A/N: Hello everyone.
As one message reaches me across platforms, I would like to explain some things. As you may have gathered from my profile I am not native to the English language… I just try to not butcher it too much while using it. Well, as it seems with mixed success. I already use Grammarly for the overall checks. The free version though, as it is still my hobby and not something I can earn money with to reinvest back using the pro variant. I had some great people helping me edit some chapters but all of them also have a real life that caught up at some time. Heartfelt thanks in a project like fanfiction is the only available payment I can give out at the moment, so who am I to feel anything but gratitude in their direction?
If you want to help I would be grateful if you have constructive feedback: Like: "Hey you may want to change the use of word … with … it really fits better" Thank you. At the same time reviews like "Tham that spelling is bad" Won't help anyone. While I can take those, nod them off, and accept others, who might only start on their writing journey might not, so please people, try to be more helpful in this community we have in fanfiction. It will only help in the end because we might get more beautiful stories to read.
The only thing left for me to say are the following things:
Of Scrolls and Chains, including this, has four chapters left.
I am still undecided on which of my "unreleased" works should see the light next. What do you think? Naruto? Harry Potter? Something completely different? Let me know in the comments/reviews please!
"... so after my brother and I managed to seal our mother into the moon he stayed back on earth and me and some of mine started to colonize the moon. We did so to help my brother down on earth. The main reason was to be the watchful eyes if anything big happened we could have stepped in and helped. A part of my clan stayed back down and would have been the Predecessors of the Hyuuga and Kaguya clans I guess. Those who lived on the moon gave up their eyes to power the machine that would sustain them and to train them in sensing chakra so we could have warned the earth if someone like Mother had approached."
The old Otsutsuki sighed.
"Looks like my decrees somehow got twisted over time, if they now start to act like this."
Naruto had listened carefully. The origins of the two clans were expected if you looked at the traits that let them stand out from the masses. The Byakugan and the Dead Bone Pulse were a good giveaway to trace. Those other people watching them from the moon though. That was something Naruto had some trouble getting to terms with. How did they sustain themselves, donating their eyes as some kind of chakra battery he could remotely get but even counting in longevity, how could they stay alive this long? The redhead looked at Hamura and started to respond. "While that is kind of creepy to have people from the moon spying on us I don't think you ever gave the order to abduct people from the nations and crash the moon into us right?" He said with an undertone that even managed to get HAmura to think of expanding the distance between them.
"Err… No?" He answered truthfully and with a bit of reservation.
Naruto nodded, seemingly a bit satisfied before he asked his next question. "are there any apparitions that are meant to transport from the nations to the moon?"
Hamura thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes, there is. Or was. I built it myself to get us up there safely. A device that uses the space-time application of Ninshu."
The Uzumaki looked back and his shoulder sagged for a moment. "I see. Could that be used in both directions?" The slow "I guess" did not help at all as Naruto thought for a moment before he replied again. "You know the two of you are the only Otsutsuki that I can stand at the moment? Those people on the moon may have lost their minds to the isolation. Now they endanger my home, family, and friends. That is something that I can't tolerate." Naruto's chakra leaked out even in that dimension and the Otsutuki brother nodded.
Hagormo answered as he noticed his brother's reluctance. "You carry part of my brother's legacy in your eyes. As I told you back then in our training, our time has passed and as you serve one of the kami if their time has come their time has come. Neither my brother nor I will judge you if you decide to handle things with finality."
The young man waited for the but, but that never came. "I see. I wonder though." He paused for a moment. "You know usually I would just send all of the Otsutsuki descendants to the Shinigami but with the upcoming enemies that may endanger us after this conflict, I think about using the technique I learned about when I was out of it."
Hagoromo's brows rose. "Wait, you learned the harvesting Jutsu?" He looked a bit shocked as he said that. "How did you do that?"
Naruto smirked slightly as he shook his head. "Not the Harvesting Jutsu. But with so many chakra leeching techniques under my belt and being closed off in my mindscape on my own without any sense of time I got creative. I remembered the feeling of the time I took half of Kaguya's chakra. Now I just needed a way to combine this feeling with my usual recharging with my leach techniques. Shortly after I got back I asked Shinigami-sama about it." He took a short pause and smiled. "As long as I don't try for the same road the parasites want to take and do it in a bit slower doses I should be good. Letting my body adjust and all that."
The brothers looked at Naruto with wide eyes. They knew of the harvesting Jutsu as their mother had told them about that practice as it was the reason for her to do what she did. That Naruto managed to find his way of achieving a partial effect of the harvesting Jutsu was something they had some trouble coming to terms with.
Naruto noticed it and scratched the back of his head. "I was not comfortable with eating people you know. My Jutsu is non-lethal as I can regulate how much I take. Well, I need to take a certain amount over my capacity to stretch my system but the usual Otsutsuki should have enough for me to stretch my system enough to get an increase."
The two others nodded again before Naruto asked his next question. "Any way we can stop the moon from moving though?"
Hamura came out of his shock and nodded "Yes, there is that one machine I told you about. As long as you don't destroy it you can use it to adjust the moon again."
"I see. Well, so no destroying the scary Byakugan-powered machine. Thats okay. I guess even if that whole thing still disgusts me a bit." Naruto said before he nodded. "Yes, thanks for the help but I think I should go back and help dealing with the whole moon about to crash into earth thing." Naruto saluted and opened his eyes back at his office. He took a deep breath unlocked his office and summoned one of his operatives. Plans had to be made.
Meanwhile, Hinata's impromptu team arrived in a city that looked like ruins of older times. Or just battle-scarred land. They had followed the chakra trace Hinata could make out with her Byakugan. As the former Heiress of the Hyuuga clan managed to locate the possible annex where the trace disappeared ten apparitions attacked the group. The apparitions showed only some empty eyes and were dressed in brown clothing. Mostly cloaks.
Yakumo dodged the first attack shortly sighing as she noted they had no chakra system to invade so she tried her best to deflect the attacks. As a student of Lee in Taijutsu she gracefully fell into the Goken and started countering. "We need to locate the puppetmaster. I can't do a Genjtusu without having a clue where he is" She yelled at her teammates.
Lee stomped the ground raising an earth wall before he knocked the head off one puppet with a Leaf Hurricane. "A great idea. Hinata. If you would please" He said with a very calm tone while he kicked and punched puppets left and right. Stone slowly supports his arms and makes them even harder. After their first success, the puppets seemed to adapt slightly and tried to stay at a distance attacking with Senbon and Kunai mostly.
Hinata came out of a Rotation before she looked at her summons and nodded once. She rushed through some hand seals as the hellcat let loose some blue flames. Putting her hand on the hellcat the flames multiplied and managed to burn down one unsuspecting puppet. Her Byakugan was already looking for the possible puppeteer, but no matter how far or close she looked she could not find anybody except for her team and herself. Even the puppets were hidden before her eyes. "Negative on visual guys. Let's do it the oldschool way." She said smiling as her fingernails extended into claws before she was completely covered in the blue flames of Matatabi as she entered her chakra mode.
The following fight was longer than expected as those human-like puppets fought better than some Jonin they got to know in their years. As Hinata wanted to preserve the ruins she advised the other to not use big-scale attacks. That order was mostly not needed, as neither Yakumo nor Lee used flashy Jutsus. They mostly used short bursts to defend or augment their Tai Jutsu.
After nearly an hour the last puppet fell to a flaming Juuken strike from Hinata. She wiped the sweat off her brow and looked at the two others. Shortly looking for injuries with her Byakugan. Not finding anything besides some scratches she smiled. "All good guys?"
Lee checked himself before he gave a thumbs up joined by Yakumo nodding with a smile. Both of them looked at her waiting for further directions. Hinata summoned another hellcat as the former had to return while they fought the puppets. Thy former Hyuuga looked at the Kitten and kneeled down. "Any new information you have for me?"
The small hell cat looked very cute with their big eyes and flaming blue fur. It looked excited too as it started to purr as Hinata scratched her neck. "Ahhh.. right there.. news? Oh Yes... Scratchies first though."
Hinata stopped and looked at the young cat with a slightly reproachful expression. "I thought Matatabi and I made that clear, the scratchies are only available after the work is done. I'm not going to spoil you so much that you end up dancing around on my nose. So, what's the news?"
The nameless kitten looked up with wide eyes and tried to change Hianta's mind, but she remained steadfast and just raised a brow.
A short sigh escaped the kitten, "It's all right. It's all right. No need to threaten little me right away." He licked his paw briefly and looked in the direction of the entrance to one of the ruined buildings. "The trail disappears into this building. After that, it disappears into nothing. Do I get scratchies now?" he said almost reproachfully. Hinata nodded and started scratching again.
She made eye contact with the other two. "The longer we wait, the more likely it is that they'll escape and I'll never see my sister again. However, I really don't have a good feeling about rushing into the unknown against an opponent who could trick my entire clan.
Yakumo thought for a moment and gestured to Lee to wait for them for a moment before he said anything again. The heiress of the Kurama clan nodded briefly before looking up. "Yes, we have to reckon with the fact that the enemy is stronger than the dolls he probably left behind as guards. But we have options in case of emergency. We need to find out who got away with your sister and look for what happened. I say let us advance."
Hinata nodded thankfully and looked to Lee who kind of had stars in his eyes as he looked at Yakumo and gave her a bright smile. "Exactly what I wanted to say Kumo-chan." That earned him a slight smack on his shoulders and a little blush on the face of the Heiress before they looked back at Hinata.
"Okay, thanks guys." She looked at the kitten. "Please report back to Tabi-chan and tell her we investigate that further." The Kitten nodded and purred again as he got his last pat on the head before it disappeared in a puff of smoke. As they investigated the said building Hinata quickly found the switch with her Byakugan. They were amazed when they opened their eyes again and found themselves in a new environment. Hinata was startled when her Byakugan was bombarded by various chakra signatures. One of them was her sister's, but she had probably been sedated if she judged the flow rate of her chakra correctly. The main reason for her ear shock was when she realized where she was. Her team had landed on the moon. A moon that apparently had a breathable atmosphere. That wasn't enough, there were dolls everywhere but they didn't seem to be active.
However, this allowed them to sneak up to the place where she noticed Hanabis signature. They found Hanabi unharmed in her room, and Hinata found her little sister lying in a bed. When the diagnostic jutsu confirmed her fears after seeing the blindfold, she looked at the others. "Her eyes were removed quite cleanly and methodically."
Lee and Yakumo stepped a little closer and Lee almost whispered as he replied. "Who would do something like that? Not only the abduction but the removal of the eyes, but apparently no further damage."
But before Yakumo or Hinata could answer his question, they heard a new and unfamiliar voice.
"I... I would do something like that." Standing in the doorway was a man with sky-blue eyes and white hair. He had six magatamas tattooed on his chest that peeked out between the layers of his high-necked kimono.
Hinata moved herself in front of her sister flanked by Lee and Yakumo. "Where did you hide my sister's eyes? Give them back and I take her with and we are on our way. But make it quick!" Hinata's Byakugan activated and the temperature in the room started to rise. While she was soft-spoken in her demand her chakra presence made more than clear that this demand was not negotiable.
The eyes of the unknown men pulsated once and showed off an overlapping flower pattern. "I am Toneri Otsutsuki and I will marry you Hinata, my princess of the Byakugan," Toneri stated without any concern. He did not even care as the two others tensed ready to strike. The temperature rose some more degrees as Hinata reacted to his words.
"You think so hmm?" She said taking a step forward one hand behind her back and signing a message to the two others. She had to hope that her chakra fluctuation would hide her movement from his eyes and that he did not understand the sign language of the Konoha ninja. As he did not react she continued. "You hurt my sister and now you think you can demand things of me and I will just comply? Who do you think you are?"
Toneri took another step so he and Hinata were just some feet away from each other. "You savior." He said with a superior smirk. Hinata did not wait for another word and a quick Juken strike was aimed at Toneri's heart. Yakumo quickly layered a Genjutsu that would show not only one but countless Hinata's striking him as Lee took an emergency scroll out and sealed Hanabi into the transport stasis scroll. Toneri managed to dodge the attack while he just absorbed the Genjutsu. "You are misguided like all those others on earth but you are worth saving my princess." He said still fixated on Hinata.
The Hyuuga jumped back and was very thankful that the room was bigger than most. It resembled something like a big suite. A shadow clone of Hinata took Yakumo and Lee's shoulders and used the reverse summoning to get them out of there. Something that Toneri only commented with a smile. "Ahh. You wanted to get the rif raf away. I knew you would be worthy to bear my children after I cleanse the earth and fulfill my father's last wish."
Some hours ago with Naruto back in Uzushio. He had just left his office and got into the lab room. Karin, Kushina, Mito, and Minato stood around the big table. Random scrolls lay around and Minato was scribbling in some notebook biting on his pencil. Naruto joined on the right side of Karin and looked over the notes. "So what's on the menu."
Kushina looked up and hugged her son first while Karin started to explain. "We may have a situation here. After consulting with Kirika and the other we are quite sure that you can't just absorb the chakra or seal it away."
Naruto looked at Karin's notes and his eyes bulged out. "You got to be kidding me pure nature chakra you say? Yeah, that would mess my balance up quite nicely and I would be a pile of ash I suppose. You have a plan around it?"
Mito sighed "Well you could use my Jutsu and adapt it to Senjutsu chakra. But, that would take too long as you would need more than one seal to handle that much chakra." She looked and Minato and as he was still scribbling in his notes, crossing out things, or circling others she used some chakra chains to slap him on the back of his head.
"Hey!" he shouted as he turned to the others. "What?" He looked questioningly and as he did so often after he had super focused on his work he looked to his wife.
Kushina giggled a bit before she gave him a chaste kiss on his cheek. "We are talking about the possible alternative to Mito-sama's Sealing Jutsu to deal with all the sage chakra."
That seemed to help as Minato took a second to catch up before he smiled and looked through some discarded scrolls before he found one. It was Naruto's Explanation of the Flying Hiraishin Gift Jutsu.
"Wait. Why this Jutsu?" Naruto looked at the Kage Bunshin version of his dad and again was really grateful that the mentor scroll existed. The bright smile of his father somehow grounded him and let him put the whole anxiety about the moon crashing on the earth thing to the back of his mind and concentrate on the problem. Minato pointed to the part where he described the transportation functionality. Naruto slowly nodded and Kushina handed him another scroll that held the sealing variant of the chakra absorption technique he had come up with.
Mito sighed they had no time for all of that so she raised her voice after Naruto still did not get it. A known problem for a developer sometimes you see your formulas but not the way to recycle them. "We think that you could combine those aspects into a new Jutsu to not only absorb chakra but transfer it with an active space-time tunnel to another location and person."
It was like someone had put on the light as Naruto took an empty scroll and looked at the formulas summoning another clone that scribbled down some more kanji. For minutes they said nothing. After he had written down some calculations he frowned and checked with his clone before he let the others see them and slowly said. "It won't be something I can use without scrolls and I may need a ritual-like setting and channel the whole time. But, the sums are looking good to me."
Karin started to look over the numbers and with Mito started to cross-reference the calculations they had already done. Where they had hit a wall Naruto found some way around. It looks like it for the moment on paper that is. Minato nodded at his son and said. "Exactly what I thought. But…" he trailed off.
Naruto picked up his thoughts as the Kushina also checked his calculations "But… the amount of chakra has to go somewhere first before it can be recycled into the environment. An environment that could contain it without it being able to get back to the source." On the nods from Minato, he had to smile as he saw the miffed face of his father. If Naruto had to guess it was because he had not found a solution for that yet. Naruto had an idea though. "Good thing I know a certain someone." He bit his thumb and wrote the Kanji for one on the ground before he rushed through some hand seals. After the characteristical puff of smoke of a summoning, they looked at a chibi variant of the nine-tails.
A bit disoriented Kurama looked around mostly up as they all were quite some sizes bigger before his eyes found Naruto and he jumped on the table. "Did I not tell you that I won't agree to be summoned in this state? Just because you developed that Jutsu for the others to train doesn't entitle you to use it for us. I mean you could have summoned me in my complete form and not at one-tenth of my strength." The fox did sound quite angry about it even as his voice was much softer in that form. It took some seconds after his declaration before he was cuddled by Kushina who started to swoon.
"Look at you Kurama, who is a cute little devastation fox… you are" She said cuddling the fox long enough for him to give Naruto the See what you did to me look before Kurama freed himself and sat on the table looking at the other with as much dignity as he could while Kushina was a bit sad. Mito and Karin had followed the whole thing with their much more analytical minds and so Karin looked at the fox and indicated a slight bow of respect.
"What my husband implies I think, is that you could maybe be the one to handle that much sage chakra isn't he?" Karin said while looking between Kurama and Naruto. They both had the same kind of foxy grin now.
Naruto nodded at his partner and said. "Show them. I think you could be the only one I could trust with all of that."
Kurama sat still after he nodded at Naruto still smirking before everything on him seemed to relax. Not even his nine-tails flicked around anymore. It took nearly a minute before they witnessed the coloring of his tails and ears changing. At the end of them, the usual reddish-orange mix of fur slowly darkened. After he opened his eyes he showed golden slitted eyes. "Could not let Naruto get one over me and someone had to teach the other Biju how to be sages right? But what are you talking about?"
After they had explained the idea Kurama sat still for a moment as he had let the sage chakra and mode bleed out again.
"I will be honest even I won't be able to balance all the mass of chakra out if I would like to hold it in me. I would need to ground myself and bleed it out at the same speed I take it in." The fox sounded thoughtful.
Naruto continued. "Yes, but If we could change my Hiraishin Gift a bit I could combine it with the Dimensional link we use for the Chakra mode. If you would sit in the very center of the temple and bleed the chakra into the earth I would say that the dimension and seal would soak it right up. What do you think Kurama?"
Kurama sat still and slowly nodded after a minute. "Yes…it could work. If you manage to anchor the transfer to the point we established for the Jutsu. I would be able to receive the chakra. Control it and bleed it out again. That will take my whole concentration though so you can't enter the full mode if you need to defend yourself. I don't even think you can manage the whole setup on your own without blowing up like you always do." Ending on the high note Naruto and the fox started to bicker for a moment. Minato observed this curiously while the women had to agree with Kurama as Naruto's experimental seals tended to blow up in his face.
While Naruto and the fox traded barbs and smaller insults they worked on the seal changes and experimented with that thanks to some shadow clones that, to the partial amusement of some of the people in attendance blew up as the Jutsu failed.
It took them some attempts until Kurama suddenly stopped and looked at Naruto. "We might have to speed up the process." Naruto looked at his partner after those words had caught his attention. "Matatabi's partner is on the moon and fighting against someone who identified himself as Toneri Otsutsuki. They had kidnapped Hanabi Hyuuga. Hinata and her team consisting of Rock Lee and Yakumo Kurama managed to get to the moon and extract her sister but the enemy had used her sister's eyes so she stayed back." Kurama explained.
Naruto looked at the group that had fallen silent. "What are we waiting for the sooner we finish the sooner I can go and finish that problem. We can do this. No one can beat us Uzumaki at Fuinjutsu right?" His father was coughing. "You married into the clan Dad.." Naruto just commented before they got back to work.
Back on the moon with Hinata and Toneri. The battle had moved to the outside. Craters of destruction littered the surface and in some places, the surface was still burning with blue flames. Both of the combatants had some minor scratches, Hinata was more winded though. She had even summoned Matatabi to help her but Toneri quickly made sure that Matatabi needed to retreat and the advantage was back on Toneri's side. Something he made clear often enough. "Why do you even resist my princess? Not that I don't appreciate your fiery temper Hinata. But you must also realize that you cannot harm me permanently. The few scratches were at the beginning when I wanted to let you have your way so that you could let off steam. But now..." He grinned confidently, almost arrogantly, but he was probably in a position to do so.
Hinata clenched her teeth as she had to use a Kaiten again to ward off one of Toneri's Jutsu. Even if she didn't want to admit it, he was right. After the first few minutes, she was barely able to attack. Again and again, she had to dodge or defend. The moments when she was able to go on the offensive herself became fewer and fewer with every minute of the fight. She was slowly running out of ideas and did her best not to let it show. Tabi had kept the connection to her mind and kept her informed about the efforts of Naruto's team. She had two backup plans. The first was a scroll that Naruto had given her with the words "for emergencies". The alternative was to use the jutsu to move to Matatabi. However, that would give up her location and the opportunity to stop Toneri from going through with his plan. So her only option was to play for time. Time that was running out.
Toneri had a big smirk on his face. "You are strong I will give you that. Much stronger than I expected. But, all your strength won't be enough to beat me."
Hinata did not reply she had to play the long game and needed to carefully control the chakra she was using. She would do her part and hold the line.
Meanwhile, the Kage had gathered in their conference again. Tsunade looked at the assembled leader of the big five and had a report in her hand. She still had the position, even after becoming a mother. "As you all had gathered whatever happened the moon stopped moving. Which I would count as a potential win in my books. I don't want to stress that we don't know if the reason for the start of the movement is now solved. It is just an expectation that as long as we…" Tsunade was interrupted by another report. The Kage got similar reports at nearly the same time.
Mei was the first to get out of the temporary state of shock. "Well, that changes things. I have to commend you Tsunade. One of your Kunoichi fighting against the person responsible for the moon incident. Holding him off. Very good and a testament to Konoha's teachings."
Tsunade smiled but shook her head. "I would like to take credit for that, yes, but the only thing I would be able to claim credit for would be the girl's advancement in chakra control and medical nin jutsu." She paused for a second. "Also as number two of the guardians, the address would be former Konoha Kunoichi."
As the Kage discussed how they would adjust to the situation Hinata dodged another close call. The linear Jutsu nearly cut her open fortunately now only a strand of her hair had been cut. She was getting slower and slower and she knew it. Maybe she would die or just captured to be forced to marry that mad person. While she had to focus on dodging and evading all the attacks, yes even running away she contemplated if that could be called an emergency now. Another near miss and she stopped thinking and started acting. She summoned some clones and they quickly took over keeping Toneri busy before she used chained Shunshins to get some distance in. Summoning another clone and giving him the scroll and nodded at her mirror copy before the clone moved away and into the building while she stood her ground and waited for the arrival of Toneri.
Two minutes later she got the memories of her clones and the arrival of Toneri some seconds later.
It was a smiling Toneri as he arrived. He was mustering her slightly exhausted look. "You should give up and agree to be my wife. We will get your sister and maybe some friends and cleanse that planet that failed my forefather's decrees. Chakra should never have been weaponized. But you humans always needed to do things your way don't you?" His face showed his disgust. There were only moments when his face was contorted into a grotesque grimace because of it, but Hinata almost took a step back when the emotions were so dominant. Toneri's mood quickly faded as he looked at Hinata and smiled again. "We will build a new world. A world where our children use chakra the way it should be. A world where peace and harmony reign, but before that, I have to rid it of all the scum."
He spread his arms in a wide gesture. "Can you see it, princess? My vision would make everything so much easier. I can see it now." He sounded like someone so obsessed with his idea that he had switched off all reason or inhibition. He stood up in front of her. "Your resistance so far has been quite exhilarating, but my patience is wearing thin, Princess."
Before he could utter another word, Hinata relaxed her muscles and dug deep into her reserves. There wasn't much left, she connected her reserves to the seal on her stomach and went into the chakra mode of her biju. The blue flames connected with her chakra and became multicolored. The blue became darker towards the tips and was more reminiscent of purple. Her Byakugan caught her movement, but Toneri seemed to be getting serious and all she could see was a fist landing in the pit of her stomach. The pain was intense, intense enough to disrupt her chakra mode and threatened to overwhelm her, and then there was the look Toneri gave her as he took a few steps back. "Last warning Hinata, submit or I'll make you!"
Hinata spat out a bit of blood. She wiped her mouth and noticed the red coloring. Using a medical Jutsu she gave herself minor first aid as she looked back at Toneri. A small smile was on her face as the flames erupted again. "There is only one who could make me…" She said with intensity before she got into her stance. Open Palms, ready to strike. "And his name is …"