EPISODE 36: Menace from the Future
In the following vision from the sky, Jim reached the Namikaze village and he could warm them about the imminent threat, before it happened. He met his grandfather again, who was the leader of the small clan and its earth ninjas. Together they stopped the conflict that would unleash a war among clans at their village's location. However, the war began anyways, at a different location that wasn't close to them.
In the months that followed, the Namikaze village grew in number of people and in power. When other small clans and villages saw what the earth ninjas and their leaders could do, they chose to join them to survive the upcoming war.
The Namikaze Clan continued growing and expanding more and more, until it became the Namikaze Alliance, which was another large clan that was as populated and as noteworthy as the Clan of the Stone.
Jim Namikaze never forgot about The Leaf, but everything happened so quickly that going back to The Leaf was a choice that he was forced to leave behind.
His grandfather and the people that he helped convinced him about staying there as their leader. He accepted it. Then, Jim Namikaze became the First Namikage (the Kage) of the Namikaze Alliance.
After that, a fierce war broke out with the Clan of the Stone and many died, including Jim's grandfather and the few other relatives he had. Those were dark times at the Human Realm, but the First Namikage returned to The Leaf to make an alliance with the Third Hokage. And together, the Namikaze Alliance and The Leaf won the war.
Jim Namikaze's dream began to turn into reality. The two largest and most powerful clans at the Human Realm were Hiruzen's and his. Their two leaders truly cared about peace and justice, so the state of warfare was halted and times began to change for the better at the Human Realm.
It was then that a silent menace arrived at the Human Realm, but no one saw it coming and no one noticed its growth, until it was too late…
Hiruzen decided to give the position of Fourth Hokage to the most deserving talent of the younger generation. He would remain as one of the clan's leaders, but the true head of The Leaf would be the new Fourth Hokage. The honor was given to Orochimaru, their greatest prodigy. The pale black-haired man was capable of using advanced jutsus of all types and his summoned snakes were some of the most powerful summons ever seen at the Human Realm. Many people didn't perceive him as trustworthy, nor as worthy of being The Leaf's Kage, but Hiruzen still decided to pass the title to his most gifted student. Then, Orochimaru's face was built after Hiruzen's face among the giant monuments of the Hokages on the mountain…
Shortly after that, a new threat emerged. A group of incredibly powerful rogue ninjas known as Akatsuki began to threaten the large clans with a global war, if they didn't hand the nine jinchuurikis of the nine tailed beasts to them. (The jinchuurikis were the humans that had the powerful chakra of the nine tailed beasts and the souls of the beasts sealed within them.)
The large clans refused. Then, the Akatsuki ninjas began to capture the jinchuurikis, one by one. Most of the Akatsuki members died, but eight of the nine beasts were brought back to life, and the Akatsuki masterminds, Zet and Su Otsutsuki, survived. Their ultimate goal was to revive Madara Uchiha and use his rinnegans and the nine beasts to obtain the power of the protector of the Human Realm—the holy sage—so that one of them would be the new omnipotent guide of the realm. The new holy sage would then have the choice to reshape the Human Realm's fate as he considered best. (Clearly, this was going to lead to a final battle between Zet and Su, but it never got to that point…)
Zet and Su found a way to revive Madara Uchiha, in the flesh, and led him to The Leaf, with all the other eight tailed beasts, to capture Kushina Uzumaki (Naruto's mother), the jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails fox. Zet led Madara to believe that he would be the next Sage of the Six Paths and he would create the world he desired once he had the nine beasts, but, in reality, he was just part of Zet and Su's plan. Su wanted to revive and control the most powerful human being, which was his mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki (who was also Hagaromo's mother). And Zet just wanted to be the next holy sage of the Human Realm. At the end, both wanted the same thing: ultimate power.
That day, The Leaf was attacked by Madara Uchiha and the eight beasts, which were controlled by Madara with the power of his rinnegans (the sharingan eye's final form, after the mangekyou).
It was chaos for The Leaf and the clan's destruction was imminent. However, the Third Hokage and all the ninjas of the clan fought bravely to save Konoha. During the attack, the Fourth Hokage Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen. Kushina Uzumaki was caught and the Nine-Tails beast was summoned out of her by Madara. The end of the connection between Kushina and the giant fox led to her death.
After Kushina's death, Hiruzen went into a fierce one-on-one battle with Madara—who was perceived as the mastermind behind the attack by everyone. They fought while the tailed beasts continued attacking The Leaf. However, the power of Madara's sharingans was vastly superior and, at the end, Hiruzen couldn't stop him. Madara defeated Hiruzen as soon as he used the rinnegan's power. He left Hiruzen on the ground, without killing him, and brought the nine tailed beasts with him, outside of Konoha, to initiate the ritual where he would unite them and absorb their power to become the next Hagaromo—the Sage of Six Paths.
The Leaf was practically destroyed with very few survivors. The mountain with the faces of the Hokages was gone as well.
Jim Namikaze was speechless. He couldn't believe the horror that his eyes were seeing. However, it looked very real and the legends of Maida's grandfather—Madara—described him that way. In the past, only the great First Hokage could defeat Madara Uchiha…
Then, a new unknown figure arrived at the scene—seen on the dark sky. It was a man with a black cloak that covered his body and his face. The man had a small white snake with him, around his waist. The moment when Jim saw the snake brought him almost as much turmoil as Mina's death… it was the same menacing white snake from his first visions at the Dark Realm. There were no doubts about it.
The unknown man challenged Madara Uchiha to a battle. He executed a grand summoning that brought several giant snakes to the Human Realm at once, and he sent the snakes against the tailed beasts. Then, he extended his hand and the white snake went from his waist to his shoulder, and from there to his hand. The snake transformed itself into a powerful-looking sword, known as the Sword of Kusanagi (in the Naruto universe). The man of the cloak was seen unleashing some strange technique that left the mighty tailed beasts and the giant snakes in a state of mental limbo. Then, he started the battle with Madara Uchiha…
The sky at the Human Realm went all dark, as if it couldn't show what happened. Jim's sharingan was not a rinnegan, so it was no surprise that he couldn't see everything yet, like the Sage of Six Paths could…
When the visions returned, Madara Uchiha was dead on the ground and the nine tailed beasts were not visible anywhere; it seemed like they were not there anymore. Also, something disturbing was seen: Madara's rinnegan eyes were gone as well. The man of the cloak was holding one of them and the white snake on his waist had the other one in its mouth.
Then, a familiar figure appeared there. It was Zetsu, or Zet and Su joined together in a single body. They separated and Jim Namikaze immediately recognized them. The white green-haired one was the powerful sage that he fought at Maida's village, and the black one was also there that day (but Black Zetsu didn't give Jim as much trouble as sage Zet did).
The man of the cloak talked for the first time:
"I expected you two, Zet and Su Otsutsuki. I knew you would come to retrieve the power of the tailed beasts, but you are too late. Now, it is time for you two to return what you stole from me. I waited a long time for this day to arrive."
The unknown man showed them the immensely powerful chakra within him and he placed the two rinnegan eyes in a safe place—they disappeared with some sort of teleportation jutsu. Then, the snake turned itself into the Kusanagi sword once again. And just like before, the sky went all dark at the Dark Realm, but it came back pretty quickly.
The outcome was just as shocking too. The snake remained as a sword, which was bathed in blood. Two men that looked just like Zet and Su were lying on the ground, dead. However, they were also human, unlike before. Zet looked young and had black hair, instead of green. Su was an older bald man. Neither of them looked like their "Zetsu" forms anymore.
The unknown man looked much more tired than before and his cloak had been teared apart in various places, but it still covered his face. There was also blood in one of his arms and in one of his legs. This showed that defeating Zet and Su was much harder for him than defeating Madara, even though he had already absorbed the power of all the tailed beasts. Zet and Su had been mighty opponents indeed, every single time that he fought them…
The only thing left was replacing his eyes with Madara's rinnegans, and that man was going to be as powerful as the Sage of Six Paths. However, he didn't do that yet. He wasn't in a hurry for it because he felt that he had won already, after defeating Zet and Su (the last Otsutsukis left). Instead of using Madara's eyes, he walked towards the place where Hiruzen was.
Hiruzen had been badly wounded, but he was still alive, and he looked happier when he saw the face of the man in the cloak.
"I knew that you would come back to save The Leaf," said Hiruzen, with regained hope.
Jim Namikaze saw, with increasing worry and dread, how the man began to move his arm aiming the snake sword at Hiruzen. Then, the sword went down in a rush and Jim couldn't contain his feeling of anguish and powerlessness:
"Noooo!" yelled Jim Namikaze, as he saw how the man of the cloak delivered a fatal strike to Hiruzen with the sword. Where was he?! (Jim Namikaze) Why wasn't he there!?
"Why?" asked Hiruzen, with his last breath. And the unknown man answered:
"Because I am not who you think I am, Hiruzen Sarutobi."
The man withdrew the sword, which turned back into its true form, the white snake. Then, he simply left, leaving The Leaf behind, in ruins. His last words as he walked were:
"Today the history of The Leaf ends, but the history of my new Human Realm is just about to begin."
The visions of the future stopped for a while. Jim was mad at himself and frustrated. Why wasn't he there when all of that happened?
Then, the view continued, showing the leader of the Namikaze Alliance. He was eating, drinking, and pretty much having the time of his life. There was also an unknown woman there who looked like she was his wife or partner.
The actual Jim Namikaze almost threw his explosive knives at the vision on the sky. He didn't recognize himself. How could he be enjoying himself while the people at The Leaf were dying? It was infuriating. This wasn't his true self.
At that moment, he saw how he received a message from one of his Anbu guards. The message—from an unknown source—read:
"Dear Jim Namikaze,
I will meet you tomorrow when you least expect it.
An old friend from The Leaf."
It seemed odd. Was it from Hiruzen? The Third Hokage was one of his good old friends and he had not seen him for a long time.
The next day, the Namikage was going with his personal Anbu squad to one of the last new villages that joined his alliance. He planned to give a short "welcome" speech there—nothing too special.
The current Jim couldn't believe his future-self.
What was he? A freaking ninja politician?!
After promising the new allies tons of good fortunes in his speech, he and his men left. (Indeed, he had turned into a politician.) They headed back to the central village of the Namikaze Alliance through a long and straight road.
In the middle of the way, his future-self turned around, in the vision, and he saw all of his Anbu guards scattered on the grass behind him. They looked dead. There was a man with a black cloak and a white snake standing there. The future Jim showed great concern on his face when he noticed the snake. He began gathering sage chakra immediately and put one of his hands on his sword.
"Did you receive my message First?
Should I call you First or Mr. Namikage?"
"Neither," said the future Jim, as he turned into an earth sage.
He added:
"Call me Jim Namikaze, just like you did before.
Why are you here? And what is the meaning of this?"
The current Jim was quite surprised. His future-self had reached sage mode incredibly fast, in just under thirty seconds. Apparently, he wasn't just some guy giving speeches and having fun. After all, he was one of the Kages too.
The vision showed what happened from a point of view that didn't reveal the identity of the man with the cloak.
The man removed the black hood from his head and revealed his true intentions, after Jim's question. Jim seemed surprised:
"You look very different. What happened at The Leaf?"
"I see you are surprised to see me Jim Namikaze. The Leaf has been destroyed, but that is the last of your worries now, since the Namikage is about to be replaced as well. Being the leader of your alliance is the shortest path to leading the entire Human Realm, as I wish to do."
"That is not going to happen," replied the First Namikage, while he unsheathed his original Namikaze sword and created five shadow clones that also had the sage mode.
The man of the cloak extended his hand and the snake turned into the lethal sword once more. Then, their battle began, in the open field. However, the vision went very dark and nothing was visible.
When it came back, the Namikaze sword was broken on the ground and the First Namikage was dead, like all the others before him. The man of the cloak walked up to Jim's body, grabbed the Kage's hat from the ground, and placed it on his head.
"It is done. At the end, I always win… or, actually, we win."
He placed his hand on the white snake as he finished saying that.
The current Jim felt as defeated as his possible future-self must have felt. This was an unacceptable future and a pretty dark fate. He didn't feel this way just because he died at the hands of a seemingly unstoppable enemy. Parts of him also died when he saw Mina's death, Hiruzen's murder, and the destruction of The Leaf. Now that he knew about those things, he had to do something about them. He had to change the future. And he felt that with his new knowledge, he could do it. He, as the Namikage, and Hiruzen, as the Hokage, would be prepared the next time that this evil force arrived.
However, when he was eager to leave the Dark Realm, a final unexpected vision appeared on the sky…
NEXT- Episode 37: The Pivotal Decision