Now, to make it clear for all: I'm skipping his whole training and missions done to gain his tails. Like I said before, I don't really have any good plots for the whole training spiel. I figure that most people would be interested in his homecoming and what he does in dealing with Orochimaru and the Akatsuki. There mightl be some flashbacks with minor references of crossovers cause I did say that he would be training in other dimensions.
Pairing: I already have one in mind. It may not be what it first seems. I know people like certain pairings but I find one to be most likely and remember this is a divergent AU so don't get on my case about OOC's. This is a fanfiction. Otherwise I would be raking in the money from all the merchandising.
Chapter 3
Back from the dead with a plan
The stars twinkled brightly in the summer night over Konoha. The moon shone vibrantly in the fullness of it. Civilians were sleeping uneasily in bed. The shinobi on duty were doing their patrols and kept a wary eye out for intruders. Evers since the first invasion done in the chunin exam, Sound has been constantly doing probes in Konoha's defenses and an occasional strike on the outer villages in Fire country. Sound had allied itself with the Stone and Mist villages while Konoha had allies only with the Wind village. The war between Konoha and Sound was at a standstill for now. Neither side could gain an upper hand against the other. Basically it was a cold war for now but it could break out any moment into full fledge war. Everyone was on edge and kept their guard up at all times. They made sure to watch the walls surrounding the village but none kept an eye out for the Hokage monument to see the strange shimmering that appeared on top of the Fourth's head.
The air looked like it merged with water and shimmered eerily. A ripple made its appearance in the middle of it. A clawed tipped hand clad in a fingerless glove with metal backing came from the middle of the ripple that was followed by an arm covered in a long, black sleeve with flame pattern on the cuffs. The arm and sleeve was connected to a tall, muscular figure that was wearing a long black trench coat with flame pattern on the bottom. An orange muscle shirt was seen in the opening of the trench coat. The shirt was tucked into a pair of loose, black pants that wear tucked into a pair of black boots. The figure walked completely out of the shimmer which promptly disappeared.
The fullness of the moon showed a shock of spiky, long, blond hair held back with a black forehead protector with the dull metal plating having the kanji for death etched on it. The hair spiked over to slightly covered a face that looked very similar to the Fourth's face but with the addition of three lines etched onto each cheek. Cerulean blue eyes with slitted pupils gazed happily at the village below them. They were eyes that seen a lot of years but still kept their inner mirth. A smile quirked up to show well defined canines. Orange fox-like ears peaked above his hair twitched back and forth as they listen for any unexpected patrol. Nine orange tails with white tips poked through a hole in his coat swished gentle behind him. Naruto was back.
If his old comrades and friends saw him now, they would be very shocked at the sight of him since he had the air of danger and wisdom about him. He knew he had changed a lot over the years since he was gone. The different clothes and the fact he wasn't screaming out his joy of being back being some changes. While it may have been seven years that past in this dimension, Naruto had experience close to a millennium worth of years. He wondered how much his precious people have changed. It couldn't have been as much as he has.
Speaking of change, boy has he changed since he died. When he had taken up the offer of becoming the Head of Fox summons and Death's ninja; he was immediately infused with enough power to be one tails worth and some changes done to his soul. Since he was the head of fox summons, he took up some of the physical characteristics of a fox, hence the fox ears, slitted pupils, and tails to name a few.
To interact with both the afterlife and the mortal plane, he was given a special body that had some special powers of shape shifting into any person he saw but it had its' limits. He could only shift into humans and foxes. The human form could only be maintain for only twenty hours before shifting back into his original form. This was done to make sure he would not abuse his powers too much or if in case he went rogue, he could still be tracked down. His new body also was almost nigh indestructible with fast healing abilities, fast reflexes, and great strength when channeling his powers. He seemed invincible but he knew well enough that there were beings out there that could pummel him easily even though he was built to take out real demons and not crazy high level summons.
If for some reason his body was destroyed, Upstairs could easily build him another one and send on his merry way. It had happened a couple times and Naruto learned quick that even though he had connections in the afterlife; death was still painful and a hassle since he had to deal with all the paper work to get another body and it took money out of his paycheck.
His recollection of changes was interrupted by another shimmer in the air as his messenger/examiner from the afterlife came out. Known as Michiko, she was in charge of carrying messages between Upstairs and Naruto. She was also in charge of the testing of Naruto in gaining his tails and made sure that he stayed loyal to the afterlife. She had green hair, pale skin and wore a scarlet kimono with a green sash. She carried a clipboard with some papers on it. A pen in hand, she looked down at the clipboard and made some marks on it. Naruto gave her a quiet greeting.
"Yo, Michiko. What's the orders from Upstairs? They didn't exactly tell me what I'm to do in my home plane but I assume it has to do with Orochimaru and that loose demon."
Not looking up from the clipboard, she replied: "For now they want you to deal with Orochimaru and get married."
"What! Again?" Naruto's tails twitched in agitation on the last part.
"You know full well why you must get married." She answered calmly
"Yeah, I know." He grumbled as he remembered the first time he was ordered to get married. It was a pain searching for a wife while trying to accomplish his mission to gain a second tail at the same time. He was fortunate to find his first wife who turned out in that dimension to be considered a demon. He found it kind of ironic.
He made her dimension his home base until she died from a fatal blow while protecting their kits. He continued to stay in that dimension until his children were grown up and then Upstairs made him move to another dimension to perform some missions and find another wife.
Upstairs believed that if Naruto stayed married, he would be then least likely to go traitor or power hungry if he had someone to care for directly. An additional reason for his need to get married was to add more summons to the fox contract. It turned out that the only way Naruto could add summons to the contract was to have children. Any child he sired would automatically be added to the summons contract so Naruto made sure to never fool around since he didn't want some child of his to be summoned onto a battlefield with no knowledge of what to do or why. He made sure to train all his children and stress the need for them to train their children in the occurrence that they are summoned since he, being a high summon, could summon his descendents to his aid.
Luckily, Naruto could communicate to his children via a special book that when he wrote in it, the words would appear in another book that each child had. They too could write in the book and have the words appear in his book. He had an arrangement with Upstairs to be able to hold a family reunion every ten years he live to see all of his children come to one spot and talk to his clan. He was very proud of his clan.
He then broke out of his musings by asking: "How long do I get in searching for a wife"
It turned out that Upstairs would only give him a set amount of time to find a spouse before they would arrange a marriage to him. It only happened one time that he ran out of time to find a wife and the one they arranged him with was very difficult, to say the least, to get along with. He rather not have it happen to him again.
Michiko had an evil glint in her eye as she said: They want you to be married or engaged by one years time to this date."
Naruto had to use all of his willpower to not scream out loud 'What!' or cuss like crazy. Instead he asked in a strained voice: "Why is it that they are only giving me a year to find a wife?"
Michiko replied: "They feel that since this is your home dimension and you grew up with the females in this village; you would have an easy time finding a wife. Remember that only seven years have passed here so the girls you grew up with are at the prime of their lives. You can even try to court some of the older females you knew in your former life since you are older than them."
Naruto mentally gagged at the thought of marrying one of the older female ninjas. He found the thought to be too weird about trying to marry Kurenai or Upstairs forbid, Anko; the only two older females he knew that were still in their prime. That left only the females he knew from his class graduation to consider. Maybe he should try for his old teammate Sakura since he had a crush on her for the longest time. Naruto shook his head at the future troubles he would get into while finding a wife.
Naruto said: "Ok. Orders are to take out Orochimaru first and find a wife at the same time for now."
"Correct" Michiko said and then brought her clipboard up to write on. She asked: "What are your plans to take out Orochimaru?"
"Well, right now I don't have much of a plan but more of an idea." Naruto said contemplatively. " I need to find a few things first so I figure I will check out Konoha to see what has changed over the years for a week and formulate a plan based on what I see and hear. Will I be allowed to reveal myself to Konoha?" He asked hopefully.
"For now, No" Michiko replied sadly. "Upstairs wants you to work in the shadows until we get an idea on where the demon is located or Orochimaru is dealt with."
"Could I have sightings of my younger self since I wanted to test out the defenses of Konoha and I figure a little physiological warfare would help in the testing." Naruto gave her the dreaded puppy-eye look as he said this.
Michiko gave a small grin. "Sightings of your younger self will be ok if you make sure not to show your older self. In fact it would be encouraged for you to show your kitsune side during the testing since this could draw out the demon from hiding." Her face then brighten up in thought and said:
"You could make them think that you merged with the former Kyuubi and just now have returned from the dead after learning how to mold a body for yourself since this works with the local legends they have on the biju. You could tell them about learning from a village formed by ninja who have died to explain the forehead protector you're wearing. You can also tell them that you are the head of the fox contract. Just remember to not talk to them about who you really work for or why you are there and especially don't talk about Upstairs!"
Naruto grinned at the ideas from Michiko. "I like the idea and might just say that I'm there to take care of the souls who have not gone to the afterlife yet. That could be my suppose mission to Konoha from the Village hidden in Death that I supposively work for. It could be used as an excuse as to why I'm popping up in Konoha but it won't be in my main plan to get Orochimaru. Useful in getting some information on him and what's going on. Thanks Michiko!"
Michiko blushed and busied herself with the clipboard. She made a few marks on it about the idea Naruto would use and his plan of testing the village below them. She then said:
"Ok, so you will be scouting the village and testing them for around a week. I will be back by then and will want to hear your plan for taking out Orochimaru. Anything you wanted to add before I head back to Upstairs?"
"Not that I can think of right now. Oh! Wait a moment, what if I meet up with one of the biju or their containers?" Naruto asked anxiously while thinking of Gaara.
"You know the seals and method to rid of that demonic seal on them." she said calmly. "If you meet up with one, unseal them. Make sure that you don't unintentionally kill the containers unless it is for a very good reason. Well, I have to go now. See you in a week Naruto and don't get into too much trouble!"
"Sure thing." Naruto said happily and waved goodbye as Michiko stepped into a distortion in the air and disappeared. His face broke into a mischievous grin as he gazed down at the village below him. "Watch out Konoha!" he whispered to himself. "Prank King Naruto is back!"
A/N: Well, what do you think? Good? Bad? Would like to hear of ideas of what kind of pranks and tests Naruto does on the village. Thanks to all who review and continue to review.
Savanor