Ok. First Naruto fic here. Please enjoy.
PROLOGUE:
TWO YEARS AFTER THE KYŪBI ATTACK...
Random Room in the Konoha General Orphanage...
On a small cot in the room lay a child. Golden, spiky hair and three whisker marks on each cheek marked him as being different... The faint outline of a tattoo on his belly marked him as a target...
"He's cute..." A soft voice murmured. "Seeing him like this makes me feel horrible about the way I treated you back in the Academy."
"And later on the team." Another voice added with mirth in his voice. "Always chasing after your beloved Sasuke-kun."
"And you were always chasing my ass Naruto-kun." the female laughed quietly.
"Well, I have to admit that it was a pretty cute ass. Though I still stand by my word that both Ino-chan and Ten-chan had much better asses. And Hinata-chan's the all round top class kunoichi."
"Tenten and Hinata I have no problem with. Ino-pig? Never."
"Ah well... Good times..." the male sighed.
"Yeah. Then HE showed up and the world went to hell."
"We'll get back at him. We just need to set it all up."
"Yeah... I'm guessing that it's time?"
"Yeah... Keep him steady for me." The male stated as he approached the cot.
The child in there, somehow feeling a presence approaching, began to squirm.
"I will. Are the seals in place?" the female asked as she too closed in on the cot.
The child squirmed even more.
"Yes. I planted them the way instant we arrived."
Now close enough to the cot, a sliver of moonlight shone onto their heads, illuminating their features just a bit...
The female, a woman really, had pale creamy skin with what looked like bubble-gum pink hair.
The man, on the other hand looked like the young child in the cot. In fact, apart from miniscule details like significantly longer hair, a leaner face and almost nonexistent whisker marks, they could pass as brothers.
He lifted his hand over the now fully restless boy's belly as wisps of blue energy flickered around his fingertips.
At the same time, the woman's hands flashed through a string of hand seals before she sighed. "Genjutsu in place."
"Excellent." the man replied, all traces of emotions gone from his features. "On three."
"Two." the woman counted down as she placed both palms, one on the child's forehead and the other above his heart.
"One." the man's hand dropped closer to the boy's belly.
"Now." they both intoned as her hands glowed an ethereal green just as his fingertips sunk into the black outer spiral of the tattoo.
The room flashed white.
—~ ~—
The multi-storey tall bijū yawned as it rolled over to a more comfortable position. After being stuck in two prisons, one an endless void and the other, a very uncomfortable ball of viscous magma-like chakra that it was staked to, it found this one significantly better. At least now it wasn't going crazy at the infinite darkness and loss of orientation or being driven to the brink by the pain of being staked and burnt. Here, it could rest while gaining back some of the strength it had lost when that masked bastard had forced him to battle the stupid human village. Hell, when the stars were perfectly aligned, it could even see through its new jailers eyes. Unfortunately, the channel always seemed to be tuned to Mob Wars but hey. All the better to manipulate the warder into freeing him. Yup. Life was looking up.
Just as it was about to hit the sack, it felt a sudden surge of chakra surge through the seal. While this normally wouldn't have bothered it, the nature of the chakra definitely perked its interest.
'There's some of my chakra in that mix.' it thought to itself. 'Yet the other chakra is definitely similar to that of my new... host...'
Its mental ramblings were suddenly cut off as an all too familiar figure appeared.
"Oh man!" the man groaned. "I almost forgot how sudden the drop into this place could be. Not to mention just how drab my own mind-scape used to be."
"Namikaze Minato..." the fox growled in disgust. "Come to see if your work's holding up?"
The man then turned and, on seeing the demon, grinned. "Kurama! How are you? Wait. Let me guess. Still recuperating?"
The sewer exploded in sounded as the fox slammed onto its prison bars. "You bastard! You locked me in here and you dare make fun of me? I will eat you! I swear-"
"On the name of the Sage to eat me." the blond smirked. "Trust me, I've heard you say that so many times that I'm very skilled at tuning you out. So do yourself a favor and stop yapping. I need to talk to you.
The fox, surprisingly, stopped pounding on the bars.
Only to guffaw. " What makes you think that I'll listen to you?"
"Hagoromo Ōtsusuki."
The great fox, often referred to as the lord of the bijū... froze.
As in it damned near turned to ice.
The man standing in front of it, a man he despised as much as he despised a certain Uchiha, knew a name that no human alive should know.
A name that it feared.
Instantly, the gears in its head jumped to full throttle.
Now was NOT the time for threats...
—~ ~—
Less than a second had passed since he'd made his declaration to his old friend, well this version of his old friend, spoke again. He knew that he'd piqued his friend's interest by mentioning that name.
"What do you want Namikaze?"
He just grinned. "I know I look a lot like my father but come on you old fox. Spot the differences."
He could see as his friend began to think deep. He could almost hear the cogs in the wily fox's head cranking.
And he could damned near feel the aura of confusion as the dots connected.
"You bear many scents, human." the fox growled. "Some of which no human should bear."
The young looking man just kept smiling. "Like?"
The fox's frown deepened. "You bear the scent of the Namikaze... Yet you bear the scent of his mate as well... You bear my scent but with faint traces of some of my siblings... In fact, without the last ones, you could be my host."
"Got it in one." the man replied. "Guess all those periods of inactivity didn't dull your intelligence."
"Yet, you cannot be my host... He's still a bit... small." the fox countered. Then, its eyes narrowed. "When are you from?"
The man's eyes closed. When they reopened, there was no trace of the mirth that had been there seconds ago. "Guess it's time to get down to business..."
—~ ~—
"So, you're saying that in your time, some bastard named Kimimoto Shasashi brought back the premier Uchiha himself and then gave him a body that was, for all intents and purposes, both immortal and unable to run out of chakra?"
"Yeah..." the blond man sighed. "Kami-sama granted the man absolute control over our world and he allows Madara to complete the Tsuki no Me plan."
"And, before all that, I had created a contingency that you are now enacting?"
"Yeah. You've always been a wily fox."
"I try." the fox lifted and dropped a shoulder in a lazy shrug. "So, what's next in your line of action?"
The blond arched an eyebrow. "You're taking this all too easily."
The fox just shrugged again. "Not too far-fetched. Besides, if I felt that you were lying then you'd be dead."
"Really..." the man drawled only to feel a sudden sting in his cheek. "What the hell?"
"The water around you... Where does it flow from?"
The blond simply face-palmed. "So you could have done that to me back then?"
"Unfortunately, no." the fox sighed. "I can only m manipulate it around the boy with his permission."
"So why'd it work on me?" the blond whined.
"Act like a man." it snapped in response. "You're not my jailer."
Just as the blond was to make a snappy retort of his own the sewer flickered abruptly. "Kami damn it! Looks like dad was an even better fuinjutsu master than I'd expected."
"He created the seal that stuck me in here." the fox snorted as the sewer flickered again. "Of course he's better than you expected."
"I'll seal this encounter until a later time. I know you don't like that but it must be done. Call it..."
"Damage control." the fox yawned. "Now do what you must and get out of here. I need my beauty sleep."
The blond smirked. "Sure... Kurama-sama."
—~ ~—
Out in the real world, while she kept the flow of energy steady, the pink haired woman's mind was nowhere near the job she was doing. And while for others this little slip could be disastrous for the patient, she had become so skilled at this that only the most complicated of procedures truly required her concentration.
'Naruto where are you?' she wondered. 'We've still got quite a bit of work to do so you'd better not have gotten lost in your own mind...'
Then she sighed. She knew that wasn't going to happen. Her partner had an even clearer understanding of their mission here and, knowing that this was their only shoot at undoing what was their present, would battle the Shinigami himself to stop the bastard, Madara, from conquering again.
'Surprising how quickly the world can come to an end...' she mused as painful memories flashed through her mind.
It had all started when the true Akatsuki leader, a crazy wierdo calling himself Madara, had incited war against the shinobi world. With his strange army of the white abomination, Zetsu, he had managed to capture half of Iwagakure. With that, the old fence sitting geezer, Onōki, the sandaime Tsuchikage, had to pull out of his own land. Angrily, he called for a union, temporary as it would be, amongst the shinobi nations. Seeing the threat posed by this 'Madara' in his quest for the jinchūriki, the others had joined the alliance. From that point, the allied nations began to win, because let's face it; good as the Zetsu clones were, having the full force off four of the big five shinobi nations plus the multiple smaller nations granted the alliance a greater chance of success.
Then, the shit went up in the air.
'Madara', it turned out, had been training a still-seeking-revenge Sasuke Uchiha. So when the battle began to turn against him, the leader of the Akatsuki unleashed his private guard: Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Sasuke to find a certain... Snake... for him. With Orochimaru dead,his apprentice, Yakushi Kabuto had taken the mantle of his former master and clearly did well enough to warrant 'Madara's attention.
Skilled as the alliance ninja were, only the very best could handle the 'tailess bijū' and the 'dark avenger'. And with said 'very best' at the forefront of the battle, they'd cut a clean swathe through to Kabuto.
Shit got closer to the fan as it turned out that Kabuto had learnt the Nidaime Hokage's most revolting jutsu: the Edo Tensei...
Now, with some of the most powerful, and in a lot of cases, the closest, ninja returned to life under Kabuto's command, the alliance was hard pressed again... Yet they pulled through as, in their darkest hour... well, second darkest hour... Naruto had arrived with the jinchūriki of the Hachibi, Kirabi of Kumogakure in tow. Their combined effort had once again put the alliance on the brink of victory...
Splat! Yep... That's the sound of shit hitting the fan...
Suddenly, a brilliant flash of light exploded from her charge's belly and her partner was sent hurtling into the wall.
Considering the fact that the wall was only about four feet from him and that he was hurled back faster than Jiraiya on an Air Tsunade flight... Yeah... That had to hurt.
After running a final diagnostic scan to be sure of her charge's health status, she cut off the flow of energy to her palms and dashed over to her partner's side. "I'm not even going to ask if that hurt."
"Good." he groaned as he sat up a bit. "I take back all my previous thoughts. Dad was an excellent fuinjutsu master."
"What happened?"
"The seal... It basically didn't recognize me and threw me out."
"We both know it's not that simple." she crossed her armed under her bust. "More detailed explanation. Now."
Knowing that she wouldn't budge an inch if he didn't acquiesce, and considering the tiredness he felt from the series of time jumps he'd made, he simply sighed. "Basically, the moment I entered the seal, it tried to hurl me out. However, knowing what I do about it, I was able to circumvent its attempts. Unfortunately, the moment I began the memory share with Kurama, it was able to take back control from me. By the time the sharing was done, it had already slammed the door shut. Once again, it was only my knowledge of the seal that made it possible for me to even be able to seal away the new memories from Kurama's mind."
"But, after all that, you did what you came here for?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Yes."
"And you're sure Inoichi-san will not find us?"
The blond just snorted. "I lived under Uchiha Madara's Tsuki no Me for two full years, the second of which I spent creating the big-ass seal that threw us through time to this point. Ino's dad is high on cactus juice if he thinks he can find me."
"You could just have said 'the seals embedded in the walls will definitely prevent that' but no~. You just had to stroke your own ego."
"Well you don't stroke it for me..." the blond, upon replaying that sentence in his mind just cringed. "You know what? Forget that I ever said that."
"What'll I ever do with you?"
"Well, since we're done for now, how bout you... treat me to ramen tomorrow? It's too bad Teuchi-jii and Ayame-nee-chan haven't set up shop yet but I'm sure threll be something good we can find..."
The pinkette assumed an exaggerated thinking pose before shrugging. "Fine..."
The blond was up in a flash... literally... and hugged the woman to himself. "You're the best Sakura-chan!"
"I know." she laughed as he spun her around. "And don't you forget it Naruto-kun."
With that, they disappeared in a bright orange flash.
They never noticed the young child staring at them unblinkingly through the bars of his cot...
—~ ~—
Ok, that's it for the first chapter of Altered.
Constructive reviews kindly appreciated.
Beyond that, nothing else to say so, bye for now.
The Ethereal Lord.