The support has been outstanding for this rewrite. I don't know what to say, honestly. It's very rewarding seeing one's hard work pay off. Thanks to everyone who gave it a chance! As always, review, it keeps me going. Oh, before I forget, Naruto's character isn't going to be the super serious, "cold logic" type. He's grown in this story, but he's still the same old Naruto for the most part. A tad more intelligent and discerning, but also a hyper goofball.
Chapter 3: Divine Intervention
A portal opened in the outskirts of a grassy field, and out came the three who entered it. Ophis floated out first, followed by Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto, having been in sage mode, was immediately assaulted by the signatures of numerous lifeforms and the familiar, yet also different, feeling of chakra. The landscape wasn't much different from back home, surprisingly. Lots of nature, though there appeared to be some sort of settlement in the distance with what looked like buildings. He guessed that that was their destination.
The ground cracked under the weight of their combined power.
"Um, why did that just happen?" Naruto was confused. Did the ground in this place always do that? It would be a pain if that was the case to walk, he'd have to use Six Paths Sage Mode just to get around (since he could fly in that form), and Sasuke would have to use his hawk summon. On that note, could you even summon in this place? He'd have to read up on the rules of this reality soon so they could get their bearings about them.
"Too powerful", Ophis said simply. "If it was only me, there wouldn't be a problem, but with you two, the realm seems to distort around us." Ophis was, for the first time in a very long time, mildly excited. These two could affect the environment around them simply by existing, something she had not seen from anyone other than herself. Her "silence" would be obtained in short order, if their power was the real deal.
Sasuke, expecting something like this, thought diligently. They'd stick out like a sore thumb if they went around cracking the ground and affecting the landscape, so they'd probably have to operate at very low levels of their chakra output. How much, however, was left up to what Naruto was feeling.
Naruto was just finishing up his evaluation of their surroundings. Aside from the three of them, all the rest of the chakra signatures in the immediate vicinity were… barely even registering. They were there, but they were small, akin to them when they were genin, maybe even academy students. There was one in particular, though, that caught his eye. It felt like Kurama, albeit not as powerful, but still noticeably larger than everyone else's he had felt. It was stationary at the moment, but it piqued his interest. He turned to Sasuke, who looked like he was expecting an answer, and then to Ophis.
"We'll just suppress ourselves then", he replied to her. From the feel of things, they'd have to suppress themselves to genin levels to not stick out, as much as they probably already had anyway. He lowered his chakra levels to the appropriate amount, Sasuke following suit without any spoken words as he could see the chakra in Naruto's body with his eyes. They had become great at unspoken communication over the years, using their abilities to their advantage to trick or outsmart any opponents. Ophis sensed this and wondered how they could tolerate doing this. She herself could lower the level of power she output, but why would she? How could they bare being so weak when they could be strong instead?
And weren't they supposed to be teaching her?
Feeling a bit impatient (odd for an immortal), she decided she'd just ask them.
"When do we begin?"
"Huh", Naruto replied.
"When do we begin my lessons", she repeated. "I have upheld my part of the bargain, now you must uphold yours." Naruto had honestly forgotten about that in the short space of time they hopped from one location to another. Sasuke did not, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy Naruto being put on the spot like this.
"Naruto, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear Kurama." Naruto wondered what caused Kurama to speak up, he had been silent since before they got here for quite a while.
"Good. Now, I'm going to have to ask you to do something for me."
"What is it?"
"Let's track down that copycat's chakra signature." Kurama felt the same things Naruto did, and that same chakra signature caught his attention. Naruto knew who he was talking about, that signature that resided in the village up ahead that felt similar to him.
"Why though? You feeling lonely or something, fuzzball?" Naruto knew that Kurama didn't have a lot of, quote on quote, "friends" because of how his life went, but he never pegged him for being the type to get lonely. The other tailed beasts were with him, and Naruto himself was always connected to him, but he digressed. He knew exactly how soul-wrenching loneliness could be, both from his childhood, and from right now ironically. Sasuke was the only comrade he had left, the only family. All of this power he had, he'd trade it all in for the chance to just live a normal, happy life if he had the opportunity, so he didn't begrudge Kurama if he wanted to make new connections, especially with someone potentially from the same species (technically, his species was tailed beast, but he was a fox all the same).
"No, you idiot. I'm saying this so you can have an excuse to use for that dragon woman. Use your head. She doesn't know what shinobi training even means, so you can feed her any made-up criteria and call it training. This way, you'll also be able to explore without her constantly nagging you if you send her off on some wild goose chase." Kurama lived up to his namesake. Foxes were devious, cunning creatures, and he was no exception.
Though he only told half the truth.
The other half? He had sensed a massive outpour of negative emotions from that singular chakra signature that felt like his. He had since let go of his own rage and hatred, opting to befriend someone for the first time, and was slightly put off by just how much negativity was flowing from that singular source. It bothered him, as much as he'd deny it, that someone else, potentially of the same species of him, could feel that way.
Maybe he was losing his edge. Maybe he had gone soft, or maybe, just maybe…
He had grown a heart.
Naruto, understanding his reasoning, turned back to Sasuke. Again, he wordlessly complied. Sasuke could actually see Kurama inside of Naruto, adding to their wordless communication. Naruto turned back to Ophis and responded to her.
"Ok. We'll start now, then, by heading towards that village." Naruto pointed in the direction of Kyoto.
"Village?" Ophis cocked her head at the term.
"Sorry, it's a word I'm used to using. What's the name of that place?" Naruto stopped, his mistake evident to himself now
"Actually, what's your name?" Naruto heard a snicker come from Sasuke. The bastard was enjoying every bit of his absentmindedness. Sasuke was never a chatterbox, pretty stoic in fact, but he was uncharacteristically silent even for himself. Naruto silently swore to get back at him for leaving him out to dry.
"I have over 1000 names given to me by many different species and cultures", Ophis replied. Naruto could feel the headache coming on already.
"Then, just give us the one you go by the most." That should narrow it down enough for her to choose.
"Very well. If that is the criteria, I have been called Ophis approximately 975, 684,234 times. The name of the destination is 'Kyoto' if I remember correctly."
"I didn't need a count, but ok. We'll start by going to Kyoto. The first step to shinobi training is to find a suitable place to train." Naruto's exact plan was to just have her repeat some basic drills until they came back to get her.
"Let's get moving then," Sasuke spoke up, "We're burning daylight dobe." As much as he liked seeing Naruto struggle, they really needed to start moving. Staying in one place for too long could lead to a lot of problems, since they don't exactly have alibis for every situation. He began walking towards Kyoto, the other two following suit.
-Takamagahara, Earlier-
"And that's the gist of it." Fujin had come back and finished giving his report to Amaterasu, who was utterly confused.
"So… these two mysterious gods have taken on Ophis as… an apprentice?" She couldn't even begin to fathom what was going on.
"That is what the winds told me, yes."
"And they're headed for a place that's populated with chakra?" She was worried. What could beings as powerful as them possibly want with chakra? Especially Ophis, she could raze the entire population of youkai there to the ground if she so felt, she didn't need chakra. Unless…
Amaterasu's head started spinning, coming up with all sorts of doomsday scenarios for her and her children. No one could stand up to those two nameless gods in her pantheon, if their dismantling of the Heavenly Dragons was to be believed, let alone Ophis. She would need to personally intervene herself and find a non-violent way to get them to leave.
Or maybe… she could benefit from their presence?
"It appears that they've landed in Kyoto. Fujin-san, did they say what exactly their purpose was?" Fujin had simply been on standby, waiting for her to finish her thoughts.
"I didn't hear any clear-cut proclamations", he responded.
"Maybe I can give them a purpose… I will leave at once."
-Kyoto-
Naruto, Sasuke, and Ophis had come upon Kyoto, blending in rather seamlessly thanks to their henge and Ophis' shapeshifting abilities. Naruto had told her that stealth was a part of shinobi techniques, and she readily went along with the plan. They walked through the place, taking note of all the people, or rather, beings passing by.
"Half of these people here have chakra, and half of them don't', Sasuke pointed out. It was still better than the chakra-less warzone they had dropped into when they came here, so no complaints there. Still, everything here was weird. The people that did have chakra didn't have any chakra coils; the chakra was just one big mass residing in their bodies. His eyes discerned various different "temperatures" of chakra as well, some of them fiery red, some cool blue, and some in between.
Naruto was not so vexed. Chakra was a representation of it's wielder, after all. Sasuke's chakra was constantly cold and dark back when they used to fight, and he had only gained more understanding from the sage of how chakra worked.
After about ten minutes of walking and avoiding conversations with overly eager people, they came upon their destination (well, the place where they'd drop Ophis off, anyway).
A lake distanced from the hustle and bustle of the buildings and people roaming between them.
"Alright, here's where we'll train", Naruto announced. He popped a few shadow clones into existence, amazing Ophis even further, and started standing on the surface of the lake. There aren't any chakra signatures around, so there was no one around to see them or interrupt. Sasuke did the same, effortlessly walking onto the lake and standing on it.
"Alright, so, the trick to this is", Ophis had already leapt onto the water and sunk again, stopping Naruto mid-sentence. He sweat dropped, amazed at this powerful being. Despite her adult body (she had chosen to stay fully grown for some reason), she was more like a little kid than someone who had enough power to obliterate most things without a trace. Even though she's likely going to be a pain in the ass, her child-like exuberance amused him. He sorely missed interacting with the kids of Konoha and the other villages, since he and Sasuke had secluded themselves from the world ages ago. His own kids, obviously, filled him with the most joy. Ophis couldn't replace them, but she could make him chuckle at least from time to time.
Ophis floated back up from the water, clearly displeased if the nearly imperceptible downturn of the corner of her lips were to be taken at face value.
"I… still don't understand. You merely stepped onto the water with energy concentrated at your feet. I have done the same as you, but no results."
"There's more to it than that", Sasuke stepped in. "Simply focusing energy to your feet won't allow you to do this. Water is not a stagnant object if disturbed, so your energy shouldn't be stagnant either. Take a look at what we're doing again." Ophis looked at their feet, and sure enough, the amount of chakra they were sending to their feet was in constant flux. She looked at Naruto's clones, and they were all doing the same thing as well.
"This is… difficult." Ophis knew she was going to have a hard time with this. She had never needed to regulate her power this precisely with this amount of frequency. Giving portions of it away and erasing things was much easier.
"The more you practice", Sasuke flash-stepped a large distance across the lake, appearing in a spot about 30 feet away in an instant, "the better you'll get and the more things you'll be able to do." He was silently enjoying teaching her, though he wondered why Naruto and his clones were so silent. Turning around, he came upon one the scariest sight he had ever seen.
Nothing.
Naruto was gone, and in his place, a scroll in a bottle (where the hell did he get a bottle?) He opened the bottle, took out the scroll, and read it's contents, already knowing what it said.
"I know you've always wanted to teach your very own genin, no matter how much you deny it, so I'm giving you that chance now. I'll be back after we go investigate that crazy chakra signature, good luck!
P.S.- I made shadow clones so she would ask about them. Now you have even more material to teach! Aren't you excited?"
Sasuke closed the scroll and incinerated it with one glance, sighing to himself. He was essentially stuck playing babysitter, no doubt because of his own silence back when they first met Ophis. Still, Naruto pulling pranks was a sign that he wasn't too far gone with all this unending time, so he put a small smile on his face and went back to watching Ophis try to control her power.
Rather, he would have, but she was standing right next to him when he turned back around.
"… Clones."
"Clones?" Sasuke repeated, not sure if she was making a statement or asking a question.
"… Teach me."
Sasuke, upon second thought, realized that Naruto was probably just playing hooky.
"Jackass."
-Empty Alleyway-
"We sure gave him the slip, didn't we?" Naruto puffed his chest out at having evaded Sasuke. Sneaking up on and escaping him were very hard things to do, after all.
"Could you be any more of a kid?" Kurama responded. He didn't mean anything by it, but ribbing Naruto always felt like the right thing to do in these situations with how their dynamic was.
"As a matter of fact…" Naruto performed a single hand-sign, transforming back into the diminutive pipsqueak he was at the age of 12.
"I can", he finished with a goofy smile.
"Never would I have thought that the day would come that I would get used to your antics, but here we are." Naruto continued walking down the alleyway he had come upon. His speed was such that he could be at his destination in a matter of minutes if he wanted, but he was always a sucker for sight-seeing. Exploring a new reality terrified him at first, but after seeing just how similar everything here was, he decided he'd give it a go.
"Yeah, here we are", he repeated. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask this for a while now, but where are the other tailed beasts? I can't hear them, but I can still sense the fragments of chakra they gave me." Naruto had not heard a peep from the other tailed beasts, so he was curious about that. He released the transformation jutsu and waited on an explanation.
"They're sleeping", Kurama replied simply.
"What, that's it?"
"Yes, that's it. You don't think transferring across space and time was easy, do you? SOMEONE had to supply you with chakra to make a jump to an entirely different reality, and that someone just happened to be my siblings and I. Since you only have fragments of them, you used up almost all of their chakra in conjunction with my own."
Naruto stopped in his tracks; his hand placed on his chin in thought. He did remember Sakura having to essentially be a chakra battery for Obito to connect to and traverse Kaguya's dimensions. The same thing probably applied here. Sasuke did always talk about how draining it was to dimension hop.
He was brought out of his thoughts by the sudden onset of a bright light in his vision. Naruto closed his eyes, entering sage mode, and felt someone appear that felt like they were one with nature. Different from how a sage like himself was, but also similar. When the light died down, he opened his eyes to the visage of a tall woman garbed in a kimono.
"Greetings", she said in a polite manner. "Do you know who I am?"
Naruto didn't, really, but he had a clue that she was some type of divine being, judging by how she felt. Hopefully, she wasn't here to pick a fight.
"Can't say I do", he replied. Mentally calling upon Kurama, he asked the obvious question.
"She got any underlying negative emotions, Kurama?"
"No, not from what I can feel. She seems more relieved than anything."
"Well, it'd be my pleasure to introduce myself. My name is Amaterasu-omikami, and I am the chief deity and overseer of this great land you see before you." Amaterasu spoke with an air of dignity and pride about her homeland, her nursery.
"So, you're the boss around here?" Amaterasu giggled at Naruto's question.
"I suppose you could say that", she replied. "Enough about me, though. Care to introduce yourself?"
Naruto took a second to remember the fake alias Sasuke had come up with for them. It was just their ancestor's name, if he recalled correctly.
"My name's Asura."
"Just Asura? So you're reincarnated?" Amaterasu supposed that he didn't quite want to tell her his real name, instead going by his classification. She'd leave it at that for now, as he didn't seem like the malevolent variety of Asura now that she's met him.
"Yes", he replied. Technically, he wasn't lying. Technically.
"Oh my, for a reincarnation such as yourself to be as powerful as you are, that's a surprise." Naruto didn't like the implications of her sentence. He was instantly wary of this woman.
"You… know about my power?" If he was correct… she'd been watching him.
"Yes, of course, As I've said, I am the overseer of this land. Very little goes on without me knowing about it, and word tends to spread fast about people with power such as yourself anyway. This peculiar form of yours is a good indication that the rumors are true." Naruto silently cursed, he forgot he was in sage mode. Being that he had reacclimated to the form after his fight with the dragons, it felt as natural to him as being in his normal state. He'd stay in it, now that the cat's out of the bag anyway.
"I assure you, I mean no harm. In fact, I came with a request of sorts. Should you accept it, I'll afford you any number of luxuries you want." Naruto sat by, idly weighing the pros and cons. This person was a total stranger with unknown motivations and a relatively large amount of power. Not as much as his own, but enough to dwarf everyone else's present in the immediate area. If there was anything that he had learned, though, it's that power meant status, and status meant authority.
This could be his chance to learn more about this dimension. Kurama hadn't sensed any negative emotions, so it should be fine doing some grunt work for info. He didn't mind.
"I'm listening." He had his own agenda, currently, but a detour wouldn't be so bad if this person held up their part of the bargain, and if she didn't, he could just kick her ass.
"Perfect. Now, I'm going to need you to find this being," She conjured up an image of a beautiful woman with nine tails swishing behind her, "and when you do, you must detain her. Take as much time as you need."
Find and detain? Easy enough, he supposed. He had a hunch that the person he was currently on his way to find was a nine tailed fox themselves, so this might have been a stroke of luck if the image was the same person.
"Is there a name to this mystery fox?" Naruto asked.
Amaterasu flushed slightly, forgetting such an important detail.
"Tamamo-No-Mae."
Tamomo-No-Mae was a legendary fox spirit, in case anyone was wondering since she wasn't in the original version of this story. She's here to set the stage nicely for Yasaka when she pops up. There will be time-skips at some point, but only after I'm done establishing everyone I want to establish pre-canon.