Hello again. This is the longest chapter in this story, totalling at 2500 words. I put in a lot of information, so enjoy that, but it is vital to the plot and it builds the interest Raven has in Naruto, making her more likely to seek him out for another conversation, it also adds mystery to Naruto with the information he does know. Anyways, does anyone know any of the Titans birthdates? If not, I'll make them up on my own.
I don't own anything other than my own ideas.
"Gaara! Stop this! This isn't you!" Naruto screamed at the giant tanuki without any success in getting Gaara's attention.
The Titans looked at the desperate blonde. They could see the plain desperation and worry etched on his face. They saw him clench his fists as he tried to call out to the monster again.
"Gaara! Don't make me stop you again!" Naruto tried one last time.
"Nar, you know this thing?" Cyborg asked the half-demon man. The metal teen was at a loss. How could he hurt something that looked as if it were purely sand? Unless… he had an idea. What if he could use the sonic cannon in his arm to heat up the sand, turning it into glass? But then he'd need to crank up the heat on his cannon. He'd need to crank it up a lot.
"Yeah… he and I go way back…" Was all Naruto had to say. He gritted his teeth together before shooting off in a burst of speed. The Titans all watched as Naruto sped towards the sand racoon.
"Guys, we need to take down that thing. Any ideas?" Robin asked his team. He was frowning and had a serious expression.
"We need heat. If we can get it hot enough we can turn it into glass." Cyborg told his leader. He started fiddling with something on his arm, making the blue colors on himself turn into a bright red.
"I'm turning up the heat on my cannon, you guys will need to find another way to heat it up." The metal man told his friends. He would have made something for them if he could, but considering the monster was attacking now, he had no time to.
The Titans scattered when sand tendrils attacked them. They started to look for something they could use to heat up the sand monster. Robin used explosive birdarangs to blow up sand tendrils attempting to attack him as he tried to find heat sources. Beast-Boy dodged the tendrils while in the form of a seagull. Raven smothered them with her black and white energy while she also sent blasts of that same energy toward the monster. Starfire shot off her green starbolts at the monstrosity while flying around the sand attempting to catch her. Cyborg just stood in place, blasting anything that came near him with his cannon.
Meanwhile at the tanuki's feet, Naruto sped up the demon while dodging the sand tendrils that shot out of the 'skin' of the sand demon. He formed a ball of bright blue swirling energy, chakra as it was called in his time, and shoved it into a wall of sand blocking his way.
"Rasengan!" He screamed as it grinded away the sand. The wall burst into a cloud of sand, stinging Naruto's eyes. He gritted his teeth together as he continued up the leg of the demon.
"Narutoooo!" Gaara screamed in pain yet again. The tanuki looked down at the yellow streak climbing his leg.
"Help me Naruto! Stop me!"
Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, only to open them again, his once cerulean blue eyes now a rage-filled red. He wouldn't let Shukaku have his friend's mind again.
"Gaara! Listen to me!" Naruto called out, once again forming another rasengan and throwing it into the hand of sand that tried to grab him. "You can fight him! Shukaku can't control you if you don't let him!"
The giant demon let out a screech that made Naruto flinch and almost trip into the sand tanuki's belly. The Titans covered their ears in pain and barely dodged the tendrils that attacked them.
"I can't! I can't! I can't!" The sand monster raged, stomping its feet in frustration. Small shockwaves flooded the city which caused multiple buildings around them to collapse.
Naruto groaned in pain as a tendril pierced his shoulder. "I'm too old for this shit." He increased his speed, red tendrils surrounded his body as he shot up his friend's body. In no time he was on the top of the sand demon's head.
Unlike before when they were kids, Gaara was almost fully stuck inside the forehead of Shukaku. Before Gaara was only held up to his waist in the sand demon's head. This time all Naruto could see was a pale hand barely sticking out amongst the sand. His eyes bled away to their natural blue.
"Naru… to…" Gaara's muffled voice could barely be heard from underneath the sand.
Naruto walked forwards, expecting resistance but encountering none as he walked towards his trapped friend. He grabbed the pale hand and pulled as hard as he could, only to be denied his friend.
"I… can't… breathe…" Gaara could barely say. He was drowning in the sand demon, something Naruto had considered impossible seeing as Gaara could literally turn himself into sand.
The red flooded Naruto's eyes again and he pulled even harder, making Gaara rise a little. He forced more demonic energy into his body. A red cloak formed around Naruto's entire body as he continued trying to pull him out. One, two, no – three tails formed at the back his red cloak. Gaara came out a little more, uncovering his red hair and black-rimmed eyes.
"Thank… you…" Gaara whispered softly as he was pulled out of the sand demon. Naruto softly smiled at his friend.
"You'd do the same for me." The half-demon told him before yanking him fully out of the sand demon, causing the entire thing to collapse. "Rest. I'll fix your seal again."
A soft smile graced Gaara's lips as he drifted into sweet unconsciousness.
"Let me get this straight. You have a demon sealed inside of you and it tries to control you by making you unable to sleep, thus weakening your mental state and causing bouts of insanity." Robin stated with suspicion.
Gaara only nodded impassively at the young man's words.
"Only this time your mental state was so weak that the demon inside of you tried to smother your mind and Naruto was the only one who could fix the problem?"
"Actually any seal master could have fixed Gaara's seal, only I seem to be the only seal master around, not to mention even exists as the art is probably dead in this time." Naruto told the Titan's leader. Gaara nodded in agreement to his words.
"Alright. But then here's the kicker. He is also from the same time as you. How is that even possible?" Robin asked the two men. Naruto was a little simpler to understand. He was a half-demon, as such his genetic code was designed in such a way that he couldn't be completely killed, only temporarily. Gaara was different. He was still human even though his body played host to a demon.
"If what I suspect is right, there's another seven people from my time out there, maybe even eight." Naruto told the brightly colored eighteen-year-old. "What I think happened is that because his body holds a demon, it lengthened his lifespan so much that only a direct killing blow can put him down."
"In other words he will never age and can only be killed by decapitation or by being stabbed through the heart?" Robin asked the seal master.
"Not exactly. I suspect anything that can kill a normal person can kill Gaara. He just can't die of old age." Naruto corrected the boy-wonder.
"Wow." Beast-Boy exclaimed. "You're both so old." Only for him to have the back of his head smacked by Cyborg as he walked towards the four sitting on the couch. The teen fell forwards face first onto the ground.
"Well all I know is, is that the two of you will be staying here until further notice." Cyborg said, offering the ex-ninja cups of tea. They graciously accepted with a nod of their heads and took a sip of it.
"Wow. This is pretty good. What's in it?" Naruto asked the metal man with open curiosity.
"Just a few herbs Beast-Boy grows in the garden." Cyborg told him. Beast-Boy was the resident vegetarian in the building and as such had his own garden to grow the foods that he liked.
Naruto threw back the rest of the tea and sighed in relief as it seemed to unwind his tense body. Being locked up and then an encounter with a demon in the form of an old friend was not a good form of relaxation.
"Hey, are there any libraries nearby?" Naruto asked his hosts. He wanted to do some research on the world he was currently in. Naruto refused to be like his old orange jumpsuit wearing self and never go to the library or even consider reading a book.
"There's one that Raven goes to all the time! I'm pretty sure she's over there right now!" Beast-Boy replied with a bounce in his step. He was pouting on the ground after Cyborg had smacked him but perked up when Naruto had complimented the tea his herbs had made. "C'mon, I'll show you!"
The green teen shifted into a large green pterodactyl easily big enough to ride.
"Hop on!" He encouraged the blonde half-demon. Naruto looked at the extinct bird that replaced Beast-Boy with shock and awe.
"That is so cool!" Naruto said while hopping onto the extinct animals' back. He whooped with excitement as Beast-Boy took off out of an open window. Within seconds the two were nowhere to be seen.
"You have very big windows." The two Titans left behind only looked at Gaara as he sipped on his tea.
"So… What's it like being made of sand?" Cyborg asked the red-headed demon container.
Raven was sitting by herself at her usual table in the small bookshop she frequented ever since she came to this realm. Usually everyone avoided the dark teen which gave her the silence that she could rarely find back at the tower. So it came as a surprise to her when Naruto plopped down into a chair across from her with a couple books, while opening one on World War II. She decided to keep quiet and continue to read the book she found in her own book collection.
While the Five Great Shinobi Nations were led by the daimyō, the capitals of the Nations, known as Hidden Villages, were led by a 'Kage' (meaning shadow). The Hidden Villages were essentially a military dictatorship with the Kage of the Village being on equal footing with the daimyō and while they mostly received jobs directly from the daimyō, it wasn't uncommon to receive jobs from other smaller lands that didn't have the luxury of their own ninja forces. The forces of the military were known as Shinobi (male ninja) or Kunoichi (female ninja).
There were five different 'official' levels of ninja. Genin, Chunin, Jonin, ANBU, and Kage.
Genin (literally "Lower Ninja") are the lowest level of ninja.
Chunin (literally "Middle Ninja") are ninja who are qualified to watch over and guide other ninja.
Jonin (literally "High Ninja") are the elite ninja who are given A or S-rank missions.
The ANBU (literally "Dark Side") is actually short for Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai (literally Assassination Tactics Special Force), and is an organization of assassination squads that serves directly under the village's leader.
Kage (literally "Shadow") are the leaders of the five most powerful Hidden. Villages and generally the most powerful ninja in their respective villages.
These ninjas could control the elements, making them a very dangerous foe to come across in combat. They employed these techniques with the use of 'chakra', a special energy made of the physical and mental aspects of the body. The different elements that every ninja could control was limited to Earth, Lightning, Water, Fire and Wind. While those were the main elements, some others with a genetic difference called a "bloodline limit" could combine certain elements together, for example: The Yuki Clan could combine the Wind and Water elements to make ice techniques.
The most famous bloodlines were….
"This Hitler guy reminds me of someone from back home." Jarred from her reading, Raven gave the one who interrupted her a dark glare. Naruto raised his hands slightly and gave her a small smile.
"Hey, I mean no harm. I just see you're reading a book about my home and thought you'd like some first-hand information." Naruto said as he closed his own book.
"That would be… helpful." Raven finally said after a moments hesitation. She closed the book on ninja and crossed her fingers together as she paid the blonde her fullest attention.
Naruto sighed and leaned back in his chair as if to recollect memories of back home. "When I was a ninja there was something people were calling the "Bloodline War" going on. It was a civil war restricted to the Land of Water. The Fourth Mizukage had ordered a genocide of any Bloodline Bearer. Honestly it seems like this Hitler guy took some tips from him. Anyways, the rebellion was started by Mei Terumi, a close friend of mine. She had two different bloodlines actually. I can't say why, but one day Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage just vanished into thin air. Some say it was a group called Akatsuki, but no one really knows."
At this piece of information Raven raised an eyebrow. "The same group that sealed you away?"
Naruto chuckled and rested his hands on the back of his head with both elbows pointed outwards. "Yeah, that same group. They had their fingers in a lot of different events."
"Their leader was the one who sealed me away. He had the same bloodline as the Sage of Six Paths, the one who introduced the age old art of 'ninshū' into this world before it became ninjutsu."
"What is ninshū? And wasn't ninjutsu the art of stealth, camouflage, and sabotage?" Raven questioned Naruto. "It doesn't seem like it was in your time. Controlling the elements would be extremely noticeable."
"Yeah well… My people used to be stealthy, but after a couple hundred years we became more like warriors than anything. Anyways, ninshū was supposed to help people understand each other better and lead the world into peace, but it was developed into a weapon and used to harm others, thus becoming ninjutsu." Naruto told the purple-haired girl.
He actually didn't believe how much information he was releasing to her. In all honesty she intrigued him. After all, she was a half-demon that was more or less accepted by humanity, unlike him. For that reason, he felt a little more comfortable telling her what he knew of his time, even if she would be telling her team later.
Raven quirked a smile at this newest tidbit of information. Leading the world into peace? That was a joke, humans could never be peaceful. They were always looking for something, for an outlet, and a lot of the time that turned into violence. Just look at her team. They wouldn't even think of being heroes if they didn't somewhat like fighting.
"This Sage sounds like he was naïve." Raven told Naruto who could only smirk at her words.
"He was. I met him." Naruto stated before getting up to check out his books, leaving Raven to her thoughts.
How could he meet someone who was dead for hundreds of years?