The Child of Prophecy

Chapter 5

The next morning, Naruto awoke to find himself barely escaping yet another prank from his mother. This time, it was the floor caving in when he stepped on it. His mother had made the trap to make him fall through the floor and into a seal array created by his mother which would transport him being stuck in a vat of glue. He had fallen for it once before, and it was not pleasant. He had been stuck for about five minutes before his mom finally came and got him, his nose had been terribly itchy and it was a fate worse than death that he had not been able to scratch it with his arms glued to his side.

After Naruto avoided the trap, he went downstairs to see his mom about the kenjutsu training she had been giving him on the side. Since he had passed the prank, she taught him another move that was rather simple to do, but extremely effective against a stronger opponent. Afterwards, he headed to his father's study in the house to ask him some questions about his Rasengan. True, he loved using his Deva Path more than anything because it was something only he could do, unlike learning the Rasengan from his father, or his kenjutsu style from his mother, but it was always good to learn techniques on the side just in case. After talking to his father for ten minutes about adding wind Chakra to the Rasengan, Naruto headed to the ANBU base to meet up with Itachi and begin their training.

It was only three hours later, and Naruto and Itachi were panting on the ground, completely spent on Chakra. The ANBU training was far more intense than anything they had ever done before. Apparently, the training did not have a standard method. There was no set amount of anything because, for instance, if one person did 100 push-ups all the time, and another never did any, then ordering them to do fifty push-ups each would be helpful to the one who did none, but it was less training for the one who did them all the time. This training was the same. You were ordered to do excercise and Chakra techniques until it was physically impossible for you to do more. You never grew strong unless you pushed yourself past your limits, that was the motto for the ANBU trainees. Naruto and Itachi lasted far longer than most people on their first day, but the result was still the same: for the next two months, they would train like this everyday to get used to exhaustion and build up everything.

Nothing really changed for Naruto and Itachi over the next two months, they trained, and in their free time trained, and sometimes trained. Naruto, of course, spent time with his family whenever he could, but Itachi was a different story. Everyone in the village knew that the Uchiha's were becoming distant and sometimes hostile towards the village. Itachi was not like the rest of the Uchihas, but he often would tell Naruto of how his father was arranging secret meetings that only the upper-class Uchiha could attend. Being the son of the head of the clan, Itachi was invited many times, but only attended once. He said that the Uchiha were planning something huge for the village within the next few years, and they had better be ready for it what ever it was. Itachi was not able to ever hear what they were actually planning because only his father and a mysterious man named Tobi that sometimes showed up to talk to Itachi's father knew what the plan was. All Itachi heard was the word "nine", but he had no idea what that could mean.

Naruto had greatly improved on his Paths, but most importantly his Deva path. He knew the three techniques meant for the Deva path; the push, the pull, and the singularity. The push was an easy concept, everything around him gets blasted away, the range only depended on how much Chakra he put into it. The pull allowed him to completely control an object and move them up or down or towards him or away, the size of the object needed the exact amount of Chakra. The singularity was something different, he was able to create a black sphere in his hand and release it into the air, he could increase the gravity of the sphere to near planet-like levels, which would draw in everything. He was scared to use the last one, as it took much more Chakra than the first two.

Itachi had also gotten much stronger, he learned another technique for his Mangekyo Sharingan, Tsukuyomi. It was a very powerful genjutsu that allowed Itachi to control the speed that time passed by in his fake world. He could hold you there for days, while in the real world merely seconds have passed. Itachi was getting better at controlling his eye techniques, and because he already had transplanted eyes, he had nothing to worry about over using them.

Today was going to be an interesting day for Naruto and Itachi because it was their first mission with their ANBU squad. To top it off, it was an A-rank mission, and that made them very excited to be off. The squad gathered outside the village gates before shooting off towards the East to there mission. On the way, Bird told them of what the mission entailed. It was an assassination mission, with a few problems. The man they were going to kill has locked himself away inside of his warehouse, protected by his small army of bandits and thugs numbering in the 50's; however, the problem was that he had hired some protection from some wandering ninja, and they had no idea the number of enemy ninja.

It was nightfall by the time Deva, Crow, Dog, and Bird arrived in the village where the warehouse was. They only had about two hours to complete their mission, the report did not mention why they had such a small window. The group quickly split up and observed the warehouse and the patrolling thugs for thirty minutes before regrouping to receive orders from Bird.

"Alright squad, by using my Byakugan, I have mapped out the interior of the warehouse, along with locating the man we are to assassinate. I can see large groups of bandits here, here, and here," indicating to the map she drew, "there are three entrances which you will enter. Dog, you are to take the North entrance and quietly make your way to the man, Crow and Deva are to enter through these doors and create a diversion. If the enemies find out we are ANBU, the mission will become that much harder with the enemy ninja running from their location here to protect the man. I want you two to transform into thugs and start a brawl, if you can, kill them while you are brawling, but under no circumstance are you to engage the enemy ninja until Dog has assassinated the contact. I will remain here and use my Byakugan to inform you through our radios if there is a change of plans. Any questions?" After seeing none of them move, she dismissed them to carry out their mission.

The mission was going smoothly for Dog, that is until a small group of thugs began walking his way. He knew he was doomed to jeopardize the mission, that is until there was a lot of yelling and crashing noises behind the thugs, indicating Deva and Crow had begun. The thugs turned around and joined in on the fray. With the way now clear, Dog resumed his mission.

Deva and Crow were actually having fun brawling with the thugs. They were being hit, and they were striking back. Under normal circumstances, there would me no chance for even a group this large to even land a hit on two ANBU leveled ninja, but to make their disguise believable Deva and Crow had to take a few hits. Luckily, compared to ninja, thugs had the strength of a small child, so the hits they were taking did nothing. Eventually, the numbers of the thugs competing in the brawl ended up being zero. Deva and Crow were both lying with the dead bandits, feigning death. They had been able to kill all of the thugs, while acting like they were killed themselves. If they did not want to be ninja, they could definitely have a job as an actor.

Dog, meanwhile, had his arm thrust through the contacts chest cavity, lightning crackling around his hand. Mission complete.

Bird gave the command for everyone to meet up outside of the locked down that housed the enemy ninja, and soon enough Deva, Crow, Dog, and Bird were all facing a locked door. They could hear noises of everyone laughing behind the door, and Bird was able to identify 6 enemy ninjas within the room, two with jonin level reserves, the rest Chuunin. With a strong kick, and a few smoke bombs, the room was suddenly throw into disarray as the Konoha ninja began their attack. All four ANBU unsheathed their tanto(small sword) and started slashing throats. The first two enemies were taken down rather fast because they were intoxicated. Deva and Crow both ended up facing off against the jonin. Deva was struggling for a bit to grab ahold of the enemy, but once he did, his Preta Path sucked the Chakra right out of him until he was nothing more than a husk. Itachi, on the other hand, had difficulty getting the enemy to look into his eye, but as soon as he did, he was witness to his own torture for 3 days, as Itachi trapped him inside of a Tsukuyomi.

While Deva and Crow were busy with their enemy, Bird and Dog had no trouble in taking down the remaining Chuunin. Dog had a light scratch where he had moved to protect Deva from an attack from behind, but was otherwise unhurt. Since they had no reason to stay any longer, the group of four decided to return to Konoha and get the pay for their first ANBU mission.

Timeskip a couple years:

Deva and Crow were crouching on top of a rooftop, overlooking their targets. It was nightfall in Konoha, and their was a uneasy feeling over the entire village. Something that told Minato something evil was coming, something dangerous. Which is the reason Deva and Crow were currently overlooking the Uchiha Clan Compound, the site of what was going to be called the Uchiha Massacre for many years to come. Over the last couple years, ever since Naruto and Itachi first joined ANBU and donned the Deva and Crow mask, Minato and a few higher ups in Konoha were receiving increasingly worsening news. The news they were receiving was that of a coup d'etat, staged by one of the founding clans: The Uchiha. Ever since the era of the Second Hokage, the Uchiha have been trusted less and less, and more power has been removed from them because of rumours floating around. The Uchiha finally had enough, and had decided to overthrow the village and rule it themselves. Knowing that none in the Uchiha were innocent excluding Itachi and his younger brother, the Fourth Hokage issued an order to his two of his most powerful ANBU members; his own son Naruto, and the herald of the information, Itachi.

And that brings us back to the mission currently at hand, the assassination of every Uchiha. A few Uchiha have been picked off on missions for the last few days, and before the clan learns of this they must be killed. The only way Itachi would carry out this mission was that he could save his younger brother. Both boys were extremely depressed with what could be their last mission for Konoha. The assignment carried a sub-mission that was possibly worse for them than the entire genocide of a clan. Once the two were done, they were to be labeled rouge ninja and forced to flee Konoha. The Hokage could not get away with ordering the genocide of a clan, so all the blame must rest on Itachi's shoulders; however, Naruto fought for hours to secure a place beside his best friend as a rouge ninja. There was no way that Naruto would let Itachi take the fall all by himself. Naruto and his mom fought for hours, but finally Kushina had to give in to her son, mostly because Naruto's younger sister was due in a few hours and Kushina had to get ready. After a heartfelt hug, Naruto donned his ANBU gear and joined Itachi.

Which brings us back once again, to Deva and Crow. Beneath their ANBU masks, Crow's Mangekyo Sharingan was spinning wildly, and Deva's Rinnegan could easily be seen glowing from within. With a nod at each other, the two disappeared into the night. Because it was an ambush, their targets fell easily, after a while, their was only one house left. Both ANBU soldiers gathered in front of the door. With a large fire ball jutsu, the door was blown open, but strangely enough, they never heard it hit the ground. In fact, the two heard no movement at all, and Itachi knew that his parents were home tonight, so where were they? Itachi's answer was a scene out of a horror movie, the bodies of his mother and father sprawled out on the blood-covered floor. There was no sign of struggle, indicating that his parents were struck down by surprise. The problem was that no one else was supposed to know of their mission, so this murder was unrealated.

"This is not right, Deva. Who could have done this?" Crow murmured.

"With my Rinnegan, I can see that this room has been altered slightly with Chakra. It seems like everything in this room has been swirled into another dimension and then brought back, just like his- Crow, we have to get to the Hokage immediately!" Deva yelled before taking off, with Crow close behind.

Because of Kushina going into labour, Minato had her taken elsewhere, guarded only by him and another medic. The medic was there to keep Kushina healthy as she delivered a little girl, while Minato was there to keep the seal that restrained the Kyuubi strong. With a final push, Naruto's younger sister, Natsumi, was brought into the world. Minato was so happy, he almost didn't recognize the sound of a body hitting the floor, almost. He spun around to the sight of the medic falling to the ground in a pool of her own blood. He turned back around to hear Kushina screaming, and what he saw made his blood run cold. Natsumi was being held in the arms of the Masked Man he had fought long ago.

"Step away from the Jinjurikii, Fourth." The Masked Man order while holding a kunai to little Natsumi's face.

Minato did as he was told, but prepared to attack at any opprutunity. His chance came sooner than expected when the Masked Man suddenly threw Natsumi in the air and thrust his kunai in the air towards her small body. Instead of that happening, Minato used his Hirashin teleportation to grab Natsumi and stick to the wall with her in her arms. But, he had to move quickly, since the blanket she was wrapped up in started glowing with the sight of an exploding seal on it. Minato quickly unraveled the blanket and jumped away with a naked Natsumi. The house exploded, but from his wive's Chakra, he could feel that they were far away. With a flash, he teleported to his house and placed Natsumi inside their bed, before then donning his Hokage cloak and teleporting to Kushina.

What he teleported to, was the sight of seeing a large red paw almost crush him to death. Minato quickly jumped to the side, not a moment too soon. From his new position, Minato was able to see the prone form of his wife's body lying on the ground. He teleported to her side, then brought her back to lay with their daughter as he fought the Masked Man.

When Minato reappeared, the Masked Man was gone, and so was the Kyuubi. Before he could set out, his son and Itachi both appeared before him.

"Dad! That Masked Man that attacked us when I was young returned! You have to protect mom, he may try to kill her again!" Naruto shouted.

"Do not worry Naruto, I have already seen him and taken Kushina to a secure place. Your newborn sister is also fine, but right now we have to worry about the masked man because he is now in possession of the Kyuubi. We must find him at once and stop him because I feel that the entire village is in danger." Minato, with his Fourth Hokage tone, set out to defend the village, Naruto and Itachi close behind.

When they arrived, they were confronted by Kakashi, whom they told of what was happening. Kakashi, along with Naruto and Itachi were the most powerful shinobi inside of the Village, exluding the Hokage. Jiraiya is stronger, but at the time, he was far away from the village on a mission.

The four were stationed all over the village, looking for the Masked Man, when suddenly, a loud pop of smoke disturbed the air, and a roar defended the village. Immediately, everyone's heads turned to locate the source of the roar, and were witniss to a sight that none of them wished to see: the sight of the mighty Kyuubi towering over all of them. With a sudden swipe of a tail, many buildings were crushed and the earth shook. Many were not going to survive this night.

"Hokage, your time has come." Suddenly the masked man appeared behind Minato, and just as sudden, they both were gone.

"Naruto, Itachi, we three need to stop the Kyuubi's assualt so that the Hokage can finish it!" Kakashi barked out orders he had been used to giving to these two since they were under his direct command for years now. Naruto and Itachi were both 14 and Kakashi was 18, hard to imagine teens fight a monster like the Kyuubi, but someone had to do it.

The three assembled on top of the Hokage Monument, devising a plan to take it down. Before they were ready, the Kyuubi reared its head back and gathering pecular-looking Chakra.

"Kakshi, we have trouble. With my Rinnegan, I can see that the Kyuubi is gathering Yin and Yang Chakra, which is far more powerful than human-made Chakra. I think it is going to fire a tailed-beast bomb, the strongest attack Bijuu can deal, and it's aimed right at us. If it hit this monument, the blast radius will encompass all of Konoha, every one will die. We need to divert this attack, not block it." Naruto said.

"Damn. Itachi!"

"Yes, sir!"

"You and I are going to combine our Mangekyo Sharingans to use Kamui together."

"Understood."

"While you two block the bombs, because I believe it will shoot more than one, I need time to gather up Chakra for my ultimate Rinnegan jutsu. Just by me some time!"

With that said, Naruto sat down and began gathering up Yin and Yang Chakra himself. He was only able to do this because of the Rinngean's abilities. Behind him, he heard the swishing sound of Kamui working on transporting the bomb into another realm. This was followed by another, and another. By the time Naruto was finally ready, Itachi and Kakashi were lying on the ground; exhausted. Naruto then jumped towards the Kyuubi and eventually ended up directly in front of it.

Naruto, then, finally opened his hands, and a little black ball came floating out of it and rose into the sky.

"Planetary Devastation." Naruto calmly called as pieces of earth swiftly rose up into the sky and combined with the orb. Everywhere, ground cracked and earth rumpled as Naruto put more and more power into the attack and the area surrounding Konoha was abruptly yanked into the sky. The attack was so strong that nearby mountains were crumbling and being lifted into the air. Once the gravitational pressure reached its peak, Naruto direct all it's effect on the Kyuubi; the results were instantainious. The Kyuubi rocketed towards the incredibly large rock suspended in the sky. The rock was so large, that had it been midday, its shadow would have loomed over the entirety of Konoha. The Kyuubi stood no chance as it tried to free itself from the gravity. Naruto knew that eventually, the Kyuubi would escape, so he combined the Deva Path's Planetary Devastation with his Preta Path and began draining the Kyuubi of Chakra through the rock that bound it. Naruto knew that he did not have enough power to remove even half of the Kyuubi's Chakra, but he did remove enough so that it was stuck for the moment.

"Good work, son. I'll take it from here." Minato appeared in all his glory beside Naruto. Minato suddenly threw his Hirashin kunai in the air and let the gravity of the rock carry to its destination, its surface. He then grabbed Naruto and teleported them both up to its surface.

"Pretty odd standing up here and looking down on our village, isn't son?" Minato said before walking over to the exposed skin of the Kyuubi's stomach.

"Son, let me just say that I'm proud of you. And I know you'll protect your mom and your little sister without me around." Minato said before starting a lot of seals.

"Dad, what are you talking about? You're not leaving us are you, you're not even hurt!" Naruto said, slightly panicking at the thought of losing his dad.

"I am sorry to place this burden on you son, but this technique I'm going to do will cause me to die. I will have to seal the Kyuubi into someone new since Kushina would not survive another sealing so soon. But here's where the news gets worse. Because the sealing will require new Chakra coils, we are forced to use a newborn. In the village, there are many newborns I could choose from, but how I could I ask someone else to sacrifice their child when I couldn't sacrifice mine? I am going to seal the Kyuubi inside of Natsumi. It will be your job to take care of her and protect her against any enemy. Well, now I'm finished with the seals. Goodbye, son. I love you." With that, the Kyuubi was defeated and resealed back inside another host; at the cost of the Fourth Hokage's life. The rock structure crumbled apart and Naruto, along with the body of his father, plunged towards the ground. Just after they landed, Naruto looked at his father with so much pain on his face before his eyes glowed and he called out two words.

"Outer Path."