Author's Note:
hey everyone!!
welcome to another addition of my time traveling naruto saga. this one's markedly different because the story is taking itself more seriously than any of my previous installments.
warnings: indirect mentions/implications towards suicide, death.
expect infrequent updates and hope you enjoy this first chapter. :))
read on!!
Shadowed under the moonlight, a solitary figure stood atop the rugged mountain that once had faces of great leaders carved into it.
Naruto breathed in the chill night air, remembering days long gone, memories that were faded and old and a wisp of the brightness they once used to be. Names of people he had never forgotten but faces of whom had all but blurred in his mind.
It had been centuries maybe, since that day when his fate had been entwined with the universe's, when his soul had been marked by entities who controlled the worlds with a glance and a whisper.
"You and your brother, Sasuke, you are threaded with each other by destiny herself.
Destined to kill each other or live together. Destined to save your world or see it to destruction."
The Sage had said so, with solemn eyes and a voice that showed the wisdom of his age.
And yet –
And yet those words had been proved wrong when after their battle at the Valley of End, only one of the soul-brothers emerged alive.
To this day, Naruto wasn't able to recall which blow of his struck fatal, which move of his killed Sasuke. All he could think of was the fire in his blood, the song of cling-clangs as they battled out the hurt, the betrayal, the hate and the love between them. He wasn't fighting to kill, he never had with Sasuke and yet his hands were bloodied when Sakura arrived and found only one friend left to heal.
Things got out of hand after that. The world was still in ruins, the bijuus still trapped and the red moon was still gripping the realities of everyone alive.
What happened after – Naruto regretted not protesting against, not stating his refusal, his questions.
The Sage of Six Paths had reappeared once again with a tautness so at odds with his warm demeanor before. He spoke briskly, factually, as if Naruto had lost the right to be treated amiably.
Two and a half lives later, Naruto realised the emotion the Sage had veiled that night. It was a kind of heartbreak, a heartbreak borne solely out of expectation. A heartbreak that brought a disappointment so potent, it turned the person sour.
The Sage had expected reconciliation from him and Sasuke. A mutual truce and allyship. What he got was a lone man marred by the death of his brother. A plan gone horribly awry.
"I had bestowed upon you half the store of my powers, hoping that together you and Sasuke would find the balance my sons could not. However, circumstances leave no other option that to have you wield the full extent of my gifts, to take the mantle I had once abandoned. There is no other way to save humanity. Are you prepared, Naruto?"
Naruto had not been prepared, had been farthest away from being any such thing. But too much was on the line, too many people to save, too many problems to resolve. War had always been greater than him, greater than his life or hesitations or feelings.
In the end, it was the promise of peace and the remembrance of Jiraiya's hopes and teachings that removed doubt from his mind.
Kakashi had stood right beside him, Sakura's hands were glowing green on his wounded arm. Neither of them blamed him. Neither condemned him. But they didn't have to. His mind was a knife stabbing at his conscience all on its own.
Naruto didn't think of that moment often but when he did, he could still taste the richness of chakra in the air, could still feel the way his skin had tingled against the saturating power coursing through him, enveloping him in a shield of raw strength. His body had thrummed with it, with vitality and energy so beyond his grasp that he'd grown heady with the overload.
It felt a bit like taking a dip in molten lava, like diving straight down from a cloud, at speeds so high you eyes watered with the wind attacking your irises. It felt like every neuron in his body had simultaneously flared up, giving him an experience of the world so full of colours and smells and textures and sounds. All his senses working at their fullest capacity to give him a glimpse of how the world really is, just for a moment.
Even now, he still could not stop wanting a similar euphoric high, a sensory feast so filling every moment after had seemed tasteless in comparison.
The result of having the complete abilities and forces of the Sage was... drastic.
The raw efficiency of chakra in only his finger surpassed the combined damage multiple squadron of jounin could accomplish. Jutsu came easy to him, with only a thought, oft times rendering handsigns unnecessary. His instincts were sharper, finer, more controlled and he could always feel the presence of latent chakra lacing every bit of nature with little effort.
Undoing the tsukuyomi was easy. Becoming the savior of the shinobi world was also easy, if not highly uncomfortable.
Dealing with the grief of losing his comrades and the guilt of causing Sasuke's death was never easy but it certainly got less difficult as time went by.
What was most challenging in those early years after the war was perhaps the struggle to control his own power. He was constantly on edge because of it, waiting for the misstep that would unleash his barely controlled chakra. Keeping a check on a bijuu's chakra was one thing – trying to contain the distillation of godly gifts was another.
The Sage's chakra was a tornado, a tsunami, a raging, deadly storm all rolled into his body, making it a vessel that would weather against its volatile outbursts.
And weather it did. It took a decade but Naruto was finally able to put a leash on his chakra, to tame it just enough for it to be an asset rather than a ticking bomb. In the many lives and years after, Naruto grew even more confident and capable, with the finesse and precision to have all his power waiting at his beck and call, able to mould and shape it into whatever his needs desired.
But great power did not come without great sacrifice.
Of course, Naruto didn't realise the sacrifice he would have to make till everyone around him started showing signs of aging while he looked not a day older than seventeen.
Losing Sasuke was a howling grief.
Losing Iruka-sensei, knowing he might never join the man in the afterlife was an agony so painful it ultimately numbed him.
The emotional numbing lasted till it was Sakura who lay on her deathbed, frail and old and wrinkled and Naruto sat on the side, futilely trying to heal her, to breathe youth back into her cold bones.
"My days had always been numbered, Naruto," she'd said to him, horribly empathetic even as her lungs were giving out. "But yours are not. You're infinite, Naruto. Just like our friendship. Just like our memories. You may not die, but that doesn't make your life any less valuable. For me, Naruto, live recklessly again. Live, even if it may seem like a curse sometimes."
So Naruto had lived.
Living was feeling deeply, loving deeply, grieving deeply, expressing deeply.
At least that was the case for him. He didn't try to shy away from his emotions, even the ugly and prickly ones.
He was still human, he knew. Just not mortal.
And therein lay the secret of his being, the nature of his existence.
You see, with the Sage's immense power and ever-full stores of chakra, in addition to the essence of each and every tailed beast residing within him – Naruto was essentially invulnerable. He didn't age. He didn't need sustenance though he could consume food and water just like normal.
No one could kill him. He was too strong for that, too skilled, too protected.
But that didn't mean Naruto could never, ever die.
The first time had been an accident. At the age of a hundred and forty four, with the build of a young adult, Naruto's idle chakra-bomb had rebounded onto himself.
He'd thought of it before – the concept, the word. But it had been too heavy for him to consider enacting it.
He'd killed himself, then.
It would have been all over. He would have passed onto his after life, he would have reunited with people he never hoped to see again. It was right there, in his grasp, a long sought dream finally within reach.
But dying didn't mean staying dead. Not when he held in him six stations of the universe's power, of the universe's very fibre.
There was a reason why the Sage gave away his chakra before he died.
There was a reason why his absolute last resort was making Naruto the sole wielder of his gifts.
When Naruto was faced with the option of accepting a successor or forsaking the afterlife – the choice was quickly made but it wasn't an easy one.
Reincarnating in another world so different than his own had been a terrible, disorienting sensation at first. But Naruto was nothing if not adaptable. He learned how to live differently in the different worlds with different people who somehow became important to him even after he tried his best to keep them at arm's length. And when they eventually succumbed to their mortality, he stayed by their sides and let himself feel the sorrow and longing and grief.
And when the time was right, he set out to live another life in a new world with new faces.
He lived and he did so recklessly, freely
He was a healer in one life, a fierce warrior in another. A friend, a foe, a magician, a trickster. He saw and did many great things and he became a legend in a few worlds, a figment of folklore sung when they progressed to modernity.
But none of those worlds were ever his own but always a separate reality or a separate time. Too early or too late or too far – he never reconciled with the people who were his family in his first life, people who his heart could not forget even when his mind was struggling to do the same.
But that changed this time, when Naruto traced the constellations in the sky and with a smile gracing his lips, jumped down, plummeting towards a new life, a new story.
Several planes away, a world shifted and turned and made space for a man who was known to traverse time and space like no other.
This world was different, too, for there was no Naruto Uzumaki in it. Not anymore. The child – the infant – that was given that name died the day he was born, killed by the crossfire the attack of the kyubi had caused in its rampage.
And now, seventeen years later, unknown to anyone, the man with the blood of that infant arrived with runes in the sand that spoke of unimaginable power, with whispers that swept the spirit realms in a frenzy. The entities above paid attention for the man whom they had given the most and took the most from had finally, finally come back to his people.
Naruto Uzumaki had returned home.
Tsunade set aside the scroll to give her full attention to the panicked old man whose name she knew but had forgotten two months into her term as Hokage.
Hiruzen was seated comfortably on the sofa at the end of her office, looking at the scene before him with mild curiosity. He had his pot beside him, ready for a smoke, now that all inhibitions against it had been uplifted since his retirement.
"Let's do this again. Slowly and calmly. Alright?"
The old man, dressed in simply grey robes pressed a wavering hand on his forehead, wiping away the nervous sweat. He nodded at Tsunade's measured words, eyes still a bit wild and uncertain.
"O- okay."
"Good," Tsunade leaned in her chair, raising a hand in invitation. "Please. Take a seat."
The man obliged and sat across from her. Now nearer, Tsunade could read his name off the arm-strap he wore. Kotaru. It was a custom of the Intelligence Department, later adopted by the committee overlooking chakric anomalies formed five years after the devastating nine-tails attack.
"Now, you were saying, Kotaru-san?"
Kotaru gulped and drew the strings of his robes tighter around his abdomen as he spoke. "Yes. Yes. A great mishap has occured, Hokage-san. A terrible mishap. Our sensors – they are not mistaken. Something immense and ancient and alien has awoken. For a moment – I, I felt it. Did you not?"
Tsunade rubbed at her temples. Damn chakra sensors and their cryptic comments. "No, Kotaru-san, I did not feel anything. Mind telling me what this mishap was in a language I can grasp? If this is as urgent and important as you seem to believe, there is no time for your riddles."
"My apologies," Kotaru muttered, shaking his head as if dislodging a useless thought. "Earlier today, we sensed something... abnormal within our barrier. It was only for second, but that feeling is unforgettable. Something, someone, we don't know – it spontaneously appeared within Konoha's protective dome and just as quickly vanished. And then... then the kyubi. It's chakra that we have been monitoring for a decade – almost at the threshold for the nine-tails to rematerialise. It all vanished, too. The cavern is empty. The kyubi's chakra has been sucked out somehow. All this happened within minutes of each other. And now a few of my sensors have collapsed because of overload. Everyone is in a state of hysterics down at the building and I had to take a long nap before I could even think to function properly. Something terrible has happened, really. I am warning you. Take caution, Hokage-sama."
"What do you mean the chakra vanished?" Tsunade questioned, a foreign dread curling in her stomach. This did not sound good. "What about the shinobi stationed outside? There have been no updates from them. What does this mean?"
Kotaru fidgeted in his dear, acutely aware of the burning gaze the Hokage was subjecting him to. "My senses have never failed me, Hokage-sama. Never. There is no bijuu chakra left in that cavern. You will soon hear from the team positioned there. It is only a matter of time."
"What is that ancient power you mentioned?" Hiruzen queried as he approached the two, eyes uncharacteristically wary.
"I don't have a clue," Kotaru sighed. "It's not like anything I have ever felt before but I know it's old and refined and potent."
Tsunade met Hiruzen's eyes and she knew she looked just as troubled as her predecessor. As shinobi, what they feared most was not knowing. The lack of information, the lack of certainty was a thorn they always tried to pry out as soon as possible and she was set to do the very same even now. She just needed the assurance that her judgement was correct – something Hiruzen or Jiraiya provided her with, often without prompting.
It was in her moment of doubt and indecision that Shizune barged in, a communication scroll clutched tightly in her hand.
"You will not believe the correspondence I just received," her apprentice announced as a manner of greeting and handed Tsunade the scroll with an inpatient gleam in her eyes. "Read."
Bewildered, Tsunade read the messy script of her once-teammate inked on the paper.
She read it once, then twice. Then thrice, just for good measure. And though she knew she read the words right, the meaning of the sentence refused to register with her. Because it was unbelievable, really.
Pein was killed and the Akatsuki have scattered.
-- J
A silent gasp escaped her lips as she passed on the scroll to Hiruzen who soon expressed similar disbelief
Any modicum of civility gone, Tsunade ran a hand through her hair, making it stick up at odd ends and asked, "What the actual hell is happening?!"
"That is exactly what I have been asking myself since this morning," Kotaru remarked, having chanced a peek at the message. "Strange things have come to be, don't you think?"
Tsunade shot the old man a glare, "Your concerns have been received. Now please leave us, Kotaru-san."
Elsewhere, Shikamaru was entirely engrossed his fifth game of shogi for the day. Seated beneath the cool shade of a banyan tree, his opponent glanced at him with calculated indifference.
"You know I can outlast you in the game of patience if stalling is your strategy," Kakashi-sensei commented, moving a piece to a safe block.
Shikamaru played his move without missing a beat, unaffected by the words meant to provoke. "Stalling? I call it observing. Why risk you escaping a hasty trap when I can bide my time and make you fall into one willingly."
"I thought I'd chased the arrogance out of you the last time we sparred," Kakashi returned as he smiled through his mask, playful in his teasing.
"Oh," Shikamaru scratched his head, "It returned after I defeated you the last four times we played shogi. Seriously, how are you so proficient at losing, sensei?"
"When will you two stop talking smack?" Sakura rolled her eyes, shutting close the book she had previously been reading. "Like – please shut up already."
"Half the fun of shogi is the trash-talk," Kakashi replied, narrowing his eyes comically at a piece on the board. "You moved that when I wasn't looking, didn't you? You cheat."
Shikamaru stared flatly at the jounin, "I don't need to play dirty to win against you, sensei. You're not worth the taint on my honour."
Kakashi scoffed in offence, making his next play with an air of utmost confidence. "Counter that."
Shikamaru groaned, "That's unblockable."
"What?" Kakashi mocked. "Your substantial load of ego can't help?"
Shikamaru's lips twitched upwards and he chuckled, shaking his head. "I suppose you did learn something from me. That was a solid move."
"Guys," Sakura interjected before Kakashi could respond, standing up and gazing at the sky. "Looks like we've got a summon."
Kakashi frowned at the messenger hawk circling above them, slowly descending.
"This is... odd. Tsunade-sama knows we're on a break," Shikamaru said as he slowly removed the pieces from the board and folded it. "It has to be some kind of emergency."
Sakura's face held a grim confusion as she nodded, handing away the piece of parchment she'd retrieved from the bird. "You're right. The village is officially on red alert. Lockdown by dusk. All chunin and jounin have been called upon for active duty."
"Yeah, I'm going to need some answers," Kakashi said, ruffling Sakura's hair in a misguided gesture of reassurance. She gave him a look and stepped away. "See ya later, kiddos."
"You're stupid if you think we aren't coming with you," Shikamaru replied, falling in step beside Kakashi, Sakura right beside him.
Kakashi sighed, "I'm going to pretend you two don't exist. It's not my responsibility if you hear something you aren't supposed to."
"Plausible deniability," Sakura chimed in, smiling, "Good job, sensei."
Kakashi ignored them, walking towards the Kage Tower at a swift pace. All around him, he spotted shinobi hopping to and fro. Some looked panicked, others tense but calm and a few seemed to be utterly clueless about the cause of the unrest. He exchanged nods with a few of his colleagues, assured of their competence.
Someone bumped into him and he turned to tell off his unwelcome companions but realised they weren't the culprits.
"Isn't that the envoy from Suna?" Shikamaru questioned, his eyes trailing the figure that was rapidly disappearing behind the crowd of the marketplace.
"Why was in such a hurry?"
"What the hell is happening?"
Kakashi looked back at them and gestured with a thumb, "Only one way to find out."
The three sprinted after the envoy, knowing that his destination was the same as theirs.
Author's Note:
that is it for the intro! hope you liked it. :))
any feedback is welcome and thank you loads for reading!!
wishing everyone a happy new year! :)