A/N: (11/15/2022) Rewrote the first two chapters as they no longer match with what I envisioned with this story as the Ruined King game gave Ahri some semblance of lore. Yeah I know there's a three year gap since the last update. No I cannot guarantee this next one will be faster.

If you've opened this letter, it means that I have failed you, Naruto.

You must first know I didn't take you in out of pity or happenstance. You are a part of something that will change the world, or at least our perception of it.

You are a vastayan as I assume you have figured out from the numerous tails coming out of your body. I do hope I got to see them before passing.

Your mother was also a vastayan, a fox vastayan to be specific. I don't know much about your mother other than she was immensely powerful and seemed like she had a lot on her plate.

Her name was Kushina of the Vesani. Your mother arrived one day during the worst storm I had ever seen in my 60 years of living in our village. It was about to decimate our land before your mother, with one hand, quelled the storm. She sucked all of the water out of the air into an orb and just smiled at me. That was when I noticed you.

You were being carried on her tails, in some unwakeable slumber.

Your mother didn't explain much before leaving, only that because we were in her debt, she requested that you were given sanctuary for as long as it took for her to return or for you to become like her.

Kushina left me the attached journal, stating that when you were ready to venture out into the world, the book would help guide you in understanding your part in it. At least if she couldn't make it back from whatever world ending apocalypse she was trying to prevent.

I truly did love you and so did Miyu. I hope you will learn to forgive this old lady for the secrets she kept from you.

Day Two

"You know, I could help you go wherever you're trying to get to. I'm pretty well-traveled around these parts."

Ahri's voice was one of the few constant sounds that filled the forest. The others being two sets of footsteps and a shuffling of pages.

Naruto continued to walk forward through the forest, his head buried in the book he had found in the wreckage of the orphanage.

While the letter left to him by Granny had made it seem like the book was from his mother, Kushina, the book was actually written by a man named Minato.

The journal contained research the man was conducting about the history of Ionia, or more precisely, the old war of the titans.

Even before reading the tome, Naruto knew of this conflict.

Long ago, a race of humongous beings fell from the sky on the First Lands, on a mission to eradicate all of humanity and the world that they lived in. The mortals of this time became one with the spirit realm around them, becoming Vastayashai'rei, the ancestors of the vastayans. The Vastayashai'rei were deathless and powerful, but once the war was over and the giants extinct, they began to once again live with their mortal kin, their descendants becoming the vast array of chimeric beings known as the vastayans.

Minato's research took him all the way to the Heart of the World, known locally as the Greenglade. People spend their entire lives searching for this place, but its said that only those who need it are granted access to it.

There, Minato met Kushina, someone he wrote about a lot. It also happens that these entries into his research journals looked more like Miyu's diary entries. Naruto guessed he found out who his father was as well.

Kushina became very interested in Minato's work and split from her tribe, the Vesani. Minato's notes on the tribe were brief, at the behest of Kushina not wanting her people's secrets written down. He did note that the Vesani were a people of knowledge, that their goal was to know as much about the world as possible.

While a majority of the journal remaining was about the various vastayan tribes that remained in the Greenglade, the last section was revealing to say the least.

Day 600

There's been a breakthrough…and some other developments. After over a year of attempting to connect with the spirit realm in the most magical place I could find, I was granted a meeting.

The Fox Lord Sai'nen Thousand Tailed spoke to me during the daily meditation.

While I had many questions to ask him, the Vastaya Spirit had some for me.

Flashback

Raising his hands, Minato was shocked by the blue glow his skin suddenly had. He then realized that everything was blue. It was as if the way he perceived the world had suddenly changed.

Minato walked over to the nearby pond in the Greenglade and knelt down. His reflection revealed that not only was his skin glowing, but his yellow spiky hair suddenly was a bright white. His eyes were like the moon, a distant white.

A loud chuff alerted Minato and he whipped around, pulling out a dagger, hidden in his waist.

"Ahh, a Kinkou shortblade. It has been decades since I last saw one of those."

What stood in front of Minato was his end-goal, something that could resolve the query Minato had.

It was Sai'nen, the Fox Lord.

Towering over him was a giant red fox spirit. Its fur was highlighted with streaks of white and upon its head were a row of spikes forming a makeshift crown. Within this crown was a blue orb that emanated a ghastly smoke. Behind the spirit was an infinite amount of billowing tails, uncountable by the human eye.

Minato quickly got down on one knee and averted his eyes to the ground, his left fist pounded into the grass before him. "Mighty Sai'nen, I, Minato, formerly of the Kinkou order, am blessed by your presence."

Unseen by Minato who kept his gaze concentrated on the frozen blades of grass, Sai'nen began to circle the man, examining not only his physical being, but his spiritual one.

"You are different from the Kinkou order I'm familiar with, more curious than your average acolyte. And you say formerly? Why is that?"

Minato grimaced, "I had disagreements with the current Eye of Twilight. The current teaching methods utilized by the Kinkou do nothing for educating why the balance must be upheld, only that it must. The order is blind to any deviations from what they believe is fact, even when there are no two tribes in the entire First Lands that follow the same story." Shutting his eyes in frustration, Minato continued.

"I have dedicated my life to maintaining the balance, but I refuse to do so any further without knowing the truth of the world. Sai'nen the Vastaya Spirit, please enlighten me!" Changing his stance to be on both knees, Minato pressed his forehead to the ground and awaited an answer.

Sai'nen's glowing, blue eyes pondered how much the mortal could handle.

Kushina had warned me about convening with the spirits, but even with that knowledge, the moment after I was released from the spirit realm was exhausting. I was in bed for no less than three sun cycles, having to rely on the kindness of Kushina and a sentient scaled snapper by the name of Hinsu.

I now know what I must do next. Research into the history of the Vastayashai'rei must be put on hold. Now I have to protect this baby that has been born of the connection between Kushina, Sai'nen, and I.

We've named him Naruto. A maelstrom that will sweep Runeterra off its legs.

Ahri glowered as she sat on a log at the riverbank that Naruto had decided to take a break at. This reunion with her people had truly not gone to plan whatsoever and she had no one to blame but herself.

Not only had she lost control and killed who knows how many people, but the people that she soul-sucked out of their bodies turned out to be the friends and family of one of her relatives.

Way to go Ahri, you still can't do anything without making a mess of everything.

A swift wintry breeze swirled through the riverbank and she shivered, her tails wrapping around her to give some comfort from the cold.

A sudden weight fell on her shoulders, providing an immediate cover from the elements. Ahri looked up and saw Naruto standing over her, glancing away into the distance. His hand fiddling with the golden sunstone on his neck.

"Do you know your way to the Heart of the World?"

His question floated in the air for a moment as Ahri's brain calculated the fact that Naruto finally spoke to her. She then stood up, fanned out her tails, and gave him a vixenish smirk.

"Of course."

"C'mon Daisy, we must keep a move on!" A voice lilted its way through the dense brush of the Greenglades followed by large thuds.

A stone golem covered in moss and dirt and bugs stumbled its way around trees and boulders in order to keep up with its friend who had noticeably longer legs.

Ivern, formerly known as the Cruel, now known as the Green Father, knew that Daisy got easily distracted whenever they would stumble upon krug children or an adolescent brambleback. He made sure to keep her one-track mind on the path he chose to follow. The God-Willow's legacy. His human form had shifted. His skin became bark, his blood had become mana liquified. His soul had been reborn.

After Ivern and his Freljordian warriors cut down the legendary tree, his life had changed forever. No longer did he rape, pillage, and massacre. Now he nurtured mankind, gently guiding it towards watching, listening, and growing with nature.

A dark blue aura began to shine in the Greenglades. Ivern's eyes narrowed as he knew only one spirit that could produce a light like that. Looks like old Sai'nen is finally awakening.

"Well Daisy, it looks like the child has decided to walk the path they were destined. I guess we'll be able to help another overburdened soul along its way"

Minor lore dump into foreshadowing. See you when I see you.