We've seen all kinds of Naruto SI by now, so I'm once again trying to frame everything in a different manner. It will be hard as hell to hold myself back from making our MC instantly overpowered, mostly to avoid having a Chunin Exam Crush that blossoms into fights that the MC does not win without any reason for it, or a canon that keeps happening despite the clear changes brought to the causes of the later events.
This fic's idea starts in the wake of 'With the Eyes of God', meaning that I've begun 'Temari's path', a 'Turle's race' and I've taken back in hand 'Empire of Sand' just to see what I can do with those without making every story a different copy of one of the others.
So, I'll be derailing canon as I always do, in a way that tries to make sense, as I always do.
The first chapter is the first step up, as I always write. Since I've put the MC into Naruto at the very beginning, the next chapter will more or less follow the line traced by the second one of my 'Empire of Sand': meaning that I'll use another character's POV to skip the baby-hood and set up the childhood.
Having said that, from the third chapter forward is going to be unique when placed against my other Naruto-SI stories.
Frankly I don't expect someone new to the world of Naruto to read this story, so I'll be very light on the aspects that anyone familiar with this fandom would otherwise find boring.
As always, review and tell me what you think.
Different
In the dark, there was only rage.
It was an all-encompassing thing, burning with the unending fury of a thousand suns and thundering like an earthquake from the very bones of the world. It tainted, no, possessed and drove, every single breath, coalesced in every single thought, devouring the very idea of feeling anything else ever again.
The faded memories of freedom, of wind over the fur and of the shifting of the hidden tectonic plates while day chased night that was chased into day again and again, were only more distant than the hope of feeling all of that once again, one day.
Red was the color of the fury, and red was the color of slitted eyes that shone like mirrors of the world's magmatic core into the dark. Everything else was buried under the baleful light those eyes gave off, all was drowned under the growl that characterized every breath, every absent heartbeat that was an affectation, a gained pretense of mortal life.
Porcelain-white claws colder than the cruelest winter clawed the nothingness under the being that could only rage, its body echoing every feeling in a way that would result incomprehensible to any of the fleeting, ephemeral beings that marred creation with their selfish existence. Deeper into the nothing of the dark that held the creature, massive tails swung into an empty space that held no dimension, and left the furious being to rage once again.
The baleful light that shone from its furious eyes cast harsh shadows through the cage-like wooden contraption that held the being back from that which it was imprisoned in. Or better yet, the who.
Under the ethereal emptiness that surrounded the mightiest of the Nine, the manifestation of the innate nature of everything living, of chakra, rippled meaninglessly beyond the cage, licking almost like tongues of searing hot flames on the insultingly frail-looking piece of paper that was the door lock holding back the Kyubi from its next breath of freedom, from the distant light of hope that was the only thing surviving the maelstrom of its unending fury.
A flickering firefly mirrored itself over the reddish ocean that was the chakra manifested beyond the cage, power washing over it without being able to influence it because of the freshly created cage. The newly born soul existed without any defining characteristic, only the faintest grooves of intent left upon it by those that had by chance and messy biological processes brought it into being, there was only the most distant connection, unfathomable and impossible to perceive to anyone, to something that had already walked amidst the mortals only to walk into the pure lands and back again, the latter's nature ephemeral because of the first origin of the soul in question.
None of that could be understood or perceived by the great chakra beast locked behind a door crafted by Death itself, the red light of its hateful eyes could only wash powerlessly over the flickering bug that was the newborn's manifestation of self. As confirmation of what the Kyubi had already known rang through it, its fury could only increase, and it rose like a tide propelled by more than the natural causes that ordinarily defined it, it rose and built and swirled until...
"Well, this doesn't feel like a dream." the voice cut through the thundering growl that had been up to that point the only thing dominating the place, and with a sudden shift of its focus, the Kyubi witnessed a human shape walk away from the prison gate that held it back from its freedom.
The person who spoke was a lanky sort of boy with the barest hint of stubble on his chin, barefooted and clad in a shapeless shroud that scratched silently against his skin. The short buzz cut of his hair left the world to see his small ears and sharp cheekbones, while his narrow shoulders rolled purposelessly as he walked over the not-water under him. The young man was colourless, and could only be perceived by the eyes as a hollow mass of shattered grays.
The harsh wind of the Tailed Beast's chakra rushed through the newcomer without interacting with him in any way, no red taking over the absence of color that defined the being, no emotion impacting him in any way as he kept walking towards the flickering, bright light that was the newborn's manifestation of self. "No, this doesn't feels like a dream at all."
The voice had the ephemeral quality of a dream, flat and carrying less than a hint of the being's curiosity as his back kept inching further away from the Kyubi's cage, unaware of the howl of fury that the Chakra Beast unleashed as it was ignored. "And what's this."
As the hand of the newcomer closed on the spark of potential hovering over the colorless water, it seemed like depth and actual existence began to pour into the young man's body. Unfathomable grey was burned away as the skin became of a healthy pink, hair shifted into golden wheat, and eyes shone with a piercing light blue that shifted as the spark in his hand dissolved.
The newcomer's eyes shifted to the side as he witnessed some sort of ethereal ribbon try to burrow its way into his heart, only for his arm to swat away at the offending tendril of unknown, annoyed at its persistent feeling that quickly faded into satisfaction as he saw the string leading beyond his sight fade away, the refusal apparently enough to cast it away.
Only then did the man seem to be able to hear, and as the thunder of the Kyubi's growl reached him, he turned with a grimace and hands covering his ears. Then his eyes saw the cage, and they rose, and rose again, until they met the furious stare of the immense Chakra Beast. "Oh, I can't believe this."
The following roar of the unfathomably powerful being seemed to shatter reality in its entirety and the place that the newcomer had appeared into seemed to disappear.
Just outside of the not-space that had been the theatre of those fated events, a newborn child with pitch black ink drawing a spiral-like symbol on his belly screamed in distress as he began to declare to the world of his existence.