Hello! I hope you'll like this chapter!
Disclaimer: I own the OCs in this fic, the rest is Masashi Kishomoto's. Sorry for any spelling mistakes or any OCCness.
Character age:
Akane, Itachi: 22
Naruto, Sasuke: 16
Shisui: 25
Kakashi: 30
I deflected the attacks before throwing a marker. I teleported to it once it was behind a puppet, grabbed it and slashed the chakra threads. I jumped from the puppet to another to slash its threads too and landed on the side of a bridge.
I looked down. Naru must have crashed through the bridge and the puppets went after him.
I moved when a blast of purple energy touched the spot I was at and destroyed it, rubble falling, like me. I widened my eyes when Naru's chakra signature vanished out of sudden. I had given markers to the whole team before leaving Konoha.
I didn't have the time to think about that, or the new chakra signatures I felt where Naru was a second ago that I kicked behind me, blowing up the puppet.
I grabbed a few markers and threw them at the puppets. I teleported to each, blowing them up and grabbing my markers back before going on a bridge and lean against the wall of a tower, panting. I could teleport six, seven times in a row in a three hundred-meter radius before getting too tired.
I took a deep breath, trying to localize my cousin. I found him with other people, but these people left and...were heading toward me?
I teleported to Naru, who got scared and fell on his ass.
"I'm not apologizing," I told him, grabbing his hand to pull him on his feet. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I used a seal for my wound and that guy said it was well made." I raised a brow. "Oh yeah, so there are three shinobi from Konoha and the blond one said we were in Rōran."
"A blond Konoha shinobi here, twenty years before our time?" He nodded and I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Naru, he talked to you."
"Yeah, why?"
"Did you recognize his voice?" He raised a brow.
"Oh yeah, it's like Da…" He froze, his fist in his hand. "Holy shit."
"Good, we're on the same page now!" I shook my head. "What did he tell you?"
"To go back to the village."
"Easier said than done." I pursed my lips.
While Naru was not born, I was and currently, the me of that time was two. One year after we left Kiri. If oji-chan and his team went on the mission they met Dad then met me...they wouldn't know me that much.
"Try to look...unbothered next time we see them."
"You think we'll see them again?"
"Naru, we're stuck in the past. I'm pretty sure trying to go home will make us cross path with them again, especially knowing they're most likely the team responsible for the seal."
"Yeah, right. You're pretty smart nee-chan!"
"I just use my bra...why do you sound surprised by that?"
"Heh, you have your dumb moments." I narrowed my eyes at him.
"You're so lucky we're on a mission and in another era."
"So what do we do? Do you know how it happened?"
"No idea."
"Aren't you like a time tra…" I pressed my hand against his mouth.
"No, and I don't know everything, I enjoy acting like it sometimes, that's all." I removed my hand and I looked up, running my hand in my hair. "The only thing I can think of right now is going to where the seal was and see if there's anything that can help us."
"Agree. Let's get a better view first." I followed him up the towers. I took Naru's arm in my hand when I noticed just how high we were. "Nee-chan?"
"It's very...high…" I mumbled.
"See, dumb moments. You were fighting in the air not so long ago."
"Well the adrenaline didn…"
"It's that girl!" I looked toward where Naru was looking.
"What girl?"
"The one singing where we arrived. She's the queen then?"
"Apparently s…" She fell.
Naruto moved immediately while I looked toward the balcony she was standing on. The two with her were not human.
Actually...I looked down at the crowd and made the tiger seal with my right hand. Yeah...there was chakra but not regular one, and most of all they were not from the crowd but...the pipes?
I teleported to Naru when I felt people coming my way.
"You okay there?" I asked him and raised a brow at the mark on his cheek.
"Yeah, we're good. I was right too, she's the queen of Rōran, Sāra." I nodded at her.
"Your Highness."
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, a shinobi from Konoha," Naru continued. "And she's my big sister…" I narrowed my eyes at him when he was about to say my name.
"You may call me Uzumaki if you wish."
"Ah...fine…"
"What happened back there?" Sāra looked confused for a second before gulping.
"I felt like I was pushed."
"Someone wants to harm you?" Naruto asked her immediately.
"You didn't keep your promise," a man said in my back.
Yeah, just the three I had felt when Naru was talking. The voice…
"Well she was falling straight to her death!"
"Who do you think you are?" the queen said with a frown, standing up.
"Don't tell me you…" I glared at Naru, which made him shut up. I took a deep breath and turned around.
"I apologize if he caused you troubles on your mission, but the queen's assistance is required for ours. I hope we can conduct both our missions without any problem," I told them, looking at the blond's mask.
It was oji-chan. The voice, the blond hair…
"We are here to protect the queen, we should be able to come to an agreement," oji-chan said.
"It would be for the best."
"Let's go somewhere more private first." I shared a look with Naru and we followed them, the queen coming with us.
I leaned against the windowsill, looking at the city. I mean...it was beautiful in its own way I guess, just not mine.
"Can you explain what your mission is?"
"We're looking for a man called Mukade," I told them idly. "We followed him to the ruins of the kingdom of Rōran."
"But we were attacked by puppets, then Mukade absorbed that seal and next thing we knew we were there and the ruins became...this…" Naru showed the city outside.
"I see." He looked, I guess at least, at me. "And what do you think happened?" I raised a brow.
"Me?"
"You're well-versed in Fuinjutsu, aren't you? Earlier, Naruto said his seal was made by his sister." I shot Naru a pointed glance and sighed.
"I've never heard of someone absorbing a seal like Mukade did, but from our surroundings, I'd say we traveled in the past, roughly by twenty years."
"Just as I thought then." I blinked as he removed his mask, like the other two. Choji's dad and Shino's dad. "We came from Konoha on a secret mission. It would be best if the both of you keep your interactions with this era to a minimum to avoid changing anything."
"Well it would create a reality different from our own but wouldn't change our past, just your future," I mumbled under my breath, but Minato heard me.
"Are you familiar with this kind of situation maybe?" I shrugged.
"There are two ways of thinking about time travels and creating an alternative reality is just the best one in my opinion." But if you knew...oh if you knew.
If you knew how much we could argue about our different ways of approaching seals.
"Even though, it's better to be safe and keep your involvement in this era to the bare minimum," Minato said, looking at Naru this time. I narrowed my eyes at him.
He just ignored me?
From Choza's and Shibi's knowing look, they mustn't have expected it either.
"Six years ago, a shinobi from the future arrived here, just like you two. His name is Mukade."
"Wait, six years ago? But we just got here!"
"Just because we left at the same time doesn't mean we'll arrive at the same time," I told Naru, walking to my cousin. "And the seal was at the Source of the Ryūmyaku, for all we know the energy there played a role in sending us here. And it was a space-time seal now I'm thinking about it," I said, remembering the kunai there was.
"It is an important detail." Alright, he was starting to piss me off.
It wasn't like usual, because the soul in my seal knew I was capable. No, right now, that Minato was treating me like a rookie when I had more experience than him.
"If he absorbed the seal in his body, we need to release him from it. It should regulate the timeline and send you back to your present."
"Really?" I could have said that.
Naru never was this interested when I was talking.
"We need to stop Mukade," he stated firmly. I raised my finger.
"He must be using the Source of the Ryūmyaku to feed his soldier puppets too!" Naru shot me a quick look and nodded before looking at his dad again.
"Stop it!" We turned to look at the queen, now standing. "I've been hearing lies for a while now! The man who appeared in this city six years ago was not a man called Mukade! It's Anrokuzan, a great man! He is now my Chamberlain and works for the good of this community, continuing my mother's will! It's a good and peace-loving man, he would never think about creating soldier puppets!"
"What about the two with you when you fell?" She looked at me with wide eyes.
"They were my guards!"
"Still not humans." From the lies she must have been fed, telling her the inhabitants were puppets too…
"She's right, this ma…" Minato started, only getting the queen's heated glare in return.
"It's enough, I don't believe a word you're saying! If anything, you're the suspicious one!" She turned around and started to walk away.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"Checking your accusations." She ran away.
"Wait, someone tried to kill you!" She didn't listen to Naruto.
"We're going to separate the group. You two will protect the queen."
"It's not I don't want to, but our priority is Mukade."
"The royal family controls theSource of the Ryūmyaku Naruto, if we stick with her, especially after a murder attempt, I'm sure we'll see Mukade soon enough," I told my cousin.
"Right, makes sense." I turned to the other group.
"I'm sure you know this city better than us, so you'll look for him?" Minato nodded.
"Yes, and I can't put two new members on this mission. You're from Konoha, you know what I mean." I wasn't. "Protecting Sāra is just as important, as your sister pointed out," he added for Naru before handing something to him. "Here, take this. I'm sure you know what this is." He shot me a quick glance.
"Let's go." I grabbed his sleeve and we left them.
Damn.
He knew who I was, didn't he? Or at least, he implied we knew of the Hiraishin.
"Where did she go?"
"She can't have gone that far. Left."
When we found the queen, she was with...a group of people. One of them even got scared of us and fell on his ass.
I blinked when they turned on the light, Sarai, the boy who got scared, and Masako, the woman leading the group, introduced themselves. I looked around. There were even old people, but mainly women only and children.
"Sorry, we just wanted to ask the Sāra-sama a favor," Sarai said.
"A favor?" Naru repeated.
"Please, tell me what you want me to give you back."
"Ah, the men," I figured out. She looked at me, confused. "There are only women and children here, most likely the men were taken away."
"It is exactly that," Masako confirmed with a grim face. "Let's go back to the surface."
We did, Sāra failing to hide the disgust on her face when we went down the sewer. We surfaced behind the crowd watching the parade.
"It's beautiful! From there, the parade is even more beautiful!" She wasn't wrong, it was colorful, almost to the point of being blinding. "It was Anrokuzan's idea, he hoped it would cheer me up after my mother's death. All of my loyal subjects participate." I pursed my lips.
None of them were…
"Yeah right," Sarai said with disdain.
"What are you implying!?"
"People call you the 'puppet princess'."
"What?"
"Don't be insolent!" Masako scolded him.
"Yes yes…"
"I'm sorry your Highness, but he holds a grudge like many of us. Like this kunoichi said, his family has been taken one morning, like many others, and from what we were told it was on your order."
"I've never ordered such a thing!"
"Let's not fight," I said, stepping up between them. I looked at Sāra. "When was the last time you had an actual interaction with one of your subjects?" She furrowed her brows and looked down.
"Anrokuzan took care of everything since my mother's death, I…" I sighed and pointed at the crowd.
"None of these 'people' are people, they're puppets." She widened her eyes and Naru frowned at the crowd, looking up immediately. He glanced at me from the corner of his eyes and I nodded, giving him the authorization to bring proof. "Every human emanates chakra, but none of them does. The only chakra there is comes from those pipes."
"They're used to distribute the Source of the Ryūmyaku's energy throughout the city, only th…" Naru dropped a puppet at her feet. "What is…"
"One of your subject." She looked at Naruto in shock and bit her bottom lip.
"Even if...even if it's true, then where would they be?"
"Making weapons somewhere," Masako replied.
"Bad guy 101: get workers who'll work for free against their survival," I stated idly. I looked at Masako. "Do you know where they are?"
"Underground, at least we think."
"Look up there." I did and frowned at the puppet of the queen. "Isn't that you?" Naru asked her sternly.
"I don't understand...what's the meaning of this?" I almost felt bad for her.
"Mukade, that bastard…" My cousin looked at the queen. "He's determined to replace you with a puppet to have total control!"
"No, I won't believe this! There must be an explanation!" She ran away in crowd.
"Hey wait up!"
"Naruto, go, I'll stay with them." He nodded and ran off.
I wanted to slap that girl.
"Whatever they're working on, it's most likely related to those pipes," I told the two with me. "If you don't mind, I'd like to know where they lead. It should give us an idea of where your families are held captive."
"We're following you."
"Let's go then."
Making sure we wouldn't be seen, I led them toward the center of the city. The pipes seemed to all be connected to one tower. I looked down and ran around the tower. Those were air vents, meaning there were conducts underneath, so a way in.
I grinned to myself before turning to Masako and Sarai.
"Wait here, Naruto and the queen will be here shortly. Find a spot to hide though."
"What are you going to do?" Masako asked me as I was removing the grating.
"Getting inside."
I put a chakra concealing seal on myself before slipping in the opening, closing it behind me. I crawled through the vents, expanding my sensing as far as I could. I spotted the missing people quickly but decided to keep moving. Attacking on my own was not a wise move at all, especially when Sāra was the key to stop all this.
I frowned when I felt a familiar chakra signature. I stopped above a grating and gaped at the tiny Kakashi putting an explosive tag.
I landed behind him. He turned around immediately, a kunai in his hand. He frowned at the Konoha symbol around my neck.
"I don't know you," he told me rudely.
"Yeah, it's a long story but I'm on your side Bakakashi." He glared at me.
"You know Obito?"
"Yeah, he mentioned how you loved that nickname last time I saw him helping an old lady with her groceries." He sighed deeply and put his kunai away.
"Sensei didn't tell me there was someone else on the mission."
"Not really, my friend and I are on another mission that's connected to yours, we're just helping each other." I showed the explosive tag. "Sabotage?"
"I'm supposed to destroy the factory and free the people here." I leaned against a huge water tank when I felt Naruto and Sāra. I looked toward them. The queen was...doing something. "Hey, you're helping or not?"
"Sure." I did, at least until a fight started and Naru was stuck in a puppet. "Hey, sorry to bother you but can you throw that," I showed him one of my markers, "to above that puppet?" He took my kunai with a frown.
"It's a form…"
"Just do it, you're pretty much done with setting up anyway." He shot me an unimpressed gaze and did.
I made a storage seal in thin air and teleported to my marker once it was above the puppet. I turned around, throwing my kunai near the queen, my nodachi free from my storage seal in the other hand, and made ice from my feet with the water vapor in the air. I made an explosive seal and used to it to propel myself down, slashing the puppet clean and freeing Naru at the same time. I teleported to my kunai before I crashed in the ground and looked at my blade.
Wind chakra was around it, sharpening it way more than with a regular katana.
"Sorry, am I interrupting something?" I clenched my hand around my weapon and used it to slice the blade coming in Sāra's back. It fell on each side of her.
"You…"
"I'm still here!" Naruto roared, punching Mukade in the face. It sent him to the floor.
He gained some weight, didn't he?
I frowned when I noticed how his cheek was destroyed but then restored.
"In Rōran, my power is limitless!" He stood up as if nothing had happened.
Puppets came at us in the back while Mukade changed into a giant spider-like creature, blade appearing at the end of its legs.
Naruto took the queen and we found ourselves surrounded. I looked down at my nodachi. There must be something it could do. There was so much water vapor and basically moisture in the air…
I stepped forward and dug it in the floor before sending a chakra wave in it, Hyoton chakra. It sent a wave of freezing cold in front of us, turning the puppets into ice cubes and the floor into a slippery ice-skating field.
"I'll destroy you both!" Mukade yelled, breaking free from the ice unlike his puppets.
Things started to blow up around us and I put my sword back in the sheath when Minato's team landed in front of us.
"Is anyone hurt?" he asked us, looking at us above his shoulder. I shook my head. "Good, then go to safety with Sāra both of you!" I frowned and looked at Mukade. "You too Akane." My eyes met Minato's eyes.
I rubbed the back of my head. So he had met toddler me and knew who I was, just like I thought. Damn oji-chan, you must have had a good laugh when you saw Naru and I in those ruins.
"There won't be any safety as long as that thing is there," I replied as Mukade was against Choza and Shibi, Naru still there. The queen left to free the men though.
"Rasengan!" The rasengan threw Mukade in the wall.
"Move," I told them when they gathered in front of Mukade. I unsheathed my nodachi and took a deep breath.
Wind nature chakra. I covered the blade, some of the moisture still in the air creating a layer of ice in front of the sharp side of the blade.
I slashed in the air and the attack slashed him in half.
"As impressive as it is, it's not enough," Minato commented as purple energy healed the monster.
"We need to cut off his battery," I said with a frown.
"Agree. Sāra can do that, right?" I nodded. "Then take care of that, we'll hold him off. Naruto, you're with us." I shot Mukade a look as he was fighting off insects.
"Alright." I ran away, quickly catching up with Sāra.
I gave her a push to go back at the surface before jumping. The families were back together but I tackled Sāra to the ground when the ground broke behind us, Mukade and Naruto emerging from the factory. I shielded her from the rubble, one hitting me in the back.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm good." We got up.
"Hey girls, go put the people to safety!" I nodded at Naru.
"You need to cut off the Source of the Ryūmyaku as well." She pursed her lips and looked toward the city.
"I know where to go."
"Go ahead, I'll have your back." She nodded and did, hurrying her subjects to follow her.
I turned around and stuck my sword the in ground, a huge wall of ice erupting in front of me. I removed my sword, put it back in its sheath and ran after the group.
I looked at my weapon while the sounds of the fight was getting quieter as I put some distance between us. Using Wind chakra was easier. I had an easier time to create ice in a big quantity with it too and I probably could do something with regular water as well. My guess was that someone experimented enough could use this nodachi to use all three chakra nature a Yuki clan member had way more easily.
It was just instinctual and I didn't have to look for any...moisture or anything, the sword as doing it on its own.
I slashed the thread holding Sāra when I got there with my chakra blade, catching the one thrown our way. I handed it to her.
"That place where Naruto and I were when you were singing that lullaby maybe?"
"It could work," she admitted, scared eyes looking above me. I looked behind as my cousin was thrown in a tower. I wanted to help but…
"He'll be fine." She clenched the blade tight in her fist and...cut off her dress?
Made a ponytail?
"Naruto!" He landed in front of us, like Minato's team. "Uzumaki-san brought up a good point. The yard where we met is not reachable by the Source of the Ryūmyaku, they should be safe here!" She spun around and we left.
Naruto and Minato joined us when we were about to go down in that yard. Minato received a message with bugs.
"As I thought, they couldn't defeat him." I walked between them and put a stasis seal with a marker on the wall before throwing a marker in the wall in front of us.
I teleported to it and put a stasis seal there too before going back to the two blonds, making a few hand seals. Blue chakra faintly shone as my marker turned the seals in a wall.
"I doubt it will block him for a long time, but he'll be in stasis for a little while. Find his weak point."
"But what if he doesn't have one?"
"Everything and everyone has a weakness, it's just a matter of finding what it is!" I told them above my shoulder as I was going back to the group.
Sāra was trying to open the door. I created a huge ice dome above us when rubble fell on us.
"Hurry!" I yelled at her. She gritted her teeth, the chakra blade shining, and put it in the lock.
As people came to her help, I melted the ice dome, gritted my teeth at the weight and put the rubble away with the now liquid water. I turned around, seeing the queen shutting the door behind her people and I went to put a stasis seal on the wall as a trap, but was interrupted.
By interrupted, I mean Naruto being thrown in the ground and a part of the wall being destroyed.
"Are you holding up?" I asked my cousin, helped by Sāra.
"I love being thrown around like a rag doll," he replied bitterly.
"You don't have any time to waste," oji-chan told us, now next to Naruto.
"Sāra-sama, go, we're right behind you." She nodded and left. "Naruto, with me!" As we ran, I left Hiraishin markers at each of my steps, my sword on my shoulder.
Mukade ended up behind us. Naruto made clones, but couldn't maintain them. I grabbed a marked kunai in my hand when he shot purple fire at us.
"Hiraishin: Guiding Thunder," I said, an Hiraishin seal appearing in front of us. It absorbed the fire and redirected it to the marker he was on, swallowing him in fire.
It destroyed most of the puppet around him and I teleported Naruto's clone, who had a Rasenshuriken in his hand, to a marker near Mukade. He jumped and dived it to the smaller spider puppet, blowing up a good portion of the body, which fell to the floor.
"Are you okay?" I nodded at Minato whereas Naruto left to join Sāra.
"I think he's done for."
"Let's remain vigilant." We went to the other two but we barely made it in the room that Mukade came back.
He was dying, but decided to take a dive in the Source of the Ryūmyaku, the energy going from purple to red and black. The tail of the puppet almost hit me before I could see it coming that Minato grabbed me and teleported to Naruto, safe with the queen near the future seal.
"The kunai please," Minato asked Naruto, who gave him the weapon. I looked toward the bridge, when Yamato was coming with tiny Kakashi under his arm. I waved at him.
"Sorry, I struggled to just enter the city," he told us.
Minato put his kunai in the eye-like thing on the ground and a seal spread from it. I looked at my hands when I started glowing, like Yamato and Naruto.
"Now the timeline should go back to normal. It's time to go back to where you belong."
"Timeline?" Kakashi muttered before widening his eyes at me. "Wait...no, you're not…" I grinned at him, punching him lightly on the head, like Yamato.
"You'll never get rid of me, never," I told him with a threatening grin.
"It was an honor," Yamato told Minato.
"It's time to say goodbye now."
I did not care that much and soon, the world faded to black.
I woke up to Sakura shaking me. I sat up, a hand on my head.
"What happened?"
"There was this purple chakra and then it disappeared and you were there, unconscious," Sai explained, helping Yamato up.
I looked at my right hand. When did I get my nodachi?
"Let's get out of here," Sakura told us. "Mukade is...gone, and the seal seems stable." I stood up.
"I'll be the judge of that." I checked the seal and frowned. "Oji-chan, I can't remember a thing, do you know something?"
"I'll tell you when you're home." Why did he seem so amused?
"It's stable," I told the team.
We left the place and were stopped by a girl. I narrowed my eyes at her. Between the beaming and burning sun, the dry air and...and the blade looking like a Konoha chakra blade...I wanted to go home.
"That was weird," Naruto whispered to himself. I patted his shoulder.
"Let's go home."
"Can't handle the desert anymore?"
"I'm blaming it for everything that went wrong."
I would crash in bed and not get up for a whole day once home.
Hey! Thanks for reading and leave a review to tell me what you thought of this chapter! Thanks to and Masaya Daiji j8a8c8y8 for the reviews!
Bye!