"Naruto!" Naruto hears Sasuke calling his name.
He opens his eyes and sees only white. Naruto sits up and looks around. He is sitting in a pure white void. Not far off, he sees Sasuke trying to drag herself towards him.
"Sasuke!" Naruto leaps to his feet and runs over to his team mate. "Where are we?"
"You mean this isn't the after life?" asks Sasuke, irritably.
"I don't think so," says Naruto. "I don't think you'd be in pain if it was. I can't feel Kurama, though...So maybe we are dead…"
"My Dad will be pissed if we are dead," says Sasuke.
"So will mine," says Naruto. "And Grandma…" Then Naruto realizes something. "AHHH WHAT WILL GRANDMA AND GRANDPA THINK OF ME BLACKMAILING THE SHINIGAMI?! THEY TOLD ME THAT BLACKMAIL IS WRONG, DATTEBAYO!"
"I think they'll be too busy hugging your parents to care," says Sasuke, rolling her eyes.
Naruto turns an anguished look upon Sasuke. "Have you met my Grandparents?" he asks.
Sasuke's face goes from amused to concerned. "Oh."
"I'm going to be in so much trouble whether I'm dead or not, 'tebayo!" frets Naruto.
"What maketh thee think thou art dead?" says an old man's voice.
Naruto and Sasuke turn to see an ancient man floating cross legged over nine black orbs. He is wearing a long white robe decorated with tomoe. Strange horns poke out of his hair, and a there is a circle that resembles a red rinnegan in the centre of his forehead. A black staff floats beside him. There is a C at one end of the staff and a large ring with six smaller rings looped around it on the other end.
Naruto notices his eyes. "Hey! You have rinnegan like Sasuke's dad and Nagato!"
"Thou dost possess observant eyes," the old man says. "Thou hast not yet died, but at this moment, rushing will accomplish naught."
Naruto frowns. "I think this guy's gone in the head," he whispers to Sasuke. "No one's talked like that in a million years, 'tebayo."
Sasuke nods slightly in agreement.
Naruto turns to the old man, who is watching them with interest. "Can't you use normal words?" he demands.
"Each instance where I cross time and meet an incarnate," says the old man, making his words a little bit simpler. "I have come to sense greatly the differences between the other and myself."
Still barely able to understand what the old guy is saying, Naruto feels his eyebrow start twitching. "OH SHUT UP!" Naruto yells, forgetting his manners. "I don't have time to sit around listening to some old fart! We have to get back to killing Black Zetsu!"
"I see that I must speak simply, taking into account the current-"
"More simply than that," interrupts Sasuke, glaring daggers at the old man. "No one's talked like that for so long even the undead First Hokage doesn't."
"To think this conversation would pose such a challenge," sighs the old man. "Hows about if I talk like-a this?"
"No," says Naruto, trying not to laugh at the old man's attempt at sounding young. "That makes you sound stupid, 'tebayo."
"Ah, how is this, then?" says the old man, finally sounding like a normal old man.
"That's good," says Naruto, and Sasuke nods her agreement.
"Good," says the old man.
"Oh, sorry!" apologises Naruto, remembering his manners. "I am Naruto Uzumaki, and this is Sasuke Uchiha. It's nice to meet you." Naruto does little bow just like his grandma taught him.
"Hi," says Sasuke, hiding behind Naruto.
"It is a pleasure to meet you," says the old man. "I am Hagoromo, the founder of the ninja creed. I am also known as the Sage of Six Paths."
"OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!" Naruto grins widely and runs up to the old man. He grabs the old man's hand and starts shaking it enthusiastically. "You're Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuuki and Kurama's Dad! I'm the reincarnation of your son Ashura, and Sasuke over there is Indra, but she doesn't like that cause he was some smelly old man according to her-"
"Naruto, shut up!" hisses Sasuke, dragging him away from the Sage of Six Paths.
"But he's the guy who invented ninshuu like what the bijuu guards use!" protests Naruto. "And he was our Dad a long time ago! THIS IS SO COOL, DATTEBAYO!"
"Please calm down," says the Sage of Six Paths, holding up a hand. "How do you know all of these things? I thought knowledge of my deeds faded away into myth."
"Pfft, we read a scroll all about Indra and Ashura and accidentally passed the tests to find out if we are their reincarnations," says Naruto, waving away the question nonchalantly (he learned that word from Neji).
"How does that work, anyway?" asks Sasuke shyly. "Hashirama Senji was Ashura before Naruto, but he's been reanimated. How can two reincarnations of the same person exist at once?"
"It is their chakra and their will to finish their fight that lives on, not their actual souls," explains the Sage of Six Paths, crossing his arms. "Until the conflict is resolved and my two sons are reconciled, their wills will continue to transfer to two boys destined for either great friendship or great animosity."
"Animosity…?" Naruto cocks his head to one side and screws up his face in confusion.
"Hatred towards each other," explains the Sage of Six Paths. Then he turns his attention to Sasuke. "You have felt Indra's presence, haven't you?"
"Yes," says Sasuke. "Every time Naruto tried to make friends I felt someone telling me to fight him, to hate him...but I can't hate him. I want to fight him to see who is stronger, but I can't hate him."
"Aw, Sasuke," says Naruto, feeling self conscious. "I can't hate you either." Then Naruto hits on an idea. "Let's train until after we both turn 18, then we'll meet somewhere with lots of space - like the Valley of End - and fight to see who's stronger."
"That sounds like a plan," says Sasuke, nodding once, firmly.
"Please stop changing the subject," says the Sage of Six Paths. "I have important things to tell you before the medics finish reviving you."
"Oh, sorry," apologises Naruto, and turns his attention back to the Sage of Six Paths.
"The last generation of incarnations were, as you know, Madara and Hashirama," says the old Sage. "Madara was so obsessed with power that he stole some of Hashirama's, which awakened chakra inside him that is similar to my own. Joining the power of my two sons awakened the rinnegan, which he later gave to Nagato."
"Oh," nods Naruto. "So how come Mr. Nice Hokage has rinnegan, if that's how you awaken it?"
"Ah, well," the Sage considers the question. "Perhaps he was able to awaken the rinnegan because his mother was from the Senju clan, meaning he came from both the bloodlines of both my sons."
Naruto thinks about this carefully. Finally he says, "Then by that logic, wouldn't Nagato have been able to awaken rinnegan own his own, since he's descended from Indra and Ashura as well? And wouldn't anyone descended from both be able to?"
"In theory, yes," confirms the Old Sage. "But in reality, no. Everyone descended from both my sons has a slim chance of being able to awaken the rinnegan, however, Only a few actually possess that potential in full. Nagato's original eyes possessed the potential to unlock the rinnegan. That is why he was able to inherit Madara's eyes after his own were ruined by a childhood disease. Without the natural ability inside him to awaken and control the rinnegan, Nagato would never have been able to control Madara's eyes, which are much weaker than Nagato's would have been. But we digress…"
"Digress? What does that mean?"
"It means to stray off topic," explains the Old Sage. "The reason I am here is to warn you that Black Zetsu's plan is to revive my mother, Kaguya. If Kaguya is revived it will mean the end of life as you know it. The fragile ceasefire between nations; the closest mankind has come to peace: it will all vanish. The wars this world has known will look like peacetime in comparison to the chaos my mother will cause. My mother possess the byakugan and the sharingan: with the combined might of both eyes she will cast a jutsu on the world that will gather all the chakra together and create a fruit. If this happens, the world will end. We cannot allow this to happen. You must defeat Zetsu before he can revive her."
"Okay, how should we do that?" asks Sasuke. "The first plan failed."
"Your first plan worked fine," says the Old Sage, smiling. "I am sure you two can pull it off again. After all, the two of you are different from any incarnation that has come before. Sasuke, you are the first girl. Naruto, you are an idiot, but that unpredictability might save us all. But perhaps I am the idiot. I created an unnecessary conflict by entrusting my legacy to just one of my sons. The time has come for me to make it right. Hold out your dominant hands."
Naruto holds out his right hand.
Sasuke unties her sling and awkwardly holds out her left hand.
"That will never do," says the Sage of Six Paths, and touches her arm with one end of his staff. The bandages fall off and Sasuke's arm straightens out, completely healed. "What you two do from now on is up to you. Continue your fight or make friends, create peace or war: it is all up to you." The Old Sage Holds up both hands.
Sasuke places her left hand on the Sage's left hand while Naruto places his right hand on the Sage's right. The staff floats into the air behind the Old Sage with the C on Sasuke's side and the ring on Naruto's.
Half of the Sage's Power flows into Naruto and the other half flows into Sasuke.
The Sage fades away, saying, "Go, and save the world. You know what to do, I think. Good luck, Indra and Ashura...no, Sasuke and Naruto."