the sword that he must have kept as back up for the majority of the fight, glinting as it made its downward descent towards his neck. Madara's Sharingan gave his eyes a cold look, like he didn't feel anything as the sword made its closer to completing the beheading strike.
Hashirama closed his eyes as he waited for the end, knowing that his body was much too weak to put up any sort of fight against the sudden assault from Madara, he only prayed that Mito somehow how made it out alive.
Just as he closed his eyes in preparation for the end, Hashirama's ears were assaulted by a scream pain, though it wasn't his own. Opening his eyes, Hashirama was greeted to the sight of Madara screaming in pure agony as what could only be lightning coursed throughout his body, the pure white bolts jumped between the metal plates. Madara screamed for a full minute before the smell of burning skin began to assault Hashirama's nose, but the Senju paid no attention to it, too focused on the former friend in front of him that was in excruciating pain.
Thirty seconds later, and Madara's screams stopped, whether he was dead or had simply run out of air to scream with, Hashirama didn't know, but it was soon after that, that the lightning stopped. Madara's body didn't move for several seconds before it collapsed in a boneless heap on the floor, allowing Hashirama to see his sensei behind where Madara was once standing, hand extended, smoke coming off the open palm.
Hashirama's mind went blank for several seconds, his former best friend, and brother in all but blood, had tried to kill him, and his sensei, who he thought hated him, had saved him and most likely killed Madara in one of the most painful and brutal way possible. A cool feeling settled on his chest, Hashirama looked at the area and found his sensei, hands glowing green, healing his chest from its wound.
Hashirama simply looked in shock as his former sensei healed him, it was several seconds later that Hashirama's voice started working again. "I thought you hated me?" Hashirama said softly, still in shock over all that had happened with the last five minutes.
Naruto didn't say anything but Hashirama knew that the ancient man had heard his words, several minutes later though, once he had finished healing Hashirama, the man spoke.
"After you told me your reasons, I realised that all you wanted to do was protect those that mattered to you. It was a terrible way to do it, but your heart was in the right place." Naruto gave a hollow chuckle. "It would be a bit hypocritical of me if I hated you for wanting to protect your family when Madara did the same and I was fine with that." Hashirama then looked towards the body of the Uchiha that was still smoking a metre away.
"Did you have to kill him?" Hashirama asked with obvious regret in his voice. "Couldn't you have just restrained him, I could have tried to reason with him." Naruto gave a sight before answering.
"No Hashirama, I had to kill him." Naruto admitted, seeing Hashirama about to open his mouth, Naruto held up a hand to hold off the inevitable comment. "Madara was insane, his goal to wipe out people for peace was proof of that, the best thing I could have done for him was kill him. Though I'm not going to admit that I wanted to make the bastard suffer for all of the trouble that he was the cause of today." Naruto said honestly with anger in his voice. Naruto then looked up over to where Mito was and saw that all of Kurama's chakra had finally receded into the seal, deciding to get it over with, Naruto walked over to were Mito was being held by tree roots and manipulated them to lift her up and hold her still while he looked over the seal on her stomach and decided how to tighten it.
It only took several minutes to decided how to tighten it, Hashirama came over mid way through and looked over Naruto's shoulder to see what he was doing but Naruto paid the man no mind. Knowing what to do, Naruto bit his thumb, consciously holding back his healing ability on his thumb, then, with his eyes glowing blood red, drew the blood out of his thumb and then onto Mito's exposed stomach before arranging them into tiny seals on her stomach. Once the blood was arranged how he wanted it and it had dried onto Mito's skin, Naruto pressed his open palm onto her stomach before summoning chakra through his hand and onto the blood seals on Mito's stomach. He finished the sealing with a yell and a thought.
"FUIN!" 'I'm sorry, Kurama.'
XxXxXxXxX
Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki faced a living legend in the Shinobi World, Naruto Ōtsutsuki, in the early hours of the morning. Mito had only recently woken up and after a quick conversation informing her of what happened, as well as confirming what the Kyūbi said was true, Naruto had taken this as his time to leave.
The sun was just beginning to make its way into the sky and cast its rays onto the former battlefield, the waterfall at the end of the newly made valley promising that life will come back to the area eventually. Hashirama and Mito stood with Madara's body being carried in Hashirama's arms and a sword without a sheath in Mito's while Naruto stood opposite with a face that was now hornless.
"Are you sure you don't want to visit Konoha?" Mito asked for seemed like the seventh time, a small smile on her features. "I promise you'll like it."
"I'm sorry Mito," Naruto apologised with a sad smile on his own face. "But I'm not going to be visiting for a while. I...I need some time to think." Naruto really didn't know what to do anymore. The Senju and Uchiha were working together now so they didn't need him. The Uzumaki were fine. He wasn't going to visit the Hyūga while they employed that 'caged bird seal'. And the bijū...
Hashirama had told Naruto that he simply gave the bijū to the away to five other hidden villages excluding Konoha, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, Kirigakure, Sunagakure and Takigakure. The Senju didn't know what they did with the bijū once he had handed them over, they could be sealed into people, objects or enslaved somehow. Even if he did find them however, could he rescue them? If the bijū were too connected to their host then it would be impossible to remove them without the host dying. Then there was the fact that he didn't know where any of the hidden villages actually were.
Naruto just needed to think.
Perhaps the answer would come to him if he meditated a bit.
"What are you going to do with Madara's body?" Naruto questioned while eyeing the sword a bit wearily, no one had cleaned that sword, yet there was no blood on it when Naruto was sure that it had cut Hashirama's chest, spilling blood.
"I'll bury him here." Hashirama said with sadness. "It would be fitting to bury him in the last place we ever fought." The Senju looked around the area, most likely choosing where to bury the Uchiha. Naruto simply shook his head before looking towards the rising sun, sometimes he wished that the roles were reversed, that he had died and Hagoromo had lived on, his older brother would have been much better at this than him.
"I'll visit you both," Naruto finally said, before he added a few more words to his sentence with a small smirk on his face. "I expect to be the uncle to many children."
Mito blushed at the insinuation while Hashirama gained a smile that reminded Naruto of when the Senju was younger. "Only if you do the same." The Hokage replied. Naruto gave a small chuckle at that before his eyes glowed yellow-orange colour and he disappeared in a blur of speed.
Hashirama then walked towards the waterfall that had been artificially created to bury his friend while Mito stayed where was, she knew that Hashirama needed to do this himself. She only handed her husband Madara's sword before he walked off.
XxXxXxXxX
Two full days after the battle at what was now known as the Valley of the End, inside a hidden tomb behind the waterfall, a pair of Sharingan snapped open before the right Sharingan faded.
The owner of the, now single, Sharingan lifted the lid off his tomb and sent it crashing off to the side with a crash. The figure then created a shadow clone, getting it to take their place in the tomb before they replaced the cover back on top of the tomb.
The figure then swiftly exited the tomb, only pausing to take a sword that rested on a small pedestal, placing a henged shadow clone in its place.
It would be almost century before people realised that Madara Uchiha survived his battle with Hashirama Senju.
As Madara exited the tomb and into the sun, he looked at the sword he had taken before smirking to himself.
'I got what I wanted.' The Uchiha thought before walking towards the Mountains' Graveyard, with a sword that held several pints of Hashirama Senju's blood, and therefore, his DNA.
XxXxXxXxXxX
Chapter End
AN: I finished!
I bet a whole lot you thought I was dead, well sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not.
I'm not very sure about this chapter, I felt like I could have done this better but it took so much time that I just felt like I should just post something.
Over 24,000 words. That's is forty full pages in Microsoft Word.
If anyone says that I write too short chapters, they can go crawl into a hole and die. This is freaking hard. Especially when I have to think up things from scratch.
Before anyone goes off about Madara or Hashirama using techniques that they didn't use in the anime or manga, I know. I just wanted to give them more attacks than what was said, besides, I'm writing FANFICTION, not cannon.
Just a heads up, the next chapter may have mostly talking it, though there might be some action from the First Shinobi War.
Anyway, as always, review, like, follow, if anyone had any question just PM me. I'll be happy to answer them.
Expect the next few chapters to take a while as I will have to write everything from scratch with barely any guide. I'll also have to try and figure out a timeline for the Naruto-verse so expect it to take some time to pull together, though I can promise that it will pick up when we get closer to the cannon timeline as I will have less to think up and be able to write quicker than I am currently.
The Right Stop
