Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 31
"Hmm," Kiba tapped his red tattooed cheek in thought, "…Toad." RUFF. "Hehe, Akamaru agrees." Shikamaru rolled his eyes and Kiba jabbed a finger at him, "Don't even say it Nara! He's a Ninja Canine, he totally gets a vote!"
"Such a pain, fine. I say Slug. It'll be easier to cloud watch above the trees as we travel."
"Ugh, no thanks. That slime is just…way too much. Toad." Ino tried to flip her hair, but failed miserably since it was still slightly crunchy with the dried up snail slime of Katsuyu from the previous day. What I wouldn't give for a long soak in a steaming onsen.
"Definitely not Toad. Why do you ask? Because my hive…never forgets." The deeply voiced threat that accompanied the flash of Shino's glasses had all of Team Ten looking at Kiba for an explanation. "Its a looooong story," he sighed and crossed his arms. "I'll tell you on the ride home."
"I vote Slug," Choji said in between bites, having opened his third bag of chips that morning. "Sorry Ino, but all that jumping makes my stomach upset." Ino scrunched her nose at the frustrating choice between Akamichi level emesis and slug excretions.
"Same," Asuma smiled wryly from where he sat leaning up against a tree, his skin was pale but the gleam was back in his eyes, and the cigarette between his lips no longer trembled.
"PUSSY! Toad all the way! I wanna feel the wind in my hair one last time—OW! BITCH, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"
Ino yanked Hidan's screeching head up by the hair, and sent the bodiless cranium swinging like a macabre pendulum with the unrestrained face slap she delivered point blank.
"You don't get a vote damn it! I don't know why this is so hard for you to understand, but you are our prisoner. We are taking you back to Konoha where I will personally and gleefully rummage through your mind with all the tender gentleness of a rabid raccoon digging through a week old dumpster in search of a fucking cookie! So for the last time, shut your foul little piss hole before I put you in a coma so full of sparkly rainbows that you'll be the first assless wonder to ever shit sunshine! Have I mAde MySelF CLEaR!"
Crickets. Hidan's purple eyes were nearly bugging out of their sockets as he struggled, for the first time in his life, to find the words to voice his thoughts, finally landing on the only coherent summary of his complex emotions.
"I wish I could fuck you."
"AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!"
As the rest of the shinobi awkwardly looked away as a rage filled Ino stuffed Hidan's head into a rucksack like a dirty pair of underwear while angrily snorting like her namesake, Shikamaru cleared his throat forcefully. "Um, maybe we should ask Hinata and Naruto, it's their summons after all. Where are they?"
"Right here," Naruto chirped straight into Shikamaru's ear.
"AH! Dammit Naruto! Stop that!" Naruto laughed heartily at his old friend's expense. Ever since they were kids, Shikamaru had complained that Naruto didn't have a quiet bone in his body, and just to prove him wrong the biggest prankster in Konoha had decided to make the Nara's most peaceful times a living hell by always popping up out of nowhere when he least expected it. So many amazingly relaxing naps had been sabotaged by that soundless kid, and apparently he had only gotten better.
"Sorry sorry Shika! I couldn't resist," Naruto wiped a tear from his eye as he glanced in the direction of some bloodcurdling screams that were suspiciously muffled, but only shrugged before saying, "Hinata was already gone when I got up. I always sleep like the dead when I'm healing." He sheepishly ran a hand up and down his bare arm which still had the shine of freshly healed skin, only a few pinkish spots showing where his body hadn't quite replaced the burns. "Thanks for the extra clothes by the way," he said as Shikamaru twisted a pinkie into his ear as though trying to excavate the sound of Naruto's barking laughter. "Choji's never would've fit and those other guys' stuff was full of bugs and dog hair."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Kiba snorted. By this time Ino had returned to the group dusting her hands off with a satisfied smirk on her face, which she now turned to scrutinize the handsome blond man that had once been the scruffy little punk from their genin days. Damn, that Hinata is a lucky girl, she thought as she watched him banter easily with everyone, her eyes drifting over Naruto's broad shoulders and tall frame which filled the leaner Nara's shirt with a tantalizingly firm definition of muscle, not to mention the way his shaggy golden bangs hung over his dazzling blue eyes, and that roguishly crooked smile…
"See something interesting, Ino-chan?" Hinata's overly sweet sing-song voice made the girl stiffen and quickly spin around to greet the pulsing Byakugan that loomed inches from her flushed face.
"What? No! We-we were just discussing which summons to ride back to Konoha. Weren't we Choji!"
"LIAR!" Hidan yelled from somewhere to the right. "You were drinking him in like sex on the beach!"
"How the fuck did you get out?" Ino snarled as she dashed off after his maniacally laughing rolling head.
More crickets. Shino adjusted his glasses. "The Grylloidea are especially active for this time of day."
"I think you need an antibiotic for that," Naruto peered at the Aburame's mostly hidden face. "Ero-sennin got it once from this lady in the Land of Snow—"
"We can ask Katsuyu to take us," Hinata smoothly interrupted Naruto's gross misunderstanding of Shino's vocabulary and quickly stepped back to make room for her summons as she prepared to bite her thumb. "Besides, Katsuyu can assist with healing Asuma-sensei some more and update Tsunade-sama at the same time."
"Sold," Asuma grunted as Shikamaru helped him to his feet.
Moments later as the others climbed up onto the Slug's moist back, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Hinata made her way over to Naruto's side, and he reached out to engulf her into a fierce hug.
"I don't wanna leave you," he whined into her shoulder, making her giggle with the pecking kisses he planted up her neck with his pouting lips.
"Where are you going next?" she asked, tilting her head to allow him access to more of her skin, which sent goose bumps rippling down her arms.
Naruto fit his mouth over hers in a grand finale of affection that nearly had Hinata's foot popping and definitely left her breathless before he deemed to answer her question. He grinned down at her swollen lips, running a thumb across them smugly as he answered. "We wanted to scope out the ruins in Uzushio before we came back. How long that takes depends on what we find, and how often Ero-sennin needs to check back in with The Network. There's a lot I have to think about after what happened yesterday, a lot of…growing…I still need to do before I can ever use that chakra again." Naruto couldn't disguise the drop in his tone as he referenced the events of yesterday's fight.
Hinata nodded, teasing the light back into his eyes with a small flare of her chakra. Naruto's mouth quirked up and he squeezed her hip with his hand, placing the other over the hidden mark he had left between her shoulder blades and making it tingle. She gasped slightly, the sensation within the seal seemed to radiate with his emotions as well as his chakra, as though she could almost sense his state of mind. He seemed sad, but contented in a warm fuzzy way, and also something deeper and more fulfilling. She looked up into his eyes and saw clearly the emotion she could feel as solid as a cornerstone beneath her feet, his love.
She buried her face into his chest, her cheeks flushing with her joy and excitement that this was their new normal, that they were together, and that so many possibilities opened up before them in the future. They just had to get past this last departure, each attending to their own training so that they could become the powerful team they aspired to be. The ones who would change Konoha. Hinata gazed again up into Naruto's face, and tapped her forehead against his bare one. He frowned a bit, rubbing the empty space where his hitae-ate was usually displayed, now gone along with the rest of his clothes in the wake of his burning chakra. But Hinata grinned at him brightly because she had one last thing to give him to hopefully keep him from feeling too sad after they parted ways. She slipped her hand into her sleeve and pulled out the object that she had gotten up so early to find. She had combed over the battle site with her Byakugan to find it, and found a secluded place down by the river to carefully complete her farewell gift.
Naruto's mouth dropped open as he released her to reach out with trembling hands and receive the neatly sewn red headband with Iruka's well worn hitae-ate plate attached to it. He would know that fabric anywhere, had thought it was charred beyond saving when he had watched through the blinding pain as Hime had peeled the remains of the precious red scarf from his neck last night. He tied the long red tails behind his head, knotting them with a firm yank as he raised his watery eyes to her with a disbelieving grin.
"You like it?" Hinata resisted the urge to poke her fingertips together as she bit her lip, internally pleased with the new look the deep red headband gave him.
"I don't know what I did to deserve someone like you, Hime, but Kami, I'll do it for all eternity if I can have you for just this lifetime," he murmured into her ear, sweeping her up off her feet and twirling her around, her midnight hair and his long red tails twisting together as they danced across the small clearing.
"UGH, get a goddamned room Romeo. Let's get this show on the road, my forehead is burning in this fucking radiation. Hey Bitch, could you not sit six inches further to the left and give a guy some shade?" Ino slammed her fist into the top of Hidan's head so hard he sunk down into the slug's mucous covered body until nothing could be seen but a few tendrils of silver hair.
"You're welcome," she smiled at the grateful expression on Hinata's face.
A small pop of smoke heralded the arrival of a frantic looking toad that Hinata didn't recognize. "Namikaze-sama!" The creature squeaked out as Naruto swiftly knelt next to the hyperventilating summons. "It's Jiraiya-sama! Something's wrong! He summoned Ma and Pa to a fight in Amegakure, but they just returned near death and said he is gravely injured as well. You need to go find him! NOW!"
"Shit! Got it," Naruto sprang to his feet and spun around to smack a kiss on Hinata's cheek, "I love you Hime!"
"I love you too!" Hinata barely shouted out the last syllable when a bright light flashed and Naruto was gone. "Be careful," she whispered into the swirling leaves.
Naruto trudged through the thick nest of vines, slicing a path with lazy swings of his chakra blades, one eye closed as he neatly dodged the snapping slash of one of the last strands of the curling vegetation.
"OW! Dammit Gaki that's the second time you've done that! Gimme a warning will you?"
"Sorry! Ugh, I wasn't paying attention! Are you ok? Do you need to rest? I saw a—"
Jiraiya waved away the stream of worrisome questions, gesturing for Naruto to carry on and flashing him a lopsided grin to let his fretting disciple know he had simply been exaggerating.
Naruto tried to disguise his sigh of relief as a deep breath resulting from the strenuous effort of bush whacking through the dense jungle-like flora and fauna that now covered all of Uzushiogakure. Sweat dotted Jiraiya's brow despite his dismissive motions, and Naruto intentionally slowed his pace to accommodate his recovering mentor. He had nearly lost him that day several weeks ago, and the close call still haunted his dreams. Even now the memory was still fresh in his wandering thoughts.
The first thing he had registered was the chilling rain that pelted his face and soaked his shirt, the water droplets had felt almost artificial, heavier than normal precipitation, and Naruto's mind had never hated the rain so much or so instantly. As he rapidly took in the situation he realized he was back to back with Ero-sennin, who was clutching his tri-pronged kunai, deathly low on chakra, and surrounded by hellish monsters stabbed full of chakra rods that further irritated Naruto's senses. Four or five orange haired shinobi, equally pierced but as expressionless as the beasts were rabid, also stood poised to attack. They all paused, unblinking at the blinding flash of his Hiraishin, and one man that appeared to be only a few years older than himself, with parallel lines of studs tracing down the bridge of his nose, had spoken in an emotionless and deep voice.
"Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. I. See. YOU."
Naruto hadn't waited to find out what he wanted. Blood was pouring from Ero-sennin's mouth and he was leaning heavily on Naruto's shoulder as he forced his nerves to steady and lock upon the Hiraishin kunai he had left in Mt. Myoboku. Just as Naruto had felt an unearthly pull upon his person towards that orange-haired shinobi's raised hand, he managed to flash himself and another person to a new location for the first time ever. Naruto wasn't sure which had been the cause of his immediate vomiting upon arrival amongst the waiting Toads, his nausea from the massive jump, or the horrific state of his godfather.
Throughout the following weeks Naruto had anxiously trained, maintained contact with The Network in Ero-sennin's place, and brought back whatever herb, potion, or supply Shima demanded for his care. His throat was too damaged to speak, and so for many nights the two shinobi had passed a tablet back and forth as Jiraiya painstakingly explained what had happened.
The Sannin had recognized the Rain Shinobi who had spoken to Naruto and started to execute the gravitational jutsu. Jiraiya said he was a student from many years ago that he had heard was dead, killed by his teammate in some grab for power of their small rebel group that was campaigning for peace in Ame, back when Hanzo was still the leader. Naruto had watched with pity in his eyes as the firelight had reflected the way Jiraiya's throat bobbed as he swallowed his emotions, strong even all these years later, as he meticulously scribbled his account of the three orphans from Ame that he had rescued after the Third Shinobi War, and tried to provide with a hope for a better tomorrow and the skills to achieve it. The disappointment and guilt that seeped from his weakened body was heartbreaking as he took full responsibility for the abandoning them too soon, leaving them vulnerable to the corruptions of the world, which had somehow led them to become the multinational group of rogue nin who called themselves Akatsuki.
"There's no way to prove that the soulless shinobi you faced was the same kid," Naruto had argued, trying to lift the spirits of his alarmingly depressed godfather. "He would have to be like, ten or fifteen years older than me for that to be true, and that guy looked younger than Dog!"
Jiraiya had shaken his white head forcefully, rapidly scratching upon the tablet and thrusting it into Naruto's face, stabbing at the words with his finger. Their EYES.
Of course. They were unforgettable, all their eyes were the same, except for the swooping kunoichi that Naruto had barely registered in the stressful moment. Ero-sennin had later explained that her wings were made of paper, an extremely rare kekkei genkai that had also served to seal their identity in his mind. She was the only one who lacked the eerily ringed purple-gray orbs which had held no emotion, lacked a certain awareness, and yet seemed intimidatingly omniscient. The Rinnegan, Jiraiya had scribbled, the characters warbling with the exhaustion of his weakened hand as he had struggled to grip the brush. Naruto had tutted over his marginally recovered godfather, feigning gruff impatience as he plucked the writing utensil from his godfather's grasp and tucked the Sannin in bed, and then stared with a fixed gaze at his slowly rising chest when sleep swiftly stole over him. I almost lost him. If I had been a moment later…
Naruto tried to keep Jiraiya focused on other things as he had slowly recovered over the next few weeks, asking him for a new story, bringing him fresh paper for working on his Icha Icha books, and entertaining him with dramatic reenactments of Shino's reaction to Gamakichi's "mistake" with the Bikochu. One night, while slightly delirious, or more likely drunk, from one of the Toad's more "potent" pain draughts, Naruto had listened with a small smile and dancing eyes as Ero-sennin had elaborated on the lost love of his life, Jiraiya's own Hime, Senju Tsunade. It was a rather tragic tale in Naruto's opinion, seeing as the two Sannin had lost each other and themselves over the years, both buried beneath bitter feelings, broken hearts, and bad habits. However the twinkle of Jiraiya's eyes, the flush of his cheeks, and the titter of his laugh, had all seemed to hint at a hope not quite lost. In the correspondence Naruto kept with the Godaime, he smirked to note the harshly worded but caring threats she demanded he pass on to her healing teammate. That he better take it slow, he was stupid to take such a risk, and make sure that he ate plenty of protein to replenish his muscle and tissues, because the man had a deplorable sweet tooth when he was wallowing in self pity. Naruto had found it rather sweet that Tsunade still knew her teammate so well, and noted that there were more questions about Jiraiya's well-being than the intel he obtained. He gleefully passed on the threats, but kept his personal observations to himself.
It had now been six weeks since the battle, and Jiraiya's voice was back, slightly more hoarse, but as boisterous as ever, yet his stamina was not up to par. However he had threatened to drink the Toad Oil if Naruto didn't get him the hell out of Mt. Myoboku because, in his words, "If I have to eat one more of Shima's home-cooked torture sessions I'm going to lose my goddamned mind!"
So after much strategic discussion, they had gone to Uzushiogakure as they had originally planned. They were wanting to explore the abandoned ruins of Naruto's ancestors, as well as the source of the rarest of the dojutsu: the legendary eye possessed by the enigma behind the Akatsuki, the Rinnegan.
Uzushiogakure was a forgotten paradox of shinobi lore. A place where fairytales met faith and together created legends. Between Jiraiya's knowledge of history, Naruto's blood, and both their fuuinjutsu expertise, they were able to systematically work their way through what remained of the large island's infrastructure, which sadly, wasn't much. The shinobi villages that had decimated Uzushio had been aware that hidden hoards were a ninja's nature and through rockslides, tsunamis, and apocalyptic storms had conspired to send the island back into the sea.
The things they found told a tale of a multicultural melting pot of shinobi clans. By far the two most dominant were the Uzumaki and the Namikaze. Piles of rubble marked locations where their homes and markets once stood. Sometimes they found a few charred pieces of everyday living, and on the rarest of occasions, a scroll. One building that Naruto explored had long been lost to the jungle, but seemed to be a place of business. In it he discovered a safe about the size of Akamaru, now it was all that remained to attest to the many exchanges that must have occurred here in the day to day life of the Uzushio populace. The safe was busted open and most of its papers had turned to dust at the touch of Naruto's finger. However one seemed mostly intact, buried at the bottom and somewhat protected from sight by the sheaths of now useless receipts on top of it. The band around the scroll was not elaborate, but the seal was pristine. He smirked recognizing the handiwork of his clan. The Uzumaki may have been the powerhouses, the immortals, the berserkers, but it was the Namikaze who were the seal masters. The secret keepers. And here it seemed he had stumbled across a forgotten one.
Naruto had sat by the fire for three consecutive nights, fighting with the locked scroll like it was some kind of shinobi Rubik's cube, growing increasingly more frustrated with the stupid formulas and himself. Despite the magnificently uplifting words Hinata had gifted him on their last night together, Naruto's self confidence was sorely shaken. Doubt now loomed over every decision he made, affecting everything from which trail to follow to how to proceed with training his usage of the Kyuubi's chakra. He had promised the Fox that he would one day free them both from hatred, tear down the seal that locked the bronze bars and throw the gate open to a renovated mindscape of green grass and sunshine. He had promised Konoha that he would be a Hokage that would fight the hatred engrained within the lifestyle of a shinobi, and make it an occupation of honor, similar to the Samurai of old, which were even now a dying breed. He had promised to eradicate the hatred within himself, and on all accounts, he had failed miserably. His mindscape was barely better than a fetid swamp, unlocking his seal would only mean his instant and apocalyptic demise, and his inner hatred seemed to be simmering somewhere in the labyrinth of hallways of his mind like an impish child playing an infuriatingly talented game of hide and go seek. It was under that impatient fury of self disgust that Naruto had waged a mental battle with the formulas of the Namikaze scroll. No matter how he growled and swore at the thing, Jiraiya had never offered his assistance, knowing that the seal's complexities were too advanced for his own assessment. He would poke at the fire and merely look at the frustrated blond with worry pinching his expression.
After playing with the thing for much longer than Naruto thought necessary, he had finally cracked it open, fully expecting to find nothing more than a high ranking businessmen's ancient black mail list. But what greeted his wide blue eyes under the mundane band was something he had only dreamed about. The ancient writing and deep purple ink made his Hime immediately come to mind, and he swore that amidst the ancient formulas and arrays he recognized a variant of the Hyuga Clan symbol. This was unlike any of the modern formulae he had studied, and his gut told him this was special, if for no other reason than the simple fact that it had somehow survived the village's destruction, plus several generations prior to that. Even so, when he held it in his hand, Naruto swore there was a hum to the filigree and calligraphy that beat with the magic of eons lost. Naruto had carefully sealed the treasure into his newest storage scroll, the most stable one he had yet created, hoping that within its mysterious writings lay the answer to the 'Hyuga Question' Hime had been seeking: how to remove the Caged Bird Seal forever.
This morning, feeling slightly rejuvenated from the fantastic find, Naruto and Jiraiya had set off down a faint trail that appeared to be marked by massive, moss covered rocks stacked upon each other by hands that must have possessed an unearthly strength, and carved into a style similar to the sacred gate of a clan shrine. It was down this overgrown path that Naruto now cut his way through the vines that webbed the island, carefully measuring his steps to allow Jiraiya to keep pace.
Today Ero-sennin seemed even more winded than usual, and Naruto was fretting over the state of his mentor. Had he pushed him too fast? Was the trail too challenging? He watched his godfather guzzle the last drop of water from his canteen, swiftly unsealing a fresh container and passing it to him.
"Ugh, this heat is killing me, and the humidity is only making it worse. I'm sweating more than a peeping tom in a hot springs, and I would know. How are you not even a bit warm?" Jiraiya incredulously wiped his face for the umpteenth time, eyeing his fully clothed disciple who only shrugged in response.
"I dunno, this climate doesn't bother me at all. It feels kinda…natural, I guess?" Naruto proudly patted the rich red cloak that he now wore over his black shinobi shirt, gifted to him by Shima herself in acknowledgment of his status as a Toad Sage. It was cut in the same style as his father's Hokage cloak, a fact that had not escaped him, and was trimmed around the bottom with black flames. Naruto had felt more depressed than he wanted to admit at the loss of his chunin vest due to the burning nature of his biju chakra, and when the Toads had presented him with the exquisite garment that matched his red hitae-ate perfectly, Naruto had choked up with his appreciation.
"You just don't want to take off that fancy coat," Jiraiya teased, the lopsided grin back in place after finishing a second canteen of water. He reached up to tap the unique headband that had been his reward upon becoming a Sage, "Not that I can blame you. Shima has a knack for knowing exactly what gift suits a person."
They had set off once more, but eventually Jiraiya was unable to continue, the jungle seemed to be casting some kind of spell that was sapping his strength, even though Naruto felt completely fine. After staggering over to a fallen log, the Sannin had waved him on, telling Naruto to stop worrying, they were alone after all, and to keep exploring in order to discover what the source of the mysterious power was. Begrudgingly leaving Ero-sennin behind, Naruto had quickened his pace, not wanting to leave him waiting for long. That was when he found the waterfall.
The place was obviously sacred, symbols were carved into the rocks surrounding the breathtaking natural wonder. The immense and ancient fuuinjutsu of the hallowed ground tingled Naruto's senses like a deep breath of heady spice, and without knowing why he instinctively knelt and removed his shoes. There was a life to the oasis, like there was a heart beat in each flicker of the dense leaves. But to Naruto the beat became a rhythm and it called to him, the rocks seeming to sing as he got closer to the pool's melodic waves. The mist that filled the swirling waters at the foot of the crashing waterfall felt almost enchanted, and when Naruto stopped within its dank embrace he activated his senses and realized that it was pumping with chakra. A chakra like he had never felt before, familiar but strange. He walked along the edge of the pool, his bare toes sinking deliciously into the fine, cool sand, tracing the arrays of seals that adorned the rocks and trees all around him with trembling fingers. He wondered what kind of tool had been used to engrave the myriad of designs that covered the place like music notes jumping high and low across the grand staff, and as he opened his mind and heart, a story began to unfold through their symphony...
Back when the earth was nearly nothing, and Kami was the only beginning and end, the planets of the universe were locked in cosmic warfare. The powerful civilizations were corrupted by greed and lust, and harbored a hubris that had them thinking they could conquer the gods. Kami became disgusted with their deeds against each other and The Divine, weighed them on her heavenly scales, and found them wanting. However before the blade of her justice could strike, three souls called out to her asking for a second chance. Only three amongst the galaxies sought forgiveness and promised faithfulness and peace in return for her mercy.
In her magnanimous sympathy Kami plucked the three scions from their corrupted worlds and placed them together on a different planet where she commanded them to tend to the simple people, creatures, and nature of a young earth. If you can prove to me that you have peace, love, and mercy in your hearts then I will bless you and your new home. If you fail, and turn once more to the greed and violence of your ancestors I will destroy this world as well, along with everything in it, and their demise will be your eternal damnation.
The natives regarded the three beings as gods themselves, saying they fell from the sun, moon, and stars. They were more powerful than imagination could comprehend, and used their gifts to foster balance and help their new home flourish. Each of The Three Scions possessed a mark of their alienation and power. The Tenseigan, the all seeing eye of healing and peace. The Mangeyko, the eye of history and justice. And the Rinnegan, the eye of creation and destiny. For hundreds of years they ruled over the earth with mercy and justice, and mankind thrived.
But nobody is immortal, and upon the end of their days they together created nine semi-divine chakra entities they called bijuu, to protect and judge mankind so that Kami would continue to look upon the world with favor. They charged their creations with the command to always seek balance and peace.
The natural descendants of the three were each blessed with their bloodline, which was weakened by their mixed relations with the humans but remained powerful enough to manifest in certain families over the generations.
As with any imperfect world the lines that divide grew and people clung to their own clans and forgot the values left by their ancestors. The gifts of The Three Scions were diluted through the ages until the concept of 'powerful beings' became only understood as legend and lore, bedtime stories told to entertain children.
The bijuu were regarded as demons when they appeared sporadically throughout the eras and sought to level punishment upon the wicked. The humans who had inherited and harnessed the legacy of The Three Scion's chakra and dojutsu rose up against the monstrous embodiments of justice, and eventually gained control over them. The Sharingan became feared amongst the bijuu for its mind control. The Byakugan was used to hunt them down even in the darkest corners of the world. And finally, the sealing mastery of the Rinnegan's progeny would lock them away.
Thus the world forgot her purpose. Denied her destiny. And ignored her truths.
Mankind fell into a pattern of battling clans, constantly at war for land and resources and worst: ethnic domination. Kami saw what they had become, sharpened Her blade, and readied Her scales.
A single shinobi regarded by his peers as a descendant of the gods arose out of the midst of the chaos, preaching lessons of peace and justice. He sought to create understanding and bonds between the nations and went first to the three most powerful people to convert them to his ideals.
Senju Hashirama was not from one of the revered clans who could trace their lineage back to the Scions. His people were strong, but compared to the Uchiha, the inheritors of the Sharingan, he himself was just a shinobi of unusual talent and rare words. Yet Hashirama was able to forge a bond with their leader Madara, and together they founded a village that sought to end the ways of war. The Hyuga soon joined, adding the legacy of the Byakugan to their intimidating list of allies, and the village flourished. He reached out to the Uzumaki, who held the only claim to several captured bijuu and the extremely rare Rinnegan, but they refused to give up their independence. However a marriage alliance was solidified between The Shodaime and their princess, dowries were exchanged, and demons redistributed as signs of trust. All of this, under Hashirama's fiercely dedicated rule.
Kami saw, and sheathed her blade.
But evil never sleeps. Naruto was all too familiar with the story from here, and even though the writings on the rocks had reached their tragic end, The Last Namikaze braced his hands upon their charred stony faces and wept for what was lost, for what nearly was, for the slim hope of what could still be. The metaphorical yoke that he felt weighing upon his shoulders, painted in blood with the names of those who had also tried to pull the burden of the earth's fate behind them, yearning for greener pastures and sunny fields, settled upon Naruto's back. He bowed with the overwhelming pressure, assaulted by visions of the genocide of Uzushio that he had walked through day after day.
Jealous of their more powerful and rarer bloodline, the other nations rose up against Uzushiogakure and her lesser clans, wiping them off the face of the earth in a siege that culminated in the destruction of an entire nation, their economy, their wealth, their knowledge, and their chakra. Refugees disappeared into the spider holes of the shinobi and civilian world, taking their unique gifts with them, some never to be seen again. The swirling symbol that was once the proud sigil of their dōjutsu and their maelstrom tides was now dyed red in remembrance for their spilled blood and stitched onto every banner in Konoha, her last ally. In the wake of the massacre the Hyuga became paranoid and turned their clan into a disgrace of slavery and fear by converting their protective seal into a means of isolation and control. With the Rinnegan essentially extinct, the Uchiha now saw themselves as the most powerful eye in the world, their aggressive pride culminating in the betrayal of Madara against his truest friend, thus poisoning the ensuing generations with his greed for power until they ultimately destroyed themselves.
Tears slid unchecked down Naruto's whiskered face as he felt the blood of his people and so many others cry out to him from the earth. He sank to his knees, pressing his forehead into the damp sand, the agony of seeing the state of the world through his opened eyes causing him physical pain. As he groaned with the suffering of his knowledge, Naruto swore the ethereal hum of the waterfall had sharpened into the whirring slash of Kami's sword as She once again prepared to wipe the earth clean of its corruption. Fear gripped his soul at the idea of the death of every one he knew and had yet to know, and he bolted out onto the water in search of Her, calling out to the heavens for Her mercy, for one more chance, for help.
Dark laughter echoed over the waters as he ran blindly through the mist, and Naruto halted his racing strides, spinning to seek the source of the disembodied voice. Out of the cascading water a figure emerged, stalking towards him with a potently familiar killing intent rolling off of his broad shoulders like the beads of water over his yellow hair. His black eyes gleamed with the bloodlust that Naruto had fought against his entire life. His tanned skin was a patchwork of every scarred over wound ever inflicted upon a certain child by his own village, just for the ignorant excuse of having someone to blame. His whiskered face smirked back at Naruto with the same egotistical cockiness of power that flirted with his mind every time he learned a new jutsu. The unseen grudge this malicious twin carried upon his back was a burden Naruto knew well, he didn't need to ask who this other person was. He knew this man. Knew this hatred, this anger, this ache. He saw himself.
"They don't deserve our mercy," the man snarled. The two identities which shared a single soul circled each other, somehow now surrounded on all sides by the muted rumble of an all encasing waterfall. Naruto forgot which way he came from, his only focus was on the overwhelming aura of maleficence before him.
"They are the scum of the earth! They refuse to see us, refuse to respect us for what we are, they're only concerned with what they think they can get from us. They will turn on us the moment we let them down! The world is broken. The only way to fix it is to start anew. Only I am powerful enough to wield Kami's sword and balance the uneven scale, one head at a time!"
As he shouted his truths he knelt upon the water and pulled a long thick blade from beneath waves, black as death and sharp as fate. Naruto could feel the vengeance that was forged within the steel of the sword. Only something of equal purity, equal truth, but higher honor could combat such a hellishly divine weapon.
"True justice can never come from a source of hatred," Naruto called back, forcing himself to keep his clear blue eyes focused on the red and black death glare beaming from the man's face. "The love that binds us is a stronger bond, such a link cannot be broken by even the most powerful evil. Justice is the purifier of our love, mercy its nurturing, and peace its home. I will balance the scales by adding myself into the world, fortifying the weak until they equal the strong."
"We say the same thing brother," the man cackled, tossing the blade to his other hand, as though testing the weight of it. "I seek peace as well. Justice is also my goal. But mercy is a weakness. Love: a lost cause. I will go out into the world just as you have proclaimed, and I will be the Reaper of her lost souls. Behold MY truth." He lunged, attacking Naruto with a ferocity that was fueled with a lifetime of repressed brutality, and the sword barely missed him. The gust of wind that blew over Naruto in its wake made him gasp at the sweet torture of its tantalizing lust for vengeance. The lure of satisfaction and excitement when an enemy is slaughtered, and their blood is seeping from their veins to quench his insatiable thirst for an unholy reckoning. Naruto stumbled away from the heady emotional turmoil, seeking distance from the powerful feelings that he knew all too well. That he had succumbed to once already.
The man's eyes widened in frenzied joy at Naruto's reaction. "You feel it! You know the desire for vengeance! Join me! Let us finally have satisfaction for our humiliation! Let us revel in taking back our dignity!"
"I see no joy in the killing of others for my own pride!" Naruto could feel the flicker within his soul of a nearly lost hope and he fanned the small spark into a flame of righteous fury for an honorable recompense. "Who am I to place myself in Kami's role as judge and executioner? I refuse to impart my own half blind version of a blood atonement upon the world. My actions cannot allow such selfish motives to poison them, or else the desire of my heart will be lost."
As he spoke a Rasenshuriken was starting to swirl in his right hand. He opened his soul and poured out all the love he had ever known into that precious orb of chakra. Every moment of peace he had relished as he looked over the village from the hokage mountain. Every feeling of awe that had washed over him when he had stared at the stars as a child with Jiji by his side and a campfire crackling nearby. Every warm bellyful of ramen served with a silly joke under a protective roof as the rain poured outside. Every encouraging smile from Iruka as he determinedly worked through a problem. Every swell of pride as he mastered another jutsu and Dog proudly slapped him on the back. Every enveloping embrace of his Hime's arms when he knew without a doubt that home was not a building, but a place in his heart that was filled with her love, his other half, his everything.
"HERE IS MY TRUTH!" Naruto thrust the massive orb of blinding chakra high over his head, long arms of pure white power surrounding his creation and lashing through the air. "Raise your weapon and prove your own fate!"
They charged at one another, each fueled by his own vehemence for his beliefs. Their faces twisted with the exertion of their efforts. Chakra reverberated around the enchanted oasis like the gale force winds of a hurricane. Water erupted like a geyser as they collided at the bottom of the waterfall. There weapons ground upon each other with the screech of universal conflict. The earth shook and the rocks around the pious warriors burst as the fuuinjutsu upon them flashed and exploded like fireworks. Naruto felt as though his soul was being turned over a burning fire, like his existence was molten glass in hell's furnace. He screamed as he felt his body pulled in a million directions, reshaped and blown upon the skewer of Kami's punty as she exhaled her breath into his being with such force he thought he might shatter. A vessel reborn, remade, purified for a purpose. Like an artist finally satisfied with the form of their glass, Kami cracked him free of her influence, immersing her newest creation, and Naruto was suddenly crushed under the shockingly cold water of the enchanted waterfall. Within its black depths he knew Her voice.
I see you, Child of Destiny. You embrace your Light but acknowledge your Darkness, and in doing so have overcome your hatred with truth. Your ambition is virtuous in my eyes. Your bonds are sacred and precious, and I will honor them as you do. So long as you walk this path, I will walk beside you and bless the perseverance of your endeavors.
The ephemeral words were not heard with his ears, so much as felt within his bones, and Naruto wondered if he was dying after all, and this was all some magnificent hallucination conjured up in a fading spirit's final moments of panic. The corners of Naruto's vision started to darken as the need for oxygen burned his lungs and he struggled to the surface with frantic strokes. The light was so far away, it felt like he would never reach it. But he wouldn't give up, he'd never give up, he had a purpose, a destiny…Hime…
It was as though an unseen hand thrust him out of the water and he found himself sprawled face down and gasping atop a rock in the middle of a small pond of calm, clear water, near a tranquilly trickling waterfall, surrounded by pristine forest. He dazedly blinked at his reflection in the barely rippling surface of the sweet water, and thought for a second that his eyes looked different, a swirling black overlapping bright blue. He shook his head but the fuzzy haze in his brain remained, yet now his reflection was the same blue-eyed face as always. Exhaustion washed over him and he felt his body giving out, the last thing he registered was the feeling of the Fox grinning broadly in his mind. Kyuubi, I did it. Now we can be stronger than ever…
The bijuu felt the seal begin to surge, and saw the fulfillment of the promise he had thought impossible, and answered Naruto with a tone of respect that no human had ever heard from his jaws.
My name...is Kurama.
"He's waking up! He's waking up!"
"Of course he is, you're shaking him hard enough to rattle his teeth."
"Well the gentle stuff didn't work. He sleeps like a rock."
"He gets that from you."
"Oh puh-lease! I caught you drooling all over your desk just like he is right now, all the time."
"Oi! It was exhausting keeping up with all that paperwork!"
"Maybe you wouldn't have had to rewrite so many documents if the originals weren't stained with your SALIVA."
"Ha! That's what kage bunshin are for!"
Naruto was dead. He had to be dead, and these two bickering voices he heard must be the ones who tell him if he made it to heaven or hell. He cracked an eye open and immediately slammed it shut at the blinding white light. The female voice gasped at this reaction.
"I saw his eye! It's the same blue as yours Minato-kun!"
Now Naruto sat bolt upright, fully tensed for battle, hand grasping for a weapon pouch that was suspiciously missing, and mind racing a mile a minute.
"Alright assholes! Who the hell are you guys and what do you know about me?"
The man and woman didn't flinch, only stared at him in blatant surprise, but the moment quickly passed and the man leaned over and murmured into his companion's ear, "I think he has your mouth."
Naruto was still groping his own body trying vainly to locate a weapon of any kind as the appearance of the pair slowly registered in his blurry brain. The dots were just barely starting to connect when the red-haired woman's fist connected much more solidly with his head.
"WATCH YOUR MOUTH YOUNG MAN! I don't care how old you are, I am still your Mother and you will not use such language when you address me! Who taught you that?! Was it Jiraiya? It was Jiraiya wasn't it? Dammit Minato, I told you that skeevy pervert you call a sensei was going to corrupt our boy! The instant his soul touches the afterlife I'm gonna sink my foot so far up his ass he's gonna taste the color of my toe polish—"
"Shhh, shhh, shhh!" The blond man purred, patting her writhing strands of red hair until her snarling settled like an involuntarily contented feline. "Kushina, Love, perhaps we should focus on our son? He seems like he needs our attention."
Said son was hyperventilating as his wide azure eyes darted back and forth between the two alarmingly alive versions of his parents who now rushed to embrace him. His body locked up as four arms, two slender but strong and two solid but gentle, encased his stiff shoulders. They each held him, unwavering as he trembled and heaved, supporting him when his knees gave out, and smiling softly as he stumbled over syllables that refused to form coherent words.
By the gods, all three of you are idiots.
It was the familiar voice of the Kyuubi that snapped Naruto out of his stupor, his shock was so great that he couldn't even think of a snappy response. He hesitantly reached up and wrapped an arm around them both, gazing in wonder at the oh-so-familiar features from the often studied photograph he kept in his room, now animated with the expressions of love and adoration that he had always dreamed of seeing.
"So, I guess this is heaven then," he mumbled in awe, which got curious looks from them both, until understanding crossed his father's face.
"No, Son. You're not dead. We are remnants of our souls, woven into your seal with our chakra and our faith. We have always been with you, but you were not able to tap into our presence until you were strong enough to make it to this moment." Minato placed his hand on Naruto's head, which made him chuckle because they were the same height, and ruffled his identical spikes of blond locks as if he were only a kid. "We are so proud of you Naruto. What we knew you would have to overcome in order to be here is a miracle of faith. We always knew that you would be someone special, and we loved you fiercely from the moment we knew you existed. I wish we could have made it easier, but it is obvious that you have become a strong man with love in his heart and a true compass of morality because of all that you must have endured."
"And I can tell you're one hell of a shinobi!" cheered his mother, squeezing his shoulder and patting his Sage Cloak, even as she had to look up to meet his tear filled eyes with her own. She reached up and cupped his cheeks, tracing his whisker marks with a small smile of understanding. "I know what a burden the responsibility of being a Jinchuriki can be," she said in the soft tone of a mother soothing a child who has had a terrible nightmare. "It is something that can test even the most solid of minds, but you are not alone. You never were. You never will be. Your bonds that you create are the safe harbor that protects you from the storm, and you fortify them with your love. The chaos can never touch you if you are surrounded by the people who care for you."
Naruto nodded, his mouth trembling with emotion as he swallowed thickly and briskly wiped his tears away. Taking a small step back, he took a deep breath and drank in the sight of the people he had prayed to meet, if only for the blink of a dream. There was so much he wanted to tell them, so much he wanted to ask, but first, there was something he knew he had to do.
"Actually," he grinned at them, the wide flash of teeth matching his mother's perfectly, the crinkle of his eyes mirroring his father's to a tee. "I don't just want to build a harbor, I want to calm the storm. And I think you two are just the help I need."
He clapped his hands together and suddenly the trio were standing in the ankle deep water of the familiar sewer within his mindscape. Minato walked over to the massive bronze bars, knocking on them with his knuckle and smirking. "Not bad eh?" Naruto chuckled as he crossed his arms and stood shoulder to shoulder with the greatest seal master to ever walk The Leaf.
"Nah, not bad at all. But it's got to come down, and you're gonna do it."
Minato huffed, but never doubted his son for a moment. "Alright. You got the key I gave to Gerotora?"
Naruto squinted in thought, "Yeeaaahh, about that…"
Kushina spun around from where she had been studying the carved name of a girl upon the wall when she heard the yelp of her husband and rushed back at seeing him doubled over Naruto's fist before sinking to his knees.
She could tell it wasn't nearly hard enough to do more than knock the wind out of the man, but raised a chastising glare to her son all the same. Naruto dusted his hands and grinned unashamedly as he chortled, "Who the hell can make that fancy seal and not think of a better way to store the key?"
Kushina wrinkled her brows down at her husband, who was gaping like a fish out of water, and realization dawned. "For Kami's sake Minato, I told you that was a terrible idea."
"I guess…I deserved…that." Naruto pulled his father to his feet and laughed openly as he helped straighten the white Hokage cloak over his shoulders, the striking visual of their uncanny resemblance was driven home as his own red Sage Cloak shifted around him. The special sight was not lost on Kushina, and she sighed nostalgically, a hole in her soul stitching closed with the satisfying sound her men teasing each other. Her eyes wandered over their shoulders to the massive orange Fox that was trying to not look immensely entertained by the fact that the boy had just sucker punched the Yondaime.
"Hey there Foxy-Chan! Did you miss me?" The bijuu's ears immediately went flattened upon his head at her joyful shriek and nine lethal tails whipped up and over his head. "I'll take that as a 'yes'," she chirped, ignoring the rumbles of his growl. "Anyway! Enough messing around! Naruto said he needed our help, and this place ain't gettin' any better without some elbow grease. So," her smile turned feral as miles of chakra chains shot out from her back, each link the size of a barrel, tipped with sharp spikes, and dancing through the air with the fine control of a true Uzumaki, "what's the plan?"
Naruto whistled in awe at the impressive sight, slightly put out that he didn't inherit that badass bloodline. His father was blushing amorously as he stared at his beautifully lethal wife and something that might have been a whimper escaped the Kyuubi, although the Fox would never admit it in a million years.
"Easy there Kaa-san," Naruto scratched the back of his head as he watched her pout and retract her chains. "Kurama and I don't work that way."
His parents turned to face him, wonder filling their expressions as they glanced from their son to the Embodiment of Hatred behind him. "He…he told you his name?" Kushina whispered.
The brat earned it. He is not just a shinobi, he is Kami's Chosen. He has the eyes to prove it. Show them, Naruto.
For an instant Naruto was so taken aback by hearing the bijuu behind him frankly state the conclusion of what felt like a fever dream, that he nearly forgot what he had seen in his rippling reflection just before losing consciousness upon the water. He swallowed hard, he'd never done this before, and his own parents, of all people, were now looking at him with such eager anticipation it was like he was a baby about to take his first step, which he kinda was…sort of?
Taking a deep breath, Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated on his chakra, remembering how Hime had described it, and pooling it in his gut, filling, filling, filling, until the swirling felt like a Rasengan in his stomach, then thrusting the power up into his eyes, into his mind, into his senses, and calling out, "Rinnegan!"
Minato was the first to find his voice, his tone nearly reverent with solemnity as he observed the powerful dojutsu looking back at him from his son's face. "I see," he said, and then steel hardened his own azure gaze. "We are with you Son, not even death can stop us now."
Jiraiya looked up with a start as Naruto burst out of the brush, nearly tackling him where he still sat upon the same log, just about to put pen to paper.
"Ero-sennin! You're here again? Oh Kami I'm so sorry if I worried you! You'll never believe what happened to me!"
"Uh, you've only been gone like five minutes, Gaki. What'dyo see some massive spider or something? Oh! Or maybe stumbled across some ship wrecked damsel in distress?" Jiraiya leaned sideways to peer around the spluttering blond.
"WHAT? But I've been gone for weeks! I found this magical waterfall thing and then met my evil twin but I won and then I met my parents and we freed Kurama and trained day and night and talked and laughed and cried and—"
Jiraiya got to his feet with a small grunt and grabbed Naruto by the face, silencing his incredulous rambling by roughly turning his head this way and that, inspecting him for the knot that must have been left behind after a smack to the head of such force to make even this thick skulled kid see things. But nothing was amiss, and the sincerity in Naruto's eyes was undeniable.
"I don't understand, you just walked away to follow the trail, and before I could even get settled you came busting back out of the jungle. Start from the beginning, tell me everything." Jiraiya crossed his arms, his expression serious and anxiety buzzing through his gut. There was something different about his godson, his body was the same, but it was like his presence was bigger somehow.
"I'll do better than that, I'll show you!" Naruto closed his eyes and inhaled through his nose, and with a pulse of chakra that flowed through him with the ease born from hundreds of rounds of practice, he opened them once more.
Jiraiya sat down heavily upon the log, nearly sliding off the back of it with the abruptness of his fall. It was unmistakably the Rinnegan, but so very different than the soulless, glazed over gray gaze that had always characterized Nagato's eyes. Naruto's eyes remained the same clear blue of the summer sky, with all the life of an undulating ocean tide. His pupil had spread out into a swirl that perfectly reflected the whirlpools that surrounded his homeland and adorned his ancestral crest. The power behind the dojutsu was undeniable, but the gentleness was still obvious.
"Ho-ly fuck."
Naruto 'tsked' him, wagging a scolding finger at his stupefied mentor. "Now, now, Ero-sennin. Kaa-san said you need to shape up and start following the Shinobi Code or else she was going to haunt you by ruining all your favorite peeping spots. Even the one by some river on the southern side of Konoha near the Uchiha district where she and some lady named Mikoto caught you that one time, she said you'd know what that meant."
Jiraiya grabbed his chest, he was nearly having a heart attack at this point. "Oh my Kami, you met Kushina?! You didn't tell her I let you read my books did you? Sweet merciful heaven please say you didn't!"
Naruto was shaking his head frantically, "Hell no! I don't have a death wish!"
Jiraiya sagged with relief, limply leaning against the mossy trunk of a sturdy tree and fanning his face with the long tail of his hair. "Konoha, no, the five nations have no idea what is in store for them, do they?"
Naruto grinned with all the guile of a professional prankster with a plan, and his Rinnegan twinkled with mischief. "There's more." Kurama!
Ah! Let's show that Old Toad Charmer what we can really do!
The last thing Jiraiya saw before he fainted dead away was Naruto's body engulfed by the fire of the sun, but not consumed.
