Chapter 45: Naruto Breaking Through
After a thorough questioning, it appears my clan name is the only thing he recognizes. Strange to be sure, the Uzumaki clan is but a minor clan, with no notable inheritor. Our seals and rituals are gaining renown in this fallen world, but we have always been a vassal clan. If anything, we are in grave danger, a fat pig ready for slaughter.
His explanation is, as much as he is willing to give one, difficult to accept. Impossible even. The fruit of the world tree will not be ripe for thousands of years. By that time, gifts like the Samsara eye will have degraded to nothingness. If he is telling the truth, then he is from the distant future. A broken world where something has gone wrong with the World Tree Clan. They would not normally be so stupid as to sow karma on this world.
More likely, this young man has hit his head, or fallen into some illusion and lost his reality. And yet… his scenario for falling through time is—plausible?
# # #
Ino carried Sasuke back into camp, Hinata followed behind her. Every step Ino took felt like she was carrying weights on her legs. They had run all the way back, exhausted and emotionally spent. But that is not why Ino's legs felt like lead.
The camp was empty, torn up, and Sakura was nowhere in sight. Not an injured Sakura, not a dead Sakura, just empty. For a fleeting moment, Ino glanced hopefully at Hinata, if Sakura had escaped, or the battle was elsewhere…
Hinata shook her head miserably. "No tracks. They begin and end in the camp."
"Hmm… It appears I do not need the Hyuga girl after all." Ino remembered Itachi's words and expression. Inscrutable.
Ino laid Sasuke down on a bedroll in a torn-up tent, doing her best to hold in her grief and hatred. Right now, she needed to concentrate on her clan jutsu to mess with Sasuke's mind. Whatever jutsu his brother had used would hide her meddling nicely. But it had to be done before Sasuke could wake up. If Sakura was alive, she would find her way back.
Sasuke's pained expression made it much easier to relax. Kneeling next to him, Ino placed her hands on his temple and closed her eyes.
The process was smooth, Sasuke had none of Sakura's resistance, and with the state he was in that made sense. When Ino just finished her work on Sasuke, Hinata appeared with some food she scrounged together.
"Is it—done?" Hinata asked softly.
"Done." Ino slumped forward, hands on the dirt floor, her eyes wouldn't stop leaking. "We're safe."
Hinata braced Ino's shoulders. "You made the right decision."
Holding onto a fistful of dirt, Ino could see clearly anymore, her eyes were flooded. "She's not coming back, is she? A fake mission. I left Sakura for appearances."
"I'm the one who left without a word!" Hinata insisted, "I wanted to hear for myself without involving you two… But that's not how teammates work. I-I-I couldn't save anyone. Not even a proper burial."
Ino felt a stab at her heart and a spike of remorse. She was forced to burn the remaining bodies with her new fire jutsus in a hurry. If Sakura had been hurt—but she was nowhere. Gone. It was all pointless.
"It doesn't matter," said Ino bitterly, picking herself up, "Uchiha Itachi would destroy us all, whether we were together or not."
Hinata activated her Byakugan, a fierce expression on her face Ino had never seen before.
"Stronger… Strong enough to destroy Root."
# # #
Shikamaru opened his eyes, only for a very eager bushy-browed fisherman to be hovering right over him with a smile on his face. All things considered; he'd had a good night's rest without disturbance, until now. The village was a ruin, and Might Kai's family was the only one left. Meaning, any room not taken by nature was up for grabs.
"Good MORNING!"
"Good morning Might-san," said Shikamaru rubbing his eyes. How early was it? He didn't want to know.
"YES! Most certainly wonderful!" The man's eyes sparkled with a hellish gleam reserved for the early to rise. "Lady Temari is waiting for you outside."
After shooing the man away, and getting his gear ready to get out of this questionable village, Shikamaru squeaked open the old door to his slice of ruin and took a breath through his nostrils.
Salt air, finally salt air. Anything that was a break from the stifling desert.
As for why the village was abandoned, one only had to look at the lack of water. Right before they went to sleep, Kai had given them a rundown. Without shinobi to sustain the village, as it had been decades ago, there was no way to extract fresh water from the ocean. A single drought many years ago was enough for most of the villagers to abandon it. Everyone except Might's father and mother.
Now, only Might Kai and his mother remained. An old woman and a lonely fisherman, who traded food for water with other parts of the inhospitable coast.
"Shikamaru! You've got work to do," Temari said, bringing Shikamaru out of his reverie. Temari was standing outside her door, fan at her back, dressed in full garb. Next to her was Kai who looked like a spring ready to unfurl. Work to do? Shikamaru wanted out. That Kai guy grated on him.
"I thought we were leaving?"
"We're leaving," said Temari, "But first we're going to fill their well with water jutsu."
Shikamaru didn't even bother to groan. Did she train in water element? Because if she wanted him to do it, they would be here a long time.
"And then you're taking meeeee! Wooohoooo!" Might Kai did a jig in the air.
Ah, crap.
# # #
Naruto sat cross-legged on a platform overlooking the spacious main hall, Shinigami mask at his side.
He held up Tsunade's necklace, examining the crystal in great detail. The crystal lit up with the torches surrounding the large wooden pillars in the center of the room. This was the Shodaime's necklace. A legendary ninja Hisato-sensei had praised endlessly. In looking back, the Shodaime was the model Hisato brought up more consistently. There were so many mysteries he hadn't asked his sensei, and couldn't with that seal on his tongue. Why the First Hokage above all else?
When the Uzumaki rituals entered his mind at first, Naruto was too preoccupied with the content. The context though, that a random tablet would have his clan's secrets, why? Every answer from Hisato landed on Uzushiogakure. A place he was going to visit after he finished bringing the two halves of the fox together tonight.
Soon, Orochimaru was pushing open the large doors and pulling Naruto's wrapped-up sacrifice by the feet. The sacrifice was bandaged from head to toe and kept near death with the senbon sticking out of the wrapping at the neck. Naruto ignored Orochimaru's irritation at being sent to do tasks, relying on the snake man's ignorance of the rituals to center himself and meditate.
"My my, Uzumaki-kun. I didn't think you had what it took. The sentimentalism with all of this wrapping is a bit much though, don't you think?" Orochimaru taunted.
"A ninja should be cool-headed, it doesn't mean they should enjoy the suffering of others," said Naruto, "Use the resurrection jutsu."
Naruto threw on the Shinigami mask and felt a cold presence behind him. Death, he was embodying the Shinigami now.
He waited until Orochimaru started preparing the body before taking out his tanto from its sheathe behind him. Getting on his knees on the platform, he had to harden his mind. Every second counted. Too early, and he would bleed out, too late, and the jutsu would fail.
Turning the blade inward, Naruto breathed in and out. He couldn't lose his nerve now. Heaving breaths, counting in his mind, making sure it was on the out-breath that he… THREE!
"Ugh!" he made a barely audible grunt with the small trickle of air left in his lungs.
Naruto slashed across his belly and saw lights leaving his body, headed upwards into the sky. The Hokages would be there, including Jiji… Before he could focus on that, the pain finally caught up to him. Searing pain in his gut, where he had cut himself open. It took all of Naruto's focus not to pass out. The stomach had so many nerves, and he had cut into it like it was nothing. He refused to scream, not in front of Orochimaru.
Naruto tasted iron in his mouth, but remained upright, watching as Orochimaru's arms returned. As soon as this happened, Orochimaru joyfully began to weave hand signs. One of the lights headed for the sky suddenly turned around just before it hit the ceiling and floated down towards the body that was forming steadily.
He would be strong in front of his father. Guilt, fear, anger… Would his father be okay with what he had done? Would his father accept him? Did he even forgive his father for what he had done?
Naruto used those feelings to keep the pain at bay and retain consciousness for what he had to do next.
"Orochimaru, I still require you for one more ritual, leave the room while I talk with the Yondaime," Naruto demanded as harshly as he could.
"Not without some assurance." Orochimaru's eyes flashed dangerously as he inserted a kunai with a seal on it into the back of the forming Yondaime's head. "He'll be able to speak and little else. Consider it an extra precaution."
Right as the face and hair of his father began to form, Orochimaru disappeared. He would probably still listen in, but Naruto was not worried. His last ritual would fix any of those problems. Secretly, his trap would be set.
Naruto saw his father blink his now red eyes and try to move. This corpse revival jutsu really was disgusting.
"Where am I? Why can't I- are you bleeding?" said Namikaze Minato, the man Naruto had wanted to know so badly ever since Jiji had told him that day. "Wait…"
"Sorry dad, no time…" Naruto forced out as he took control of the Shinigami's arms to pull the Yin-half of the fox into his seal. Everything was on fire, he had cut right along the seal, and now, it would be healed. The phantom arm of the Shinigami reached into the helpless Minato's gut and pulled out a giant mass of Yin-chakra.
Everything in Naruto's body rejected this action. Weak as he was from the slash in his stomach, he knew it was a test of willpower. This was how the Sandaime had gone out. Unable to force Orochimaru's soul out in full. Unlike Orochimaru, the seal would not resist. However, the Fox was a much larger mass of chakra.
"Dad? You're- the Yin-half? Naruto?" then Minato realized. "Naruto! What is happening?"
Naruto just smiled with bloody teeth, too focused and determined to pull the Yin-half into him. The Yang chakra in his system worked overtime to heal, but Naruto refused to allow it to cloak him. Steadily, the arm pulled the huge mass of Yin chakra out of the seal. Shaking as it did so, struggling to hold on.
"Your stomach… You idiot! You really cut yourself open!" Minato scolded before sharpening his gaze. "I see, no choice then. Pull Naruto! Pull! You can do this!"
Naruto took his father's encouragement at face value and kept at it with the Shinigami's arm. The Yin chakra that left the seal struggled to be free, and now filled the space between them. The hard part was coming up, he forced it into the preexisting seal.
At first, the Yin sucked in at an amazing rate, mixing with the Yang chakra was natural. But then, it resisted, not wanting to be sealed. If he lost control of it, the Yin half of the fox would be released into the world.
In the time it takes a kettle to come to a boil, Naruto was almost finished. Every agonizing second felt like years. The effort and the healing slash to his stomach making the time stretch infinitely. Only his father's cheers and encouragement broke through his concentration and pushed him on.
The last bit of chakra pushed through the seal. Only a small residue of Yin chakra remained, floating into the air to a certain corner of the ceiling. Naruto's smile widened. His understanding of Orochimaru had paid off, the man couldn't help himself. Whatever he intended, drawing that Yin chakra towards himself was a surefire disaster in the making; not that Orochimaru would notice until it was too late.
Naruto felt carefully for the chakra, now swirling together within his seal. Yin and Yang completed each other, and sent out extra chakra as it became a generative cycle. His wound began to heal at a much faster rate, like the Yang chakra alone functioned with the cloak.
"Okay, now that you're finished-"
Naruto held up a hand and sat back down in a meditative state. He began to chant.
"Winter, spring, summer, autumn. Lightning, Fire, Earth, Wind, Water. Yin and Yang."
Taking the extra, ownerless chakra produced from the combination of the two halves, Naruto formed a cyclone, forcing the chakra through his system. Each movement of chakra, he altered the element, corresponding with the fluctuation. Copying it, syncing with it. The chakra was him, he was the chakra. He had to remain perfectly still for this, as Hisato had trained him to do to calm his excitement.
"Nature training? No. Something is different," remarked his father with curiosity, but also a tinge of pride.
Naruto noticed the comment but didn't let the inquiry distract his mind from the process. He was the master of the chakra that was coursing through his body. Becoming easier as his wound began to close, until it was no longer a threat to his life.
Then, as if Naruto himself had been cycling his chakra the whole time, he altered the path just slightly when it got to wind. "I chose wind as my first element. I held off for so long, but when I used it again, it was clear." Naruto held up his left hand and cycled wind in a glob of shapeless chakra. This represented the yin within the wind.
Minato remained silent at this time, only looking in concentration at his son's achievement. He got the picture; this was an important moment.
"For my next element…" Naruto took a breath in as naturally as possible. "I will incorporate—wind again!" This was the decision he had made. He loved all of the elements, but this was his path. Putting up his other hand, he held up more wind chakra, this time, it formed a small blade in his hand, like a piece of paper. And then—smashed them together!
With his hands clasped together, Naruto now had to make another big decision, Yin or Yang? For Naruto, this was a simple calculation, with his body type, he would contrast it! In the cycle of his chakra being created from spiritual and physical energy, Naruto isolated out some spiritual energy and replaced it with the wind chakra he was generating in his palms. The ownerless fox chakra would come out of the seal, run along his arms, turning into the two wind chakras, and cycle back into his chakra system through a combination with physical energy.
"Your chakra! It's… changing?!" Minato yelled out.
Naruto kept the process going and going. Time stretched once again, with Naruto only focusing on directing his chakra. Gradually, the generation from the combination of both halves of the fox began to slow; but with it, less and less came towards his hands, and instead naturally formed as the two types of wind chakra into his regular chakra. Naruto's choice of wind meant the control would be slightly easier, but his chakra would more easily return to normal. Still, he could not force it, instead, letting things go naturally.
Then, it stopped.
"Have I done it?" Naruto asked with some nervousness. Hisato believed in him, everything for this one moment.
Naruto held up one hand with one wind chakra and another hand with another. "I can only control it this much, but hopefully…" Naruto mixed the two chakras, creating a strange void in his hands. He stared at it, invisible to the naked eye, but he could sense it. His chakra had become an area empty of any air.
"Haha…Ha…HAHAHA! YES! I FUCKING DID IT!" Naruto jumped up in the air. "I created my own kekkei genkai! I'll call it… vacuum style!"
"I'm very proud of you Naruto," said the Minato, "Now can you please explain what is happening?"