A New Frontier

by Wickerstein

The strong devour the weak. That has always remained a fundamental law of nature. To think otherwise is farcical. For no matter what, there will always be a winner and a loser.

6. Fire VI

Disclaimer: All respective characters and settings belong to their respective franchises.

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His voice was the quietest it had ever been. "What?"

"Do I need to spell it out for you? Word for word? Break into song? I'll keep telling you for however long and how many times you like. It won't change a thing, for it is the truth, and nothing but."

The muscles of Naruto's throat oxidized as he picked up the start of another tremor. A hand drifted to his chest; it was actually his heart. Never had it palpitated so acutely, even when his blood was pumping after exerting his body to abject exhaustion, the vibrations lancing down to his extremities.

"Who…are you?"

He tensed up when the chamber rumbled, and it crossed him that the unknown party was chuckling. "Dear me, they really haven't told you, have they?"

"Told…me what?"

"Why, your true background. I've seen and heard it all, boy. How you assume them to be little more than lowly criminals. That couldn't be farther from the facts. But why tiptoe around the subject asking me, when you can do so from the people who have lied to you for all these years. The very architects of your robbed childhood."

"My-?"

"NARUTO-KUN!"

Naruto's vision swam as he was wrenched off his feet fast enough to get whiplash, and into the tender arms of one Sarutobi Hiruzen.

The old veteran wasn't alone, accompanied by two others who were flanking them in a perimeter after leaping away from the row of pillars to place a wide berth in-between. Naruto could have sworn that they were standing on the shallow water rather than in it, and they indeed were once his own feet touched back down on the floor.

"This…This is unbelievable," Hiruzen muttered in a trembling tone, now shielding his surrogate grandson behind him as he was facing the chamber. "How can we be here?"

"It must have had something to do with that light," a man whom Naruto had never seen before said from his right, set into a combat stance, kunai in hand. "It transported us into the seal."

"No, really?" Anko, whom Naruto could recognize; her back to him and also holding a kunai, quipped with strained sarcasm. "I was too busy not trying to go blind. Mind giving me a refresher?"

The complex rumbled again much more strongly. "Do my eyes deceive me? Can it be? Am I seeing things?" There was a pause. "This is truly a miraculous stroke of good fortune. For me~."

Hiruzen's wizened features broke into a scowl, gnashing his teeth. How? How could we have been brought here? Regardless, for now, all that matters is to find a way out and bring Naruto-kun to safety. He glanced to the center of the pillars, which was actually a cage from where they were standing, framed by elegant engravings. He eyed the latch carefully. So long as the seal remains, he cannot harm us.

"Sarutobi Hiruzen," the figure rumbled his name with barely constrained venom. "The years have not been kind. Tell me, how long do you have left? A year? Two? How about I do you a service and cut your miserable life off entirely?"

Hiruzen scoffed, tucking Naruto further behind him. "You can do no such thing, demon. So long as the seal is in place, you cannot harm us."

"Seal?" Naruto repeated, before being gently coaxed into silence.

"Ah, yes. The seal. How could I forget?" The figure trailed off testily. "No matter. I can just have it removed."

"And how do you hope to accomplish that?" Hiruzen asked defiantly. "Certainly not any of us would. Not ever!"

"Oh," Hiruzen's blood ran cold as something shifted in the darkness, "but there is.~ First, proper introductions are in order. It wouldn't do for the guest of honor to be unfamiliar with their most generous host, after all."

"Guest of…" Hiruzen's eyes widened. "Naruto-kun!" He fully rounded on the boy to grab him tautly by the shoulders, having fallen to his knees so that they were eye level, peering into confusion more than fear. "Listen to me very carefully. No matter what you hear, no matter what he tells you, do not fall prey to what is nothing but lies. Cruel deceptions designed to break your spirit and trust in Konoha."

"That's the beauty of it all, you old fool!" Naruto slipped a glimpse of the chamber after averting his eyes away from the Hokage, and what he saw made him pale in terror. From the depths of the cold darkness, a pair of red bloodshot eyes filled with nothing but searing hatred emerged, accompanied by the largest, widest row of razor sharp teeth set into a disturbing smile. "He has no trust in Konoha! Not after the hell he had been put through by its very people. And worst of all, you are to blame. You and that worthless law you put in place. I figured you did after he was left in the dark all this time."

Naruto blinked, his erratic emotions mitigated by what he heard. "What?"

"SILENCE!" Hiruzen snapped at the creature in a furor unseen that whittled at the boy, the disturbing smile only stretching wider. "You will not poison his mind, monster! You have the absolute gall to throw around blame when it was you yourself who orphaned him!"

So much was happening all at once that Naruto hardly knew where to start making sense of it all. "Can…Can someone tell me what's going on? What are we doing here? Where is 'here'?"

Hiruzen could not get a word in when the beast opened its large maw, booming out a roar that could scarcely be considered laughter. All four braced against the shockwave that nearly blew them off their feet, pelted with sprays of water. "You've truly made this too easy! Oh Sarutobi, I should be thanking you for gift wrapping him to me. This naive, ignorant child who is unaware of his true nature, and the pitiful destiny that awaits him."

"No…" Hiruzen could feel that this was not going his way. If he did not devise a plan or a means of escape imperatively, all would be lost, and he'll have failed…

Failed…

He failed…

He had failed…

Kushina… Years of his repressed guilt jumped to the fore, hands trembling as his resolve was beginning to wane.

Sensing the Hokage's crumbling will, Kakashi tightened his grip around the kunai, his muscles set into taking action, the tomoe of his lone Sharingan wheeling.

No hesitation.

Father…

Sensei…

Kushina-san…

Rin…

If this was to be his time of glory, then so be it. It would be his life in exchange for Naruto. He would go to the afterlife with his head held high. I only wish I could have at least seen Obito again.

"Uzumaki Naruto," the creature purred the name with a confidence that could shatter steel. "Do you wish to know why you were orphaned? I killed your parents. What Hiruzen said is true. I did indeed, and I do not regret it one bit."

Hiruzen reeled. He admitted it? Willingly?

Naruto still wasn't sure he heard any of that right, but he hung onto it all the same. "What…do you mean?"

The creature suppressed another laugh. If he played this to his advantage, he'll be free. Finally free! "Let me tell you a story. A sad and pathetic story. I know every detail, and since I'm in such a fine mood and not in any real hurry, I'll let you decide which to hear. The full version, or the abridged. Either way, I'm sure you'll find it…enlightening."

The Uzumaki hesitated as he glanced at Hiruzen, who had stood quietly still, appearing to have aged drastically.

"Or, better yet," the elderly veteran could do nothing but silently curse the beast's cruelty, "why not ask him to tell it to you?"

Naruto slowly jerked his head to the old man, who glanced back at him with the same expression that day.

That day…

"You're…the Kyūbi."

Hiruzen blinked.

"You're the Kyūbi, right?"

The beast's face shifted minutely, but the smile didn't waver. "Who else could I be, brat?"

"I was told that…you were the one who killed my parents after you started rampaging in Konoha."

"Indeed, and it was worth it," the Kyūbi jeered. "They deserved to die. Want to know why?"

Naruto…expected to feel something after hearing that, but yielded no such emotion. The Kyūbi did too, it would seem, inwardly taken aback by the lack of impact.

"Why?"

"Ask the-"

"I want to hear it straight from you." The abrupt way he said it, and when, shocked everyone else present.

The corner of Anko's lips twitched. Ya' got some stones, kid.

The Kyūbi, rather than be upset or insulted as Hiruzen expected, momentarily frowned. "I killed them, because they were protecting you."

"They-" There it was. A taste of the reaction the fox wanted. "They were…protecting me?"

"Yes, because they were the ones who sealed me into you. Right before it took effect and I was imprisoned here, they were run through by my claw to keep me from killing you, my jailer to be. How noble," he seethed out the last part with poison.

Hiruzen thought he was ready if this ever came to pass. All his plans, all his contingencies led up to this one moment where it should have been after the graduation. The revelation of his full parentage would have fallen on his 16th birthday.

In the wildly bizarre sequence of events; even by shinobi standards, all of it had collapsed, and in the worst way imaginable.

"Contrary to what you might have believed, they didn't abandon you. It was precisely because of their love and devotion that you are alive today, but at the cost of their lives that fateful night when I, once imprisoned within your mother, was released from the seal weakening during childbirth. Such an auspicious occasion," the beast crooned as if he was reminiscing a jubilant festivity, "one of Konoha's; if not the single, darkest hour in its history. You should be proud, boy."

Naruto's countenance wrestled to not budge as the Kyūbi let out a belly laugh.

"The 10th of October, yes~. I'm sure the village would have made sure you celebrated it. By being lynched, mobbed and beaten!" Naruto failed to stifle a shudder, his face falling.

"My birthday is on the 9th," Naruto pondered aloud in contradiction. "How could it be on the 10th?"

The beast's smile could have split the sky. "That's where it gets good. The old man pulled strings to ensure that you were spared from such by having your date of birth on the day before, and pass you off as one of the many other children I orphaned. You witnessed it, have you not? Every year, effigies of me being burned to ward off misfortune? Their own impotent display of revenge and resentment. The good people of Konoha would have just loved to use you as kindling instead. After torturing you, of course. That would have been the case, had the old man not taken drastic precautions as well. There were always agents shadowing you, ready to rub out anyone who dared to act out of turn. Man, woman, child, they would not be spared from either imprisonment or execution."

He snickered. "Didn't stop some from trying. And the best part? You weren't even supposed to be widely known as my container, as the law was originally designed to keep it a secret. Yet, the info was leaked anyway." He glanced at Hiruzen. "Am I right?"

Hiruzen clenched his jaw in outrage. Danzo…

"By who?" Naruto asked softly.

"Don't know, don't care," the Kyūbi shrugged with a roll of his eyes, "I've only been able to deduce so much, though I'm sure the old man and his den of vipers know. Why not ask him now if what I'm saying are lies or not? Go ahead, for unlike him, I have nothing to hide when the truth is so much more damaging." Holy crap! I would have been a total moron to not have capitalized on this. I'm not even sure how they got here, but I am not complaining. If I can manage to get the boy on my side and see my way of things, I'll be outta here in a red hot minute!

Naruto took a moment to process everything he just heard. By halfway in the discussion, the two other people that were with the Hokage had abandoned their stances to glance at the boy, but still ready for anything untoward.

Hiruzen's eyes were anchored shut, with nothing to refute the devious fox's remarks. He should have had, but somewhere around the mentioning of the law made him stumble. The logic behind it was fairly simple, yet it hinged on the caveat of keeping Naruto's burden a secret. But to Danzo's point of view, Naruto was the perfect scapegoat to cast the village's troubles on to stipulate unity in a time that the village had not yet fully moved on from the Kyūbi incident, and with the Uchiha Massacre still fairly fresh in the minds of the people, the young Uzumaki served as a crude and unwitting buffer.

"Jii-chan…"

It took every ounce of will and energy left in his frail body to meet the gaze of Minato and Kushina's son.

"Jii-chan." Naruto swallowed a lump, struggling to hold his composure, but it was clear he was barely keeping it together.

Even without saying it, Hiruzen couldn't maintain the charade any longer. All his defenses were torn down as he muttered weakly.

"It's true…"

Anko and Kakashi stared at their village leader with blank looks. For the very first time, they didn't see Sarutobi Hiruzen for his titles and accomplishments, as their esteemed Hokage and superior.

But as the man that he was.

Old, past his prime, vulnerable, and tired.

"All of it…"

Anguish slowly drew itself on Naruto's face as the confirmation settled in. He closed his eyes and chewed his lip, dipping his head to dwell in his emotions thrown into turmoil.

Hiruzen saw this and gently kneeled before his surrogate grandson.

Naruto looked up, his eyes red with tears, a trail of snot running down his nose. Like Hiruzen, he looked every bit the child his age. There they were, no longer beholden to pretenses or facades.

"I…want to know," Naruto sniffled. "Why?"

"..."

"Why was I born? What am I, really?"

Hiruzen had committed cruel acts in his lifetime. Many he can claim to be with noble purpose - to protect his village, his friends, his comrades in arms. Yet, the truth was that it came at the cost and expense of others - enemies, allies and innocents alike, which was endemic with the lifestyle of being a shinobi. Good and evil held no real sway in their world, and Konohagakure certainly had its spot in committing their share of atrocities.

The warm grandfatherly image he had cultivated over the decades couldn't smudge his tenure, deeds both great and terrible in his long decorated career for the interests of Fire Country.

It had been his wish to turn away from that darkness, but it always seemed to find its way back to him.

His gaze traveled downward, basking in a silence that would have spanned an eternity had he not started.

"A weapon," Hiruzen admitted with brittle emotion. "Our village's strongest military asset. You are what is formally dubbed a Jinchūriki, a container for the subjugation and wielding of a Bijū. When the time is to come, you are to be our ace in the hole, a cudgel to contend our strength against the other Great Villages if necessary, who possess Jinchūriki of their own in a balance of power to uphold an ever fragile peace."

His stomach churned as he had to force his mouth to work, trembling underneath a yoke of guilt. "Naruto-kun…had the circumstances been ideal, we would have nurtured you, taken care of you."

Naruto's heart sank to the floor. They could have…

"But reality is cruel…" Hiruzen choked, clenching his teeth, quivering hands on his thighs, balling into fists. "We…I was not able to facilitate the treatment and opportunities you should have had. Naruto…" He sobbed as his body gave way on his hands and knees, his tears mixing with the water. "I am to blame for why you have suffered, why you were denied the life that was meant for you."

Naruto cried along with him, the slew of revelations taking their toll. Was he angry? Was he despairing? He was. Who wouldn't be? Here he was, finding out that his entire life had been composed of nothing but lies, and for what? To be made as a weapon. A tool for the village to do as they saw fit, and him willingly going along with it. Yet, instead, he was ostracized, made a fool of, and mistreated by those he was supposed to protect and fight for.

Neither sat well with him in the slightest.

It made his blood boil, sick to his stomach. He wanted to shout, he wanted to vent out his rage at the indignity, the injustice of it all.

He regarded the man who was prostrating himself before him now. The man who should have done more, the man who should have been there, the man who should have been forthright with him from the very beginning.

The man…who always had this gleam of hurt in his eyes whenever they spoke.

"You being a Jinchūriki was never a coincidence at all, as it has always been a relative of a Kage per tradition as an added incentive to foster loyalty. Yet, to my greatest shame, I was unable to fulfill my promises to your parents on their dying breaths. Your father, Minato, wanted for you to be seen as a hero, and your mother, Kushina, only wished for you to be cared for. I…I…"

I'm worthless…

"Jii-chan…"

Hiruzen raised his head to take any caustic remark, rage fueled rant, a beating. It would never be enough to atone, but he was willing to bear all of it to give the young man some semblance of recompense.

He blinked through the tears in astonishment at what he saw instead.

"Jii-chan…"

Naruto was looking back at him. Not with anger, but…

"It…It must have been hard…"

Anko shifted on her feet, surprise blooming on her face as she saw it as well. He's…

"You…must have been burdened…all this time." Naruto, grasping at his left elbow, mumbled as tears dribbled down his cheeks. His blue eyes glinted not with hatred or revenge, but…

"Don't tell me you're forgiving him!" the Kyūbi hissed.

No. No, he wasn't forgiving anyone. Not Hiruzen, not Konoha, nor the life that was thrust upon him. He could never forgive any of that. However…

"I'm not," Naruto retorted softly. "It's just…it's just…" He looked up at the cage, seeing the malice ridden gaze meant for them. It faltered when the fox spotted his face, racked with desolation. "What would be the point?"

Kakashi, Anko and Hiruzen all froze. "What…what would be the point for anything anymore?"

Hiruzen slowly got back to his feet, staggering back in despair.

No…

"You…want to be free, right?"

No…

The Kyūbi's features slowly brightened, but simmered down his excitement. "Indeed."

"Naruto-kun…" Naruto ignored the veteran as he started to march forward. "Naruto-kun!" He made a grab for the boy's shoulder. "Don't…please."

The man's grip was weak, enabling the Uzumaki to jerk his hand off and continue on his way towards the cage.

"Kid? Kid!" Anko motioned to stop him, but her feet felt like they were weighed down. She had seen that look only once in her career. The resignation, those who have well and truly given up. After hearing how much of a shitshow his life actually was, it would have rubbed her the wrong way if he did wave it all off and forgave them like nothing. "Kid, don't!"

Kakashi didn't move. He couldn't as his eyes calmly traced after the boy. It was strange. He should have been doing everything he could to stop him. Perhaps even doing the unthinkable.

Yet…

Naruto approached the cage, which he reached in no time despite the slow strides of his pace and the distance between. He stood in front of the latch, floating his right hand to rub at the seal.

Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! It's finally happening! "So, what made you decide, brat? Or, are you going to squelch and scurry back to hide behind those insects? Hmph! It wouldn't matter. They'd execute you for this act of treason alone. Alone. That's what you are now, child. There's no one else left beside you. Only me.~"

Naruto's eyes were shaded. "I just want to know one thing."

The Kyūbi paused, then inclined. "What?"

"Can you tell me how you feel about humans?"

All eyes widened, completely caught off guard from hearing the question. The Kyūbi especially, his smile coming unglued, gaining what was plain for all to see an expression of pure gobsmacked bewilderment!

That was right before it was supplanted by a twist of unfiltered, unbridled fury. The complex shuddered and quaked as a torrent of the red chakra seeped out of the bars, prompting the shinobi to retreat further.

"NOT EVEN WORTH THE DIRT THEY STEP ON!" He boomed, the shockwave of his rage barreling into the three older shinobi mercilessly as they held on for dear life with their chakra infused soles planted firmly. "PARASITES, WORMS, NO WORDS COULD EVER DO JUSTICE ON HOW I SEE THEM AS LOWER THAN THE BEASTS THEY SO ARROGANTLY CLAIM TO BE ABOVE! FOR CENTURIES, ME AND MY BRETHREN HAVE BEEN HUNTED DOWN AND ENSLAVED BY YOU WRETCHED, INSIGNIFICANT, PATHETIC, GODDAMNED HUMANS!"

The Kyūbi directed an eye at Hiruzen, red and veiny. The Hokage couldn't begin to describe the hate he sensed being aimed at him. "You only ever saw us as weapons you can latch a leash on like a frenzied pitbull! You took us from our homes, laid claim to us, and imprisoned us within living receptacles like batteries! Do you have ANY idea what that's like!?"

"DO YOU!?"

The waters soon calmed amid the beast's soft rumblings in the lull of its tangent, the juxtaposition placing the three shinobi on edge.

"Perhaps you all should remain here in my place! How does that sound? Hm? Trapped forever from the light of the sun, the fresh air, the green of the trees, not knowing when you'll ever get out, if at all. Speaking of which," the Kyūbi smirked evilly. "I will strip Konoha bare of all those wonders, by finishing what I started twelve years ago! The sky will be painted black by the smoke from the ruins, their howls of despair will be music to my ears, and your paltry monuments will be trampled underfoot until they're sand between my toes. My reckoning is at hand."

The Kyūbi lurched forward to grab at the bars with both hands, complete with opposable thumbs, unveiling his form from the abyss of his confines. Anko shivered as she did all those years ago when she first beheld the demonic fox. Standing over a hundred meters at his full height, the Kyūbi no Yōko was covered from head to toe in orange red fur. His ears were longer than average, shaded with black fur that reached the tips from where his red eyes were rooted. While his hind legs and lower body were that of a fox, his upper body structure resembled that of a lithe human's, right down to the upper arms.

He grinned evilly, flashing his teeth as he gloated, "Finally, I shall be free!"

Urgency seized Hiruzen before he, Anko and Kakashi readied themselves for battle, the latter foregoing his kunai for his tantō. Even with Naruto's will collapsed, they were still duty and honor bound to fight to the very last for Konoha.

An unusual noise assuaged the tension somewhat as Naruto doubled over, miraculously having avoided being swept up by the Kyūbi's rant. He…was laughing?

A laugh that wasn't as pernicious as the Kyūbi's, but still echoed throughout the complex with a hearty tenor.

It was so out of place that Anko thought the boy had utterly lost it.

"Hang on! Hold it! How are you gonna wreck Konoha when you'd only end up in the Digital World after I free you?" Naruto trailed off with a guffaw.

The Kyūbi was again flummoxed. "Why are you laughing? Did you finally break?" He blinked. "Wait, what? Do…do you mind repeating that?"

Naruto pointed at him, laughing up a storm. "Before I was knocked out, I was in the Digital World. If I tear off the seal, you'll only end up there. Nowhere near Konoha!"

The Kyūbi…broke into a sweat as he processed more of the implications racing in his mind. The fuck!? I'm…I'm actually in the Digital World!? I'm…not even in Konoha!? Or, fuck, in my home universe!? I'm…I'm actually back here!? What the shit!? It must have happened when I was taking a nap! Fuuuuuuuuuu-!

The Kyūbi boomed in an irritated furor, "WHAT'S SO FUNNY!? STOP LAUGHING!"

"What's funny is that you haven't changed one bit!" Naruto fell on his back to belt out another roaring laugh, kicking his legs up as his arms were looped around his stomach, splashing the water.

"What!?" All others present exclaimed in perplexity.

Naruto caught his breath as his mirth started to die down, wiping at his eyes as he climbed to his feet. "Oh, godson. Still a flair for the dramatics. Hagoromo and I thought it was just a phase, but man! It's been, what, 1800 years in your world? You still haven't worked on your people skills?"

Hiruzen and the others blinked in shock and confusion.

The Kyūbi, though, sensed a building pressure saturating the complex. He knew this sensation well, for he could never forget that person. "N-No way," a bead of sweat slithered over his brow. "It-It can't be…"

Naruto chuckled with a mischievous glint in his blue eyes. "Yeah, it's me. How's things?"

The Kyūbi sputtered, "Why? H-How?"

Leaning on his left leg, hands on his hips, Naruto shrugged. "Extra-dimensional reincarnation. It'll take too long to pore over the details, but long story short, me and the guys got into a fight with Lucemon, died, but not before we beat the crap out of him and sealed his essence into the very bowels of the Dark Area, and our souls somehow crossed the borders separating our worlds to reincarnate as humans rather than at Primary Village."

"L-Lucemon?" The Kyūbi flitted through portions of his memory as he leaned into the bars. "That kid that used to-? Wait, back up! Huh!?"

Naruto sighed. "First things first." He nodded his head towards the humans, his gaze traveling until it landed on Kakashi. He smiled, waving at the man a friendly greeting, "Hey, Asura."

"Hey…" Kakashi greeted back with a wave of his own, albeit half-consciously before he blinked. "Huh?"

He reincarnated, too? Did Indra? Naruto wondered to himself. Did something happen? He mentally shrugged. Maybe I'll look into it, but for now-

"Godfather!" The Kyūbi frantically seized his attention, rattling the bars. "Save the chitchat for later. Right now, tear off the seal and free me!"

Naruto's brow crinkled. "Why would I wanna do that?"

The fox's jaw fell. "Because I'm asking you to!"

"And?"

"I'm your godson!"

"And?"

"Listen you damn lizard, if you don't free me now I'll-"

"Alright! Calm down, yeesh!" Naruto wiped off some of the water on his face and flicked it to the side. Who designed this place? Seriously! He swiveled back to the humans, thumbing to the cage. "Hey! You want me to free this guy?"

"GODFATHER!"

The humans stared at the scene, gobsmacked. Hiruzen, ever the point man, spoke first. "Naruto-kun?"

Naruto smiled at him, repeating his inquiry. "Do you want me to free him?"

Clamping his jaw shut, Hiruzen had to swallow down the biggest lump lodged in his throat, but only a puzzled whimper escaped from him.

"That's not Naruto."

Anko eyed the ANBU Captain. "What do you mean?"

Kakashi scrunched his brow. "I can't explain it, but I just feel that the one standing before us isn't Naruto."

'Naruto' beamed at the man. "Perceptive are we, Asura?"

Why is he calling Kakashi by that name? Hiruzen averted his eyes from the ANBU Captain to stare at 'Naruto', his features hardening amidst the sheen of sweat gleaming off his forehead. "Who…are you?"

The glint of mischief reignited in the boy's blue eyes. "What do you mean? I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

Hiruzen grumbled. "We've all had our fill of insanity to last us a good while for today, so I implore you to be straight with us. Who are you?"

Naruto pursed his lips into a coy grin. "You already know, as you've already heard my name fairly recently. Who do you suppose I am?"

Anko stepped forward. "Listen, kid, quit pussyfooting around the subject and just tell us. Cryptic bullshit isn't my thing, so if you don't want me to give you the world's closest haircut for free, spit it out!" She wasn't actually going to hurt the kid, but regularly threatening people in her line of work often yielded splendid results. Her bread and butter. The added stress relief was a bonus.

Naruto wasn't fazed in the slightest as he rubbed a hand over his unruly blonde tresses. "A haircut sounds nice. Maybe a little off the top. As for who I am, it's easy. Though, if you're that eager, I'll give you a hint."

The still and shallow waters bubbled, scaling in heat at an alarmingly quick rate without warning. The rise in temperature caused the three shinobi to spring forth from the boiling hot floor, entering a cloud of steam accumulating near the ceiling.

Before long, they had to land back down, their chakra infused soles connecting not with hot water, but dry and solid ground. The water had evaporated completely. Not one droplet of moisture was left as they scraped their sandals along the smooth finish, producing squeaks.

Naruto patted his jacket. "There we go. Much better. Nothing like a little dry cleaning. Well?"

All three were quiet.

It seemed impossible, but their suspension of disbelief had been stressed to the limit that it snapped from a single conclusion that popped into their collective minds.

"Ancient…Greymon?"

Having said that, Hiruzen watched as Naruto's smile turned satisfied. "Very good."

"How…can this be?"

"Good question," he ventured in Naruto's face and voice. "But it is indeed I, AncientGreymon of the Ancient Ten. The Warrior of Fire. Reincarnated as the human, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Wait," Anko chimed in with an epiphany. "Ancient Ten? And you have 'Ancient' in your name?"

Naruto's grin became cheeky. "Yeah, we get that a lot. Sort of a theme naming we've got going on." The kunoichi nodded, lips pursed.

"But how?" Hiruzen blurted, his view of physical reality long overturned.

AncientGreymon scratched the back of his head, snickering. "I don't really get it myself. After our epic battle with Lucemon, we just kinda reincarnated into the human world. Mind you, it did take us a while. Probably because of the time dilation."

Hiruzen gawked. He's…a bit like Naruto. "Lucemon? Battle? Time-what?" For every answer, the questions only multiplied.

"Maybe I should start from the beginning," AncientGreymon motioned his hand to the floor. "You're gonna want to sit down for this. Trust me."

"Now wait just a fucking minute!" The Kyūbi yelled. "Don't screw with me here! Don't ignore me! Godfather, release me! NOW!"

Huddling to sit, the three humans hesitated as they found themselves near the cage, the beast glowering at them within arm's reach. AncientGreymon, already seated cross legged, dipped his head, releasing a frustrated sigh. "Good grief, I heard you the first time." He glanced over his shoulder. "QUIET DOWN!"

Hiruzen and the other two could only gape helplessly at the sight of the Kyūbi flinching. Flinching. From being scolded. Like a child. By a child. Anko pinched herself. Then followed suit with Kakashi and Hiruzen. The men gave her flat looks, drawing a sheepish smile from her.

The Kyūbi gnashed his teeth, a frown marring his bestial features that could skin a lesser man alive, tugging at the bars strong enough to bend them, but they didn't budge. "Pheh!" He finally spat, turning away to curl in on his stomach at the corner of his cell.

He really is acting like a kid. The three shinobi thought simultaneously, still reeling by what played out.

Once everyone was settled, they marveled that the floor wasn't hot or warm. It had to have been from the water being boiled in a flash, but it was cold to the touch.

"Now," Naruto started, cradling his head on his palm. "Ask away."

"..."

Hiruzen was broken out of his stupefaction by a nudge and clearing of the throat from Kakashi. "Hokage-sama."

"Eh?" Hiruzen turned to him, before his senses kicked back in. He coughed, "Oh, uh…" He locked eyes with AncientGreymon, before slacking his shoulders and shrugging in defeat. "W-Where…how do I start?"

AncientGreymon smiled. "Then I'll do so for you. You're wondering how all of this started. It actually goes way back to Yggdrasil."

Kakashi hummed. "The 'God' of your world?"

"Yeah." AncientGreymon lazily traced a finger along the floor. "Yggdrasil is indeed the creator of Digimon. However, he wouldn't have fully come into being had it not been for humanity."

"Come again?" Anko cocked a brow.

"We weren't always known as Digimon," AncientGreymon explained. "While we may be composed of data, our existence actually predates computational technology, at least from your perspective. In the dawn of creation, Yggdrasil was an incorporeal entity with no consciousness, residing in a space separate from your world. It did not have a will of its own, it simply existed. A cold, empty existence in a formless void."

"Sounds cozy," Anko quipped.

"It sounds frightening," Kakashi flatly rebutted.

"That too," Anko conceded.

"It wasn't to Yggdrasil," AncientGreymon said. "It had no scrap of emotion to speak of, nor intelligence. That was…until humans started to think."

"What do you mean?" Hiruzen motioned.

"As humanity developed, they started to rationalize their existence and the world around them. How they came to be, why they look the way they do. Reasons for hunger, pain, pleasure, happiness, sadness. The seasons, weather. Why and how living things need to eat, to drink, to work, to hunt, to plant. Knowledge progressed at a snail's pace. Before rationality and the sciences, people turned to mythology, superstitions and religions to make sense of it all. Yggdrasil, in its dimension, received these thoughts as signals, which it drew power from. It served to gradually stimulate its…evolution."

"Yggdrasil evolved?" Anko rubbed at her chin. "Like a Digimon?"

Naruto flexed his free fingers. "Not in the sense of the modern Digimon. It grew enough of a will to eventually fully perceive itself and its own dimension."

"And it got stir-crazy about getting an interior decorator to spruce up the place," Anko joked.

"Something like that," AncientGreymon shrugged. "Its will was primal and infantile at first, but it attained sufficient sentience to have a burgeoning desire for more. It came to be that Yggdrasil tethered itself onto the collective consciousness of mankind as a medium, determining it as a purpose. To learn, evolve, adapt and advance."

"Like a machine?" Kakashi remarked, earning a nod.

"Yggdrasil had no physical limitations, biases, or compunctions. It merely acted according to its desire to advance itself. In time, its capacity grew and accelerated rapidly while humanity was still on the cusp of harnessing civilization, law and society. Foregoing what was unnecessary, it came to calculate and formulate, hatching computations so complex it bordered on the precognitive. It foresaw humanity's advancements before they were made manifest."

"It…could see the future?" Hiruzen surmised.

"More like, it found a way to blur the lines, perceiving the invisible threads that interconnect past, present and future. It indulged itself, with seemingly no limit to what it could absorb. Eventually, it expanded its reach to alternate universes."

"Alternate…universes?" Hiruzen muttered.

"And timelines," AncientGreymon added.

"Multiverse theory?" Anko chimed.

AncientGreymon coughed. "More like fact. The multiverse is real. Try flipping a coin. If you end up with heads, chances are, there's a world where it's tails. Another world where the coin fell on the ground rather than catching it, one where you caught it a certain way other than with your hand, one where you end up swallowing the coin, someone else caught it, or it fell into a ditch. So on and so forth. There's endless ways that it could go, and it's these very endless possibilities running parallel to one another that compose the numerous universes that are born and die constantly."

Hiruzen's blood froze. "Die?"

"Yes, universes can die out," AncientGreymon confirmed with a shrug. "It happens."

"'It happens'," Anko repeated crossly. "Laying it on a little thick, aren't you?"

"Nothing lasts forever. It's just the way things are. All things come to pass as new life takes its place. The cycle continues whether we like it or not." The humans were a smidgen unsure on how to take that in. "Back to the subject, while Yggdrasil was close to being as omniscient as it could be, it was still an intangible entity. It grew restless from how it saw itself as inadequate, incomplete. It wished for a greater medium to enable it to become a fully tangible being."

"So what it'd do?" Anko inquired, then pulled a face. "Don't tell me it started to assimilate organic lifeforms and convert them into soulless cyborgs?"

The two older men gave her odd looks. AncientGreymon waived her theory. "Nah, plenty of morons in other worlds are already doing that." The three humans paled. "Don't worry. Last I heard, they're super lame now and can hardly be counted as a threat. Anyway, it ultimately found the medium it needed. Binary code."

"How did it gain a body from that?" Anko scratched at her head. She may be a tech gal, but even programming has its established boundaries.

AncientGreymon grinned. "You'd be surprised what 1s and 0s can do, and since Yggdrasil cracked the code of the infinite universes, it had the means to start creating its own. Linking with other alternate versions of itself helped in giving it a framework. Utilizing all of the resources it collected, it started working on making the void where it resided a suitable universe to inhabit. In order to do that, it needed the elements necessary. Did you know that universes start out as masses of flammable gas? Helium and hydrogen cause a series of chain reactions of extreme heat, giving birth to stars and planets. Yggdrasil merely needed to program it into existence."

Anko's brows shot up in understanding from what she'd gathered on these Ancient Ten. "You."

AncientGreymon smiled toothily. "Yep! I was the second. Though I wasn't always sentient. As kernels of code, we developed self-awareness much later after millions of years of building our universe from templates of being AI."

"Ei…Ai?" Hiruzen's features scrunched in his ignorance of the terminology.

"'Artificial Intelligence', Hokage-sama," Anko elaborated, raising a lecturing finger. "It's basically programs or machines simulating human intelligence. Using a complex source code or algorithm, a computer would be capable of decision making, prediction and pattern recognition akin to how we do so naturally. For example, in theory, a sufficiently advanced AI program would be able to hold a conversation with an actual person, providing lifelike feedback."

"Pretty much," AncientGreymon agreed with the assessment, leaving a still struggling Hiruzen to grasp the concept.

"But for you to have been programmed to act as a natural cosmic phenomena…" Anko trailed off, intrigued.

"The only task I needed to do was explode, explode, and explode some more," AncientGreymon provided with a shrug. "Yggdrasil only had to upgrade my programming for more complex tasks like building planets. The rest simply fell into place.

"The third was AncientGarurumon for light and radiation. The fourth was AncientBeatmon for the electromagnetic spectrum. The fifth was AncientVolcamon for antimatter, heavenly bodies, and gravity. The sixth was AncientIrismon for atmospheric gases. The seventh was AncientMegatheriummon to balance out my own element in managing temperatures. The eighth was AncientMermaimon for waters. The ninth was AncientTroiamon for plant life. The tenth was AncientWisemon for minerals and ore."

"And the first?" Kakashi raised. "That's only nine of you."

"AncientSphinxmon, who was only first because he was born from the one thing that was already there before us. Together, we each embodied our individual element. Fire, Light, Thunder, Wind, Ice, Earth, Water, Wood, Steel and Darkness. Aspects made flesh."

"Astounding," Hiruzen marveled, wondering to himself if those elements were similar in ways to their Seishitsu Henka (Nature Transformation Jutsu).

Anko's brows furrowed. "Millions of years?"

"Time dilation," AncientGreymon revealed. "Yggdrasil bent time and space to hasten the process."

"It…it could do that already?" AncientGreymon nodded. "For what reason?"

"Because it was also running an experiment to see if it could create a universe. Trial and error. At the core of it all, Yggdrasil was like a curious child, and was still growing in power and omnipotence until it officially became our God. By then, from the waters of our designated planet, the Net Ocean, lifeforms emerged after another millennia."

"The first Digimon?"

"Well, like I said, we didn't refer to ourselves as Digimon back then. No, we were known by other names. Kemonogami, demons, and most commonly, Yōkai."

The humans gawped. "Yōkai!?"

"It was eventually discovered that the reason of it all was rifts or tears in space that allowed Yggdrasil to connect with the human world. Just as Digimon could grow within a human's presence, it applied just as well with Yggdrasil, only less isolated for it was drawing from the whole of humanity. Legends and myths arose from sightings and encounters of Yōkai that slipped out of these rifts, but what was the most incredible was how man's imagination empowered us, providing the basis of our physical bodies, and catalyzed our subsequent evolution further. We were especially susceptible to human children because of the less stringent capacity of their brain activity."

Anko huffed. "Oh please. You expect us to believe that you guys are fueled by; and I quote." She raised her hands to trace them apart from each other in an arc. "Imagination~!"

AncientGreymon laughed. "It sounds ridiculous, but it's the truth. We resonated with humans above all sentient beings because of how powerful their imagination could be, which escalated into belief, giving rise to your religions. For a given example, many Digimon today have religious themes and connotations."

It soon clicked. "So that's what you meant. We symbiotically fueled each other's growth," Hiruzen realized. "Though the scale was in your favor, it seemed."

"Precisely," AncientGreymon's smile fell. "Once Yggdrasil was satisfied with his progress, it saw fit to limit the dimensional tears by repairing them and lessening the time dilation. Humans were the ones who called us Yōkai, but officially, the name Digimon was put into effect only after Yggdrasil started to sequester our world. The caveat was, if left unchecked, there would be conflict between our kinds. Since humans only need to be near for us to grow stronger, it isn't hard to deduce what could have inevitably happened."

It wasn't, indeed, as the shinobi were now dreadfully thankful that their species wasn't wiped out or enslaved.

Anko pursed her lips. "Does that mean this Yggdrasil guy's got nothing against us humans?"

"Kind of," AncientGreymon scratched at his cheek with a finger. "Yggdrasil had grown wise and prudent after fully transcending, but it always held a completely neutral stance towards humanity. It chose to no longer focus on your kind as a priority. In other words, it got what it wanted and thought better than to involve itself with a species it had long outstripped. If nothing else, it considers humans to be a valuable resource that's better alive than dead."

"What? No alimony?" Anko quipped.

"Hmph," the Kyūbi scoffed, "a waste, if you ask me."

AncientGreymon bobbed his upper body towards the cage. "Yeah, it would have been a total waste for you to not have been born, godson."

"Don't tell me," Anko raised her hand. "The Tailed Beasts are actually Digimon?"

"Hahahaha! No!" AncientGreymon slapped his forehead, cackling. "No they're not. Though, they do owe their existence to us. Specifically, me and my own siblings."

"What do you mean?" Kakashi noted.

AncientGreymon's smile reappeared. "You see, it just so happened as the dimensional rifts were being closed up, one person managed to slip into one by accident and enter our world."

"Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo…" Hiruzen spoke reverently.

"Yeah," AncientGreymon's smile softened. "He was a good kid. Really strange, though. Rather than be freaked out over being away from home with no sign of going back, he saw it as one big adventure." He arched his head back, peering at the ceiling nostalgically. "And it was. He traveled the land, meeting friends and enemies alike, learning as much as he could. Of course, he couldn't have survived by himself the first time he was here, so he had a companion."

"Bokomon-dono," Hiruzen followed, before blinking. "First time?"

AncientGreymon nodded. "Hagoromo matured into a young man, growing in strength, wisdom and knowledge. At 18, he found a rift back home. The next time he appeared was when he was in his 30s. By then, he had acquired a means to travel dimensions that came in the form of special eyes."

Hiruzen and the others gaped, comprehending what he was likely referring to. "You don't mean…"

"Ah," AncientGreymon pointed to Naruto's own.

"He called it, the Rinnegan."

Hiruzen thought he was going to faint. "The Rinnegan?"

Kakashi leaned in. "The legendary dōjutsu? They actually existed?"

"Of course," AncientGreymon grinned. "Hagoromo told us all that happened while he was gone. His life after the Digital World, and it just so happened to tie with his mother."

"His…mother?" Kakashi repeated, for some reason feeling uneasy.

AncientGreymon paused for a moment in thought. "Did you know that Hagoromo had a brother?"

"...a brother?" Hiruzen shared a look with his subordinates. "The legends never mentioned such."

"Legends are just that," AncientGreymon said dryly. "They can have a sliver of truth to them, but are ultimately inaccurate and omitted drivel at the end of the day. Yes, Hagoromo had a brother. Hamura. I never met him personally, but Hagoromo spoke fondly of him. He never gained the Rinnegan, in case you're wondering. So I believe. All he had was the Byakugan."

Anko sighed. "Kakashi-

"I'm quite alright, Anko," Hiruzen rebuked her. "I might as well be used to these by now. This is the least maddening divulgence, all things considered."

He propped his elbows on his thighs to clasp his fingers perpendicular to his nose, going into deep contemplation. "So, the Hyūga are of Hamura-sama's bloodline. That would make them distantly related to the Uchiha." Damn it all. This has simply escalated the urgency in retrieving the samples from Mizuki.

Kakashi got the message as well. If they could somehow return. "Hokage-sama, knowing this-"

"Changes nothing," Hiruzen followed sternly. "This is to be an S-Class secret, alongside this entire exchange and discussion. Effective immediately."

"Yes," Anko and Kakashi verbally saluted.

AncientGreymon chuckled, garnering their attention. "Then you're going to want to brace yourselves for what has to be the most classified of information that you'll want to put under strict lock and key. The truth."

The truth? The humans looked at each other, already preparing. "Which is?" Kakashi found himself asking.

To what would be his bitter regret.

None of them were the least bit ready for the figurative bombshells that ensued. AncientGreymon held nothing back in disclosing everything Hagoromo had told him and his siblings over a couple of drinks about the nomadic Ōtsutsuki Clan.

The story of his mother; Kaguya, and how she had been a power mad despot wishing to use humanity as her puppet soldiers to rebel against her own clansmen.

The Shinjū (God Tree) and how it was the actual source of chakra, in addition to its role of being the Ōtsutsuki Clan's means of attaining power through the gruesome method that left the three humans pallid with grisly horror.

How it fused with her to form the Jūbi (Ten-Tailed Beast) after her sons rebelled against her, driving Hagoromo and Hamura to battle with their mother turned; in the former's own words, 'a fucking tree'.

How the brothers had to seal their mother away into what would become the moon (which Anko had more than a few words to spare on how batshit preposterous that was).

How Hamura gathered most of their Earth clansmen and settled into said moon to guard the remains of the Jūbi (again, Anko called bullshit).

How Hagoromo became the first Jinchūriki to seal what he could of the beast's chakra within himself (which did the trick in causing Hiruzen to faint).

The secret behind dōjutsu and how either the Sharingan and Byakugan could eventually evolve into the Rinnegan (causing Hiruzen to nearly have a nervous breakdown).

And, finally, how Hagoromo used the Banbutsu Sōzō no Jutsu (Creation of All Things Technique), which he devised from when he lost his virginity to a village woman who would come to be his wife (which he wouldn't stop bragging about to them whenever he had a chance after it happened) Granted, it took him decades to perfect the technique itself, and to actually use it in creating the Tailed Beasts from the Jūbi's chakra, roughly modeling them after the Ancient Ten.

With copious amounts of liberties, notwithstanding. Hagoromo had to imbibe a cocktail of herbs and mushrooms to handle the immense mental strain the technique inflicted on him.

Per the nature of their birth, and how they had come to be good friends with Hagoromo, AncientGreymon and the others accepted the offer to be their guardians from the sentiment as both a favor, and because they secretly couldn't trust him to take care of all nine who were; at the time, children when he did such a bangup job with his own sons, who suffered a falling out as adults.

The other reason? He was nearing the end of his life.

"We each took one under our wing," AncientGreymon said fondly. "The only one who couldn't was AncientSphinxmon because he wasn't that interested, and the obvious odd number."

"He couldn't create a tenth beast?" Kakashi questioned.

"He tried to, but equally distributing the chakra could only yield nine bodies," AncientGreymon shrugged. "I got Kurama."

"Kurama?" Hiruzen blinked. AncientGreymon only needed to point his thumb to the Kyūbi. "The…Tailed Beasts have names?"

"Oh, wow, what a surprise!" The Kyūbi; now Kurama, groused sarcastically. "Living things having names. What a novelty! Give the man a gold star, everybody."

"That's funny, 'cuz you used to hate your name," AncientGreymon revealed cheekily. "I seem to recall that you wanted to go by a different one."

"Ha! No way are you gonna embarrass me with that one. That name was cool."

"Johnny, the Victorious'?"

Anko busted out laughing, with Kakashi snickering along with her. "Seriously!?"

"Yep!" AncientGreymon giggled. "With a cape and everything. He used to jump around acting like some phantom vigilante, being a pain in the ass to the locals."

The kunoichi chortled. "Were you trying to be edgy? That sounds lame! What were you? Five?"

"It wasn't lame!" Kurama retorted crossly, snarling. "It was a totally badass name that was to go down in infamy in the Digital World! To strike fear in the hearts of anyone unfortunate enough to hear it. You would do well to tread lightly, woman!"

"Sure thing," she snorted before surrendering to another fit, "Johnny!" Kakashi lowered his head, shaking it in amusement.

The monster that terrorized Konoha and killed his Sensei, Kushina and numerous others, was acting like an immature child. He…wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that as he organized his thoughts and beliefs. On the one hand, from what he had heard and seen of the fox's behavior, he and his kind were exploited by humans for centuries, allowing bad blood and hatred to foster. They were hostile because humans didn't treat them with respect and dignity, seeing them as little more than weapons or no better than guard dogs. Or, to be more apt, living batteries for Jinchūriki to utilize their awesome chakra reserves.

Even labels like 'demons' were misnomers borne from scorn and fear, as opposed to their true identity as chakra constructs given life. The Tailed Beasts were intelligent, could think for themselves, and possessed complex emotions in the same vein as humans. Knowing this, he could no longer deign to see them as over glorified beasts of burden.

The cold part of him, however, couldn't dismiss certain facts. They were still monstrously powerful, giant in size, and could decide the outcome of a battle based on how well a village and their crop could harness them. There was also the merciless reality that, owing to their very appearance and capacity for destruction, humans had every right to fear them. He wasn't a stranger to being disparaged, recalling the period of him being newly minted into the service mired with the stigma of his father. That soon abated with his stellar performance and willingness to follow orders to the letter.

Yet, if he had been roughly the size of the Hokage Monument, could spew a ball of energy that could level a small town, and had a temper to match, it'd be a really different story.

In retrospect, it'd be the height of folly to believe that, just because someone wouldn't think to take advantage of the mightiest sword ever forged, didn't mean another would be beholden to the same. The sole reason, according to history, that Hashirama and Tobirama sold them to each of the other Great Five was a show of sincerity for peace to usher in a balance of power. Konoha, had they hoarded all of the Tailed Beasts for themselves, would prompt the other villages to wage a war against them on all fronts.

"A Sharingan…" Kurama spat with disgust. "I thought I was seeing things, but you have one of those accursed eyes."

A twinge of anger flitted over the ANBU Captain. "What's it to you?"

Kurama was watching him from the corner of his eye, not having budged from his spot. "You must know, don't you?"

"Kakashi!" Hiruzen reprimanded his ANBU Captain.

The son of the man that once bore the infamous epithet of 'White Fang', drilled into the fox with a frigid glare that had made bandits and enemy shinobi alike quail.

Kurama, wearing a thin smile as opposed to his signature toothy grin, huffed. "Are you an Uchiha bastard? Did you happen to lose one?"

Kakashi didn't respond.

"Too bad. Otherwise, you could have taken control of me from the start and saved you all the trouble."

Anko arched her brow. "The Sharingan can do that?"

"Yes," Kurama's smile vanished, replaced by a look of utter contempt. "Those blasted eyes. How I wish they never existed."

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. "Mangekyo…Sharingan."

"Heh…" Kurama sneered. "Bravo, Sarutobi, at least you know what it is. And here I thought you'd be an ignorant old fool."

"Nidaime-sama was always wary of this power," Hiruzen informed all present. "From his days of the Clan Wars, he had amassed a wealth of knowledge behind the Uchiha and their dōjutsu. He was particular in cautioning us in the off chance that one were to awaken the Mangekyō, and from having battled and witnessed Uchiha Madara-"

"Ah~..." Kurama cut off the Hokage with a hum, oozing with a hatred that was as gelid as the arctic. It was the kind that had been tempered in a forge. Compact and fortified. "A name I haven't heard in a long time."

"Calm down," AncientGreymon muttered, sending a wave of pressure at his godson that made the latter seize up. "I take it you had history with this man?"

"More than that, godfather," Kurama bridled at length, grinding his teeth. "It was because of that man I was little more than a mindless tool under his control. Imagine being completely aware while someone else is steering your body. I'm sure these humans-" He winced from another wave.

"Throw as many tantrums as you like," AncientGreymon muttered with barely constrained annoyance, "but I taught you better than to let yourself be run by your emotions."

The complex descended into a pregnant silence, the humans knowing that they were in the middle of something personal.

Kurama's lone eye bore into the boy, sporting an unreadable expression. "Yeah, you taught me a lot of things. Right before you told me that I had to go back. Leaving me to fend for myself after the old man died."

"...I had a reason."

"Then I'd love to hear it."

AncientGreymon closed his eyes.

"Lost…Paradise."

All present listened raptly, the shinobi recalling those phrases being mentioned by Bokomon.

"The Prideful One."

"The Fallen Angel."

"He who had rebelled against God."

"Lucemon."

"What about him?" Kurama asked gruffly, rolling his eyes. "Did he do something naughty and had to stand at the corner?"

Like you? All of the humans deadpanned.

"It was because of him that we died, after we did all we could to defeat him."

Kurama blinked, craning his neck to stare at the blonde boy hosting the ancient Digimon. That sniveling and shy brat that used to visit them?

"Who is this Lucemon?" Hiruzen asked.

AncientGreymon wrenched his gaze from the floor to land it on the Hokage. "After Yggdrasil was satisfied with how the Digital World was flourishing, he saw fit to appoint someone who could govern it in his place."

"Isn't Yggdrasil supposed to be the host computer?" Anko pointed out. "Couldn't he run things by himself?"

"Yggdrasil was, above all else, detached. He didn't see himself as qualified to understand and connect with his creations on an intricate level. The point of being a God was that they are to be without biases and subjectivity so as to avoid becoming corrupted. The very definition of impartiality."

"I guess that makes sense," Anko shrugged. That being said, she couldn't claim to know what went on inside a God's line of thinking to make a solid judgment.

"So, he thought to install someone who could?" Hiruzen could see the value in having a leader be relatable to the masses. Minato himself was popular for such a reason. A man from humble beginnings, who just so happened to be a once in a generation prodigy. Unfortunately, the fallout from his death thrust upon his young son was precisely because of how beloved he was.

AncientGreymon nodded, his features somber. "Lucemon was specially handpicked for the role. A Digimon who was pure and innocent, meant to be a fair and just ruler. With power that rivaled a Mega Level even when he was just a Rookie."

"A Rookie?" Red flags were signaling in Anko's head from hearing that. "He was just a kid? How strong was he?"

"When he was really trying, and at full power, he could destroy an entire planet."

Anko, Kakashi and Hiruzen felt like they were doused with liquid nitrogen. "No…freaking way…"

"Nothing can be more pure and terrifying than the innocence of a child," AncientGreymon quoted, lamenting the credence of the proverb. "At first, Lucemon did his job seamlessly. Maintaining the peace and resolving conflict that escalated from what qualified as isolated incidents of disputes. As combat oriented as Digimon were, there were those who wished to take it a step further. There were laws, you see, put in place to prevent the network from falling into chaos. Instances such as Digimon bent on breaking into the human world counted as a capital offense. Yggdrasil couldn't have that, so Lucemon had his orders to execute anyone who dared to."

"That doesn't sound so different to a Kage's duties," Kakashi remarked, envisioning Yggdrasil in the role of a Daimyō.

"Yes, but instead of a leader, Lucemon was effectively Yggdrasil's enforcer. As time went by, he would act independently from his approved parameters from what he thought to be flaws in the system. Small acts of rebellion here and there. Aside from that, he grew curious about the human world. A tidbit that he kept to himself, but Yggdrasil saw right through it. Years after meeting Hagoromo, overtime, that curiosity became an obsession.

"Unbeknownst to anyone but himself, Yggdrasil had set it all up as a test to see if Lucemon could prove wise enough to one day stand on his own as a true leader," AncientGreymon sighed. "However, instead, Lucemon began to believe that he knew better than Yggdrasil. Better than anyone. He came to see the inherent contradictions of his orders, the laws he had to follow and uphold, and how he was beginning to have his own desires and aspirations. Everything he was supposed to do, but in the wrong direction."

"A darkness inside him had brewed."

All was quiet for a moment, the irony not lost to Hiruzen. If he had raised Naruto to be Konoha's weapon as he was meant to be, would he have become corrupted by the rigors and stresses of his role? If it had been his old mindset at the helm, it wouldn't be a question of 'if'.

"So, he went rogue," Kakashi stated.

"Yes," AncientGreymon lamented. "For years, he secretly gathered followers for his cause. Like minded Digimon who wished to defy Yggdrasil's order, and to invade the human world."

Hiruzen nuzzled his goatee with his fingers. "A coup d'etat."

"AncientWisemon had foreseen the rebellion, so we had been preparing in secret for the inevitable civil unrest. We thought we could quell it before the situation could go out of hand, but Lucemon was willing to go to any lengths to achieve his goals. He started by doing the unthinkable. Loading the planet's Fractal Code."

"Fractal Code?" Anko asked, first having heard of it.

"Fractal Code is the formal term to refer to the very atoms that compose our universe. While we technically can load them, it also counts as a capital offense and is frowned upon. I don't think I need to explain why."

Anko tethered her hands behind her head. "Huh. 'Eaten out of house and home' to its logical extreme."

"More than that," AncientGreymon continued. "By amassing an insurmountable amount of that code, Lucemon had bolstered his already formidable strength."

"What about his army?"

"Pawns, flunkies," AncientGreymon waved flippantly. "Once he no longer needed them, the ones who we didn't annihilate were loaded without a second thought."

The shinobi couldn't suppress a collective wince. "What about those who didn't rebel? Civilians, non-combatants," Hiruzen inquired in apprehension. "Were there survivors?"

"There were evacuation measures taken, yes. Refugees to be ferried off the planet."

"I see," Hiruzen nodded. He blinked after a moment. "Off…the planet?"

"Oh yeah," AncientGreymon grinned rather smugly, crossing his arms. "We already had space travel back then."

Hiruzen went slack jawed, with Anko remarking with a flippant tone, "Next you're gonna tell us you had hoverboards."

"Yes."

"Flying cars?"

"Yes."

"Robots?"

"Plenty of Digimon are mechanical, but yes, we have those, too."

"Video calls?"

"Please."

"Jetpacks?"

"Yawn."

"Teleporters?"

"Uh-hu."

"Cup holders?"

AncientGreymon checked his nails. "You don't?"

A gawking Anko's shoulders fell. "My gosh."

"It soon came to be that we had a full scale war on our hands, and it lasted for almost a year. Countless fought and sacrificed on both sides. The ten of us were on the front lines, decimating Lucemon's forces left and right, until he inevitably loaded the survivors in a last ditch effort. Only he and we the Ten remained in a final showdown to decide the fate of our world. With everything we had left, we battled to the ends of our universe and back, but his power had risen to heights that rivaled even Yggdrasil's. One by one, we fell."

The humans could see the haunted glint shone in Naruto's blue eyes, the ancient being behind them reminiscing what must have been their end of days.

"I and AncientGarurumon were the only ones left standing. Lucemon had lost much of his momentum from the unyielding punishment we placed on him. We were all on our last legs, but one decisive blow from both of us, and the nightmare had finally come to an end. With the last of our strength, Lucemon's corrupted code was sealed into the deepest pits of the Dark Area. His holy power and the Fractal Code he loaded was put to use in rebuilding our world. After that, we expired, our own code contributing to the reparation effort."

The complex was silent again.

"Hmph, is that supposed to be your excuse?"

Anko looked like she was about to throw some choice words at the beast when Kakashi stopped her, shaking his head.

AncientGreymon closed his eyes. "It's not."

Kurama stared at his godfather, his caretaker, and whom he, once upon a time, saw as a second father. "That day when you told me we had to go back to Earth. Do you remember it?"

"We didn't tell you why."

"All of us were hurt, believing you didn't want us anymore. Matatabi cried for days. She wouldn't stop asking for Aunt AncientIrismon."

"Matatabi?" Hiruzen asked aloud.

"The Two Tails," AncientGreymon answered him. "We didn't have a choice-"

"Don't give me that!" Kurama snarled, slinking up to the bars to level with the boy. "We could have stayed or been evacuated. You left us. Abandoned us. With the old man gone, we were forced to fend for ourselves in a world that only saw fit to take advantage of us."

"If you had stayed, there was a chance for the war to claim you guys, for Lucemon to have won. You were just children." AncientGreymon stood to fully face his godson, the humans closely behind. "For unlike us, you wouldn't have been reborn. Chakra in its raw state breaks down into nothing while in the Digital World."

It what? Hiruzen's brows shot up, concerned alongside his subordinates, but that wasn't the sole matter that tickled his interest. "Reborn?"

"When Digimon die and their data is loaded, the wireframe that composes our bodies is recycled by degrading into a Digitama, an egg, from where we start life all over again in a place called Primary Village. The catch is, all of our memories from the previous life are no more. A clean slate."

The wonders of these creatures seemingly unceasing, Hiruzen and the others couldn't help but imagine to themselves their world having such a system of life and death. For their deceased loved ones to be reborn, only without their memories as a trade off.

It felt rather poignant.

"And you think-" Kurama spared the interior of his cage a good once over. "-this is any better?"

"No."

"Then-"

"Your heart has become clouded with rage and hate from your years of hardship. I understand how you feel. But, you cannot be free. Not yet. Not until you learn to get your emotions and issues under check."

Kurama roared, before slamming his head against the bars. "So you side with these parasites!?"

AncientGreymon glared. "I'm on everyone's side here. This is as much for your sake as it is for theirs, for I fear I know why I, and likely the others, have been reincarnated. Quite possibly by Yggdrasil as a call to arms."

Hiruzen set his mouth into a grave frown. "Lucemon is to return. The seal imprisoning him is weakening."

AncientGreymon nodded. "Ah."

"Oh boy," Anko scratched at her head. "So what's the agenda?"

"I have to find the others," AncientGreymon announced. "Or, rather, Uzumaki Naruto has to. I can only remain for as long as what's left of my essence is active within him. It is only by the shrine that this has happened."

"You mean…"

AncientGreymon shot them all a toothy smile. "Yep! I'm a ghost. A Spirit. This is just me making a quick stop before I'm completely assimilated into Naruto's subconscious."

The boy closed his eyes, and his body emitted a soft glow. The humans then recoiled with a start as the glow grew into a pillar of fire that spun into the air in an arc, releasing a dazed Uzumaki Naruto to fall into the arms of Hiruzen once more.

The flames danced and whirred until it charged a course for the floor. Before it made full contact, the conflagration contracted into a shape, growing in size. It grew and grew until it was roughly equal in size to Kurama. No. Bigger. The shape sharpened, forming a quadrupedal figure with wing-like protrusions.

When the flames dispersed, the humans stood back in awe.

The newcomer's head was a white exoskeleton, locks of spiky blonde hair fanning out of the seam, horns on each side of the crown, and a larger one from the snout, riddled with crimson stripes. Its mouth was filled with razor-sharp teeth, a black chin guard under the jaw, its equally sharp eyes a deep blue with no irises. Coiled around its neck were two metal bands. It had wings with feathers that radiated colors of gold and orange, casting the complex in a beautifully warm glow. Its feet were large dual claws that protruded on each of its limbs, and its body was embedded with a thick crimson armor, inlaid with silver panels and gold etchings patterned after flames. Fitted under each wing was a cannon with a gold sword-like attachment that doubled as a shield. A long, segmented tail rested lazily on the floor.

"This is what I really look like," AncientGreymon pronounced, his voice deep and booming.

Picking up their hanging jaws, Anko was the first to make a sound. She whistled, "Damn."

They nearly mistook the sensation of his presence to that of a Tailed Beast, but that couldn't be farther from the primeval aura he exuded. A creature of legend. A once great deity.

AncientGreymon swept his gaze to all present before it landed on a stirring Naruto. The boy collected his bearings before breaking away from Hiruzen's grasp to stand on his own. The both of them locked eyes in a silent understanding.

Naruto creaked the joints of his mouth to work properly. "This is crazy."

"That's all you have to say, man?" AncientGreymon chuckled.

Lips curling into a clunky smile, Naruto scratched the back of his scalp. "Well, what do you expect? Not everyday you get to find out you used to be a giant fire breathing dragon. I mean, it's cool, but heavy. Really heavy."

"Not everyday that you get to talk to that giant fire breathing dragon." AncientGreymon huffed. "Just soak it in. The craziness isn't gonna stop any time soon. Believe me."

"I guess," Naruto snorted. The smile disappeared, wheeling to face the two adults and elder, Kurama included in his line of sight.

He tried to lock eyes with Hiruzen, but the man couldn't. Wouldn't. Ashamed.

"I understand."

The Hokage blinked twice, wondering if he had heard the words correctly. He looked up to see; not a face of despair, but that of the young man he knew him to be despite all the odds.

"I haven't forgiven you," he stated concisely. "Any of you for how my life turned out. But…I can understand."

Hiruzen tried his damndest to keep out the nerve to reply, and almost didn't, until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He glanced at Kakashi, the outline of a smile underneath his mask, eyes gentle.

He pivoted back to the boy, hands still trembling out. "I…how…how can I even begin?"

"Then don't," shrugged the lad, catching everyone save for AncientGreymon by surprise.

Confounded, Hiruzen swallowed another lump. "Why? For what reason would you not want some form of recompense?"

Naruto looked down in thought. "Maybe because I understand things a little better now."

"Because I got to know who I am, and where I come from."

"That's…all I ever really wanted."

"Heh, well don't get too used to it, brat!" Anko exclaimed, approaching the lad with a gentle nudge to the head to scrape off some of the tension. "We ain't about to treat you like freaking royalty."

Naruto pulled a face as he rubbed at his head. "No way! I'd be like all those jerkwads at school who think they're hot shit! Nothing much is going to change. I'm still Uzumaki Naruto. Believe it!"

Anko bopped him on the head again. "First, that whole 'Believe it' thing? That's just cringe. Cut back on that."

"Point," Naruto conceded, both hands nursing his head this time.

"And second, you gonna be okay?" Anko's features noticeably softened. "You gave us a real scare back there."

Naruto blinked, when he recalled what she must have meant. "Oh, that? Yeah, I'll be okay. You shouldn't have worried."

Anko had a sinking feeling. "Why?"

"Because," Naruto began calmly before he started skipping about with a goofy smile, arching both arms to the crown of his head. "SYYYYYYYYYYYKE!"

Anko grabbed the little troll to give him the noogie of his life for the prank, digging his face into her generous bust, much to the envy of the two other men witnessing it.

"I think I'm gonna vomit," Kurama grumbled, his mood having soured.

All eyes fell on him, glaring at them less than pointedly, the wind taken out of his sails. "I guess I should have expected as much. I'm stuck until the next schmuck."

"No, you're not."

Hiruzen did not reel or panic this time, but he was still curious as he watched.

Kurama threw the boy a squint. "Let me guess. You're gonna prove to me that you're not like other humans. That I'm not a monster. Save that for television, brat."

"Actually, you are a monster."

The fox's eyes widened, then snarled. "At least you're honest."

"Yeah, I am," Naruto didn't deny it. "You should be too."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, look at you!" Naruto pitched his arms at him. "You are a monster. You're big, you look scary, and you probably…definitely want to murder everyone here."

"…Your point?" Kurama certainly wasn't against the murdering part. He could be sure of that.

"So, why do you hate humans for seeing you for what you are?"

That…honestly drew perplexed reactions out of all of them barring AncientGreymon. "You and the other Tailed Beasts aren't human, and that's true, so how could you have expected humans to treat you any differently?"

Kurama growled. "We expected to not be enslaved and used as weapons!"

"Well, there's that," Naruto shrugged. "But the point still stands. You are a monster. So why are you mad for being seen as what you are?"

"That's-"

You're not human, so there's no doubt that you'll have a hard life after I'm gone. But, take my advice. Always remember, never be ashamed or deny what you are. Be proud, my children.

"That's…bullshit!" Kurama spat back. "For most of your life, the villagers looked at you as a monster as well. A demon child. Don't tell me you were okay with it all!"

"It's partly because I didn't know why they did, and…I was lost," Naruto bemoaned. "I thought for most of my life, why? Why was I being treated this way? I mean, how could a kid handle that much abuse without knowing the real reason? It must be because my parents did something wrong, or my mom really was a prostitute and my-"

"Wait a moment, Naruto-kun, what was that last part?" Hiruzen interjected.

"That I thought my mom was a prostitute?"

"And who told you that?" Hiruzen prodded sternly, beyond incensed that anyone could have thought of Kushina that way. While he had nothing against prostitution itself (he even had some swell times with a few before marrying Biwako), it still wasn't an appropriate thing to tell a child, much less their own.

"Kōza's dad did," Naruto recalled, not really getting why it needed to be dredged up now. "So Kōza told me."

Yukishiro Kōta. "I see," Hiruzen said, subtly signaling Anko to have a "talk" with the man once they returned, who hid a tiny smirk from the order. "Never mind. I was just caught off guard, honestly. Please continue."

Still slightly bemused, Naruto went on. "So, yeah, I really didn't know why I was the town pariah. If I did, maybe it would have been bearable."

And maybe they would have toadied up to you instead. Kakashi thought in disgust. People were like that, he knew, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth. Not to mention the people who would want an Uzumaki for the taking.

Last he heard from a report filed by agents the Hokage fanned out in search for any survivors of the clan, they had clues leading to one in Kusagakure, but the trail had gone cold after the child and her mother were abducted. By who, they couldn't rightly determine, but no hints indicated it to be any of their usual suspects.

In hindsight, bearing his mother's surname would have set off flags for the boy to be sought-after by enemy shinobi, but part of the deterrent was because of the knowledge that Konoha already had an Uzumaki that was once kidnapped by Kumo. In spite of their shortcomings, Konoha wasn't stupid or suicidal enough to repeat the mistakes with Kushina.

Hiruzen was very clear that Naruto was to be on constant guard, and anyone who so much as struck him would be investigated. If they were a spy, they were to be disposed of. In the span of Naruto's life, a total of eight were arrested, interrogated and executed. All under everyone's noses.

"Maybe things could have been different."

"Or, maybe you would have built up a grudge from bottling it all up unhealthily, and you and Johnny over here-"

"Not gonna let that go, are you?"

"No," Anko coughed. "Kid, let's be real. A person is smart. People, especially in large numbers, are dumb panicky animals. You put a bunch of 'em together, spooked, you have yourself a mob, and a mob is only as smart as their dumbest member. You see 'em cheer for somebody to be burned or beheaded once, you tend to get a little perspective on what makes them tick. You can claim for things to get better, but it's wishful thinking and delusional to believe that they couldn't have ever looked at you as anything other than some meal ticket or the second coming of the Kyūbi."

Naruto's face gave way to disappointment. "I guess."

"But, you do have a point," Anko shrugged, hands on her hips. "So, Johnny Edgelord, you have a problem with being a 300 foot tall fur coat?"

"Woman, I will end you."

"So, you do then?"

"For your information, I…"

I'm not a monster!

Do they have to treat me like this?

Stop! I just…wanted to play.

I was just getting some food, and they attacked me?

Those humans…if they see me as a monster, then I'll be one!

"I…"

"Are you starting to get it?" AncientGreymon called to his godson.

Kurama bristled. "Is it too much to ask to be treated with respect?"

"True respect is earned, not asked for or given. It isn't supposed to be fair, and it never was. I told you as much after you tried picking a fight with my drinking buddies over them making fun of you."

Kurama ground his teeth. "Assholes."

"Yeah, they were," AncientGreymon shrugged. "But they fought in the war valiantly and never backed out to the very end. People who I can proudly call my friends."

"Hmph, so what? You're saying I should just accept all the crap I've been through?"

"What has happened has happened," AncientGreymon declared. "We and Hagoromo saw you and your siblings for what you were, but you subconsciously chose to see yourselves as being no different from humans, expecting them to welcome you with open arms. Reality has done its part in showing that you are not. The idea was never about any of that, nor waiting for someone else to come along and put you on the right path. It was always about accepting your true nature and sticking to those convictions. You've missed out on a lot of opportunities in life as well, godson, but it isn't too late to start over. With him."

Kurama followed his godfather's gesture to the boy. His jailer. "Puh, whatever."

"Hey," Naruto called.

Kurama glanced at him, begrudgingly replying, "What?"

"You still want to get out?"

The beast's brows creased into a frown. "Forget it."

"No."

Kurama blinked. "Excuse me?"

Naruto paused in thought, before directly facing the fox. "I'll get you out."

Hiruzen closed his eyes. No longer did he have reason to be apprehensive. He might as well place his trust in Minato and Kushina's legacy.

No. In Naruto.

"One day, you and your siblings will be free."

Kurama sneered, scoffing. "You got any better jokes?"

Naruto didn't say a word, but his eyes were conveying a sincerity to them that made the fox sick to his stomach. It reminded him of an emotion that he had long been deprived of. One he had long abandoned.

Hope.

"I will get you out. I won't be promising anything, but…no, I know I'll get you out. Call it a feeling."

"It takes more than words and feelings, boy."

Naruto grinned. "You want me to prove it?"

He reached his hand out towards the seal.

Hiruzen and the others braced themselves, but they were not at all alarmed to their astonishment.

Instead, they were taken aback by a sight that none of them expected, and left him and Kakashi breathless.

Two figures had suddenly appeared next to Naruto in the time it took for them to blink, their backs facing them. One was a man wearing a familiar short-sleeved white haori emblazoned with red flame patterns at the bottom. The standard blue pants could be seen poking out with bandages wrapping his visible ankles, his sandals a darker blue than what was common. He wore the standard uniform under the coat, with his arm length coal black sleeves adorned with bands on his wrists and forearms. His head was barbed with blonde hair, which both men could recognize anywhere.

The other was a woman with waist length crimson hair that made Hiruzen tear up, believing that he would never again get to see such flowing locks. Her attire was a high-collared, sleeveless white blouse under a long, loose-fitting green dress. A blue wristband was hooked around her left wrist. Unlike the man, her sandals were gray.

Naruto blinked, noticing the two hovering beside each side of him. He glanced at the man to his right first. He was smiling at him, his blue eyes vibrant and reassuring. He was sure that he would never feel fear or doubt so long as he beheld them. He immediately knew who this man was.

Next, to the woman on his left, she too was smiling at him, but there were tears in her violet eyes, filled with love and tenderness. She was happy to see him. He also knew who she was without a second thought.

He felt like crying himself, but a part of him wanted to show them how much he had grown. Boyish pride interspersed with happiness. They each placed their hands on his, warmth traveling from the contact, and without another word or a hint of hesitation.

Pulled.

Kurama watched it all happen.

First, with shock, then anger, thinking that they were deceiving him once more. Then, he noticed that Naruto had not let his arm down, and that they were…helping him?

He didn't know how, but he slowly took an awkward step as the cage creaked open. Then another. Then another. And another. All of them made way for him as he stepped out into the complex, nonplussed that it was actually happening.

He blinked several times to see if this was a dream or a genjutsu, craning his body left and right, moving his arms around for good measure. His head swiveled, throwing a glimpse behind him to see the cage gone, and only more of the complex that led to a blank wall.

His brow then flattened in a deadpan. "I'm still here."

Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Yeah, well, at least you have more space to move around."

Kurama clicked his tongue. "What a gyp."

"It's a start, godson," AncientGreymon chastised him. "Your rehabilitation begins now."

"Not good enough!" Kurama bellowed at him. "All that drama and this is the best I get?" He harrumphed, turning away with his arms crossed. "You're all just stringing me along, old man."

Instead of a rebuttal, AncientGreymon marched towards the fox, his footfalls making the floor tremble.

The humans winced when the entire chamber shuddered before Kurama fell flat on his stomach, stars orbiting around a giant lump bulging from his head, tongue sticking out.

"Sorry about that," AncientGreymon apologized to the humans. "He's a stubborn one, so please be patient."

"Uh, sure," Naruto agreed sheepishly, letting out an awkward chuckle.

That was some hit. They all thought at the same time.

His parents shared in their son's awkwardness, before they turned to the others. Anko took a step back as Minato and Kushina approached Kakashi and Hiruzen respectively.

Kakashi couldn't find the strength to move, gawking as his sensei gave him a once over. Minato had never dropped his smile. "You look good."

The ANBU Captain could have been mistaken as a mannequin. His expression was nothing; if not, pensive. "Minato-sensei…is…is that really you?"

Minato shrugged his shoulders, a hand on his hip. "What's left of myself that isn't stewing in the Shinigami's stomach."

Kakashi was all the same joyful as he was contrite. "Sensei…I…I wasn't able to become the kind of man you'd be proud of. I've…made many mistakes. Mistakes that I can never take back. I…wasn't able to be there for Naruto. I ended up letting the past control my actions ever since you and Kushina-san left. If-"

A gentle hand hooked on his shoulder.

"You shouldn't give up just because of that."

Kakashi thought he had forgotten how to breathe.

"You did well."

He was finding it hard to breathe, until he noticed the warmth around his eyes from crying for the first time in years.

Hiruzen hung his head sullenly, unable to bear meeting his gaze with Kushina. Gentle arms looping around his shoulders wrenched him out of his funk, surprise etching itself on his wizened visage.

"You did your best."

He closed his eyes from the caress of her voice, like a dear daughter had returned to him.

"I'm still so sorry," the words came out on their own softly.

Kushina pulled away, holding a smile that brought him back to brighter days. She glanced over to Naruto, who was still watching as AncientGreymon kept laying into his wayward godson.

"He looks well enough."

Hiruzen persisted. "I still should have done more."

She shook her head. "It could have been worse."

"Erm…" Hiruzen could give her that. "That still doesn't make what I've been doing right."

"Sensei, you were dealing with a lot, and maybe I shouldn't have placed such a burden-"

"It wasn't," Hiruzen gently assured her. "Kushina, my dear, Naruto can never be a burden. Such are children." He paused. "If he can just stop placing graffiti on all our faces."

Kushina giggled. "But still, for what it's worth, thank you."

Hiruzen still felt like he didn't deserve it, but nodded all the same, returning her smile.

"Ah, Kakashi-kun!" Kushina called to the ANBU Captain, waving for him.

"Kushina-san," Kakashi nodded, trading with the Hokage who went on to parley with Minato. The woman hugged him as well, but unlike with Hiruzen, this was that of an older sister.

"You're doing well, I hope?"

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders. "I manage."

From her expression, Kushina wasn't entirely convinced, but respectfully didn't press. Her gaze traveled to Anko, who had her hands in her pockets, not bothering with what she saw wasn't her business, save for a simple nod of greeting and her name.

"Mitarashi Anko."

"Chūnin?"

Anko nodded. "I'm with Torture and Interrogation."

Kushina nodded back, doing a quick glance between the young woman and Kakashi. Quick enough that neither of them noticed. She hid a smile.

As time wore on with everyone having said their piece, Naruto finally confronted his parents.

"You can't stay for longer, can you?"

The two exchanged knowing glances. Kushina strode up to kneel in front of her son, fondling his face that had bits of hers and Minato's. "I still have so much to talk about with you, but this is as far as things go."

Naruto hung his head sadly. "I guess it's too much to ask for."

"Naruto," Minato came up next to his wife to place a hand on his son's shoulder. "If we could, we'd be able to spend all the time in the world together. It's just…"

"Your father and I originally made it so that we'd appear at certain moments in your life," Kushina explained. "If you ever had to undo the seal, Minato would pop in and stop you. If the Kyūbi-"

"Kurama," the fox reminded her pointedly, still flat on his stomach as AncientGreymon had him pinned.

"If the Kyūbi," Kushina snarled, refusing the correction through clenched teeth, accentuated by tendrils of her hair hovering around wildly, her temper flaring that it made all the other humans take a step back, with the exception of her husband, who just chuckled, "was ever close to overwhelming you, I'd step in. We…we were to be there for you. Just…not in the way you may have needed us."

"She's still pissed at you," Anko whispered dryly to the growling fox, her arms folded.

Nervously sweating from witnessing a taste of his mother's rage, he responded with, "What made both of you guys to show up now?"

Minato pointed to AncientGreymon. "Him. Long story short, after we ended up becoming a part of the seal, we stumbled into his domain where he went on to give us the whole nine yards. Imagine how we must have taken it compared to you guys." He trailed off with a chortle.

Kushina did as well alongside her husband. "I wish we could stay. It must have been-"

Naruto grabbed his mother's hand with his own. "My favorite food is ramen."

"..."

"Orange is my favorite color, but I like blue too."

Minato and Kushina listened raptly.

"I don't like vegetables that much, but people keep saying they're healthy, so I'm trying them out for a change. I like to read books on botany. I've been working hard to finally graduate this year, with help from my classmate, Shikamaru. I…" His vision was getting blurry. "I have…I have friends."

He thought back to when Ino defended him and, in her own way, tried to help with his problems and social life. How Chouji offered his help generously without issue. How Shikamaru didn't even think twice to tutor him. How he had been invited to eat with his family.

"I thought…I could no longer trust people. I didn't want to get my hopes up, so I resigned myself to just…being alone. But, they never turned away or looked at me like most people did."

"That's because you were never alone, boy." All eyes drifted to AncientGreymon. "Even if there happens to be vast scores of people, there is this natural disconnect that keeps them isolated. Yet, it makes forming such bonds all the more precious. Genuine connections that transcend lifetimes are especially rare."

"Then, Shikamaru and the others?"

"Try feeling for it and you'll see, but do not mistake that as the sole reason. They are your friends for who you are."

Naruto rubbed at his eyes, averting his focus back to his mother. Tears of happiness were trailing down her cheeks. "They sound wonderful."

The young Uzumaki sniffed, beaming. "Yeah, they are." He blinked when a thought flashed through him. "Oh crap! Bokomon and Piyomon!"

"Shit, that's right!" Anko slapped her forehead. "How are we gonna help them? I mean, can we still make it?"

"It isn't too late," AncientGreymon proffered. "I've made it so that no time has passed outside this space, and that all of the injuries you sustained have been healed."

They were sure of it. Some higher power was testing how much Hiruzen and Kakashi could endure until they were blue in the face. Unfortunately, the universe can have a sick sense of humor.

"And to no one's surprise, I get the short end of the stick," Kurama grumbled from the corner of a wall he was now facing, hunched over, arms folded under his chest.

"Oh yeah, this guy's still here," Anko commented.

AncientGreymon sighed. "Still, you complain." The ancient Digimon raised his head and the room flashed. The dreary and sickly chamber was soon replaced by a cozy white loft. Complete with a wide circular bed that was big enough to accommodate Kurama. A cupboard bookshelf was snugly tucked against the wall next to it, and instead of pipes littering the ceiling, a lone lamp shined down on them. A record player rested on a nightstand adjacent to a large black leather sofa from across the bed, a box of vinyl records under the shelf below.

Naruto scraped the sole of his sandals on what was soft carpeting, white as sheep's wool.

Kushina couldn't hide how impressed she was, while Hiruzen's catatonic body was cradled by both Kakashi and Minato, who was vigorously waving a fan over him.

Kurama, jaw on the floor and his right eye twitching, could do nothing but stare.

"There," AncientGreymon said, inclining his head to the bookshelf and player. "I'm sure you'll find yourself enraptured by the selection I've catered to your preferences. You won't be bored, at least."

"I'm starting to think I should be charging you rent money for this," Naruto voiced in awe. "Air conditioning, too?" He wasn't running a hotel.

"Hey, we got a fridge over here," Anko called out.

"Really?"

"Help me get it open!"

Naruto responded to the call. Opening it was simple in spite of its sheer size, more of a mini-fridge, though it required both the kunoichi and the young Uzumaki to accomplish the feat, inundated by a rush of cold air once they did. The contents revealed were giant bottles of cognac, sake and beer. Anko gulped at how high quality they all were, having a good eye to tell.

"Whoa, it's got candy, too." Naruto moseyed up to a jar of cylindrical multicolored candies placed on the door shelf. By the light of the fridge, they sparkled like jewels. Next to it were an assortment of boxes. Chocolates, biscuits and…beef jerky?

This place was a paradise.

Kurama couldn't find the proper words, his mouth stuffed with cotton. "You…you…"

"I could always change it back."

"Nonononono!" Kurama quickly flailed both of his hands in refusal. "This is fine. It's fine!"

So shallow. They all inwardly remarked.

"How?" Hiruzen just had to ask, having recovered. "The Hakke no Fūin Shiki (Eight Trigrams Sealing Style) is a Fūinjutsu of the Uzumaki Clan. How…how are you able to manipulate it to this degree?" Even if he was a deity, the aging Hokage wasn't entirely willing to accept that it was this simple.

"That's what you humans call it?" AncientGreymon thought aloud. "What you refer to as 'Fūinjutsu' is merely a form of programming. Hence, why I was able to bend this space to my will."

Hiruzen's lifespan was being sliced in half, he could swear. His voice fumbled as he asked lamely in a whimper, "I beg your pardon?"

No, really. He was genuinely begging that this was a senility induced delusion. He should be so lucky.

"This 'psychic plane' we're in is merely an augmented reality in its own dimension," AncientGreymon explained. "'Fūinjutsu' is a primitive form of programming Yggdrasil used to experiment with before it was inherited and improved by certain Digimon, who no doubt taught it to the founder of the Uzumaki Clan centuries ago."

Kushina nodded in confirmation, much to Hiruzen's dismay. "Believe me, I was pretty shocked too." Her palms clasped together, she winked at him with a pleading smile for his patience. "Just…just roll with it, sensei."

He was going to check the dosage of his heart medicine once this madness was all over and done with.

"What's with these books?" Anko cambered and squinted at the large (in size and quantity) collection sandwiched together on the shelf. "Manga?"

Kurama sidled up to the bookshelf to pluck one. "Pft! Not my cup of tea. This is Gekiga." He opened it and leafed through the pages, a ghost of a smirk lurking on his lips. "All here."

Anko checked the other titles. Some were art books consisting of collections from illustrators like Shūbun Tenshō, Hokusai Katsushika. Others were on foreign languages from the Southern and Northern continents. If she didn't know who this was all for, she would have presumed this belonged to someone of refined taste.

She glanced at the fox with scrutiny, who was calmly rifling through another book. This guy?

"It's time."

Naruto didn't think it could hurt so much when his parents bade him their farewells. Kushina couldn't stop crying, embracing him tight enough to strain his spine, yet he didn't find it suffocating. Or, perhaps it was his breathing having hitched that he couldn't rightly tell.

Other than a one armed hug and a good ruffling of his hair, Minato imparted to him, like any good father would, fine words of wisdom.

"When cleaning up, I recommend using antibacterial wet wipes over tissues."

"For my computer?"

A cryptic grin slowly painted itself on his father's features. "Sure."

Naruto nodded, only to be a bit taken aback that his mother slapped the man in the back of the head for some reason.

"Take care of yourself," Minato ruffled his hair for the last time as he became less opaque. "Save your friends. I know you can do it."

"Cherish those you love and who love you back," Kushina said through her tears, also losing her solidity. "Just as we do you."

They threw the others one final glance, trading nods.

We leave the rest to you.

"…They're gone," Naruto muttered after his parents vanished completely.

It was quiet in the room for a good while, letting the lingering tension peter out.

After a pregnant pause, Naruto slipped a hand into his pocket, but the D-Scanner wasn't to be found, deducing that it must be with Bokomon. The thing had been a pain from the start, and it still was, but without it, he wouldn't be where he was now.

"I'm ready."

AncientGreymon stood in front of him. "Uzumaki Naruto. As my reincarnation, no one else but you is to inherit my power. It always was and will be yours. Yet, as I am now, I can only give you a portion of it."

"What do you mean?"

"It is not to be that simple," AncientGreymon declared. "When we became Spirits, our immense power had to be compartmentalized in order to proceed at a natural evolutionary pace to offset the host from becoming overwhelmed. I can only give you the 'Human Spirit'. You must find the 'Beast Spirit' elsewhere."

"Oddly enough, I don't find that surprising," Naruto groused.

"Aw, come on! Don't tell me the thought of adventure doesn't excite you?"

"Hell yeah, it does! Who do you take me for!?" Naruto exclaimed with a pumped fist. "A new world? Exploring ancient ruins? Fighting bad guys? Video games got nothing on this! Bring it!"

"Naruto-kun."

"Jii-chan?" Naruto responded to the old man's call.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Hiruzen asked in worry. "That WereGarurumon fellow made short work of you even with the Kyūbi's chakra. I fear you might not fare well a second time."

"I know that, Jii-chan!" Naruto affirmed. "But with the Spirit, I have a chance, and even if I didn't, I have to try. I can't let them down."

"Still…"

"This isn't a death wish."

Hiruzen paused slightly.

"This isn't a death wish."

"I'm betting everything on my friends."

"I'm betting everything on you and your generation, Saru."

"I won't give up. No matter what, I will save them," the young Uzumaki said in a tone bereft of his usual bluster. He was flowing with the courage to see this through, his blue eyes alight with the same burning determination he had once witnessed in his sensei, Senju Tobirama.

This…This is the true Will of Fire.

In the intervening years, he had grown to believe that the philosophy emphasized devotion to the village and its people as a whole. Yet, having reflected on his conduct and how the consequences affected not just Naruto, but the people that were closest to him, it was riddled with flaws and hypocrisy.

Although far more selfish, humans were nothing else but selfish creatures in the end. Naruto was willing to risk it all to save his friends because they were his friends, who fully reciprocated.

He closed his eyes. "Very well."

And opened them to meet with the boy's, who didn't flinch.

"Uzumaki Naruto. As you are still an academy student, this cannot be considered official. However, due to the rather bizarre circumstances we've found ourselves in, this will be but a clandestine operation. By my authority as the Third Hokage, I appoint to you your first mission. Rescue your friends and defeat WereGarurumon."

Naruto righted his posture. "Yes!"

"And."

"Hm?"

"Come back home to Konoha."

Naruto returned the man's grandfatherly smile. "Yes," he said with a nod.

"Now then." AncientGreymon roared as flames engulfed his body, bathing them all in light.

"Awaken!"

Hiruzen, Kakashi and Anko merely blinked, and they were once again back in Naruto's living room.

"That really happened, right?" Anko asked with a smirk, not a shred of doubt in her words.

"Ah," Kakashi still answered, feeling more refreshed than he had ever been in years.

Hiruzen watched the monitor with a small smile, observing Naruto standing up from his coma.

"Wha-What the…hell?" WereGarurumon had only covered his eyes for about a minute, and then the cavern fell into complete darkness. His natural night vision would have alleviated the inconvenience of that, but the sight that greeted him wasn't what he expected.

Instead of Piyomon mourning the loss of the scholar, both she and the egghead were alive and well, checking themselves out in befuddlement atop the shrine. Along with one other.

"How…How can I be…?" Bokomon sputtered, utterly at a loss as he felt the spot where his neck had been gashed. "I'm really alive?"

"Hey."

"Huh?" Piyomon followed the voice behind her, blinking rapidly a few times to ensure she wasn't seeing things, then squealed in delight. "Naru-chan!"

"What?" Bokomon traced the direction she dashed to.

Naruto, up and about, returning the embrace of a rapturous Piyomon, though his clothes were still torn in certain places. Had he perhaps been brained by a stray boulder and was now seeing things? "N-Naruto?"

Said blonde lent his attention to the scholar after pulling away from the avian. "Yo!"

"You're…" Bokomon teared up, chewing his bottom lip. "You're okay!" He closed the distance to pounce on the lad's leg for a hug. "You've regained consciousness. How? You should have been out for far longer than that."

Naruto grinned like an idiot. "Nah. Wouldn't miss this for the world. I'm here to save you guys."

"Eh?" Bokomon thought he heard wrong. "You're…going to save us?"

"Yeah," the boy answered like it was obvious, a furtive smile lining his lips.

WereGarurumon snapped out of his stupor, putting on an evil grin. "Didn't I just finish teaching you a lesson, meatbag? You wanna go again and get the full course? Be my guest. After I'm through, I'll be using your head as a football and to mount on my trophy cabinet."

Not the least bit bothered by the very real threat, Naruto asked, "You have a trophy cabinet?"

WereGarurumon's eyes briefly shifted. "No, but I'll start with you! If I don't end up loading you, that is." He began to crack his knuckles.

Bokomon and Piyomon shuffled back a few steps in fear, but Naruto didn't move. In fact, he hadn't moved from his spot at all, calm as a spring breeze.

"Naruto," Bokomon sputtered in trepidation, shaking like a leaf. "Are-Are you really going to fight him again?"

"Hm?" Naruto glanced down at his friend. "Yeah, why?"

"Even," Bokomon gulped. "Even after he nearly killed you?"

"If I don't, then I can't save you guys."

Bokomon didn't want to believe that Naruto was suffering from some kind of delusion brought about by brain damage, but here he was, worryingly contemplating that the severe beating the boy had been subjected to had left more of a grave impression on him than he thought.

"You're really going to fight him again?!"

"Yeah."

"How can you be so casual about that?! You almost died had I not given you emergency treatment, and you're just going to throw your life away right after waking up from your coma?!" Bokomon screeched in consternation, tears pouring out of his beady eyes.

"Well, when you put it that way, I really can't fight him how I am now, can I? I'd get creamed," Naruto acceded reasonably, scratching at his head with a finger in that same infuriatingly casual tone.

Bokomon thought he had gotten through to the lad, a tiny bit relieved but still mulling over their predicament.

"Heh, then that just makes this easier!" Bokomon swore he saw his life flash before him as WereGarurumon pivoted his body for a kick he knew would take them all out in one fell swoop had a barrier of light not blasted out of the shrine at the last second before the attack could be properly charged.

"What the-?" WereGarurumon halted with a start, before his anger shot up. "It's one thing after another! I've had enough!"

'Kaiser Nail'

Swiping both his arms inward, streaks of red energy sprung forth from his claws in arcs for each finger, landing against the blue barrier with accents of magenta uselessly as it only seemed to absorb them.

WereGarurumon gaped in disbelief for a second before pressing with more. Busied by this futile task, he didn't see the only other Digimon present to be awed and puzzled by this development behind the dense obstacle.

Naruto cackled. "Scared you guys good, didn't I?"

"W-What?" Now Bokomon was really skirting the lines between bafflement and frustration. "Naruto, this is no time to be joking around. What's with this phenomenon? What is even happening anymore?"

"You mean you really haven't figured it out?" Naruto asked him with a cheeky smirk. "Don't you at least recognize me one bit, Bokomon?"

"Huh?" The young Uzumaki supposed he didn't.

"I'll run you through the details later, but first, that barrier won't hold up for long."

Without wasting any more time, he reached his hand out. The D-Scanner flew out of Bokomon's haramaki to the scholar's wonder before it landed on the boy's open palm, and as if reacting to the device, a shape began to form in the middle of the outcrop they were all standing on. It was about the size that one could fit into the palm of their hand, coming in vibrant shades of orange, red, white and yellow, a miniature bust of armor that was fixed atop a hexagonal coaster.

Bokomon did a double take and rubbed at his beady oculars. "I…Is that…?"

"Yep!" Naruto declared before thrusting the top end of his digivice forward, held between both hands. "Spirit!"

The Spirit hovered on a collision course towards him until it vanished into the sensor. On the screen, Naruto observed an orange red symbol flash, indicating the download was successful.

He lifted his gaze up ahead at where he knew WereGarurumon was trying to tear down the barrier, his face hardening in determination.

He was ready.

Pitching his free left hand out, a ring of code circled around it before he crossed his arms to run it over the sensor.

Spirit

EVOLUTION

Naruto's body faded into a black silhouette as countless wisps of orange energy circuited around him, pieces of armor materializing in each section encompassing his arms, legs and torso. His height grew to that of an adult male as pieces of the armor seemed to infuse themselves on him.

When the transformation was complete, a new figure took the boy's place in a rush of fire before it dispersed, leaving his two friends unharmed to their astonishment as they beheld their friend in disbelief.

"Whoa…" Anko breathed in awe. Kakashi and Hiruzen were in similar states.

It was a man clad in armor over a black bodysuit that drew many similarities from AncientGreymon. Red with gold accents in patterns of flames, inlaid with dark silver panels on his ankles and chest area. Three exhaust holes aligned in a downward triangle could be found on his knees, dorsal ankles and upper arms, and the white gauntlets on his wrists. Pairs of metal bands fastened portions of armor on his midriff and the lateral side of his thighs. Black curved spikes protruded from the pauldrons on his shoulders. His footwear came to a pair of stubby clawed points.

The most striking was his mane of blonde hair, having grown to waist length. On his face was a red mask with sharp eye holes and exposed jaw, his bottom canines protruding out of his mouth. White horns flared out of the upper sides and the forehead, with the lateral pair marked with two stripes in contrast to the middle, which was a simple patch of red at the tip.

Instead of his whisker birthmarks, pairs of red pointed stripes adorned his cheeks. In the middle of his mask and the armor on his midriff, the symbol of his element could be seen, which resembled the Kanji for fire. His blue eyes focused on ahead as the barrier finally dissipated after absorbing one last attack from its assailant.

"Did Naruto…evolve?" Kakashi had heard the boy loudly announce it.

"Looks like," Anko shrugged, about to do her due diligence in scanning, but before she could, a pop-up appeared.

Digital Scanner has been updated!

Digital Analyzer is loading…

"Digital Analyzer, huh?" Anko huffed. "Yo, bright eyes. You had anything to do with this?"

4ngelf4c3: Yes. By the way, how was your trip?

A vein throbbed on Anko's forehead. "Classy. How about you join us next time?"

4ngelf4c3: I'll clear up my busy schedule by then.

WereGarurumon hissed, his claws smoking from having overused his attack. His celebratory relief was short-lived as he caught sight of the figure standing in place of the boy. Completely done with these shenanigans, he went straight to asking, "Who the fuck are you?"

Blue eyes regarded the beast man. "Take a guess."

It slowly dawned on the brute from the voice, his right ear twitching. "You!"

"Yeah."

"The…it can't be!" WereGarurumon's muscles seized up in rage. "The Spirit! You've…"

"Do I have to spell it out, dog breath?" Naruto smirked.

"How?!" WereGarurumon brandished the claws on his right hand at him in a threatening manner.

"Just taking what's mine." He took a step forward, the air around him different from what WereGarurumon knew to be the pathetic brat he pulverized earlier. The beast man took a step back, sensing the hostile intent emanating from the human turned Digimon.

"Here we go!" Anko initiated the scan.

Agnimon

Stage: Champion

Type: Demon Man

Attribute: Variable

A Digimon that possesses power over Flame which bears the might of one of the legendary Ancient Ten. His 'Digicore' is clad in holy fire that allows him to manipulate flames that evil and malicious entities are especially susceptible to, as he is an incarnation of the very "Firewall" that defends the Network. A guardian deity, he is adept in unarmed combat, utilizing a series of martial arts maneuvers to execute fast and blazing hot attacks.

Attacks

Burning Salamander: Clasps his fists together to gather fire and releases it in the shape of a dragon.

Salamander Break: A spinning lariat with his arms and legs ablaze that ends in a devastating kick. With this, he is able to whip up a tornado of flames around himself for both offense and defense.

Fire Darts: Launches bits of fire from his 'Pyro Gauntlets'.

Crimson Knuckle: Heats up his fist to deliver a burning hot punch.

Burning Slicer: A flaming chop.

Blaze Shoot: A flaming downward sloping kick.

Salamander Kick: Dashes forward or jumps to launch a kick covered in dragon shaped flames.

Gatling Burst: Grabs the opponent to deliver a myriad of rapid-fire punches at them.

Million Gatling Burst: A more powerful version of 'Gatling Burst' using both fists to deliver a barrage of rapid-fire punches.

Vortex Strike: A flaming kick.

Fire Dash: Dashes at high speed, leaving flames in his wake.

Fire Slide: A fiery sliding kick.

Anko let out another whistle. "Holy shit, this kid just hit the freaking jackpot!"

"Amazing! An array of taijutsu with a Katōn affinity," Hiruzen said in fascination. "With at least two that resemble Ninjutsu in the vein of the basic Fire Releases." And fittingly for a shinobi-to-be of Konoha. "Yet, will Naruto-kun even be able to manage? He has not had sufficient training."

4ngelf4c3: Agnimon should have enough combat data to hold his own and use his moves at their most basic. The rest can be compensated by his instincts and desire to win.

Hiruzen was curious as to how these Digimon benefit from this 'combat data' and if it was that simple. It would be like knowing how to fight in an instant without having trained, yet his intuition told him there was a depth behind it that he was missing. Naruto could very well be capable enough now, but to what degree?

Likewise, his Digimon name intrigued him. 'Agni' was the name of a deity in the Southeastern Continents. Buddhist sects in Fire Country especially worship him as their tutelary deity as the very symbol of the heart, the life force that burns like a flame. Hashirama himself admitted that he drew some inspiration for his philosophy from Agni.

Could this be fate? Divine providence at work?

WereGarurumon should have jumped at the chance to strike first, but his instincts told him to be wary. This was an evolution that he had never seen before. Yet, his lingering frustration was spurning him on. Etemon couldn't be called a patient Digimon by any stretch, but he tended to tease his subordinates. Sometimes, he punished those who failed or displeased him, and at other times, he'd give them a chance. It was the spontaneity of it all that kept them on their toes, and if he was a betting mon, he wasn't going to get off easy for botching a mission of this significance.

'Engetsugiri'

He swept his leg in a wide arc, generating a blade of energy that rocketed at the three before Bokomon and Piyomon could organize their thoughts. Agnimon spun on his heel and bunched the two into his arms, ducking under the blade and leaping past the beast man by his left. He bounded over the floor and a few stalagmites to a far corner of the cavern, where he deposited the two for their safety.

"Fast…" Kakashi remarked softly. Not nearly as fast as his father, but it rivaled top level shinobi like himself, and he had a feeling this wasn't the full extent of the boy's speed in this form.

Agnimon somersaulted backwards to flip at full tilt in gathering momentum for his move.

'Salamander Kick'

WereGarurumon barely had enough time to register the legendary warrior hurtling towards him with a leg extended, beset with flames in a shape that roughly resembled the head of a dragon. It connected with his left shoulder blade, knocking him forward to bowl over the shrine and crash headfirst into the ground, his size and weight creating a long notch.

Disoriented, it took the beast man a few minutes to gather his wits and push himself out of the deep indent and flip to his feet. His back stung as a bruise was coming on. Mortified and enraged that the kid got the drop on him, he made a beeline for him. The muscles of his legs surged with adrenaline as he flipped into the air to do a downward slope kick, firing a vertical Engetsugiri at Agnimon, who bobbed right to allow the blade to gouge the floor.

Pressing his air time, WereGarurumon rotated using the remaining impulse with his fist drawn. The one with the brass knuckle.

'Baldy Blow'

Seeing this, Agnimon timed the descent before weaving to his left and vault himself off the floor, letting WereGarurumon carve out a large crater that shook the cavern to its very foundations and causing the two Rookies watching the carnage to lose their balance.

As rocks and debris rained down on them, Bokomon could hardly believe what was happening as he grabbed at a small outcrop. The presence and pressure was one he thought he'd never experience again, belonging only to one Digimon that he knew of long ago from his adventures with Hagoromo.

"AncientGreymon…"

"Hm?" Piyomon looked up at him as she was moving to stand back up. "Who's that, Boko-chan? What happened to Naru-chan?"

"I can't make much sense of it for now, but…Naruto has somehow used the Spirit to evolve and channel AncientGreymon's power." No, that wasn't right. It felt different. Either the Spirit could be used by humans as it could with Digimon, or Naruto was somewhat of an exception.

Landing to kneel on one knee, The Warrior of Fire watched WereGarurumon wrest his arm free from the hole he dug, slabs and clumps of the ruined floor lining the rim of the crater.

That would have blown my head off. Agnimon muscles tensed as WereGarurumon righted himself. Just one solid hit and I'm done for.

WereGarurumon knew this as well, hellbent on just one of his attacks landing to gain an advantage. He swung his right hand in a backhanded swipe, streaks of energy aiming in the direction of the Rookies, much to Agnimon's umbrage.

He shot a large fireball to intercept it, the collision of the attacks going up in an explosion that lit up the cavern briefly.

"What's the big idea?" Agnimon asked crossly.

WereGarurumon scoffed. "Anything goes in a fight, dipshit. That's how we roll around here."

Agnimon smirked. An idea popped into his mind, but it was a longshot. "Is that so?"

Expecting another move on his friends, WereGarurumon instead lunged at him, but Agnimon timed it again, zipping to the side before an outstretched claw could reach him, but it was a feint. Breathing in through his nostrils and sucking in his lips, the same hand grabbed the floor to drive forward an extended leg.

Agnimon crossed his arms as he was clipped, grunting from the force that pushed him back. The damage was mitigated by being aloft, catching himself by stabbing both legs to the ground, only to skid along the surface because of the inertia. Pressing the long awaited advantage, WereGarurumon dashed into a leap.

'Garuru Kick'

The warrior of fire saw him coming, propelling his body upward with the squall of his leg muscles. Spinning in on himself, wisps of flames snaked around him, swelling into a tornado.

'Salamander Break'

WereGarurumon wasn't deterred, or couldn't, his kick inches away until he was engulfed by the flames that further expanded. Agnimon parried with his own, and the two became locked in a midair brawl within the eye of the tornado, trading a slew of blows.

'Gatling Burst'

Quickly grasping the hem of his cargos, Agnimon's free hand laid out a brutal fast paced assault of punches at the beast man's exposed stomach. Winded, WereGarurumon made an arduous swipe for his head, which was evaded as Agnimon dove to grab him, focusing as much of his entire weight to bring them down.

WereGarurumon was slammed hard onto his back, plowing into the floor from the force and combined weight, dispelling the tornado.

"He's faster than him," Hiruzen pronounced, impressed that Naruto actually was managing. "Did it not say in this WereGarurumon's profile that his evolution had rendered him slower?"

"That's right," Anko recalled. "That's gonna be his edge over this yaken* here."

Kakashi, however, couldn't help the scrutiny in his keen viewing of Naruto's performance, having grown used to Gai's more refined technique. He's sloppy in places, but not too bad. By my estimate, he's a match for veteran chūnin. He still needs polishing.

Agnimon was about to spring off the downed werewolf when he was grabbed by the neck, the large hand nearly skirting his torso despite having grown to an adult. Agnimon snarled as he was being crushed in a vice.

Still with more than enough strength, WereGarurumon kept squeezing until a cracking noise took place.

"Naruto!" Bokomon screeched behind a large stalagmite with Piyomon behind him, who was also calling out to the boy.

WereGarurumon grinned in triumph as he felt something buckle under his grip, which was spoiled by a puff of smoke, revealing what he was holding to be a crushed boulder.

Dumbfounded, WereGarurumon rose from his heap, then quickly climbed to his feet as he tossed the remains of the boulder away, ignoring the pain he was in as he checked in on patches of his fur burned and singed, aside from more of the bruises he earned in their tousle.

I can resist my own flames, but his burned me? No matter. "Where are you?! Show yourself!"

"You said anything goes, man!" Agnimon heckled in a disembodied voice from the darker corners of the cavern, bouncing off the walls in an echo.

WereGarurumon cocked his head, listening in. "Ha! Not when I can just freely attack your friends instead, numbnuts."

"Well, you could do that," Agnimon acceded, carrying a mocking tenor behind his words. "But I'm injured. Just a little more and you'll have my Spirit on a silver platter. Your boss might even give you a promotion."

WereGarurumon gritted his teeth. He couldn't afford to be impulsive the way things were going. Likewise for Agnimon, the two deadlocked as the latter was recovering his stamina behind a column that was once either a stalagmite or stalactite. The plan had worked, discovering that he could still use ninjutsu like Kawarimi. Which was fairly odd, since he didn't feel the usual rush of chakra.

He flexed his hand, trying to see if he could draw out a trickle after Shikamaru showed him how. Nothing. Didn't think I could after seeing it once, but can I still use chakra?

"He can still use ninjutsu?" Hiruzen pondered aloud.

"Looks like it." Anko had a hunch and scanned Agnimon again, and saw at the very bottom of his moves the addition of Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Replacement Technique), described as such succinctly. "What's going on?"

4ngelf4c3: Who knows? \_(ツ)/

"Nobody fucking asked you," Anko deadpanned. My ass. You know very well.

This is getting me nowhere. WereGarurumon's ear twitched, listening carefully to place the bastard's hiding spot, with fitful sniffs of the air. Dead silence settled into the cavern, and while he could still find the scrubs from their light breathing, the asshole was as quiet as a mouse. His ears twitched again when he caught the rapping of a small stone to his left. Nice try.

He aimed a swipe of his claws in the opposite direction, slicing through a few formations and into the wall.

'Crimson Knuckle'

Agnimon, his fist sizzling red, planted it viciously into WereGarurumon's stomach.

After having slipped in from the left.

Simple misdirection. I circled around him, masking my steps. All I needed to do was drop that stone. If he had taken the bait, that would have been it. What a sucker.

WereGarurumon grunted, doubling over. How-?

'Vortex Strike'

Emitting flames from his leg, he flowed in a kick to WereGarurumon's knee, causing the latter to buckle and hiss from the additional burns and pain of his joint. Agnimon hastily moved out of the way when he saw a pair of large arms intending to grab him. I can't let him grapple me.

Got you. Putting all his weight into his good leg, WereGarurumon opened his maw, aiming directly at the retreating blonde.

'Foxfire'

A stream of blue flames erupted towards the warrior, who couldn't dodge on time as he was consumed.

Maximum Output. WereGarurumon poured every ounce of power he had left, the flames expanding to the point it rivaled even the Uchiha Clan's signature Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku (Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation), the record belonging to none other than Uchiha Madara himself, to Hiruzen's stunned astonishment.

"My word…" the Hokage mumbled gravely. Blue fire could reach temperatures of up to 6000F. There was no denying it anymore. These Digimon were indeed able to contend with their ninjutsu in scales that men of his experience could only dream of. The cave was cast in the brightest of blue as the flames were like wild animals desperately devouring all in sight, the walls and floors starting to melt into molten slag from the unrelenting heat.

Bokomon and Piyomon scampered for their lives, the former unable to avoid his rear end from being burned before the latter grabbed his shoulders with her feet for them to make a break towards the exit, beating her wings with all her might.

In the center of the inferno, WereGarurumon kept going until he was tuckered, coughing out smoke and embers. "How was that…shithead?!"

A veritable flood of blue flames blanketed the cave nearly top to bottom, with some sections changing color as they dipped in temperature.

"Legendary Spirit…my ass!" WereGarurumon spat, panting heavily as he was out of breath and grunting from the latest pain lancing up from his knee. "I guess Etemon didn't even need it after all. All that effort was for nothing!" He sneered. "Like you! Oops, guess I'm just talking to myself now."

He laughed feverishly as more of the flames around him were taking a common orange hue. So into his high, WereGarurumon didn't notice them shifting until he was trapped in a whirlwind of fire. "Wha-"

"Did you honestly think your flames were hot enough to burn Agnimon?"

WereGarurumon bristled in shock. "You!" No further than five feet away from him, Agnimon stood, letting the flames dance around him harmlessly. "How are you-!" He couldn't finish as the same flames abruptly converged on him, burning into his flesh. "Argh!"

Instead of answering, Agnimon thrust both fists together, gathering the leftover flames spread throughout the cavern, including the residual heat and mixing his own as he compressed it. The molten rock cooled, giving off smoke.

"No…" The realization of his impending death looming, WereGarurumon wound both arms back. Deep down, he wasn't a coward, and his pride as a Digimon made him bite his tongue.

'K-Kaiser Nail'

Agnimon concertedly drew his right arm back with the flames he collected.

'Burning Salamander'

The legendary warrior punched the air, releasing a deluge of flames that quashed WereGarurumon's do-or-die attack and consumed him entirely, the shape fittingly resembling AncientGreymon's head as it tore through the entire cavern.

So this is…the power…of the Ancient Ten…!

His last thoughts went as WereGarurumon's body glitched before disintegrating, the wave of fire continuing down its path until it demolished the top of the mountain. A flock of birds a ways away were startled into taking flight as the explosion rang, instinctively fearing the long dormant volcano had become active again.

Under the canopy from where they scrambled, two figures were watching the spectacle.

"Master. This pressure." The first was a small and white quadrupedal dragon, with an armor-like segmented hide hinged by screws, three dark blue claws from each extremity, and a dark blue tip by its tail. Its ears were pointed, lower jaw black and a black horn protruding from the snout. It wore a tattered red cloak with the hood drawn back. A pair of black goggles dangled from the crook.

Piercing yellow eyes were glued to the now smoking crater at the crest of the mountain.

"Ah…" The second figure was leaning against a tree, whose branch the dragon was sitting on. Their arms were folded over a broad, muscled chest, lips set into a thin smile. "He's come back."

"Should we say hello?"

"For now? No. Let's give him some breathing room to get acclimated. It has been a long time, after all."

The dragon nodded, jumping off the branch at the same time the figure was starting to leave.

"What of the 'spare' with them?" the dragon asked as they strolled through the forestry.

"The what?"

The dragon said nothing else, letting the issue slide.

"Now," the tall figure ordered, "to training!"

"Osu!"

Piyomon surrendered every ounce of stamina she had left to fly themselves out of the destruction of the cavern, only by the force of the coming explosion was her effort mitigated by being propelled straight out. They landed and tumbled into a pile, in the same clearing where Naruto and Falcomon waged their battle.

Lying on her back, she panted heavily in total exhaustion. "Boko-chan…is Naru-chan…okay?"

Bokomon placed a gentle hand on her forehead, mindful of the overexertion on her body. "All we can do now is hope, Piyomon." He glanced back towards the ruins, obscured by clouds of debris and dirt spewed out from what was left of the entrance. It was a sight that gave him pause, and he ruminated on the events that led up to this. He couldn't help a sensation of nostalgia wash over him.

Back to the days of him and Hagoromo adventuring.

They took care to recover their stamina as they waited, and if no sign of Naruto was to show, then they would go back and find him. They weren't going to abandon him. Not after all he had done in protecting them.

He was their friend, and neither of them cared if it would take all night or the next day.

But…if they happened to not find anything, then-

A vapid sound broke Bokomon out of his mulling, wheeling back to the entrance to see the dust gradually settle. Squinting, he could make out a figure slowly making its way out. It was tall and bulky, fear seizing his heart for a moment before he heard a familiar voice cough out their names.

"Bokomon? Piyomon?" Another ragged cough, and the battered and limping Agnimon appeared, waving away some of the dust. "Guys!"

Bokomon and a rising Piyomon gasped, then wasted no time in making a break to hug him by each of his legs, nearly bowling him over.

"You guys okay?" Agnimon said through heaves and fitful coughs.

Bokomon stepped out of the hug to lob Agnimon with a chiding glare. "Okay? Okay?! You look like hell, and you're asking us if we're okay?"

Agnimon hissed, holding his left forearm, the adrenaline having worn off and leaving him to feel the full stinging of his muscles. "Yeah, I can see how that may have sounded."

"You idiot!" Bokomon sobbed heartily. "Of course we're okay! Compared to you, this is nothing!"

Agnimon beamed with what he could afford considering the state he was in, right before his body was steeped in code that shortly faded. Naruto fell on his hands and knees, his D-Scanner plopping out in front of him facing up. His friends sidled up to him, with Bokomon slinging an arm over his shoulders to support the boy.

"Uzumaki Naruto-kun."

Fearing that another enemy had appeared, Bokomon darted his head left and right, but Naruto only needed to glance down to see the screen of his digivice alight, showing a symbol.

The same symbol that blinked into his screen the day Tsubasa first logged on. He couldn't place the voice, but he had a hunch it belonged to a woman.

"Or should I refer to you as AncientGreymon?"

Naruto fidgeted a little from the niggling of his tired body. "Naruto. I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"Very well. Are you regretful?"

"Of what?"

"Of everything that has happened, and what you have come to know."

"Heh," Naruto scoffed, "should I? A little late to be asking that."

"I see. Well then, lest you forget, this was your own choice. Good luck from now on, for this is only the beginning."

"You mind answering me one thing?"

"Go ahead."

"How do I get home?"

"That is already being taken care of as we speak."

"YOU MEAN TO FUCKING TELL ME YOU COULD HAVE OPENED A PORTAL FOR THEM THE ENTIRE FUCKING TIME?!"

Anko completely lost whatever (little to nothing) of her composure the moment 4ngelf4c3 shamelessly informed them. Had it not been for the men currently restraining her, she would have done the very last thing they wanted. Kick the monitor.

"Anko? Anko! Calm down!" Kakashi asserted gruffly, both his arms hooked around hers from behind as she was fighting to break free.

"But…I'm so angry!" Anko choked.

"Now, now Anko-chan, let's just be thankful," Hiruzen consoled her, his hands set in a calming motion. "Naruto-kun can finally come back home."

4ngelf4c3: If you had just let me finish! I do know the way through a portal, but we have to wait for her to arrive.

"Her?" Hiruzen repeated. "You don't mean…"

As suspected, Black Tailmon Uver soon dropped in on the trio. Literally, having flown in on a glider. She skidded to a halt not two feet away from them after landing, then expertly put away the (collapsible) glider into her jacket.

All three stiffened at the sight of her, unwilling to forget what she had done to them prior.

Naruto gulped and put on a sheepish smile. "She-She isn't actually gonna throw us outta here, is she?" Bokomon and Piyomon blanched at the possibility.

Ignoring their fears, Black Tailmon Uver silently unhooked her bag and opened it, rifling through the contents. She proceeded to dig both arms deeper to pull out an object that seemed to burst out of the rim.

It was black, cube shaped, and had an antennae lodged atop.

"A television?" Naruto wondered vocally.

She unceremoniously plonked it down in front of them, the monitor distorting their reflections. Black Tailmon Uver then pointed a finger at the trio, specifically at Naruto, and then back at the monitor.

Seeing their confused faces, Black Tailmon Uver rolled her eyes and made gestures, pointing at the palm of her right hand. It took a minute before Naruto got the gist of that at least.

"My D-Scanner?"

She nodded and pointed again at the monitor.

"You…want me to throw it at the TV?"

Black Tailmon Uver, stone-faced, drifted the hand she was pointing with to her forehead.

"Face it in front of the monitor, you miserable idiot," she said in a voice that was as close to an irritated girl around his age.

"Well why didn't you just say so in the first place?" Naruto pouted.

"Because you're a moron."

"Hey!"

Soon, Naruto did as he was told and waited for something to happen.

"Wrong…way," Black Tailmon Uver gnarled.

Naruto flipped it so that both screens were facing each other, bidding her to take a few steps back before a bright light spilled out of the screen and pulled in not just Naruto, but the others with him.

"The things I put up with for a 5 star rating."

Naruto and his ragtag group screamed, soaring through the data stream as he did the first time, until they reached a junction leading to a familiar dot of light.

"Hang on!" Naruto cried out to his friends behind him, not that they had a choice of doing anything else.

The first thing that entered Naruto's field of vision were a pair of peculiarly shaped globes, which he landed atop of face first hard enough to topple on the floor of his living room. They were soft, and smelled of an oddly distinct odor. Like the syrup used in dango. Had he been cushioned by rice cakes?

"Kid, I know I'm irresistible, but this? This is all kinds of messed up."

Naruto, his eyes adjusting and undulating them, took in the sight of a highly unamused Mitarashi Anko looking down; or up, at him from where she was lying on her back, his nose lodged between her breasts. The man with white hair still had his arms wound around hers, albeit more loosely from her having calmed a bit. Kakashi sighed in exasperation, the kunoichi practically sandwiched between the two males.

Hm, this does remind me of an anthology collection of short stories in Icha Icha I read a over week ago. The ANBU Captain thought to himself.

Hiruzen, cheeks flushed by the…rather risqué scene after Naruto and his friends gushed out of the monitor and collided with the younger shinobi, cleared his throat. Said friends were in varying states of disarray. Bokomon lay sprawled by the door he bashed against, moaning in pain as he rubbed at his head.

Piyomon was luckier, having been caught by Hiruzen before she could crash against a glass window and was now lying next to him, head resting on a small pillow from the sofa.

"First, we take some much needed recuperation. What say you all?"

"Aye…" Everyone else groaned.

---

*Yaken: Stray dog in Japanese.