Chapter Thirteen: From the Ashes
"War." Gorgon spits the word. "That is what they call it to give the illusion of honor and law. It is chaos. Madness and blood and the hunger to win. It has always been thus and shall always be so."
― Libba Bray, The Sweet Far Thing
Three days later, Konoha, the Hokage Tower.
Tsunade had spent the last three days dealing with the fallout from their, successful, - attack on the Daimyo and the fact that she had practically became the Dictator of the whole Fire Country. Most of the trouble came from the Noble Lords as the small folks simply weren't interested in the dealings of the court especially as nothing had changed much except from the name of the persons who collected their taxes. There were, of course, the other villages to deal with and their countries Daimyo's but nobody wanted to bout heads with Konoha not when they had proven that if pushed to far they could and would go to war with those who though easy prey.
All she had to do now was to find Naruto, issue a pardon and make a show of force to the other villages, to remind them that they had the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails on their side. Of course that show of force would involve the slaughter of thousands of Samurai from the armies the Noble Lords were assembling in "secret" to overthrow her illegal claim to the throne and while Mifune would not be happy when the news reached him that that many of his Samurai had died, he would not do much seeing as they were hired to kill them but failed. So imagine her surprise when she opened the door to her office and found four unconscious ANBU and Naruto staring out of the window, seemingly unaware of her presence.
"Beautiful isn't it?" asked Naruto as she stepped into her office.
"It's the main reason my grandfather built the tower here" she smiled softly "it has the best view of the village barring the Monument itself"
"I was not talking about the village but about the dream behind this place" Naruto spoke sadly "though the view is nice too"
"What are you talking about?" asked Tsunade worried about the way he spoke "Naruto, what happened?"
"Nothing you have to worry about" he assured as he turned to face her, his left eye much like a Rinnengan but it now had twelve tomoe in its circles and was as red as blood, pulsing slowly while his other eye as the bright blue she remembered "just a little scuffle but anyway we were talking about the beauty of this villages existence"
"How many things happened for this village to came to life" spoke Naruto, is voice almost a whisper "the death of thousands of people, some of them just normal civilians some of them just babies in their cribs and in the end Peace was achieved but looking back at the cost of it you can't help but wonder if it was worthy"
"You would suffer war upon us once more?" asked Tsunade bewildered and more than a bit scared of the change in the normally cheery Naruto.
"But the war never stopped" Naruto chuckled bitterly "you see this eyes are not much different from the Sages except their appearance and like him I can use this eyes to see through time, oh , the endless possibilities and most of them coming from such simple and banal things like if Hashirama had gone to wash himself to the river one day"
"Or if Tobirama hadn't lost his balance during his fight with Izuna and thus hadn't been forced to use the Flying Thunder God and thus leading to a Uchiha ruled Konoha instead" Naruto explained passionately "all because a pebble wasn't moved by the strong winds of that morning, such inane things with such a large impact on our goals and dreams"
"Why are you telling me this?" asked Tsunade curious and a little bit excited, after all the boy was a Jinchuriki and wielded the Legendary Rinnengan.
"Because I lost Kurama or as you call it the Nine Tails" Naruto stated calmly "and I'm going to get him back provided you help me somewhat"
"How?" was the only thing she managed to say in her state of utter shock.
"A combination of seals, S-ranks and a shit load of bad luck" Naruto sighed "though it did have a silver lining as it unlocked the full potential of the Broken Path"
"You must know that right now we can't exactly afford to send shinobi to help you though if you help us to pacify the rebel Lords than I can easily send people to help you" Tsunade answered, her minds racing with plans and calculations.
"No, you won't, you'll lock me up, or try at least- so that the Rinnengan can be added to Konoha's line of bloodlines" Naruto countered over Tsunade's indignant splutter " and then you would have to die from my hand"
"You wouldn't…" Tsunade spoke, switching from shock to anger.
"I would and I could, fortunately for you the falcon overhead tells me it won't be by my hand that you will die, It would make me even more sad than the fact that my closest relative would have to die by my hand even though you won't see the end of the war that you have started" Naruto explained as he returned his gaze toward the village "it is rotten you know, beyond saving at this point and the only choice would be to raze it and begin anew"
"You can't, I won't let you" Tsunade said steeling herself to kill Naruto.
"Calm down, this is neither the time nor the place for you to die" Naruto warned his Rinnengan shinning, reminding her of the power it held "however it is the place and time for you to decide whether you will give me the plans of Iwa that I know you posses"
"Why?" she asked reigning herself, she could still turn this to her favor.
"Isn't it obvious? I want to get Kurama back" replied Naruto "and having those plans along with every bit of Intelligence you have on Iwa would help a great deal in demolishing it but if you don't… well it won't matter anyway"
"I cannot, not even you can win against an entire village and if Iwa were to find proof of our help to you, it would mean another world war" she answered after thinking hard about it.
"As expected" Naruto sighed "you should tell Jiraya, you know. He must know and you won't live for much longer anyway"
"How, did you know?" asked Tsunade, her voice as chilly as the Winter Country.
"As I said I can see both Past and Future especially when I can look into people's eyes then everything is laid bare to me" Naruto said "I guess this is a goodbye Tsunade" and with those words he flashed away leaving a distraught Tsunade and four unconscious ANBU behind.
Somewhere in the rooftops of Konoha, a few moments later.
Kakashi was speeding through the rooftops, following a particular scent that he hadn't felt in a while, Naruto Uzumaki was back home. Being unaware of the events unfolding in the Hokage tower, he hurried there, not his top speed or he would be followed by half a squadron of ANBU but definitively faster than he normally went. Thinking that Naruto finally decided to come back home and knowing that no one within Konoha would undermine the Hokage's authority under the circumstances, Naruto could finally be his student once more, hell he would even apprentice the brat and teach him a thing or two that his game could never teach. The threat of "Judgment" still loomed over their head but unless their leaders took it up with them he doubted anything could actually threaten Naruto's combination of Rinnengan and a massive Tailed Beast chakra pool to fall back on.
Engrossed in his thoughts he didn't notice the miniscule shift of the Space-Time near him signaling the use of the Flying Thunder God of course it might have also been because Kamui was much, much "heavier" and brutal in its manipulation of Space-Time if more versatile. Of course he didn't fail to notice the presence of someone else right next to him so with a fluid move he pressed his kunai to… thin air as the person moved but a couple of paces away from the kunai. His eyes widened as he felt his muscles freeze at the sight of the person he tried to turn into a kebab, the power of the Gamer stopping him from taking any further actions against a smirking Naruto, now sporting a blood-red Rinnengan, equipped with twelve tomoe no less in his left eye.
"That's not nice of you Kashi-kun to greet your Emperor like that" scolded Naruto.
"My 'Emperor' should know better than to sneak up on me like that" scoffed Kakashi.
"Yes and pigs may yet fly without the aid of chakra" Naruto answered with a scoff of his own before the world around them blurred before shifting to that of a forest "but that Is not what I'm here for"
"What are you here for?" asked Kakashi.
"I'm here for two things, first is to inform you that Kurama has been extracted from me and is currently being imprisoned by Iwa" answered Naruto "second thing is for you to inform Jiraya that I need him to easy up on the security on the plans of Iwa"
"You do know that he will need a little more than my word to do that" said Kakashi worried about what his knucklehead student may do next.
"I do happen to know" Naruto smiled "that's why you will hand him this kunai with my chakra inside, he will know how to get the message within"
"Still stealing those plans would make Tsunade raise your bounty up to Orochimaru rank" warned Kakashi trying to dissuade his student.
"She already is" Naruto waved away his concern "I have grown from last time Kakashi, even more than you can imagine, the exact methods will be revealed when you take your position as we agreed"
"How do you know?" asked Kakashi before his eyes widened "the Broken Path"
"You do know that I have seen little over three thousand variations of this conversation, right?" asked Naruto in a mocking tone "and you are correct the Broken Path has been unleashed in its full glory although it cost me my other Rinnengan to get that"
"Not a bad trade mind you, much like your own sole Sharingan but it's still weird to see the world the way I do and the way I used to at the same time" Naruto sighed "alas what is done is done and we must strive toward the future now"
"You have grown indeed" Kakashi spoke with an eye smile "the Naruto I knew didn't even know the meaning of those words'
"He didn't but I learned a lot from our past, the true past not what the victors wrote" Naruto smiled sadly "I saw Titans wage wars and I mean literal Titans and then the young gods overthrowing their parents as the Titans once banished the early Primordial's, my ancestors building the World Wall, the Sage and his Brother standing against a being that was the source of their own power and defeat it by sheer willpower"
"Very inspiring but then with the threats that banded humanity together gone, wars reassumed but instead of machinery we used chakra this time, having finally thrown off the shackles the early gods placed upon human chakra" Naruto continued tersely "but I also saw the way to end this Age of Strife though the price… well it's a price that I and I alone must pay"
"Naruto…" Kakashi began but was stopped by a raised palm.
"I know all that you can and will say Kakashi and it won't sway me" Naruto said in a firm tone much like his own mother when she decided to do something "now you must go and put the gears, that will end this Age, to motion while I pay the price of peace"
"Promise me you will at least be careful" said Kakashi, having understood that Naruto wouldn't be swayed "I would hate to have to mourn you too"
"It's me we are talking about" Naruto smiled one of his thousand watt smiles "since when did such small things as Death kept me from keeping my promises"
"That's exactly what worries me" muttered Kakashi as he disappeared in a Body-Flicker.
"You can come out now Danzo" Naruto spoke, his tone as frosty as the glaciers in the Sea of Lights "I know you have been there for a long time as you may have noticed from the interferences on your eavesdropping"
"Indeed I did" answered Danzo coming out of the trunk of a tree revealing his use of the Chameleon Jutsu "you have grown to be a true shinobi during your absence"
"An you have only grown older and more revolting" Naruto quipped "Time has a way of making such things happen"
Somewhere in a restaurant in Konoha a non-descript chunnin entered from a secret entrance that led to the place where Jiraya spent most of his time in Konoha, an open secret if you may for all those of B-ran clearance and above. Of course true to ninja fashion the Jiraya enjoying the dances of the courtesans wasn't the true Jiraya but a reinforced shadow clone while the true Jiraya was disguised as another non-descript jounnin tasked with making sure that Jiraya didn't burn down the whole Red Lights District in one of his drunken hazes. Very few people wondered about that particular inconsistence as Jiraya as a Kage-level shinobi wouldn't even have to actually harm a jounnin, to get away from him,- even if he was drunk and currently there were about five people in Konoha who could stop him under such circumstances especially seeing that being truly drunk loosened Jiraya up enough to not care about his appearance in Sage Mode and totally shook off all of his self-imposed limitations while in Konoha.
No, the reason for this inconsistence was to allow for those few people who had figured this out to have a easy way to contact him while taking out any assassins who though that he was but an average jounnin without having to destroy half the establishment. This was of course exactly how Kakashi found him, his disguise using no chakra so as not to have to defend against a pissed off Jiraya until he found out who he really was and the whole secrecy of the affair was blown. That and to saw a little trouble for the poor fellow who he was imitating, of course. The affair was really quick with the chunnin consoling the 'poor' jounnin stuck on babysitting duty, making a few lewd comments before moving to get himself some girls for himself.
That of course was so normal reaction among shinobi that nobody paid any attention to it and how the two greatest stealth masters in all of Konoha exchanged information unnoticed even by the occasional ANBU using that particular establishment. The message of course was decrypted in under a minute, written in the Uzu sealing language as it was and Jiraya being the world leading expert on all matters Uzu related. A twitch of his right eye later, being mistaken by all who noticed it as a sign of utter annoyance,- the Jiraya clone used his famed hair manipulation technique to throw the 'jounnin' out while he had a 'private chat' with the girls. The happening was only graced with a round of laughter and the discarded even by the normally super-paranoid ANBU
"Rude as always, I see" Danzo chuckled darkly.
"We both know you are currently among the living for a single reason Danzo so just don't even think about initiating any of your little speeches" warned Naruto.
"And do please tell, what reason is this?" asked Danzo his posture the perfect picture of politeness.
"You have your uses as I have uses for you" Naruto continued slowly "which is why you and your little band of bodyguards were even allowed to find us in this particular location"
"You want me to find you the plans for Iwa" Danzo stated "you know that not even me can get access to those without Tsunade's permission and Jiraya snatching those right back"
"So what makes you believe that I would waste my resources on such a fool's errand?" asked Danzo his body language betraying nothing.
"Oh, but you can get them starting in about two hours, thirty five minutes and forty six seconds" Naruto explained as if he was talking to a toddler "and the benefits of you adding me would be in perfect synchrony with your own plans "
"Benefits?" asked the man, raising his eyebrow.
"As you might know Kumo and Kiri have as of lately lost a great deal of capable shinobi in a conflict that has scarred the landscape" Naruto began "what you don't know is that they fought me and lost and are thus weakened but Iwa remains unscathed from these recent events and I intent to rectify such a thing, while recovering my Tailed Beast"
"What about Suna?" asked the Councilor.
"Pfft, they cling to their status and independence solely based upon the power of their Jinchuriki while in a desert" Naruto assured "to attack Suna would spark another great war while Konoha is in no position to profit from it while taking Iwa down a peg or three will prevent war for another year at least thus giving Konoha time… time that it desperately needs now that it has no Jinchuriki to act as deterrent"
"Why don't I just kill you and take your pretty eye for myself?" asked Danzo.
"You can try but it will end in catastrophic failure" Naruto retorted "my repertoire is to vast for your little toy ninja to overcome and you would lose to many of those Death-free cards for your own comfort while I would still escape unscathed"
"But if you collaborate you will postpone your death" Naruto finished his angry chakra returning to its tranquil state allowing the hidden ROOT ninja to breathe.
"Everyone dies sooner or later" Danzo launched a last probe.
"Yes, but yours will come faster than you can possibly imagine" Naruto replied "and every step you take to ensure your survival will only hasten it… though I do wonder if you will give me the pleasure of snuffing your life with my own hands"
"For now however, I must leave as many more things have to be placed in motion" Naruto spoke before vanishing in a flash of faint yellow light, signaling the use of the single deadliest technique on the continent.
"Like father, like son" whispered Danzo before calmly walking out of the clearing and toward one of his ROOT bases, unaware of the Ink fly following them.
The Uzumaki clans were famous for their mastery of seals and their supposed lack of inbreeding while still maintaining their secret jutsu and knowledge within the clan and having never had a leek of information within the clan. Of course as with all ninja the explanation wasn't all flowers and sunshine as seals that made it impossible to break under torture or other mean of interrogations were the standard within the clan and the village itself. The fact that such knowledge was kept a complete secret was explained by the Uzumaki Invisible corps, the ANBU of ANBU, the greatest masters of infiltration and surveillance and it was only after they were slaughtered by a traitor within their ranks that the village fell to a surprise attack.
Their lack of inbreeding was one of their skeletons in the cupboard because that didn't happen because they were liberal enough to marry outside the clan with no repercussions but because being masters of seals they knew about the dangers of inbreeding, as the higher tier seals affected not only the outside world and its forces but the very genetic makeup of man and beasts and the really good ones affected absolutely everything down to the very building blocks of reality itself. Every newcomer was then submitted to a very harsh training regime which took them to the edge of their durability everyday and either produced shinobi with similar abilities to their clan through sheer conditioning and willpower or killed them. Needless to say the numbers of newcomers to the clan were incredible small but their chakra was strong and vast and with each generation stronger and stronger clan members came along and thus nobody complained.
Of course the reason of their destruction was not any of such practices even if one could argue, - but them being too good with seals and creating one of the ultimate seals and thus making sure that with each generation the clan would grow stronger and stronger to the point where each and every one of them would be S-rank with the occasional SS-rank thrown into the mix. This of course couldn't be allowed to happen so three of the major Villages and quite a number of smaller ones gathered together to end the threat that Uzu could, no would present in the near future and all that due to a traitor from within the clan.
But even if they were destroyed and their survivors scattered to the four winds the ultimate seal was never found and not even the traitor could find or if he could he hid it very well because the invading forces gave up a few weeks later and killed him thus ending the supposedly ending the legacy of Uzu unaware of the survivors. Of course with Naruto being who he was, he found out about it before reaching the age where one ascended to Head of the Clan status (18 years old) while at the same time getting a few perks
Flashback
The first thing Naruto though when he suddenly saw himself floating above a gigantic city, was that the afterlife was kind of weird not that it detracted from the sheer beauty of the place but still weird. The city was mostly made out of towers that were taller that even the Hokage monument by at least twice its height. The towers seemed to be made out of colored glass, not one being of the same color,- but they gave the feeling of being indestructible and he knew deep down that damaging one of those towers apart from not being a good idea was also insanely difficult. The ground... well it wasn't exactly ground as it was more along the lines of solid darkness, pure light absorbing darkness and in places very close to the towers sprinkles of silver light shined as stars in the darkness of space. The entire city was pretty much breathtaking in such a way that mere words cannot describe and you had to witness to believe but that in and on itself didn't make it weird rather the thousands of beings moving across their 'roads' with speeds far beyond that that any human can hope to achieve and yet seeming sluggishly slow moving across such long distances and burdened by the traffic.
Of course the sky wasn't any different as it was pitch black and even though it shouldn't be possible,- it was even darker than the roads of the city but the darkness was kept at bay by hundreds or even thousands of gigantic orbs of fire (plasma but Naruto doesn't know the proper term) most of them azure but the largest and furthest of them being golden in color. The city itself was situated between a range of mountains that stretched for as long as the eye could see (and the Rinnengan can see very far indeed) and the city sprawled between them following too. The mountains were not exactly mountains as they were assembles of living lights, quite literally too as everything was made out of pure light that moved and behaved as you would expect real, material things to behave in the material world.
That alongside the thrumming power had made Naruto momentarily forget his plight and just stare in absolute wonder at the view before him. A few moments later he realized that he was floating in the middle of a strange dimension while his friend was ripped away from him and his body was covered in a mountain of burning lava and immediately tried to go back to his dimension and the Rinnengan replied just fine but unlike other times the very fabric of the dimension started to warp and an unlucky mountain got caught in the way and was obliterated. Strangely the mountain tried to reform but the portal Naruto was trying to open stopped it from completing the process destroying it again and again in a never ending process as the mountain trying to reform itself damaged the portal and stopped it from fully stabilizing.
"Shit, kid there are places specifically made to open portals" shouted a red haired man as with a flick of his wrist thousands of symbols made out of inky darkness closed the portal and allowed the mountain to reform "oh, you're new here… very irresponsible for the Management not to send someone to introduce you"
"Introduce me?" asked Naruto looking over the man with red hair. The man was strangely familiar with his high cheekbones, emerald eyes, thin and yet imposing body, his elegant way of handling himself and his tanned skin much like those of sailors who spent a lot of time in the sea.
"Oh, dear" the man gasped "you mean you don't… oh the Rinnengan then… well the Sage and his brother aren't here so hmm… well you see to put it plainly you are Ascending, cool things of course, we never need doctors we can manipulate reality directly, no need for medium on the other side we are forced to stay here and have minimum interference with the material world"
"Let me guess the Emperors did that" Naruto sighed "is there no way to stop it"
"Not that I know off but… wait how did you know of the Emperors?" asked the man eyeing him suspiciously.
"I'm the Heir" Naruto replied feeling that it would be best if he told the truth.
"Oh, the height of irony… so Uchiha, Senju or Uzumaki?" asked the man chuckling.
"Uzumaki, how did you…" Naruto began to speak but was interrupted.
"Wow that means we're family" the red haired man spoke "though you lack the red hairs and to say the truth we never did like blonds"
"Still it doesn't explain how you knew about the Emperors Heir unless you were one yourself" Naruto eyed the man shrewdly.
"Of course I was one … well more than one" answered the man laughing.
"What do you mean more than one?" asked Naruto.
"Well I'm not an Uzumaki I'm THE Uzumaki, a fusion of all the Uzumaki souls until now" explained the man "well all those souls up to the Massacre of Uzu"
"How?" asked Naruto amazed to meet all his ancestors in one place.
"Well we died but the Rinnengan's potential to ascend is written in our blood and that of all the Sage's descendants but never had so many of them died at the same time so kaboom were are all merged and became this"
"So there must be an Uchiha ascended too and perhaps even a Senju" said Naruto pondering.
"Nope that is not how it works because you also need a beacon of sorts which was provided by the traitors death and his feelings of guilt and anger at his betrayal" explained THE Uzumaki "Uchiha's were all feeling like that and that combined with their more selfish attitudes and personalities never allowed enough cohesion for that to happen while the Senju never had the necessary numbers to cause such a warp on reality"
"I understand but seriously how can you stand having the traitor within you?" asked Naruto.
"You can never hate someone you know as well as he know himself and perhaps even more, young one" answered the Clan "and we know each and every one of us as the souls of our ancestors joined us up to the first Uzumaki ever, the grandson of Asura Senju,- himself"
"Still you would need something to support you and no beacon could do so, I know as I have dabbled into Necromancy myself?" asked Naruto confused.
"True but what gave us support was what destroyed us in the first place our first three dimensional seal" said the Clan "thanks to it being the repository of all our memories, at least all the memories of all those who were alive and also was connected to us so that it became self-updating and latching on to that we Ascended so that we could help those that survived"
"Luckily we were allowed to interfere as they were us into a way so we steered them away from Konoha so that the coalition that destroyed us wouldn't focus on Konoha next and destroy it and every hope that our clan could ever be rebuilt" the Uzumaki Clan explained "and it worked fine and the coalition fell to pieces soon after that and that combined with the loses that we caused with our last stand allowed Konoha to flourish and our clan members to survive hidden as they were"
"And why didn't you send someone to use that repository and thus give rise to a new clan if you were trying to help save it and help it rebirth?" asked Naruto curious at this turn of events.
"We didn't want that location compromised until an Uzumaki strong enough would come that would be able of absorbing all our skill and knowledge and put them to use otherwise we risked that seal destroyed or even worse stolen and thus with it all our knowledge would be lost" explained the Uzumaki.
"So you needed someone strong enough to use it immediately or risk losing that chance forever?" Naruto asked rhetorically "but why never contact me"
"Because we lost track of you about two years ago" replied the Uzumaki with a shrug "I guess you becoming the Heir severed the already weak link we had with you due to you being the wielder of Asura chakra"
"Oh so you wouldn't mind giving me the location of the seal?" asked Naruto.
"Of course you are family but still you are Ascending and soon enough I will be complete so you won't be capable of using it anyway" said the Uzumaki with a shrug.
"Yeah about that I doubt that will happen" said Naruto and the world twisted and bended as the Will of the Emperor fought Death itself, a losing battle but one that Naruto would never give up on.
It was just then that the air burst with blue fire that banished Death and consequently Ascensions grasp on Naruto Uzumaki and his soul was completely covered in the Immortal fire and was about to be returned to his body when a chuckle and "ink" covered Naruto's now immortal shell stopping his return for a few more seconds.
"Damn it kid you really had to go and do the impossible huh" laughed the Uzumaki "go forth then and take our knowledge with our blessing"
"Thank you, I promise I will avenge you" said Naruto having received the location of the seal inscribed within his very soul.
"Nah, don't bother" the Uzumaki waved "jut rebuild our clan better and help it raise from the ashes like you are about to"
"Really?" asked Naruto surprised as his form sunk through the folds of reality.
"Yeah go live your life kid, revenge is totally overrated especially when it is in fact just bussines" the Uzumaki laughed waving at the disappearing form of one Naruto Uzumaki.
The rock crumbled before him as a drop of his blood fell onto the ground and into the invisible seal carved there opening the passage to the Uzumaki's greatest achievement and their downfall. The cave was poorly lighted the seals having been created to light the place having failed not having been designed to last long just enough for the cave to be outfitted with the proper lighting… which never happened obviously. Naruto walked forward his Rinnengan deactivating as he placed his hand upon the orb which housed the intricate structure that made up the world's first and last three dimensional seal and his field of vision exploded into a swirl of colors as the entire memories, knowledge and skills of the Uzumaki clan and all those clans and shinobi living on the island became his (though that part of the seals was taken in secret and thus had no connection with the seal itself).
Also the seal expanded the memory capacity of Naruto to pretty much be infinite because while the human brain had an amazing capacity to store information it also had limitations but this seal removed them all by connecting the mind of those who used it to an empty dimension which stored all the memories and thus making it endless and offering as a side effect an intimate knowledge and almost telepathy between clan members using the seal. Which, of course, explained the urgent need the other villages had to destroy it… well their enemies at least as they had been know to never betray allies. A pair of Azure eyes burning with inner light almost like swirling blue fire,- opened as his field of vision was filled with notification boxes and smiled a smile that would make any onlooker very, very afraid.