I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Times Change
Ryuu pulled the last of the bandages off of his eyes and opened them slowly, wincing as the light of the desert sun flooded them. After taking a long few minutes for them to adjust to the light, his Instinctive Medical Ninjutsu had activated and removed his headache, healing whatever lingering damage or weakness remained. Finally, he looked around, smiling.
"It's about time," Ryuu said, unsealing a mirror from his left arm. "Let's see."
He activated his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and let out a long whistle. His own Mangekyo's teardrops and lattices were all still present as they had been, but now featured Shisui's Mangekyo's shuriken as a backdrop with his own Sharingan's designs inverting colors to red anywhere they were over the Shuriken. He smiled as he felt no strain or pain whatsoever using them, and far less drain on his chakra than his normal Mangekyo had, barely more than his normal Sharingan.
"Not bad," he said. "Kind of glad I agreed to have them implanted after all." He looked around, Fu, Tayuya, and Kabuto all whistling as he had, and Naruto flashed him a grin and a thumbs up. "Alright, let's get going, shall we?"
The others all nodded and he let his Mangekyo deactivate, though he kept his Sharingan active, noticing an even lower strain than they had had before Shisui's eyes were transplanted. He smiled. He could probably keep them active forever and never feel tired now. He wondered if Itachi even noticed his Sharingan drawing at his chakra at all.
"I see the ruin!" Fu reported. "Straight ahead!"
Ryuu nodded, taking the lead and drawing his tanto, a Vacuum Blade forming as he swung it down to his side. "Kabuto, run me through what Tsunade's scroll said again."
"Our target is a Suna Missing Nin named Mukade," Kabuto said as they ran into the ruined city. "He's a skilled puppet master, and he's trying to get his hands on a ley line beneath the ruins of Loran, which was sealed away by the Fourth Hokage. Our orders are to stop Mukade and protect Lord Hokage's seal at all costs."
"Any idea what's so special about it?" Ryuu asked. "Moryo? Zero-tails? Another Akatsuki member?"
"I have no idea," Kabuto said. "My contacts don't know anything about it, but it's probably best if we don't let him get to it, wouldn't you agree?"
"Completely," Ryuu nodded.
"Hey Kabuto, have we ever mentioned how awesome it is that you still have a network of spy contacts as big as Orochimaru's?" Fu asked.
"I simply see the value in information," Kabuto said.
Just then, the road in front of them began to break apart before a massive, worm-like puppet burst out of it, its right arm extending in a blur toward Ryuu, only for its bladed fingers to crash into his Vacuum Blade and halt. Its body had a rounded torso, then a slim, snake-like tail in place of legs, the two pieces separated by an iron disk, then a head with two massive, green eyes, and four large white blades sticking up from the back of its torso
"He wanted to say hello," Ryuu smirked, shoving the hand aside.
Naruto hurled a barrage of kunai but the puppet raised its left hand, which began to spin, the fingers deflecting them. The puppet reared back before throwing itself forward, its green eyes sliding up out of the way as a pair of retractable drills burst out of its eyes and it shot toward Naruto. Naruto yelped in surprise, drawing his chakra blade from the back of his waist and blocking it, barely managing to hold it back. It shoved him back into a broken wall before its chest opened and a dozen katana blades stabbed out of it, impaling Naruto, only for him to explode into a cloud of smoke. Then, the real Naruto and Fu passed behind it, chakra streaming along their chakra blades as they slashed the Chakra Threads attached to the puppet, making it fall limp. Ryuu grabbed both instantly as his Sharingan saw smoke curl out of the puppet's neck and he leapt away, after Kabuto and Tayuya, who was running along the chakra threads.
Just as Ryuu landed, the puppet erupted into a massive fireball, blasting a gaping hole into the ground and forcing Ryuu and the others to hunker down and wait for the concussion to pass. As they stood from behind a chunk of rubble, they found an enormous hole had been blasted into the ground.
"What's this big hole?" Naruto asked.
"I'd wager the ley line is below us," Ryuu said. "Come on. Mukade will already have gone in."
"Ley line?" Naruto asked.
"Think of it like a fountain of infinite chakra," Ryuu said. "Mukade wants it."
Naruto nodded and Ryuu formed a Crow Clone for the three that couldn't fly before those who could extended their wings and flew down into the hole. A massive tower extended up from the darkness below them and pathways and doors lines the walls of the rounded ruin inside the hole. Ryuu spiraled around the tower as they descended, his Sharingan watching the doors for movement, finding none. Finally, they reached the floor of the ruin and the Crow Clones dispersed, everyone running into a tunnel off to the side and sprinting along it quickly. Finally, after nearly four minutes of running, they exited it into a massive, open chamber with archways lining the rounded wall, some sealed off and others open. Before them, there was a thin stone bridge reaching out into the center of the massive chasm filling the room, a round platform on the other end of the bridge bearing an intricate sealing jutsu with a strangely-shaped kunai in the center, stabbed into an odd, shin-height, stone dome in the floor.
"That must be it," Ryuu said.
"Wow, you got those bandages off and you became the most observant person I've ever met," Tayuya teased.
"Oh fuck off," Ryuu said, just as a tall, skinny man with brown hair to his shoulders, and a sleeveless black cloak walked out from behind one of four statues around the seal. "Mukade."
"Well, it looks like you're too late to try to stop my plans," Mukade smirked.
"He doesn't know who I am, does he?" Ryuu asked.
"Doesn't look like it," Fu said.
"I'll possess the power of the ley line and use it to fuel my puppet jutsu," Mukade continued, "and then I shall rule over not just the Five Great Nations but the entire universe!"
Ryuu raised an eyebrow. "So...pretty basic bad guy plan, then. Tell me, how do you plan to break the seal?"
"Oh, I don't plan to break the seal," Mukade said, kneeling behind the dome and forming several hand seals. "I'll just absorb the sealing formula."
He began to chant an incantation and Ryuu appeared behind him, moving to slam the butt of his tanto into the back of Mukade's head. However, just as he made contact, Mukade's hands met the dome. Light purple light exploded up around them and Ryuu instantly reappeared beside Fu and the others again.
"Looks like I was too slow that time," Ryuu said, staring at the pillar of energy flying up around Mukade's unconscious body as the seal shone violet and flooded onto his body. "This might get ugly."
Mukade's eyes flew open suddenly and he grinned wickedly, grabbing the kunai before beginning to pull upward. The dome began to break around the kunai as it slowly rose.
"No!" Naruto shouted, sprinting forward. "Don't do it!"
"Naruto!" Ryuu shouted, he and Fu both taking off, rapidly catching up. "Get back here!"
Just as they caught Naruto by the arms, the kunai broke free and violet energy exploded outward from the dome, ripping the platform and bridge apart as it expanded. Ryuu swore, turning and extending his wings, grabbing both Naruto and Fu, only to be yanked backward as soon as he left the ground.
"Shit!" he yelped, less than a second before their vision flared white.
Ryuu groaned, pushing himself up slowly, ignoring the soft, feminine voice singing from somewhere, and looked around. They were in a tall round room, possibly inside a tower, though it was smaller than where they'd just been. Chunks of debris jutted up from the ground at odd angles all around them, and there were five openings in the ceiling letting in light. Around them was a small shrine that curved into a "C" with the shrine itself at the center. Naruto and Fu both groaned as well as they pushed themselves up beside him, Ryuu helping Fu up.
"I thought the point of flying was to avoid getting caught in the blast," Naruto complained. "Where'd we end up, anyway?"
"I don't know," Ryuu groaned. "Maybe the blast teleported us like a Space-Time Ninjutsu?"
"It's possible," Fu said. "But where to? And what's this shrine?"
"No idea," Ryuu said, pushing himself up and dusting himself off. "Who's singing?" He looked around, finally noticing a girl about their age with red hair in a ponytail sitting on one of the pieces of debris, tears rolling down her cheeks as she sang. "Excuse me!"
She gasped, looking over at them in fear.
"Can you please tell us where we are?" Ryuu asked.
She bolted instantly, jumping off the debris and running for a door off to the side.
"I'll take that as a no," Ryuu said. "Come on. If nothing else, we can follow her out of here and figure out where we are once we're outside."
"Right," Fu nodded.
"Good idea," Naruto agreed.
They jogged after the girl only to stop at the door as a pair of soldiers with heads identical to the puppet they'd met before finding Mukade appeared between them and her. They extended their arms and each fired a pair of arrowheads at them, the arrowheads being propelled by streams of shining violet chakra. However, just before they could reach them, a violet barrier appeared in the doorway and the arrowheads clattered harmlessly to the ground. The soldiers both shot forward, but as they passed through the doorway, they fell apart, their pieces bouncing past Ryuu and the others.
"Puppets," Ryuu said. "Mukade's, judging by the heads."
Fu nodded.
"What's this barrier?" Naruto asked as it faded from sight.
"Useful," Ryuu said, just as three sets of stone double-doors began to extend from the wall.
Naruto stepped forward, but Ryuu caught him, allowing the door to seal.
"Let's use the holes in the ceiling," Ryuu said. "We'll have a better vantage point up there anyway."
Naruto nodded and began to jump from one spot in the wall to another, Fu and Ryuu calmly drifting upward with their wings. After a couple of minutes, they flew out through the hole Naruto used and landed to either side of Naruto, staring at the world around them. They didn't have a good vantage point. In fact, the holes were short tubes with slanted tops covered by windows, one now broken, all of which were barely four feet high. Around them was a nature park inside of a huge city. Massive towers stretched up from the ground to all sides of them, all of them looking like they wouldn't be out of place as part of a palace. Bridges extended from one tower to another here and there, and pipes crisscrossed all through the city. Ryuu could sense power from the pipes, but it wasn't normal Chakra.
"Whoa," Naruto breathed. "Where are we?"
"Those buildings look like the tower I circled inside that hole," Ryuu noted.
"Yeah," Fu nodded. "Do you think..."
"God I hope not," Ryuu said. "That would be...really complicated."
"Let's go check it out!" Naruto said, leaping into a tree, then to the top of a wall around the park.
Ryuu sighed, he and Fu following, only to stop as three more of Mukade's puppets flew down at them from above. The three were all almost identical, and were each spewing violet energy from the backs of their legs to fly. The only difference between the three was that the one on Ryuu's left had a massive two-headed hammer-like weapon for a right arm below the elbow, the one in the middle had what looked like a massive cannon in the same place, and the one on Ryuu's right had a three sleek, curved blades for each hand. As the puppets flew down at them, Ryuu swiped a hand, sending out a Beast Wave Palm and splitting the middle puppet in half diagonally. The other two shot forward instantly. The one with the claws went after Naruto, who drew his Chakra Blade to fend it off, and the other went after both Ryuu and Fu. Within seconds, they had cut it to ribbons, Ryuu with a Wind Rapier and Fu with a Water Sword.
Just as Naruto managed to destroy his with his Chakra Blade, six more, two of each arrived. They all began to fire off the same arrow heads as before, this time the arrow heads retracting every time one of the three deflected them. Then, the ones with the cannons swung them around, beginning to rapidly launch balls of the same pink energy they were using to fly. Ryuu, Fu, and Naruto retreated up one of the towers and onto a bridge, only for the puppets to land on either side, though the cannon puppets did stop shooting for the moment. All six shot forward suddenly and Ryuu and Fu each turned toward a group, sending out a Beast Wave Gale Palm and destroyed the two groups. A moment later, a blonde man appeared in front of them wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and pants, a brown flak jacket, and a dark brown owl mask with a white "Y" on the forehead and nose, then white eyes with slit openings and a red and blue circle around the eyes appeared off to one side, reaching for them all.
Ryuu grabbed Naruto and Fu by the shoulders and vanished just before the man could grab them, reappearing off to one side as the man skidded to a stop, looking around before seeing them and stopping. Ryuu drew his tanto and trench knife instantly. The man was fast. He hadn't even noticed him approaching until he suddenly just appeared in front of him. If he was an enemy, Ryuu would need to take him seriously from the start.
"Who are you?" Ryuu asked.
"You're Hidden Leaf Shinobi?" the man asked, pulling his mask off and down just far enough for Ryuu's Sharingan to make out the leaf symbol on the blue strap that his mask attached to. "We're from the Hidden Leaf Village too."
"We?" Ryuu asked, just as two more appeared beside the blonde.
One of them was a heavy-set guy with the kanji for "food" in a circle on the front of his brown flak, long, messy brown hair, a pale grey rope belt, and a mask similar to the blonde's but with the lower half of its face yellow, a strip of white along where cheekbones would be, red around the eyes, and the "Y" at the top purple. The other man was dressed similarly but had a large, round gourd strapped to his upper back, messy brown hair, and a mask reminiscent of an insect's face with a yellow egg-shaped spot on the chin, two yellow strips on the forehead reaching off the sides of a third eye, a green "X" across the middle of the mask, and red around the eyes, chin, and the top of the mask.
"You did well against those puppets," the blond said. "They seem to be powered by chakra from the ley line, so they're not your average toys. You three are powerful to be able to take those down so quickly. But then, I suppose since one of you is an Uchiha, that's a given."
"I have a feeling you three aren't exactly pushovers either," Ryuu said. "I'm assuming the guy with the word food on his belly is an Akimichi, the other one has insects in his gourd, making him an Aburame, and then there's you. You're fast, to the point I didn't even know you existed until you were already in front of me. Fortunately, you weren't trying to attack, or I might not have been able to get away cleanly."
"I don't know about that," the blond said. "You're pretty quick yourself. If I didn't know better, I'd have said you teleported."
"Your masks aren't ANBU masks," Ryuu said. "Those are usually white. Which means that you're wearing them to hide your identities because this is an enemy nation and you're all on a covert mission." He looked around. "We should probably find somewhere more private to chat."
"Agreed," the blond nodded. "Follow us."
Ryuu nodded and the three Leaf Shinobi turned and left, Ryuu and the others following. After a few minutes, they reached an empty alleyway and landed around the three masked shinobi, Ryuu and Fu both ready to fight, but Naruto calm and without even a hint of having his guard up.
"So, can you tell us where we are?" Naruto asked.
"This is Loran," the blond said.
"What!?" Naruto gaped as Fu and Ryuu glanced at each other knowingly. "But how? That's impossible!"
"It's not," Ryuu said. "It was what I said it was after we woke up."
"What?" Naruto frowned before remembering. "Oh! So it was-"
"Yes," Fu interrupted. "That."
"What?" the blond asked.
"Sorry, but I'm still not entirely certain I can trust you," Ryuu said.
The blond nodded. "I suppose that's fair. I do have a favor to ask, though. I need you to leave the village until our mission is complete." he pointed to the end of the alleyway to Ryuu's left. "You can find the main gate if you turn left over there."
"Sorry," Ryuu said. "But we have a mission of our own."
The three masked shinobi looked around at each other for a moment.
"That'll complicate things," the blonde said.
Then, the three of them were gone. Ryuu sighed. He really hoped he didn't have to fight that blond. On the other hand, he would like to test his speed against him.
"Now what?" Fu asked.
"Now we find Mukade," Ryuu said. "His puppets are here, powered by the ley line, so he's here too. Chances are, he got sent back further than us, so he's probably older, and given that his puppets attacked us in broad daylight without causing any problems, there's a good chance he's taken over."
"What about those three Leaf Ninja?" Naruto asked.
"We'll see them again," Ryuu said. "i have a sneaking suspicion we have similar missions."
"Alright, now last question," Naruto asked. "Where the heck are we? Loran's supposed to be a ruin."
"It is," Ryuu nodded. "In our time. The ley line's energy, that bright light we got sucked into, threw us backward in time to before Loran was a ruin. We're several decades in the past."
Naruto's jaw dropped before he looked around. "Does that mean...we know those three?"
Ryuu was silent for a long moment before shaking his head. "Doesn't matter. We have to be careful not to change the past while we're here. Stick to our mission. For the time being, let them worry about their own."
Naruto and Fu both nodded and they all left the alleyway carefully, Ryuu and Fu travelling through the ground and walls as they hadn't done in so long while Naruto stuck to the shadows.
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