Happy Labor Day from the United States, lol.

I've got time to finally address the reviews in the author's notes. This is the chapter where I finally introduce Naruto lol, and serve up some lore that ties in Tokyo Ghoul with Naruto to make sense in this AU.

Anyways, please enjoy!


Inside the beige wood-paneled walls of Ramen Ichiraku, Naruto Uzumaki and his two comrades, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, sat at their own round table, with of course Hinata Hyuga sitting quietly beside the glutenous shinobi. Although Sasuke was used to Naruto making humming sounds while stuffing his face full of ramen, he was the least tolerant of it out of the group, and he had reached his limit by the time ramen tossed his second empty bowl to the side.

Just as Naruto reached out to grab the third steaming hot bowl that was sitting in the middle of the table, Sasuke quickly snatched it away and pulled it toward where he was sitting. Having been so focused on getting his third fix of the night, Naruto needed a few moments to process where his bowl of ramen had gone. By the time he looked up and realized that his annoyed and grumpy friend was keeping it away from him, Naruto couldn't help but get a little ticked off himself.

"Hey, what the hell Sasuke?! If you're still hungry, then order your own bowl— that one was mine, damnit!" Naruto scolded with a wide smirk, while visibly trying to laugh his annoyance off.

"I'm not hungry, Uzumaki. I took it from you, because you lack table manners, and I was growing weary of listening to you stuffing that big mouth of yours," Sasuke stated stoically, and continued to stare emotionlessly at Naruto, who was hoping that his black-haired friend was simply joking with him.

"Haha, okay, okay, Sasuke, that was sassy of you— funny even!" Naruto laughed uneasily with slight twitching in his eye, as he nonchalantly tried reaching across the table again, only to have his hand smacked away by Sasuke. "Haha, okayyyy, you're uh… Y-You're kind of getting on my nerves now, Sasuke— not gonna lie."

"Then that makes two of us," Sasuke egged on with a challenging smirk, as he couldn't but find entertainment from the fact that it was him who was getting underneath Naruto's skin.

Seeing how Naruto was starting to get visibly annoyed by Sasuke's 'lesson', as well as recognizing how uncomfortable Hinata seemed, Sakura decided to be the voice of reason once again. "Alright, Sasuke, you made your point. Give Naruto his bowl back, and he'll eat quieter. You guys are upsetting Hinata and you're going to make a scene, soooo… Why don't we just play nice, okay? Okay," Sakura said in the hopes of de-escalating the tension between the two young men who saw each other as rivals and best friends.

Not willing to budge just because the pink haired kunoichi wanted to make peace, Sasuke was determined to prove a point to the hard headed shinobi sitting across from him. "Uzumaki will be free to choke on all the ramen that his fat ass can shove down his gullet, as soon as he apologizes for the errors of his ways."

Immediately standing up from the bar stool, Naruto grabbed the curved edge of the round table, and glared menacingly at the unphased young man. "Y-You got some nerve talking to me like that, Sasuke! I should… GrrrNgh! F-Fine!" Naruto grunted out, after catching a sideways glimpse of Hinata's worried look. Taking in a deep breath and sighing loudly, Naruto collected his wits before opening his eyes to stare at Sasuke with a calm expression. "Sasuke, I apologize for-"

"-Get on the floor and apologize the real way— don't try to pull that half-assed Western crap that they do here," Sasuke interrupted before pointing to the spot in the middle of the dining area— making it abundantly clear to Naruto that he wanted an apology the traditional Konohagakure-way. "Get down on your knees, elbows on the floor, and beg for me to forgive yo-"

"-HOW ABOUT I KICK YOUR ASS INSTEAD!?!" Naruto shouted out on the top of his lungs, as he pushed the table aside to tackle Sasuke on the floor— causing Sakura to shout angrily at the two wrestling on the floor, while Hinata began panicking on what to do.

As if all their training went out the window, Naruto and Sasuke began throwing punch-after-punch into each others' face, while trying to knee each other while attempting to pin the other to the ground. "P-Please! N-Naruto…! You two need to stop…! Mr. Teuchi is coming here…!" Hinata warned with an anxious voice, as she got on her knees to try and clean up all the pieces of shattered ceramic bowls from the floor, while Sakura tried breaking the two rivals off of one another.

"HEY!!! Cut that crap out, you two morons! They're not going to hire us again if you two—NGHHH!!!" Sakura grunted out painfully, before reaching up to cup both her hands over her broken nose. Upon hearing Sakura yelling out in pain, both Naruto and Sasuke halted their brawl and looked over to see Hinata handing the pink haired kunoichi a wad of napkins for her bleeding nose.

"Sakura…!" Sasuke uttered out with a low voice, as immediate regret washed over him, and tried reaching a hand out to check on her, but was immediately shoved away by her.

"Don't…! You two idiots have done enough already…" Sakura muttered in a pissed off voice, as Ayame came rushing over to her side to help her off the floor. "Couldn't just listen to me, could you, Sasuke…?" Sakura said bitterly, as Ayame began walking her over to the kitchen to help wash her up.

Laying on the floor with bruises and scuff marks all over his body and clothes, Naruto narrowed his blue eyes as Sasuke and scoffed. "Way to go, dumbass… Couldn't watch where your elbows were going, could you?" Naruto patronized, and remained unphased as Sasuke turned his head over his shoulder to glare bitterly at him.

"You're blaming me for this? You're the one who attacked me, you small-brained maniac… Over what? A bowl of damn noodles?!" Sasuke scolded, and scooted over to the side as Hinata awkwardly tried wiping up the puddle of spilled ramen that he was sitting next to.

"That's because you were being an asshole to me! And for what? Because I enjoy stuff in life, unlike you?" Naruto shot back, as he felt Teuchi's hand wrap around his bicep to force him up to his feet. "Maybe if you weren't so miserable all the time, you wouldn't feel the need to make others unhappy like yo-"

"-Gentlemen! That is enough, both of you!" Teuchi scolded in an authoritative voice, as he stared down at Naruto through his narrow eyes, before moving his neck to the side to watch as Hinata helped Sasuke up from the floor. "I cannot believe that you two hot-heads haven't left that anger between you two back in Konohagakure… We should be together, and looking out for one another— not trying to turn on each other over trivial things!"

Staring at Sasuke, Teuchi lowered his hand down and clamped it over the young man's shoulder before giving it an empathic squeeze. "Uchiha, I know you're still dealing with your older brother's death… And I can only imagine what's still transpiring in that head of yours. It's okay to feel your feelings, but you cannot use that as an excuse to take your frustrations out on your friends. Treat them the way your clan would have wanted you to…"

"… And as for you, Uzumaki," Teuchi said in a more patronizing voice as he turned his attention over to the nervous blond man who was smiling uneasily back at his elder. "You're not as brash, selfish, or bratty as you used to be, but you have a lot to learn about empathy. We've all suffered losses from when the Enclave took our home from us… However, you still have your mother to come home to— not many of us who survived Konohagakure's tragedy can say the same," Teuchi said with a low voice, and watched as Naruto's smile faded, as a look of shame and guilt took its place on the blond man's face.

"… The Uchiha Clan was big on traditional Japanese values, all I ask is that you keep that in mind whenever you find yourself getting frustrated with Sasuke. All he has are his memories of his loved ones, unlike some of us, who can still make more with theirs," Tenuchi said solemnly, as he looked over his shoulder toward the kitchen, where his daughter was walking back into the dining area with freshened-up Sakura by her side. "Now… Why don't you two show each other equal respect, bow and apologize, and then we can move on?"

Doing as their elder instructed, Naruto and Sasuke turned to face one another, and locked eyes with each other. Bowing down at the waist so that the tops of their hair were almost brushing up against one another, Sasuke was the first to apologize, before Naruto accepted it and gave his apology in return. With the two of them ready to move on, they stood up from their bow and gave each other a look of warmth— a moment of friendship that was quickly interrupted the moment each of them was handed a mop and a broom.

Clapping his hands together as his daughter handed Naruto a bucket of hot water, Teuchi smiled as he said, "Welp, the moment has passed. Back to work!" Before heading back into the kitchen while Ayame stayed on the floor to clean up some of the other tables in the almost empty restaurant, Teuchi came back to hand Sasuke a dust pan, before finally returning to his duties behind the stove.

Not a few minutes had passed until the four ninjas turned their attention to the small chime of the front door bell. While Hinata was on the floor with the dustpan, Sasuke standing over with a broom, and Naruto staring at the two trench coats wearing ghouls who came into the restaurant, Sakura immediately recognized the duo from the rumors she had heard around the noodle house. "Psssstttt… Hey guys, aren't those guys from that one local militant faction…? GOAT, I think…?" Sakura whispered under her breath, as she stared inquisitively at the sugary frappe in Haise's hand that looked alien to her.

Narrowing his eyes at the two unsuspecting young men who were approaching the front counter to talk with Ayame, Sasuke muttered beneath his breath, "They're just a bunch of opportunistic warmongers who took advantage of our peoples' situation… I bet they think they're our saviors, or other self-righteous bullshit… And worse of all, they're ghouls…"

"Hey, Sasuke, lighten up on the judgemental crap, won't ya…? Didn't Teuchi just talk to you about it…?" Naruto piped up with a patient look on his face, and watched as Sasuke gave him a quick glance before sighing.

"… Yes, he did," Sasuke muttered back, before adding, "I apologize— I'm still working on it…"

"No worries, Sasuke— we all slip up sometimes…!" Naruto reassured with a cheesy grin on his face, before turning his attention back to Haise and Kaneki, who were ushered by Ayame to follow her to the kitchen to speak to her father. "Although, Kakashi did mention that he didn't want us talking to them… Especially that guy with the white-and-black hair… Don't know why him specifically," Naruto said with a curious tone in his voice, as he couldn't help but to allow himself to ponder.


"Right this way, you two," Ayame instructed, as she led Haise and Kaneki through the kitchen and past the metal door to the freezer, until she brought them to Teuchi. "Father, these men wanted to ask you some questions about Konohagakure," Ayame announced to Teuchi, as she took a step to the side to allow her father to get a look at the two brothers who he recognized almost immediately.

"… Ah, you're the young man who picked up an order for take out earlier, during lunch hour as I remember," Teuchi said with a pleased smile, before suddenly losing his friendly demeanor the moment he locked eyes with Haise. "And you… You're the casanova who was making out with your lady friend in my restaurant earlier— in front of my daughter, nonetheless," Teuchi said accusingly with a disapprovingly look in his narrowed eyes, while Ayame simply blushed and felt a smile growing on her lips as she and Haise momentarily exchanged glances.

"It happens," Haise said jokingly with a smirk on his face, while Kaneki gave him a sideways glance before gently nudging him in the ribs to stop. "But, uh… I am sorry for my behavior earlier, I didn't mean for it to happen," Haise apologized, and gave Teuchi a small smirk before turning his attention to his daughter. "By the way baby girl, did you ever give my phone number to Kakashi by chance?"

Gasping at the audacity of Haise flirting with his somewhat impressionable daughter in front of him, Teuchi was frozen with shock. What was worse was when he realized that Ayame was getting visibly flustered by how forward and charming Haise was being with her. "U-Unbelievable…!" Teuchi uttered out with his skin going pale, while Kaneki tried stepping in front of Haise to block the man's view of his brother.

"Y-Yes sir, I gave it to him shortly after you left," Ayame said with a wavered smile, and bashfully looked down at her feet the moment she noticed Haise taking a step toward her.

"Good girl…! I'm very proud of you, thank you," Haise said without really thinking about how he was coming off, and smiled happily as he waited for the madly blushing waitress to give him a follow up. "And, what did he say?"

Frowning a bit, hoping that her answer wouldn't ruin the moment between her and the half-ghoul, Ayame hid her face behind her hand as she whispered back, "He said… He said that he wasn't going to call you, and that he wanted nothing to do with you or your 'reaper' friends… I didn't know what he meant by that, but he said you'd know…. S-Sorry…"

Although Ayame's relayed answer from Kakashi was disappointing for Haise to hear, it was an answer that he was already half-expecting. "Oh… Well, that's unfortunate. Welp, no one can say that I didn't try," Haise said with a sigh and a shrug, before sliding his hand into his trench coat to pull out an invitation letter. "Do you guys do catering, by chance? I know someone who's throwing a Halloween party, and they could use some ghoul-friendly refreshments and food."

Reaching down to grab the bottom of her blue apron in handfuls, Ayame smiled excitedly at the unsuspecting half-ghoul as she reached over to grab him by his hand. "I have some… 'Packages' that I can show you in the office, if you're interested in seeing the 'goods'…!" Ayame asked in a voice that she tried using to sound sexy, but it came off as just silly to Haise and Kaneki.

"Pffftt…! A-Alright! Sounds good to me!" Haise said without any clue what he was getting himself into, before being pulled by Ayame's hand toward the direction of her father's office. Turning around to wave at Kaneki and Ayame's distraught father, Haise yelled back, "I'm going to see what she has available! Why don't you and her old man talk about whatever it is you think he can help you with!" Haise suggested with a wide smile on his face, and gave one last wave to Kaneki before Ayame closed and locked the office door behind them.

"This d-damn city… It's already perverting the mind of my little girl…!" Teuchi whispered out in a defeated voice, as he turned his attention toward Kaneki, who had his forearm up to navigate through his Pipboy's global map. "Young man, w-what is your brother going to do to her…?!"

"I think he said wanted to look over your catering options, if I'm not mistaken," Kaneki replied back nonchalantly, while being too preoccupied with wanting to bring up the map of Hokkaido. "I'm aware that you and your daughter are immigrants from Konohagakure— I've already enlisted those who were refugees from there, and they're currently working for me at Vault 079…"

"… Now, I'm curious as to a few things, because all I know so far is that Konohagakure was invaded by an aggressor as part of a campaign to take over the island of Hokkaido. What I first want to know is before your people were invaded, how did all of you manage to keep the fallout from entering your large settlement," Kaneki asked curiously, while paying no attention to sounds of a desk squeaking coming from the locked office door behind their direction.

Knowing that his daughter was her own woman, despite wanting to deny that, Teuchi gave another sigh of defeat before trying to distract himself by answering Kaneki's question. "I understand that you're familiar with air purifiers to filter out the fallout from entering your city… We had a channel of salt water to keep us safe, so although we had to deal with the dragons who could fly or swim, the Land of Fire was otherwise isolated from the rest of Japan's problems… Until recently, of course."

"'The Land of Fire'… You mean 'Hokkaido', right?" Kaneki asked with a raised brow, as he tapped his gloved finger on the screen to show Teuchi that his Pipboy's map indeed had his home as 'Hokkaido'. "I've read reports from my assigned Overseer at Vault 079 that those who are native to Hokkaido call it 'the Land of Fire'… Why is that?"

"You see, young man… What you know as 'Japan' used to be divided into five different countries with their own borders, including 'The Land of Fire'. Our country had a hidden village that was led by their own powerful elected ninja, who led their nations in a similar role to an ambassador. Our leaders were known as 'Kages', and were chosen depending on village-to-village customs set by our past Daimyō— Think of it like a Prime-Minister without the restrictions…"

"… The practice first started in the village of Konohagakure, and was adopted by the other four nations as time went on… And thus war across Japan became common afterward, as each kage from their own nation was told by their dayimō to take control. We have our names for it, but you might better know it as the 'Sengoku Period'; it started in 1467, and ended in 1657…" Teuchi stated, while Kaneki found himself recording the older man's exposition as later notes that he could use. "The great three unifiers of Japan, 'Oda Nobunaga', 'Toyotomi Hideyoshi', and 'Tokugawa Ieyasu'… All three are known to your people as heroes, but to my people, they were the ones who began the decline of my ancestors' era of greatness…"

"… There's a legend from my people, that states that in the midst of a period of endless war, from the heavens came forth a seed that planted itself within the blood-soaked war grounds. Many people believe that the skyscrapping tree that grew from that seed was a gift from God, others say it was a curse… Historians of Konohagakure refer to it as a 'God Tree'— it grew a single fruit on the top: 'Chakra Fruit'. This fruit was meant to be culminated by an otherworldly being from a clan of dimensional-traveling beings known as the Ōtsutsuki clan-"

"-I'm sorry, but did you just say 'dimensional-traveling' beings?" Kaneki interrupted with a skeptical look behind his eyeglasses. "That sounds… Absurd, forgive me for saying that… You're talking about, what, aliens or something?"

"-Not aliens, but beings of celestial significance and background… Think of angels," Teuchi said with a serious look on his face, as he proudly told the history he knew of his peoples' background.

"… R-Right. 'Angels'— okay," Kaneki muttered sarcastically, while stifling in a chuckle at just how religiously endowed the history of Konohagakure's citizens were. 'No wonder they lost their home— they were too stuck in the past to keep up with the times…'

"Like I was saying… During the Sengoku Period, which is known by historians and ours as Japan's bloodiest period, death was very abundant. Two Ōtsutsuki clan members, Kaguya and Isshiki, were sent to Earth for the purpose of collecting the Chakra fruit. Kaguya was a low ranking member, and was to be used as a sacrifice in order to bear the tree of its fruits… Instead of dying, Kaguya sacrificed Isshiki instead. She ate the forbidden fruit, and used her powers to end the conflicts of men…"

"… She was later revered as the Rabbit Goddess, and erected an army of Chakra-endowed warriors to prepare for her clan's retribution. Over many years, using a technique known as 'Infinite Tsukuyomi', she created the 'White Zestu' in order to protect humanity. And as time passed, she gave birth to two sons, 'Hagoromo' and 'Hamura', who would later be the ones to seal her away, after she became corrupted with the need to absorb 'chakra' from those who once worshiped her… Including the White Zetsu Army…"

"… Becoming one with the God Tree, Kaguya had become a fearsome giant ten-tailed fox, with powers beyond what any man could hope to face… Sounds familiar, doesn't it?" Teuchi said with a sly smirk, while making sure to address Kaneki's visible skepticism by comparing the legendary demon to the modern equivalent: dragons. "Her sons defeated her, and sealed her away using its husk to create the celestial body that you know as 'The Moon'."

Frowning and scoffing, no longer able to take what the chef was saying seriously, Kaneki asked, "You expect me to believe that the moon is actually a trapped Goddess who used to be an angel, but then became some demonic fox with ten-tais? And her sons sealed her away using… Magic?"

"Chakra, not magic… Or as your modern society calls it, 'nonsense'," Teuchi said to address Kaneki's skepticism, and remained patient even as the young man shook his head at the old man. "One son, Hamura, became the leader of the Ōtsutsuki clan and departed to the Moon to guard humanity from his mother, while the other son, Hagoromo, remained on Earth to teach humanity the concept of 'ninshū', or are you might probably be thinking of it right now, 'Our crazy ninja religion based on outdated concepts'."

Shrugging at the old man's correct assumption of what Kaneki thought of everything that Teuchi had told him, the one-eyed ghoul argued, "Can you blame me for thinking that? Everything you told me sounds like religious beliefs to me… I get that it's part of your peoples' cultural background, but I was hoping to know what was protecting the 'Land of Fire' from the fallout."

Blinking and opening his narrowed eyes with disbelief written all over his face, Teuchi sighed as he gave himself a facepalm. "Were you not listening boy?! It's the water! The ocean— salt water, you fool! Salt water dilutes fallout!" Teuchi shouted with an exasperated look on his face, before crossing his arms at the dumbfounded young man. "Now, can you let an old man finish his story, or did you have anything else you wanted to blatantly ignore?!"

Although Kaneki thought the story of the God Tree was completely bullshit, he still found the story admittedly interesting. "Yeah, go ahead— I've got nothing better to do right now…"

"Thank you… Now where was I…?" Teuchi muttered to himself, before remembering where he had left off. "Ah, this part relates to your kind, 'ghouls'. Before Kaguya's sons could seal her away to the moon, she manifested her lingering will into a being known as 'Black Zetsu'— Think of what I've told you about Kaguya— the parallels are uncanny..."

"… Black Zetsu was born with the intention of freeing his 'mother' from the moon, but the manifestation of Kaguya had fallen in love not with humanity, but of humanity's obsession with war and conquest. Some say it was cursed the moment it was born from the dark essence of the corrupted God Tree… He became a warlord during the end of the Sengoku Period, and went by the name of 'Washuu'..."

"… Obsessed with conquest and death, Washuu sought out to create his own God Tree. He left Japan during the end of the Sengoku Period, and made his way to the 'Holy Land' he had heard of— the land in the Middle East that men have died for since before Japan had become its own nation. Washuu began his conquest, captured and devoured the men of the armies he defeated, bred their women, kept their children to be raised as soldiers and breeding stock…"

"… Nourishing his dark seed with blood and tears of his victims, the crushed dreams of the innocent, Washuu had built his own tower of 'Babylon'. When Washuu ate the black fruit of his demented God Tree, he became the first true instance of what Europeans and Asian countries alike saw as a 'dragon'. 'Seven heads,' 'Ten-Horns on its Crowns'… A 'Harlot on his throne, that's been stripped.' Washuu had become everything his mother had hated…"

"… His children were no celestial beings either; they were evil, vile creatures that carried on his will by needing to eat the flesh of man to survive… 'Ghouls': the embodiment of Washuu's carnivorous bloodlust, violence, carnage, and the antithesis to Kaguya's anti-conflict beginnings. To survive, his 'children' must kill and eat those who Kaguya had originally sought to save…"

"Washuu was, and is, the father of all ghouls… They said he flew across every nook of the world, infecting man with his curse. Some who inhaled too much of his 'red mist' became ghouls themselves— others, such as the men and women of Konohagakure, were spared such a fate, and only were marked by his curse— never succumbing to it… That's what my people believe to be the reason behind why everyone has 'RC-cells' inside of them…"

"… This went on, until he was slain by a grandson of his, who was the first hybrid of man and ghoul: Masamune Washuu. They said his mother was a beautiful green-haired maiden from Nazareth… Escaped the throne of the 'dragon', and raised her hellish child with the intentions of him one day fulfilling her vengeance against Washuu. The 'seven churches of Asia' prepared the young half-ghoul for his destiny, and after the boy fulfilled his destiny, he did the unthinkable… He ate his father, and consumed his dark essence for himself…"

"After betraying those who raised him to kill his father, Masamune fled to Japan, to Tokyo, during the start of the 1900's, and took in ghouls and humans alike who sought a peaceful existence beneath the grounds of Tokyo… That all came to an end when the Americans invaded Japan during the 1940's, and dropped two bombs that would seal the future of Japan."

"… The Americans, after their victory, began digging beneath the Earth to create these massive underground cities you call 'vaults', and inevitably they had crossed paths with the 'One-Eyed Dragon', Masamune Washuu. Like his grandmother, he absorbed the RC-cells of his followers, and became a dragon himself in order to stop the Americans from taking his daughter… Or, so the rumors go."

"… You see, the 'Land of Fire' had already been condemned to what you call 'Hokkaido', thanks to the Sengoku Period and the Americans who were bombing the mainland. Not much is known about what happened afterward, but they say that Masamune Washuu was captured by the United States, a group of shinobi, and by the rest of his clan, who migrated back to Japan, to begin their own political campaign. They say they conjugated into a shadowy group that dealt with 'black-ops', in order to control the mainland from behind a veil of order… 'V', I believe is what they were known as…"

"… Fast forward seventy years, and the Americans finally finished what they started nearly a century ago. Except, they don't go by 'America' or 'The United States' anymore… They and their Western allies formed their own military international faction… They're now the 'Enclave', and we at Konohagakure were just a stepping stone for them," Teuchi muttered sadly, as he thought back to the horrors of being outmatched by an army of technologically-endowed imperialists. "… Just you wait, young man. They'll target Tokyo eventually. Just you wait… Just you wait," Teuchi warned in a defeatist tone— leaving Kaneki to stare up from his Pipboy with a look of genuine concern in his eyes.

"You… You know a lot about this…" Kaneki pointed out suspiciously, as he ended the recording on his Pipboy before lowering his arm back to his side. "You… You wouldn't happen to have a history or a part in V, or CCG perhaps… Would you?" Kaneki asked with narrowed eyes, while Teuchi gave him an honest look while shaking his head.

"No, no, no… Konohagakure never got involved with the Washuu Clan, nor their shadowy operations behind their law-enforcement branch," Teuchi protested calmly, as he showed visible disdain for anything to do with the Black Zestu's bloodline. "Believe it or not, I used to work at a temple when I was a young man— aspiring to be a priest and a historian. I met my wife, who passed away before the Enclave came, and chose to open up a shop, much like this one, back home… Speaking of my daughter," Teuchi said with retribution in his voice, as he suddenly had a change of heart.

Marching past Kaneki, Teuchi grabbed a butcher's knife from his kitchen counter and used the spare key underneath the mat to unlock his office door. Expecting to see Haise mounting his daughter in an act of sex, Teuchi raised the knife over his head to strike fear into the half-ghoul. However, rather than seeing anything like how he would have imagined, all he saw was Haise sitting on top of the desk, while Ayame stood beside him with a calculator in one hand, and a handful of money in the other.

"Father! You should get in contact with Kakashi's students! We've got a large order to fill for the end of October!" Ayame said excitedly while flashing the thick wad of yen in her hand, as Haise waved the receipt over at Kaneki, who had followed behind Teuchi to see why he had grabbed the knife in the first place.

"Oh… I-I see!" Teuchi said with a sigh of relief, as he subtly tossed the knife into the trash can behind him, before making his way over to the two young adults. "My apologies, I… I misread the situation," Teuchi said with a warm smile on his face, as he reached over with his hand to wipe away a large smidge of whip cream from Ayame's bottom lip.

"O-Oh, sorry about father— Haise Sasaki offered me a taste of his drink after we discussed the amount of money he would be needing to pay for the catering services," Ayame said innocently, as she gestured to her father to look at the almost completely consumed beverage left over in the plastic cup that Haise was still holding onto. "It's called a 'frappe'! He said he would take me to go get one sometime!"

Turning to face Haise, Teuchi bowed at the waist, and said, "Thank you Mr. Sasaki, your business is much appreciated, and it'll help us get through the first month— the first month is always the hardest to get through financially…"

"Don't mention it, Teuchi. And thank you for having such a wonderful daughter," Haise said with a content look on his face, before hopping off the top of the desk to make his way out of the office, but not without first throwing away the rest of his tainted frappe into Teuchi's small waste bin.


Before leaving the noodle house, Haise made sure to silently walk over to the group of shinobis who were waiting to give their cleaning supplies back to Teuchi. Reaching into his pocket while being eyed suspiciously by all of them with the exception of Naruto, Haise handed the blond ninja a large stack of envelopes.

"Uh… What are these for?" Naruto asked with a confused look on his blue eyes.

"They're invitations to a Halloween party for kids your age! You're all from Konohagakure, or whatever, right?" Haise asked with a slightly condescending smirk on his face, to which Naruto awkwardly nodded to.

"Uh, yeah buddy, we are… What gave it away?" Naruto asked with an uncertain tone in his voice, as he wasn't sure if he should have been offended by Haise profiling him correctly or not.

"It's the clothes, and those headbands of yours. I'm assuming you're still wearing them to commemorate your fallen, or your heritage," Haise assumed, to which Naruto again nodded slowly at. "Anyways, hand these out to your little friends! The party's going to have trick-or-treating, candy, non-alcoholic drinks, and all the ramen you can ask for!" Haise said enthusiastically, while trying his hardest to sell the idea of Naruto being in charge of the invitations.

"Haha, I-I don't know man, I can ask for a lot of ramen… Besides, I don't know what 'Halloween' is… What is it, a holiday or something?" Naruto asked inquisitively, as he stared down at the stack of envelopes in his hands.

"Precisely! All the details will be inside each envelope you hand out!" The half-ghoul said with a wide and charming smile on his face, before suddenly remembering to introduce himself to the seventeen year olds who clearly were distrusting of him. Little did Haise know though, that they weren't distrusting of him because of his forthcoming personality— they simply didn't trust him because of his red eye.

"Ah, where are my manners… My name's Haise Sasaki, and this here is my brother, Ken Kaneki!" Haise introduced, as he gestured over to Kaneki, who was standing there patiently by the door.

"… Good evening," Kaneki said with a half-assed wave, while still lamenting over everything that Teuchi had told him. 'A lot of it sounded like complete religious-nonsense… But he mentioned 'Washuu' and 'V'… And Masamune Washuu… 'The One-Eyed Dragon'… I'll have to do some research on that later,' Kaneki thought to himself, before reaching up to adjust his glasses with his red-gloved hand.

Before Naruto could speak up, Sasuke took a step forward and got extremely close to Haise— staring him down with the intention of showing the half-ghoul that he wasn't afraid of him. "Our Sensei told us to stay away from you. So leave."

"Sensei, who told you to… Oh! You're talking about Kakashi, aren't you?" Haise asked with a relaxed smirk, and felt somewhat proud of his assumption the moment he saw the group of four ninjas visibly recoil.

"Y-You know who our Sensei is?!" Naruto blurred out with a wide-eyed expression on his face, as he slowly pushed past Sasuke to stare up at Haise. "How?! Did you fight him, or something?!"

"Sort of? We used to sparr a lot growing up together, he's a bit older than me so I never got to train alongside him… Tell me, did Kakashi ever tell you anything about where he grew up?" Haise asked with a somewhat malicious look in his eyes, while the question was alert enough to gain the attention of Kaneki, who had still been deep in thought.

Curious, due to Kakashi never having been really transparent with his past to any of them, Naruto shook his head. "Nope! That guy's very 'e-nig-ma-tic'… D-Did I use that word right, Hinata?" Naruto quickly asked, as he turned his head over his shoulder to glance at Hinata, who gave him a silent nod of approval. "Oh sweet! But uh… Yeah, no, he's never really told us where he's from, why? Do… Do you know about Kakashi's past?"

Wanting to stop Haise from saying too much in fear that he would cause an argument for the very young adults, Kaneki stepped behind his older brother and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Come on Haise, you're going to get them in trouble…"

Not wanting to upset his little brother, Haise grimaced before slowly sighing after looking past the red-gloved hand on his shoulder to lock eyes with Kaneki. Turning back around to stare down at the awe-strucked shinobi, Haise thought about what to say for a few moments before shrugging. "Sorry kid, it appears as though I've already said too much already…"

"Wait, really?! What if uhhhh… O-Oh! W-What I give these invitations out for you, will you tell me then?!" Naruto asked with desperation in his voice, as the thought of being left in the dark when the opportunity to learn about his sensei was standing in front of him made the shinobi distraught.

Shrugging as he slowly turned heel to follow Kaneki out of the restaurant, Haise nonchalantly said, "Yeah, sure— probably," before giving them a two-fingered salute, just as he closed the front door behind him.

Putting her fists on her hips and huffing out an annoyed breath, Sakura muttered, "Why did he keep calling us kids? That guy didn't look that much older than us, and his 'little brother' looked our age too… Now that I think about it, I don't even know if he was older than us…" Sakura said with an annoyed tone in her voice, due to her not being too keen on being talked down to.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Sasuke closed his eyelids and sighed. "Sakura… They're one-eyed ghouls… What do you expect? They don't age like the rest of us," Sasuke said with enough confidence that the rest of his friends believed him without questioning his knowledge. "In fact, I've heard instances of some of their kind being nearly a century old, and still having the youth of a young adult. Juxtaposed to what I just said though, some of them age terribly— it's always one extreme or the other, though; never somewhere in between…"

Having been uneasy the entire time that Haise and Kaneki had been in the same room as them, Hinata finally asked the question to her friends that had been burning on her mind. "Is… Is it true what they say? That… T-That they eat people…? People like us…?" Hinata asked meekly, to which Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Hyuga, 'ghouls' in general eat people. Those two in particular I've heard from Kakashi are 'hybrids'. I can't say for certain what their diets consist of, but… Considering that those two go out in the wasteland quite frequently, and Kakashi told us that 'Sasaki' is the one who's the most violent between him and the black-haired one, I think it's fair to say that one of them has take a bite from the 'forbidden fruit' at least once…" Sasuke explained, before finally giving Hinata the answer she was afraid of hearing, "To put it simply though, yes, I truly think both of them have eaten people before— a ghoul is still a ghoul, after all, they're all 'wolves in sheeps' clothing' as far I'm concerned."

Grimacing and letting out an uneasy whimper as she felt her stomach twisting into a knot at the mere thought of being eaten alive, Hinata swallowed back the lump in her throat. "No wonder Kakas- Sensei, I m-meant 'Sensei', sorry," Hinata quickly apologized after correcting herself, before finishing her statement. "… It's no wonder that Sensei wanted us to avoid him… I miss Konohagakure— we didn't have to worry about ghouls back home…"

Noticing just how distraught and teary-eyed Hinata was getting, Sakura gave the other kunoichi a small smile as she walked over to her to lift her head up by her small chin. "Hyuga, hey… No one's going to eat you while you're here in the city, okay? Ghouls here eat that artificial stuff, and besides… We'll protect you— we promise! Isn't that right, Naruto?" Sakura asked while seeking assurance for Hinata, especially after it had just dawned on her that Naruto had been suspiciously quiet. Looking over her shoulder after not receiving an answer, Sakura frowned the moment she realized Naruto wasn't near them anymore. "N-Naruto?"

Having kept an eye out on his best friend, Sasuke pointed a thumb over to the entrance for Sakura to turn her attention to. "He's over there, with those damn envelopes…"

Frustrated and annoyed, Sakura became red in the face as her hands became tightened into fists at her side. "Are you serious?! H-How long has that idiot been standing over there?!" She demanded, to which Sasuke shrug nonchalantly at.

"I think he left the moment you went on about us being called kids," Sasuke answered back, to which only pissed Sakura off even more, as she and Hinata watched from the distance as Naruto approached a young woman with short indigo hair, who had just walked into the restaurant.

"Excuse me, sista! You look like you're an amazing person who knows how to have fun!" Naruto practically shouted exuberantly at Touka, who in turn immediately took a step away from the extroverted shinobi.

"Uhhh… Okay?" Touka replied back awkwardly, as she shifted her attention away from Naruto's cheesy smile toward his group of three friends, who were watching the two of them with varying degrees of interests and emotions.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, it's awesome to meet ya! What I have here in my hand is the golden ticket to a freakin' sweet party!" Naruto said with the charm of a car salesman, as he fanned himself with the stack of white envelopes that looked somewhat familiar to Touka. "It's a 'Halloween' party! People love Halloween here, don't they?!"

Frowning, Touka shrugged as she shoved one hand into her jacket's pocket. "Yeah, I guess it's okay."

"Terrific! Here, you're going to thank me for this later!" Naruto said with a slightly smug grin on his face, as he pinched the end of one envelope before dramatically handing it over to Touka— just so he could see the 'importance' of the invitation.

"Right…" Touka muttered with a suspicious look in her eye, before ripping the white envelope open to pull out the letter inside. Reading its entirety, Touka's annoyed look slowly became that of a pissed off one the moment she realized that the address was Antieku's, and that her little brother was listed as the 'Host'. "That little shit…!" Touka spat out under her breath, before turning around and storming out of the restaurant.

And although Naruto's friends were expecting Naruto to have been negatively affected by Touka's reaction, they were all surprised to see him grinning ear-to-ear with a confident look in his eyes as he started walking back toward them. "Hehehehe…! One down, like…" Naruto trailed off, before quickly counting the invitations in his hand as if they were dollar bills, "… Twenty nine more to go! Kakashi's secret past is as good as ours, guys!"

Although none of them really wanted to go out in the streets of Tokyo to seek out candidates for a Halloween party, they already knew that I'd they didn't help Naruto with his mission, then he would have gone out and done it himself anyway. Begrudgingly, Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata stuck their hands out and took a small stack of envelopes from Naruto, who was handing them out as if he was the card dealer to a game of poker.

"Remember guys, we gotta look for people our age— if we mess up, that guy might not tell us what he knows about Kakashi! And if that happens, then we would have done this all for nothing!" Naruto said with a determined look on his face, with the same tenacity he always showed for any task he was given, no matter how small or big it was.

Frowning, Sakura let out a sigh as he counted the envelopes in her hands. "Naruto, I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think that guy was all that genuine when you asked him if he was going to tell you about Kakashi if you did this for him… He gave you a half-assed answer, if I remember correctly."

Nodding her head, Hinata recalled exactly what Haise said to Naruto, before he left the restaurant to head out into the night with Kaneki. "He said 'Yeah, sure— probably', Naruto… He might have just said it just to say it…"

"It doesn't matter how he said it, after we do this we're going to hold that guy to his word!" Naruto argued, as he handed the rest of his stack to Sasuke. "Besides, that guy was about to tell us anyway before his brother pulled him away… I don't see him giving us much grief about it."

"Uzumaki… Even if you're able to get an explanation to Kakashi's past, what if what you find isn't what you were hoping for?" Sasuke asked with a genuine look of concern for his best friend, as he and Naruto looked eyes with one another. "Kakashi doesn't want us to know about his past life, or look further into the brief explanation he's given us… What if he's doing it for a good reason?"

Although Naruto really was taking Sasuke's two-cents into heart, the ambitious young man couldn't fathom there being a good enough reason for their sensei to lie to them. "Sensei Kakashi will always be our sensei, no matter how messy his past is, that doesn't change who is now, does it?" Naruto asked more so as a genuine question, than as a rhetorical one.

"… That all depends on what we find out, doesn't it?" Sasuke replied back with an uncertain look in his eyes as well, as neither he or Naruto really wanted to think too much on the possibility of them finding out something they wouldn't be prepared to learn. "… If you're serious about wanting to pursue this, then we'll help you, of course. But… We have to be ready for whatever answer awaits us, do you understand?"

Being hit with a dose of reality left a bit of a bitter taste on Naruto's pallet, as all of a sudden the mission ahead of him no longer seemed exciting, but terrifying. "… The truth can be scary, but… We deserve to know, don't we? After what we've been through?" Naruto asked, as he stared into the uneasy eyes of his three comrades, who all silently agreed despite appearing reluctant.

"… No matter what happens, we'll still have each other; that doesn't change for anyone… B-Besides! We might just be overthinking this— that guy didn't seem too reluctant to share with us, that's gotta count for something!" Naruto suddenly said aloud, while smiling with the intention of easing everyone's worries. "Come on! We're never going to find out this way! We've got daylight burning fast!" Naruto said with a determined grin on his face, before ushering his three comrades to follow behind him, as he ran out through the front door of the noodle house, and out into the unfamiliar metropolitan city waiting for them outside.


And there we go! We've introduced Naruto and his current group of friends, there's more that are alive, and the only real difference between this Naruto and his cannon self is that he's a bit nerfed, in the sense that he doesn't have the 'Nine-Tails' demon inside of him, but they still have the chakra reservation that they otherwise would have had as a Jinchūriki. Without an actual demon inside of him, Naruto would have never had his parents die on him when he was a baby, so in this AU only his father died because of the Enclave.

The only reason why Konohagakure fell to the Enclave is simply because they're too traditional for their own good. They had chakra and jitsu on their side, and even ninja weapons formed out of dragon bone and steel, but they were outmatched by the Enclave, who use futuristic weapons, like drones, mini nukes, plasma weapons, miniguns, power armor, vertibirds, tomahawk missiles fired from ships hundreds of kilometers away.

That's not even counting the Enclave's experimental super soldiers, who are going to be similar to Metal Gear Rising bosses, which Naruto could have a good chance against, if it wasn't for everything else that he and everyone else had to face. The Enclave aren't honorable fighters, they would have purposefully targeted hospitals and orphanages first, for the purpose of forcing their enemies to focus on saving their weak and helpless first— making them split up into groups.

So needless to say, Konohagakure's survivors don't trust anyone outside of the 'Land of Fire', especially ghouls and non-Japanese people. Ghouls are seen as the unholy descendants of Black Zetsu, who in this AU ended up just becoming the manifestation of everything evil about Kaguya. The idea in mind is that Ataksuki recovered the body of the 'One-Eyed Dragon' from Sunlit Gardens, and that's their 'Underground King', who they're trying to revive using Kaneki's kakuhou, which was in Rize originally. Although Rize recovered, she no longer has the implanted kakuhou, but rather her own, while Kaneki got a mutated version of the Underground King's kakuhou, which used to be a fossil that came to life, thanks to Rize.

Spoiler: I was thinking of making it a point that Kaneki, Haise, and Yusa are bastard children of the Underground King, and were convinced by replicating DNA and artificially inseminating women in a lab. Which would mean that all three of them are descendants of Black Zetsu, while the Washuu bloodline is actually his as well. I wrote that because in the Tokyo Ghoul lore, the Washuu clan are from the Middle East, and went to Japan, and thus the 24th Ward was led by one of them who was a half-ghoul. It also explains in this AU why Haise has naturally black and white hair, and it explains his affinity for violence and sex. It circles back to Haise having moral compass issues, and how Roma told him that he reminds her of Satan. And why Kaneki can 'absorb' Dragon cells like the same way Kaguya can absorb chakra. Yusa's ability will come from being able to create his own living beings to fight for him, similar to how Kaguya can make White Zetsu, and even more so how Joker from Persona 5 can use Personas, or 'dragon orphans'. So a lot of it parallels one source or the other.

Naruto and his friends are all at least seventeen years old, so it happens after Shippūden. There's a lot to unpack from this chapter, I hope the lore wasn't too heavy lol. I tried telling it through Teuchi, but also making it a point to show that he knew mostly only his side of history, not so much about Tokyo's own secret history, other than rumors.

So Naruto and his friends are superhuman, but they're about as strong as a lower end ghoul in terms of raw strength. Their main combat prowess comes from their chakra and jitsu, which gives them more options and advantages in fight, compared to most ghouls who rely on their brute strength and kagune. However, although they're more durable than you're regular human, Naruto and the other shinobis lack the natural stamina, durability, strength, and regenerate properties that a ghoul would have. Ninjas are about all on par with S-SS ranks, usually, sometimes kunoichi a like Sakura and Hinata would fall back more towards A-AA ranking, so they're not helpless by any means. It's like an investigator from CCG— they're probably going to get decimated unless they're prepared for the fight.

Kaneki can and will learn to be better at sex and a better lover from the Yasuhisa twins, once he makes it a point that he wants more from their relationship and doesn't just want to be seen as a chore for them to take care of on their own.

So here's the thing about Haise: as seen in the last chapter, he knows what to do and knows what's right and wrong. However, he doesn't want to actually do that, because he can't help himself. He loves violence and sex, but pretends that he doesn't otherwise, because he knows it's wrong.

In this AU, Sunlit Gardens was an underground facility built inside of Mt. Fuji, hence why Koma's estate was screwed by so much Fallout. The only people who still know where Sunlit Gardens is are Kuzen, Eto, Rize, Furuta, Arima, Tatara, and Shachi. Everyone else doesn't remember it, or is dead. Koma just assumes there's so many dragons and fallout because of the lake, without realizing just how close he was to Sunlit Gardens.

And honestly tho, I might add characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion to the mix too at this point, because Kaneki will need to find scientists to help him clear out the fallout. I'm thinking of having the Neon Genesis Evangelion cast being part of the Enclave's mission to clear out dragons from a potential coast that they could land on, which of course results in Kaneki, Naruto, and Eren fighting Shinji in his Eva, which in by itself has connections to Kyuguya.

After they damage it enough to force it to power down, they kidnap Shinji and use him as a hostage to get answers from the Enclave, which some a group of them end up defecting from, after they realize that Japan isn't a lost cause. Ritsuko, Maya, Misato, and others would help him, after they realize that there's hope for Japan.

Haise ended up doing something even more risky: He delegated the invitations to Naruto lol. Yusa's probably going to be the most level headed and least problematic one out of the three, just because he didn't live long enough in Sunlit Gardens to get psychologically traumatized, and he relatively would have had a normal life. He's just usually an introvert like Kaneki, who does pull in girls. Yusa also doesn't have his own income, outside of stealing money from the rich, considering that he's the leader of the 'Phantom Thieves', which are a kind of a crime group in this AU. So yeah, I guess technically Yusa would be the most problematic, since he's a criminal who steals and loots for money.

Rip Enji Koma's balls.

If only Disneyland was within the walls of Tokyo, lol. Due to it technically being in Chiba, not Tokyo, Disneyland looks more horrific, and is crawling with dragon orphans who are living within mascot customers and animatronics, while the place is crawling with 'ghost people', who are essentially just a bunch of feral ghouls who are exactly like Noro, stuck in hazmat gas-suits that are extremely hard to kill. If you know Fallout New Vegas and 4, think of Disneyland being a mix between the Sierra Madre from Dead Money, and Nuka-World from Fallout 4.

Kaneki definitely doesn't know how to cook, which he'll have to learn from Eto and Haise, especially Haise who has been shown to be a great cook in Tokyo Ghoul :re. And yeah, eventually Kaneki will move into his own home and have the Yasuhisa twins and Eto live with him. Considering that the twins are bisexual, and Eto has bisexual vibes in canon, it'll work out completely, and I think that the Yasuhisa twins would push for Kaneki to include Eto into their harem, especially if Kurona and Nashiro both find Eto to be beautiful.

And good idea, but Kurona has been shown to know how to read, so they can understand English, which will be explained that they weren't always slaves, that they used to have a somewhat normal life back in Kyoto, before Japan went to hell, and they were forced to sell themselves to get by when they were young. It's fucked up, but they live in a fucked up world. And the movie I saw was 'The Invitation', which ended up being better than I expected.

My favorite Naruto opening is Silhouette by Kana-Boon, and that's mostly thanks to Filthy Frank lol.

Haise does have feelings for Rize, who is selfish and confident by nature, and possessive of him. So while he's lying about his circumstances, he definitely does see Rize as girlfriend material, but does try to keep himself from getting too close to her, which ultimately will be for nothing when he ends up being with four very territorial women.

And yeah, Haise picked up most of his habits from Arima, who back in his youth when he had blue hair, was very much like how Haise is. Loved fighting, getting laid, and paid. He went from being Dante from DMC to someone more like Vergil.

Mutsuki and Haise will have a chapter after the next one? Basically, after Haise and Rize have another chapter, he'll have to go home where Mutsuki is waiting for him, and we get to see how tense things are between them, especially when Mutsuki asks who the girl Haise has been photographed being around is. To this, he'll probably tell him that Rize is just his sister.

Okay, that's all for now! I definitely do read all the messages and reviews I get, and try to address them the best I can. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Thank you, and have a damn good day!