Chapter Fourteen: Serious Predestination
"Naruto!"
An entity of darkness thrashed around in an attempt to destroy the blond-haired gnat attacking it. One of its heads was destroyed, but quickly reformed. A being of pure darkness cannot be defeated by ordinary, physical means.
The blond jumped on a head, kicked off, and then avoided the piercing tails before forming another spiraling blue star and throwing it at another head. As he was attached to the ceiling, he frowned deeply at the monstrosity attacking him.
He had been told that it was impossible. You cannot fight your destiny; predestination removes free will. There is no reason to aim for anything else.
But that was not who he was. Every human had a choice. Every human had free will given to them by their consciousness. They could make their own decisions. They could shape the future into anything they wanted!
Maybe that was why he took it so nonchalantly. His answer to the question of destiny was rigid and unchanging, and that was how he was able to escort her all the way to the shrine, despite knowing that she could predict his death if he became too close.
Reality bent and twisted, and the darkness screamed. The blond, clad in golden armor, used a weapon... some sort of weapon... to reap and carve through the body. The demon was weakened, but could not be killed.
It could only be destroyed by her. She would sacrifice herself to keep the demon from destroying the world.
As she fell, laughter echoed in her head... there was blood... there-
Shion woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily as she squinted her eyes, trying to make sense of what she had seen. Something... odd. That blond teenager she had seen had done something very different. The weapon he had used was especially strange; it did not seem the type to cut or do damage.
Closing her eyes, the priestess wondered what was going to happen.
Elsewhere, a ninja named Yomi opened up his body in some gruesome way and allowed a demon to house itself within. The soldiers within the shrine began to respond to Yomi's rousing and immediately, the man had gained many stone followers that could withstand all but the most powerful of attacks.
With these stone soldiers, he exited the shrine and called his ninja. He instructed them to find and kill a specific person while his stone soldiers rampaged throughout the land.
The world would be destroyed and then reborn as the Millennium Kingdom.
Or rather, something like that.
VvVvV
=The Hidden Leaf=
"You're kidding me, right?" Naruto asked, giving the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, an annoyed expression.
"I am not kidding you, Naruto-kun," the Hokage mirthfully replied.
Naruto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "So animated, stone soldiers are marching around the Land of Demons and are destroying random villages. Any idea why?"
"Oh, we have a few ideas," Tsunade said as she walked into the office. She threw a folder at Naruto and grinned as it smacked into his face. "Read that, brat. That should tell you what's going on."
Grumbling to himself, Naruto opened the manilla folder and read the files within. After a few minutes, he looked back at the Hokage and at Tsunade. "So apparently some demon has been awakened that can consume the world and the only way to defeat it is by some priestess?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Tsunade nonchalantly said.
Naruto scanned through the files again. "And I'm guessing the stone soldiers are meant to help conquer villages... anyone ever think of moving across the sea? No?" Naruto looked hopefully at Hiruzen, who merely shook his head. "Ugh, fine. I'll go remove the threat."
"Actually, we're dumping a team on you."
Naruto blanched at what Tsunade had just said. "Oh come on! I move much faster on my own, anyway. Who am I getting saddled with? Sasuke? Sakura? Dear god, please don't tell me it's Hinata."
Tsunade and Hiruzen glanced at each other. "You're going with Kiba, Hinata, and Shino. They're pretty fast and good trackers, so they can help you keep an eye on the priestess."
"Ha! Talk about awkward. This is going to be hilarious!"
Naruto palmed his face and dragged his hand down. "What else is going to happen? I'm assuming we're going to try and stop the soldiers, right?"
Hiruzen nodded. "Right. You and Team 8 will be protecting and escorting the priestess somewhere. She'll apparently debrief you guys when you get there."
"Very informative," Naruto deadpanned. "Where is Team 8?"
"At the gate. I told them separately, so get going. You can't take anyone else with you, by the way," Tsunade stated.
Naruto swore before sighing. "I'll do my best to take her there. Hopefully I get a fuller report. See you jiji, baa-chan." Naruto vanished in a flicker of leaves as a stapler flew through the air and hit the wall behind where Naruto had previously been.
When he reappeared at the gate, Team 8 was already waiting for him. Naruto waved at them, catching their attention. "Yo! We all ready to get out of here?" he cheerfully said. On his back was an odd staff that looked a bit out of its time.
Naruto thought it was called a khakkhara or something like that.
Aside from gazing oddly at the staff, Team 8 nodded and began to head out. Naruto followed them at a leisurely pace. "So... where we going?" Naruto asked.
"Land of Demons," Kiba replied while riding on top of a large Akamaru. "By the way, what the hell is strapped across your back?"
Naruto glanced back at the khakkhara. "Oh, it's my khakkhara."
"That doesn't really explain what it is," Kiba deadpanned.
Naruto shrugged. "What else do you want me to say? It's a staff used as a weapon or for prayer. I thought that it would fit the role since we're escorting a priestess." Naruto always thought the thing looked cool, too. Seriously, whacking someone with a stick meant for praying? Priceless.
Shino raised an eyebrow, although his shades hid most of the motion. "Our client might believe that you are mocking her," the Aburame stated.
The four ninja began walking in the direction of the Land of Demons as Naruto gave Shino an amused look. "Really? Somehow, I don't think that a holy priestess or whatever would do that. Where are we escorting this so-called priestess anyway?"
"Land of Swamps. We're not too sure why, but it might be explained when we get there," Kiba informed.
Naruto ducked under a tree branch and began to pick up his pace, with Team 8 following behind him. Naruto turned his head back and frowned. "I still wish I could've gone on my own. I move much faster than you guys."
Kiba's eyes gleamed. "Oh yeah? We're a tracking team for a reason, Naruto. Care to race?"
"Is that a challenge?" Naruto asked, smirking at Kiba. "I mean, I can understand if you want to back down. You're probably not even half as fast as Hinata." Naruto winked at the Hyuuga heiress, causing to giggle and blush.
It was better than ignoring her. Plus, he had the feeling that he would be disappointing her later on in the mission for some reason.
"You're on, dobe!" Kiba yelled and jumped off of Akamaru before speeding up drastically. Naruto merely grinned and followed him, easily keeping pace with the Inuzuka.
Shino and Hinata sighed to themselves and sped up as well.
VvVvV
=Somewhere in the Land of Demons=
Four ninja wearing robes overlooked some sort of palace mansion thingy from their vantage point on top of a large cliff. There were guards running about doing their duties. They were all essentially unnecessary characters, so they would all probably end up dying.
One of the ninja took out three strange-looking worms and had them latch onto the other ninja before the thing burrowed into their skin. It looked pretty damn disgusting, not to mention unnatural. The ninja who had been afflicted suddenly got war paint on their faces and one of them got fatter.
Each of the four ninja, even the one unchanged one, took out a weapon and charged the groups of soldiers. Most of them were quickly slaughtered. Seriously, you try fighting a human with what essentially could be construed as superpowers. It's fucking one-sided.
The ninja blasted a hole into the wall and entered Shion's chamber. The priestess in question straightened up, staring impassively at her intruders. Her one attendant took up a defensive stance in front of her; not that it would do anything, of course.
"I didn't think it would be this easy," the female member of the Gang of Four said. She grinned maniacally and threw her chained knife at the man, expecting an easy one-shot kill.
The projectile was knocked away by Naruto, who appeared literally out of nowhere. His right arm was extended out from using his staff to bat away the knife. Naruto remained in his stance, smirking at how cool he looked.
"Oh for fucks sakes, just hurry up and kill them all! The priestess is leaving and her aide is following her."
Naruto quickly glanced back to where the priestess and her aide had been. They had apparently escaped through some spinning trap door panel that Naruto didn't care much about. At least they were safe.
The blond jinchūriki returned his attention to the now-irked enemy ninja. He grinned at them all. "Get the fuck out, you four." Before the ninja could react, Naruto horizontally swung his staff, sending out a blunt wall of wind that blasted his enemies out through the hole they had previously made.
Naruto blinked to himself and looked down at his staff. "Huh, that didn't work the way I wanted it to. I guess I still need practice with this thing. Ah well." The blond shrugged and jumped out of the hole in the direction he had sent the other four.
He found them all glaring heatedly at him. Their robes were slightly dirtied, possibly from the debris the attack had kicked up. "I guess he's not just some ninja by the looks of that jutsu he did," one of the members said.
"Really?" Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "From the looks of it?" Nothing about getting hit by that blunt wall of wind?
"Don't worry, sister, we'll take care of him. Kusuna, go. This won't take long."
The guy with the pink hair named Kusuna smirked and nodded before jumping off. Naruto watched him go, feeling like Team 8 would stop him if he came too close to the priestess. If they didn't... well, Naruto had his ways.
The larger ninja clapped his hands together and stamped the ground while shouting out the jutsu's name. What a newbie mistake. Sure, it gave you focus and it was for readers – err, I mean it gave you greater focus, but reciting it within your mind was better. It kept people guessing as to what you were doing.
Pillars of stone rose from the ground and surrounded Naruto before closing up at the top, forming a dome with an exit a short distance away. The blond rolled his eyes and strolled towards the exit, waiting for the obvious ambush or attack.
The female ninja and the other male ninja flipped through some additional seals before a ring of fire was formed. The winds that the male ninja produced caused the fire to rage out of control and head towards the entrance to the dome.
Naruto saw it coming a mile away. It was a very useful tactic, that he'd admit, but it wasn't one that would necessarily work on him. All you had to do was sink through the ground and avoid the first volley.
And that's what he did. Sometimes blasting overpowered jutsu at a problem over and over again got boring. Well, it never got boring, but sometimes Naruto wanted to do something different. After a few moments of waiting, Naruto summoned two clones and had them send out chakra chains.
When the chains burst out of the ground and headed towards his enemies, they all retreated. The clones, and subsequently the chains, dispelled before Naruto popped out of the ground. He felt very disappointed, especially since they didn't have enough chakra for another series of attacks.
At least he had a lock on where Team 8 was. They were approaching Shion and her aide, but didn't have enough speed to intercept some other chakra signature that was running straight at the priestess.
"I swear, I have to do everything myself. Why isn't Neji here? He would be fast enough to stop that idiot..." Naruto shook his head and vanished in a puff of smoke.
Near some random waterfall, Taruho nearly fell over in surprise as Naruto appeared out of nowhere. Shion didn't fare much better and shrieked loudly as the blond reached out his hands.
Team 8 sighed in relief as the enemy ninja's impending attack was suddenly stopped. Kusuna clenched his teeth in frustration and backed away before vowing to attack again.
Naruto flipped him off as he left, much to Taruho's ire. "All right, can we get this show on the road before more creepy war-paint ninja's appear?" Naruto asked with a grin.
They all went back to the original room that Shion had been staying at for a better debriefing. "So... Moryo was an ancient demon that threatened the world long ago and as of now, his spirit has been resurrected?" When Taruho nodded, Naruto continued. "In order to completely stop him, we need to escort Shion to the Land of Swamps where his body is located and then seal him away..."
"Yes. Lady Shion must be escorted, for I fear those hooligans will attack again. I will bring together a band of soldiers for additional protection," Taruho stated.
"No," a new voice said. It would've been angelic... had the tone not been bratty. "You will not accompany me, Taruho."
"B-But Lady Shion!" Taruto stuttered in shock.
Instead of replying, Shion turned to the waiting Team 8 and Naruto. She looked at each member before finally resting her eyes on the blond jinchūriki. She looked him over before walking around him and tapping his staff. Then she faced him and said, "You are going to die."
Taruho was not surprised. Kiba and Hinata gasped. Shino merely stood there in a stoic manner.
Naruto, in true Naruto fashion, laughed out loud. Shion narrowed her eyes and glared at him. "You're kidding me, right? Oh no, I'm going to die. Tragic." Naruto snorted and shook his head, thoroughly amused by Shion's choice of words. "Yeah, I kind of realized a long time ago that I wouldn't live forever. Thanks for stating the obvious though," Naruto replied.
"I had a vision that you would die. You're going to die by piercing."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Piercing? What's going to pierce me? A spear? A lance? A stick, maybe? I can take care of myself, you know."
Shion huffed and walked away. Taruho bowed to Naruto and muttered an apology. "I'm sorry for her behavior, but she has a special ability passed down by all priestesses of the Land of Demons. She has premonitions about your future and they are always correct," the man explained.
"A-Always?" Hinata quietly said.
Taruho nodded. "One-hundred percent correct."
There was a moment of silence that Naruto broke by loudly saying, "That's such bullshit. If I know the future, then I can change it. In that way, the future is not predestined and I can fuck with it whenever I want."
"Really, this feels poetic in a way. You fucked with our original reality's timeline, and now you've fucked this one not once, but now twice."
I wouldn't say that. I'm just changing the future by acting differently in the present.
"You're still changing an outcome," Kurama noted. Naruto mentally shrugged – he screwed things up most of the time anyway.
"He's got a point..." Kiba muttered. Akamaru barked in agreement.
Taruho shook his head. "Even those who have tried to change their future end up dying. If you stay close to Lady Shion, it is a certainty. Even if she does not wish for it, I will defend her with my life, even if it is voided in the end."
"Cute," Naruto muttered. "Not feasible, but cute." Naruto sighed to himself. "Well, let's get going. I'll carry the priestess."
"What about your staff?" Shino inquired, pointing to the staff that was strapped on Naruto's back. The blond shrugged, took the staff, and sealed it away into his right arm. Fuck yeah, sealing.
Shion huffed again and got onto Naruto's proffered back. She wrapped her arms around her neck and allowed him to get a firm grip on her legs – appropriately, of course. He didn't need Hinata trying to kill the priestess as well.
Despite what Shion had said, Taruho followed, albeit at a much slower pace than the ninja were setting.
VvVvV
=Somewhere Near the Land of Swamps=
It was dark out. Team 8, Naruto, Shion, and Taruho who had shortly caught up to then, decided to rest until morning when they would finally enter the Land of Swamps. Naruto didn't really need to sleep since he was literally inexhaustible, but Shion made a ruckus about it.
Hinata had quite vehemently told Shion that some people had nothing in their lives and that the priestess needed to be satisfied with what she had, especially after Shion had refused the cold food Taruho had offered.
Naruto thought the Hyuuga's attitude was because he had carried Shion the entire time. The priestess and the jinchūriki had made small talk, but Shion was really... passive about the lives of her followers.
Naruto didn't really mind, but he did wonder why. He was sitting near a cliff overlooking a vast expanse of water while Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino watched over a not-quite-sleeping Shion. It was quickly decided that Hinata might actually pose a threat, so she was told to sleep elsewhere by Naruto.
Some footsteps drew Naruto's attention away from the sight in front of him and he noticed Taruho sit down next to him. "Nice night, isn't it?" Naruto began, staring up at the moon.
Taruho nodded before sighing. "Please forgive Shion for her attitude," he muttered.
"There's nothing to forgive," Naruto replied, smirking at him. "You said that if you stay close to her then she ends up having a vision about your death. Obviously, people wouldn't want to be with her since they don't want to know when, where, and how they will die."
"You and your team don't care?"
"My team might, but she hasn't had a premonition about them yet. I'm not afraid of death and I highly doubt whatever we face has the ability to faze me," Naruto said.
The priestess' aide raised his eyebrows. "You have such confidence, even in the face of certain death. Do you think you'll be able to defeat Moryo and his henchmen?"
"Think? No, I know. I have a bit more power than most people realize."
"Well... please be kind to Lady Shion. She needs to fulfill her destiny," Taruho informed.
Naruto snorted. Oh, how many times had he heard that before? Maybe four. No, five. Even though he didn't believe in fate, crappy prophecies and predictions always came back to haunt him. What a pain in the ass.
The following morning, everyone was well-rested and ready to head out. Shion again got onto Naruto's back, much to Hinata's displeasure, and the ninja headed out. Taruho decided to go a different route since they were traveling over water.
Naruto had supreme mastery over the liquid and was at an advantage. In addition, the other ninja apparently couldn't use Water Release, so that was also a plus.
They reached a stone outcropping in the middle of rushing waters before Shion leapt off of Naruto's back and stumbled to the ground. "What's wrong with you ninja! You travel much too fast! Can't I get a break?" she yelled.
Kiba rolled his eyes, Shino did nothing, and Hinata made an irritated grunt. Naruto shrugged. "We're ninja and used to going fast. If you want to rest somewhere, we can head onto more solid ground."
Shion breathed a sigh of relief before the sound of roaring could be heard. A Water dragon turned the corner and set its eyes on its prey. Shion's eyes widened as her bell chimed.
A cloak of blazing yellow appeared, like a beacon. The darkness was repelled, but not defeated. It had her in its grasp...
It roared in triumph as Naruto frowned, his prayer staff in hand. It was just a staff... surely it couldn't-
"Yep, we're out," Naruto said. A shadow clone appeared next to him. "Take care of the issue," the blond ordered. The clone saluted and clapped his hands together, causing two larger water dragons to rise from the river. The distraction enabled Team 8 and Naruto and Shion to escape unscatched.
The enemy ninja controlling the water dragon was not amused. She was completely fucking pissed that someone else had a better way of controlling water than she did. Not to mention that she and her nearby comrade now had a large damned water dragon on a collision course with their faces. So they did the only sensible thing in that situation.
They got the fuck out of there. The dragon crashed into their previous position, destroying much of the land in the immediate vicinity and soaking the area with chilled water. The shadow clone, seeing its task complete, dispelled with a poof.
Team 8, along with Naruto and Shion, landed on solid ground as the four enemy ninja confronted them. One of the enemies sneered. "Looks like they're still here, brothers. We have enough chakra to take them down." The others seemed to agree with this, causing Team 8 and Shion to tense up.
Naruto subtly created two shadow clones without using any jutsu and had them hide underground. No one noticed because the blond was one stealthy ninja. That's what they were supposed to be, right? Ninja.
Cough, cough.
"Maa, maa... you guys shouldn't be so tense. Let's split up, shall we? Hinata and I will take Shion with us while Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino will take on these jokes." Naruto took off immediately afterward, with Hinata following. There was no room for disagreement, it seemed.
As Hinata jumped alongside Naruto with a slightly frightened Shion, she scanned her surroundings for impending enemies. Seeing none, she nodded to Naruto, allowing him to settle down for a moment. He landed on the ground, allowing Shion to get off of his back and stretch her muscles a bit. Her bell chimed again.
"Are you all right, Shion?" Naruto asked, watching as the priestess looked around nervously.
"We might get attacked," she said, her eyes shifting back and forth in slight fear. She turned around to look behind her as well.
Much to Shion's embarrassment and Hinata's ire, Naruto walked up to the priestess and wrapped his arms around her waist. "You shouldn't be so jumpy. I'll protect you, don't worry. I would say it's a promise of a lifetime or something stupid like that, but I find that those sound overly cliché." Naruto laughed slightly.
Shion blushed slightly but let herself be hugged. His body was warm and felt nice. It made her feel safe. Plus, he was abnormally powerful with his jutsu. Two water dragons with a clone? Impressive. "...Thank you, Naruto," Shion quietly said.
Naruto laughed and grinned down at her as she looked up at him. "You're welcome, Lady Shion." The blond's senses picked up a rapidly approaching enemy. Apparently, so did Hinata. The enemy ninja barreled into the area, his spiky hair and face paint looking quite silly in the sunlight filtering through the trees of the forest. "Let's go!" Naruto shouted, grabbing Shion and carrying her off in a bridal position.
Hinata remained where she was. Her eyes narrowed on the ninja staring her down. "I'll defeat you. I won't let you go after Naruto-kun! I won't let the mission fail!" Then she engaged the enemy and the two began to clash.
Elsewhere, Shino was watching the overgrown, deformed body of Gitai spasm as the life began to leave him. The bug-user's opinion of the man: he was an idiot. Yeah, give his bugs more chakra. That would totally work. At least Shino could get Kiba.
Kiba wasn't faring as well as he thought he would. The watery kunoichi was sliding across the ground, laughing in an incredibly weird manner. Essentially, she was a puddle that Kiba couldn't get rid of. So, he did the best thing: he ditched her. She couldn't do anything, he couldn't do anything. So he ditched her.
Kiba found Shino and the two, coupled with Akamaru who had followed Kiba, went into the forest to try and find Naruto, Shion, and Hinata. After traveling a bit, they found a tired Hinata who had claimed that her opponent escaped once she clipped him with one of her chakra-stopping strikes.
After a bit more traveling, they found Naruto and Shion looking down at a dead Taruho. How did they know Taruho was dead? They didn't, but the man wasn't moving, breathing, or showing any other signs of life. The expressions that Naruto and Shion were wearing didn't help much either.
"Shit..." Kiba muttered, staring down at Taruho's corpse. Akamaru whined lowly, disheartened at the loss of life.
Naruto sighed deeply, sounding much older than he was. "It hurts, doesn't it?" Although he was staring straight ahead, he seemed to be speaking to Shion. "I've had this happen to me many times. I can only imagine how many times it has happened to you," the blond muttered.
Shion nodded dumbly, staring down at her former aide. She was crying. No one wanted to see the deaths of their own people over and over again. It was also why she was such a damn brat at times. She felt that showing emotion would be like disrespecting those who had died for her.
But Naruto had told her otherwise. Showing emotion was a way of respect. It showed how much the sacrifices affected you. Naruto flipped through some seals at a casual pace before muttering, "Ice Release: Resilient Tomb." Water seeped out of the ground and surrounded Taruho's body before solidifying into an icy coffin. "This ice will not melt even under his harshest heat... hopefully it grants his soul the rest it deserves."
Kurama wondered if anyone noticed how contradicting Naruto was acting.
"You guys, we've got to get going. Do me a favor and kill the other three enemies. They'll die soon enough; they rely too much on replenishing their chakra. I'll take Shion to the shrine where Moryo's body is sealed." Shion walked up to Naruto and got on his back again. "Good luck," Naruto muttered before taking to the trees.
VvVvV
=Land of Swamps – Moryo's Shrine Place=
"I'm sorry I couldn't do anything," Naruto muttered. A hostage situation was always bad. He really should've done more before the enemy ninja got impatient and executed the hostage. That was a pretty dumb choice overall, too. Enemy ninja were always stupid though.
"It's all right," Shion whispered, burying her face into Naruto's shoulder. "Just... don't die on me. Please."
Naruto smirked. He wouldn't die. Actually, he couldn't die to begin with. Not yet, anyway. He had too many things he wanted to do. Like... rebuild the Uzumaki clan, for example. That would be fun... "I won't, don't worry."
Maybe they should've worried because as soon as the shrine appeared in sight, the hundreds of stone, animated soldiers came into view as well. They all registered the appearance of their target and began to slowly march towards her.
Slowly. Very, very slowly. They were made up of stone. Sure, they were evil, but they were slow, stupid rocks. Naruto wondered why Kakashi and the others hadn't actually done something. There must have been a thousand just standing and waiting for their turn in stabbing Naruto.
"You know, this would be a lot more interesting if it weren't a bunch of rocks," Naruto mused. With the slight angst behind her, Shion giggled. When Naruto put things in perspective... they didn't really seem scary. "Still, this might take some time."
Naruto let Shion stand on the ground as he unsealed his khakkhara from his right arm. "Are you going to be alright?" Shion murmured, feeling slightly nervous for the blond's safety. They were approaching the time of her vision when she... thought Naruto would die. From something, anyway.
"I'll be right here, don't worry. Someone's got to keep these fools back while you seal Moryo away, right?" Naruto could seal the dark demon of whatever away as well with a dose of kick-ass Uzumaki sealing jutsu, but there were a bunch of soldiers in front of him and he needed to get Shion to the shrine.
Although it would've been easier to just skip over them all, allowing a bunch of stone soldiers into a relatively small tunnel was not a good idea. So Naruto spun the staff around as Shion backed away and headed towards the entrance of the shrine. "Storm Release: Zip Zop Zoobity Bop!"
Kurama burst into laughter. Shion heard the jutsu's name and giggled once before continuing on her valiant quest to seal away an evil demon plaguing the world. That's very cliché, by the way.
A second after Naruto finished saying the name, he aimed his staff into the air. The soldiers kept advancing towards him, but were explosively repelled by streaks of lightning spearing through their stone bodies. The center of the loop at the top of the khakkhara was firing bolts of lightning from seemingly nowhere. Each bolt shattered several dozen bodies of the reanimated soldiers.
While Shion was locked in an epic struggle of her own, Naruto was having a blast (literally) blowing everything within viewing distance up. He carefully avoided destroying the shrine, but everything else was fair game.
Once there was a sizable pocket of free space around him, Naruto created half a dozen clones, each with their own staff out and ready. "Hold them off and wait for Kakashi and the others! I can feel them in the distance!" The clones nodded and assumed battle stances, each charging up their own Storm Release jutsu before the real Naruto ran off into the tunnel to find Shion.
When Kakashi and the others appeared, they saw six Naruto playing poker in the middle of a large series of smoking craters and rubble. Kiba, who was helping a slightly limping Shino, frowned at the group of blonds. "What the hell are you guys gambling with?" he asked.
They all shrugged. Kakashi chuckled to himself. "Is the real one with you?" the masked jōnin asked.
The clones all shook their heads. "Boss went inside the shrine with the priestess," one of the clones said.
Hinata frowned slightly. "He did?" Hinata asked, her stutter gone.
The clone that had previously answered nodded. "Yep. Held off the soldiers and then went inside. We don't know what's going on, but..." The clone's eyes widened. The other clones jumped up, looking in the direction of the shrine.
Kakashi and the others looked back at the shrine as well, wondering what was going on. There wasn't-
Oh. Oh...
A large amount of imposing chakra washed over the area, causing the ninja to shiver and the clones to all dispel. "What the hell is going on in there..." Shino muttered. Everyone's jaws dropped as they turned to him. "What? I can be surprised sometimes too," Shino stated.
VvVvV
=The Shrine=
Naruto jogged down the tunnel leading to the main room of the shrine. There was an icky (yes, icky) sensation lingering in the air that made him feel slightly uneasy. It wasn't powerful at all, but he was still able to feel the intense negative emotions in the air.
When he reached the bottom, his jaw dropped. "What the fuck? There's freaking magma or lava or whatever it is flowing freely here. How is this a suitable place for a shrine?"
"Maybe if the magma flow increases, the demon's body gets destroyed?"
Oh come on, you know better than that. Kurama snorted and went back to watching what was going on through Naruto's eyes.
The blond saw Shion a short distance lying on some strange altar. She was breathing heavily and she looked pretty damn scared. Naruto frowned. The feeling in the air was intensifying, meaning that the beast hadn't been sealed yet... or Shion had failed.
Then the ground began rumbling. If Naruto would've stumbled for comedic effect, but he was too preoccupied on the intensifying feelings of evil. The ground began shattering and all of a sudden, several dark-colored heads burst out of the ground.
Naruto looked up at the ridiculous amount of heads... tails... whatever the fuck it was. It didn't have much chakra at all compared to other beings, but the darkness it gave off was similar to the Tailed Beasts.
The giant thing roared and Naruto decided to blow up. "Stupid demon!" Naruto yelled, grinning at the giant thing. "You have no reason to exist here!" Naruto put his arms out to the side and entered his bar-pupils mode. Large, spinning shuriken appeared in each hand. He threw both of them at the demon. It tried to avoid the shuriken, but both of them exploded, causing large parts of the demon's body to disintegrate.
After using a quick Wind Release jutsu to clear the dust and debris from his line of sight, Naruto jumped on top of a flailing tail or whatever it was supposed to be and used it to achieve some height.
"Naruto!" Shion screamed, finding the scene began to match her premonition. Naruto couldn't die; he was too strong for that!
The entity of darkness thrashed around in an attempt to destroy the blond-haired ninja attacking it. One of its heads was destroyed, but quickly reformed. Amorphous darkness wasn't exactly able to be destroyed by purely physical means.
The blond jumped on a head, kicked off, and then avoided the piercing tentacles before forming another Rasenshuriken and destroying it. As he was attached to the ceiling, Naruto frowned deeply at the monstrosity attacking him.
Shion had been told that it was impossible. You cannot fight your destiny; predestination removes free will. There is no reason to aim for anything else.
But that was not who he was and that was how he had changed the way Shion thought. Every human had a choice. Every human had the ability to make their decisions as they saw fit. It was part of why Shion had become attracted to her fellow blond. He was just... likable.
Despite the situation, he took it without breaking a sweat. He was very nonchalant about the things around him; that she had realized while traveling with him. His answer about destiny was always the same. No matter how she questioned him, it was always the same.
Maybe that was why she decided to go through an alternate route. The ground below her cracked as if accommodating her wishes and let her fall. The darkness enveloped her and she closed her eyes, awaiting for both her end and the demon's.
Only Shion, the priestess of the Land of Demons, was able to destroy Moryo. Only her sacred lineage could do so. It was her destiny.
...But Naruto's beliefs made destiny shatter and run away crying like a little bitch. That was just his main way of doing things. Nothing would remove his freedom. Plus, getting shattered would probably hurt. A lot, too.
Shion opened her eyes, taking in the sight of the blond. Clad in golden armor and holding his staff, he jumped down and grabbed her by wrapping an arm securely around her waist. The darkness screamed in pain at the pure energy Naruto was radiating. "You know, sacrificing yourself is great and all, but there's a better way of defeating this thing than becoming a martyr," Naruto quipped, grinning at Shion.
Shion raked her eyes over his body, taking in how strange he looked. His eyes were slitted and his whisker-marks looked like black, painted streaks across his cheeks. The golden armor was more akin to a cloak and had streamers of gold energy trailing behind it. "What... what is this?" Shion asked.
Naruto's grin widened. "This... is my Tailed Beast mode." Defying gravity, Naruto's tails propelled him out of the hole, all the while causing Moryo to screech in pain. The force of Naruto's jump caused him and Shion to keep going up and up. "I think we're going to need that bell that makes you hallucinate."
Shion took the belt from her shirt and handed it over to Naruto. One of the tails became like a hand and grabbed it before snapping it to the staff. Naruto raised the staff above his head. Even as Shion looked up the staff began glowing unnaturally-
"Okay, this is a bit too serious. Come on, you stupid blond. Hurry up and defeat this thing with the other stupid blonde so you can go to her priestess abode and screw her silly."
Naruto almost faltered but continued charging up his staff. Once it was glowing bright enough to illuminate most of the room, he aimed it down and mentally wondered why on earth an ancient demon attempting to destroy the world would allow him to finish charging up his super amazing finishing move.
All heroes did that. Why did all villains have to wait for all heroes to finish their attacks?
"Oh, by the way," Shion began, breaking Naruto out of his thoughts, "I think you used the word 'martyr' wrong."
Naruto shrugged and aimed his staff down at the writhing mass of dark-colored flesh... at least he thought it was flesh. In any case, a giant, yellow fox's head appeared around Naruto and Shion. The fox head opened its mouth and fired off the giant ball of swirling energy that was situated at the top of the staff.
Moryo died. How a demon could die was beyond Naruto, but it died anyway. It also ended up causing a volcano to erupt. What the fuck? The blond jinchūriki didn't know much about geography, but surely that wouldn't cause a volcano to appear.
Naruto blinked as he found himself standing next to Shion outside of the shrine, watching the volcano in the distance. He hadn't flashed them away, so... what the hell had happened?
"It's best not to question things that don't make sense. People end up getting angry and then the writers end up getting annoyed."
What?
"Nothing."
"We did it."
"I know. We're amazing, right?"
Shion giggled. There were some footsteps behind them, prompting the two to turn around. Naruto saw Kakashi, Hinata, Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, Sakura, and Sasuke standing there. He didn't know where the latter two came from, though. They hadn't accompanied Kakashi... or his clones might not have been paying attention.
Shion turned to Naruto and smiled at him. "Well, my destiny is over for now... or is it? There might be another Moryo or two since it feeds on negative human emotion." Oh. That explained some things. "The priestess has to pass on her special power so..." Shion fidgeted for a moment. "Would you help in that respect, Naruto?"
Everyone's jaw dropped, except for Naruto. Hinata made a strangled squeak, Kakashi giggled perversely, and Sasuke wolf whistled. He also gave Naruto a thumbs up and was subsequently smacked in the head by Sakura.
Naruto stared at Shion for a moment before genuinely smiling. "Whatever you want, I'll do it, Shion." He'd had kunoichi make a pass at him before, but this was a bit different, so Naruto decided to act slightly more mature.
This caused Shion to grab his hand and faintly blush. It also caused Hinata to faint, Kiba to groan in annoyance, Kakashi to giggle even louder, and Sasuke to pelvic thrust in honor of his friend.
Kurama snickered within his mind. The great fox wondered how Naruto's spawn would end up looking.
As Shion began to lead Naruto away, the blond jinchūriki turned to his fellow ninja. "You should all head back to the Hidden Leaf for now. I'll return in a few days, just so you know."
Hinata, despite being in dreamland, fainted a second time.