Naruto's eyes widened in alarm as he heard an unfamiliar voice echo inside his mind. "Whoever you are, show yourself!" He declared, looking around with his rinnegan in case he was mistaken about the source of the voice.
'Oh, this is fun. Find me then, with those oh-so-special eyes of yours.' The voice taunted smugly.
This was definitely from his mind then. "Mom, Dad, have you ever sensed anyone other than Kurama inside me?" Naruto asked.
Kushina and Minato looked at each other in alarm. "Not that we know of. Other than the sage who appeared that one time…" Minato considered the possibilities. "Could it be Shisui Uchiha? Shisui did transfer his chakra into you, maybe he did something similar to me when he did that? Another possibility is Ashura Senju. The Nine Tails did say that you are a transmigrant of the sage's son."
'Otsutsuki.' The voice automatically corrected. '...Shit.'
"It's Ashura!" Naruto said in wonder. "Wait, so he's inside me as well?" he asked, half-hysterically.
"Let's go inside your mind, Naruto," Minato said, dispersing himself. Kushina did the same, and Naruto closed his eyes to concentrate as he tried to enter his mindscape. Specifically, he focused on finding the source of the voice.
When Naruto opened his eyes, he saw that he was in the same place where he had met the sage. His parents materialized beside him.
"Okay, come out!" Naruto's eyes darted across his surroundings, expecting another apparition like the sage.
"You should seriously learn some respect, young man!" A voice mock-reprimanded from behind him. Naruto whirled around to see a newcomer. He wore clothes in similar fashion to the sage, but was much younger and more human-looking in appearance.
"Yo! Descendants!" The man greeted the trio with a grin, raising one of his hands in a friendly wave.
Minato looked at the man in surprise. "This is the son of the Sage of the Six Paths?"
"Hey! What's with the disbelief?" Ashura asked indignantly. "I am indeed your great ancestor! The great, the magnificent, Ashura Otsutsuki!" He spread his arms wide at the dramatic proclamation.
"...He's awesome!" Kushina declared, eyes wide with admiration.
"That's more like it!" Ashura grinned.
"Soo… what are you doing inside my mind?" Naruto demanded.
"Our mind." Ashura corrected. "Pleased to meet you too, transmigratee!"
"Our mind?!" Naruto exclaimed. "This is my mind! Believe it!"
"Such individualistic thinking will get you nowhere, young shinobi." Ashura tutted, stroking an imaginary beard.
"You're a total nutcase!" Naruto declared.
"You mean we are," Ashura corrected again, winking.
Naruto sighed defeatedly. He had finally found someone more annoying than himself. "I am unworthy." He bowed, conceding defeat.
"That's more like it!" Ashura grinned.
"So… you didn't tell me why you're here." Naruto prompted. "Wait, where you always here?"
"Don't you think I have more important stuff to do?" Ashura asked, feeling insulted. At Naruto's unimpressed look, he deflated. "I guess not. Well, my consciousness isn't always here. I'm quite enjoying the afterlife, matter of fact. Unlike that dreary big brother of mine. You wouldn't believe the number of interesting people that I meet here!" He smiled to himself.
"More interesting than you?" Minato asked curiously.
"Maybe not more than me," Ashura conceded. "I am pretty awesome. That's hard to beat. No, but almost as much. And then there's the Kami, although they're technically not people… Who knew, huh? And all my life, I was an atheist. Meeting Amaterasu for the first time was embarrassing, let me tell ya!"
Naruto wasn't sure if the man was boasting or not. But at this point, he had other, more important questions. "You still didn't answer my question."
"What question?" Ashura asked absently. Seeing that Naruto's hands were starting to twitch violently, he finally remembered. "Oh, that. Yeah, about why I'm here? To cheer you on, sort of. I saw what you did for that Gaara kid. Good going, you! I mean Me! Whatever…" He gave the blonde Uzumaki a thumbs up. "When you inevitably die, that's gonna stack positively on your Karma."
"That's all that you wanted to tell me?" Naruto asked disbelievingly.
"I guess so?" Ashura said, frowning. "I could've sworn there was something else… Oh, that's right! Granny!"
"Granny?"
"Granny." Ashura nodded wisely. "Beware of Granny. As you are now, she's gonna spank yo ass! Always remember, cooperation is key and prevention is better than cure!"
"Can you please, please make some sense?" Naruto begged. Kushina was looking torn between being amused, hero-worship, and feeling annoyed on behalf of her son. Minato wore a serious expression, trying to piece together what Ashura was saying.
"Granny! You know, rabbit girl, big horns, wants to enslave all of humanity?"
"Doesn't ring a bell." Naruto said plainly. "What's the last part?"
"Enslave humanity." Ashura frowned. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you that. Tata-chan's gonna bitch about that. She hates spoilers." He winced. "It took a while to convince her to even tell you this much."
"Tata-chan?" Kushina asked curiously.
"Tatanami-no-Mikoto, goddess of fate. I guess you may not have heard of her. She's irrelevant just like that. Ouch! My ear! Not my ear! I'm sorry, okay! Stop eavesdropping, you crazy bi-"
With that, Ashura disappeared from Naruto's mind.
"Uh…" Naruto looked at his parents, who were still processing what happened.
"Minato… did that really happen?"
"I think so…?" Minato said, equally befuddled. "Unless we are all in a genjutsu. But who would even think of something like this?"
"I would like to retract my previous statement," Ashura's voice suddenly echoed again. "Tatanami is a wonderful woman and is not, in fact, a crazy bitch. There, I said it. Happy? Hey! You promised-" Once again, his voice stopped abruptly.
"Soo… does that mean that the Kami exists?" Naruto asked his parents. Ninja, in general, tended to avoid any religious thoughts because of the nature of their jobs.
"Probably?" Kushina said, equally confused. "The Shinigami definitely exists, so it stands to reason that there are… others. But I've never heard of the one he mentioned." Kushina said, being careful with her wording so that she doesn't invoke the wrath of the apparently short-tempered Tatanami.
"That may not be a big headache," Minato said thoughtfully. "Even if they exist, they seem averse to meddling in our affairs, as evidenced by Ashura being stopped from revealing more details on this Granny character. However, from what Ashura said, Granny may be a problem."
"Is she his paternal granny or maternal granny? Or is she actually his granny at all?" Kushina wondered.
"Probably from his father's side," Naruto said. "Super-gramps-sage was super weird-looking, but Ashura looks like a regular dude."
"From what we know, the sage's name is Hogoromo Otsutsuki." Minato said. "I suppose that may be the sage's mother's surname as well, if she's supposed to be so powerful. Maybe he had some sort of falling out with her? Ashura seemed to think that she is still a problem and that prevention is better than cure. If she's not dead, maybe she was sealed off somewhere and he wants to stop her from being released somehow? Or maybe there's someone who is her transmigrant. He said cooperation is key. That might mean that you may need to get the help of others if you have to face her. But regular shinobi would not help. You may need someone similar to you. Someone like-"
"-Sasuke?" Naruto exclaimed. "He's Indra's transmigratee, or whatever. But how did you figure all that out? That was awesome!"
"It's still mostly conjecture at this point. I could be mostly wrong." Minato said apologetically. "As I was wrong in assuming that the masked man was Madara."
"That was one time," Kushina said. "You've been right plenty of times. Most of the time, in fact."
"I have a knack for guessing things," Minato grinned sheepishly. "So, it's safe to assume that Kaguya is very powerful if it took the Sage of the Six Paths to stop her."
"Didn't he also stop the ten-tails? Man, he had it rough." Naruto said in wonder.
"I wonder…" Minato's eyes widened. "Could they be related? This granny and the ten-tails?"
"What, you think his mom is actually the ten tails?" Naruto said skeptically. He didn't want to doubt his father, but that seemed… outlandish.
"Yeah, that's way out there." Minato laughed. "Probably something else, then. But he did say she wants to enslave all of humanity. If this woman was at least as strong as the sage, what stopped her from succeeding before the sage gained power?"
"He called her rabbit girl," Kushina said thoughtfully. "Do you think she has something to do with the legend of the Rabbit Goddess?"
"The what?" Naruto asked.
"I haven't heard of that either." Minato's eyes sharpened. "But it's very likely that this legend may be relevant. Can you tell us what that is?"
"It's just a folk song I've heard. Maybe it's not known outside my clan. I always thought that it was just some nonsensical lullaby. My great-grandpa Ashina, who was also Mito-sama's father, used to sing it to me when I was a baby. He only knew the first four verses, though. It goes like this," Kushina began.
"In the night, when stars gleamed bright,
A maiden fell from the sky unseen,
With silver hair and eyes so light,
She touched the earth in soft moonlight.
Long was her hair, white were her eyes,
Pale was her skin, a haunting guise,
Her horns resembled rabbit ears,
Known as a Goddess through the years.
She met a king, so wise and true,
Their hearts entwined like vines that grew,
They dreamed to rule, hand in hand,
Bringing peace to every land.
But shadows grew, and wars began,
She stood alone to save her kin,
With powers great, she faced the fight,
To guard her love, to bring the light.
The king who was to her heart so dear,
Spurned her love and left her in fear,
With rage she fought, her spirit torn,
From light to shadow, she was reborn."
Kushina sighed. "That's all he remembered, unfortunately. He was a hundred-and-eight at the time."
"He lived that long?" Naruto said with wonder. "You've seen granny Mito's father?"
"Yup!" Kushina nodded. "Uzumaki usually lived for a long time, y'know! Come to think of it, Lady Mito might know more of this song."
"Wow…"
"So, this Rabbit Goddess may be the sage's mother. Ashura did mention the horns." Minato surmised. "And it seems like she came from the sky?" Minato said, puzzled. "Was she an alien?"
"I guess so," Naruto said, looking equally confused. "First the Kami, then aliens… huh."
"White were her eyes…" Minato mused. 'The first thing that comes to mind is the Hyuga's Byakugan. I have heard that the Sharingan and the Byakugan are somehow related. It might be that the Hyuga elders know something of this, but they're notoriously secretive."
"Do you think Hinata knows?" Naruto asked, recalling his white-eyed classmate.
"It's unlikely to be common knowledge. If children knew, everyone in Konoha would know about it. This is the first time I've even heard of this, and I know every bit of intel regarding the village and its shinobi that aren't considered top-secret by the clans. Hiashi might know, but the Hyuga won't give up such secrets easily. Without revealing a significant chunk of what we know, for which we will need to reveal Naruto's rinnegan, it would be difficult to get any information from them." Minato said.
"Well, I guess Ashura isn't coming back. We should go back outside." Kushina suggested, looking around.
"Okay," Naruto nodded and reconnected with the reality outside his mind. His eyes widened when he saw that Mito was now standing near him with an amused smile. She was accompanied by a Minato clone, who probably teleported her here.
"Don't ever do that on the battlefield," Mito said with a tinge of humor in her voice. "Summon your parents here, this clone is almost out of chakra."
Naruto nodded and promptly created his parents' shadow clones. As soon as they materialised, the clone accompanying Mito dispersed. Minato grimaced as he absorbed its memories.
"What a nasty piece of work," He muttered, processing the revelations from the interrogation. Mito nodded grimly, and Naruto was wise enough to stop himself from asking them to elaborate. He did not want to know what else Danzo had been up to - his mind was polluted enough by Kabuto as it was.
"Lady Mito," Kushina asked, "This may be a bad time, but do you remember the legend of the Rabbit Goddess? I've only heard of the part till she was reborn."
"The Rabbit Goddess? Oh, the old Uzu lullaby. I don't actually remember the words. I was too young when I heard it. I think there was something about her children defying her, and the gods turning her into the moon? The song never made sense to me…" Mito trailed off in confusion.
"Well, that gives us something to work with…" Minato said. "Keeping in mind that some of it may be hyperbole, considering that it's a lullaby."
"What happened?" Mito asked. "How is that story relevant?"
"Well… the sage's son, Ashura, appeared in Naruto's mind, and told him to be wary of a 'granny', whom he also called a… rabbit girl." Kushina cringed as she said the last part.
"..." Mito tried to imagine that. She failed.
"Yeah, we're struggling to believe it too, and we heard it! And! It seemed like he was dragged away by a Kami midway through. So we couldn't ask for more details."
"What? Dragged away by a Kami?" Mito asked in alarm. "Please elaborate."
"So, he was telling us about this granny, and he said something unflattering about a Kami called Tatanami-no-Mikoto. A moment later, he acted as if someone was pulling him by the ear and then he disappeared!"
"He insulted the goddess of fate?" Mito asked weakly. "I cannot even imagine that… she must be really tolerant if all she did was disrupt your connection."
"He called her Tata-chan, so maybe they're friends?" Naruto piped up.
"Friends? With a Kami?" Mito asked disbelievingly. "It seems far-fetched, but maybe someone as extraordinary as him could manage it. Did he explain anything else?"
"Nope." Naruto shook his head. "Like Mom said, he was dragged off just after he mentioned this granny."
"If only I could check the old clan records... The clan heads usually have access to a lot of information that is not known to others." Mito said, thinking hard. "It's possible that we could access it if we enter the old ruins of Uzu. From what I heard, the invaders had not gained access to the innermost vaults. This must be true, since they needed the blood and chakra of the clan head's family to access them. There is no way to brute force it. I will talk to Hiruzen about authorizing a mission after retrieving Tsunade."
"You're bringing back Lady Tsunade?" Kushina asked excitedly. "That's great! When are you leaving?"
"I'm planning to leave once Jiraiya returns," Mito said, "I was hoping Naruto could come along."
"What will we do about her massive gambling debt?" Naruto winced. "It's about a hundred and twenty-five million ryo, if I recall correctly."
"...What?!" Mito looked at Naruto in shock. "She's almost as bad as Hashirama in gambling!"
"Almost?" Naruto dreaded to ask what the First's debt was.
"Hashirama made much more as a ninja than he lost as a gambler, so that was fine…" Mito rubbed her temples in frustration.
"If she takes up the Hokage role, she could be earning about twenty-four million ryo a year," Minato pointed out helpfully.
"I'm half tempted to haul her back this instant…" Mito grumbled. "No wonder the Senju compound isn't what it used to be! Konoha is probably selling it to cover her gambling sprees."
"Well, worst case, we could always sweeten the deal with a bailout if she agrees to come back," Naruto suggested with a grin.
Mito leveled him with a chilling look. "Absolutely not. She's going to work off every last ryo!"
"I was just kidding…" Naruto backpedalled quickly.
"I'll have her buy back every asset we've lost… with interest!" Mito continued to grumble as she stormed toward the main house.
Kushina followed Mito, shaking her head. "There's that Uzumaki fire. Aren't you glad I'm so calm, Minato?"
"Oh, absolutely… lucky me," Minato replied with a knowing chuckle, trailing behind them with Naruto.
"Hey, Dad…" Naruto whispered. "Does Mom ever go full Uzumaki like that?"
"Oh, my dear, innocent son…" Minato shook his head. "You've yet to witness the full storm."
"What was that?" Kushina's ears perked up.
"Nothing, dear!" Minato quickly said, picking up his pace with a plastered smile.
Naruto swallowed hard and scurried after his dad, mentally vowing to never, ever test his mother's patience.
"So… Orochimaru's invasion failed, hmm?" A man wearing a swirling orange mask spoke to a humanoid figure split into black and white halves.
"So it seems…" the bichromatic man said, "It's too early to judge if he is truly gone for good. Unfortunately, Konoha is one village I cannot enter directly. The sensing barrier above and Hashirama's wooden barrier below makes it very hard to get in undetected."
"I wouldn't count on the snake's death. He's as resilient as a cockroach." The man said with disdain. "But that isn't our immediate concern. What is the status of the jinchuuriki after the war?."
"From the whispers between the Konoha nin that were out on various missions, I hear that the Nine Tails container defeated the sand's jinchuuriki in battle. It seems the boy did not use his own tailed beast's powers, while the one from the sand had manifested his tailed beast."
"That seems… farfetched. Are you sure that isn't Konoha propaganda? The boy graduated at the bottom of his class."
The humanoid figure gave the masked man a pointed look. The masked man had the courtesy to look embarrassed for some reason.
"Well, it would be hypocritical of me to judge him for that. But he is an idiot. I have observed him myself about a month ago."
"It seems he was trained by Jiraiya of the sannin for a month. I don't know the details, but the boy apparently made an impressive showing in the chunin exams before the invasion started."
"This might be worth investigating then," The man in the mask said contemplatively. "I will ask Itachi and Kisame to test him."
"Itachi? You know that he would not try. Why not another team if you're serious about it?"
"Collecting the Nine Tails can wait. We cannot seal it yet, and we cannot afford Konoha's full attention on us now. This way, the old Hokage will think that they have a semblance of control as they will not consider Itachi a true threat. Everyone will get what they want. We will have the intel, the Hokage can be complacent about the boy's safety, and Itachi can keep his end of the bargain as long as we do not directly threaten the village."
"Well, you're the boss," the man of two colors shrugged. "I also heard that there is a new Uzumaki that helped subdue the tailed beast."
"A new Uzumaki? What else have you heard of them?"
"This one's a woman, and she apparently subdued the beast with chains made of chakra. She has red hair and everything."
"...I see. I had never heard of such a person in Konoha, and my predecessor was quite keen on ensuring the demise of that particular bloodline along with the Senju. Investigate her as well. She might become a headache if this is true. We'll put up an internal bounty on her as well."
"As you wish." The bichromatic humanoid sank into the ground, leaving the orange man alone in the room.
The cold gleam of many crystals illuminated a hidden chamber deep underground in the Land of Rice. A pale grotesque figure that resembled a man was imprisoned within the chamber walls. Eyes were strewn about his body like a twisted mosaic, each one a Sharingan, glowing faintly in the dim light. The figure stirred, his movements restricted by the crystalline bonds that held him captive. His eyes focused onto the far wall of the cave, which he knew to be the only entry to the chamber.
True to his predictions, the wall slid open, revealing the form of a tall blue-haired woman. The pale man's many eyes tracked her movements as she walked towards him.
"The time has finally come to put you to good use, 'Shin'," The woman announced, walking around him and facing his back. "Your body will finally serve its intended purpose."
"Did Orochimaru finally bite it?" The pale man chuckled darkly. "An inferior being such as him should have known his limits."
"Big talk from someone who will cease to exist very soon. For such a superior being, you even failed to escape us." The woman snorted, her fingers glowing with chakra. She pressed them on a cursed seal on his back. The seal responded with a glow. The prisoner winced, his body convulsing with pain as the mark activated. The woman's eyes gleamed as she stepped back. The curse mark flared to life, its dark energy spreading through the prisoner's body. Moments later, a scream tore through the pale man's mouth as he lost consciousness.
"This one is at your service, Lord Orochimaru," The woman knelt down in one knee and lowered her head respectfully.
The pale man's face snapped up, and his form began to morph. Long black hair grew out of his bald head and his face seemed to grow longer.
The figure gave a low chuckle as the crystals released him. He stood up, looking down on his servant.
"Guren, I see that you followed my instructions. Then it seems my plans in Konoha did not go as intended. How long has it been since my shadow clone dispersed?"
"Only a day, Lord Orochimaru," the now identified Guren said reverently. "I hurried here as per your orders."
Orochimaru put his hands on a cursed seal inscribed on the woman's neck. Guren felt a small pulse of chakra leaving the seal and entering Orochimaru.
"Hmm… It seems I made a mistake with the reanimation jutsu. One of my summons, Mito Uzumaki, has gone rogue. It is not as perfect as I had hoped. Yet." Seeing Guren's curious eyes, Orochimaru smirked. "I see that you're curious about how I came to know this?"
"It is not my place to be curious, Lord Orochimaru," the woman said instantly.
"No, no, that's not the attitude to have… nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all. This is what sets Kabuto apart from you. The boy's curiosity is a trait that I appreciate."
Guren's face darkened at the mention of Orochimaru's favorite subordinate. "He hasn't reported back, my Lord."
"Then it seems he is either captured or dead. I do hope it's the latter. He can be of equal use to me even as a reanimation. Bring me one of the guards here."
"Yes, my Lord." Guren created a clone who hurried outside the room to carry out the order. She hesitated. "How did you know what happened in Konoha, sir?"
"That's more like it," Orochimaru smirked. "You're learning, Guren. You see, chakra is a wonderful thing. It always tries to go back to its source. If a person creates a shadow clone, which is a pure chakra construct, the residual chakra after it's dispersed returns to the caster of the jutsu. You could say that chakra from the same source has an extraordinary attraction to itself. Now, can you tell me what might have happened after I died?"
Guren frowned, trying to work with what she was told. "The chakra from your original body entered your shadow clone in our lab?"
"Excellent!" Orochimaru clapped his hands together. "That's precisely it. Although I may be the first person to utilize this attraction in reverse. Once the chakra entered the clone in the lab, it dispersed as well, since the original body is no more. The chakra then found its way to your curse mark, from which I could gain the required intel." Orochimaru frowned. "Last I saw him, I had asked Kabuto to investigate the Uzumaki boy. Curious indeed. We shall get our answers soon." He smirked as Guren's clone dragged in an unconscious guard.
"Give me the scroll I instructed you to bring." Orochimaru extended his hand expectantly.
Guren produced a scroll from her pocket which she handed to Orochimaru. He unfurled it to reveal a large collection of seals. "This contains genetic samples of most of my useful subordinates, including you and Kabuto." He explained. He smeared some of his blood across one of the seals, causing it to produce another scroll. He then spread the scroll across the ground and placed the guard on top of it.
"Summoning: Impure world reincarnation!"
A seal spread out from the scroll and covered the guard, and his form began to twist and distort. He started screaming as he regained his consciousness. As the screams died down, his form morphed into the figure of Orochimaru's lieutenant. However, the body immediately collapsed to the ground after that.
Orochimaru frowned in annoyance. "The summoning failed. This means that Kabuto is either alive or something has happened to his soul."
"His soul?" Guren asked in confusion.
"My summoning of the Fourth Hokage failed, as his soul was sealed in the belly of the death god. It's an Uzumaki sealing technique." Orochimaru's voice was laced with displeasure. "Did Mito Uzumaki capture Kabuto then? She might have forced him to seal himself in the reaper's belly. A pity, I had much use of him"
"Will they have gained intel on us, my lord?"
"We should assume that is the case. Evacuate all our bases in the order of priority." Orochimaru instructed. "This is a significant setback."
"It's a good thing that Kabuto did not know about Shin," Guren observed. "It was a wise decision to restrict the intel we individually had access to."
"Indeed." Orochimaru hummed. "Shin's body did not adapt well to the Sharingan. They constantly drain my chakra, and none of them have matured into a Mangekyou yet. Though five of these Sharingan are needed to match one from an Uchiha, they will suffice to satisfy my curiosity for now. I need to test if Shin is capable of receiving nature chakra." He said with disappointment.
"My lord, if you had used me instead," Guren began, her voice tinged with eagerness.
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, studying Guren intently. "Ah, but you are too valuable now, Guren," he said. "Your crystal release is a rare gift, one that I have yet to fully exploit. Each of my experiments serves a different purpose."
Guren bowed her head. "Of course, my lord. I only wish to serve you in the best way possible."
Orochimaru's many eyes closed in unison as he considered their next steps. "Secure Kimimaro, Juugo, and the rest of our strongest. I shall teach you the reanimation jutsu. We shall reanimate the key shinobi that the sand and the sound lost, and gain intel on Konoha's defenses from them. I'm sure that the Hidden Stone and Lightning will pay handsomely for such accurate information. After all, this is the first time Konoha has been breached on a large scale." Orochimaru smirked. "They might even be interested in the Nine-Tails brat, especially considering who his parents are. Now that he shows some promise, they will spare no expense to dispose of him."
"If this eventually triggers a war, would that make things easier for the Akatsuki?" Guren asked.
"Yes and no. Chaos benefits them, as they will get missions if war breaks out. However, the jinchuuriki will be heavily guarded during such times, making them less accessible to the Akatsuki. Some might even perish in the conflict, hindering their plans. We could consider leasing reanimated shinobi to the villages, providing a counter to what the Akatsuki offers in the war."
"Then I shall begin the preparations," Guren said with a deep bow.
