WAR NEVER ENDS – THE BETRAYER
The Uzumaki Residence
The immediate family has gathered to reflect on the missing duo. Following Naruto's outburst in the Circle, Minato found Kushina and told her what happened. Himawari was the next to find out. The three of them went to the home shared by Naruto and Hinata to wait for them, to see what was happening, but now they are nowhere to be seen.
They all feel guilty for not seeing the frustration building within Naruto. Himawari has known Naruto her entire life but didn't see it. Minato and Kushina, despite having missed his childhood, are still Naruto's parents. They have each known him for three years. In these three years they have watched him endure a terrifying battle for survival, grow from a teenager to an adult, get engaged to his wife and become the Hokage he was always meant to be.
"Where do you think he has gone" Himawari asks, her eyes shifting frequently between the door and the window.
"I don't know" Minato replies. "I sensed him leaving with Hinata but they left the range at which I could sense them".
Kushina raises her hand to her forehead, massaging her cranium. "So, we don't know where they are?".
"Yeah. Given the speed that Naruto moves at the two of them could be anywhere by now".
Minato is the king of speed, amongst those in the hidden leaf he is indisputably the fastest. It was formerly because of his space-time techniques but it has become more than that. As a shinobi, his true talent is moving faster than anybody else, fighting at speeds that others can't follow. The like of Naruto and Sarada are monsters of pure power, that is not his way of fighting.
"What if something bad has happened?" Himawari looks to her grandmother, panic clear on her face. "What if he is hurt?".
Minato shakes his head with a gentle smile, allaying her fears instead. "Don't worry, nothing will happen to Naruto. He is far too strong for anything to have happened to him".
"But you said before that you felt a really strong power, stronger than anything you have ever felt before".
"Himawari, don't worry, Naruto is strong, understand?".
Biting her lip, Naruto's daughter reluctantly nods. "You're right, there is no away he would lose when mom is there with him".
Minato's smile is part of his mask, it disguises his true feelings. He too felt the presence of a truly threatening foe in this world. He didn't know it but what he was sensing was Lara. Anyone using the invaders' power would have been able to feel it. The captains, the Kage who have understood the elements, the oddities like Shikadai and Mirai, they all felt it. In one moment Lara had put the entire world on notice.
Suddenly the door creaks open. All the eyes in the room dart towards it and Kushina and Himawari join Minato in standing. Out from behind the door pokes the head of Uchiha Sarada. The light reflecting off her glasses does little to disguise her downcast attitude as she introduces herself with a pathetic "um".
"Hello Sarada" Kushina sighs as she sits down. She had been hoping it would be Naruto.
"I uh… I wanted to apologise for what I said before, for how I made your son – your father feel" she says, stammering as she looks between Himawari and her grandparents. "I regret what I said and I want to make it clear that he is not in this alone".
Himawari sighs. Sarada let the circumstances get to her and became aggressive, it was uncalled for but not unexpected. However, she didn't hold sole responsibility for the issue, they all played their part.
"Don't worry about it Sarada" she says, "My father would never hold a grudge against his favourite student, no matter what she did".
"Himawari is right" Minato says, "You will always be welcome in this household. Naruto wouldn't have it any other way and nor would the rest of us".
Sarada nods, emotionally thanking the group that were supposed to become her family.
Minato knows that Sarada is thinking emotionally right now but he is thinking logically. He is willing to forgive Sarada but would have said as much even if he weren't. Right now, Sarada is the most important shinobi in the village, someone who can inspire people in the same way that Naruto can. As well as that Sarada is perhaps the village's mightiest warrior now that Naruto is gone and Hashirama is dead. Putting her at ease is the only thing he can do.
"What are you going to do now?" Kushina asks.
"I need to speak to him; do you know where he has gone?".
"He left my sensory range a while ago" Minato explains. They are no longer in a position where he can teleport to them. "He left with Hinata and I don't know where either of them are now".
Sarada's eyes light up, in a way that is promising for all of them. "His clones, his clones are still surrounding the village, protecting us. I will go and speak to one of them, I will find out where he has gone".
Naruto has begun to use his clones as part of an information sharing network, leaving enough chakra so that he can create one or two more. Whenever any clone receives any vital information it creates another clone before dissipating, sending the information back to the original body. This way emergencies can be reported to him from anywhere in the village.
"Sarada" Himawari calls as the Uchiha begins to leave. "Boruto has already been taken from us… please… please don't let my…".
"Don't worry" Sarada interrupts.
Himawari is surprised when she looks at the Hokage. The smile is back on her face, the smile that can assure anyone in the village. A smile that tells her 'everything will be alright.
Sarada continues, "I won't let anyone else be taken from this family".
Finally, she leaves.
"That's the 9th Hokage for you" Minato smiles. It seems he had nothing to worry about.
"No, that's Uchiha Sarada for you".
As Naruto's disciple leaves and runs towards his clones, his daughter is left completely confident that he will be returned without a scratch. It's not because they are the legendary 7th and 9th Hokage, it is because they are her family.
Clyde's Headquarters
Naruto can feel the tension in the tent. Although for now everyone is getting along and at least maintaining a façade of being friends, Clyde's group seem to be unhappy. Peterson and Grace look slightly different from the others, maintaining a degree of silence like it is an obligation. However, Sheer, Burns, Sisto, the others are all visibly saddened. It's clear that this story of their failed world is tragic to them.
Hinata examines the colonels one by one. She cannot see any malice in their eyes, she can only see sorrow and in some cases a twinge of guilt. None of them appear evil be nature to her, despite what they did in the past. She concludes that this story of their once promising leader and the dissipation of their peace will likely explain why they are hear doing what they are doing. It seems that these people wouldn't be doing what they were doing thoughtlessly. Something terrible must happened to them.
"Why didn't the peace last, what happened?" Naruto asks.
Clyde takes a heavy breath, despite his vast array of experiences and many years passing since this story, it still hurts him.
"Our world has a history of conflict, just like I'm sure yours did before we arrived" he explains, leaning forward slightly as he speaks in a calm, reminiscing tone. "It was full of deceit, backstabbing and treachery. It took many years for us to finally achieve peace but we did. We unified as one people".
"Thanks to Endou Akashi?".
The general nods, "Thanks to Endou Akashi".
Once more the similarities between the two world's stories strike Hinata. Naruto and this man Endou Akashi seem to have a lot in common. They both saved their world from terrifying epidemics of deceit and treachery. They both went on to become powerful leader. They were both respected by the people of their countries and all those who worked with them. She considers that perhaps they are linked by fate.
"The old man, Emperor Endou, he was always cautious about the old times returning. He was always working hard to preserve the peace. After all, it was because of him that we achieved so much". Clyde can remember the days of that reign, he was relatively young back then, an up and comer in the academy, so much better than the situation is now.
"One day, the emperor heard a story. Many people claimed it was nonsense but he believed it. He was always a bit naïve like that. You know, the good kind of naïve, the type you want to preserve" the general can't help but go off topic, that man was so important to him. "Anyway, he believed this story about a fortune teller".
"A fortune teller?" Hinata repeats incredulously, "You mean someone who can predict the future".
"Yeah" Sheer nods to the young woman. "Supposedly, every one of her predictions came true. The rumour spread all through our world. That sort of thing never happens by coincidence".
"The emperor went to see this fortune teller. He took two people with him. One of them was his scientific adviser, who guided the empire's technology and inspired people like Sheer to become scientists. The other was the leader of the academy, a man who guided the education of everyone here". Clyde continues his story with a soft tone. "Apparently, he asked her what would become of us, of the empire. He asked her if it would survive and if the peace would last".
Naruto nods his head slowly, unfortunately already knowing the answer to that question.
Sheer continues the story, "The fortune teller couldn't see the future of an organisation though, she could only see the future of individuals. Such as the three before her. Emperor Endou was disappointed but asked her to go ahead. He asked her to look into the future. This is where the story becomes scary".
Clyde leans forward. "That fortune teller did as she always did, calmly going through the motions to take a reading. She looked at three before her and screamed a scream that pierced their souls".
"She screamed, why?".
"Because she was afraid of what she saw. She was the emperor and wasn't slightly intimidated by his overwhelming power but she was scared of the future that she saw".
"Then, what did she see that was so intimidating?".
"She saw a terrifying raw power that the world had never seen before" Clyde explains, his eyes flickering downward, "She was the coming of a god".
"A god?".
Naruto and Hinata are stunned, looking to one another in confusion. Just what is that supposed to mean, the coming of a god. To them several people had been described as gods, perhaps the most realistically of all, Otsutsuki Kaguya and her children. If the two entities are alike, that means that someone has arisen like Kaguya in their world. Someone who could only be stopped by the hands of destiny, or by a million coincidences occurring simultaneously.
"We don't know what she saw in any great detail" Clyde admits, shrugging his shoulders with a sigh. "She was killed shortly afterwards, presumably to keep her quiet but what that woman saw has become closer and closer to reality. She foresaw a traitor in our midst".
"Someone betrayed your emperor?".
A universal nod, shared by all but the shinobi duo.
"Yes".
Hinata is quick to make the obvious deductions. The circumstances surrounding this make it easy to determine what has happened. Only three people could be that foreseen god. Emperor Endou himself, although that would be impossible now that he has been betrayed. The science advisor, who guided the empire's technology, he was one of the two realistic prospects. Lastly, the leader of the academy, responsible for the education of an entire army of elite warriors. It would be one of those last two, the traitor, and presumably the foreseen god.
"Who was the traitor?" she asks curiously.
"It was the science advisor, Furst Jonas is his name" Clyde's brow wrinkles as he speaks the name and the light in his eyes changes. It wouldn't take a master psychologist to translate his body language. "As for why he did this, it became rather obvious as time went on. His intention was to fulfil the prophecy and to become the foretold god".
"Is he the foretold god?".
"He is the man who betrayed Emperor Endou, so, yes".
"He is the foretold god".
Naruto leans back in his chair, far from relaxed. He puffs out his cheeks and lazily lets his arms flop to the floor, raising his eyes to look at the tent's ceiling. It seems that it is his destiny to repeat this loop of fighting against overwhelmingly powerful oppressors. Orochimaru, Pain, Obito, Madara, Kaguya, Clyde, Lara, now this man has appeared too. He knows just from hearing the name that it is their destiny to clash – that if there is an end to this saga, it will be settled with Furst Jonas. Then he can only pray that nothing like this ever happens again.
"What exactly happened to Emperor Endou" he asks, his eyes still fixed to the roof above him.
"I was young and naïve at the time but I admired Furst. He was a fantastic scientist, a true genius, a master of his craft" Sheer says, her admiration getting the better of her for a moment. "He spared no effort and put all his time into pushing himself to greater heights".
Clyde shakes his head, cracking a brief smile. As a scientist, even now Sheer struggles to separate that childish admiration from her true feelings on the traitor. He continues the story.
"Furst Jonas found a way of accumulating power for the empire. He told the old man that it was to defend them against the foretold god".
Sheer shuffles her chair forward, eager to explain the science. "He found a way, manipulating masses of our energy, to create pocket worlds. These worlds were smaller than our own and were stored in a different dimension. We would use these picket worlds to accumulate power".
Hinata begins to put the pieces together, she knows that Naruto is likely yet to do the same. He will need it spelling out for him. The connotation is shocking, enough to make her question her own purpose in life.
"How was power accumulated" Naruto asks, a single hand open to his side, "How did these pocket worlds gather power. Surely it couldn't have come from nowhere".
As Hinata suspects, Clyde's next words force a change to come to Naruto's face. Perhaps it is the greatest shock this conversation would bring to him, shattering everything they had believed they knew about their existence.
"Each world was given a kick-starter. Now, the kick-starter for us was a small amount of power, insignificant. However, that power was designed to snowball, so that over the years it would build into something much greater".
Naruto nods, listening eagerly to the explanation. He also begins to make the inevitable comparison.
"Each world was given… they were given a tree Naruto. Upon that tree would grow a single fruit. Whoever we would… allow to eat that fruit, they would unlock a great power within them. Eventually, one group found a way to travel between dimensions and monopolise the fruit".
Naruto understands just as much as Hinata now. The tree. The fruit. The clan that monopolises them by jumping dimensions.
"From then on, the descendants of whoever ate that fruit would also be blessed with this power. As the population exploded, so would the amount of power that could be harvested".
"What you're describing" Naruto stammers, "It's the birth of chakra".
'The tree, it's the God Tree. The fruit, it's the chakra fruit that Kaguya ate. The clan with the monopoly, it was the Otsutsuki'.
"Furst Jonas created the chakra trees and the pocket worlds. Every thousand years a fruit would bloom on the tree, one person would eat it and the cycle would begin".
"But that means…".
Clyde lowers his head, reluctant to deliver this shock to his new allies.
"You were born into a pocket world".
"You are descendants of that clan with the monopoly on chakra".
"You are the descendants of the artificial humans created by Furst Jonas".
"And your home isn't here naturally…".
"… we built it for you".
This is the moment that the Earth finally understands.
It is a fake.
Author Note:
Hi Everyone.
I am aware that the end of this chapter may be unpopular with some people. However, the deviation from the canon material is very minor, to the point where I'm unsure if it is actually a deviation at all.
I hope everyone can understand and appreciate that I feel this ending was necessary to advance the story as I have been planning this reveal for a very long time.
Anyway, sorry for trying to force my excuses upon you.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and will enjoy the rest of the story.
Thanks,
Cbehrills