A Quick Hello
Hey everyone, I'm back.
I have now finished my plan for part 2 and will be uploading every weekday until its completion.
Thanks for your patience.
Please enjoy part 2 titled 'Making the Impossible Possible'.
Thanks, Me
MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE – WHAT'S IN AN ARM
The Hidden Leaf Camp
The hidden leaf camp is full of hustle and bustle as the shinobi and able-bodied villagers frantically run back and forth, reuniting separated families, organising supplies and helping the injured. It had been a quick journey to escape from the attacking colonel, everyone rushed away from the terrifying battle going on behind them, desperate to see another day.
All the people of the village had lived to see another day though, thanks to the efforts of three men, Senju Tobirama, Senju Hashirama and Uzumaki Naruto. Only one of those men could walk away though, that was the former of the trio, Tobirama. Both Naruto and Hashirama exhausted all their chakra to fight against Colonel Peterson.
After that battle a great general of the enemy arrived. That man was General Clyde, he challenged them to a contest to decide earth's fate, a contest that Uzumaki Naruto had been all too quick to accept. That lead to this dire situation and resulted in a meeting of Hokages.
Just outside the camp Hiruzen, Minato, Kakashi and Sarada stand facing one another, discussing what happened and how to proceed. The situation may be difficult but they refuse to back down, that is the way of the Hokage.
"A contest?" Kakashi questions, hearing Tobirama's story.
"7 matches he said" Tobirama nods in reply to Kakashi, "That means that we will need 7 competitors to fight in these matches".
"Sorry I'm late" Tsunade calls as she approaches purposefully. Her sleeves are rolled up and her clothes are dirty as she joins the circle of Hokage. The reason for her appearance, is her role as a medical shinobi, a role that may have just reached its pinnacle of historical importance. The two strongest Hokage, are injured.
"How are the 7th and the 1st" Sarada asks, respectful of the fact that the condition of the duo is vital to their survival, after all, it is Sarada who risked her life to bring them to the future.
"That beating my grandfather took was awful and Naruto has lost so much chakra that a recovery should be impossible" Tsunade says, her tone not one of sadness nor one of sorrow, instead frustration is laced in her voice. This frustration stemming from the fact that they would go so far just to fight one man, that they would put themselves out of commission just to buy some time.
"Should?" Hiruzen prompts.
"Their recovery abilities are incredible" Tsunade notes, "I think they will only need a week each".
Naruto and Hashirama are both shinobi famed for their recovery rates. Naruto is the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox, the tailed beast, Kurama. Access to this special chakra grants him a recovery rate that is usually reserved for fairy tales. As for Hashirama, he is a legendary healer who didn't even need to use signs, a man with near unrivalled prowess in sage mode, the master of the wood style, his recovery rate is also the stuff of legends. Perhaps throughout all of history these two are the most famed for their ability to heal their own wounds.
"One week may be too long" Tobirama shakes his head, "We only have one month to train".
"One month before what?".
"The general who showed up asked us to spare his comrade" Tobirama explains once again to his niece, "In return he offered us a contest to decide the fate of this world".
"And you accepted?" Tsunade shouts as she points at her great-uncle.
To accept an offer of a contest from the invaders is tantamount to suicide. Before Naruto nobody had ever defeated a colonel, not a single person. There have been sightings of several different colonels, enough to guarantee that everyone who entered on their side would have to be at the level of a colonel. Currently, they are far from that goal.
"I wasn't the one who accepted, that was Naruto".
A sigh comes from the masked Hokage, Hatake Kakashi who knows Naruto better than the others. "Trust my student, he always was a bit of a fool".
"Not necessarily" replies the 2nd, "The way the general phrased his offer of deceiving the 'other generals' made it sound like he is the only general who knows of our situation. If that is the case, then perhaps this is the best chance we will ever get. It's a chance for peace for this world".
"This general, what did he look like" Sarada asks.
"He was a tall man with short chestnut hair, he had sideburns to match. He didn't look a day over thirty".
"Lord 2nd… Tobirama…" Sarada begins, "You talked about what might happen IF we win this contest. That's a big if because that general, he is the man who killed the Uzumaki Naruto of this time".
The entire circle goes quiet, taking in this information. Having felt Naruto's power from a distance it is a strange thought that there could be someone stronger than him. Not only that but this man defeated both Naruto and Sasuke at the same time, such a power is inconceivable.
"Naruto has always risen to his challenges" Kakashi nods as he stares a hole in the ground at his feet, "This time will be no different".
"You're right Kakashi" Minato praises his student, "All we need to do is win".
"We also need to decide on which seven shinobi will compete in the contest" Hiruzen adds, "We have to think carefully about that".
"Yeah, it would make sense if we selected them from within the Hokage" Minato nods in agreement. Of course, his statement is perfectly sensible, the Hokage are the strongest shinobi available to the hidden leaf, it is to that end that they were brought back.
"There are 8 of us, so I will leave it to you guys" Tsunade waves her hand with a sigh.
"Lady Tsunade…" Sarada breathes out.
"I know my limitations" Tsunade continues as she raises her hand, cutting Sarada off. "I'm a medic while you have all dedicated your lives to combat. For me to compete would be narrow minded, I will focus on keeping you in prime condition until the contest".
Tobirama agrees that Tsunade's plan is sensible before declaring who the team will consist of. "That means the team will be, my brother, myself, Hiruzen, Minato, Kakashi, Naruto and Sarada".
"If I may…" Hiruzen interjects.
"Go ahead".
"I would like Mirai to compete on my behalf".
"Hiruzen…" Minato mutters.
"Is this the time Lord 3r… Hiruzen" Kakashi changes the name, recalling the agreement he made to call the other Hokage by their name and not their title. "Hiruzen, right now we have to prioritise the survival of the village".
"Mirai has a special power" Hiruzen explains, "A unique ability to manipulate her chakra, if she can control that she will be far stronger than I".
"And if she can't?" comes a question from the 2nd Hokage.
"We have to believe in her" Sarada answers on the 3rd's behalf, "If we don't believe in miracles then we won't win the tournament".
"In that case we best begin training right away" Minato concludes. "Training for a miracle".
The Land of Thunder
Seemingly in the middle of nowhere, a solitary door is hidden amongst the beautiful mountainous landscape in the land of thunder. This door only has a small structure of rock behind it, presumably a tunnel leading to underground. It truly could be said to be isolated from the world.
The only person that can be seen for miles around is a captain, patrolling the front of the door as if it is the most important job in the world, he makes larger than life militaristic gestures as he attempts to show off his importance. His importance is soon dwarfed though when two senior officers land before him.
TAP
TAP
General Clyde and Colonel Peterson land before the captain, staring at him without saying anything for a moment. The Captain quickly breaks from his stupor and salutes the duo before him.
"Go and get Colonel Sheer" Clyde orders.
"Yes sir" the Captain responds obediently, "But she may be in a bad mood, one of her key experiments failed not too long ago".
Sensing his hesitation, Peterson sends a deathly glare towards the captain, containing just a hint of his aura.
As the captain shudders, General Clyde sighs with a shaking head. "Stop it Peterson, you can't blame him for being afraid of sheer". Having said that Clyde reaches behind his back and pulls at the long golden piece of fabric attached to it. "Here take my cloak. If she sees my cloak she won't dare to attack you, no matter how frustrated she is".
"Thank you sir" the Captain bows slightly before accepting the cloak and heading in through the door.
"You are too forgiving sir" Peterson declares, "If you were a bit more merciless with your soldiers you would conquer worlds like this much faster".
"I'm just doing what the old man taught me" Clyde waves his hand.
Hearing the mention of this old man Peterson visibly slumps his shoulders before lowering his voice to a whisper. "Don't mention him, have you got a death wish?".
"Nobody can hear me nor are they going to report me Peterson, you should stop pretending that he never existed" Clyde chastises Peterson like a small child, "He always said that you should protect your troops".
Clyde smiles faintly as he pictures an old frail man, the old frail man who taught him many important lessons in life.
"You will be ruthless enough to win this contest, right?" Peterson asks.
"Don't worry, I won't show my opponent any mercy. The people of this world are not mine to look after. I will crush them all beneath my boot".
"Fine…".
Peterson shivers, rubbing his hands up and down his biceps before violently shaking his head, as if to snap himself from a trance.
"Is something wrong?".
"Sheer's experiments always freak me out" the Colonel explains, "She's a strange woman".
"Who's a strange woman" comes a voice from the other side of that door.
A second later a woman walks out from the door. She is of average height but has startling long purple hair and long fingernails to match. Her scowl can be seen through a pair of narrow framed glasses. This woman is Colonel Sheer.
"Sheer…".
"General, you just missed my finest experiment yet. It was a glorious feeling, watching it run off into the undergrowth, knowing it will crush our enemies".
"Sheer I just promised the enemy a contest. We will be fighting them in a traditional captained six challenge to decide the fate of this world".
"Hmm" Sheer strokes her chin upon hearing this, "Should I go and get the experiment back".
Clyde raises his hand up flatly before him, "No, don't bother, if they can't even get past one of your experiments then they can give on winning the captained six challenge".
"Well that's true" Sheer smiles.
"Head back to my headquarters. We will be spending a month together in preparation for the contest".
Sheer visibly shakes at the order, "Together… away from my experiments…".
"Yes, I hope you like team bonding exercises".
Sheer adopts an ugly expression before reluctantly lifting into the air and flying towards Clyde's headquarters.
"You tease her an awful lot General" Peterson notes.
"Hmphh, it's fun to watch the looks on your faces when I mention team bonding" Clyde declares as he watches Peterson's face contort yet again. He laughs in reaction to this, once again his subordinates have not disappointed him. "Come on, let's gather the others".
The Medical Area, The Hidden Leaf Camp
An area has been set aside in the hidden leaf camp for medical purposes. Here medical shinobi and civilian doctors are working together to treat the sick and the injured. Set aside currently are two special guests of the hidden leaf's medical department, Uzumaki Naruto and Senju Hashirama.
Sat with the two injured Hokage are Uzumaki Mito and Hyuuga Hinata. The two who had made their journey to the future not only alongside this injured pair but because of their achievements in the past.
"Hinata, are you worried?" Mito suddenly asks.
"Yes" the Hyuuga clanswomen answers honestly, "But they'll be fine because they are Hokage right?".
Mito smiles at Hinata's forward and optimistic thinking, "I guess so".
A third woman approaches, familiar with the work of both these Hokage. It is the retired medical shinobi and team-mate of Naruto, Uchiha Sakura. "Hey, I just came to see how the patients are doing".
"It's not good Sakura" Hinata answers.
"He lost his arm again huh" Sakura says under her breath as she looks at her injured friend, "Wait, I thought he was brought forward from just after his fight with Sasuke".
"That's right" Hinata replies, "We had only been released from the infinite tsukynomi a few hours ago".
Sakura sighs to herself as she comes to a realisation, "Sarada must have summoned him from then because she lacked accurate control over the time she summoned from. Otherwise she would have brought him forward from the fight against Kaguya".
"Naruto only had that strength for a few hours" Hinata reinforces Sakura's story, "So that would make sense".
"I suppose the same goes for Kakashi sensei" Sakura continues, "He only had Obito's power for a very short time".
"I see".
"Still, this is a bit strange" Sakura scratches her pink hair as she racks her brain to conjure up the memories of the war. "The moment you got brought forward from, didn't Naruto have only one arm".
"Yeah" Hinata stammers, confused herself about what is going on, "The last time I saw him in the past he had only one arm".
"But he just lost that arm in this fight, why had it grown back?".
Mito watches the talking shinobi with absolutely no clue as to what they are saying. It is confusing for her having not experienced that time. So, Sakura explains that Naruto lost his arm in a fight against Sasuke before being brought forward in time, yet after being brought forward he had two arms once again.
"Could it be that thing you tried with implanting the 1st Hokage's cells into his arm?" Hinata asks, recalling Sakura's attempts at treating her two teammates.
"That didn't work at the time" Sakura shakes her head.
"But it worked for all the other amputees". Hinata thinks back to the end of the war, thousands of shinobi had lost their limbs but through use of the 1st Hokage's cells they had been regrown.
"That didn't work on Naruto and Sasuke because they had so much chakra. To store it all in that arm again would be impossible. The best we could do was to create a special prosthetic". Images come into Sakura's mind of Tsunade and Shizune hard at work thinking about how to help Naruto. They wouldn't have bothered for anybody else but Naruto was after all the world's hero. "Lady Tsunade put lots of work into it and it took weeks to grow even then".
"I see".
Mito walks over from her husband's side, thinking she may have the answer to the problem. "When we were brought forward we were all completely drained of chakra".
"That's it" Sakura clicks her fingers, "Because you were so low on chakra temporarily it's possible that the 1st's cells helped Naruto's arm to regrow, just like everyone else's".
"So he is actually weaker than he was when he had a prosthetic" Mito asks.
"Yes" Sakura nods. "We made the prosthetic from Hashirama's cells because that was the best we had at the time. We didn't have anything like Naruto's cells".
Sakura smiles as her mind computes the possibilities that have opened before her, "But if we were to use Boruto's cells, there is a chance that Naruto will get back to his full strength".
"His full strength" Mito gasps, struggling to imagine how Naruto could possibly be more powerful than what she witnessed not so long ago.
"You mean the strength he…".
"Yeah" Sakura nods to Hinata, "The strength given to him by the sage of the six paths".
"The strength he used to fight Kaguya".
Sakura's medical expertise open a world of possibilities. They facilitate the possibility that Naruto may truly return to his full power.
Could this be the first step in making the impossible possible?