(Blake has won, I don't think I'm getting twenty-two more votes solely on Pyrrha to make her tied or ahead. So, this story is my first Blake x Naruto story.)
Naruto was sitting in a library, it was midday on the day before everyone was to start packing in the school for learning. He himself wouldn't be spared that, having already found out that his class scheduling was to be with Dr. Oobleck and Professor Port only, while combat class was an optional sit in.
He was going to go, simply because he needed to be there to see how people fought in this time.
He could understand why Ozpin didn't give him that class as a mandatory, perhaps out of fear that he'd accidentally hurt one of the students, or perhaps Naruto was already a two-time war veteran based on his own accounts. First being The Sora-Konoha war, and then The Fourth Shinobi World War.
But, what Naruto had figured out was that the aura over shields that a lot of these Huntsmen had wasn't much different than his version one cloak at best, even his initial tinge of the nine tails chakra produced a similar effect.
Aura and Chakra weren't that different, save that Aura was more uninformed and more controllable to an extent that even Chakra. Chakra required practice, thousands of days to master, Aura only too a few months to do a lot with.
Both still took years to truly master, and since as far as Naruto knew, he was the most powerful Chakra user on the world to date, barring the anomaly of being attack by Wind Chakra the other day. That's what his clone had read, dispersing soon afterward.
It may seem cliché, it may seem like an unfair and lazy thing to do, but if the clones could download and take information to the user then it was better to use them. Albeit, he was doing it lightly, four clones sat next to him at the closed library.
When they weren't annoying each other, which was often when one decided to learn how to play a board game just in case Naruto had to blend in, they were doing their duties. Basic history, mathematics, and such.
Mathematics may have seemed strange, but it was to make sure that didn't change like the rest of the world did, it did in a way. The new stuff was added, new formulas he never saw. A lot of people back in his day assumed that Shinobi were grunts, that was far from the truth, many Shinobi were highly intelligent.
Orochimaru.
Shikamaru.
Ino.
Sakura.
Sasuke.
Kakashi.
Itachi.
Madara.
Hashirama.
Hiruzen.
Neji.
Dead, or alive, they were smarter than what many gave them credit for. Just because they didn't invent things didn't mean they weren't smart. Combat wise, as much as Naruto loved and hated, he and Madara Uchiha were on an equal level.
Something Sasuke can't even hold a candle to, as much as he was called a genius, his strategies were subpar.
Naruto was never, has never, and will never be "book smart" for good reasons. He never needed to be book smart, he had his own trickery, and he learned at an early age that the best tool in the battlefield is what you could imagine with six inches between your ears.
The Reverse Harem Jutsu, admittedly, was a stroke of luck.
It was a divine comedy, sardonically, a fox managing to trick a rabbit in such a way. Despite being thousands of years older, thousands of years wiser, and perhaps thousands of times more unhinged due to it. Kaguya, The Mother of All Chakra, was tricked by a technique Naruto invented as a child.
A child.
Chuckling at the table, Naruto couldn't help it, "I wonder if she's in the afterlife cursing my name?"
"Perhaps, but that was a stroke of luck."
"I kind of felt that she was still a woman in a way, so I swung for it, and hit a home run."
"The blow had her stunned enough, if she hadn't shaken it off last second, we wouldn't be here."
"Much like a rabbit escaping a fox's maw in the last moment, I'm telling you, Kami is just an asshole."
"Meh, maybe so, maybe not."
Naruto was sighing as he translated a part of the book he was reading that Ozpin had given him, "this book isn't exactly from my time, its obviously from a much later period."
"Chakra Generators, United Taiyo, what is Taiyo? My clones reading basic mapping of the world didn't point at a Taiyo, so I'm guessing this what all The Shinobi Nations united under after the dust settled for a few decades. Eh," Naruto looked at the kanji for king and then noticed a name by it, "Naruto…Uchiha?"
"Son of a bitch," Naruto mutters as he smiles, "yes!"
Naruto got on the table, dancing in celebration as he yells out, "yes!"
"Yes, yes, yes! Whew, woohoo, they survived the war Kurama!" Naruto screamed out, "holy shit!"
"Indeed, if anyone is bearing The Uchiha name, it'll be from Sasuke at the very least. He would've been one of very few possible Uchiha alive, perhaps out of sympathy they spared him?"
"Yeah, but King Naruto Uchiha, what?! There was no king back in my day, so this has to be in a very later period. I mean, chakra generators, floating fortresses similar to The Sora army's, and then you have no mention of Shinobi once so ever." Naruto had read another book, it was even further than this time.
"That makes two books, no mention of Shinobi, but the best evidence we've gotten that The Shinobi Alliance held is currently here. Ozpin mentioned he had more tomes, scrolls, and the likes including actual weapons. Looking at the weapons could give us a more in-depth look, it's a wonderful thing really, to look to the past as the future and while in the future to see how it all turned out in the end?"
"Still," Naruto leans back as he felt a clone pop, "no mention of Grimm in the two books we've gotten."
"And, unfortunately, we are almost at the end of this one as well."
"Record books didn't change though, still used in the same manner, these were probably in some school somewhere."
"You did get a drawing of what these continents called Sanus, Draco, and Anima. They look like crumbled up versions of our times landmass."
"Yeah, Suna's desert mountains are visible in this place called Vacuo, slightly changed."
"I can see The Crescent Moon Island that used to be off the coast of Kumo."
"Yeah, it looks like the desert reached upwards as the continents broke apart."
"But, for this to happen rapidly enough in at least thirty thousand years was not natural."
"I've had the thought, especially with the moon being so close and broken, perhaps The Otsutsuki Clan came knocking."
Naruto finished the book, sighing, "nope."
"These books have to be nearer to our age if no mention of newer continents or even disasters. Shit," Naruto massaged his temple, "someone's behind me!"
Naruto turned around to find a man with green hair, a thermos in hand, and very thick spectacle glasses. He raised his hands up, seemingly in a surrender until Naruto relaxed, he watched as the man saw his clones.
"Quite marvelous, I can't tell which one of you is the real one, truly a unique usage of aura. Tell me, are you by chance the boy Ozpin has assigned those tomes to, can you read these tomes?" The man questioned as he took a seat in front of Naruto, "I've tried my best to crack them."
Naruto blinked, "Ozpin told you about me?"
"Yes, don't worry, I'm tight-lipped. I just couldn't believe it for a moment, you're a living fossil of an era that is far gone!" Oobleck gushed a little as he looked at the translations, "do you mind?"
Naruto shrugs, "knock yourself out, honestly the best news in there is that my best friend's clan survived somehow."
"Oh, marvelous, quite marvelous. There are dozens of base translations, I can see one for a King named Naruto Uchiha here. Interesting, interesting, yet I don't see anything about a Goddess in here nor Grimm." Oobleck sighed at the end of his rapid-fire overlook of them, "how were you able to translate these so fast?"
"I had a clone look at the first book, while the others study basic stuff from this era, and I hate to say this but what I found is annoying. I mean," Naruto took a deep breath, "Wars fought of land that you all had easy access to since most of it was occupied by Grimm. Why not, I don't know, just fight them instead of each other?"
"I often ask myself that, humanity has a big fault. It's our obsessive need for war. It," Oobleck took a deep breath, "almost se toems validate our existence."
"Yeah, well, that worked out well. What happened, thousands, if hundreds of thousands died, and for what? Just for the Kingdoms to agree on a joint territory, when I got here Ozpin mentioned something about barbarism to me from my time concerning how we used child soldiers, but your time has its own messed up issues." Naruto said as he crossed his arms.
Oobleck nodded, "you're pretty sharp there."
"I was always sort of what you all call a maverick, I don't follow orders, and I usually did better when I went at things on my own in a way. However, I never abandoned my friends, and I most certainly didn't fight stupid battles. I can see," Naruto sighs, "for all the glitz and glamour…its not gold."
"All that glitters are not always gold," Oobleck nods as he sighed, "I personally just try to understand that until recently humanity was just contempt at each other."
"Greed," then Naruto felt a clone pop as it tossed him a history book and he opened it to a page about Faunus, "racism."
"You seem familiar with it."
"Before I had these fox ears, I had the fox whiskers."
"Interesting…wait, wait?!"
Oobleck looked at the translations, "it states in the translations that Faunus were around your time."
"A few hundred years probably after everyone bit the dust, former King, Ichigo Uchiha led an expedition south. Finding a population of "animal-like humanoids," proceeding to establish a sort of distant trade." Naruto points out, "it seems no one knew really how far humans and Faunus stretched back."
"Still simply marvelous, but with no mention of Grimm, one wonders how our world descended into such a state?" Oobleck questioned as he scratched his chin, "you wouldn't happen to know, would you?"
"Not a clue, not yet at least, I'm running with a few theories though." Naruto said as he leaned back, shaking his head, "you're not so bad by the way…"
"Oh, well thank you, Mr. Uzumaki."
"And, I never learned your name."
"Bartholomew Oobleck, but please call me Dr. Oobleck, I went to school for the degree."
"Alright, Dr. Oobleck, so what do you know?"
"Well, most of our history was lost after The First Crusade. Where Grimm suddenly grew larger and more violent, they had been around during the most advance times of humanity before they were just a threat entirely. From what I read, a good six thousand years ago, humanity regarded Grimm as some nuisances before they actually became the biggest threat we faced." Oobleck explained what he knew as he sighed, "perhaps its our hubris?"
"Everyone takes things less serious until it comes back around," Naruto agrees as he leans back in his chair.
He then sighed, "so you, Ozpin, Taiyang, Qrow, who else?"
"Everyone on the staff," Ozpin told him as he sipped from the thermos, "coffee?"
"No thank you," Naruto tells the man with a small smile, "but do you have any tea down in the eatery?"
"The cafeteria is closed, but there is a hybrid Tea and Coffee Shop nearby in Vale."
"Let me just clean up here, hey boys!"
Naruto's remaining few clones looked at him, "put the books up!"
The blonde chugs down a glass of tea, "ah yeah, that's the stuff."
"Wind Runner," Oobleck puckered his lips, "that is sweet tea."
"I know, it tastes almost like home, I liked tea. I thought, well, after getting everything set and done to buy some land. Farm it, you know, leave something. Well," Naruto swished the tea in the glass, "was my plan…anyway…"
"Ah," Oobleck finished taking a chug out of his thermos, "but you still could. The options, the cards, they're only gone once you make them gone."
"True," Naruto finished his glass of tea off, "still though…not all the same."
"Well, history always had a way of calling upon mortal men to become something better, perhaps it has selected you. You see I am a firm believer that sometimes people are "chosen" by circumstance, to either become something better than themselves or falter. Your story kind of touched me, from what Ozpin told me, I'm truly sorry you've got to go through this." Oobleck told Naruto as he finished his coffee, "on that note I need more coffee."
"Yeah," Naruto sighs as he looked at his tea, "I could use some more tea."
Both got up, walking together as they reached their respective servers and getting the thing they wanted. On his way back to the table, stepping in thought as he looked at the tea.
"Sorry about this too, perhaps I should've listened to Sasuke and Sakura…I probably acted to hastily like I usually do. Kakashi-sensei always said that one day would bite me in the ass," he chuckled as he thought of the words, "pervert wasn't wrong."
"Naruto!"
"Eh?"
Naruto bumps into someone hard enough to make them nearly fall back, luckily, he reached out in time to grab their arm to keep them from falling, he sighed as he looked up from the floor. That's when his eyes met with bright amber.
It was a girl, pale in complexion, long silky black hair. She had a bow in her hair, a nice figure, and she was slightly blushing. He just stood there for a moment, then realized that he was holding on by accident still and habit, he let go and noticed that porcelain was laying across the ground.
"Bout time you let go, jeez, are you blind or something?"
"Um, ah…"
"Well?"
"Sorry…"
The girl sighed, "whatever, you spilled tea on you by the way."
Naruto looked down, his face blushed as he noticed where the tea spilled, "oh c'mon!"
"Oi, Naruto, did you pee yourself…or…did a beautiful woman excite you way too much?"
"Shut up, Kurama!"
"Nope, never, and this is hilarious."
"Oi, why didn't you warn me?!"
"I am a fox, I think this shit is funny, do the math genius."
Naruto's fist gripped hard, "damn traitor!"
Naruto sighed as he just walked back over the seat as a servant came to clean up the broken pieces, grabbing napkins, meanwhile he heard chuckling from Oobleck. The man was struggling to hold himself together, so the blonde just hid his head in embarrassment.
"Just my rotten luck," Naruto murmurs as he looked at his pants before throwing them in the hamper, "the first day on the town to enjoy it…and bam! Looks like I pissed myself, gah, and in front of a good-looking girl as well!"
A knock came at his door, slipping on some baggy shorts Naruto walks over to answer it, it was Ozpin. He had more books in his hands, he smiled, looking at Naruto.
"Hey," Ozpin showed him older books, "your translations gave me some good insight along with Dr. Oobleck."
"Glad I could be some help, but none of them say anything about Grimm."
"Well, most of these are old, preserved in those seals I was talking about."
"If you could let me go to these places I bet I could find more stuff."
"All in due time, young man, Oobleck told me you had a run in."
"Yeah, let's not talk about that."
"Oh, very well then, just so you know tomorrow you'll have to be at the auditorium with the rest of the students. So," Ozpin watched as Naruto looked at the tomes, "don't work too hard."
Naruto watched as the door closes, sighing, "easy for you to say…"
"Shadow Clone Jutsu," Naruto's chakra made a screech as five clones appeared in puffs of smoke around his room, he went over to the door and locked it.
He stretched out, "Alright everyone, let's get to work!"
"Oi, boss, can we play some music?"
"Yeah, jeez, the library was boring as hell."
"C'mon!"
Naruto waved his hands, sighing, he pulled his scroll out. Looking at it, slowly going to a music note app button. He pressed it, looking at the insane amount of music on it, he kind of liked classical music but was wanting to try something else.
"What is," Naruto clicked one, "Electronic rock?"
"Doki-yo, Doki-yo!"
The sudden noise caught all the Narutos by surprise, each of them forming Rasengan, then drums began to sound as a loud instrument began to play. Shrugging he then walks down into the circle of clones, taking the time read his own tome.
"Alright, let me know if anyone encounters anything to do with, Sasuke, Sakura, Tailed Beasts, ourselves, Konoha, Gaara, anything we pretty much know and love," Naruto ordered as he began to read his own tome, his right hand focused on writing the detailed translations.
It was well into the night; Naruto's clones had nearly finished their work. However, one finally popped, and Naruto's eyes widened at the information he had gotten, and it was so amazing he dropped the pen he had been using to translate.
He smiled, tears streamed down his eyes, "Seventh Hokage, Uchiha Sasuke…"
All the other clones popped, he looked at the tome that had it, it wasn't a tome…it was a journal. The blonde knew Sasuke, Sasuke loved to write his journals like one big letter a series of them. Never signed at the end, till the very last entry.
Naruto took a deep breath, then chuckled, "bastard actually got it."
Getting up, looking around, he then walked to his dresser and hid Sasuke's journal under a pile of clothing. He was going to hold on to anything he could find relating to his friends, judging by the journal he just read it was at least ten years after the war ended.
He also was proud to say that Sasuke mentioned him a couple of times, which spurred his reading on further, but none more so than the other entry involving Sakura. She and he had gotten hitched a couple of years after the war as detailed in anniversary entry.
Each of those entries was once a month, so this journal covered at least three years, and it was with that Naruto got his first look into what Post Fourth Shinobi World War looked like. Perhaps he could convince Ozpin to allow to visit the sight he found that journal from, then make his way around to find others, if they still existed there.
Sasuke also had four children, and Naruto held their names in his heart.
Sarada, the oldest.
Itachi, the firstborn boy, and heir.
Neji, named after their fallen comrade.
Naruko, obviously Sasuke's little play on his name.
The journal indicated that Sakura had been pregnant with a fifth child, but there was mention of a name, so she could've still been pregnant at the time. Sasuke is forced to stay in Konoha due to his position probably gave him all the time in the world to Sakura, which meant they were like rabbits.
That image filled Naruto his head and made him turn green, "damn you bastard, even from the grave!"
He wiped his face off, then it started to hit him as he realized that was a time he never got to have. Biting his lip, struggling not to, he fails miserably as he could only imagine what the kids must've looked like. That asshole of a friend of his smiling, holding a baby, probably crying himself with a smile.
The light crying gave way to sobs as he fell to his knees, holding his hands to his face, he breathes harder and harder as he struggled to find words and reason to stand up. He grips his fists as he ran toward the window, opening and then jumping out of it.
"Naruto!"
Naruto was in his Bijuu form as he skated through Emerald Forest, he was breathing hard as he came to a large river, staring out at it. Sighing as he took a minute, staring out into the clear waters, he just looked at his hands soon afterward.
"Kurama," Naruto sighs, "I just…don't…understand it!"
The chakra around Naruto began to increase as he growls, "I should've been there, it's not right!"
"I didn't get my happy ending, I'm stuck here, hey Kami! Kami why are you such an asshole!" Naruto screamed at the sky.
Naruto flicked the sky off, "at least finish me off, you lazy bastard!"
Breathing hard, trying to calm down, he just falls on his buttocks. He had fun today, found out that his best friends got married and had kids, and then now everything hits home that he missed a lot. Everyone got a happy ending, minus few he knew, and here he was stuck in an unknown time and a world that has long outgrown his type of people.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, and it hurt like hell, "do you think if we…you know…gathered everyone back?"
"That power would be enough, maybe, but the question is…where our chakra went."
"What do you mean, Kurama?"
"I'm missing a smidgen of mine, but a smidgen is enough to do serious damage…you know that all too well."
"Sora…and Dark Me."
"Yes…"
Naruto just laid back on the ground, looking at the shattered moon, sighing as he shook his head.
"I just needed to calm down," Naruto says as he looked into the skies, "and see a thousand lightning bugs."
His chakra cloak dispersed off him, allowing him to feel the cool air, "I wonder if Sasuke died happily?"
"Probably, given that a king was named after you, his children perhaps went on to lead a sort of revolution."
"I hope for all the right reasons, and not the wrong ones, I know about the curse…"
"I doubt Indra and Ashura are still fighting after all this time, given that you haven't died and allowed the cycle to process."
"But, that means Indra has gone unopposed for so long."
"Well, despite how the world looks, I'm sure Indra's reincarnates did the right things."
The blonde just bit his lip, "I still wish to return, and perhaps I still can."
Naruto nodded, "I need to return, perhaps after Sasuke gets Sakura and all that."
"Afraid you'll change that part of history?"
"A little bit, yeah, a little…"
"Hmm…"
"What is it, Kurama?"
"You do deserve a happy ending, Naruto."
"Tell me about it, I'm not angry, just saddened."
"But, have you stopped to consider this is it?"
"Hmm?"
"Think about this Naruto, you're in a world where you are perhaps the most powerful person. You, out of everyone here, can probably stop these Grimm. You could easily set the course back on, like you did posthumously as far as we're concerned. Naruto, this the second chance, the second life!"
"Kurama…
"Naruto, listen, you've suffered a lot because of me. You endured hell, back and forth, you've spent your time fighting…and fighting…and fighting. Perhaps, just maybe, it is time to lay down the sword so to speak? Well, not lay it down fully since these Grimm, but relax and just…be what they consider being normal?"
"They don't know about me, being a Jinchuuriki…so…I won't have to worry about people chasing after me again. Well, um, their tea ain't bad, but still…I don't belong here. What if this was all an accident, and somehow I end up screwing the world up more?" Naruto reasoned as he still looked up at the moon.
"What if you just chose to make it better? I mean, think about this, settling here. Find you a nice mate, pop out a few kids with her, and short of Grimm and some bandits? Nothing to worry about, no godlike enemies, no enemy that could ever dare touch you, you'd have the happy family you've always wanted…even if it means that Sasuke isn't here physically…know where he is and everyone else?"
Naruto looked up into the moon fresh tears threatened to spill from his eyes, "where?"
"In your heart, they're all in there, Naruto."
