What's up, fanfic gang? I'm RasBoricasso and this is my very first fanfic. I'm open to constructive criticism, to better improve the story. Be warned. Your favourite character might get roasted. There is an influx of OCs used to tie the story of Naruto in a way that might or might not appeal to you. There is also a lot of Japanese wording, which will only be explained after a certain number of chapters. Well then, let the fun begin.
This chapter has been revised, so certain words have changed. Subsequent chapters will be edited too.
Also, Naruto is owned by Mashashi Kishimoto. The OCs are borrowed from Saeki Shun and Yuto Tsukuda's Shokugeki no Soma. Neither of which are mine to own.
"Oh well" - human speech
"What the heck" - letters/human thought
"It's my world!" - summoning/ Bijū speech
"I wonder if he smokes" - summoning/ Bijū thought
Prologue: Da Capo
The Daimyo is a ruler of one of the Five Great Nations, like a king, and this tradition has been carried down for generations. The earliest example of a Daimyo is Tenji, a ruler of the land of Ko, in present time Kaminari no kuni. Tenji had a concubine named Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, an extra-terrestrial pseudo-deity from a distant world from that of the Great Nations. They had a set of twins together, even though they ended up falling out, resulting in an annihilation of the whole world in the form of Mugen Tsukuyomi, a genjutsu of the Rinne-Sharingan designed to trap its victims in a never ending loop of dreams that reflect their desires, siphoning their chakra via Shinju, a tree the Ōtsutsuki concubine had followed to get to the Elemental Nations, and turn them into mindless slaves with zero interest in individuality whatsoever. Thus, the world was restarted, just like it ended: on a whim, automatically making Kaguya a Daimyo by default.
Her two sons, Hagoromo and Hamura had little to no understanding as to why their mother felt the need to make slaves out of people, and instead duked it out with their mom. Hagoromo with his own unique purple Rinne-Sharingan and Hamura with his Tenseigan (after his subsequent death and revival by his elder brother). Years after the inevitable defeat and sealing of the Shinju and Kaguya, the two brothers split, not before raising each other's families in love, as opposed to Kaguya's opinion of power being the best option. With that said, Hamura left one of his sons in the care of his elder brother before leaving for the moon, leading to the formation of the Hyuga clan.
As for Hagoromo, he helped rebuild the scarred world, sharing his beliefs of a peaceful world with understanding of the greater good with Ninshū, the Shinobi Creed which he ended up getting glorified as the Rikudō Sennin for. Spiritual connections with yourself and those around you to help this world to see unification as a means to peace- that is Ninshū. Or that is, what he planned, but he gradually learned that such a creed took longer to achieve, in his case, it seemed impossible. Nevertheless, with him being the first custodian of Ninshū and the first and only master at the time, he, in turn was the first Daimyo of a unified Elemental Nations, surpassing his own father Tenji and his co-predecessors.
He had two sons, before his wife's passing. Ōtsutsuki Indra and Ōtsutsuki Ashura. Indra, the older of the two, have superb insight into the teachings of Ninshū and a knack for turning his insight into reality. In a nutshell, he was a genius. Armed with brains and his father's keen eyes, he was the wind of change that Ninshū had the privilege of dwelling on, in terms of what ninja of a later day and age call ninjutsu. Forming what he called "seals" with his hands, he could call upon abilities charged with his chakra. These abilities were called jutsu, and were based on five elements being the most basic yet most abundant in the world and most attuned to the nature of their world: Mizu, Kaminari, Tsuchi, Kaze and Hi. These hand seals, twelve in total, were attuned to these elements with certain patterns being displayed to call upon a certain jutsu at any given moment, propelled by a certain amount of chakra.
As expected, the breakthrough was awe-inspiring for the other followers of Ninshū, but this worried Hagoromo and in turn, put his younger son in a very precarious position.
Ashura was, for a lack of more precise explanations, the complete opposite of Indra. Brash, impatient and slow on the learning intake, he was considered a dunce and was always frowned upon by the followers of Ninshū due to his capacity as a son of their master and was ridiculed at times for not meeting their expectations as an Ōtsutsuki heir. That would put most people down. For him, it didn't matter that he wasn't as talented as his "nii-san" as he affectionately calls Indra. In fact, he was glad that he had room to learn because that meant more time with his brother in training and just being a kid. Always dozing off when reading his father's various journals on Ninshū and showing off his clumsiness and recklessness during training, he was as free-spirited as they could be and it was perfectly okay with it. Until eventually everything changed and he had to deal with a monster that planned to destroy everything for the sake of peace and order. Yes, the eventual descent of Indra into darkness.
As it came to a point where Hagoromo had to choose a successor to his way of life, he sent his sons to faraway villages on a quest to figure out how they could help out with the situation the villagers were plagued with. The fine detail in that, was that the solution was supposed to be long-term and peaceful. The brothers returned, one returning a few months later and the other, almost a year after. After a short summary of the steps taken from his sons to reach a solution and a brief but powerful intervention from the first toad sage, Gamamaru, Hagoromo made a decision. Ashura was chosen. Unexpectedly, Ashura asked his father to rescind his decision and hand it over to Indra but he refused, not even letting up on the matter. His reason? Indra let the villagers depend on him, instead of encouraging them to work together with him, resulting in a civil war in the village that devastated them days later.
That same night, Indra attacked his father's headquarters, demanding his reasons as to why he chose a dunce over a powerful man like him. His answer was a band of people who unified against him, Ashura included, to defeat him. As much as he tried to decimate them with his Mangekyō Sharingan, a dōjutsu he gained by killing his two best friends, he was defeated in one of the brothers' ever galactic clashes because his younger brother, the dunce that clung to his "nii-san" had inherited his father's Rikudō Sennin powers,a package of powers he thought he would be the one to attain, further infuriating him. After running away to lick his wounds for several decades, he came back, a few days before his father's passing, to further reinforce his point of view, that power will prevail for one has to reign in their power to instill stability and create peace. Vowing to kill his brother and followers, he left.
On the day of Hagoromo's passing, Ashura told his father that he would shower the love, for it is with understanding each other as people can they work around their strengths to reach a greater goal, and the most crucial part of it is to love your fellow people. With that said, Hagoromo took his final breath and left the corporeal plane, leaving Ashura as the leader of Ninshū, the Hagoromo, Uzumaki and Senju clans and the Daimyo of the unified world... or what was left for him to rule. Allies to Ninshū and these clans that Ashura was the progenitor of (indirectly) included Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka and so on.
Indra, on the other hand, created a sector of Ninshū that was governed on standards of reinforcement using power as the glue to prolonged stability, with the Uchiha, Kaguya, Yuki, and Chinoike clans as descendants and allied with Yotsuki, Shimura, Hozuki and other clans before the great Warring Clans era, where the prominence of the Uchiha and Senju shone throughout history as the deadliest of the warring clans, with powerhouses such as Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Izuna, Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama and so forth.
Two clans that never went to war during this period were the Hyuga and Uzumaki clans. Situated near the Hi-Kaminari border and Uzushiogakure no Sato in Uzu no Kuni, off the coast of Mizu no Kuni respectively, they had their own battles to win.
The Hyūga clan believed themselves to be of celestial blood and held themselves in such regard. Technically, they were not off the mark. Descendents of Ōtsutsuki Hamura, they have the distinct pupil-less, white eyes of the Ōtsutsuki, the Byakugan, at their disposal and is their most important feature when identifying them. The very first Hyūga, Ōtsutsuki Hideki, had been left under Hagoromo's care by Hamura, his father, when the former had to go to the newly created (at the time) moon, which happened to be a giant seal performed by the twins, who would be later known as Chibaku Tensei. Hideki, was supposed to be an ambassador to the Shinobi that his father would later groom on the moon, and was left with an unsaid task of building his own family so his brothers' (Akira and Tenji - named after his grandfather) descendents, who kept the Ōtsutsuki name could connect together. As is the case, Hideki agreed with his uncle about the principle of understanding each other as a means to attain peace but figured that one should be powerful enough to protect such peace and should go through their fair share of sacrifices to achieve that. Hence, the only way he could do that was to isolate his family from the outside world, selecting a few to re-educate their brethren about the happenings outside of the estate he built, and applying that knowledge to his own interpretation of Ninshū and his father's own brand of teachings from the moon. The result? A systematic way of life that relies on grooming one's own with one key element: never leaking any of the information to the outside world. Thus, the concept of hijutsu was born and more clans decided to be secretive with their own reditions of Ninshū, from which ninjutsu was derived,via Indra.
The same could be said for the Uzumaki clan. The most distinguished clan descended from Ashura, the Uzumaki inherited high chakra capacity and density from him, and were the only clan from this branch of the Ōtsutsuki capable of inheriting a dōjutsu. The reason behind this was never quite explained, although it was speculated that they had more genetic variation exposed to them as opposed to the other descendants. As a result, they have seen a wide variety of these dōjutsu appear on their brethren to a point where they took these mutations as a normal thing.
These dōjutsu included the Chinoike clan's Ketsuryugan, a dōjutsu with a red, dark crimson pupil, and vertical white slit in the middle that allows the wielder to cast very powerful genjutsu and manipulate blood, in particular the iron in blood, the Rinnegan, one of the so-called Great Three Dōjutsu, a purple, three-ringed, black pupil eye capable of of repelling and attracting objects to the wielder, summoning animals outside the corporeal plane, sealing beings by burying them in a gravitational cluster of rock with a epicenter created from thin air, leaping into and through created portals and recalling souls from the afterlife, reviving the bodies they inhabited at the cost of the wielder's life energy, and the Jōgan, or the pure eye, which consists of a black sclera and an azure blue pupil, is not known of due to its rare occurance but is capable of transporting the wielder from one world to the other, similar to the Rinnegan, in what is called jikukan (space-time) ninjutsu, allowing the wielder to get an X-ray vision of their opponents' tenketsu points, like the Byakugan, and is believed to be the progenitor of the three Great Dōjutsu, along with the Rinne-Sharingan.
With a clan as ridiculous as this in terms of overwhelming potential and power, many from other clans would try to kidnap them for their name and exploit them in the hopes that they or their children become powerful, but they would fail completely for multiple reasons.
With an island surrounded by whirlpools capable of sinking the toughest ships ever created, Uzu no Kuni wasimpenetrable. If that was not enough, they had a plethora of seals that covered the whole island in every direction, from a height of of ten thousand metres above sea level to five thousand metres below sea level. These seals, were part of a shinobi art named fuinjutsu, the very same one that used when Hagoromo and Hamura fought against their mother, Kaguya. It is this very art that the rest of the Elemental Nations hated and feared the Uzumaki for. Add in their life force that could make a deity jealous with envy and intellectual prowess, and you would have one of, if not the most powerful and menacing clan to ever grace the Elemental Nations.
Both the Hyūga and Uzumaki were in contact with each other and their distant Ōtsutsuki brethren as the millennia passed and were strictly told not to interfere in the wars, for something despicable would happen if they did. The Uzumaki, led by Ashina, questioned the decision and decided to at least help one clan they were particularly close to: the Senjū, the clan with a thousand skills. As the Warring Clans era drew to a close, Uzumaki Ashina conducted the first Unification Summit between the Uchiha and Senjū,after the latter forced the former to surrender due to the heavy casualties inflicted on them, giving rise to the very first hidden village, a coalition of clans unified by Uchiha Madara and Senjū Hashirama. Signed and sealed, with Ashina as witness, Konohagakure no Sato was born. The village then got an alliance with Uzu no Kuni that same year.
Of course, such an alliance was opposed by citizens of Uzushio, as they saw these former enemies as untrustworthy clans to them and would rather see them dead that alive, so Ashina, proposed for the clan to secure several small islands around Uzu no Kuni, inhabit them, secure them and throw the world off, making sure that people believe that Uzushio is the only place they would inhabit in the event that they are attacked. An evacuation plan spanning years to execute without a hitch, women and children, along with the elderly were taken to these islands and integrated, without any leak of information whatsoever. Three of Ashina's direct relatives and bloodline went to at least one of the islands, so as to keep some kind of hierarchy going. In Uzushio, Ashina, his wife Sayuri, his eldest daughter Mito, his eldest son, Kōjiro and his youngest son Tobio were among the very few inhabitants left, totaling up to five thousand citizens of Uzushio. That meant that, out of twelve thousand citizens, less than half of the population stayed, considering themselves martyrs already. The rest of them moved to three smaller islands. Two on the eastern side of Mizu no Kuni and one on the northern side of Mizu no Kuni. Overall, two thousand citizens per island was the tally. The thousand that was left decided to be spies for the clan and helped their leader Ashina with keeping tabs on the ever growing hidden villages that used the same structure that their leader helped to engineer. Most of them created bases in Konohagakure and the newly created Sunagakure no Sato in Kaze no Kuni. Some spread to Iwagakure in Tsuchi no Kuni as merchantsselling fish imported from Uzushio. Some entered into Kumogakure no Sato.
As the years passed, the hidden villages grew hostile towards each other but did no prefer to show it due to the presence of the Shodaime Hokage, Senjū Hashirama, a peace-loving beast of godly proportion... at least, to them. The Hokage was well-versed in all Shinobi arts, preferring to shine in ninjutsu. With all five nature transformations at his disposal, he is especially lethal in his kekkei genkai, a powerful combination of Doton and Suiton synergized with Yang chakra to create Mokuton (Wood Release). With it, he could create vast forests, conjure up mythical creatures made of wood and even put mythical beasts under his control by binding them and channelling as much Yang chakra as possible to tame them. The first man in history to tame them, without using a dōjutsu, he was considered the God of Shinobi, and his strength spoke volumes.
Question is, who in their right mind would mess with him?
With that fear instilled in the hidden villages representing the Elemental Nations, the first Go-Kage Kaidan was called. By the God of Shinobi.
Now, these village leaders, also called Kage, were here under the basis of highlighting their grievances, firstly, by demanding their terms and conditions for accepting an equal share of power in the form of Bijū.
These Bijū are chakra constructs shaped in the form of animalistic beasts with a number of tails attained to them. Overall, there are nine of them, with tails that signify their hierarchy of strength, from one to nine. Their origin got lost to man as time went on. The few clans that had a faint clue about them were the Senju and Uchiha, with few documents referencing them. The Uzumaki and Hyūga clan knew everything about them but would not spread such information for obvious reasons. As the bickering started and ended, the other leaders had no choice but to accept the Bijū split, with Konoha keeping the Kyuubi no Kitsune and Kiri being given the Sanbi turtle and Rokubi slug. Kumo received the Nibi no Nekomata and Hachibi no Ushi-oni. Iwa received Yonbi the Sage Monkey and Gobi, a horse-like beast. Sina received the Ichibi no Tanuki, also known to the public as the Shukaku. As all these hidden villages agreed on the distribution of the Bijū, it left one to negotiate with. One eager village, Takigakure no Sato, decided to cash in on the deal, with that, they were in possession of the Nanabi.
You would think that, with all these efforts that Hashirama took to preserve peace, people would just sit down with all their might to relish in, and not start wars. He learned that the world was not so naïve as to accept handouts and smile about it. The other great hidden villages took this as a major insult to their pride as shinobi. On top of that, tensions were rising in his own village. With the loss of his long-time best friend Uchiha Madara due to a one-man rebellion that resulted in a historic fight between him and Hashirama, theclanwas already ostracized, to a point where their whole estate was taken to theoutskirts of the village. It could be argued that the clan was actually being accommodated with the formation of the Konoha Police Force, as it was comprised of only Uchiha clan members. The Police Force, one of Hashirama's younger brothers' ideas, was excellent and was a great training institution for the clan. The problem with it, was that it gave the rest of the village a chance to ridicule the clan instead of investing pride in the clan. The result was a growing need to gain more power, be itthrough politics or brute strength, planting the seed for a rebellion.
With Tobirama next in line to become Hokage, he figured that he would have to give the hat over to him because the mental toll he had was heavy. Add to the fact that his wife was a target for assassination because of who she is and who she is married to, really did give him many wrinkles. God of Shinobi be dammed!
His eldest son, Itama (named in honour of his second younger brother) brought his expecting (for the second time) wife and three year old daughter Tsunade to the main Senju house in the complex, near Senju Park in the village, for a visit. He was grateful for the visit, as he was playing with his oldest grandchild, and playing, it is implied that they were gambling. Hashirama quickly realized that Tsunade was a terrible gambler, much like he was. That, in itself, is alarmingly dangerous. Looking away at the bundle of joy for a minute, he noticed Itama looking at him, as if he was worried about something. He sighed. Being from a family of sensory type ninja, you could never lie to each other about anything. Well,maybe you could but you never know if you could get away with it. Itama sensed the unease of his father and asked his wife to wait for him in the living room. He gave his "pops" a stare that said, "Let's go to your study." With that, they left.
"Tou-chan, have you told anyone about your illness?" asked Itama.
Hashirama just looked downat the ground, silent. This carried on for a minute, or so until...
"How the hell am I supposed to stay as the Hokage if I have a virus that keeps eating at my chakra? How will I tell your mother? 'Oh hey love, I'm dying in a few months and you need to be strong for the family'... You already get the fact that she's a Jinchuuriki and they hate bad news, especially if it's this catastrophic. I wish I could see my grandchildren grow up into fine shinobi, especially Nawaki. Kami knows how much I already love that grandson of mine. How could I even forget Tobirama? He's going to bite my head off with how I always keep everything to myself until he helps me deal with it, only to see mewither away like a dried up flower. Tell me, what about Azami, your brother? I've never been this low in my life. This is even worse than killing my best friend. It's not even death that I'm scared of. I'm just thinking about everything after. The whole world is resting on my death. That's what I'm most afraid of." Hewhispered, with tears wetting his face.
Itama felt like his heart got stabbed by a stray kunai. He had never seen his dad in such a vulnerable position as he was showing right now. He thought to himself. How does a man who went through a clan war,lost most of his clansmen including Kawarama and Itama, the uncle he was named after, and had to kill his best friend to protect a dream they shared and realized together, get to think that his death is the scariest thing of all? Itama's eyes widened as he realized something. His father was not crying about his own early demise. He was not even talking about giving up everything because of his death.This is what he got from his father.
The gears of warwould turn once he left this world.
Deep down, he knew that everyone except a select few were not gearing up for any show of hostility from any other hidden village and the reason was simple. They got complacent in their peace that they never thought about a Konoha without Hashirama, ever. To the villagers, he was everything. Their friend, their father, mother... it could even be taken a bit further and it could be said that he was their Kami-sama. All hail the Shinobi no Kami, they said. Even though Hashirama himself preached on leaving everything to the next generation, he only got to groom just three people to lead the future, not counting his sons.
Sarutobi Hiruzen- a rascal with innate potential to be the next Shinobi no Kami, already garnering fame with the moniker 'The Professor' for his vast knowledge and expert execution of jutsu from the five nature transformations to the non-elemental jutsu shinobi, some of which he improved to unimaginable degrees. Add to the fact that he's just 18
Mitokado Homura- a very scrawny, brown-haired, glasses-wearing young teenager whose only redeeming ability would be his attention to detail. A typical chuunin-level ninja.
Utatane Koharu- your average kunoichi. Hates weak men and apparently vibes with Hiruzen, despite having only three years in each other's presence. Too bad Saru is an addict for looking underneath the underneath.
He really hoped his brother would survive the impending war he would indirectly start. They both knew from experience that Konoha did not need to fight a war. To him the Warring Clans era was more than his fair share of war. With that being said...
"Please tou-chan... at least tell them what to expect. Everyone will have to understand. I will have to understand that there's a world after you. It's a father's duty to die before their own children. You've already done enough for the village.. for the world, even. Just take a rest, okay? Kaa-chan and the others will understand. Let's go." Itama said.
For some reason, Hashirama felt more light-headed than usual. As he approached his bedroom door, he felt uneasy. The minute Itama opened the door, he saw a slight he didn't want to see.He saw a man who was not a Senju. How did he know?
This is not to say he didn't know his own clansmen. With a preoccupied mind that belongs to the most powerful man in the elemental nations, anything is possible. Even mistaking your family for an enemy.
The man in question was wearing a Takigakurehitai-ateon his forehead. His face was covered with a balaclava-like mask, which one would believe, was to hide his identity. Here's the problem. He knew who he was. He even had the audacity to sit on his bed, while waiting for some sort of response. More than that, he saw red because of one frightening detail.
His daughter-in-law and little Tsunade were being cuddled to sleep by this man.
"Hashirama-dono, what a nice surprise! Let's talk. I don't know if you know me but I'm hoping to discuss the terms of your passing with you. Nice family you have here. Wonder how your son would feel about their disappearance? Oh well... I'm here to claim my cash order here and leave. Is that good to you?" an eerily deep bass voice spoke.
The whole house started to shake, almost like an earthquake. Itama glared daggers at the man. Hashirama was about to pounce on the man when he angrily asked.
"What the hell is Takigakure no Kakuzu doing in my house?!