Chapter 21: Prophecies Unfold
Disclaimer: Warning the following chapter consists of spoilers and material owned by Viz Media, Masashi Kishimoto, DC Comics and Geoff Johns this story is my property covered under the fair rights usage act.
Today was the day that Naruto, Saint Walker, and Jiriaya would finally return from their training trip as they neared the gates of the village three years since Naruto left with Jiraiya on their training trip to get stronger. Now that three years have finally come to an end everyone knew it was time for him to return and resume his role as the Blue lantern of Konoha.
By the village gates Chunin ninja Izumo and Kotetsu were on guard duty relaxing in boredom until they saw three figures walk past them getting their attention, "Hey Kotetsu wasn't that?" Izumo asked.
Kotetsu smiled, "Yup no doubt about it." He replied.
It was Jiraiya, Saint Walker, and Naruto back from their trip. Naruto who was taller now wore black shinobi pants, a blue shirt with white sleeves, and two headbands; one was his original blue headband only instead of the leaf carved on the plate was the blue lantern insignia hidden in his pocket to ensure nobody else would know who he was, the other was a black leaf headband on his forehead . He ran up a pole and stood on top looking out into the village, "Oh man it's so good to be home!" he looked at the Hokage monument noticing an extra head crated in the form of Tsunade, "So they added grandma's head to the monument, nice touch." He said with a smirk.
"Hey Naruto come on we're burning daylight we have to go check in with Tsunade." Jiriaya shouted to him calling him down.
"Alright hold your horses Pervy Sage." Naruto replied causing Walker to chuckle slightly and Pervy Sage…I mean Jiriaya to sweat drop and steam.
"Even after nearly three years of training he still calls me that." Jiriaya groaned to himself.
"Well I did warn you once before Jiriaya that your perverse hobbies would get you into trouble, speaking of which Jiriaya you know Tsunade's going to give you an earful over the marriage battle." Walker said with his usual smile.
"Don't remind me about that Bro Dee please." Jiriaya said as Naruto jumped back down he noticed someone not that far away that looked familiar to him. The person in question was wearing a red blouse, black shorts, a pink apron skirt, black gloves, black long legged sandals, she also had pink hair, and green eyes; as it turned out it was Naruto's teammate and girlfriend Sakura Haruno.
"Sakura over here!" Naruto called out causing the kunoichi to turn around.
"Naruto you're back!" She exclaimed rushing at him and engulfing him in a super strong embrace. "Naruto it's nice to see you again, I've missed you so much." She said as Naruto's face was starting to turn blue from her death grip.
"Sakura could you loosen up I can't breathe." Naruto wheezed causing the Star Sapphire to let go.
"Oh um sorry about that Naruto." Sakura said with a blush on her face.
"Don't worry about it Sakura, I've missed you too by the way." Naruto said with a smile as they walked to the Hokage's mansion but Naruto noticed something was on Sakura's mind that was troubling her. "Are you okay Sakura?" Naruto asked looking at the woman he loved and judging by how tight she embraced just now. "You look like something's troubling you." Naruto said as the two along with Walker and Jiriaya made their way to Tsunade's office.
"Huh, oh listen I'll tell you after we report to Tsunade if that's alright." Sakura said.
"Okay that's fine." Naruto replied. When they reached the door to her office Sakura was getting ready to knock on it when she heard random screams of pain coming from the other side along with some objects being broken.
What was happening on the other side of the door was basically Jiriaya getting his ass kicked by Tsunade for foolishly making that promise to the leader of Nadeshiko in regards to the marriage duel between Shizuka and Naruto. Naruto, Sakura, and Saint Walker just winced at the sound of Jiriaya being pummeled into the floor, him screaming in agony as Tsunade had beat him within an inch of his life before calming herself down and turning to the door. "Come in." She said as the trio entered the office as Naruto gave his usual greeting to the Fifth Hokage.
"Hey Grandma Tsunade, long time no…." He said before Tsunade's fist cut him off and sent him into the wall. "….see" He finished before getting back up.
"Naruto how many times have I told you not to call me that?" Tsunade asked him.
"How many times have I asked you when you're going to drop that disguise?" Naruto mumbled but Tsunade heard him.
"I'm sorry what did you say?" She asked brandishing her fist with a vein bulging on her head.
"Uh, nothing Granny I didn't say anything." Naruto said out of fear.
"That's what I thought you said." Tsunade replied.
You know Naruto I was expecting you to cause the Hokage a headache after you met with her not right now." A voice said from the window revealing it to be Naruto's sensei Kakashi Hatake.
"Hey Kakashi sensei, great to see you again, by the way I have a little gift for you." Naruto said presenting a box to Kakashi who hesitantly took it from him and slowly opened it only to be blinded by a bright light which dimmed down to reveal a blue/green hard back book, with a human in a thinking position and several small universal no symbols on the front cover.
"It….can't…..be…this, is…" Kakashi said too stunned for words at what he was holding in his hand was none other than the first installment in his favorite novel series in the past three years on the cover the title read; "Make out Tactics."
"Yep, it's the first new installment in the make out series in three years." Naruto said before adding his two cents in. "I didn't find it interesting and for that matter neither did Walker sensei or Brother Warth." Naruto muttered while Jiriaya looked miffed in the corner.
"He has no sense of literary taste, besides that one hasn't reached major publishers yet." Jiriaya muttered. After the debriefing, Naruto and Sakura were allowed to leave but as they left Naruto looked over to Sakura his eyes telling her he wanted to discuss something, nodding in understanding Sakura followed him as they flew out to Hokage monument and landed on the fourth's head.
"Sakura what's the matter?" Naruto asked.
"Naruto while you were gone I had this nightmare involving the Blackest Night and the possibility of a 4th Great ninja war." Sakura said as she started to breakdown in tears as the nightmare had been bothering her for a while. "I didn't think about it much at first but as the weeks passed it became more and more intense." Sakura explained going into to further detail as to what she saw even claiming that one of the tailed beasts specifically the two-tailed hell cat getting a supercharge and turning all of the dead into her slaves. To say that Naruto was shocked was an understatement but on the other hand he did remember hearing something along those lines during his time on Odym.
Flashback
(18 months into the training trip)
Planet Odym Galactic Sector 2682
Saint Walker had brought Naruto and Jiriaya to the home world of the Blue Lantern Corps to aid Naruto with his lantern training as there he met the leaders of the Blue Lantern Corps. One was a short blue old man wearing a white tunic with the blue lantern insignia on it and gray hair that baled up at the top of his head named Ganthet, the other was a female of the same description except her hair was done in a topknot, her name was Sayd former guardians of the universe before they were banished from OA along side them was the only other Blue Lantern aside from Saint Walker and Naruto himself, he was an alien elephant man named Brother Warth from sector 0002.
Once that was done, the two Guardians of Hope sat Naruto down and told him everything that they knew as former members of the self-appointed Guardians of the Universe. All about Nekron, the emotional spectrum, every secret the Guardians on Oa kept were laid bare as well as explaining everything about why hope was vital to the continuation of life. By the time they finished, three days had passed.
Naruto thought about something that puzzled him; "Say Ganthet, if Nekron was able to breach my world what would happen?" He asked the aged former Oan smiled at the question.
"You need not to worry young Naruto, we found out if he did his power and authority would be transferred over to one of the tailed beasts to be exact the two-tails." Ganthet answered to which Naruto nodded his head when suddenly another blue ring which was shot out of the central power battery for no reason and ended up hitting Jiriaya in the back of his head while he was talking with Brother Warth.
"Ouch! Who threw that?" Jiriaya asked.
"Jiriaya the Gallant; you have the power to instill great hope." The ring said before slipping on to Jiriaya's left ring finger and changing the color of his attire and slapping the Blue lantern insignia on the back of his coat. "Welcome to the Blue Lantern Corps." The ring as Naruto just stared at his perverted mentor with a sweat drop.
(End Flashback)
"Naruto are you okay?" Sakura asked him with worry in her eyes.
"Yeah I'm okay Sakura, I was just thinking back to something; but the point is I think I know why the Akatsuki are after me and the other Jinchuriki." Naruto said.
"You do why?" Sakura asked.
"Well from what my ring has been showing me they plan to fuse the nine tailed beasts back into its original form and then use the moon as the means to cast an eternal Genjutsu on the world." Naruto explained which shocked Sakura.
"Original form Naruto what do you mean?" Sakura asked.
"Well according to the old legends the Sage of the Six Paths fought a something called the ten tailed beast and managed to seal it's chakra within himself while imprisoning its body within the moon, but even he knew that this was a temporary solution to the problem so as death was about to claim him, he used a jutsu to split the ten tails chakra into nine separate entities known as the tailed beasts. I've already asked Kurama about it and he said it was true that he and other tailed beasts were once one whole beast." Naruto said causing Sakura to gasp and given what she heard about the two-tails and shuddered nervously until Naruto embraced her.
"Well let's just hope that things will work out in the end." Naruto said as Sakura nodded and returned the embrace they then sat down and looked to the stars in the night sky hoping the future would be one of peace and harmony.
Meanwhile out in the deserts of Suna two figures were making their way towards the hidden Sand village; one was a blonde haired man with mouths on his hands, a cybernetic implant in his left eye as a means of escaping Genjutsu, and on his forehead was a slashed Iwagakure headband. His partner was a hunchback of some kind but both individuals had one thing in common they wore black cloaks (A/N: Though personally I think that the cloaks are more of a navy blue shade but that's just me) they were to members of the Akatsuki named Deidara and Sasori and their goal at the moment was to infiltrate the sand and capture the vessel of Shukaku Gaara of the Desert.
Finally after five months I'm back to work on this story for those wondering where I was, I've been busy with school, then there's the fact that my Grandmother passed away in February and thus I had to go to her funeral in NYC, and most recently my dad had to have hernia surgery on his gut. Anyway next time Gaara is the first target of Akatsuki as they begin to make their move can Gaara stop them? Read and review to find out.