Written by: DarthPel
Beta'ed by: TheDeadGirlRisen, Grandmaster Robin, Freelancerofthe TriforceKeyblade
Author Notes: well, this was a good while! Welcome to a new journey. I recently started watching the Fate series and was bitten by this plot bunny. As usual I found myself some peeps who know a thing or two about the world and began writing away!
Special thanks to the proofreaders and a cunt called Aiden for helping me with this!
Three figures could be seen floating in green skies, as they fought for supremacy. Naruto Uzumaki, and Uchiha Sasuke threw everything they could against their mad ancestor, Kaguya Otsutsuki in a desperate gambit to seal away the Rabbit Goddess.
The two fought effectively, as a well coordinated team despite the years of rivalry and misspent time trying to kill each other. The two old friends and rivals covered for each other's weakness, but try as they might, they could never get close enough to seal the demon of a woman.
"Damn this rabbit bitch." Naruto muttered to himself, "I wish I knew my father's thunder god technique…"
Sasuke had the galls to snort then as he rehutted, "You're too stupid to have utilized it anyways, loser."
The two cut the chatter short as they were forced on the defensive once more as Kaguya attacked them with her ash-killing bone.
The Uzumaki wasted no time as he flew behind the ancient goddess rasengan forming in hand, hoping to push her towards his ally and finally seal her away for good.
But that slimy figured black zetsu interfered, alerting the goddess as to his intention and promptly backhanded him away. She turned towards him, once again readying her deadly attack.
Sasuke moved in, seeing as the woman had her back to him and was focused on Naruto, who was once again flying towards the horned figure, hoping to land a finishing blow as well. Only for her to respond with the least expected chakra powered punch.
The two friends were struck and sent plummeting towards the ground. As Kaguya used her incredible speed in a faint. As they fell, she took aim and let loose a volley of ash killing bone bullets. One of which struck Sasuke in his lower right abdomen.
Naruto, as he corrected himself, saw what happened to his oldest friend and immediately flew towards him. Just as he managed to grab hold of the Uchiha, a portal opened up right below their feet. With no room to correct their momentum, they passed right through it, and fell upon a similar landscape through which they had just been. A barren desert, but the sky was blue instead of green, and the sands were bleached instead of the red hue. And he could make out the familiar moon.
None of that mattered now though, as Naruto cradled Sasuke, whose body he felt crumbled to dust beneath his hands.
Sasuke struggled to breath as Naruto put pressure on his lower abdomen. The sudden realization of his imminent death softened his hollow heart as he could feel his loved ones calling to him. He used his free hand to touch Naruto's face, the dumb blond who was attenpting to assure him everything would be alright.
The last Uchiha coughed, and struggled through as he spoke, "Naruto… You have to… cough... You have to end her."
Sasuke could feel that he didn't have much time, so he fought through the pain and reached deep within himself. He scraped all the chakra that he had left to carry out his final deed. It was a painful process alone not to mention the fact that he was dying and his body was changing chemical composition. But nevertheless he bore through it, fought through the draining feeling and the emptiness and drowsiness that was rapidly overcoming him, "Avenge us Naruto… Avenge Itachi… the Uchiha… everyone." His red and purple eyes locked with sage orange as he left a last message.
"Hold on Sasuke, don't you fucking die you hear me!" Naruto yelled as he tried his best to heal his friend through the use of his sun seal, but his luck ran out as his six path sage mode gave out right then and there.
The blond looked wide eyed, "It can't… it can't be." His hand trembled, and his lips quivered in anguish, tears began to stain his cheeks. His friend was dying, and there wasn't any natural energy in the air for him to draw from to save him, "Sasuke."
Sasuke tsk'ed, "A loser to the end… thank you Naruto, for being my friend."
As the last of his chakra left him through his hand and into the blond, so too did his body turn into dust and crumbled into the air.
Naruto sat on all fours, anguish gripped his chest as he felt his heart being torn out of him, and he let loose all the rage and sorrow he had in his voice.
Reality began to sink in as his voice started to crack and fail, his hoarse voice devolved into a guttural cry. His dreams seemingly fell around him: He couldn't save his friend nor would he fulfill his promise to Sakura. Without Sasuke, he could never bring peace as he had promised Nagato. He would never become Hokage. After all, if he couldn't even save his friend nor keep even the simplest of promise, what right did he have to be Hokage?
His vision stung, not the familiar sting of crying, but a foreign sting as red tinged his vision. Another portal opened and out crawled Kaguya, standing tall above him.
Suddenly the pain Naruto felt transformed into something, sadness turned into rage, the sight of the goddess sparked a hatred beneath his skin and it consumed him. He no longer even thought of Kurama as he blocked everything around.
Kaguya gave out a gargled cry as she felt her powers being compressed, the very place she stood was fighting against her, she realized with horror.
Her blond descendant took the opportunity to go onto the offensive as he threw every punch, kick, and elbow he could. She was battered unlike ever before until a sweeping kick felled her onto her back. A gold hue began to surround her as she began to fade, but that didn't matter to Naruto, who looked at her with the same red eyes her son Hagoromo had once looked at her with… no, it was more akin to her Grandson's, Indra.
It was pure hatred.
A Rasengan slammed into her navel, drawing pained cries from her lips. Black Zetsu tried to intervene, but he was kicked away.
The blond walked away momentarily, ceasing her torment momentarily. And after a few minutes, he came back holding Zetsu by the neck, his eyes looking at her with coldness. As he raised his right hand towards her, it now contained both the sun and moon seals.
Naruto's downward strike was all Kaguya saw as she ceased to exist.
Naruto let out a breath, all the exhaustion of fighting over the last two days and the emotional turmoil finally caught up to him. And he passed out in the hot sand, not even caring that such temperatures would scorch his face, afterall, what was a little physical discomfort against the exhaustion that just hit him like a Juubi Bomb?
Zelretch smiled in amusement at his finding. It seemed the champion he had summoned had finally materialized. The weirdly clad, orange jumpsuit wearing blond was fast asleep in the sands of the scorching desert had finally deigned to appear.
The man took the teen and threw him over his shoulders and began walking away. He had places he'd much rather be than the middle of the North Sahara.
"Heh, let's see what you have to offer, boy. I hope you find your time on this world amusing."
Naruto floated along the familiar water that made up the floor of his subconscious mindscape, he had suddenly come to a very hard and violent realization.
He could truly understand Sasuke now.
That wasn't some arbretary thought that had randomly cropped into his mind, now. It was the images he was seeing with his very eyes. He watched the Uchiha massacre happen first hand through the eyes of a young and innocent Uchiha. He watched the pitying eyes of the village, the deceitful words of the elders and the sandaime Hokage. Orochimaru, Fighting Itachi, his eyes watched emotionlessly, the memories that were not his own.
Suddenly, he could feel someone next to him, and he turned his head to see his now dead friend, lying next to him as he too watched.
"You know, I intended to kill you once we defeated Kaguya." Sasuke's echo spoke.
"You wish. I would've stomped you into a corner so you finally got it through your thick skull…" Naruto answered, a fleeting annoyance in his voice.
The blond turned back to look at the images, sighing, "We're not Indra and Ashura, nor are we Madara and Hashirama. I promised to end this cycle of conflict to Nagato, and the old man sage. And I always keep my promises."
"Even if it meant your death?" Sasuke asked genuinely, there wasn't a hint of malice in his voice.
"Yeah… if I had to give my life for peace I would've given it up in a heartbeat." Naruto stated, "But what you intended wouldn't have led to peace would it? We were both missing a piece of the puzzle…"
"We were missing each other in the equation." Sasuke admitted, "But I'm dead now."
"It should've been me." Naruto uttered.
The Uchiha shook his head, "It doesn't matter now. Naruto. I left you my Chakra, and my eyes… I wanted you to avenge us, and… I'm not willing to accept the loss of the legacy of my clan completely. My ambitions were to kill Itachi… and to restore my clan. I don't go back on my word."
Naruto chuckled, "Taking my lines now eh?"
"Hn. Don't mistake this, Naruto. I ensured my clan will survive, through you. You are my only friend… promise me you won't let it die." Naruto made eye contact with the Uchiha, and saw the seriousness in his face.
Naruto closed his eyes as he said, "I broke my promise to Sakura to bring you home… and… I don't even think I could get back to the elemental nations, I can't even feel nature chakra… why do you trust me?"
"Because you never go back on your word."
"What exactly did you do?" Naruto asked curiosity seeping through his voice.
"I passed on all the chakra I had left onto you… and passed on my Sharingan along with it." Sasuke stated, causing Naruto to sit up in alarm, "Wait, wouldn't you have to take out my eyes and insert yours for that?"
The black haired Uchiha shook his head, and crossed his arms, a slight smirk coming to his face, "I had learned of a way I could pass it on through my chakra. Hn, I didn't think I would ever need it, but here we are. The technique could only be used if I was on the verge of dying. I doubt you will be able to use it's full power right away, but eventually you might. This is how I will continue the Uchiha legacy, because your children will inherit the sharingan. My clan will not die with me."
"I promise you, I will pass it on."
Satisfied to have secured the blond's promise the chakra construct began to fade leaving one last word of advice, "You will now see the world through my eyes… succeed where I failed my old friend. Do not let hatred consume you, Naruto."
Just like that, the images faded along with the chakra construct of his friend. Naruto found himself in his seal space, where Kurama towered over him.
Naruto simply floated in silence, his eyes saddened as he mourned the death of his friend. The tailed beast was surprisingly silent, as if allowing him space.
It felt like hours before either spoke, but the orange furred fox broke the silence, "I don't think we'll be getting back anytime soon."
"Yeah… could you tell if there were any living beings wherever we landed?" Naruto asked.
"I could only faintly feel a human presence… very close to us… I'd wager they are carrying us."
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, "I left my body in the middle of a desert… the fact it was found brings me some relief."
"What about the Uchiha?" Kurama asked out of nowhere.
"We spoke… Kurama… how could I have gotten the Sharingan without taking his physical eyes?"
"We spoke briefly when he died, he passed everything he was onto you. That's how." The tailed beast answered, "It helped that the brat did inherit some of the old man's chakra."
Naruto nodded, "I should probably come to practice with it shouldn't I?"
Kurama laid down with his head in his paws, "Do whatever you wish. Do you have any idea where we are?"
"None at all."
It would be hours before Naruto felt the tug of waking up, and giving one last sigh he gave into it, mentally readying himself for what was to come.
"Ah, you're finally awake." An elderly looking man spoke to him as he sat up, trying to rid himself of the sleep in his eyes. He had a throbbing headache, probably a result of whatever Sasuke had done to him.
"Where… am I?" Naruto asked, noting that his voice was dry, a result from the scorching heat he felt in the air.
"In Egypt fortunately, luckily you didn't find yourself deeper into the Sahara desert." The elderly man answered, "Name's Zelretch. Welcome to a world called Earth."
"Earth? Where are the Elemental Nations?" Naruto asked, his voice raising in gradual concern.
"I'm afraid they no longer exist boy. That world is now dead," The old man answered, "But you're here now. Might as well make the best of it while you can!"
"The world is dead? How am I here? Who are you?"
"The name is Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. But you can call me Zelretch."
Naruto stood at the edge of the Nile river, facing towards the distant Valley of Kings. He was in another dimension, though the concept of dimensional travel was no longer a strange matter thanks to Kaguya taking him and his team through various dimensions. Despite this knowledge, and having seen some crazy happenings in his time, there was a singular concept that he couldn't understand.
The information he was just told was impossible to believe, he wanted to refuse to believe what the being next to him had passed on to him. He wanted to refuse, yet he knew that he was being told the truth.
His world, his home, was gone, destroyed, dead. The rabbit goddess had won. Kaguya was victorious.
Hands clenched as his body shook, the words of the being who had introduced himself as Zelretch echoing in his mind. That in the short time after he had fallen through the portal, and cradled a dying Sasuke, Kaguya had managed to extinguish all remaining life in his home world, including Kakashi and Sakura.
The being, who looked like an old man, had offered to take the young ninja to see their corpses, yet Naruto refused. It was hard enough even just processing the information, if he had to confront the corpses with his own senses, well Naruto didn't know if his mind would remain intact.
Sakura… Kakashi… Ino.. Shikamaru...Choji...Kiba…
So many of his friends, his precious people, were dead, he didn't even want to imagine what the rabbit goddess had done to them. How she had tortured and mutilated them before she murdered them. Naruto was used to carnage, but he would never be able to stand the sight that he knew would have greeted him.
He took in a shaky breath, holding it in to try and force himself to calm down as he felt his eyes burn. He turned away from the being and looked out over the distant valley, trying and failing to distract himself from the knowledge that weighed down upon him.
Naruto tried to take in another breath, but choked as his throat felt clogged, his stomach weighed like 100 bowls of ramen were in it.
Why? Why couldn't he keep his promise?
He had failed everyone.
"It's okay to cry sonny," Zelretch spoke from behind him, "It'll do you no good holding it in," his voice held a note of wisdom in it, a man who spoke from experience.
Naruto rubbed at his chest, heart burning as he spoke in choppy sentences, "I… I promised everyone… I promised them I would bring peace… that I would end the cycle of hatred… but they're dead… I failed them."
He swayed on his feet, the knowledge fully sinking in and he sunk to his knees, cheeks quickly becoming red and inflamed as the tears ran down them. He lowered himself down to the ground, curled up in a fetal position as he sobbed the tears dripping down the side of his face and onto the grass underneath him.
The old man watched with a frown on his face, shifting side to side for a moment before he crouched down next to the boy and placed his hand on his shoulder, trying to offer a little bit of comfort.
A month later, a dead eyed Naruto listened to the instructor Zelretch had ditched him with. He was learning a language called English. Apparently the old troll had plans to ditch him once more in a country called England in a few months. Not that Naruto cared what he did, he didn't care what happened in the world around him.
He went through the motions mechanically as he was asked to draw on parchment each individual letter of the language's alphabet. Upper case, lower case. If he felt remotely anything, it was the indignation of the exercise. He felt a tingle of frustration at doing something that made him feel as if he was a toddler and was starting his first year at the academy all over again.
A, B, C, D...
A, b, c, d…
The lesson continued until it was lunch time. At which time, he ate a rather crumbly bread, some vegetables, chicken, and a drink he was told was called beer.
Afterwards, he received lessons on etiquette and chivalry in this world.
His eyebrows actually twitched at that. He hated those etiquette lessons, covering a wide range of topics from table etiquette to chivalric values. The source of his problem, such stringent codes of honor.
As he studied the world's relatively recently recorded history, and specifically, its military progression. The modern weaponry and formations, the fighters. He was rather put off by what he saw, the opposite of what shinobi warfare tended to be, large battles with formation marches and maneuvers.
It's true that Shinobi had large sized battles with hundreds on either side during the wars, it had come to an understanding that smaller assault teams won the war. Such as what team seven was originally meant to be, a small but well oiled heavy assault squad that could wreak havoc towards the enemy. Minato Namikaze, Kakashi, the legendary three ninja. Hiruzen Sarutobi, they had all been part of the same rotations, and each individual shinobi to come out of such an arrangement could have easily faced a thousand, run of the mill chunin and jounin.
These clinically cold thoughts came to him. Perhaps it was a result of Sasuke's influence over him, but he had grown a dislike of this world.
When the sunset came he was free to do as he wished, which often meant practicing his shinobi skills.
Mostly it meant most of the evening was spent learning from Sasuke's memories. He learned things like fire and lightning release, shurikenjutsu, and how to activate and deactivate his Sharingan on instinct.
The Sharingan had left him with another startling reminder, that nobody in this world had chakra. While that empowered some of the eyes skills such as genjutsu, it also left part of the eye's abilities useless, such as copying ninjutsu.
Mechanically sipping on his tea, Naruto furrowed his brows. It also meant that he was at a huge disadvantage when it came to fighting against mages, as he had found out through the old man, he couldn't see or sense magic in other beings or items.
And while others couldn't sense him either, his limited skill set was an issue. Maybe once he had organized all the memories he had floating around in his mind he would find more jutsu to recreate from memory to broaden his skill set. At least he still had Kurama. That was a huge trump card to tuck away for now.
"Boy!" And there it was, Zelretch returned after going missing for three weeks.
"Hai?" Naruto yelled back across the room, as he stood up. Over the last six months, the only thing Naruto had kept that he had brought with him on the unwilling dimensional trip was his riveted chainmail armor, which had been a gift from Jiraiya during their training trip. Even his kunai pouch had been traded for sealing arrays taped around his arms.
He now dressed in more period appropriate clothing, a black court doublet that served to hide his armor, slacks, and a pair of hide boots.
The sixteen year old came out towards the dining area of the house to greet his provider and guardian, dead eyes met gleaming red. Yup, the old bastard was up to something.
Standing tall and straight the Vampire began, "Well, over the last six months, I've saved your life. Fed you, clothed you, and educated you."
Naruto nodded, and answered, "I am thankful that you took care of me while I was at my worst and saved my life. I owe you a debt."
"And I've come to collect." The old man answered, "Before we go. You are getting married."
The blond quirked his eyebrow, curiosity getting the better of him, "Married? To who?"
Zelretch gave him a predatory grin, "Not even a protest? Well, her name is Arturia Pendragon."
Naruto closed his eyes, trying to connect the name, eventually, he gave up and shook his head, "I'm terribly sorry but i don't recognize that name."
"Hehe."
"Ah, there you are Zelretch." A voice called out as they approached a castle that stood at the foot of a mountain. The voice was young, belonging to someone Naruto assumed to be a teenager with long spiky white hair. His soft cut features made him look like a rather handsome person and his purple eyes were an oddly fitting sight.
"Merlin!" The Vampire called back boisterously.
The now identified teen, known as Merlin turned his eyes towards the blond. "Is this him?"
"Yeah, Naruto Uzumaki, as we discussed previously." Zelretch answered, putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder.
The mage narrowed his eyes before he sighed and said, "He doesn't look like much."
"He could level the entire palace and mountain in two moves! He may not look it, but there's firepower hidden under that sad face of his." Was that pride that Naruto sensed?
"Let's go, they're waiting."
The inside of the keep was somewhat spacious despite how small it looked on the outside. It was well decorated with paintings and chandeliers and tapestries.
Naruto took note of the various suits of armor put up for display, they reminded him of the Samurai of the land of Iron. He tuned out the two men who spoke in the english tongue in favor of spying ahead to the hall they were coming up on, which was guarded by two men dressed in similar armor as the display suits Naruto had just passed.
Staring out the window into a courtyard, he observed a blond haired girl, about thirteen to fourteen years old, dressed in a long blue dress with her hair let down. Naruto closed his eyes, she was definitely much too young. The teen closed his eyes. He probably should protest now.
"No backing out now, son." Zelretch whispered loud enough for him to hear, to which he replied in his native tongue, "She's much too young."
"I assure you she's old enough." Merlin stated behind him, also speaking his language. Naruto narrowed his eyes but nevertheless kept his eyes forward. Staring at a blond haired, blue eyed teenager dressed in silver and blue armor.
"Sir Kay. They're here." The white haired teenager called out, reverting back to the English language. Naruto gulped as deeply intense eyes all focused on him.
"Father, is there really no changing your mind on this?" The younger Knight asked, upon seeing Naruto's face.
"Yes Kay, it was an agreement set before we took Artoria into our household. A word once given must be upheld." Sir Ector answered, stone faced, but it was anything he wasn't happy with the day's proceedings.
"Ah, Sir Ector, I am humbled to be in your presence." The vampire spoke, his voice as smooth as silk as the man gave a small head bow.
"Likewise, it is an Honor, to meet one of the true magicians." Ector answered, turning to the blue eyed teen and extended his hand as he introduced himself, "Sir Ector, one of Lord Pendragon's loyalists, and Artoria's father."
"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto introduced himself as well as he stared the older man in the eye and took his hand with a firm grip.
"Fearless and Firm." The Knight muttered with an approving nod as he let go.
"I am Sir Kay, Arturia's brother." The younger Knight butted in. Naruto regarded him with disinterest and a bored blink, as Kay continued, "Before you're allowed to meet my little sister, I want to fight you kid."
"Kay!" Naruto faintly heard in the background as he closed his eyes and crossed his arms. After a moment of silence he responded in his heavily accented English, "No swords… fist to fist."
The silence in the room was deafening, before Naruto's "Guardian" bursted into laughter.
"I should warn you Sir Knight, Naruto here loves fighting. He may not look much, but don't underestimate him."
Artoria watched from a distance, she knew why Merlin had brought the strange foreign boy, the one with weird whisker marks on his cheeks. He was her betrothed, soon to be her husband. The 14 year old girl sighed to herself, she had been told this was part of her duty, that one day he would help her liberate her people.
But if she was honest with herself, he didn't look like much. The rich looking clothes made him feel like a pampered noble, and something about his eyes made her uncomfortable. He had yet to give her more than a brief glance, scratch that, he seemed to look right through her. She wondered what had happened to him, to have such eyes.
The Knight and Shinobi stood outside after fifteen minutes. After all, Sir Kay had wanted to change into something that would put them on more even ground.
Dressed in a loose fighting cotton shirt and loose slacks the knight faced off against his opponent, hands up near his face, something akin to a boxing stance as he stood legs bent at an angle, feet shoulder width apart.
Naruto on the other hand stood with a lightly guarded pose, right feet slightly forward and left feet behind his right about 30 inches apart.
Kay rushed towards his fellow blond, throwing his hand out for a punch towards the whiskered face of his opponent.
Naruto having long since predicted this moved grabbed his opponent's outstretched limb, lashed his right leg out as he pulled the blue eyed knight towards him kneeing the man in the stomach, as he stomped on his foot, Naruto used his free arm to push Kay towards the ground from the shoulder of the hand he was holding, twisting said limb behind him, as they fell, Naruto used his leverage to land a knee on his opponent's back, "Give up."
Those who didn't know Naruto beforehand looked at what happened with wide eyes, except Merlin who merely took the results with interest.
"I believe this proves that my Naruto here can protect the lady, beyond a shadow of a doubt?" Zelretch asked Merlin who nodded, "Indeed, I'm interested in what the future holds for you, Uzumaki Naruto."
"Thanks."
"What do you think, Artoria?" Ector asked, "It seems he knows a thing or two about fighting."
"It was unchilvaric."
"Hey what was that?" Kay yelled out in complaint, "I thought we were gonna have a fist fight. You deceitful bastard. How would you like it if i did that to someone you love?"
Naruto's eyes flashed with something Artoria couldn't identify, before he flashed everyone with a huge smile and answered, "Do not worry. My... precious friends are strong. Stronger than you."
Artoria noted how he smiled and grew wider, before he said something that shook her to her core, "Besides, everyone I love is already dead."