Naruto, Son of Hades

by SinbadThe3rd

Naruto was slain by a man who wanted to avenge his family for their deaths at the hand of the Kyubi. The weapon he used was one cursed with power that sent his soul into another world, one where he will face many trials so as to return. But first, he simply has to break free of the Underworld itself, and that task alone is said to be impossible...

4. Force of Nature

A/N: Sorry for the long wait between updating chapters here. I am starting to get my creative juices flowing again and so I write about 500 to 1000 words a day so that the story is moving along at some rate instead of trying to type out an entire chapter at once. But I was delayed a bit this time since I spent a week house sitting for a friend while she and her husband went to visit family down in California. They have two cats who need attention, who get along perfectly with my own who I brought along. I didn't have access to my PC while over there so I am a bit behind schedule here. But here is the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy it!

Zagreus walked towards the arena that was the main stage for today's tournament with a sad, yet questioning mind. He was saddened by the images he had seen before he and Hinata had parted ways not too long ago. To think that he would have had a life with her, one where they were happy with children to call their own. He never would have guessed that was the case given all the hatred he got from the people of this village. But that was not this life, for his path went another direction altogether due to forces outside of his control. Man, if only the Fates from his old universe could hear about this, he had no idea how they would react to this tidbit of knowledge really. To them, fate itself was a simple string, easy to see and cut when your end was near. Here though… Apparently fate was more of a spiderweb given the various lives one could live were numerous and branched off so much. He highly doubted the Fates would be able to handle such a mess given they were only 3 of them. They would have needed a lot more to handle it here.

But all that was at the back of his mind. What was at the forefront was what this tournament was all about in the first place. His teacher Achillies was a wise man, who won many battles with his strength as well as his tactics. Sure he was technically immortal except for the one fairly odd weakness of the area on the back of his foot, but he still fought smart to his dying day. He was taught time and time again to read the situation, and to do it as fast as possible, which helped immensely during his numerous attempts to escape Tartarus. The layout of the place was always changing, never really the same path twice, as well as the enemies he faced in each section. So quick observation helped him to fend off his opponents so as to continue forward.

But back to the matter at hand, what was the point of this tournament? Tournaments were supposed to be such grand events so as to draw up business for your home and show off the strength of your champions to others. Sure it was pretty much a means to basically rub in the faces of others that you were stronger, but that was just what they were for. Yet there was no large influx of people here. No stalls out selling goods to those visiting to watch the event or those participating in it. This could only really mean one thing and one thing only…

It was a trap…

While Zagreus's knowledge of the world was limited given he was only alive as Naruto until he was 6 years old, his mind expanded when the knowledge of his clan had flowed through him. It was weird seeing so much history in flashes like that. But it was immensely helpful to understand what was happening to a degree. It wasn't just jutsu that was in that hidden room, but history as well. So he understood that the main villages… all 5 of them… did at times attempt, as well as succeeded at various points, in the capturing as well as the 're-education' of shinobi who were not of their villages. Or worse yet, kunoichi were captured to be used to breed more of their line so that the village that kidnapped them would have more of their abilities.

So if Zagreus had to take an educated guess, this was a means for the leader to judge the strength of various people who would come for some sort of prize that he was assuming was money, and if they met his/her standards that those shinobi would then be captured and detained until the point of their loyalty could be shifted towards this place. Not a bad plan really, but it was still evil when you thought about it. True, his old universe did that as well with the warriors of Greece capturing people and doing this exact thing, but it didn't make it good just because they did it as well.

But even though his mind was all but screaming at him that he was walking into a trap, he simply smirked and didn't falter in his journey towards the arena that lay before him. While what he was doing to some would be considered arrogant, he had a bit of a right to be so given he had single handedly fought off never ending numbers for who knows how long to escape what was deemed impossible to escape from…

So let's see how the shinobi of this village deal with a genuine god like him in the end…

(The Arena)

Danzo sat in his seat to spectate the events of the tournament he had set up in a grand scheme to increase the number of members in his ROOT program. Ever since he had become the official Hokage of the village after Hiruzen passed away, or rather was murdered by his former student Orochimaru (with the aid of Danzo himself, though he would never openly state as such) Danzo had been increasing his numbers for the past several years. At first he had tried to order the clan heads to hand over members of their own clans to do so, but they had utterly refused his order. Danzo had gone on to state that disobeying was akin to treason and as such doing so would have dire consequences in the end, but unfortunately for him Shikaku came prepared for when Danzo threatened them like that. Apparently his plan was far too obvious from an outside perspective and so he knew just what Danzo was going to demand before he did it.

He came with the village charter, the rules that had existed since the founding of Konoha iself, and it went on to state that not even the Hokage could threaten to force the members of the founding clans to conscript them into what one could label as, 'a personal army'. The members of these clans fought for the village as a whole as it was since its founding, and those members who became a part of ROOT were brainwashed into fighting for Danzo alone and they all knew it. It was the reason ROOT was disbanded by Hiruzen since no one should have a personal army like Danzo did since it could be used to oust whoever was in charge and thus start a civil war of some sort, yet it was brought back the second Danzo was made Hokage, and given the numbers he had within it it was abundantly clear that he never disbanded as ordered. That tad bit of information set a very bad image of their new leader given he had disobeyed a direct order from the previous one, but they couldn't do anything against someone the Fire Daimyo himself nominated for the position. They still questioned just why that happened, but to this day they had no clue or evidence of foul play so they couldn't dispute it.

So Danzo had to seek members outside of the village as well as from the unwanteds of their own. He had spies in the orphanage who told him of any potential children who he could use in his forces, and once he got the word he would send someone from his forces to 'adopt' them legally. Once the paperwork was done, the child was never seen again since they were then taken underground where they would spend the years being trained to become emotionless drones to do as he ordered them to do until the day they died.

And if that wasn't evil enough, Danzo had his forces go out and murder families of wandering clans so as to snatch the newly made orphans right up and increase his forces even more. Or worse, he ordered his minions to hold wealthy family hostages and forced them to transfer all their money to him before he had them killed anyway. He just had his men stage it to look like either missing nin did it for some quick cash or bandits for the same reason. The man was the epitome of greedy as well as narcissistic as all hell. In his mind, there was no one better than himself, and he was willing to kill anyone or anything that even attempted to challenge that image he had of himself.

But those he had been snatching up were all young. In time they would be useful to him, yet he wanted older shinobi who he could use sooner. Thus he set up this tournament so as to lure anyone with potential with false promises of money if they won. Their prize would be to serve him instead. But the issue was that not many people had come to attend the tournament. He had hoped more would arrive, but only a handful did. And unfortunately for him, none of them really stuck out as being useful for his goals so they weren't worth kidnapping really.

He had Sasuke enter the tournament as well, mainly so that those who fought him would go all out and show off their full skills in order to defeat him. Sasuke had been easy to control all these years, since the idiot was so easily swayed if you promised him power. He wanted said power to go out and seek his brother Itachi to kill, yet Danzo wouldn't let that happen. There were only two Uchiha left after Itachi massacred his clan, so Danzo would lock Itachi away and use his semen to breed more Uchiha to put in his ROOT forces. Yet he would never tell Sasuke that. Why waste such a good tool already when he could still get plenty of use out of it?

Speaking of tools, the very word making him growl angrily, he was absolutely livid that the Kyubi brat had been killed years ago. He didn't care that the brat suffered, since in the end the people of Konoha were doing his job for him since his plan was to appear friendly enough to lure the brat underground where he would then begin the process of training him into his personal weapon. He would have been able to take the seat of Hokage years ago if that was the case, but that one villager just had to go and kill his weapon. To the very end, which Danzo made sure was painful since the man had taken what Danzo had seen was his and no one stole from him if they knew what was good for them, the man smiled and proclaimed continuously how he had avenged his family and the demon was dead. The man had died with a twisted smile on his face.

And the knife he had used to do the deed…

Danzo, nor anyone else for that matter, had been able to understand why the weapon had killed Naruto. The brat had been stabbed plenty of times, even in the heart, but never had he died from it. Mainly it was because he was rushed to the hospital and put on some sort of life support to keep him alive long enough so that the Kyubi inside him healed the wound, which once it did a Yamanaka would erase the memory from the brat's head and then he would be violently removed from the place. Pretty messed up to hurt a child so as to remove him from a place where one goes to be healed of their wounds. But the doctors didn't care since they all hated him. They were even pissed that the brat was allowed to live and that they had to keep him stable, but orders were orders.

Yet even though the knife didn't seem out of the ordinary other than its jagged design, it just felt… off… There was no other way to describe it. The feeling one got when they held the thing was fairly off putting to be honest. So the thing was sealed away and put into the Vault hidden under the Hokage's tower where they kept plenty of other hazardous things from materials to weapons that did far more harm than good.

But now here he was, bored out of his mind while watching the shinobi who had come to participate in this tournament lose, all the while showing nothing worth keeping for his own forces. Why couldn't there be at least one decent person to capture from this batch?

"With this," said Danzo aloud as Sasuke struck the last opponent unconscious, thus winning the tournament, "I declare Sasuke as the winner of this tournament."

"Is there no one here who can give me a challenge?!" shouted Sasuke arrogantly towards the crowd. He had also hoped to face a strong opponent here, but everyone he faced were too damned weak for him. "Anyone at all who thinks they can challenge an Uchiha elite!"

As he was basically showbodding to the crowd, Zagreus couldn't help but hold his head in his hand and groan. In the four levels of the Underworld he had to go through in his escape attempts, there was a… well he would call them a boss given they were the strongest beings his father had put there to stop him in his tracks. In Tartarus there were the Fury sisters, either one or all together which made the fight all the more difficult given each of them was already hard to beat. Asphodel had the Bone Hydra, who he had started to call Lenny for a laugh. Then when he got to the realms of Elysium… and by the gods he had to face a man by the name of Theseus as well as his companion Asterius, also known as the Minotaur.

Theseus was as arrogant as one could possibly be. No matter how many times Zagreus himself beat the man, Theseus would manage to convince himself that he had not lost no matter what. He would spout off about being undefeated as well as victorious in all things. It became a headache the longer Zagreus had to hear it, and it became something he hated to hear every new attempt at escaping the Underworld. That was one of the major things he was so glad he no longer had to deal with since he came back to his own universe, but apparently there was a man like Theseus here as well. Zagreus had to nip this in the bud before it got too bad. Consider it his contribution to humanity if you will.

"Is that an open challenge," shouted Zagreus from his seat, "or is it limited to shinobi only?"

"You would actually challenge me," laughed Sasuke, "when you are not even a shinobi yourself? Are you in a rush to die?"

"No I am in no rush to die," said Zagreus as he stood up and began to walk down towards the arena, "Which is a bit humorous to me given the situation I find myself in." He said that part while thinking about Yami. He could only wonder just what that goddess would do once he descended into the depths of Hell itself, and most of the thoughts of his head went more sexual than anything else. But given his heritage as a person from Greece, where sexuality was more open and free and it kind of made sense. "But that is besides the point here. I would like to challenge you. Just because I am not a shinobi doesn't make me weaker than those who are."

"Fine stranger," said Sasuke as he beckoned Zagreus to the arena, "I accept your challenge. Now what is the name of the man insane enough to challenge an elite such as myself?"

"Manners state one should state their own name before asking for another's," said Zagreus with a chuckle as he hopped from the bottom of the seats into the arena itself. "But you already stated who you were. So allow me to introduce myself."

Zagreus then threw his cloak off, showing all who saw him his full form. Quite a few women actually blushed a bit seeing how handsome he was. Sure he had some seriously pale skin, but his muscles and physique more than made up for it. Zagreus stored his cloak like he did his Infernal Arms so as to use it later. Many looked upon his form and questioned just where this man was from. His attire was not something people saw in the Elemental Countries, and this made it all the more obvious that he was not from around here.

"I am known as Zagreus, former prince of the land of Tarturus," said Zagreus as he summoned his Stygian Blade and hefted it over his shoulder with one hand.

"A prince?" asked Sasuke with a confused look on his face. He, nor anyone else here for the record, had ever heard of a place called Tartarus.

"Former prince actually if you were listening," said Zagreus with a smirk, "but that is a long story the likes that someone like you could never fully understand nor even begin to fathom in that arrogant mind of yours."

"You dare to insult me?" seethed Sasuke in rage.

"Not only do I dare," said Zagreus with a chuckle, "but I would be so bold to call you weak with no actual means to achieve the amount of power you think you have."

"I am going to make you regret those words," stated Sasuke simply as he took a deep breath and unsheathed his own blade. His opponent was using a sword so he would do the same. He also knew his opponent was trying to get a rise out of him so he would make a mistake and mess up, but he was not going to play into Zagreus's hands like that. If only he knew the harsh reality of the situation…

"You are not the only person to say that to me," said Zagreus as he remembered Megaera, who said those words a lot when he said he would defeat her and escape. Man, it took quite a few… dozen deaths to finally actually back up those words in the end. But that was the past, and here in the present he had an arrogant mortal man who thought himself strong enough to fight a literal god. True Sasuke had no idea of this, but Zagreus wasn't arrogant and didn't go spouting it out to everyone. Sure he told some people, but that was to explain some things not for attention.

Sasuke had charged forward with his kitana raised and swiped at Zagreus with the skills that showed he had actually taken the time to learn how to use it. But unfortunately for Sasuke, not only did Zagreus know how to use his blade as well, he had literally hundreds of thousands of encounters of real life experience to go with it, and that trumped simply swinging a sword at a training target. So he was easily able to block Sasuke's strike using only one hand without really any effort on his part. The boy was strong, but his strength was nowhere near on par with the offspring of an Olympian god.

So Zagreus threw a punch right into Sasuke's face using the hand that wasn't holding his Stygian Blade, causing him to become a bit off balance from the blow. The second he was, Zagreus grabbed him by the arm and tossed him over his shoulder with enough force to slam him into the far wall on the opposite side of the arena. Those who were watching this were amazed about the strength this young man had, none more than Danzo. While the man didn't show it given his personal views on the showing of emotions, he was internally salivating at the thought of capturing this young man and turning him into one of his ROOT shinobi. Zagreus showed he had the physical strength to throw a well trained shinobi with a single hand with such force, and without looking winded or even like he was trying so Danzo could only wonder just how strong this boy was.

But then he looked far more closely at the young man, and this caused time to stop for him as he saw his eyes…

When Zagreus had first made himself known and challenged Sasuke, he hadn't paid that much attention since he didn't really think the man had anything to offer given he wasn't a shinobi. But now that view of him was shattered. But he remembered the prophecy that Jiraiya had told him about:

Beware the man with the mismatched eyes

For there is no victory against him, no matter who tries

There was more to the prophecy that Jiraiya had told him, but those two lines were the most prominent in his head right now. When he had heard it, he had ordered his forces to search high and low for anyone who could possibly fit that sort of description. So far they hadn't reported back with any sort of updates, but it had only been less than a week so it made sense given they were looking for a needle in a haystack in a sense. Danzo wouldn't have guessed that the person that the prophecy mentioned would literally walk into their village like this. But if he was indeed the person the aforementioned prophesy spoke of, then it meant that this fight's conclusion was already set. Like it said, there is no victory against him…

"Surely you have more up your sleeves than that," said Zagreus as he flipped his blade so that the blade itself was pointed downwards and slightly stuck into the ground. He was doing this so as to lean against it, since it was a fairly large weapon. "Because if so, I don't understand where the arrogance comes from. You can't beat me when it comes to blades, since I have far too much training for you to beat it, so why not try something else?"

Sasuke had fallen to the ground after being thrown into the wall, and had just got back to his feet as well as dusted himself off when he heard Zagreus shout that at him. While he was trying to keep himself level headed so as to not rush right into a trap of any sort, he would admit that this man did speak the truth. Out of all the various shinobi he had fought to master the art of the blade, he had felt in the clash of theirs that Zagreus was far superior to his own skills when it came to the weapon. He wouldn't ever say this out loud given his Uchiha pride forbade this, but internally he knew this. He would also admit that this guy was pissing him off as well.

So he looked at Zagreus, who stood there with what he assumed was a bored look, and growled that he was being looked down on. He hadn't spent so many years training to have someone that wasn't even from their village or a shinobi for that matter look down on him. So he quickly went through the hand signs he needed before he blew out a fairly large, yet steady, stream of flames. They were large to the point they covered nearly half the arena itself to the point that dodging would be difficult. Even if he did, Sasuke was prepared to attack while Zagreus was in midair since he couldn't dodge after jumping. But that is not how this played out.

Zagreus had seen the flames coming towards him and quickly summoned up his Shield of Chaos in its base form to block the flames. Lightning and water were the two elements he had full control over after so many times being gifted power from his two uncles, but fire was another thing. Sure he wouldn't die from it given his immortality, but he was a warrior and had trained to dodge attacks as well as deflect as was needed. So those instincts caused him to whip out his shield, and as expected the flames didn't do anything other than flow around it so that Zagreus was not hit with any of it.

He didn't stop there though, since he moved his leg a bit back and readied himself. Once he was in the right position, he rushed forward towards Sasuke, who couldn't see this given the amount of flames he was spewing out, so he didn't see Zagreus rushing him like he was now. So it came as a complete surprise to Sasuke when Zagreus appeared in front of him and slammed his shield into him hard. This caused Sasuke to be forced back a bit, but Zagreus then threw his shield like a discus and it knocked the wind out of Sasuke since it hit him square in the chest as it did. But as it flipped through the air after ricocheting away from him, Zagreus timed it right and slammed his bare fist into the shield so that this time Sasuke was slammed with the entire weapon.

Once again Sasuke was launched into the walls of the arena, with the humorous thing being it was only a few feet away from where he was first thrown into it. Zagreus held out both his arms, with his shield returning to one while his blade returned to the other. He then did as he was trained to do when one taunts their enemies and slammed the broad side of his blade into his shield.

"Come on Uchiha!" shouted Zagreus, as he continued to slam his blade into his shield. "Stop holding back and show me just what an elite you truly are!"

Once again Sasuke had to pick himself up back onto his feet, but this time he was visibly pissed off to the point others could see it as well. He had been humiliated by this strange man for the last time! So he decided to use his trump card and activated his Sharingan. His eyes turned red and began to swirl as he smirked in what he assumed was victory since he made direct eye contact with Zagreus as the black tamoes that were inside his eye swirled around.

"Is something supposed to be happening," asked Zagreus in confusion as he stood there. It made sense that he wouldn't know what the Sharingan was since he was never taught how to be a proper shinobi given he died at the young age of 6. This was new to him, and yet he had no idea how lucky he was that he was what he was.

The Sharingan was a special ocular ability that only the Uchiha could use, and it had plenty of uses. Such as what Sasuke was trying to use it for now being for illusions. The problem with this manner of plan was that the illusionary abilities of the Sharingan didn't work against those with strong wills and/or minds. So here stood a man, a literal god if you will, who had fought against impossible odds time after time, saw the literal face of the embodiment of Chaos itself, and literally managed to fight off the power of Fate so as to break free from the Underworld. It went without saying that the willpower of Zagreus was not something one could overpower. So to him, all he saw was swirling eyes, which while strange given he had never seen anything like that, it wasn't doing what Sasuke hoped it would do.

"I am so confused right now," stated Zagreus as he stood there. He had expected some sort of attack, but all that had happened was Sasuke's eyes changed colors and now were swirling in place. While strange to look at, he couldn't help but wonder if they actually did anything other than that. "So is your plan to distract me with your now red eyes or something? Cause I will admit it is a bit distracting but not really sure why you are doing that."

"What?" asked Sasuke in shock, since his opponent should be stuck in an illusionary world within his mind so that he couldn't fight back while Sasuke defeated him here and now. Yet apparently that wasn't how this was playing out for him. "How are you not affected by my Sharingan?!"

"What in the hell is a Sharingan?" asked Zagreus with genuine curiosity. "Is that what you call your eyes? Strange."

"No matter," seethed Sasuke, who was pissed that this stranger had somehow managed to nullify the full effects of his clan's signature ability, but he quickly went through more hand signs and began to charge up a lethal attack in his left hand. In his mind, someone like this had to be erased from the earth so that no one would ever know that there was someone immune to what Sasuke thought of as the ultimate Doujutsu. Sure the Hyuga could argue and state their Byakugan was superior, but they could go fuck themselves for all Sasuke cared. His hand began to surge with electricity as he charged up his most powerful jutsu known as the Chidori. "I'll end you with this instead."

"I highly doubt that," stated Zagreus with a shake of his head. This wasn't him being arrogant or the like, it was just pure simple fact. The jutsu used lightning… he was completely immune to lightning after being given the power of Zeus so many times just as he was with water since his other uncle Posideon had done the same. "But since you won't listen to me…"

Zagreus then threw his sword and shield away, which surprised those watching since it seemed odd for someone to do that in the middle of a fight. But what surprised them even more was the fact that his gear just vanished in midair when he tossed it away. He held out his hands upwards beside him with a look that all but said 'hit me with your best shot'. And Sasuke wasn't one to back down from a challenge so he finished charging his jutsu and then charged forward.

His aim was towards his opponent's heart since his goal was to end Zagreus's life here and now. And while the jutsu was fully powered, the aim was true, and the attack actually managed to hit its mark, things didn't go as Sasuke expected them to. He felt as the lighting that he had used for his jutsu left his body, like it was being absorbed which it in fact was, and saw it travel through Zagreus. The man stood there, his face never changing since he felt no pain from this. But what neither of them were aware of was that the process of traveling through Zagreus had enhanced the element with godlike power, though a sliver of it at best. And as the lightning traveled through Zagreus, it made its way towards his hand, and once there he formed it into a fist and punched Sasuke hard in the gut.

Sasuke was in a tremendous amount of pain from the blow alone, with him puking blood showing those watching that this man was not pulling his punches here. But as Sasuke fell to his knees in pain as he puked blood, he screamed in more pain since the lightning he had been hit with in the punch now made itself known. The pain he was suffering now was indescribable, with it being felt all the way down to his very soul it felt. But strangely enough, it also unlocked something within him that he had been striving for for many years.

For an Uchiha to gain their Mangekyo Sharingan, one had to kill their own best friend. The act of betrayal morphed their eyes into their ultimate form and as such they became stronger for it. Sasuke's eyes transformed into the Mangekyo Sharingan, not because of doing it the way all the other Uchiha who acquired it did it, but because since the lightning he was struck with was magical in nature, it was something that collided against chakra itself. Zagreus could not use both at the same time, it was either magic or chakra, yet Sasuke has a surge of magical power coursing through him and it was that power that changed his eyes as it exited his body painfully. So now his eyes were bleeding which seemed to go hand and hand with the fact he puked blood all of ten seconds ago.

Zagreus was not prepared for what happened next, with that being a literal giant purple hand coming out of Sasuke and slamming him hard against the wall. The irony of this situation was laughable right now. Sasuke smirked as he saw that he had unlocked the power to summon a Susanoo like his brother Itachi was capable of. This would only aid him in his quest to kill Itachi so as to avenge his fallen family. While so far he could manage the one arm, what seemed like some sort of rib cage surrounded him in energy that matched the color of the hand so as to protect him from any sort of retaliation.

Zagreus was surprised by all this. Here he was, held against a wall and no matter how hard he struggled he could not break free. In times like this he would more than likely call upon the power of the Olympic gods to aid him, but they did not exist here so they could not help him. Yet even in this situation his mind remained sharp and an idea popped up in his head that he felt stupid never asking himself before right now.

All this time he had called upon the names of the other Olympic gods to grant him power…

But what if he called out his own name for his own power?

"Well here goes nothing," said Zagreus with a chuckle, "In the name of Zagreus!"

The people who were spectating, who were now so happy they did since they got to see this amazing fight that was taking place in front of them, all saw a reddish flash of light, and then it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. But what they saw next caused them all to go pale in the face.

There stood Zagreus, his eyes shining bright, yet that wasn't what they paled at. It was the fact that he had nine spiritual tails behind him that were swishing back and forth…

For many of those who came to spectate today's event, they recognized the demonic energy that was now flowing out of this strange man. It had been the bane of their existence for six long years and when they had killed it they had celebrated all throughout the village. But now here it was again, somehow alive even though they had killed the brat when he was six. The people grew scared and feared some sort of retaliation so they all began to flee since they knew they were no match for the Kyubi if it began to rampage. They were only citizens, not shinobi.

"Well this is new," said Zagreus as he looked at his hands. He saw what seemed like a crimson colored extra layer of skin that had sharpened claws at the tips of his fingers. He seemed like some sort of feral beast like the Minatour was with the intelligence to go along with it as well. He honestly had no idea what was going to happen when he invoked his own name to summon forth his godlike power, but whatever he did felt natural to him.

As he stood there, a plethora of images entered his mind all at once, mainly of the demon whose power he had inherited and what it had gone through until his death that killed the beast as well since their souls were linked together. And he saw one particular memory that made him smirk a bit since it was perfect for right now. So holding out his hand, he used the chakra in his body to construct an orb that was swirling violently within his hand which he then rushed forward with, far faster than he had thought he could move, and slammed the orb into Sasuke's protective cocoon.

The cocoon tried so hard to hold out against this attack, but given the god wielding it, it didn't last for very long and quickly began to crack to the point it then shattered like glass. The orb hit Sasuke full force in the chest, the energy behind it shredding his shirt as well as leaving a massive bruise on his chest as it burned on the top. The scarring would be very visible for the rest of the young man's life, but that was beside the point given right now the attack also caused Sasuke to fly into the air at an angle all the while spinning fast before he slammed hard into the wall behind Danzo in the Kage booth. He was knocked out at this point and fell face first onto the floor, in a lot of pain but he was still alive.

"By the gods," said Zagreus as he looked at his hands and just felt the power rush through him. He understood what it was since the memories of the demon had flowed through him, and it was the memory the Kyubi had of his father using the jutsu Zagreus had replicated that made him want to use it. "If only I had this type of power when I tried to escape the Underworld. I wouldn't have died even a fraction of the times I did. But it seems like my opponent is down for the count, so I have no reason to stay here and should be going. I still have a destiny to achieve before I can rest eternally."

Zagreus actually turned around to make his way out of the arena, but then he heard a whistle and the second he did he saw that he was surrounded by at least a hundred shinobi. Zagreus couldn't help but notice all of them were wearing blank masks on their faces like some sort of cult uniform, which was fairly creepy if he was going to be honest about it.

"Oh right," said Zagreus with a chuckle as he slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand since he had honestly forgotten about this, "this is a trap. How could I forget about that?"

"Zagreus," said Danzo as he stood up from his seat and looked upon him like he was the master while Zagreus was his loyal pet of some sort. "You are in possession of two sources of power that belong to this village. You are under arrest for the theft of said power and will be interrogated to learn how you came to get them and then spend the rest of your life in prison."

That second part wasn't even remotely true since Danzo would personally see to it that this man was brought to heel as soon as possible so as to become the perfect weapon for him to use in the war he was going to wage with the other villages in the near future. He had already lost one Jinchuriki, he was not going to lose another if he had anything to say about it.

"I find your choice of words quite amusing," said Zagreus with a laugh before he turned around to look at the man who was ordering his men to try and detain a god of all things. That was suicidal in any conceivable means of process when put into action.

"And how is that?" asked Danzo, all the while knowing that he was going to make the process of turning this stranger into one of his ROOT shinobi more painful the more he refused to obey right now. He would ensure that his new pawn would have no notion of free will like all the others before him.

"How can you claim someone else's power as your own?" asked Zagreus. "I don't see you using it. So how can you lay claim to it when you are not them?"

"You are using the power of the formerly deceased Kyubi as well as the jutsu known as the Rasengan that the former leader of our village the Yondaime Hokage used. The Kyubi is the property of our village and to use the jutsu of a dead man without the permission of said person is a crime, one that is punishable by life in prison!"

"Do you listen to yourself as you speak?" asked Zagreus in confusion, "You said that I am using the power of two dead people. How can you claim the power of the deceased as your own to the point of trying to arrest someone else who manages to obtain it? You are not the Shinigmai so the souls of the deceased do not empower you in any way. You killed the demon, thus you as well as everyone else have forfeited all rights to it given you can't control the dead."

"It matters not if the beast is alive or dead," said Danzo angrily, since he was not going to be told by this man that he couldn't acquire what he wanted. "You control the power of the demon, and thus you are now the property of Konoha!"

"And who are you to deem me as such? Who gave you the right to claim me as your personal property?"

"I am the Hokage of Konoha!" shouted Danzo in rage, actually showing a bit of emotion as he did so, "and my word here is the law! Capture him!"

The various shinobi that surrounded him all charged him at once, and this made Zagreus chuckle a bit. He had faced worse things and came out alright in the Underworld, so he was going to enjoy seeing how well he fared against those in the land of the living. True he had faced Orochimaru and his men, but there were nowhere near this number of people attacking him at once since it had only been a few dozen then. Yet as they got closer, it seemed like time slowed to a crawl for some reason. Zagreus had heard about those with inhuman reflexes but this was still new to him.

'Prince… Use my power…'

Zagreus's eyes opened wide since he recognized that voice anywhere. It was the voice of his old friend/lover Dusa, the floating Gorgon head that served as the maid of his house. It was strange to hear her voice here of all places, but he understood exactly what she meant. So he pulled out the stuffed Snake she had gifted him long ago. He felt as the power with it surged and held it up before covering his eyes. He had no idea exactly what it would do, but given Dusa was a Gorgon, beings infamous for turning their victims to stone, he was not going to chance it. So the stuffed toy exploded in his hand with a flash of light, and all who looked upon it were turned to solid stone.

Danzo screamed in pain since he had looked slightly as well, so while he felt the effects of the Petrification, it wasn't as bad as the shinobi he had sent to capture Zagreus. So his hidden arm as well as one of his legs were the only thing that turned to stone, and it was for that reason that he was in such pain.

Zagreus opened his own eyes to see what had happened, and like he had expected the shinobi attacking him had turned to stone. A few of them were broken on the ground since they had been jumping at him when they turned so the impact of hitting the ground broke them. He wasn't perturbed by this at all though, he was sad that the toy given to him by his friend/lover of sorts was now ash in his hands, yet there was nothing he could do about that.

"What have you done!" shouted Danzo, who was trying so hard to move, but the stone his arm and leg had become were heavy so he wasn't able to move so well given his elderly age.

"I turned your men into stone," said Zagreus simply, "and apparently parts of you as well. I didn't even know I could do that. I thought the Gorgon's curse was all or nothing, but I learned something today. Well enough about that, I am going to set out now."

"Just who the hell are you!?" Shouted Danzo in rage that this man had done this to him. Never had he heard of such an ability, and he would be sure to hunt Zagreus to the ends of the Earth to make him pay for doing it to him. His prized arm, the one with all the hidden Sharigan grafted into it, was now useless and quite literally weighing him down since it was solid stone.

"I am something that you would never believe," said Zagrues with a smirk since it was true. Trying to explain how he was reborn and sent back through the Realm of Chaos would be hard to believe. He had already told the story once and no one believed him for quite some time. He wasn't going to even bother explaining it to someone he wasn't friendly with in the first place. "Just know that you people killed me once, and now you can't do it again." And with that, Zagreus ran out of the arena since he wasn't trying to answer anymore questions.

It took Danzo a minute to register just what Zagreus had said, and as it did, his one visible eye grew large in shock. It was only then that the rest of the prophecy came to his mind:

Killed once already, he will not again be easily taken

Returned to the home, one that he has long forsaken

The spawn of one by whose souls all are judged

With an empty heart within, but in it there is the remains of a grudge

Beware the man with the mismatched eyes

For there is no victory against him, no matter who tries

It all started to make sense to him now… The demon brat had somehow managed to return to the land of the living. But not only that, he had returned with the Kyubi as well since he had shown he was able to call upon its power. Danzo seethed at the lost chance to make the brat submit, but he would be damned if he let him escape the village so easily…

"LOCK DOWN THE VILLAGE!" shouted Danzo as loud as he could. And apparently someone had heard him since there was an alarm going off all over. Civilians everywhere quickly rushed inside so as to flee the streets while the various shinobi all quickly grabbed their gear and prepared for a fight. When the Hokage called for the lockdown of the village, it meant they would be fighting something. It took a few, but eventually more shinobi came to where Danzo himself was, and they were just as shocked as Danzo had been to see the fates of the shinobi in the Arena.

"Your orders lord Hokage?" asked the ANBU Commander.

"Naruto is alive and back! He goes by Zagreus now and has strange clothes that don't match what is available in the Elemental Countries as well as black hair and mismatched eye colors." Seethed Danzo in anger as he gave the general description. His men couldn't search for someone if they didn't know what he looked like. Even though he said Naruto, he didn't look like he had in the past so they wouldn't have found him with that alone. "Capture that brat alive! Use any and all means to accomplish your goal!"

"By your orders." said the Commander before they all scattered to find the demon brat. They all questioned how he had returned to the land of the living since he had been killed when he was 6, but now was not the time to ask questions. The village was put into lockdown, which meant the seals on the walls surrounding the place were activated so that no one could leave or enter. The brat might have done some sort of miracle to come back to life, but he was not going to be able to escape this place as long as the barriers they erected held. And since they were made with the strength to hold of at least one Biju Bomb, he wasn't leaving anytime soon.

Zagreus had heard the alarm and knew he had to hurry if he was going to make it out of the village in time. But unfortunately he was too late since the doors leading out of the place were all sealed shut. He smacked the wall, but the force he put into the punch was sent back towards him and pushed him back.

"So some sort of reflective shield huh," said Zagreus more to himself than anything. He was familiar with such things since Athnea had gifted him that power many times when he wanted it. "Now how do I get out of here?" Zagreus stood there to think, but he didn't really get to think for long since he was spotted by several shinobi who called out to the others that their target had been spotted. "Apparently I am going to have to add 'fighting through waves of shinobi' to the plan. Well that works for me really."

Zagreus saw the shinobi run towards him, and he cracked his knuckles before he conjured and equipped the Twin Fists. He took a deep breath, and as he exhaled not only he but the shinobi rushing him could visibly see his breath as he did. He had infused his weapons with the power granted to him by his grandmother Demeter. With it, he had full control over the temperature so as to make it below freezing. So with his weapons now imbued with the element of ice, he rushed forward and began to attack his enemies.

The shinobi who tried their hardest to detain him as ordered were in no way prepared for what they would experience right now. Zagreus was far quicker than they had thought and what made it worse was that whatever his weapon touched froze solid instantly. And if that wasn't bad enough the force he put into his punches literally shattered them the second after it did. The last surviving shinobi fell back onto his ass as he looked in horror at this monster of a man who continued to breathe in a fashion one could see his breath. The shinobi crawled back backwards, all the while surrounded by the frozen shards of what used to be his comrades, yet he didn't make it far. Zagreus held out his hand towards the man and the last thing he saw was a dark blue beam hit him before he froze solid, the terror on his face forever immortalized as he was stuck there frozen in ice.

"Why did I do this to myself," asked Zagreus in thought as he stopped with the enhancement of his weapon. "I had everything I needed first thing this morning. I could have just left and went on my way, but no… I just had to participate in the tournament! Curse my warrior's spirit! I blame Ares for this…"

But while he was not surrounded by enemies right now, Zagreus knew that that could change any second. So he needed a place to think of a plan to escape this village. He could only assume that all entrances were sealed shut as well as heavily guarded so he would have to think of another means to get out. The problem was he was drawing a blank here. So he would find a safe place to think about it, and luckily for him he had one since his home was a place no one else could enter since they weren't Namikaze. So donning his cape once more, since the magical effect of being unseen would work perfectly here, he made his way towards his destination.

As he walked calmly towards his house, he saw many shinobi scrambling all over the place looking for him. They were literally looking everywhere but where he was walking. Since they were looking for him by specific identifying features given to them by their Hokage, they couldn't notice him since he had them covered right now and they weren;t looking for him as he was. Zagreus had to admit the magic placed on this cloak was strange but he was not going to argue about a gift he got from a goddess. That never worked out well in the Underworld, so he was not going to piss one off here.

He eventually made it to his house, and with a quick look to make sure no one was around him, which there were not, he opened up the gate and entered it. Apparently the shinobi here didn't think to look for him near the Clan houses for some reason. He could only assume that they thought he wouldn't seek shelter in them since their entire clans were looking for him right now, but that was only a guess not fact. Once the gate was closed he made his way inside, where he quickly shut the door behind him and sat down on the couch in the living room as he took off his cloak once more.

He sat there and pondered hard on just how to escape the village, and a few ideas came to mind, but they didn't seem right. He doubted he could escape through the sewers since he had no idea where those went and so he would get lost and be running around in circles in other people's waste. He could try his hand at breaking the seals on the walls so he could make a hole to escape through. He had the knowledge left to him by his family, but even then there was such a high chance of being seen as he did it and could be attacked, making the process longer. Plus given it had been some of his family that had made the seals that were put on the walls protecting this place meant that he would be undoing their life's work and that left a bad taste in his mouth just thinking that.

But luckily for him, the means to escape had quite literally sprung up from nowhere…

The seed he had planted in the secret room had slowly built its power and waited as Zagreus had whispered to it earlier in the day. But now it could wait no longer and began to grow rapidly. Zagreus felt the ground shake and then split all over the place as various roots from this tree began to appear. He smacked himself again for forgetting the seed he had planted, and then immediately was swept up by a root that emerged from under him.

He held onto the tree as it began to grow massively, with it going even higher than the cliffside that had the faces carved into it. He saw as the various people were running as their homes along with various buildings were destroyed by the large roots that were still growing rapidly. By the time that the tree had reached its full height, with it being literally four times bigger than the face cliff itself, at least a full third of the village was overrun by the tree's roots. And to make it all the sweeter for Zagreus, the wall was damaged as well. Apparently, whoever had made the wall's defensive seals didn't account for the forces of nature itself to break them down so they didn't activate.

Zagreus smiled since he now saw the means to leave, and with that he let go of the tree from where he was. He fell quite a bit until he hit the base area where the roots curved upwards and then began to slide along them. He would admit that the fall did hurt given he had reached terminal velocity as he slammed feet first onto a solid platform of sorts, but he would walk it off easily. So he slid along the roots straight past the broken wall and away from the village.

At the end, he jumped off with a laugh since it had been quite fun to slide on massive roots and if able he would like to experience it again, but now was not the time for such pleasant experiences. He was still being looked out for by the shinobi of Konoha, and he had already spilled enough blood for the moment, so he turned around and left the area…

Yet what no one was aware of was that underneath the tree, under all the roots that spanned so much of the village, the magic that was stored within it began to seep into a body that lay buried beneath it. Sure there were others there, but one in particular was absorbing the energy from the tree…

And after enough energy was absorbed, the body loudly gasped for breath…

(A/N: I am going to leave the story there for now. Hopefully you enjoyed the latest chapter, and I wonder if you can guess who was resurrected by this tree that was blessed with power from another dimension… And if you guessed Minato or Kushina I am going to state that you are wrong. Both of them are within the realms of Heaven and are happy there since they know their son is safe and sound. I'm fairly sure you can guess who it is given the situation, but then again you might not so I will explain things in the next chapter. Till then!)