Chapter V
Hidden Rain Arc I
Naori knelt before the Hokage, taking in a deep breath as the snowy breeze brushed past her making her hair flutter in a violet wave. Her obsidian eye trained itself on the concrete floor beneath her as she forced herself to stay still. Light pouches of snow filled up at the sides of the Hokage Tower's terrace as the Third Hokage took another deep drag from his infamous pipe. Letting some smoke rings form in the snowy air, the Third Hokage trained his wizened eyes on Naori, who did her best not to acknowledge the move. Naori clenched her hand, letting her new eye wander a bit before settling it down properly. Taking calming but long breaths she finally looked up to face the Hokage up close. "Lord Hokage. I am here, as ordered."
"Naori." Hiruzen acknowledged with a slight nod. "I hope your new eye is not giving you much trouble?"
Naori shook her head, her new eye which was deep green twinkling in the morning sun, giving her green and obsidian eyes a heterochromia flavor. "I mourn the loss of one of my Sharingan, but my new eye is working fine Lord Hokage."
"Good. You cannot afford an ailment such as a bad eye for the new mission I hope to entrust you with." Hiruzen puffed out another smoke ring before setting his pipe back into his robes. "Jonin Naori Uchiha. I hope to assign you and your squad an A-rank mission into the Land of Wetlands."
Naori's new eye widened by a fraction. 'Land of Wetlands? Amegakure rules over their lands. Hanzo of the Salamander will crush us if he finds Konoha shinobi in his territory!'
"Yes." Hiruzen had evidently noticed the widening even if Naori tried to hide it. "If Hanzo ever finds out that your squad is in the region then you will likely find yourself killed. As such it is imperative that you and your squad be as sneaky as is humanely possible. If anyone finds out about your squad, eliminate them."
"Of course," Naori murmured, letting her purple hair drape over her back slightly. "May I ask what mission will I be conducting?"
"I would rather not repeat it too many times," Hiruzen answered her, watching the heavens with a concealed gaze. "Let us wait for the rest of your squad to arrive. Then I shall reveal the contents of your mission. I would also like to mention that I have added Naruto Uzumaki to your squad. You are to observe him and report all your findings during the mission back to me. Do not let the others know of this."
"Why is he assigned to my team?" Naori bit out with her protestations taking over her normal formality in front of the Hokage. "I apologize Lord Hokage, but he and I do not mesh well. All he has done to me until now is irritate me. I cannot have someone such as him close to me during such a delicate mission."
"I am pulling all of the strongest shinobi I can muster that is currently not deployed to the frontlines. Your squad fits the description. And of course, so does Naruto Uzumaki." Hiruzen pointed out calmly, ignoring her protestations. "You do agree that he is strong don't you?"
Naori shrank back as she nodded reluctantly. She remembered the display from the prior week. 'He tied with the Yellow Flash! The Yellow Flash! I knew he was strong. But I didn't consider him to be that strong. That technique that created that dorm…his Fuinjutsu was strong and even the Mangekyo Sharingan would have been troubled by that genjutsu at the end…Yes, he is strong. But still….'
Before she could try to negotiate with the Hokage further, four flashes of the body flicker formed on the terrace, revealing three of her old teammates and one new one. Hizashi Hyuuga knelt down beside Naori, his long black hair tied to a perfect knot, wearing the standard Konoha flak jacket and standard issue pants. His featureless white eyes stared right ahead at the Hokage. To her left, Ichigo Sarutobi, the eldest son of the Third Hokage knelt down as well, facing his father with grim eyes. On the other side of Ichigo, Haruka Aburame knelt down, her deep black hair falling to the ground next to her. Next to Hizashi, Naruto knelt down but stared ahead with a glint in his azure blue eyes.
"Ah, Team 20, it's good to see all of you here now." Hiruzen greeted them all with a wide spread of his hands before shuffling and holding them behind his frame again. "I am assigning you a mission to the Land of Wetlands. It goes without saying that this is an A-rank mission and I need the utmost secrecy being utilized by all of you during this mission. Your objective is to find all of the Iwa and Suna spy cells operating in the Land of Wetlands. Try and find out if they are in contact with Hanzo or not. If you can, eliminate them. And return back to Konoha with your newfound intel. I hope to expect you all back in front of me within a month."
Naori nodded, soaking in her mission details. To her far right, Naruto perked up and raised his hand. Hiruzen motioned his head at him, inviting him to ask his question.
"Old man, what do we do if we face Hanzo?" Naruto asked with a curious tilt to his voice.
Hizashi, Ichigo, and Haruka lurched as they collectively turned towards Naruto at the sheer disrespect present in his tone. Hizashi's eyes were widening and Ichigo seemed confused at the entire situation. Haruka remained emotionless as usual but even her twitching eyebrow gave away her surprise at the situation. Naori sighed in a long-suffering whine before pinching the bridge of her nose in irritation. 'I can already feel the headache coming.'
To her eternal frustration, it seemed that Hiruzen didn't seem to mind the disrespectful tone and irritating nickname. He smiled indulgingly before answering the question. "If you face Hanzo and survive to tell the tale, I expect it to be in the report Naruto. Nothing more, nothing less. Obviously, I hope you don't have to face him, but in the case that it is unavoidable, then I hope you can make out of it alive."
"Fair enough old man." Naruto quipped back, nodding happily before settling down back into his kneeling position. Naori scowled at him slightly before turning back to the Hokage.
"Lord Hokage. Team 20 is ready to accept your mission. We shall depart immediately." Naori recited in a monotone voice, keeping her head level with the Hokage. The Hokage's eyes flickered to Naruto before turning back to Naori. Naori nodded subtly, with a slight incline to her head, acknowledging the Hokage's earlier assignment. 'Keep an eye on Naruto. Got it.'
"Then, Team 20, disperse!" The Hokage commanded firmly, his face set into a grim line. Five bodies flickered immediately, leaving the Third Hokage alone atop the Hokage terrace.
"So, what are the positions we are to maintain?" Ichigo asked Naori quietly as they passed a town northwest of Konoha. Naori stopped on a branch as she waited for the rest of her team to fall in line with her. The heat had started to pour out of her ears at the consistent amount of questions that her newest charge had been spewing in her direction. Having to answer every inane question about the Land of Fire to Naruto over the course of the last day hadn't just irritated her, but had managed to irritate even the normally emotionless Haruka, composed Hizashi and self-assured Ichigo. But as the border of the Land of Wetlands came into sight, it was time to think seriously. Her three old teammates shuffled a bit uneasily as Naruto fell in line with them on the branch. "You have jurisdiction as our squad leader, Naori."
Naori turned slightly to look at her teammates quietly before nodding. She faced Naruto and then sighed. "Naruto, you are the strongest shinobi among all of us here. You are taking the lead."
"Strongest?" Ichigo questioned, surprised. He leaned forward, letting his spiky hair fall backward. "Really?"
"He tied with the Yellow Flash during his examination fight," Naori confirmed with a curt confirming nod. Ichigo side-eyed Naruto with an impressed glint in his eye, having seemingly forgotten his previous irritation with the redhead. "Ichigo, you're the one with the largest firepower amongst all of us. You are going to be behind Naruto to back him up against any frontal assault. As I need to judge both our front and back, I will be in the middle."
Naori then turned to her last two remaining teammates. "Haruka, you're behind me. Keep your bugs scattered in a perimeter so that we know anything going around us. Hizashi, with your Byakugan, you're going to be behind Haruka. Keep an eye on anything that may be following us, alright?"
Hizashi nodded. Her old three teammates took up their positions quietly, barely making a noise on the branch. They all turned expectantly at Naruto who replied with a deadpan tone to the unasked questions. "Bull."
"What now?" Naori scowled at him. 'Must he always be this...this irritating goofball?!'
"If Ame ninjas find intel about us when we cross into the Land of Wetlands, and we must assume they will, always assume the worst, then this is exactly the formation they will be expecting from us," Naruto grumbled, slightly put out at Naori's snippy tone. He leaned back at the bark of the tree as he continued his explanation. "They'll counter us easily after that. Gotta mix it up, Ms. Naori. If we are in a position where we aren't predictable, they won't know what hit them in the end."
Naori inclined her head. While Naruto did have a point, she flushed the suggestion down. "They won't get intel about us. This entire mission is about secrecy and we shall maintain it. Naruto, get into position."
Naruto stared back at her stubbornly. Feeling her irritation at Naruto rapidly turn into anger, her left eye morphed into the Sharingan before morphing into the Mangekyo, its petal formation staring down at Naruto impassively. Naruto blinked before he squared his shoulders. "Fine. Just don't blame me if anything goes wrong."
'With Danzo as active as he was in the Wetlands during the Third War, Hanzo probably already knows about us at his border.' Naruto grumbled mentally as he took his position in front of the group and then started to move forward. Within a few seconds, the group crossed the river that denoted the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wetlands. Naruto kept his eyes trained in front of him, ignoring how slippery the terrain had become as he continually suppressed his chakra. 'Still, Land of Wetlands huh? Keeping my head down after the fight was the correct decision after all. If I can help Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan during this mission as a little side-adventure, then well, whose to know eh?'
"Psst." Ichigo's hushed whisper broke Naruto out of his thoughts. Inclining the back of his blood-red hair slightly in acknowledgment, Naruto kept looking forward.
"Yeah?"
"What's the deal with you, red?" Ichigo asked with a curious tone to his smooth voice. "Naori is visibly and seemingly perpetually irritated with you."
"That's her deal," Naruto answered back with a shrug, still keeping his head straight forward as he deftly maneuvered around a massive marshland. "Dunno why she was so uptight. She's been like that ever since I met her back in the Land of Grass."
"Well, she's a prim and proper kind of lady," Ichigo answered after a beat. "She doesn't like your antics red. I mean, calling my father an old man? That's dangerously close to insubordination red."
"Well your dad doesn't seem to mind does he?" Naruto pointed out. "And come on Saru. Being prim and proper is no excuse for being so uptight like those stuck-up Uchiha and Hyuga."
"Hey, don't call me that," Ichigo muttered back mutinously. "Still, yeah got a point there red. But, I've known Naori for years and gotta side with her naturally. Sorry kid, I like you, but she's the team leader. Don't interrupt or irritate her, if only for the integrity of the mission."
"If someone's made a stupid decision, you've got to acknowledge that Saru," Naruto answered back seriously with his tone level and low. "But anyways, I'm not gonna argue with you about this. Still –"
Naruto stilled, stopping himself from speaking mid-sentence. Behind him, the rest of Team 20 stopped, looking at him with confused eyes. Naruto crouched, flicking his right hand from a low position without speaking. Two. Watching. Us.
"No one is watching us," Hizashi spoke up for the first time during the mission. His ocular nerves were bulging as he activated his bloodline, the Byakugan surveying the surrounding area. "I believe you are mistaken, Mr. Uzumaki."
"Yes." Came Haruka's soft voice. She knelt down to the ground to converse with a bug and stood up again. "There is no one else but us here. We are only about 20 kilometers inside the Land of Wetlands. Amegakure would not be able to detect us so fast."
"Both of you are wrong." Naruto hummed contemplatively before his eyes flashed to the western direction. A deep and marshy wetland was sprawled out in front of them in that direction. Before anyone could rebuff the redheaded Uzumaki, Naruto threw two kunai into the marshland. Naori marched up front, ready to resume the mission after reprimanding Naruto but suddenly all five of them felt movement. The tiny, small burst of chakra as someone, or a small group of people changed their position inside the marshland to dodge the incoming kunai. The rest of the team turned to the west direction mechanically, their eyes trained on the marshland with a steely gaze.
The enemy ninjas who were silently observing them sprang into action, not willing to waste time and give Team 20 the benefit of figuring out a proper response. Two Ame ninjas wearing Jonin flak jackets revealed themselves from the marshland, coming into view and then leaping forward, landing 50 feet away from the squad. The taller one, with brown hair, stood up. "Konoha Ninja. What are you doing inside the Land of Wetlands? If you have a permit, please show them to me. Or turn back. Immediately."
Naori hummed and stepped forward. "Our team here is on a sanctioned mission from the Hokage and Lord Hanzo. If you wish to see our permit, then you must file an application inside Amegakure's foreign office."
"That is bullshit." The smaller Ame ninja with black hair growled out. "All Land of Wetland permits are handed out to the foreign party seeking entry. You are trespassing Konoha ninjas. Go back or we will have a problem in our hands."
"They're only two of them and five of us," Ichigo whispered to the group as he started to flex his fingers in anticipation, his dark eyes gleaming. Naruto frowned before turning back to Ichigo.
"There is a grid setup in that marshland there. If he jumps back and uses the summoning jutsu, then he will probably summon a battalion. We cannot have a battalion going missing. Too obvious, believe it!" Naruto muttered back. Without waiting for a prompt from Naori, Naruto leaped into action. The only thing that the rest of the group observed was a red color blur before the two Ame ninjas fell down to the ground, clutching their necks as blood started to leak from the sudden gashed wounds that were present on their necks. The two tried to gasp for air but as Naruto twirled the kunai in his hand and placed it back into his holster, the two took their last breaths.
"What was that?" Naori hissed, coming out of her stupor. 'I had the situation handled!'
"I took care of them," Naruto answered back blandly as he sealed the two dead bodies into a sealing scroll. "Didn't you hear what the old man told us? Eliminate anything in our way. We couldn't afford for these two knuckleheads to suddenly use the sealing formula grid behind us to summon an entire battalion. Even if we defeated them, a missing battalion would raise alarm bells in Amegakure. Two guard ninjas near the border going missing on the other hand won't."
Naori bit back a scathing reply as she narrowed her eyes at Naruto. 'He's still a goofball in many ways…but he becomes almost uncharacteristically serious when the main part of the mission begins…..Interesting. I can see why Lord Hokage wanted me to keep an eye on him.'
"Well that's well and good, but how did you see them when Hizashi and Haruka couldn't?" Ichigo spoke up, his eyes unnaturally sharp as the Sarutobi observed Naruto walking back to them.
Naruto held up a slip of paper with seals on them as he shrugged. "Nicked these before sealing the two bodies. Seems to be a suppressor seal. Hides from chakra and chakra sentient beings. The Byakugan and Aburame bugs would have passed right over them with this seal stuck on them. Hanzo is known as a semi-accomplished sealer as well. So it shouldn't be a surprise."
"How did you sense them then?" Hizashi asked silently, his byakugan still active as he observed Naruto. 'His chakra…..I thought Kushina had ridiculous reserves but her cousin…he dwarfs anyone in the village by leagues! These Uzumaki…..to be gifted with so much chakra…..'
"You can't hide from natural chakra," Naruto answered as he handed the suppressing seal to Naori who observed the seal quietly. Naori sighed and placed the seal into her pocket and then looked up to face Naruto fully.
"Just, try to follow my lead in the future please?" Naori asked silently as she observed Naruto. His azure eyes were looking at her with a glint in them that Naori couldn't place. "Come. We're not too far away from a border town. We can rent a place and set up our base of operations there."
"If you come into the Land of Wetlands and into Amegakure territory when you travel back, you should be wary of the suppressor seal I developed," Hanzo murmured to Naruto as he continued to look at the various seals in front of him. Naruto perked up and looked to the side, where Hanzo was looking resolutely at the ground, not showing Naruto the black sclera that denoted his reanimation from the dead. "If you go there with someone with the Byakugan, Sharingan, or even the Aburame, Inuzuka, or other trackers, you will not be able to track them. Only someone adept in Fuinjutsu or nature chakra will be able to snuff them out. It's why it took Pain so long to defeat me, even with his Rinnegan."
"Nagato." Naruto corrected Hanzo politely. He took a deep breath and looked at Hanzo fully, turning away from the scores of great seals in front of him, scattered around the desk. "Hanzo, why did you let Danzo of all people manipulate you? I've always wondered about that; you know?"
"You could ask that question directly to Danzo, could you not? With that reanimation technique of the Second Hokage that you've mastered now?" Hanzo questioned with a bitter undertone.
"I could." Naruto hummed as he leaned back on his chair, rocking it back and forth for a bit. "But to be honest, I would rather not reanimate him. I don't know how his experiment body with interact with the spare White Zetsus I have here, and I don't know if I can restrain myself from pummeling the bastard to the ground the moment he is reanimated. I don't have the restraint."
Hanzo was silent for a beat. The calm atmosphere of the bunker in the Land of Spring/Snow remained quiet as Naruto leveled a questioning gaze on Hanzo. Hanzo sighed and rubbed his nose before answering. "Knowing what I know right now, I would believe that Danzo used the Kotoamatsukami on me. Kagami Uchiha was famous for it and he went missing on a mission that Danzo had assigned. It wouldn't surprise me if the original Sharingan that Danzo had before stealing Shisui Uchiha's was Kagami's. Combined with honeyed words and the right whispers at the right time…. well, you saw the results."
"So if I come across your younger self, what should I do?" Naruto pondered as he placed a finger on his chin in deep thought.
"I wouldn't accept a straight answer back then." Hanzo smiled bitterly, his reanimated eyeballs flickering toward Naruto. "I would not believe I was being manipulated. Not at first. You will need to defeat me. And then when I am down, spare me. Tell me what you know. And then break the Kotoamatsukami. Only then will I believe you."
Naruto nodded resolutely.
"Free the Land," Hanzo said suddenly. He leaned forward, looking Naruto squarely in the eyes. "Promise me. When you go back, free me and make the Land of Wetlands proud. Make it great."
Naruto's face softened. "Of course. I owe that much to Nagato and Konan. Hell, I owe that much to Yahiko as well, and I haven't met the shmuck in my entire life."
"I apologize about my outbursts earlier." Naori's voice broke Naruto out of his memories.
"Huh?" Was Naruto's intelligent response as he broke out of his meditative pose. Sitting atop the table in the middle of the living room of the small flat that the five of them had rented, Naruto had been blissfully lost in his memories. Honestly, the small town of Takatori around 35 miles away from the border to the Land of Fire was drab and dull, and the small flat that they had rented was way too small for Naruto's tastes. Having to sleep with three adults in one room squeezed from all sides didn't sound too comfortable, but well, he was a shinobi. And shinobi had to do what a shinobi had to do.
"I apologize," Naori repeated, tucking a strand of her purple hair back as she sat down carefully on the couch next to the table. "I shouldn't have been so irritated with your questions and your actions earlier. You are a foreigner. Or were a foreigner. Of course, you would have questions about a part of the Land of Fire you haven't been to before. And your quick thinking stopped any sort of major confrontation between us and Amegakure."
Her sincere tone made Naruto rub the back of his neck with embarrassment. "Ah, there's no need. I can understand that I get overbearing and hard to work with sometimes, believe it! I apologize too, if I did anything wrong."
"You could be more understanding." Naori chided softly before leaning back. "This is the first mission I am leading after that disastrous mission in the Land of Grass. I am nervous, as you can probably understand."
"But that wasn't your fault." Naruto's raised an eyebrow. "It was your other clansmen who decided to use a reality-warping genjutsu and then succumb to its effects. You were the one trying to help them out of it. How's Naka by the way? Haven't seen the guy since then." 'I wanted to speak about the merits of traveling by seal with him! If I have the endorsement of a Uchiha, I can start a great business! One that outstrips Pervy Sage's own fortune! Believe it!'
"He's fine. Stuck with some insipid D-ranks as a part of his probation." Naori answered before sighing. "And yes, while I understand that the other using Izanagi wasn't my fault, it is still hard to digest. I lost an entire battalion under my command. I don't understand how Lord Hokage can trust me with leading another important mission."
Naruto patted Naori's hair in a comforting way, making her freeze for a second as she glared at Naruto. Naruto just smiled at her and said, "Look. The Old Man is the Hokage who led Konoha to victory during the First and Second Great Shinobi Wars. He struck the Second Raikage down. He tore apart the Land of Woods. And he led the greatest squad in Konoha's history, the team of the Legendary Sannin. If he believes you can lead this mission, then he's got to have a good reason for it. If your leader doesn't doubt you, then you shouldn't either, believe it!"
Naruto smiled at Naori with a dazzling smile as he widened his face to accommodate his smile. His whiskers elongated slightly, making Naruto look like a cute red color fox. Naori turned away with a slight dust of pink on her cheeks. "Thank you. I needed to hear that."
"No problem." Naruto nodded happily. Stretching his hands, Naruto stood up and walked away from the table, before sitting down next to Naori on the couch. "So uh, Saru told you about our conversation from earlier?"
"Yes." Naori nodded as she inched away slightly, giving space for Naruto to sit down properly. "And don't call him that!"
"Hah, I'll call him like I see it! His beard combined with his spiky brown hair and sharp eyes make him look like a monkey!" Naruto snickered, throwing his head back in a loud guffaw. Naori failed to stop a small giggle from breaking out. It was true. The Third Hokage's eldest son did look like a monkey. Perhaps it was indicative of the entire Sarutobi clan as a whole, but Ichigo did live up to the Monkey Ninja stereotype that his clan had.
"Bah, I can call you fox as well. With those whiskers, you look like a right foxy fellow." Came Ichigo's mumbled rebuff as he entered the living room after his short nap, his eyes still wary and bleary.
"Well, I wouldn't call you out for that! I do look like a fox!" Naruto agreed enthusiastically.
"Ah, Mr. Uzumaki." Hizashi's soft voice approached them as the Hyuga came out of the room as well, having evidently woken up as well. "You, Naori, and Haruka can go to sleep now. It's our night shift to look after us now."
Naruto yawned into his hand. "Ah, thanks. Good night Ms. Naori. Ms. Haruka."
"You are wasting your time, playing regular old ninja with these fools." Came the grunting reply of his eternal companion. His infamous nine-tails swayed in the wind that was conjured in his own mind. Naruto glanced up, looking at Kurama. Or to be clearer, Kurama's spirit. The translucent fade that his eternal companion had was flickering slightly as if Kurama was going to be dragged back into Pureland. "You should just get on with it. Kill Madara. Kill Zetsu. Seal the moon. And then bash that Ishiki guy to the ground. And then scatter Shibai's remains and seal the Otsutsuki forever."
"Ishiki is strong." Naruto murmured to Kurama's ghost. Well, ghost was the operative term. But the reality was that the Kurama inside of Naruto was simply a Yin chakra imprint of the real Kurama who had died back in Naruto's own time. "He killed you, remember?"
"How could I forget brat?" Kurama grunted back as he leaned down inside the mindscape, looking at the idyllic landscape that Naruto had imagined. "With every passing second in the past, I can feel my imprint dissolving, seeping back into the Kurama of this time. I will disappear in the future, back into your dratted mother's gut. Finish the job, save the future, before that happens."
"Don't remind me," Naruto murmured as he tried to lean into Kurama's tails softly but failed as the translucent tails went right through him. Naruto fought back tears that threatened to prick at the edge of his eyes as he sniffled into his hand and then turned back to face Kurama's light red eyes which were watching him with a slight sense of moroseness. "But, I have to do this. For Konan. For Nagato. For Yahiko. Even for Hanzo."
"You owe them nothing!" Kurama growled as he shuffled, looking at the small butterflies flying inside of Naruto's mindscape. "Nagato and Konan killed the old perverted sage! Your godfather! You didn't even know Yahiko and it isn't your duty to make the Land of Wetlands better. You mustn't stray from the bigger picture, Naruto."
Naruto smiled softly as he sat down on the green grass of his mindscape, joining his partner in observing the idyllic life around him. "I wouldn't have befriended you if I hadn't strayed from the bigger picture, you know?"
Kurama's eyes softened as he sat down on the ground, his snout blowing invisible hair onto Naruto's head. "That's true. But still, we can't afford to lose our second chance. Because there is no third chance! Absolutely none at all! Naruto, I know you see the urgency in all of this, yet you stay here playing fiddle with that Uchiha bitch, Sarutobi brat, and the pale-eyed bastard and that emotionless insect lady."
"Hey, don't call them that!" Naruto protested slightly as he waved his arms around before settling down. "Don't worry Kurama. You still have some time before getting into the other Kurama. And just like with you, I will cure your younger self of hatred. If that's the last thing I can do, I will do it. Believe it!"
"I know you will," Kurama murmured softly as both partners stayed in silence, spending Naruto's sleep together, reminiscing about a bygone era, lost to the future.
Deep within the confines of Mount Myoboku, Gamamaru opened his eyes. Rasping he spoke. "Harken, to the tales foretold. By ancient whispers, secrets unfold. The weaver of time, his essence binds. A harbinger of doom, where chaos finds. Upon his arrival, a divine storm shall break. The calamity of the gods, no respite to partake. A crossroads beckons, a choice profound. To raise or raze the earth, a fate unbound. The six paths, are mystic and intertwined. Their enlightenment sough, a destiny defined. Lest life succumbs to ruin's embrace, the choice must be made, in this sacred space. With hair as dark as garnet and eye as light as the sky, in prophecy sung, shall bear the burden, his destiny strung. A sacrifice grand, the ultimate price, for the weave of existence, a solemn device. Time's tapestry unraveled, a cycle reborn, heed the warning, lest destiny be torn. Decide, with wisdom and murth, for the threads of existence hinge on your worth. Hah. To think you actually succeeded Naruto! Well done young lad! Hagoromo would be proud!"
Author's Notes: And that begins the new arc! Hope everyone likes it! Thank you all for the reviews and comments! They really help me remain motivated! Keep them coming! Thanks!