The skies were dark as a red moon shined brightly in the skies, the world was silent as only the occasional sound of leaves being moved by wind could be heard.
In the middle of the large forest, on a leveled field, covered in scorch marks and craters from the intense battle that took place here, stood a yellow-haired man, with three whisker marks on both of his cheeks. His clothes were ragged and his body was covered in blood that came from the countless injuries on his body.
The man was surrounded by three beings, all considerably bigger than the yellow-haired man. The biggest one had red skin and had two black horns in the place of his ears. He looked rather humanoid although clearly not one, he is wearing leather battle armor that has skulls as his shoulder blades. The second being also was red-skinned, but much less humanoid looking, and resembled more of a monster, as he wore nothing but had giant wings stretching from his back. He, too, was decorated by two giant horns on his head and showed off his sharp teeth.
The third one, seemingly the smallest but clearly the leader of the tree, had a very humanoid build. He had blazing wings on his back and white skin, as his facial features were black. He was dressed in black clothes as a shining long chain was floating around him.
The yellow-haired man brought his gaze at the leader of the three, glaring at him furiously. "Quite cowardly of you to bring your lackeys into this fight, were you scared from the beating carried out by dear old me the previous time?" he asked, addressing the leader as he tried to keep his voice as emotionless as possible, although the hatred directed at the being named Zariel could be distinguished.
Zariel scoffed loudly as he looked the man in his eyes. "You nuisance of a human. Naruto, we have been slaughtering you, humans, for more than a decade now, yet you still dare be arrogant. Should I even address you, humans, as plural? Considering how you are the only one alive, been so for a few years now. Your strength not enough to save them?" Zariel taunted back.
"But, these are not my lackeys. These are the archdukes of the nine-hells, just like me. I do not have the authority to order them around." Zariel continued, Naruto's face became one of shock. "Now, it's time to say goodbye to this world you hold so dear. You will be exterminated, just like your fox friend." Zariel said in a menacing tone as he stepped towards Naruto, preparing to end his life.
Naruto continued staring at Zariel as he started to force the last of his chakra through his tenketsu. With a thought, he also entered sage mode as nature energy made its way inside his body which Naruto mixed along with his chakra which was twirling in his body, heating up to the extremes.
As the beings caught sight of what Naruto was doing, they dashed towards him in hopes of stopping him, but by that time, Naruto had already kneeled on the ground and slammed his hands on it as a wood sphere manifested in the air. Naruto placed his hand on the wooden sphere and channeled all the chakra that he was heating up inside his body as the sphere quickly gained size.
A look of horror dawned on the faces of the other as Zariel tried to get to Naruto as fast as he could, but seeing that a wide grin appeared on Naruto's face convinced him that there was likely no way to get out of this situation.
Naruto cut off the chakra flowing inside the sphere, as he panted in exhaustion before tapping the sphere lightly as a white shockwave hit erupted from the sphere, annihilating everything in its way, including the nearby landscapes, Zariel, the two demon archdukes, and Naruto.
'At least I can rest knowing I avenged my best friend.' Naruto grimly thought before being disintegrated into nothingness.
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Naruto then opened his eyes.
Naruto was a born sensor. His ability to sense chakra of all kinds surpassed any seen before, and coupled with being the jinchuriki to a Bijuu, his already great ability was enhanced greatly.
Over the years, this sensing ability helped him out greatly, he could figure out who to trust and which fights to take.
So, upon regaining his consciousness, it had been easy to sense the hundreds of chakra-suppression seals covering his body, and he was inclined to be surprised that he was covered in human-made seals.
The person to place the seals on his body did not do a very good job, considering that he still could access a fifth of his chakra. Taking advantage of the mistake made by his captor, he sent forth his chakra and covered the nearby area in a thin veil of it, making it so that he would have a general idea of where he was.
Yet, he was in for another surprise, as he discovered himself inside a standard Konoha interrogation room. However, that was impossible, as Konoha has been in ruins for the better part of a decade.
Furthermore, he could sense the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, a person considered dead for more than a decade, standing over him.
Naruto gathered a large portion of his chakra as he violently sent it out of his body, attempting to disrupt any genjutsu, in case there was one placed on him. But as he could not sense a genjutsu, he figured he was not in one, which led him to the next most viable explanation to his current predicament.
This was his afterlife. And a shitty afterlife at that, as being restrained in a place that no longer exists while waiting to be interrogated by a person no longer alive, was certainly not what he considered a good afterlife.
Naruto let out another burst of chakra in hopes of brute-forcing through some more seals to make himself more comfortable before laying back on the ground.
"This is such a fucking disappointment, man," Naruto muttered as he let out a humorless chuckle.
At the same time, Hiruzen Sarutobi was staring at the man, a cold and expressionless mask plastered across his face, although internally he felt quite shocked.
The man had been found unconscious outside the village a little less than a week ago. They found him after a large wave of chakra washed over Konoha which the Hokage assumed was an attack on the recently weakened village. He and a squad of ANBU had headed off towards the origin point of said wave of chakra and had found the man there.
He ordered his men to calm and ensure the village while keeping the man a secret, as he was going to interrogate the man to gain information and decide what will be done after.
He and Jiraiya, who had yet to leave the village, covered the man in seals and locked him in a room, as you could never be too safe with a man of this caliber. Now, nearly a week later, he found himself staring at the man, waiting for him to wake up, so he could get answers to multiple questions that had been bugging him ever since his appearance.
Suddenly, a terrifying amount of chakra burst forth from the man,
Hiruzen stared at the man for a little while before letting out a cough to gain his attention. Seeing that soon the man was looking at the Hokage, he decided to get answers to his questions.
"I am sure you know who I am, so let's get right into the serious stuff. Let's start with your name, affiliation, and purpose for the assault on Konoha." Hiruzen asked in a commanding voice.
Naruto looked the man up and down, before deciding that this was gramps for sure, probably just a little younger. He viewed the old Sarutobi as a grandfather, so answering his questions in the afterlife wouldn't be too much to ask for. Maybe mess with the man a little as he answers the questions, he was already dead nevertheless.
"You must be the venerable Tsuchikage, I had gotten the impression that you would be a little taller," he joked in a gruff voice, but seeing as the Hokage didn't give any sort of reaction to his joke, he let out a tired sigh.
"I am Uzumaki Naruto. Now, if you remove this annoying piece of paper that you somehow have managed to stick in this god-awful place on my back, I shall answer the remainder of your questions truthfully."
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at the man's choice for his alias. "I suppose that would not be too much to ask for, as you have disabled the majority of seals already placed on you. But I shall remove it only after you have answered my questions, and keep in mind, I am not called the God of Shinobi for no reason." Hiruzen replied with a cold look in his eyes.
Naruto shrugged at that, deciding that he was going to take what he can. "Sure, I am a shinobi of Konoha, and I have not attacked Konoha:"
"What about this large spike of chakra you have emitted. You claim to be a shinobi of this place, a person who is supposed to ensure the safety of the people in Konoha, yet you scare the people of Konoha like that, so soon after the Kyuubi attack." Hiruzen sneered.
Naruto was confused.
This was one weird afterlife, being covered in amateurish seals as he was being interrogated by his dead surrogate grandfather, who was accusing him of assaulting the village. And he mentioned the Kyuubi attack had happened recently. It wasn't possible he could have traveled back in time.
Unless… It was, and he had done it.
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If he had time traveled, then many of his questions had been answered, but many new ones had surfaced too. But he was inclined to hope that he had truly returned to a time when shinobi existed, and he would take full advantage of his strength and future knowledge.
And if it is a genjutsu or some form of the afterlife he was in, hell with it, why not have fun.
Naruto had made up his mind, he will save the ones dear to him, and give his all to save the rest of humanity too. Being able to spend time with his godfather would be especially great, although living without Kurama certainly would be a bummer.
This brought him to his first problem. Convincing Hiruzen he was serious would certainly be a load of trouble, the man was not one to trust easily, he would need concrete proof. But what would count as proof? His heritage, maybe what his parents had done? Might as well try both, maybe sprinkle in some future knowledge.
"Minato Namikaze used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to seal the Yin half of the Kyuubi inside himself, while using the Eight Trigrams Sealing Technique to seal the Yang half of the Kyuubi inside of his newly born son, Naruto."
The Hokage's face steeled as he listened to the man. The secret of young Naruto's heritage was the best-guarded secret in the village, no doubt. While the matter of how Minato had sealed the Kyuubi was something only Jiraya could even begin to understand.
"What is the purpose of telling me this?" Hiruzen asks as he prepares his staff for a fight.
"I have come to the conclusion that I have traveled back in time. In fact, I am the child of Minato Namikaze who houses the Kyuubi. I have much information about the future that could prove that I am telling the truth, while I also have skills that only I could possibly know to add to that."
The Hokage's face darkened as he considered what he should do in this situation, before deciding on the best course of action he could think of.
"Tell me of events that will happen in the near future, once I am somewhat confident in being able to trust you, I will let you showcase your abilities. I'll be damned if I would die, being careless with a person I am interrogating." Hiruzen said.
Naruto allowed a small smile to grace his lips as he began telling the story, deciding to handle his own impending freak out of this situation a little later at a more appropriate time.
"I believe the first major event that will take place is Orochimaru's defection from the village, which is in about five months. He has been experimenting on orphans and shinobi of different ranks to achieve immortality, so he could learn all Jutsu. His solution is to switch between different bodies, I will elaborate a little on this later.
The next thing will be in about three years when Kumo comes to Konoha to sign a peace treaty. They send one of their Jonins to kidnap the heir of the Hyuga, a girl named Hinata Hyuga who has yet to be born. This will lead to Hiashi Hyuga's brother being given to Kumo to avoid war.
There will not be much happening for the next three years. You will soon decide to have the Uchiha's be moved from the village to a more remote place as they are a suspect for the Kyuubi attack, which they were not responsible for. This causes them to hatch a coup, and to avoid it, the son of Uchiha Fugaku will massacre the entire clan, leaving only one survivor, them being Uchiha Sasuke. He is an arrogant prick who doesn't match Itachi's talent." Naruto says, venom laced in his voice as he says the last sentence.
The Hokage tries to say something, but Naruto interrupts him. "I am not yet done. In twelve years, Konoha will be hosting the Chunin Exams, where my team and the rest of my year's graduates participate. It turns out there was one of Orochimaru's spies in our ranks, and they were planning an invasion. Suna, Orochimaru's village called Otogakure, and Iwa attacked us all together, leveling Konoha to be just rubles. It will never be restored in the future. I will leave the matter of Akatsuki for another time, although they are very important in the way my life and many others play out, they would take too long to fully explain.
To make it short, they are a mercenary organization composed of S-class shinobi, whose task is to gather the Bijuu, form the Juubi, and enslave the world in a genjutsu." Naruto says, finishing his story, as Hiruzen lets out a breath he had been holding the entire time.
"You explained the future to the time when you were twelve, but you clearly are not at that age. You give off the impression of someone who has been to war for years, and your body is clearly that of a young man in their early twenties." Hiruzen says, edging for an explanation of the rest, meanwhile, Naruto raises an eyebrow at being called very young.
"I am actually twenty-eight years old, it seems that my Uzumaki heritage keeps me rather young, although being without any scars seems to help with that as well. As to your question about the war, the answer is quite complicated. You see, the Akatsuki started a war for the Bijuu, but the leader was manipulated by Madara Uchiha who was actually behind the plan. The entire 4th shinobi war was mainly Sasuke Uchiha and I fighting Madara while a united force of all the major villages watched.
In the end, Sasuke and I managed to beat Madara, but he had a plan that triggered upon his death. He unleashed demons from the demon realm and set them on this world, thinning out humanity's population quickly. This went on for eight years until I was the last survivor. I carried on for another two years as I fought pain painstakingly against the demons until my last battle was against three demon commanders of sorts, who I managed to beat with a suicide Jutsu, which obliterated us all and also sent me back in time. Or at least, that's my best guess for how I got back to this timeline." Naruto explained, as it seemed he had finally gotten a visible reaction out of the Hokage, whose pupils had dilated in surprise and shock. He got out of his stupor quickly, though.
"As for the abilities that could prove my identity, are me being able to use toad sage mode like Jiraiya-sensei, and me being able to use a slightly worse version of my father's Hirashin. I have also finished my father's Jutsu, Rasengan, to which I have added my chakra nature." Naruto said as the wind built up in his hand and a shuriken like Rasengan formed in his hand.
Hiruzen breathed out a sigh." I feel like I am inclined to believe you for now. I would like to inquire of your plans to stop all the mess from happening." he asked as he stared at Naruto right in his eyes.
Naruto only smirked in response as he began explaining the plan that he had formed in the time he was telling his story.
