...Hey guys, you must be wondering what happened and I came to admit that it was my fault. Rereading my work I felt disgusted as I had no idea what I was doing, like I was on drugs or something when I was writing such things. Given that I wrote this after being introduced to Nasuverse shortly after playing Fate/Extra on PSP and slapping extra stuff for the laughs I realized that this was not what I had in mind. I had no idea what to do until Vtuber Rin Tohsaka appeared announcing Fate/Extra remake.
I realized what I had to do: Properly correct the mistake and restart from scratch.
I shall start the info-dumping introduction prologue chapter and then begin the next official chapter shortly afterwards this week. Which will most likely be posted sometime next month.
Trivia: For those that do not know, a fraternal twin is a twin that does not share any resemblence to their twin sibling.
Naruto himself is partially out of character for a reason. He's gone through things in life that makes him drift a bit in canon on purpose. And unlike my old shame, this one can use chakra. Complicated storyline-stuff I'm doing.
Disclaimer: Fan of Fanfics21 does not own Naruto or Fate/Extra. Nor any other references to other franchises big and small, young and old alike.
The man floated in the rift between the Imaginary Trees, gazing at the countless trees in the forest as he was lost. This man was Minato Namikaze, mostly known as the Fourth Hokage, the leader of the shinobi of Konohakagure no Sato.
But what was not known about this version of said man was that he was a Cypher, a guardian of humanity that protects countless worlds from destruction from various forces. Here in the Infinite Forest were Imaginary Trees, great trees of quantum energies that grow and symbolize humanity's potential.
They were also known as Trees of Probabilities, for they also represent 'ifs' and 'what-ifs' in this endless sea of trees of scenarios, each with its own version of humans, powers, concepts and rules of physics.
But there was a question, why was this guardian of the Multiverse lost? What was he doing out here? Why was he here in the first place?
It all began with an event that was known as The Erasure, one of the darkest moments in Cypher History that gave way to the Dark Prophecy. A Cypher had broken a taboo and harnessed an ancient and powerful artifact known as the Ring of Aeon to travel back in time and alter history to prevent the Dark Prophecy from happening, the cost was heavy from that action alone.
Countless Cyphers were erased by the rewritten history, and the very few survivors were either alone or had their souls bound to counterparts in the current timeline.
Minato was not one of those who came from a lost timeline, but born in this one as he grew to become a hero.
He lived his life a Cypher since childhood and met Kushina Uzumaki, his beloved other whom became a Cypher as well. They lived many lives thanks to their gifts and had even conceived a child...or rather they should have.
Their child was miscarriage and grief ate at them when it was revealed what had happened to their child. The child had no soul, no spark of life in it for it had inhabited a different body in a different world. The current body was incapable of handling the power their child's soul had as it was forced to find a more durable vessel.
They spent centuries and different lifetimes looking for their lost child, and they tried time and time again to locate the missing soul.
Then one fateful night as the two dreamt, they felt his soul call out to them. It rang like a raging storm across the Infinite Forest, the song it sang was of fury and defiance-the very definition of battle.
They traced leads of their son's missing where-about and every time they got closer to finding him they were already three steps behind. If anything, it pressed them on to keep searching for their child and then beheld a horrific battlefield.
It was written as the Maelstrom Wars that eventful day, for various incarnations of the person named Naruto Uzumaki from across time, space, and planes of existence waged war on their Cypher counterpart in an attempt to claim his power for their own.
It backfired drastically, for they thought they had trapped Cypher Naruto with them. In truth, they were trapped with Cypher Naruto.
While Minato and Kushina didn't see the battles themselves, the remains and aftermaths told them everything about their son's fight for his very life. He hunted and slaughtered his counterparts with barbarous cruelty, contempt, hatred, and boiling blood.
This was revealed to be exactly what was planned for their son that they were not aware of while this horrible war drew on. The current body he had been born in was crafted by dark magicks and science by an ancient entity seeking to create a monster-a monster that bore the face of a hero all for a sick joke.
After all, who would expect the hero to become the greatest enemy?
The consequence of so many incarnations of Naruto Uzumaki dying before fulfilling their assigned destiny caused the Imaginary Trees they hailed from to collaspe; countless lives lost because of their careless actions; for if one major person were to go missing and died outside their Imaginary Tree-it would collapse due to the sudden imbalance and the people living in them would be erased forever.
These actions caused one such incarnation of Naruto Uzumaki to oppose the infamous Cypher-a legend in his own right. This incarnation of Naruto Uzumaki that hailed from a complete Imaginary Tree, one that grew into a canon timeline.
Such a fateful encounter should be a joyous and honorable one; but alas, there was none but hatred. Canon and Cypher fight with utter resolve and fury respectively, each seeking to stop the other. One to let go of his anger and hatred, the other seeking to avenge the fallen and wronged for the deception that doomed the worlds their counterparts hailed from.
Given the circumstances, the canon counterpart should have won. But due to age and inactivity thanks to his duty as Hokage he severely underestimated the cunning, resolve and fury his Cypher other had he was able to pull off a miracle that should have been impossible and bested the pseudo-ten tails jinchuriki by dumb luck.
The canon's defeat caused him to be banished back to his world and then the final battle against the being responsible for this tragedy, Nione began.
It was there that Minato finally found his missing son as they ended the monster's machinations once and for all.
Relief and joy had soared in the man's heart that day, but was pleasantly surprised when it was revealed that his son had a fraternal twin sister. Needless to say Kushina was in over the moon that she (in a spiritual sense) gave birth to twins.
After all the violence and suffering the twins endured it all ended on a bittersweet tone. They thought the nightmare was over-how horribly wrong they were.
The source of the Erasure was none other than Jiraiya himself, the Toad Sage and Naruto's godfather that sought to prevent what was known as the Dark Prophecy from existing.
Fate was a cruel mistress as he caused a betrayal to fellow Cyphers by having Naruto captured with the aid of Wicked Gods-evil, tyrannical counterparts to the many divine patheons that do exist in human history.
The pact Jiraiya did with these dark gods was simple, contain his godson in a place he can't escape from while the purging of the rest of the Uzumaki clan was in full progress. They agreed but left out what would become of Naruto.
He was killed, his soul ripped into several parts before being casted into what was known as the Abyss-home of the eternally damned where no Heaven or Hell existed, a purgatorial existence doomed to suffer for eternity. This single act damned the multiverse when the being dwelling within the Abyss took notice of the boy.
It was an Elder God, a descendant of the Outer Gods that made its home in that realm and found a formidable pawn to use. It used its dark powers to restore a portion of the boy's damaged soul as it became a soul devouring wraith with the need of vengeance.
Naruto did what he did best and made the impossible possible: break out of the Abyss and exact retribution on the one who wronged him so.
It was in Konoha he learned of the Dark Prophecy and why Jiraiya did what he must. He believed Naruto would be the hero to protect them from the inevitable doom and the rest of his fellow Uzumaki clanmates were the potential destroyers of prophecy. It angered him so, as he unleashed his full fury upon the village, destroying it completely to make Jiraiya pay for this betrayal.
Then and there a revelation dawned both godson and godfather at their reunion upon Konoha's ruins, the chosen one of the Dark Prophecy wasn't just any Uzumaki clan member, but Naruto Uzumaki himself.
He was the antithesis of his canon counterpart in terms of destinies; if Canon Naruto Uzumaki was destined to save the world and bring peace, then Cypher Naruto Uzumaki was the one destined to destroy the world and bring ruin.
With his family gone, his clan near extinct, the people of Konoha betraying him, he embraced his dark destiny.
His time in constant war honed his fighting prowess, his rage tore through the flesh of his foes, and an iron will to see his journey through brought him the near victory he sought.
If not for the intervention of Hinata Hyuga-the key instrument of his downfall, the multiverse would have collapsed upon itself and his victory.
Soul fragmented and scattered again by the girl who loved him, he was a shadow of his former self, still bound by his destiny as a destroyer but had sought knowledge of why he lost. His damaged soul shifted between worlds in search of answers and was beheld by a hidden destiny exposed by Hinata's machinations.
This was due to his current existence status as a wraith. It would allow him to embrace a different destiny altogether; by becoming an elemental wraith, a powerful spirit attuned with the primordial elements of the world and uplift species to newer enlightened existences.
Seeking to control his own path he sought the knowledge he needed, he began his journey while slowly realizing the Elder God that turned him into a wraith in the first place did not what his new pawn be out of his influence and at every turn send agents to prevent Naruto from acquiring the secrets lost to the ages. It was a battle for free will and Naruto discovered in the end of what destiny awaits an elemental wraith: the Soul Reaver.
A legendary sword crafted by an ancient race from a different history, a different time, and a different realm that was a holy icon for chosen people whom would be called Scions of Balance. It had the power to harm omnipresent beings, instantly slaying mortal beings in a single blow, altering history with its very presence-the key to unraveling fate and allowing one to decide their own destinies.
It required two things, the physical sword itself that must be forged and an elemental wraith to imbue it and the destined hero with the powers to become a powerful weapon. It was a long shot, but Naruto was determined to find out how becoming an elemental wraith was a key component and sought the answers through ancient Imaginary Trees that predate the eras of early civilization, to a time when gods, demons, spirits and beasts of legend freely interacted with humanity.
He was unaware that his father was still alive at the time and was actively looking for his wayward son to prevent other vengeful Cyphers from destroying the boy. He too learned of the blade and realized that his son sought to change his fate and began looking for clues on the sword itself, knowing his son will seek to become an elemental wraith.
The two were beginning to reclaim their true destinies as the false paths of fate were being undone, and dark forces gathered to prevent the Soul Reaver from being forged once again.
They failed, Naruto became an elemental wraith and Minato forged the physical blade and had reunited in a sad family reunion.
What was recorded by testimony from Minato claimed that the Soul Reaver was half complete when he forged it, it lacked one final ingredient to awaken the true power of the blade: the presence of a soul devouring spirit doomed to be imprisoned within-Naruto.
He said that Naruto sacrificed himself-allowed the blade to devour him so that his soul was trapped within but as the blade did so, Naruto channeled the powers he acquired into his father and it purified his sight, enlightened him as he now saw the true enemy of humanity as a whole.
Armed with legendary blade and hope born from his son's sacrifice Minato went alone to confront the dark horrors revealed by his son. He won the many battles yet there was no peace; he had only bested the prime mover, and there were other dark beings out there bidding their time to finish what it started. On his journey, a seeress foretold his dilemma and gave him a solution.
Find an Imaginary Tree where its version of Earth was dying and release his son's soul there so that the elemental wraith could heal the planet and acquire a student to learn the secrets of the elements. It was a plan to create a new generation of elemental wraiths to combat the horrors from beyond which lead to where the Fourth Hokage was now.
He found such a world, one where its lifeblood-[mana] was siphoned by a botched up ritual and has caused the planet to slowly die out as resources began drying up and humanity struggling to survive with constant problems like unknown diseases, war, terrorism etc.
The ideal world to unleash his son and witness the changes with a careful eye. Eyeing the blade, the Soul Reaver hummed in a tune Minato could not place as he cradled the blade as a child. "Naruto...You've sacrificed so much and was granted little in reward. I hope that somewhere in this world you'll find something to remind you of whom you truly are." he whispered to it before holding the blade above him and bringing it down, striking the very ground itself as the blade broke in two.
A shockwave of energy ruptured forth and the dead land thirty kilometres long and wide soon bursted with renewed life. Wonder adorned Minato's face as he looked around, awe at how releasing his son revitalized part of the land itself with the excess energy built up within the sword.
He took notice of the floating sphere of electric blue energy as it flew around like silver arrow across the renewed land before launching itself sky high. It kept going up, up, and up and then Minato frowned. Naruto's soul was flying to the moon, and that was not a good thing given how usually dangerous and ancient things slumber within that space rock with humanity's records with evil beings.
He was about to go investigate it himself when he sensed it, more Cyphers landing in this world, all having negative emotions. He clenched his fist as his duty as a father kicked in; it was time a father showed his unwanted guests out the door...violently.
/Serial Phantasm/
[Analysis: Complete]
[Target: Unknown Origin]
[Capable of crafting new choices for new possible futures of human race.]
[Solution: Apply Unknown with function similar to Aozaki siblings.]
[Waiting for Unknown's response...]
A/N: This was a headache to rewrite but I decided to do so and deleting my old chapters. This time I'm going to try something different with Naruto's role. The next chapter is dedicated to our beloved Hakunon, female protagonist of Fate/Extra.