Author Note
Hi All.
Last night was a big landmark for this story.
100,000 views.
Thanks everyone for reading. Compared to the 7,300 my other story has got, this is great.
Still, there is a long way to go yet. We are just approaching the climax of the first arc of this story. There should be at least two more.
I hope you continue to read this story, it's been great writing for you so far. I've still got a lot of areas on which I would like to improve. Hopefully, I will be successful in taking on board the constructive criticism I have had from part 3. Fingers crossed that this will show in part 4.
Thanks for reading,
Cbehrills
THE BATTLE FOR THE EARTH – IT'S YOUR WORLD TOO
Naruto and Clyde's Starting Point
Clyde takes slow but deliberate steps on his route towards Naruto. His darkness cloak gave him the feel of a king. This golden darkness cloak though, this cloak gives him the feel of an emperor, no, the feel of a god. Each step is gentle but not stealthy. All Naruto can hear is the quiet sound of dirt crunching underneath Clyde's foot, and his own shivering. Formerly, this battle had been overcrowded with noise, drowned in the sounds of enormous attacks and the sounds of tailed beasts roaring. Now it is silent.
This is the effect of Clyde's footsteps.
This is the effect of a General.
Naruto looks at his own hands, shaking and tries to tighten them into a fist. 'I have to… I have to at least try to fight back'.
This is well within Naruto's character. To not give up, to keep on fighting no matter what, these are things that define the young shinobi. There is something new here though, hesitance. It's not that he has never hesitated before, it's just the scale that it is new. He can hardly bring himself to move. That is the power that the golden darkness cloak has given the General.
Seeing Naruto's hesitation, Clyde simply smiles, not changing his approach speed one bit.
When you are such a powerful warrior who invades the homes of many, how could he not understand this look on Naruto's face. He has seen it on the faces of many, some almost as strong as Naruto. This is a first though, he has never battled a local as powerful as this before, Uzumaki Naruto clearly defies all logic. He is still human though, he still trembles in the face of his death.
Naruto puts his hand out before him, firing six truth-seeking balls towards the General, one after another.
This does little to bother Clyde. He waits patiently for the first truth-seeking ball to appear and stretches his hand out. Golden darkness energy runs to the tip of his finger before he lets it go. With a gust of air, his finger swings, contacting the first ball, changing its direction completely. Instead of towards the General, the first ball instead flies towards Naruto, knocking each and every other ball out of the way on its path.
BANG!
Having knocked all the other truth-seeking balls out of the way, the first one connects. It hits Naruto in the shoulder.
With a guttural scream, Naruto falls onto his back. He grabs hold of his shoulder in hopes of healing it, though his pain quickly disappears. As he spots Clyde approaching, all thoughts leave his existing injury and instead linger on his potential injuries for the future. He scrambles to his feet as quickly as he can.
For just a second, while getting up, Naruto's eyes drift away from Clyde.
When the shinobi gets to his feet, he is right there.
Clyde is stood face to face with Naruto.
The hidden leaf shinobi has not heard any sound to indicate an increase in speed. He did not see this sudden movement and he could not even feel it in the air until a few seconds had passed. It's unthinkable, this man is not a shinobi, Naruto could believe it had Hashirama been so swift but not Clyde. He is a monster.
It takes only a second for Naruto to create a mini-tailed beast bomb in his hand. "Take this!" he shouts as he swings the super-dense chakra ball towards Clyde's chest.
Out it stretches. Clyde's black gold clad hand. The tailed beast bomb collides against the golden darkness that coats his fingers but it does not explode. Much to Naruto's shock, it instead begins to shrink. The tailed-beast bomb shrinks further and further, until it is completely gone. Somehow, Clyde has dissipated it.
Naruto stands shocked by this development. Is this like the Rinnegan's ability to absorb chakra. Or is it more sinister than that, is this just the power which Clyde now wields. Regardless, he has but one option, to overcome that power with his own. To this end, he creates another tailed beast bomb and slams it towards Clyde.
'He just doesn't seem to get it' Clyde sighs internally. Naruto could attempt this attack a thousand times and still not defeat the overbearing enemy he is facing. The General decides to demonstrate this point. He raises his foot slightly from the ground before slamming it down as hard as he can.
As the ground, around them shakes Naruto swings the tailed beast bomb and misses. He is not greeted by the goddess of victory but instead by a kick to the sternum, a gift from his ever-generous opponent in this match. The hidden leaf shinobi is sent backwards, creating a crater in the ground behind him. This is the power the Colonels were able to generate when they were in the valley, when they hit their opponents perpendicular to the ground. This situation is different though, Naruto had flown parallel to the ground and has still done so much damage.
Naruto coughs several times, feeling the gathering of blood in his throat, he spits it onto the ground next to him, a desperate attempt to clear his airways. 'He didn't even go all out. I could tell he was holding back slightly. He's just that damn strong!'. The 7th Hokage finally gets back to his feet. In his head, he attempts to compute the possibilities from this fight, to work out a path to victory but, as of now, he cannot see any.
Clyde lifts his index finger, middle finger and thumb to the air before his face. Slowly, golden darkness energy pours off of his fingers, pooling in a point central to all three digits. The energy combines, forming the shape of a weapon. A dart.
The General mercilessly throws the dart into Naruto's leg.
"ARGHH" Naruto screams as he falls to the floor, the dart firmly lodged in his lower limb.
1…2…3…4…5…
'Pull it out Naruto' he encourages himself as he tugs at the sharp object.
6…7…
'PULL IT OUT!'. With an almighty pull, he manages to pull the dart from his leg, emitting another scream of pain as he does so.
8…
Up!
He manages to get to his feet.
The Hidden Leaf Hill
There is a sombre feeling running over the entire hill as they look on at this scene. They have come so far, it genuinely seemed as if Naruto was an even match for Clyde and now this has happened. It isn't fair to say the least. It is as if fate has been teasing them, making them believe it is possible to survive when for all this time, they have already been dead, they have been living in a fantasy.
Hinata is distraught, tears fill her eyes as she looks at her future husband. "Naruto…". She has seen him in pain before but it has never hurt this much, it is not the agony he is feeling or the emotional stakes involved. It is the fact that she cannot go to him. During Pain's invasion, she may not have been able to free Naruto but at least she had tried, that was much easier to endure than this is.
'No' Shikamaru looks at the faces of the new generation members, 'All of their life, we brought them up with stories of your greatness. We changed the definition of what it was to be a great shinobi. We removed all that we had previously written and replaced it with your name'.
Hs screws his eyes shut as he regrets the situation at hand. 'Did we, after all of this did we… did we give them false hope'.
"Minato".
The 4th Hokage turns to Hiruzen who has called his name.
"I don't know how long you will be able to survive for… minutes… days…" he begins, "If Naruto loses you have to take everyone from here and run".
"No matter what, keep holding on to that hope that you will survive".
"Hope that we will survive" Himawari snorts as the 3rd Hokage suggests this. Someone who did not see their suffering prior to his arrival, how could he be qualified to say these words. If they lost here, not only would those from the past die but so would Sarada and Boruto.
"Without my father, what hope is there against someone like that?".
Naruto and Clyde's Starting Point
With Naruto, back to his feet, one might expect the momentum of the fight to switch. Naruto's never say die attitude has deterred many opponents in his lifetime, however, this one is different. Clyde decides that if what he is doing is working, why bother changing it, once more he creates a golden darkness dart and throws it into Naruto's leg.
THUD!
Naruto hits the ground once again. He reaches down to his thigh with his hands, desperately trying, once more, to remove the dart.
In this moment, Sheer and Peterson arrive. Flying in from Grace and Hashirama's battlefield, they land either side of the Colonel, astonished by what they discover.
"Sir" Peterson starts as he beholds his superior officer, "He actually forced you to use the golden cloak?".
"No" Clyde refutes his subordinate. "Did you not feel it. That guy used his power again".
Sheer frowns, indeed, she and Peterson had felt it not long after they had fled the battlefield. That power had activated once again, the terrifying sensation that they first noticed when they came face-to-face with the hidden leaf's team. It had manifested once more.
"That man did something" Sheer notes.
"He forced my hand, that's what he did". The General stretches his hand out to Sheer, covering it in the golden powder like substance to prove his point. Naruto was strong, a man who he could have a good fight against using his elemental cloak, using the power of darkness that surpassed the standard elements used by his subordinates. This other power is different though, this other power is something that he does not dare to underestimate.
'That man' Naruto frowns at their conversation. Then the pieces begin to fall into place. He recalls Peterson's attack on Boruto. He recalls the substance that has leaked from Boruto's body previously. 'They are talking about Boruto' he realises, 'That stuff that leaks from his body, they're afraid of it'.
Something clicks in Naruto's head. Not a realisation this time but a feeling, an overwhelming surge of emotion.
"My son…".
These two words draw the looks of all three invaders.
"Like hell I am going to let you touch my son again".
"Your son?". Peterson plays the words back as if they are completely alien.
"People this young don't usually have children" Sheer notes.
Of course, she is right. Unlike the invaders, even the strongest people in this world are all mortal. They aged normally, they looked their age and even the lucky ones could do little to defy the ageing process. Naruto looks 17 years old, at a push he could be labelled as 19, either way it's very unusual for someone this age to have children. As for children in their 20s or 30s, of course this is impossible.
"I've overheard them before" Clyde mentions, "They talked about this position, the Hokage".
"What the hell do you know about the Hokage" Naruto snaps angrily, his breath leaving him and his voice cracking as he shouts at the invaders. "The Hokage is someone who takes the pain on himself, who looks after his subordinates".
"Is that not what I have done" Clyde asks, searching for some moral justification in his actions, "We have had to go through hell to protect Peterson from you".
"Stop joking around". Naruto's legs shake but through sheer willpower he manages to stay on his feet.
"You who have come to our world, who have killed our people".
"You don't know what hell is… when I was brought here from the pas…".
"When I was summoned here, everyone was suffering, you haven't had to endure anything like the same pain".
Now it's Sheer's turn to snap. "What would you know!" she shouts as she steps forward. "You don't know our pain, our suffering. You act like this is all easy for us, like we don't live a dangerous life".
"I don't care if you live a dangerous life" Naruto replies quietly, "You've made a decision to force your suffering onto those weaker than yourself. That is the difference between you and the Hokage".
Sheer cannot reply, she lowers her head in shame.
Peterson is of a similar mind, what they have done here is truly shameless. Grace said it earlier though, Sheer had too, they are family, so there is no shameless thing they won't do, no depth they won't sink to. That is their desire to protect one another.
Clyde sighs at this reaction. "You said that man was your son, you stopped just short of saying you come from the past".
"And the Hokage" he continues, "The leader of your society. Both the 1st and the 9th are roughly the same age. You were summoned from the past weren't you".
"That's why I can't afford to lose to you".
"I honestly admire you, Uzumaki Naruto. I admire you more than I have anyone in a very long time". Clyde truly speaks this compliment from the heart. A lot of the things that Naruto has said to him, that his fellow shinobi have preached, they have reminded him of the man he admired most. An old man from his past.
The General creates a ball of golden darkness in his hand, similar in shape to Naruto's rasengan. "I'm sorry it had to end like this".
Both those watching on the hidden leaf's hill and Naruto tense as they prepare for the incoming attack. This attack is the one that will end the history of the most prosperous hidden village. This is the attack that will end both ninjutsu and ninshu. This is the attack that will end shinobi.
Or at least it would be.
PA!
The golden darkness ball flies out of Clyde's hand. Landing some way in the distance, it creates an explosion that far outstrips a tailed beast bomb in terms of destruction. A truly monstrous attack that even Naruto and Sasuke have never been able to compare to previously.
He released the ball because of a kick.
From Senju Hashirama.
Peterson reaches towards Hashirama's leg, the newly arrived 1st Hokage had just cost them their moment of victory. He may have only delayed it for a second but that is only speculation itself.
Hashirama weaves a quick succession of signs. A wall of wood appears between himself and Peterson, delaying the latter's grab long enough for the former to escape, to dash to Naruto's side.
It is mere speculation that Hashirama made any difference in that moment. On the invader's hill, most people put it down to the Colonel's paranoia, after all, how could Naruto possibly compare to Clyde, even given another year. This is their opinion though. To anyone who knows Naruto, this is a sign from the heavens. The angels of fate are begging him to turn this match around. The divine beings from above are calling to him, they are beckoning to him. They are telling him to win.
"Lord 7th" Mirai shouts as she joins the two most powerful Hokage.
"Mirai, Hashirama…".
"His cloak is glowing gold" Hashirama notes dully, "What is going on?".
"His element is darkness" Naruto is quick to explain, "Generals aren't limited to just the cloak. They can use a golden cloak to make it even stronger".
"That's" Mirai starts, "There is a power even greater than that cloak".
"I'm sorry Mirai" Naruto mopes, drawing her attention. "I haven't been able to save you world".
Mirai's guard that was raised but a second ago is dropped. She walks slowly round to Naruto's front, looking at his feet for a second before staring a hole in his iris.
SLAP!
She slaps him. "Wake up!".
Naruto is taken aback by Mirai's action.
It is now his turn to receive a lecture.
"It is your world too now. There is no going back for you, you have to carve out a future here".
"This is not my world, this is our world".
Out of the corner of her eye, Mirai notices that Sheer is approaching. Broken and battered, the only one left that Sheer can fight is clearly Mirai. Hashirama and Peterson were the strongest bar Naruto and Clyde, it is only natural they will fight one another.
The Sarutobi clanswomen turns once more towards Naruto, giving him a few final words.
"Don't you dare forget your ninja way now".
"Don't you dare give up".
With that she turns, and attacks Sheer.
Hashirama steps forward, a childish grin on his face. "Well, you heard what the woman said".
"What are you saying, do you even believe in that path anymore. Do you still believe in the will of fire?".
"It doesn't matter what I believe in" Hashirama notes. "It matters what works for you".
That's right. All this time, many people had believed in Naruto's philosophy and many people had believed in Sasuke's. Did that make Sakura, who agreed with Naruto stronger than Sasuke, it did not. Did that make Danzo, who agreed with Sasuke, stronger than Naruto, it did not. It's not about what path you take, it's about how well that path works for you. That is what makes you truly strong.
"We have no time to discuss philosophy but I will put this to you" the 1st Hokage begins. "If you lose this match, your daughter will die".
Naruto's eyes widen. 'Himawari…'.
"It's not just her. My granddaughter will die. Your son. My brother. Your parents".
"I don't care if you decide to never give up. That's your decision".
"But, whether you believe that or not. You are not allowed to give up right now".
Peterson has heard enough, he turns into a lightning bolt and launches at Hashirama.
This is not effective though. With a single punch, Hashirama hits Peterson out of the sky and a good way to the side. This is not the same Hashirama who was summoned from the past. His strength, his demeanour, his attitude, they are all completely different. Regardless, for better or for worse, he seems like he won't lose anymore.
"I won't let these guys do any more harm" he says as he walks towards Peterson, "You better not let my village die".
For the first time since Clyde activated his golden cloak. Naruto tightens his fist. His hand does not shake though, this is the first time he has tightened this fist with genuine resolve. He has, through the encouragement of his friends, regained his determination. This is a feeling, a desire to win burning so deeply within him. A desire to protect his friends. This is the will of fire.
He expresses this newfound determination with four words.
"I will beat him".
"Good" Hashirama smiles as he starts to run towards his opponent.
'I told him that but I don't know how' a bead of sweat runs down Naruto's back as he looks at Clyde. His fear may be gone but that alone won't allow him to win this fight. 'Dad, Mom, Pervy Sage, Kakashi Sensei, Sakura, Sasuke… somebody… tell me…'.
'How do I beat him?'.