Okay guys, Sorry I haven't been as consistent with my updates as I previously have. A lot of life shit has piled up, so expect updates every few days. Enjoy the chapter!
After the official destruction of Konoha, many other hidden villages began to rejoice. But it was short lived. The Zinra had begun to push the major hidden villages back, the weakened Suna and Iwa were trapped in their villages, the remnants of their invasion force followed by large packs of Zinra. Iwa had large stores of food and supplies so they were fine for now. Suna however, had to fight to secure any supplies they could get. Nine out of ten supply caravans were being destroyed by the Zinra, due to the lack of shinobi able to protect them. The people of Sunagakure were starving, and were on the verge of plunging into anarchy.
Kirigakure, Kumogakure and Takigakure were both fine for the most part, the fact that their villages were so secluded, helping a lot. However they had become restricted in their movements, and everything had to be executed perfectly in order to avoid major contact with the Zinra. Kiri's civil war was drawing some Zinra attention however, and the leader of the rebellion saw this and decided not to endanger the entirety of Mizu no Kuni by leading them right to Kiri.
The other villages, however, were not so lucky. Any that had not already been destroyed by the Zinra, were in the midst of destroying themselves. Akatsuki had tried to protect Amegakure from the Zinra, but they were outnumbered one-thousand to one. Not even Pein could hold the line for long. It was later deduced that so many appeared because of the gigantic chakra signature they gave off as a collective. Their members either left the group in order to pursue their own goals, or regrouped with Pein and haven't been seen or heard from since.
The remnants of Konoha had found a hidden cave network in Hi no Kuni, and began to rebuild there. The new 'Hokage' was Shimura Danzo. Under his leadership, the civilians were being trained how to fight, albeit it was going to take time to get them up to the level that they needed to be. The remaining Shinobi were either on guard duty, or busy collecting supplies until they could plant crops and grow their own food.
Naruto's mindscape
Naruto began today the same as he had every other day, running through his mindscape as fast as possible wearing weights and away from Kurama, until something unexpected began to happen. He started getting visions of an unfamiliar cave. 'Am I waking up? Kura-chan said I wouldn't be waking up for a while though, what's happening!' He began to panic. He started to become transparent, meanwhile Kurama had caught up to him. "Naru-chaaaan, I've already caught up to you, what's-" She stopped mid sentence, seeing the now disappearing Naruto. 'Why is he waking up?' That's when she remembered the only condition that allowed a user of this technique to wake up prematurely. "Naruto, you're waking up. I don't know the specifics, but there is something very, very dangerous in the elemental nations right now. Dangerous enough to wipe out the entirety of humanity. I know you want nothing more than to watch them burn, but you need to focus on destroying this threat, or it will become stronger than the both of us combined." Kurama said seriously. Naruto listened intently and let his training kick in. He took deep breaths, and focused on her words. He nodded. "Alright Kura-chan, let's destroy whatever this is, together." He said as he disappeared entirely.
Tsuchi no Kuni
Cave system
The golden orb that had cut Naruto off from the rest of the world for almost seven years now began to flicker and faded into nothingness. Naruto fell to the floor and landed on his hands and knees, breathing heavily. He was exaughsted. 'Kurama forgot to mention how taxing this technique was on my body...' Naruto thought to himself.
'Oops, sorry about that Naru-chan' Kurama said in Naruto's mind chuckling to herself. 'Well, I should go find a place to recouperate. This place didn't feel very safe, and it was becoming a bit difficult to breathe. The young man looked down at his clothes, most of them were way too small, but his Akatsuki cloak still fit fine. He grit his teeth. 'I'll keep this only until I find better clothing.' He thought to himself. He looked at the necklace Hikari had given him years ago.
Naruto stumbled through the cave weakly, leaning against the wall of the cave. It took him a while, but he finally reached what he remembered to be the entrance to the cave. It had been blocked off by boulders and rubble, explaining the difficulty breathing, barely any air was getting inside the cave.
"Futon: Atsugai" Naruto said weakly after slowly going through handsigns. A torrent of wind blew away most of the rubble. The resulting dust cloud blocking his vision for a bit, but when it dissipated, Naruto had to cover his eyes. The brightness of a sun he hadn't seen in seven years blinding him temporarily. He could sense the changes in the elemental nations since he had gone into his meditation, long before he could physically see the effects that were right in front of him.
The world felt even more corrupt and evil than it had before Kurama had taken him into his midscape. But when he opened his eyes, he was shocked. The forest that had previously surrounded the cave he was meditating in had completely vanished. Replaced with a grey, harsh and desolate wasteland with no end in sight. Boulders were scattered around the immediate area, presumably from a fight between Iwagakure shinobi and whatever this threat was. There were no bodily remains to be found.
Naruto looked at what looked like a giant cloud of dust heading his way. 'This is worse than I thought it would be' Naruto thought to himself. He collected himself. 'I could probably wait out whatever the dust cloud was in the cave' Naruto thought to himself.
Just as he was about to walk back in, he sensed movement coming down the cliffside of the cave. Whatever it was, it was big, and not friendly. It charged him and just about planted its giant fist in his face, but Naruto instinctually leapt away from it. He flashed through handsigns, "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu" (Fire Style: Fireball Technique). The 'beast' just shrugged it off.
It let out an angry roar and charged Naruto again, but this time Naruto wasn't able to move in time due to his his exaughstion. He took a fist to the gut, and felt the air leave his body. He flew a good twenty feet before skidding along the ground for another fifteen and stopping. He held his gut in pain, and had almost no time to roll out of the way of the immediate follow up by whatever his opponent was.
Naruto went through handsigns as quickly as his exaughsted body would allow,"Doton: Wareme Otoshiama" (Earth Style: Chasm Trap). Naruto slammed his hand into the dust covered ground. The earth beneath the beast quickly slid down about fifty feet. It seemed unphased by this and immediately began climbing up the walls of the pit as quickly as it could.
Naruto went through even more handsigns. Just as one of the beasts hands came out of the trap, Naruto stopped and channeled more chakra into the ground. "Doton: Wareme Tsubusu" (Earth Style: Chasm Smash). The walls of the chasm closed almost instantaneously, smashing the majority of the beast. Its arm was the only thing visible to anyone now. Naruto fell to his knees, panting. He stared at the place where the beast had previously been. The arm violently spasmed and turned a grey color until it faded entirely into dust. 'There must be more of these... things' Naruto thought to himself.
'Naruto, we need to leave. Now. I can sense more of them heading our way, while not as strong as this one, there are too many for us to handle now. I'll lead you away from them.' Kurama spoke seriously to Naruto. Her chakra pointing the way for Naruto.
Naruto slowly got to his feet. His vison began to blur, and he had a dull headache, but he began running in the direction that Kurama was pointing him. He ran for what felt like eternity until he finally saw some green, a forest. It was a relief, seeing as he hadn't seen any living thing other than that 'thing' since he'd woken up.
He had just entered the forest when he looked behind him. Multiple figures, charging towards him at a ridiculous speed. He jumped up into the trees and began leaping from tree to tree in hopes of escaping their view, but it wasn't enough. They were soon right on his back.
Naruto landed on a tree and narrowly dodged being pounced on by one of those things. He took a mental note that they were much smaller than his previous opponent. He kept moving, but he knew it was only a matter of time before they caught up with him again, he was just exaughsting himself now.
He landed in a clearing and looked behind him. The previously fast paced hunters on his trail since he'd entered the forest had slowly crawled into the clearing, looking ready to pounce. There were seven of them. Naruto took a deep breath, and stared down his opponents. As soon as they moved towards him, he flashed through handseals. Just as their claws were about to pierce his flesh, the boy shouted. "Futon: Atsugai" and blew them all away, four of them missing the majority of their limbs.
Naruto again fell to his knees breathing heavily. The other three beasts were now chraging him once again. He tried to move, but his body wasn't responding. Kurama was about to surge some demonic chakra into Naruto, even though it may cripple him, its better than him dying. However.
"Yahoooooo!" A happy/sadistic shout was heard from behind Naruto. A woman wearing a bone mask and dark clothing leapt in between Naruto and the beasts. Her silver hair being the only identifiable trait that she had.
Within a minute, the three remaining beasts had been sliced into too many pieces to count by her scythe. She looked over at the still downed for of Naruto. "I haven't seen that cloak in a while gaki! Tell me where you got it, and maybe I'll make your sacrifice to Jashin-sama slightly less painful." She said with bloodlust still apparent in her voice.
Naruto was a bit stuck in the emotional department. He knew this was Hikari, he was glad to see her here, she was always super nice to him, but at the same time she was Akatsuki, and they used him, they betrayed him. 'I want to trust her... but I know I can't. Should I try and fight her? What should I do?' Naruto thought to himself.
"It seems she's left Akatsuki... While I never did like her, She should recognize you and take care of you until I can heal you. We don't have much of a choice anyways, so let's take what we can and leave as soon as possible." Kurama spoke in his head.
Naruto began to relax. If Kurama said it was alright, then it'd be alright. He gave a slight chuckle, and coughed up a little bit of blood. "It has been a while, hasn't it Hikari," Naruto spoke barely above a whisper, before he gave into his exaughstion.
Hikari was shocked. 'Is this Naruto?!' She thought to herself. He certainly looked like him, and it would explain the Akatsuki cloak. 'But Izumi said he was dead! This can't be him!' She thought to herself in anger. She raised her scythe above the sleeping boy's head and brought it down, but stopped herself. The blade mere centimeters from the boy's skin. The necklace she had made the boy so long ago was clearly visible hanging around his neck.
'It's him! He's Alive!' Hikari thought to herself happily. Ever since she first laid eyes on the boy, he had always made her feel funny. His smile, and his eyes. They made her feel funny inside, and she'd never really had the courage to get very close to the boy. That and Izumi always kept him to herself. 'I'm going to love making that bitch scream!' Hikari thought to herself. 'But for now, I get Naruto all to myself!' Hikari thought to herself, giddy at the thought of getting to actually be around Naruto for an extended period of time.
'Today is such a great day!' Hikari thought as she smiled to herself and picked up Naruto. Meanwhile, Kurama was growling in Naruto's mindscape. 'Inner peace. She isn't anywhere near as bad as the Uchiha. Yes, better her than the Uchiha. But still... She needs to back off of Naruto. He already cares too much about her, I'll need to cut this bond too...'
Well, tell me what you think of this chapter! Criticism, praise, anything! Also, sorry about the underdeveloped previous chapter, I dropped the ball on that one O.o
Anyways, see ya next chapter! - Howl's Curse
