HOPE, A THING OF THE PAST – ASURA'S TRANSMIGRANTS
The Fleeing Hidden Leaf Villagers
As the villagers continue to march onward, away from the terrifying battle behind them, sensory shinobi and shinobi with exceptional talent can be seen turning their heads occasionally. They try to mask it, to avoid worrying the villagers around them yet they can sense it, behind them an incredible battle is taking place, something the earth hasn't witnessed for years.
Hinata stops and looks towards the battle, her byakugan allowing her a small insight into what is happening.
"Are you worried?" Himawari asks her mother
"Yeah" Hinata nods, not denying that Naruto is the foremost thing on her mind.
"Don't worry, there is no way that dad would ever lose, right?" Boruto smiles towards his mother, attempting to calm her down.
Hinata returns the smile to her son, "I guess you're right".
'Do your best Naruto'.
The Battlefield
As Naruto and Peterson stand opposite one another they analyse their opponent's conditions. 'He output such an incredible bolt of lightning, he used the lightning shield and even fought old man 1st before I got here but he still doesn't seem to have broken a sweat' Naruto comes to this conclusion and tightens his fist, realising in his heart that this fight is far from over.
'That kid, no wonder the other two looked at him in such a way. That was one of the strongest attacks I could have performed and yet he countered it. His transformation has finished yet he doesn't look like he has even begun to exhaust his power' Peterson analyses in turn.
"Naruto" Kurama speaks to his host, "He's too strong for you to fight in this form, if you want to fight him without the nine tails transformation then you must use your full power". Kurama's deduction is spot on. It is easy to forget that after many years of living Kurama has seen far more battle than Naruto, or any human for that matter. The battle experience of the nine tails is something that had never been used before, not until the child in the prophecy came along, not until Naruto befriended the fox that everyone else thought was a demon.
"I know" Naruto replies, "Lend me your chakra, Kurama".
"That goes without saying".
The orange light that clouded his body returns once again, this is the form Naruto used through much of the war, nine tails chakra mode. However, the blonde Hokage is not finished, chakra continues to gather and swirl around him. The level of this chakra, the amount in one place is more than most people see gathered in their entire lives.
"I feel a lot of nature chakra" Hashirama informs his brother, the only none sage of the three, "He is transforming again".
The skin around Naruto's eyes changes to a slightly deeper shade of orange, symbolic of his use of sage mode. Combined with sage mode is the nine tails chakra mode, the strongest power that Naruto can use.
Tobirama gasps at the shocking display of power, every time he feels that he understands why people think so highly of Naruto, every time he thinks he has seen the peak of his power, the 7th Hokage shows him an even greater height. This is not something that just anyone can manage, few people can pull out surprise after surprise, power after power and skill after skill. The ability to shock people like this is something that is earned by enduring great difficulties, by enduring, by being a shinobi.
"It seems you still have a lot more power tucked away" Peterson smiles, his scarred face lifting with joy at the sight of this new form. "But you are just a frog at the bottom of the well, today I'm going to show you, what true power is".
As Peterson finishes lightning begins to gather around his body, its motion not a motion to signal an impending attack nor a motion to reveal supernatural manipulation of electric current. Instead the lightning clings naturally to his body as if he is a cloud, is this is where the lightning truly belongs.
"Tobirama, is that a lightning chakra cloak" Hashirama asks. Despite being touted as 'the god of shinobi' and formerly being recognised as the strongest Hokage, Hashirama's theoretical understanding of jutsu pales in comparison to his younger brother who is a true genius.
"No, there is no chakra" Tobirama shakes his head. "Still, if he has held this technique back until now…".
"Yeah" Hashirama nods in agreement, understanding exactly what Tobirama means.
"It's strong" they say together.
Peterson smiles at the reaction of all the shinobi stood before him. On Naruto's face, he can see the anguish that only comes with discovering the difficulty of your situation. On the Senjus' faces, he spots something far more devastating, the one emotion a shinobi should keep away from a battle, he sees fear.
"Here I come" he declares as he lifts his foot off the ground for his first step.
Naruto doesn't see the foot lower again, he just feels the incredible speed of Peterson's approach, he feels the air move around him as the great momentum of his enemy forces the pressure on his skin to increase. Then looking over his shoulder, Naruto sees where Peterson ends up, directly behind him.
As Peterson coats his fist in lightning Naruto quickly turns around to defend himself. As the lightning, clad fist then fires towards Naruto's head he is left with little choice but to attempt to catch that punch. Reaching his arm out before him to do just that, doesn't go well for Naruto. As Peterson's fist collides with Naruto's palm the blonde shinobi hears a tearing noise and feels an agonising pain.
A small thud can be heard as something heavy hits the ground.
Naruto's severed arm.
'What!' Naruto starts, he had estimated that the punch would be strong, perhaps that it would even do serious damage to him but he never expected anything like that.
As Peterson's second fist comes towards Naruto he concentrates his gaze on the widening mouth of the 7th Hokage, feeling this to be his victory. 'Don't despair kid, you are by far the greatest opponent I have faced since I came here'.
Just before Peterson's fist reaches Naruto, the 2nd Hokage, Senju Tobirama appears with a hand on his shoulder. Rapidly he uses his flying thunder god jutsu to teleport to Naruto and then teleports the two of them back to his elder brother.
Hashirama quickly uses a few tricks from his past to stem the bleeding in Naruto's arm, to prevent it from being fatal as the fight goes on.
"Thank you, old man 2nd" Naruto offers sincerely.
"This is no time for thanks" Tobirama snaps, "We need to think of a plan now".
"That attack you used earlier" Hashirama begins, "The tailed beast bomb, can you do it again? Will it work if you do?".
"Not against lightning of that level" Naruto quickly replies.
"Do you have anything stronger?".
"Yes but using it right now will be difficult, especially with one arm. Still if you can keep him occupied for a minute I think I can do it".
Tobirama scoffs, "Keep him occupied for a minute, that's not the easiest request to accommodate".
Peterson slowly lifts his finger to point at the trio, a small spark of electricity arcing around his finger nail. With a jolt of the muscles in his hand, lightning fires from the tip of his finger, bound for the hidden leaf's defenders.
Naruto knows that neither Hashirama nor Tobirama can counter an attack of this level, he knows that he needs to be quick on his feet. "Lend me some chakra Kurama" he calls to his partner as he holds his hand out before him. Quickly a super mini tailed beast bomb forms in his hand and he smashes it against the lightning.
As the two great attacks collide the result is just as Naruto anticipated; the lightning overcomes the bomb and sends the trio depending on it rolling back along the floor, saved only by the reduction in momentum offered by the tailed beast bomb.
Eventually they come to a halt, quickly getting to their feet again.
"Brother, are you in sage mode?".
"Yeah".
Hearing the response Tobirama acts quickly, throwing a marked kunai towards Peterson. When the colonel simply ignores the kunai the younger Senju sibling makes full use of the opportunity this presents to him, placing his hand on Hashirama's back, he teleports the 1st Hokage rather than himself to the flying weapon.
Arriving behind Peterson, Hashirama kicks towards the head of the colonel, combining one of his strongest melee attacks with the surprise element from Tobirama's flying thunder god technique.
Peterson turns his head to the side slightly, allowing him to see Hashirama through the corner of his eye. 'Child's play' Peterson stretches out his hand and catches the Hokage's leg, something he was incapable of doing previously. The lightning cloak that Peterson is manipulating has put him on a whole new level is the realisation of the Senju brothers.
Tobirama weaves a series of signs in quick succession, a speed that would make any Hokage proud. Finishing the pattern causes a series of rocks to fly towards Peterson.
"These are not even worth using lightning on" the colonel mocks aloud as he throws Hashirama by his leg, launching him straight towards the incoming rocks.
The 1st Hokage uses air resistance in conjunction with creative body movements to twist in the air, avoiding all the rocks. In a more simplistic manner however, Peterson twists his body to the side, avoiding all the rocks with one conservative movement. Much to the surprise of the colonel though, the rocks explode, causing him to cover his eyes as the light and heat surrounding him increases rapidly.
"Nice one Tobirama" Hashirama shouts before giving a thumb up to his successor.
"Less talking more fighting" the 2nd Hokage responds.
'Here goes nothing then' Hashirama thinks as he completes the series of signs he failed to earlier. "Sage art, true several thousand hands" he calls as a giant with several thousand hands forms beneath him.
Not wasting any time, Hashirama uses the several thousand hands to hit Peterson repeatedly, each blow increasing the dust thrown up from the ground as Peterson is covered in a cloud of particulate dirt. This is an attack that was capable of outwitting even Uchiha Madara and the nine-tailed fox under his control, truly Hashirama's greatest weapon.
"Did we get him" Hashirama asks as he stops attacking.
His answer comes in the form of a lightning bolt, though not as powerful as the ones that have been launched previously this one comes from the centre of the dusty cloud striking the 1st Hokage on the forehead, a direct hit. As the true several thousand hands begins to crumble Hashirama's body drops forward uncontrollably as he begins to plummet from atop the enormous wood construct.
"Brother!" Tobirama shouts before teleporting directly to Hashirama. Inspecting his brother reveals several burn marks all over his body, severe burn marks that would put him out of action for at least a week. "Hey brother, can you hear me" the younger asks as he shakes the elder.
He is met only with silence though, as the gigantic wood construct continues to fall apart.
As the dust clears the silver hair of Colonel Peterson comes into Tobirama's view. He grits his teeth as he looks at the smug, scarred face of the man who is invading their world.
"What will you do now?" Peterson asks.
Tobirama doesn't know how to continue so decides to rely on his last hope. He grabs his brother by the shoulder and teleports away, to wherever Naruto is.
"He ran away using his teleportation technique" Peterson muses as the true several thousand hands continues to crumble before him.
Finally, the true several thousand hands fall apart completely, revealing a tailed beast transformation behind it. Not just any tailed beast transformation, Naruto has used a technique he first used against Sasuke to combine three nine tails together, the Asura Kurama transformation.
Peterson gasps as he sees what is in the six hands of this giant creature.
'Using this power without the six paths chakra is painful… but' Naruto thinks to himself before launching the giant ball above his head. All six arms push the black swirling attack straight towards the colonel.
"Tailed beast ball rasen shuriken!" he shouts as he throws his strongest attack towards Peterson.
As quickly as he can Peterson gathers his strongest lightning attack and fires at the tailed beast ball.
Once more the attacks collide in an enormous explosion.
As the heat washes over the valley the Asura Kurama dissipates, Naruto falling to the ground without any self-control in much the same way Hashirama did not a minute previously. Just before he hits said ground, Tobirama catches Naruto by the waste and places him gently onto his back.
"Naruto, are you alright?".
"I prepared that attack far too quickly" Naruto replies with a clearly shaken voice, "It took up all of my chakra".
Tobirama turns his head around to look at Peterson, "He's down for the count, I'm going to finish him off". The 2nd Hokage throws a kunai towards Peterson, teleporting to it and catching it just as it arrives over the man's silver maned head. He lifts his kunai, ready to kill Peterson before he is interrupted.
"I have an offer to make…" a voice comes from within the sky.
As Tobirama turns his head towards the source of the voice he soon quakes in fear. The man who spoke has a uniform marked with the number 1, a golden cloak protruding from his back. Quickly the younger Senju brother determines who this man is.
'It's a general!' he screams in his head.
The general gently drops down towards the floor, allowing Tobirama a good opportunity to memorise his appearance. The general has short chestnut hair with short sideburns to match, although his power is tangible and intimidating his appearance is of a young man not yet out of his twenties. The tall man looks down over Colonel Peterson, one of his most trusted subordinates.
"General I…".
"Your failure can be dealt with later Peterson" the general smiles as he turns to look at Tobirama. "As for you, I would talk to you, my name is General Clyde".
"Clyde…" Tobirama repeats the name.
"I am willing to make you an offer".
"An offer" Tobirama again repeats his sentence, not quite believing what is happening.
"Spare Peterson for now" Clyde nods towards Tobirama's raised kunai, "He is a subordinate of mine and his life is greatly important to me".
"In return I will not tell any of the other generals about this world".
"We will settle the fate of this world in a fare contest, one month from now, 7 matches, 7 competitors on each side".
"The first in each match to immobilise their opposition shall be the winner. This is the sort of competition we enjoy frequently back home. Never has it been offered to our enemies; you should be honoured" Clyde explains.
"If I win then that will mean your greatest warriors have been immobilised. There will be nothing to stop me from killing every man, woman and child in this world".
"And if we win?" Tobirama questions, so far unimpressed with the offer.
"Then we will leave the people of this world in peace" Clyde replies, "I will tell my fellow generals that our work here is complete".
"Like I'll believe you" Tobirama shouts in reply, almost forgetting the overwhelming power of the man before him.
"So you don't accept" Clyde asks with mock surprise.
"Damn right we will" shouts Naruto from afar. Much to the shock of Tobirama, somehow Naruto is on his feet, walking, albeit with a significant limp, towards the general from the invading forces.
"Naruto…" Tobirama mutters.
"This is the best chance we have to defend the people of this world" Naruto says as he reaches Tobirama, "But let me warn you, even though you are a general, when the contest arrives I am going to beat you".
With a smile Clyde nods to Naruto, "We will see".
After that the general grabs his colonel by the uniform and flies off with him. As he gets out of sight Tobirama turns once again to Naruto to watch him promptly collapse. One thing is for sure, he has earnt a rest. There is something you can't take away from Naruto in this moment.
Uzumaki Naruto is the first person to defeat a colonel.
Clyde and Peterson
"General Clyde" Peterson speaks to his commanding officer.
"What is it?".
"There is no way the other generals will accept this plan… if they catch wind of it".
Clyde tuts as he looks back to his subordinate, "Didn't you hear what I said Peterson, I am not going to tell them".
"We will be killed" Peterson retorts.
"Only if we lose" Clyde replies, his voice filled with confidence. In their position, it is clear to see that the forces of this world are no match for the force invading it. "That is why we have to win" he finishes.
"Sir… it's not worth the risk" the colonel argues.
"Didn't you hear what I said" Clyde calls again, sounding slightly more irritated than last time, "You are a treasured subordinate of mine, it's my duty to take care of you".
"… thank you sir".
Clyde smiles, "You better not lose Peterson, you got that?".
"Yes sir" comes the resolute response.
"Now we have to get the other 5 colonels. They have gotten lazy, they have been here for so long yet they have not yet conquered this world" Clyde laughs as he pictures the faces of his six most treasured allies, "Well now they are finally going to do their jobs".
"And what if we lose?" Peterson asks.
"If we lose?" Clyde mutters, "Well it's like you said…".
"We will die".
Author Note
Hi Everyone.
That's the end of To the Future Part 1: Hope, A Thing of the Past.
I hope you have been enjoying it so far, writing it has, as always, been a lot of fun. I'm a good way through my plan for part 2 so it shouldn't be too long before I'm back with another chapter. I have a lot of plans for this story and there is a long way to go yet, I hope you continue to enjoy it.
See you soon,
Me
PS
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Thanks for your understanding,
Me