Prologue - What happened to Naruto Uzumaki?
Naruto thought becoming homeless would be the low point of his day. Of course, that was before a portal opened in the middle of the city and aliens invaded.
It had started with him still in bed, still asleep, but not for long. His landlady, Mrs. Rogers was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.
"Up! Get up! Now!"
Naruto woke with a start. His hand was already curled around the kunai under his pillow. He cracked open one eye to check the Omni-Man alarm clock on the table next to his bed. The world's strongest superhero stated adamantly that it was far too early for such a racket.
Mrs. Rogers pounded on his apartment door again.
"Up!" she screeched. Naruto heard a door open down the hall and Mrs. Rogers snap at someone to mind their business. He rolled onto his back and tried to forget the dream he had been having. It had been a bad one. The orange-masked Akatsuki member had been in it. He hated that dream.
Mrs. Roger's was still outside the door.
"I know you're in there!" she shouted.
In his restless sleep, Naruto had twisted the blanket around his legs and when he tried to get free, he tore a large rip down the middle. He swore softly in Japanese and kicked the ruined covers away before climbing out of bed.
Walking across the small room to the door, he stopped in front of the only piece of furniture he owned. A small dresser with a mirror hanging on the wall above it. He sighed at the dark-haired teen looking back at him. His new face was a constant reminder that Sasuke was right: he was an idiot.
Naruto used a simple Transformation jutsu to give himself blue eyes and bright blonde hair.
The pounding on the door continued as he unfastened the trio of security locks, wondering for the millionth time why he even bothered. He didn't have anything worth stealing and if someone broke in while he was home, kami help them. He twisted the last lock, turned the knob, and pulled open the door as he put on his cheeriest smile.
"Mrs. Rogers! Good morning! What brings you by so early?"
"Good morning?" Mrs. Rogers was scowling at him.
The landlady was a tiny thing, not quite five feet tall with completely white hair and enough wrinkles to rival a pug. Mrs. Rogers looked like she was just shy of her hundredth birthday and one arm constantly quaked with little tremors. Mark Something in Unit B2 had told Naruto that it was because she'd survived more than a dozen strokes. He'd revealed that little fact with a tone of somber reverence in his voice and downcast eyes of concern.
As for him, Naruto thought that if kami was trying to kill Mrs. Rogers, he should probably just give up.
"Don't give me that 'good morning' crap, little boy. I'm here to tell you that you're out."
"I'm out?" Since he was pretty sure he wasn't gay—that kiss with Sasuke meant nothing!—Naruto could only guess what she meant. "You mean evicted?"
Mrs. Rogers pushed the thick-rimmed glasses up higher on her hooked nose. "As of today," she said. "I want you gone in an hour."
"What did I do?"
She glared at him with a fury. Her non-shaking hand at her side came up holding a piece of paper. "When you filled out this rental form, you signed with a false name! Sasuke Uchiha doesn't exist!"
Naruto sighed and folded his arms over his chest. He had hoped given the landlady's extreme age, she might not know how to look into fake identities. "Would it matter if I apologized and explained that I had to lie because I'm only seventeen?"
Which was technically true, even if it was the truth. His birthday wasn't for a few more weeks, but that didn't matter. He wasn't from this world so there would be no record of a Naruto Uzumaki in the system even if he was an adult.
Mrs. Rogers shook her head. "It would not. I'm sorry about whatever situation you have going on with your family, but I hate liars in general and I could get in serious trouble for renting to a minor. Now pack your things and get out of my building."
A couple of neighbors' doors opened and sleepy faces peered out to see what the commotion was all about. Mrs. Rogers ignored them all and continued to bore holes in Naruto with her eyes.
Naruto sighed again. "Okay, Mrs. Rogers. I'll be gone in an hour. Sorry for lying to you."
The eviction notice danced at the end of his nose. "One hour. After that, I'm calling CPS and having them send someone to get you." She turned and marched away, not giving him the tinest bit of a look back.
Several curious faces watched Mrs. Rogers march away and then turned back to Naruto. He responded with a shrug and went back into the soon-to-not-be-his apartment and began putting his possessions together.
Less than thirty minutes later, he stood on the sidewalk outside his former residence with a frown on his face and everything he owned in the world in a bag across his back. Which was very little. The Omni-Man clock, a couple of changes of clothes, a few dog-eared paperbacks, and the scrolls he had his dresser and mattress sealed away in.
Naruto also left several holes in the cheap wood flooring and walls for Mrs. Rogers to find. It was the beginning of the month, so either it was a coincidence that Mrs. Rogers just found out or she had waited until right after he paid rent to kick him out knowing he couldn't take her to court to get his money back.
Now she was going to have to use that money to fix the damages.
Holding his life in his hands, he walked the six blocks to the nearest bus stop and stood with another group of people waiting for public transit. A couple of teenage boys dressed in identical fast-food chain work uniforms sat on one of the benches. Even though they were probably together, each ignored the other in favor of watching some video or playing a game on the phones in their hands.
On the other bench was a little old Asian lady who was probably about the same age as his former landlady but looked a lot friendlier. She patted the empty spot next to her and smiled.
"You can sit here," she said.
Naruto blinked a few times and then nodded, accepting the invitation. He ran his fingers over the rough strap of his bag and leaned forward to look down the empty street in that impatient way people waiting for a ride do.
The lady watched him with a tiny wry smile and reached out with a delicate hand to pat him on the knee. When he looked at her, she tapped her watch.
"Our bus will be here soon."
Naruto returned the smile and then looked up when he heard the muffled sound of distant thunder. The sky was still a beautiful shade of blue and there were only a few nearly translucent clouds that hung motionless overhead. Must be a hero flying, he thought, used to the occasional sonic boom from Omni-Man, War Woman, Immortal, or any of the other dozens of heroes that could fly faster than the speed of sound.
He was the only one in this new strange world with chakra, and although that made him more powerful than most of the population, it didn't make him invincible. There were others in this world with powers far greater than his own. The strongest of them were members of the Guardians of the Globes, and even among them, one stood out as the strongest—Omni-Man.
Even with his training and all his new abilities, Naruto had trouble imagining any scenario where he could defeat Omni-Man in direct combat. The hero's powers seemed almost god-like—abilities that in the Elemental Nations would easily make him an S-Rank threat to even the Kage. Just his ability to fly would make Omni-Man incredibly difficult to fight, add his incredible strength and he was practically invincible. The hero could bend steel beams, shatter mountains, and shrug off blows that would kill almost everyone else.
Naruto had never even seen the hero bleed. The people of this world liked to record things, and almost every one of Omni-Man's fights could be watched online. Naruto had seen videos of the hero crashing through buildings, hurling giant robots into the sky, and calmly walking through massive explosions. If they ever did fight, most ninja tactics would be useless. Trying to use Taijutsu seemed laughable. Genjutsu illusions probably wouldn't work on someone with super-senses. Deception and subterfuge were meaningless when your opponent could hear your heartbeat and smell your sweat. Ninjutsu probably wouldn't work any better either, not with Omni-Man's durability.
That was all just hypothetical though. Naruto would probably never actually have to fight him. The Guardians of the Globe were a symbol of hope, justice, and selfless heroism for this entire world. They used their incredible powers to protect the innocent from harm.
Omni-Man was definitively one of the good guys.
The boom sounded again, this time closer.
He'd been mistaken the first time…
That wasn't a sonic boom!
Naruto stood up, slipped his bag off his shoulder, and put it down on the ground beside the bench. The teens with their earbuds filling their heads with whatever sounds were coming from their phones didn't pay him any attention. The older lady, however, was watching him with wide eyes.
"Trouble?" she asked.
Naruto nodded and looked in the direction from where the sound had come. Another loud clap told him that it was getting closer by the second.
What he wanted to do was head straight for the fighting. He could be there in less than a minute.
But... Naruto glanced back at the friendly lady and saw the worry on her face clear as day. The lady didn't look like she'd be able to make it across the street by herself.
He needed to get her somewhere safe.
"I am going to have to carry you to someplace safe."
The lady looked around, fear still present on her wrinkled face before finally nodding.
Naruto smiled and bent down to gather the lady gently into his arms. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a yellow sedan sail over the top of the building behind them.
Flames licked at the undercarriage and its trajectory brought it down fifty feet away.
He spun around with the old woman cradled against his chest and kicked the bench with the two boys on it. They both shouted with surprise as their seat flipped into the air and dropped them behind the concrete wall of the bus stop.
The car exploded and metal shrapnel coupled with bits of burning rubber pelted Naruto's back like a machine gun before he exploded in a cloud of smoke, replaced by a backpack.
On the other side of the concrete slab, Naruto crouched down next to the two boys. Both seemed unhurt, though, from the looks on their faces, Naruto doubted either would ever forget this day.
Slowly, he stood up and unfurled his arms, releasing the old lady. Her chest rose and fell rapidly and her wide eyes looked everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
"Hey, you two stay here and keep an eye on this woman until the police get her."
They both stared blankly and Naruto huffed and clapped his hands several times in front of their faces.
"Uh, yeah. No problem." one of them said.
The other one pointed at a spot behind Naruto. "Dude, you're on fire."
Naruto turned and realized his hoodie was smoldering revealing the dark steel-like skin underneath. He patted the flames out and his skin went back to its normal tan color, completely unharmed by the heat.
"Thanks. Think you two can keep this nice woman safe?"
Neither answered and Naruto wanted to slap them both, but another thunderclap rumbled closer. A section of the building across the street exploded in a fountain of bricks and mortar as a massive machine burst through the wall. The tank-like vehicle hovered several feet above the ground. Its large cylindrical turret swiveled toward the bus stop, revealing a cannon that glowed with the same purple energy.
"Get down!" Naruto shouted, diving toward the teenagers and the old woman.
The cannon discharged with a high-pitched whine, sending a beam of concentrated energy that sliced through the air where they had been standing. The concrete barrier of the bus stop exploded into fragments, showering them with dust and debris. As the dust settled, the air behind the tank began to shimmer and distort. A swirling vortex of purple energy tore open the fabric of reality itself, expanding into a portal twice the height of a man.
"W-what the hell is that?" one of the teenagers whispered, his voice trembling.
Through the portal marched line after line of green alien soldiers wearing sleek armor. Each carried a rifle-like weapon firing smaller but no less dangerous beams of energy.
"Stay down," Naruto ordered, forming a quick hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Despite being sent to the Invincible universe right after Pain's Assult, Naruto will have more jutsu and abilities than he did in canon. This will be explained later as will the backstory for Naruto's new body and how he ended up in the Invincible universe. If you want an info dump for how and why to see if you want to keep reading let me know and I'll put one at the end of the next chapter!