To the Future

by cbehrills

Uchiha Sarada is the 9th Hokage. A legendary shinobi, the first Uchiha to have become a Hokage. However, her reign is not easy, the village is under attack from a threat greater than any that have come before. When even the Five Kage cannot stop the incoming threat there is only one person who could, Uzumaki Naruto. There is but one problem, he is dead.

174. Finding Naruto

BACK TO SCHOOL – FINDING NARUTO

The Military Academy

Naruto glances around at his new surroundings. Having only had a moment to look at the last time he was up here, he notices now how large the clearing in the middle of the academy is. It's like being in a stadium, enormous. The outer walls are deep enough to teach the entire student population of the academy, with many classes, facilities for exercises and sources of accommodation. Only the aristocrats were ever meant to come this deep into the academy and use this enormous space in the centre, but never for purposes such as this.

"Come on, you in the orange, get to the front of the group, come on," Queen Nadia calls to him.

Naruto glares at Nadia, contemplating how to handle this situation. Is there realistically any way to prevent catastrophe now that the royals have found him, even with so many people behind him.

Sarada looks to him, "Lord 7th, whatever you do, you mustn't go to the-"

Light blue 'mind' energy flies towards the side of Sarada's head, using the power of her future sight, she manages to dodge it at the very last second, but doesn't manage to save the man behind her. The energy lands squarely on the side of the unfortunate colonel's head, stopping once it reaches the middle of his brain and detonating. Sarada traces the line back to it's source, it was Queen Nadia.

"Come on, come on, we haven't got all day," Nadia says, "If you don't come forward I'll just keep killing them."

Naruto reluctantly nods and takes the first step forward. It is these people he is destined to battle against one day, that he will free the world from. He just hoped that he would have much longer to train before he came face to face with them. He strolls to the front of the group, the sound of his steps on the cobbly floor the only sound as the many eyes of his allies fix on his back.

"Now, let's see it, hold out your hands and show me 'life' energy," Nadia demands, "It's been such a long time since I've seen it. You wouldn't deny your queen the pleasure would you?"

Juan steps forward to defend his student. "My Queen Nadia, there is a big mistake here, you must have the wrong person, this man can't be the one you're looking for, he's just the moral support."

King Swen shakes his head. "Nadia, I saw Carmen's memories, he is definitely the one."

"I know Swen."

Naruto keeps his hands down by his sides, his eyes fixed on the ground at his feet. If his teacher thought it was worth trying to convince them he's somebody else, he is more than willing to give it a go. He does his best impression of a man who is afraid, not too difficult in the face of such tremendous power.

"Look, if you keep disappointing me I'm going to kill your wife next."

Naruto raises his eyes to meet Nadia's. Her eyes are so dark, but not as empty as he would expect from a ruthless killer. He can see the cogs turning, he can see the calculations running infinitely within her brain, she's a tactical genius just like Shikamaru. Her threat is legitimate, Nadia has surely already seen the woman with the matching ring to Naruto's.

Naruto cups his hand and summons the translucent energy to his hand.

Queen Nadia sighs. "Oh wow, Uzumaki Naruto, it's been such a long time. What an enigma this energy is. It's good to finally meet you in person. Now, if you don't want me to kill your friends right now you will come and see Emperor Furst with me. That way your friends will at least have time to say goodbye to each other."

Naruto snickers. The queen is nothing if not blunt about her intentions. However, he has no practical means to resist them. In the face of their combined powerlessness before the royals, perhaps he should be grateful for this small mercy. Perhaps, if he can waste enough time with the royals and the emperor, a miracle can happen and they can find a way to free him.

Naruto looks around, "Should I-"

"We'll fight to the death Lord 7th!" a shinobi shouts.

"Don't give yourself up now Uzumaki" a captain joins in with the rebellion.

Within seconds the entire allied force of shinobi and homeworlders are bellowing at the tops of their voices. They collectively implore the 7th Hokage not to turn himself into the royals at any cost, citing death as their preference.

Naruto is given little choice. He looks back to Queen Nadia and King Swen, giving them a definitive straightforward answer to their question.

"I will not give myself up."

Nadia shrugs her shoulders. "Makes no difference to me, Swen bring our new friend along with us."

As Swen is about to act though, two people appear right in front of him. One with her hand on the back of the other. He analyses this other woman's features, the scarring all down her left side, it's Marti Nina, back from the grave. He then looks to Nina's left-hand, coated in golden 'lightning' energy. He looks to her right hand, coated in golden 'fire' energy. He groans, Lara has brought Nina right to him, she has clearly gained a teleportation divine ability.

Nina slaps her hands together, blasting the sparks and flames at King Swen from point blank range. But a gold and purple window appears between the king and thief, the flame shoots upwards and left, the sparks upward and right, and the king emerges from the attack completely unharmed. That is the power that made him worthy of being called a King of Homeworld.

"Nina's a bit too strong to defeat with telekinesis alone, yep," Swen admits, "But the aristocrats behind you aren't."

Suddenly, behind Naruto, a pair of aristocrats rise up from the ground, fly towards each other and their heads bang together in the middle. A twenty yard flight path with plenty of time for acceleration given the tremendous force Swen's 'psychic' energy allows him to exert. Upon this violent action getting no reaction, Swen continues to do this. In a matter of seconds, dozens of aristocrats raise from the ground and begin to smack into one another uncontrollably. As the seconds tick by so do the number of teachers who have been slain.

Naruto raises his hands, "Stop! Stop!" he pleads.

Swen stops at Naruto's request. "He's a noisy one isn't he Nadia, yep."

"Listen boy, I don't have the patience anymore, if you come with us the killing stops," Nadia says.

"Don't listen to her Naruto," Nina begs her student.

"I haven't even done anything yet and a large portion of you are already dead," Nadia offers. "You can't win against one of us, never mind against both of us. Just give yourself up Uzumaki, it will all go a lot easier that way."

"I'm not hand another student over to you," Nina declares.

Nina begins to strike at Swen as hard as she can, with the King flinching at each of the strikes. Nina is a far weaker warrior than himself, but to be struck repeatedly by someone with power such as her own still stings. Finally, the fifth strike from Nina catches Swen just right and she lands a clean and successful strike on the royals for the first time in many years.

"How annoying," Swen declares.

The 'psychic' king places his hands on Nina's shoulders and gives her a telekinesis boosted shove, pushing her and Lara back into the crowd behind them with powerful thrust. Lara quickly turns this new momentum to their advantage, teleporting to Swen's behind while preserving the momentum boost he gave them. Nina mentally thanks Lara for the repositioning as she hurtles towards Swen. She leaps a short way of the ground, flying gracefully through the air and lands a kick to the underside of King Swen's jaw, taking him off his feet and away from Queen Nadia.

"I said no!" Nina declares.

Swen flips twice in the air before returning to his feet in a controlled manor.

"Marti Nina, that really-really hurt," he childishly admits while massaging his chin, "Nadia, it would be a lot easier if we just left and got the boss."

Nadia rubs her forehead with her hand. Asking the emperor for help in this situation would be completely ridiculous and she knows it.

"Swen, just do what you need to do OK?"

Swen nods. "OK."

Behind, amongst the cluster of chakra users, users of divine energy and users of both, Clyde makes his way to the front of the group, patrolling the line back and forward as he raises his voice, ready to act as the general again for the first time since defending the pocket-world against Lara.

"Alright, everyone, hands out in front, aim for the Queen, don't you dare hold back!"

"Oh seriously General Clyde, you actually think that's going to work?"

The many shinobi and homeworlders do as Clyde orders, preparing themselves for long ranged attacks. The many allies that Naruto has accumulated work in perfect harmony. His father's 'wind' energy, his sensei's 'lightning' energy, his pupil's 'creation' energy, his adversary's 'darkness' energy. The many different elements pertaining to many different strengths all build up together side by side with a single target. This volley of elemental power is going straight at the Queen's head.

Nadia raises her right hand, placing a 'mind' barrier haphazardly in front of her.

"Fire!"

The many elements bombard Nadia simultaneously. The queen holds the barrier with a single hand for a few moments before becoming more serious. She activates her golden cloak and begins to use her full power. Clearly, the shinobi and the military have been training, together they are much stronger than her estimations lead her to believe. Still, it's not a problem, she knew this was a possibility. Using her superior strength, she uses the barrier to force all of the divine energy past her into a nearby portion of the academy's deep outer wall.

"You pack quite a punch when you all work together like that," Nadia grins, "Together you almost match up to a single royal."

In parallel to Clyde's organised simultaneous attacks, Lara and Nina keep up their tandem assault on King Swen. Nina uses the regulation battle principle to maintain her energy levels, only striking a few times at Swen each time she appears before him. Lara has no mastery of regulation and knows that she can only teleport so many times before exhaustion kicks in, so the head general focuses purely on that teleportation. Each time they reappear next to Swen, Nina attacks from another angle, Lara gets them away before the king has time to counter. This is the only chance they have of taking down a royal, slowly cutting him down to size, over hours if need be.

"Everyone, get ready to fire at Nadia again!" Clyde orders.

Juan pulls Naruto aside.

"Naruto, I'm going to send you away from here using 'space' energy. Nadia and Swen will be blinded by all the energy from Clyde's attacks and they won't notice your escape."

"I won't let you!"

"Tell me who you want to take with you and I'll send them with you," Juan offers, "but you cannot stay here. If you stay here all our hopes are over, you will die and any rebellion will die with you."

"Then I'll die here amongst allies, but if I run away now I'll never become the man to stand up to the emperor."

Juan looks back at the fight, it's hopeless. There are so few people who have ever been able to stand up to the royals. He only knows that two of them are still alive for certain and neither of them are here. He wishes he could have another drink, one last time, but right now all he has time to do is think. There must be a way to save Naruto, above all else that's his priority, save Naruto. Make the young Uzumaki the man who will take down the emperor, that is his duty as a teacher.

As Swen is hit once again by Nina, he begins to feel even more irritated. 'This is getting annoying, calm down Swen, just do what you always do in this situation. Lara is the important one here.' The King slows his breathing and uses one of the most useful abilities his 'psychic' powers grant him, he looks into the minds of others. He goes to read Lara's mind, to find out exactly where she is going to teleport to next.

Lara notices the change in Swen's demeanour and knows exactly what this means. Swen's powers may be great and his abilities near unstoppable, but she has one huge advantage over him. She is a battle hardened veteran of many conflicts. She knew that Swen was going to try reading her mind any second now, so she has to make a move that he won't be able to stop even when he knows it's coming.

Lara teleports.

Swen gasps. "Nadia."

Lara teleports Nina to Nadia's rear.

Nina kicks towards the mighty Queen as powerfully as she can.

It doesn't work.

Nina's foot breaks as she smashes it into a barrier of divine 'mind' energy. Lara is flummoxed as she looks over her teacher's shoulder at the barrier. That surely isn't possible, Queen Nadia cannot read minds. There is no way that Swen could have told her in time for the queen to react. How could she have known that the attack was coming and reacted in time?

"Foolish," Nadia says, "did you really think I wouldn't see through the strategy of a pair of dumb beasts like yourselves."

Nadia grabs Nina and Lara by the collars, connecting the three of them together with divine energy, eradicating any potential for Lara to teleport them away. She pulls the two of them a short way apart before slamming their heads powerfully into one another. She repeats the action several times until she is satisfied by the vibrations moving down the lengths of her arms, until she is certain that the two of them won't be returning to the battlefield ever again. With this done, Nadia throws them into the crowd readying themselves to attack her, taking out a collection of shinobi and military personnel.

Swen re-joins Nadia.

Clyde winces for a moment, dreading the damage to his friend's heads. But he is a general in battle, he has lost friends before. He orders the men and women behind him to assemble divine energy for yet another ranged attack.

"This is like catching a mosquito," Swen moans.

Nadia laughs. "I know what you mean. Juan is going to try to send Naruto away, best take him out."

Swen creates a spear from his golden 'psychic' energy and throws it into the crowd before him. He skilfully uses telekinesis to push all of the bystanders of no interest out of the way, leaving the projectile a clear path to it's target. Swen knew that when he encountered Juan heading to the military academy, he would end up having to kill the fallen aristocrat, it seems that time has finally come.

The spear connects with Juan, piercing his chest lethally. First Nina, then Lara, now Juan. Three of the strongest homeworlders have all fallen before the royals, and for them it is little more than an exercise.

"Fire!" Clyde orders once again.

The many elements fly towards Queen Nadia and King Swen. This time without Juan to add to it's power, this time with both royals defending against it. It's even less effective than before, with each royal effortlessly evading harm at the hands of their many enemies.

"General Clyde," Nadia snarls, "Please tell me you're not going to be trying that again!"

Suddenly, a man surrounded by orange chakra slams down from above, landing just a meter in front of the two royals. 'Life' energy cladding each hand, energy seeping towards him from very surroundings, he leads the charge and takes the fight straight to the royals on his own.

Naruto stands right before Nadia and Swen as their enemy.

"Wow, he noticed both of our blind spots and came in from above," Swen notes, "He must be using the one true sense, yep."

"Impressive indeed," Nadia concurs, "He's got a royal level potential, but unfortunately he's not ready to stand opposite from us yet."

Naruto holds his arm back past his shoulder, giving him the longest possible path to drive his attack forward into Nadia's chest. A round ball of divine energy and chakra begins to gather on his hand, familiar to those who know it as the rasengan. This is not any ordinary rasengan though, this is Naruto's strongest attack, the life-gathering rasengan. 'Life' energy begins to pour towards him from the surroundings, from grassy moorland that surrounds the academy, from the people within it, even from Nadia and Swen.

"Alright then, try to get through this barrier," Nadia says.

The queen creates a tiny little barrier in front of her, a square about the same size as the rasengan. This square holds a relatively tiny amount of divine energy by the standards of Nadia, but it is still energy of the highest quality, golden 'mind' energy. She decides this is the perfect opportunity to make Naruto realise how hopeless the situation is.

Naruto slams the life-gathering rasengan into the barrier with his ever familiar battle cry.

To Nadia's surprise, he breaks through it.

As the life-gathering rasengan edges closer towards Nadia, she puts her hand out, mobilising much more divine energy than before and places her hand on the other side of the rasengan. Swen is surprised by the change in her appearance. She may have dismissed it before, but now she is taking this attack much more seriously.

Sadly for Naruto, Queen Nadia does manage to stop his attack.

"It looks like we underestimated your potential," she admits, "But a low class warrior like you really isn't going to beat us, no matter how clever your strategies."

Nadia grabs Naruto by the collar and lands an elbow to his chest, incapacitating him for a moment. "Well, thank you for your cooperation General Clyde, we'll be off now."

Clyde growls.

"We're not finished with you."

"Oh?"

Clyde creates a golden 'darkness' sword in his hand, an action followed by the many shinobi and homeworlders with the power to do so. The army is ready with swords, shields and spears in less than five seconds.

Nadia laughs. "You can't be serious."

If by working together they couldn't even break through the barriers presented by Nadia and Swen, naturally they aren't going to be able to defeat them as individuals with swords and shields. Nadia knew as soon as she saw Clyde do it though that they were all serious, she knew what was coming, and exactly how it would end. This is the dying moments of their cause, this is exactly how they should act.

"Charge!"

Following Clyde's lead, the shinobi of Naruto's pocket-world and the military of homeworld charge at Nadia and Swen, absolutely determined that they will retrieve their greatest hope, no matter the cost.

Nadia groans yet again. "Wait for me over there Uzumaki," she says while throwing him towards the outer walls of the academy.

Naruto takes a deep breath, calming himself as he is launched uncontrollably through the air. He always finds a way to do damage in these situations, whether it was to Nagato, Madara, Kaguya, Sasuke or Clyde, there is always a way, he just needs to find it. He thinks to Nina's example from previously, drawing from her and Lara for inspiration. He takes oxygen into his lungs as possible, and creates a pair of tailed beast bombs, enhancing them with 'life' energy.

"Dad!" he screams at the top of his voice.

Minato appears, wrapping his hand around Naruto's shoulder and teleporting to a kunai he through just a moment ago. The two of them appear in a flash of gold between Nadia and Swen, with the son throwing the tailed beast bombs towards the royals as hard as he can. To his shame though, it doesn't work, Nadia and Swen see through it and block the attacks with relative ease.

'Oh Uzumaki, you're very stupid,' Nadia concludes, 'You can't use a surprise attack like that on two people who can foresee your every thought.'

As Nadia grabs towards Minato, identifying him correctly as Naruto's relative and the teleporter amongst the duo, the 4th Hokage teleports the two of them to a safe location beside Himawari, a short distance away from the royals.

Naruto drags his father out of the crowd to speak to him. He asks him "where are Juan and Nina, why aren't they leading the attack?"

"They're both down for the count."

"Well get them here now and let's get them back in the fight."

At the front of the crowd, Sarada grabs Tobirama and the two of them lead the charge. As it always was, the battles of their pocket-world are spearheaded by the Senju and the Uchiha. Using the power of Sarada's rinnegan and the nine-tailed power left to Tobirama by his sister-in-law, they manifest a giant incarnation of Kurama, armoured by a Susano. They strike down towards Nadia and Swen in hope that the sheer mass of their attack will be enough to overcome their opponents. Naturally, it isn't. Swen was able to defeat pairs of aristocrats using telekinesis and stopping the blade of the Susano proves to be no more difficult.

Nadia claps her hands together, sending ripples through the air. The ripples are followed closely by the gold and light blue 'mind' energy that emanates from her skin, destroying the Susano on contact, leaving both Tobirama and Sarada to fall to the ground and join the conventional attack against their two enemies.

Clyde arrives first, punching Nadia three times without reply. Regrettably, this is for lack of trying on the queen's part. When she finally does reply, it's with a single powerful slap to Clyde's chest, a slap that she calculates should be just powerful enough to defeat him. Even with such a mighty attack, she needs not exercise the battle principle of regulation, as it drains so little of her energy that she can keep going indefinitely by default. It is only thanks to Clyde's own mastery of the concentrated defence battle principle that he is able to save himself.

Nearby, Minato puts Juan, Nina and Lara unceremoniously in a pile in front of his son. Naruto brings 'life' to each hand and projects a smile field over the trio as their wounds begin to ease and oxygen ones more populates their lungs. For anyone else bringing them back after seeing them sustain such wounds would be impossible, only a 'life' user could do it.

"For god's sake run Naruto," Nina begs, "Run away, it doesn't matter what happens to the rest of us if you die. You have to run away, otherwise this will keep happening for the rest of history."

"I will go if you two get back in the fight and stand up to the two of them."

"We can't win."

"Then resist! That's an order from the 7th Hokage."

Juan murmurs something to himself. "There may be a way."

As Juan's plan begins to formulate, Mirai is the next to attack Nadia, detonating a fiery concentrated attack into the side of her head from point blank range. The queen emerges from the explosion with her face charred, her hair frazzled and looks angrily at Mirai. She informs the leader of the hidden leaf's military that her attack "really hurt you know," and grabs her by the collar, launching a fist towards her head.

There is no way that Mirai should survive this strike, but Nadia finds herself captured by a collection of shadows, her movement hindered by them as if Swen were using telekinesis. Unknown to her, this is the power of the Nara clan, currently on the command of Shikamaru. Nevertheless, this alone isn't enough to stop Nadia whose strike continues towards Mirai faster than the Sarutobi can react. Next Tsunade grabs onto Nadia's arm from behind, pulling back on it as hard as she can to finally bring the 'mind' user to a halt.

After the tremendous combined force has been applied to stop Nadia's counterattack, Mirai opts to attack once more. This time she grabs Nadia by her white turtleneck sweater and headbutts her as hard as she can. Mirai reels following the impact and Tsunade realises that the impact hurt Mirai a lot more than it did Nadia.

Nadia shakes her head, shakes her arm free of Mirai before pushing the Sarutobi clanswomen into the crowd. Next it Hinata's turn to attack. The 'water' user attempts to punch the queen who oppresses this land, but naturally her haphazard attack is caught.

However, Nadia pauses, she flinches. 'This power feels familiar… what is going on… who is this woman, she's Uzumaki's wife isn't she?'

Hinata uses Nadia's destruction to her advantage, attacking with her weaker hand yet landing a clean blow to Nadia's head. Nadia drops her, falling to her knees. Hinata quickly thrusts her own knee upwards into the bridge of Nadia's falling nose. To the astonishment of those who would follow her into battle, Hinata seems to be getting the upper hand.

Swen picks Hinata up using telekinesis and throws her back into the crowd.

"She was only weak, yep, what's wrong with you Nadia?"

Nadia gathers 'mind' energy on her hand and flicks it into the attacking shinobi, giving her a brief reprieve the stream of the more seasoned and tactically minded warriors amongst the shinobi.

"What was that sensation?" Nadia wonders briefly before telling Swen, "Don't worry about me, just keep killing them."

Swen rolls his eyes. It's unlike Nadia to get distracted over such a trivial matter. It's even more unlike Nadia to be stumped, but she was when confronted by Naruto's wife. He takes a quick look into the mind of Hinata to see if he can find anything ominous, any secret that may be eluding Nadia, but he finds nothing. She is a powerful 'water' user, but as far as he can tell she is nothing special, so what has gotten to Nadia.

"Everyone get back!" a voice calls into the crowd.

The shinobi and the military of homeworld all leap back from the danger zone, leaving only a single simply dressed man in the space they once occupied. A lime green energy surrounding his body. Once again Nadia flinches, there was something familiar about this young man's voice.

The young man left in the middle is Ming Dai, Naruto's sibling student, the other direct student to the academy's headmaster. He dashes towards Swen, unleashing a powerful strike towards him. When King Swen catches this strike the very ground shakes and cracks beneath their feet, but it seems to do little to bother the 'psychic' user. That is physically, mentally there is a change, as Swen struggles to fight back.

"Now look who's hesitating," Nadia smirks, "Sure it was a big punch, but why are you so worried?"

"This power is familiar," Swen says.

"Yes Swen, he's a 'strength' user, you've heard of them before."

"No, it's different," Swen growls impatiently.

Nadia is surprised yet again, that's out of character for her fellow royal. Swen looks into the mind of Ming Dai, searching the memories he can find to try and understand why he is hesitating before him.

"This young man feels such rage, not like the others, pure rage," Swen says, "It's not directed at you Nadia, it's just rage for me. This young man hates me, totally and utterly. What have I done to offend you, young man?"

Something clicks in Nadia's head. "Oh, I see it now. Oh, Swen, what have you been up to?"

"It's your fault," Ming Dai growls, "It's your fault that she's dead."

Using his 'strength' power to it's utmost limit, Dai manages to force his hand free of Swen's grip and drives it squarely into his jaw. There is a crack on the connection, the most serious damage that any of them have dealt to one of the royals in the whole battle. Swen falls onto his back, completely ignorant to his own injuries as he continues to delve into the depths of this man's mind.

"Great job Dai!".

"Get him."

Yells of encouragement come from behind, but only a few people have the senses to direct Ming Dai's pure anger. Swen, Nadia, Sarada, Naruto and a few others.

"It's your fault that my mother's dead!" Dai shouts as he runs over to the fallen Swen and aims another strike down into the centre of his chest, determined that he will get him no matter what.

Nadia catches Dai by the arm, but dares not to strike him, having realised what is going on. The sound of Dai's voice, it was a dead giveaway, but now that she looks closely at him it becomes even more obvious.

"Swen, have you worked it out yet?" Nadia asks, "Have you worked out who he is?"

"Yeah. He's my son."

As King Hoffman Swen's family drama unfolds before the allied forces, at the rear this presents an opportunity in the mind of those in Naruto's pile. The damage to the brains of Nina and Lara, the struggling of Juan's heart to keep beating, these all ease as therapeutic 'life' energy pours over them. Juan implores Naruto to keep going, saying that Dai's drama will give them much needed time in order to see his plan through. Juan coldly insists that the greater Dai's emotional agony the better off they will be. Time is all he needs for his plan to come to fruition, then they can still get out of this yet.

The intention is no longer to run away.

The intention is victory.