Guess who's back!!!!

It's me, baby!!! Turns out, I have more time than I realized. But don't expect me to upload regularly; my schedule is tight.

I'm changing my writing style. Tell me if it's good or not.

Naruto

[Gojo Satoru-the honored one OST Jujutsu Kaisen Soundtrack]

Naruto watches a white trail of light falling from the heavens with the backdrop of stars of the universe, its glow dominant among the free-polluted night sky. As it fell the immense chakra he felt made him almost freeze, engulfing like a dam with water filled with poison so full of rage so full of malice, he was sure that wasn't Kaguya, he was so sure that there was no way the ever sweet girl the very opposite of what he felt now, his moon, could be so dark. He was so sure until enveloped in all that evil, he felt warmth, he felt familiarity.

The falling star. It wasn't a great evil that would destroy the world, it wasn't a monster, it wasn't a goddess of destruction. It's his love, his true love, and that alone is enough to make him willing his body to move, ignoring the screaming from his mind that it and wants to be safe; that it wasn't her. Screw his damn mind, in his heart he knows that it's her!

With Reze-san's son in his arms, he runs toward the predicted impact site, ignoring pain, only driven by hope and love. A gust of wind stopped him and a loud bang as bits and chunks of earth fell from the sky, Naruto ignored all of them, he ran dodging every bit from small to large, and explosion-like sound from the earth impacting the ground itself raises more dirt into the air almost impairing his vision.

The crater was in his vision and he stopped looking at the destruction. The crater was a quarter as big as training ground 3

"Kaguya!" he let out a scream while running toward her. Her body lay limp in the middle of the crater, engulfed by rubble, dust, and golden blood. Sliding at the last 5 steps and stopping just before her body, Naruto placed his ears toward her chest and waited.

"Please please, please gods please let her be ok."

The familiar thump of a beating heart greeted him and a smile formed on his face.

'She's ok'

Kaguya is alive

But her safety only made him realize what he had failed to protect.

A child coughing made his eyes go wide, pupils dilated when he realized the cough was accompanied by blood and the implications made him terrified. Disengaging his hug from Kaguya, he looked upon his arm to see a child deformed, blood gushing out of his mouth, arm twisted and limp crushed by the speed when Kaguya had carried him to kill the abomination. He is still breathing yet slowly he can feel the child is becoming weaker, he holds his arm trying to confront the child as panic is about to strike.

"Please don't die," he muttered desperately. "Please don't die."

And before he could do anything.

It stopped

The lively child whom he could see from afar was happy with his family. A babe, not even one year old, died in his arms. Tears started to flow dripping into a cold body. He just stares and stares, not knowing what to do.

"Naruto," Kaguya muttered unconsciously, calling him as she needed his comfort. As he was about to grasp her arm and caress it and wanted to tell her that he was here with her lovingly, telling her that everything would be alright. He stopped; the cold and heavy proof of his failure on his arm reminded him of what he had failed to do and accomplished.

Naruto screamed, a guttural scream filled with regret and rage, a scream that signifies his failed duty to the one he loved.

How can he be Hokage; the protector of his village, its guiding light; the one who all looked for warmth and love?

Naruto screamed and screamed as it echoed for no one to hear.

[end OST]

The next couple of hours were busy for Naruto, he carried Kaguya in one arm, a feat that can only be accomplished because of chakra enhancement, and little Yoshi in another. It was a silent affair, one that Naruto did with his mouth shut and sadness settled into his body.

Making his way toward the caravan, he notices that Kakashi-Nissan is already resting by leaning on the semi-destroyed wagon, with Sakura unconscious beside him. Naruto gently placed Kaguya near Sakura and faced his sensei.

"Sensei," he called with relief and guilt. "The child…"

"We need to get out of here Naruto," Kakashi said to him without even glancing at the body on his arm. "It's too vulnerable for us to be here; there's no telling if there's more of that creature or not," he explained.

Naruto glances at the three bodies that littered the ground and then toward the child in his arms. "What about the family?" he asked with a lower tone that was almost a whisper.

"Leave them," Naruto flinched, hearing the cold remark from the last person he would expect. He heard the stories of his niisan being ruthless on the battlefields but seeing it to yourself is completely different.

"But they…" Naruto looked down, "I know that we can't bury them, we don't have the time, but can't we at least– can't we at least cremate them? It's the least we can do while bringing them back to Konoha." Even if it has to be ashes. They could at least complete the mission and fulfill the family's wishes.

"Do you know any Katon jutsu?" His sensei asked him.

Naruto's mouth twitched upwards, relieved that his sensei would do the right thing. "Only a minor Katon jutsu that the Academy teaches everyone to start a fire. But I can overload them with chakra to make it bigger than usual." Much bigger, he internally grimaced, he remembered how when Iruka sensei instructed the class to follow his example on how trying to execute the jutsu, Naruto overloads the jutsu with too much chakra on those times his control was abysmal at best; the fire that was produced almost burned the academy building. Kaguya sometimes teases him with the incident much to his dismay.

Kakashi-sensei nods approvingly, satisfied with what he is hearing. "That's enough. Naruto, I'm on the verge of passing out, so listen carefully."

"Hai, sensei."

"I trust you know how to do the funeral procession and drive the Wagon?" Naruto shortly nodded. "Good; that makes my job easier. What you need to do after giving the family a proper cremation, I want you to cover the top of the wagon with this," Sensei opened a pocket on his right shoulder and threw it to him before Naruto could inquire about its content, sensei was already answering it. " It's a tent. Use it to cover the wagon; it should be enough to hide the four of us. When you finish with the wagon, use the Paddied Road, Ninjas are always patrolling there. Grass Country agreed with Konoha that it would ignore any Konoha ninja on that road as long as they showed their identifying bands, so in any case, never remove it. Is that clear?!"

"Yes, sir, " Naruto replied curtly.

"Good, anything else you want to tell me before I take my unwanted beauty sleep?" Sensei asked

"The kyuubi contacted me."

Sensei was visibly shaken, his formerly half-lidded eyes were once more forced to open. He was about to speak; gods even Naruto wanted him to tell Naruto what to do. It's not every day you are contacted by a malevolent spirit, saying that he is scared is an understatement of the century.

"The universe and its cruel jokes," was all Sensei said before chakra exhaustion forced him to close his eyes.

Fire turns to embers. The last of the family and woods finally transmuted into ashes, waiting for the fire to be fully extinguished, Naruto collected the ashes and stored them in the scroll he always carried. He scoops every last one of them until the last is on the palm of his hand, staring at it longer than usual, he clenches it with anger mixed with regret. His first sight of death but not the last. The first family he has to burn to cinder and not the last. Muttering one last prayer to the family by grasping the ash with both palms, to finally storing it inside the scroll.

As he turns away from the piles of burnt wood, he walks toward the wagon in which he had installed the tent per his Niisan's order, climbing the side of the wagon by stepping onto the pedestal, he looks behind him making sure that his teammates and teacher is safely seated with their supplies toward Konoha's border screaming haiyah and whipping the leash of the Animal that is dragging the wooden contraption to make it turn its wheel.

The silence was the only thing that was talking to him, no rambunctious laughter from his friends, no loud bantering he always does with Kaguya, he only had himself to talk to, and the notion of no one accompanying him was a dreaded feeling he hadn't felt in years.

There was always something to drown it, always something to feel that gaping hole he was desperately trying to fill with any love he could scrape by.

Jiji was the first person to give him any semblance of attention, the first person who tried to fill that hole even if it was only tiny droplets, it wasn't enough, Jiji was busy with matters of ruling the village. Before he never even thought of filling that hole, how could you fill something that you never knew existed, he wanted to be loved to find self-worth in himself, not just an object of ridicule and blind hatred but a child who was cherished and loved. Not crying in some corner where his legs are tucked away praying to any gods to love him but laughing, playing, and happy with his friend. He wants connection and wants anyone to acknowledge him, so he starts pranking, a desperate attempt from a child who doesn't know any better to be loved. It irritates anyone who is the victim, and their scorn and hatred only grow with time, yet Naruto doesn't mind, as long as they give him their attention, he is happy. Or at least that is what he thought at first.

Kaguya, that moon of his night sky, guided him, illuminated his life more than any stars Jiji and Niisan have given him. Hers was pure, overpowering with unfamiliar innocence that he never knew existed then, it was different from Jiji's love out of duty or Niisan's out of regret, a fact he only realizes as his secret was told to him, no it was the first true acknowledgment and love he was given.

Seeing that person turn into a monster of pure malice shocks him to the core, even remembering its overpowering presence and chakra makes Naruto almost puke, he refuses to believe that Kaguya could turn into the same thing that had done abominable act to the family, the same thing that had killed a child.

Kaguya is never evil, he has always given him pure love.

So why? Why can't he stop comparing her to that thing?

"It called her princess," it said Kaguya's name with a familiarity that it should never have ever. No matter the circumstances.

"It also called you the child of prophecy."

Naruto gasped for air, and his body tensed, "How did you…"

The booming voice chuckled, " Focus on handling the animal child." it ignored his question. "You don't want your friends to die, do you?"

Naruto's tense body was momentarily focused on the road, he relaxed himself and then finally asked the Kyuubi. But before he could utter a single word; the beast spoke.

"Worry not child, the seal isn't weakening; it merely lost some of its function, and one of them is a barrier for me to talk to you, but unfortunately for me and fortunately for you, it requires a great deal amount of chakra for me to talk to you and convince an overly protective man, though that last part failed to get rid of him, so you can rest easy. But it is all worth it even if it's only a few hours every couple of days."

Naruto was surprised by the beast's tone. Is it friendly? Or the closest it can muster to resemble friendliness; there was still some disgust in his voice toward him full of derision and arrogance with a hint of malice, but compare that to the way he speaks to him for the first time… yeah this is much better.

"What do you want, Kyuubi? Came to gloat that I've failed and I'm a pitiful boy?" Naruto asked with gritted teeth.

"No, you're doing a good job doing it yourself," even without seeing the beast's face knows that it is smirking at his expense. "I want to talk to you about a different matter and confirm something."

"And this thing is worth it for you to spend so much chakra to meet me?" From the stories he heard it never put any value on any humans before. So why now? The same beast that is rumored to value Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha lower than trash wants to talk to him with the intention just to talk? Naruto gripped the leash that held the animal tighter; he didn't trust it; the same being that destroyed half his village and killed his mother and father.

"Let us hope for your sake that it is, if not then, I only need to wait for another 2 thousand years, I'm used to it anyway," it said somberly and melancholy that Naruto didn't expect the beast to have. "If you don't trust me, fine, it's your loss."

"You want me to trust you?" Naruto twitched his eyes.

"Not exactly trust me, I know that has to be earned."

'You're not getting that from me anytime soon,' Naruto joked to himself.

"I want you to give me a chance," was what the beast said to him. Naruto didn't answer it immediately, weighing down his options, and then finally tsked.

"Talk."

"Asura," it said lovingly, just hearing him talk an electric jolt made its course to Naruto's brain. Memories, not his own: of gods and beasts, of brother fighting, and war, so much war. Mountains cracked! Tsunamis destroy the shores, and heaven itself lets out a loud boom. Destruction, not of his own making but those two brothers. An old man's dreams are crushed, peace, prosperity, and understanding, a dream left by him for his children to fulfill now abandoned and forgotten.

O pain and suffering, o life and death; of past life long forgotten, of past love and hatred long dreamt and searched. All of it came crashing down. Wept and cries he remembered, laughter and smiles he longed for and within reach.

They loved each other; they're family, brothers. When did it go so wrong? What happened to that peaceful era, devoid of war and suffering?

Ninshu

Ninshu

What is ninsu?; how does he know that word?

The old man… it's his… his legacy. His dream that the brothers destroyed.

"What did you do, Kyubi," Naruto wants to scream at the beast. This pain of regret it had given him. "Why." But in his confusion, he can only let out a small mutter.

"Nothing of your concern. For now at least." The beast chuckled and then let out a large laugh. " I thought I sensed you when that Senju brat was dying, looks like I was right." the beast can hardly hide his amusement...

"You didn't answer my question," Naruto said, vexed by the beast.

" I don't want to," the beast's words made Naruto even more vexed. "Enough about that. Brat, listen. What I'm about to tell you is very important."

"Why should I listen to you when you didn't answer my question," why should I listen to you anyway, was left unsaid.

"This will not be the only time those things will target you and ...Kaguya," Naruto could sense that the beast is weirded out by the sentence. "Our interests are aligned. You don't want them to take Kaguya; the same is true for me. You don't want to die; if you die, I die; and the chance of me reforming after facing them is slim. Unless you have a training regiment that could make you destroy the moon with your bare fist in under 10 years, I doubt you could face that thing alone and without your friends' help. The only reason you survive this time is because the one they sent is not the best of their people and your…girlfriend," it grimaced, "Saved your ass."

"First of all, Kaguya is not my girlfriend; and second of all, why do I have a feeling that it greatly disturbed you that I'm close with her? Is there something wrong with it? And third, I could understand that you don't want to die, but why do you concern yourself so much with her?" The beast keeps wincing every time it mentions Kaguya. What does it have against Kaguya? And she is not his girlfriend damn it!!! Unnoticed by him his cheeks are now beet red.

" It is best that you don't know about it. Now shut up and let me finish!" It raised its voice. "Now as I was saying. You have no chance the next time you meet them, I doubt even she can win against them."

"Yeah I know we are fuc$ked got anything new to add?"

"I'm gettin to it." The beast grumbled . "That's why I think we should work together."

That truly was the last straw for Naruto. "You want us to work together!?" After it killed his father, mother, and the source of his suffering. Not a chance. "The mighty kyuubi no Kitsune, destroyer of mountains, the very image of hatred, wants my help. Don't make me laugh. You could kill that thing that attacked us if you wanted, a fraction of a fraction of your chakra droplet was enough for me to overpower the thing momentarily, isn't it better for you to just escape?"

"The one who created me envisioned me, my brother, and sisters as guardians of our domain. The one tail holds supreme power in the desert, where the very sand that you stepped in will be his weapon, I could not. My sister Nibi, is a master at fire manipulation. I could not defeat and so on and so on. While the combined chakra of all the rest of bijuus could not match mine is a straight chakra battle; we never fight in a straight chakra battle; If that is the case I would rule over them. In my true form, I am only the incarnation of monstrous chakra, only a mass of water without a valve to change and manipulate its course."

"You can't do extensive chakra manipulation," Naruto summarized. That explains why the Kyuubi is rather dull for a bijuu in terms of power variation. It's like it is a template for the other Bijuus.

"Precisely. Our creator has its way to balance my brother and sister's power. The other bijuu could specialize, but I can't. I have only a few means of attack besides my claws and tails and pure strength in the physical world, but the ones I have, I honed to perfection. I am the first son yet my father gives no domain of my own. His only word for me is that I am his legacy and Humanity's protector. On both fronts, I have failed." It says with a hint of regret.

"And you are not escaping because…"

"Your father is a genius at fuuinjutsu. Normally those things will immediately know if someone is a tenant of my kind even from space. Somehow your father managed to hide a star, whatever he did with your seal it's the most impressive one I've seen yet. Even the ones the entire Uzumaki clan used to seal me paled compared to this one." it gave Minato reluctant respect.

"Are these things so powerful that you prefer to hide rather than fight them?" The Kyuubi silence was all Naruto needed to know about the severity of his—no, their situation, if one of their lowest member is enough to fight a Kage level shinobi at niisan's level, how could they win against them? Thinking about their situation Naruto made a horrible realization. "How many are there? "

"10 is enough to carnage the surface of the world in weeks. And there are more than 10, I assure you."

Naruto let out a huge breath "You don't know. Do you. Should I be terrified or relieved?"

"There is a limit to my knowledge even for me. For you humans that me and my kin are the oldest being in the universe; the ever present force of nature that is always there to exist, predating your written history. The universe is old, child–—very–very old. There is always something far greater and all knowing that blurred the line between gods and mortals. "

Naruto was silent once more, his mind churning every possibility of the implications of what the beast had said to him with a worried filled heart and sense of foreboding for the future. But even with certain doom now staring them in future, his and loved one's fate uncertain, he smiled with blue eyes containing fire that will not be snuffed.

"Then I just have to be strong enough to be able to kill gods." Unknown to him the beast smiled, liking his tenant and a sense that his purpose is finally clear; the purpose his father has given him. "Kyuubi will you help me?"

"The contract is sealed. From here and out we are equal, " the beast exclaimed.

"Equals huh," Naruto smiled, "Kyuubi what is your name? "

"You may call me Kurama, young human. "

"Well Kurama, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. Future Hokage and the greatest ninja that will ever live!" Naruto said boisterously. "Mme sure you remember that… Kurama. "

The beast chuckled. "I will, Naruto. I will."

Guess who's back haha