Chapter 2: The Deal
The village of Konoha hummed with life: birds chirped, squirrels chattered, bees buzzed, and kids played. There was not a cloud in the sky. The air was moderate, caressing all the people in a calming breath. The sun shined down its warmth, as if highlighting the brightness of the future.
The morning was poised to begin the day's labors with ease and comfort, to help everyone enjoy the day.
Naruto, sadly, was irked
He was at the academy, but nobody was there.
"Huh." He tried turning the knob on the academy door. It was locked. "Well, this sucks." He scrunched his eyes at the sign on the door. "Wait, what does it say?" He breathed in, slowly deciphering the words.
Spring Break
Final Exams on April 5th
He sighed. "Well, that's embarrassing." He face-palmed. That would be two weeks from now. "Good thing nobody saw that."
"Naruto?" Said somebody who saw that.
"Hello?" Naruto turned his face to see Iruka. "Oh, hey!" The blonde waved awkwardly.
The teacher raised an eyebrow. "You're here," he pointed out.
"Yeah..."
"I'm guessing you thought today was exam day?"
"Good guess," Naruto said, nodding.
"That doesn't explain why you're here two hours early." Iruka chuckled.
"Oh..." Naruto blushed, scratching his head in embarrassment. "Well, early bird gets the worm, right?" He laughed before blinking. "Wait, how come you're here?"
"Just compiling all the grades for the semester, and writing the final exam."
"Well... I'll leave you to your work then." The blonde waved, and turned to leave.
"Actually, Naruto..." Iruka put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "We need to talk."
The orange-clad youth froze. "Err..." He put on a thin grin. "Yeah?"
The man's eyes dropped. His chest rose with a heavy breath. "Naruto, I'm going to keep it simple and save you some time."
The blonde's smile remained. "What's the problem?" he asked with a nervous laugh.
"You shouldn't take the exam. Your grades are too poor, and the score you would need to pass is impossible, given..." The scarred man paused hesitantly. "... Your condition."
The blonde's smile remained stubbornly in place as he chuckled. "You're funny Iruka-sensei."
"Naruto..." The Chunin sighed. "Although you work extremely hard and are the top of the class in terms of stealth, combat, weapon accuracy, and physical performance, your written examinations are atrocious, and you can't use chakra."
The blonde's smile became thin, his eyes dropped, and his heart sank. Iruka's words rained down on his morale like hammering strokes. "There must..." He paused. "Could I do extra credit?"
Iruka sighed again, arms crossed. "That wouldn't be fair to your classmates. Also, it wouldn't be fair to your teammates if you were out on the field. You would be a burden..." The teacher sighed. "I'm sorry, Naruto. You would need to do spectacular on the final to have even a slight hope of passing... and that's just not going to happen. Just take this break to reflect. Relax, it's not the end of the world. Not everybody needs to be a ninja."
The blonde looked down at the floor, fists clenched. "What would I have to do in order to pass?"
Iruka clenched his jaw. "Naruto..." He sighed. "You would need perfect scores across the board. You can't mess up even once. It would take a miracle."
Naruto's breath got caught up in his throat.
This was it... Three years of effort, trying to turn his life around ending up as worthless waste. His blood rushed, his heart pulsed, and his thoughts raced. He needed some way to figure this out, some other way to prove himself.
His eyes rose, a figurative lightbulb shining forth.
"Is there anyway I could take the written portion orally?"
Iruka paused, taken aback both in awe and pity. "I suppose that could work. However, that leaves the ninjutsu portion..." he added.
"I'll figure it out." The blonde responded, giving a thumbs-up. His teeth flashed. "Now or never, right?"
"Naruto..." Iruka sighed. "You can't even use chakra."
"Yet! I can't use chakra yet!" Naruto corrected
"Your body can't..."
"It can," Naruto assured, his voice carrying confidence despite his pounding chest.
The man sighed again. "Fine, how about this? If you can somehow mold chakra on the day of the exam, you can take the test, and I'll accommodate you for the written portion." He opened the class door. "See you in two weeks."
The boy's eyes brightened. "Thank you! You won't be disappointed!" He saluted the teacher and ran out the building.
"Naruto, when will you realize that sometimes things aren't meant to work out..." Iruka mused sadly. With a tired heave he shut the door behind him.
-------------------------------------------------
The blonde gasped, falling on the ground, sweat dripping down his chin. He had run to a training ground, body moving and mind still. He hadn't let the thoughts register in his mind.
He hadn't let the fear of failure creep up. He couldn't. If he didn't believe in himself, who would?
"Damn..." He cursed, lying down on the dirty earth, eyes drifting towards the clear blue sky. "I got some work to do!" He laughed a bit, before becoming quiet, gazing off to the sky. "You hear me, god?!" He pointed upward. "You ain't keeping me down! I'm going to show you how awesometacular I really am! Got it!?" His confidence rose, smile beaming. "I'm coming for you!" He pumped his fist in the air, jumping up and dusting himself off, eyes widening at the sight before him.
Hinata was right in front of him, blushing and confused. "...A-are you okay?"
Akward.
Naruto blinked. "Oh, how long have you been there?"
Hinata blushed, looking to the side, pressing her fingers together. "T-the... entire time. I was just, um, doing some training here until you... ran here... and started p-proclaiming you were..." She paused. "Shouting at god."
The blonde straightened. "I see. Well, god and I have a very interesting relationship." He grinned. "You see..." He put his arm over the blushing Hyuga, point his other arm up. "The man in the clouds puts obstacles in my way. He tries to tell me that I can't do anything, that..." Naruto paused, raising a fist towards the sky. "I can't ever achieve my dream, that I can never build castles in the sky." He grabbed the girl by the shoulders, staring into her bright red face. "But you know what? Isn't that boring? Why do we have to be told by others what we can and can't do? Right? I mean, screw them!" He pointed towards the sky, as if in defiance. "You can't tell me what to do!" He turned back to Hinata and grinned. "You understand?" Naruto gazed into the stiff, blushing girl's eyes.
She was silent, her face doing a fine impersonation of a tomato.
"Err... you okay, Hinata?" The blonde pressed a hand to the girl's forehead. She blinked.
'Oh my god, he held me!' The poor girl was lost in her head.
"Hinata?" Naruto waved his hand in front of her eyes.
'He's so confident, charismatic. I wish I could...' The girl blinked. 'Wow, I have problems.'
Naruto started panicking. "Hinata!" He started jumping up and down, waving his arms frantically.
The girl shook her head. "I think I should go." She turned.
"Hinata wait!" She had moved too quickly for him to catch her. "Damn..." He rubbed his temples. "I was going to ask her for some help." He looked towards the sky. "Maybe next time..."
'But for now...' Naruto sat on the floor, legs crossed. His chest expanded, his back elongated, and his body became free. His breath flowed like water, mind calming as he reached deep inside, reaching for the burning well inside his gut.
-------------------------------------
Hinata breath was harsh as she watched from afar, standing behind a tree. Her lavender eyes peered across the arbor, gazing at the blonde.
The Hyuga always had trouble approaching him. Whenever Naruto was close, her heart would race, and her blood would rush to her cheeks. For some reason, the blonde made her unable to be coherent.
She didn't know what it was: his sun-kissed hair, cerulean eyes, whisker marks gave him an almost feral playfulness, accenting his confidence, his unwavering optimism. He just was...
Winning.
By all accounts he shouldn't, but he was.
He was the bottom of his class, all because he was dyslexic, and couldn't use chakra. He did whatever he could to counteract it. She would watch him train for hours perfecting the way he threw kunai, the balance in his Taijutsu stance, and even the way he breathed. There was almost a draconian way he worked himself. He wasn't talented at anything. He was clumsy, spacy, and event a bit dull.
He didn't care what people said, he just kept on pushing, even though he had no reason to believe in himself, to aspire towards making a mark on history.
It was why Hinata admired him. Although silly, watching Naruto succeed in any small way, was like light at the end of the tunnel. It gave her hope.
Even though he was once again trying to do the impossible, gather his chakra, Hinata activated her Byakugan and observed him work.
------------------------------------------------------
Naruto reached for the power within him and pulled. Nothing.
The blonde continued to reach deep inside him, to feel that unstoppable force calling from within. Instead he tensed, jaw clenching in frustration. "Why..." He groaned, eyes downtrodden.
The boy continued this for hours. He searched, scouring for the bits of energy that made the entirety of life, but nothing occurred, nothing appeared.
He had no chakra.
All the boy could do was hang his head in shame, yellow hair shadowing his eyes.
Eventually the sun began to dim.
Night came, swallowing up his hopes and dreams in darkness.
The blonde sighed when he came back to his apartment, and collapsed on his bed, eyes closing and settling into rest.
Then everything changed.
Naruto opened his eyes, finding himself upright in an endless dimension of white. He turned his head to the right, to the left. There was nothing. He took a step forward. The ground rippled underneath his foot, as if he was walking on a metallic ocean. Crouching, he ran his hand through the liquid, it was dense, smooth, and packed within its depths a sensation of longing. It crawled up the boy's skin, seeping into him. Everything went black.
He was a young boy again, standing in the park. He watched solemnly as his friends were taken away by their parents at the crack of dusk. He remembered how instead of feeling happy for meeting them he felt downtrodden that they had to leave. He remembered the abrasive and scared look the parents would shoot at him.
Instantly, the vision receded as Naruto jerked his hand from the water. Eyes wide, and mouth open, a pant escaped from his lips.
"The hell?" he whispered. Eyes widened, he jumped back, landing on his rear.
Before him was...him. At least, it had his shape. It wore no clothes, just a humanoid shadow with his hair. Its skin was an endless void, black as night, and filled with stars. It had no mouth, just two white voids that stared back.
It was as if a piece of the cosmos had adopted his form, and stood before him.
"Who... are you?" Naruto asked.
It quirked its head. Words filled into Naruto's mind. There was no sound, no voice. It just was.
You... at least, the you who was missing.
Naruto opened and closed his mouth, blinking wildly. "This is a dream, right?"
What do you think?
"I think you're a smart ass." Naruto bit back.
Well...
Its white voids twinkled with mirth.
There you go.
Naruto calmed himself, staring back into the being, mimicking its actions. "You..." He began. "Just answered me without answering me."
We both tend to do that, don't we?
Naruto paused, eyes growing serious. "What are you?"
It twinkled its eyes, throwing its head back in the act of a jolly laugh.
Now we have a good question.
It closed the distance between it and Naruto, placing its weightless hands on his shoulders.
I... am what's born from your undying ambition and longing, the part of you that dreams for the cosmos. I am the space that grew in place of your chakra. I... am your answer.
"My answer?" Naruto inquired. "Well, that's incredibly vague. What are you, a philosopher?"
...That would be fun actually...
The blonde raised a brow. "Wanna give me a straight answer?"
I am the straight answer.
"That's not what I meant."
It's what I thought you meant.
"You're quite dull."
The creatures eyes drooped.
I have grown weary...
Its eyes twinkled again as it sat across from the blonde, hands resting on its knees.
Naruto responded with a smile. "I don't know who you are, but...I like you."
The cosmic being bowed.
I try.
Naruto laughed, bowing back. The two looked at each other for a moment, studying each other until the blonde said:
"So, what do you want?"
The cosmic being quirked its head.
Whatever do you mean?
Naruto raised an eyebrow at the being's mocking. "I suddenly meet you, in a random white void, after I collapse irritated and frustrated from not being able to use chakra. Then..." The blonde rested his chin on his palms. "You come in saying you're my answer, and even more so, engage in some witty banter so I can like you. You're going to give me something, something big. What's the price?"
The being's eyes twinkled as it slowly got up. Naruto stood upright in response.
The creature, put an arm around the boy's shoulder. The white void around him began to shine. He closed his eyes to avoid being blinded. Then he became aware.
He was floating. Although of where, he was unsure. All he knew was that he was weightless like a leaf in the wind. However, there was nothing around him, nothing inhibiting his movements. Opening his eyes, he saw it; an endless ocean of tiny florescent lights. They were so bright, yet so far away, infinitely apart, yet so close. He had always felt calm when he gazed at the stars. However, he had no idea that floating among them would make him feel so centered.
He gazed down, eyes widening at the sight of the planet earth. It was one of the most stunning sights he had ever seen, yet it was so hard to explain. It was like trying to describe flying overhead to someone who has never flown. An articulate traveler could describe the sights but would find it much harder to explain the difference in perspective provided by the new view from a greater distance, along with the feelings, impressions, and insights that go with that view.
To put it simply though, Naruto felt overwhelmed. He had never been outside the city of Konoha, so to see this sight was...heavy. Yet, it stirred a burning desire in his chest, igniting an inferno, an unquenchable ambition to explore, to conquer... and most of all...
To win.
Naruto looked into the eyes of the cosmic being.
You must win.
The blonde understood, eyes twinkling and grin widening.
You must never give up, and you must never look back. Because if you don't move forward...
"We have nothing." Naruto said, eyes solemn.
The creature nodded. The blonde mimicked in somber acceptance, excitement tingling his very core.
"What's your name?"
The being's eyes twinkled.
Nexus...
"Well, Nexus, I don't know what you are, or where you're from... but I don't care. I accept." The blonde held out his hand. "Whatever it is, deal."
The cosmic shadow shook his hand and everything faded to white.
Naruto's eyes grew weary and he collapsed.
The last words he heard were
Let's show the world who we really are.
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Kurama, the great nine-tailed fox, groaned in pain. The glowing orb of golden light, which was underneath the beast began to undulate, pulsating with burning fury.
"What's happening..." The demon growled, crimson chakra coating the orb, restraining it.
Yet, the orb pulsed, blazing in intensity, undulating, against Kurama's control.
Then it happened, words appeared in the beast's head.
You act so arrogant, judging before you understand...
The ball of light grew, turning a wicked white.
Held down by the chains of paranoia, restrained by this cage...
Kurama was blasted back in an explosion of light, rocketing back and smashing to the wall. Spider-web cracks sprung forth on impact.
Well now...
The beast groaned in pain as the light died down. Before it stood a shadow of Naruto, skin painted with visions of the cosmos, and eyes brimming white. It had no mouth.
I will not be restrained by a cage...
The great fox stared at the being's eyes in awe and shock. It walked away, its footsteps making no sound. Instead the air, the space bent around it.
For some reason, Kurama felt small...
I am free...
It was as if it existed outside time. It would faze in and out, like a projection. It was there, but not.
There are no chains on me, not anymore.
It glanced at Kurama, eyes twinkling in mirth.
Ready for some fun?
There was no rustle of air, no sound, or distortion in the area. It had simply vanished.
Kurama gazed with tired eyes, groaning as it collapsed with a loud 'thud'. "I'm scared for you, Naruto..." The great beast closed its eyes in rest.
Chapter Three: The Sacrifice
Naruto Uzumaki's eyes creaked open to the dancing light of dawn. He stretched, tensed muscles loosening. With a yawn, he shifted, jumping out of the bed, feet landing on the floor. With renewed fervor he stood, scratching his head.
Then he blinked. A groggy, awkward sensation spread through his cranium.
He remembered the white void, the cosmic being, the promise of...
"Power?" Naruto whispered. He glanced at his open palms. For a moment, the blonde gazed at his hands expecting something miraculous, extraordinary to occur.
He closed his eyes, reaching down for something, a sliver of energy, a strand or promise. Then he felt it. A sensation rushed through his chest. It rose with rapid urgency, spilling from his mouth.
"Buuuuuuuurp." The whiskered-boy froze, eyes widened in disbelief.
So much for that...
Naruto groaned, running his hands through his locks before walking to his bathroom. The door was old. Scratches etched their way along the bottom half of it and the edges were uneven and cracked. The door knob hung loose, the bronze paint uneven and jagged. Naruto stopped, sighing once more. His head hit the door with a soft 'thud'. His legs became weak. His body drooped.
It finally dawned on him. The thought, a whisper that had grown into a grim canvas stared him in the face.
He was never going to be a ninja.
He grit his teeth, flaring his nostrils in frustration. He had been so worried about it that he had dreamed of a possible solution, an impossible answer to an impossible problem. The blonde clenched his fists.
"Such a dumbass..." He opened his bathroom door, walking into the dark room. "But..." He stopped in front of the mirror, features covered in the darkness. "I need to focus." He twisted the knob on the sink, water spilling out the faucet. "Still have two weeks..." He splashed some water onto his face. "I can figure out something..." He looked at the mirror. A shadow stared back at him. "Yeah, I will figure out something." He nodded.
He suddenly went through his usual morning routine. "Come on!" He shouted at the mirror. "You are amazing!" He pointed at it. "You are incredible!" He laughed. "Nobody's got anything on you!" He gave himself a thumbs up. "You. Can. Do." he flipped on the light. "...This?"
The boy's eyes widened in surprise. "Holy ramen baba..." He stared into his reflection. "My eyes." His irises had morphed. Oceanic blue pools replaced with windows into the universe. He could see the shifting lights, the galaxies, the stars. His eyes were the expanding cosmos.
The blonde blinked. "I'm going to need some sunglasses." He said. "Kurama, are you seeing this?"
Silence met his question.
"Kurama?" The blonde asked. No answer. "Damn, still sitting on your butt." He shrugged. "Hard to believe you're asleep, especially with those rabbit ears of yours..." The blonde waited for a few moments. "Thoserabbit ears of yours." He repeated, trying to irk the fox.
He stood still, silently searching for a grunt, a bothersome sigh. Nothing arose, even after waiting for minutes. "You want me to go in there?"
Nothing answered.
"Yep, I'm going." The blonde walked to his bed, sitting on the edge. He closed his eyes, focusing his entire attention on his breath. His body began to slacken. All tension slowly melted away. All he could feel was the circulation of his breath. In and out.
He felt his mind sink, and the air change. The first thing he noticed was the smell. It was a lingering pungent odor, one that shivered his skin. He opened his eyes, coming face to face with a gate. It was taller and wider than the hokage tower. Intricate patterns were carved into the bars, while a filmy piece of paper with the symbol 'seal' stood in the middle.
Everything behind the bars was pitch black, void of all life.
"Kurama!" Naruto called. His voice echoed, bouncing off the walls. Nothing answered. The boy walked forward, sliding between the colossal columns. He began to call, shout, never veering from his path into the darkness.
Yet, that smell, decayed and strong, continued to contaminate the air, threatening to claw down Naruto's nostrils. It crawled into his ear, whispering chilling diction of death. The chill crawled down into his chest, clutching his heart.
It was starting to become suffocating. Every step he took forward was a beat against his chest. It took every fiber of his being to push on... to see what was wrong, to see where Kurama was, his only friend.
"Na...ru...to..." A withered voice choked.
The cosmic eyed boy froze. "Kurama!" His heart surged with relief as he ran forward. His footsteps resounded throughout the cage, frantically fierce. "Kurama!" The blonde shouted. "...Kurama..." The blonde stopped, eyes widening.
Its once radiant crimson fur had dulled into a stark white. Its thick lion-like physique was now thin and lanky. Giant beast of wonder and fear had been reduced to emaciated bone.
As if the life had been sucked straight out.
It stared into the blonde's eyes with its giant crimson orbs. "Naruto..." It croaked.
"Kurama..." Naruto whispered. "Did... Did I-"
"No... no you didn't do this." The being croaked. "It was eventually going to happen..."
The boy looked into the beasts' eyes, hand resting on the beast's rough snout. "Nexus did this..." He replied, chest constricting at the thought.
Kurama snorted. "Nexus? Clever name."
Naruto blinked. "I don't understand. What do you mean?"
The Biju ignored his words, eyes warming as it looked into his. "You're eyes - stunning."
"What are you talking about, Kurama? What's going on?"
"Come on... Nexus means a connection of two or more things, the central most important aspect..."
"Of what?"
"Everything..." It coughed.
Naruto looked into the being's eyes. "So." He ran his hands through its tuft of hair. The dream was real. Don't say anything, just grunt if I'm correct."
It grunted.
"That being, Nexus, is real."
Another grunt.
"He promised me power, something that would allow me... to win, something that would achieve my ambition to be great. And you're saying that the power he gave me is connected with his name, which is why it's clever. It's a power that connects everything." Naruto finished, passing in thought. "What else?"
The being gave a wry smile. With a tired sigh it whispered a word, one single word that reverberated through Naruto's core. "Flash..."
Shivering in both shock and excitement, the blonde whispered, "The yellow flash. The same man who created a jutsu where he manipulated space and time to his will... the same man who's face resides on the mountain. The man who turned around the war against Iwa... my dad."
Another grunt.
Naruto remembered the images of the Nexus. He remembered the sight of the cosmos, the being's ability to melt away into the air... and now his eyes. "Are you saying I can manipulate space and time?"
The words leaving his lips were atrocious, absolutely mind-boggling.
Another grunt.
"But... I can't use chakra! That shouldn't be possible. I mean, look at me." The blonde gestured to himself. "I can't even make a clone. I can't even... I can't even read, I've been inadequate all my life, and just out of the blue, in one night, I have a dream, you're dying, and I can manipulate space and time because of a random..." Naruto paused "Ghoul? Where the hell is he anyways? I mean, are you just screwing with me? Is this just some elaborate hoax? Is this a stupid dream?"
"Naruto..." The beast croaked.
The boy stopped, chest heaving and breath heavy. "I'm...Sorry. "This..." He shook his head. "This is just crazy."
"Naruto..." Kurama whispered.
The boy looked into the beast's eyes. "What...?"
"Goodbye..." With a deep shudder, the beast collapsed, eyes losing their light. The body began to stiffen, turning into the stone. It spread quickly, leaving a giant statue before the blonde.
Naruto reached out and hesitantly touched it. The soft touch created cracks. The webs of creases spread as the stone shifted and heaved. Then it tumbled, giant stone breaking into dust.
The nine-tailed fox was a pile of rubble on the floor.
With a gasp, Naruto's eyes snapped open to the bright rays of the morning sun.
The youth had felt many things in his life: pain, sadness, regret, but now he felt a sensation that slowly surged in his heart. Emptiness.
He opened his mouth, but no words came out, just a sob. "Dammit..." Naruto cursed. "This isn't a dream."
It sounded silly, but the realization was so real. Heavy, would be the right term.
You must never give up, and you must never look back. Because if you don't move forward...
The thought popped into his mind, its weight suddenly sounding a gong within his mind. "We'll have nothing..." The blonde whispered. He chuckled.
It was weird. That fox would always berate him, engage him in banter. It's words were crude and harsh. Yet, those moments, those infuriating back-and-forths were the most precious moments of Naruto's life.
"Dammit... this is so hard." Tears welled in Naruto's eyes. "Why the hell do I care about a giant fur ball anyways?" The words were forced.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. The blonde turned his head, looking into those white voids of mystery. Nexus was sitting on his bed, head drooped in sadness as well.
The blonde wanted to punch the being in the face, but an unspoken message lingered in the air. The being looked into the light of the sun, head lifted.
Yet, Naruto couldn't take it. "Why...?" The blonde strained. "Why'd you do it?"
The being stood, chest high and eyes determined.
I didn't. I just broke free from his control...
It held out its hand.
"Don't lie to me." Naruto spat, rage in his eyes. "You killed him." He swatted the being's hand. "You said all I would have to do is follow my dreams." Naruto stood up, staring into Nexus's defiant eyes.
The blonde saw a tinge of regret color the being's white voids.
It was only a matter of time.
Naruto stared forth, mind swirling. An impossible memory resurfaced, one that he didn't even know he had.
-------------------------------------------
The seven year old was bouncing with glee in his seat at the academy. While the other kids around him mingled, and chatted, he was lost in his visions and dreams. He imagined himself going toe-to-toe with the greatest combat specialists. He imagined undergoing deep covert operations, hiding within the shadows. The thoughts flowed into him like a river. He was one step closer to his dream.
Sooner or later the world would know his name: Naruto Uzumaki.
Suddenly, the room grew quiet when a door opened below. A man with spiky hair and a chunin vest walked in.
"Hello class! Sorry for running late!" He greeted, cheeks painted pink. Scurrying to the lone desk, he dropped a stack of papers in his hands. He then pulled a stack of textbooks from a box near the desk, handing each student a copy. With a stupid grin, Naruto snatched one out of the man's hand. He cracked the book open and flipped through the pages, eyes furrowing at the walls of texts.
This wasn't looking too good.
After handing out the books, the man returned to his desk and grabbed a sheet of paper from the pile. He called out names with rehearsed poise.
Finishing, he said,"My name is Iruka Umino, and I will be your instructor for the next five years. Those textbooks are all yours to keep, but will cost extra to replace. You'll be getting a new one every year, so if you're responsible, don't worry." He said firmly. "Today is going to be a brief overview of our time together the next five years. I'll also be answering any questions you may have, and after lunch we'll take a trip outside to the training grounds."
Naruto's eyes brightened, but a quick glance towards the clock caused him to groan inwardly. As Iruka delved into the different subjects they'd be covering, the blonde kept his nose in the book. His eyes traced over the various pictures of handseals and Taijutsu stances, occasionally skimming the text below the pictures if they were particularly interesting. They weren't though.
Time passed like this, Iruka gloriously gushed about the subject as a few students asked questions, until Naruto found a picture that spurred his hand in the air. It was a diagram of nine creatures, each unique and tailed.
"Yes, Naruto?" Iruka asked. The blue eyed youth held up his book and eagerly pointed to the picture that had caught his attention.
"What are these things?" Iruka raised an eyebrow.
"Can I get a page number?"
"Oh, yeah." Naruto squinting his eyebrows as he made out the symbols on the left hand corner. "Err, three... forty-six."
"I see." The man flipped to the page. "Ahh, thank you. I almost forgot to cover this." Iruka laughed. "Well, these are the Bijuu. Bijuu are going to be a very important topic throughout these five years, so I'll give a brief overview. The Bijuu are nine beings that are so powerful many refer to them as natural disasters. Each is the size of a small village, and one by itself has been proven to be destructive enough to wipe out miles of land at a time with their attacks. Each Bijuu has a peculiar ability over nature, of which they have complete and total control over. Some are traditional and tangible, while other are harder to grasp. The Ichibi, as you can see, deals in sand. The Nibi, on the other hand, deals with darkness. Part of the reason they're such big problems is that very control over their element. Bijuu also have the uncanny ability to flee into their element when threatened, so capturing them is almost impossible."
"My mom said the Kyuubi attacked the village seven years ago, but the Yondaime was able to kill it. How is that possible? Aren't they impervious to all jutsu?" A young girl with pink hair asked.
"I honestly don't know the details." Iruka explained solemnly. "The Yondaime was not your normal man, that is all I can say. I do have to correct you though. The Biju's power varies greatly. Some say its by tails, but there's little evidence besides the fact that the nine-tails is the strongest of them all."
"We'll be going over that and other things related to Bijuu in due time, but I think we covered enough for now. How does an early lunch sound?" A few mutterings of acceptance answered. Most of the children were quite scared by the new information. Naruto, meanwhile, quickly flipped through the pages in his textbook while the other kids gathered up their lunches and headed for the door, ignoring the various different Bijuu on display until he reached the ninth and final one.
An entire page had been taken up by the picture. An enormous, snarling fox with hateful crimson eyes and nine lashing tails crouched in the middle of what looked like the world. Beyond it was the galaxy, but distorted as if an artist had created it with broad strokes.
The blonde squinted his eyes, sounding out each word and taking it in.
Kyuubi no Kitsune. Bijuu of Space and Time.
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The boy stared at the cosmic being. "No way." He whispered. "...Why?" Naruto shook his head, wiping away the tears. "Why would a thousand year old creature sacrifice himself for me."
Nexus's eyes swirled with reverence.
Because he always believed in you. And, more importantly, because you were his best friend.
Naruto looked on, frozen in shock.
He saw someone, a person who helped guide him when he was young in you. He believed you were meant to be great, that you would have been great if it wasn't for him, so he tried to give you back your dreams. Will you live those dreams now...
It held out its hand once more.
Naruto?
The blonde gazed at the being with a raised brow. Then shaking his head, he took its hand, grinning in the light of the new day. "So, what can you do?"
I honestly have no clue.
Well, that was a problem. But, on the other hand, he always loved a challenge. He gave the being a thumbs up, and grinned his teeth so white in the sunlight they *pinged*.
Nexus blinked in amazement, as if it couldn't believe his optimism. And teeth. Most definitely the teeth.
Dental hygiene mother****er!
"Well looks like we have some work to do." Naruto cracked his knuckles.
The being's shook its head, before it eyes twinkled. You do know... this will be painful.
"I can handle it..."
Frustrating.
"Just summed up my life in one word."
Treacherous.
"Now you're just saying a bunch of similar words."
Fine, you understand. I can't guarantee you anything but this... it will be a fun.
Naruto paused, raising a brow. "I don't know what you mean by fun."
That's the fun.
The blonde snorted. "We'll train soon then." He stretched his arms. "I'm thinking..." He suddenly felt a surge through his body and an object in his hand. "Cereal?" Naruto blinked. He stared at the box of ninja-o's in his hand. "Holy..." He felt another surge and a carton of milk appeared in his other hand. "Cow..."
Naruto looked at the food, then at Nexus. "This is awesome."
Nexus made a gesture akin to a laugh. Indeed.
Chapter 4: Nightmare
The smell of dead flesh furrowed into her nostrils. Opening her eyes, she saw it—her village awash in flames. Her mouth dropped. People ran, screaming like chickens with their heads cut off, arms flailing and body's operating on instinct. Some collapsed, already lit ablaze, skin melting before the youth's horrified face. The girl directed her eyes forward, synapses snapping together. The world was ending, all because of the figure who stood in the center of the town. It was lean, and thin, but powerful and fierce, arms hanging loosely. It was a dark outline, almost a shadow of a man, but its skin was a portrait of the cosmos.
If not for the canvas of a burning inferno surrounding her, the young girl would have admired the cosmic being. But its eyes, bottomless and white, twinkled with a sickening joy. They surveyed the scene, admiring the artwork it had painted with its wet, bloody hands. Then, with a sickening squelch, its head turned towards her. She blinked. It was in front of her. She stepped back. Wet fingers wrapped around her throat.
She gasped, neck closing as her form was lifted into the air. The figure's eyes twinkled with malevolent glee.
Isn't this fun?
It pulled an arm back, the air distorting around the hand. Thin, yet heavy black-grey strings flowed from its palm, wrapping into a vortex. It swirled, compressing into a cackling marble of death.
Wait, marbles cackled?
The being snapped its arm forth, hand whipping toward her, ripping the air in a sonic boom.
Mere millimeters from her nose the attack ceased, evaporating into specks. The figure dropped her, collapsing on its knees. It shook and trembled, staring at her. Voids of white had been replaced with cosmic eyes filled of doubt. Star-laden skin had been replaced with a young blonde boy clad in orange.
He gasped, staring at his blood covered hands. His eyes trembled. Tears flowed out. He sobbed, gazing at her once more, lips whispering, "Help me..."
Yugito Nii's eyes snapped open to a void of darkness. She stood, sweating and chest heaving, gasping for breath. She never had a dream, a vision of the future. At least, never one so clear. Momentarily, the fifteen year old hugged herself, reminding herself of the vision's falsehood. Yet, she couldn't. Her body trembled, her breath quaked, and the lingering gaze of that creature's gaze hung in her mind.
It was weird for the girl. She had become a weapon for her village, deployed for assassinations, widespread slaughter of innocents. Numerous times her life had been endangered. Numerous times she had faced enemies that made her skin crawl, disgusting sacks of flesh.
Yet none were as horrific as those creature's eyes.
If only she could forget, but that voice:
Help me...
It was young and helpless, around her age. Yugito didn't know why, but there was something familiar in that voice, a certain commonality that touched her desensitized heart.
The girl pondered for a few moments, catching her breath, gazing forward into the endless void of black, the place within the seal. "You can come out now Matatabi..."
Suddenly, a candle ten meters to her right became lit in a soft blue flame. The fire cackled, splitting and lighting the candles to its right and left. Slowly, a massive circle of candles began to light, and the giant, yet damp room came into view.
Finally, the last candle lit, leaving a circle of illuminating flames.
Yugito sighed, rolling her eyes. "So dramatic."
The flames double in size, streams of fire shooting out and collecting above the girl. A giant orb of fire formed, becoming fifty meters in size before dropping down before the girl. It slowly 'hissed', forming a massive cat of black and blue fire. It sat proudly and solemnly, looking at Yugito with mismatched green and yellow eyes, two tails calmly waving behind.
Before the girl was the two-tailed cat of darkness and spirits, the Nibi no Nekomata.
"Hello young one." It's soft feminine voice lingered.
"That dream was a vision." Yugito stated, arms crossed.
"Correct."
"What does it mean?"
The Biju's gaze became downcast. It gave a tired sigh. "My brother, the nine-tails, has died. His presence has vanished."
Yugito's eyes widened, brows slanting upward. "H-how can a Biju die?"
The feline crouched down, staring into the girl's eyes. "If we sacrifice our connection to our element, our chakra will disperse, and then our abilities will be passed on to another..."
"But?"
"Sometimes our own element can consume us if we're not careful. They have a mind of their own, you see. We Biju merely serve as a conduit, as a funnel for their power. You've heard the rumors of Shukaku, correct?" Yugito nodded. "It can be far worse. Kurama was devoured by his, most likely. His existence was wiped out. His power, his connection was to the realm of space and time, the very thing that makes us who we are, our perception of what's around us, what's going on."
"And now that boy has that power."
"The potential, yes. The child won't have access to all of it. Not yet. However, what little is there is not to be trifled with. What little is there can consume him... the power probably may have taken on an entire persona. Though the exact details of its manifestation I am unsure. But one thing is for sure..."
Yugito just gazed at the creature for a few moments, whispering, "What?"
Matatabi crouched low, meeting Yugito's eyes. "I am scared."
The teen clenched her fists, steeling herself. "What do you need me to do?"
The creature sat upright, eyes full of quiet urgency. "Save that boy."
----------------------------
Naruto sat the table munching on his favorite brand of ninja-o's. Nexus was standing above him, staring at the cereal. The being had been doing this for fifteen minutes.
The blonde looked up, slightly miffed. "Can't I enjoy my cereal in peace?"
This is your tenth bowl.
"Well, I'm a cereal killer!" The cosmic eyed boy grinned, giving a thumbs-up.
Nexus just stared, unamused.
The two remained that way for thirty seconds.
No.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'll only have two more."
You're lying. You ate twenty-five yesterday.
Naruto raised his palms in defense. "Caught me red-handed."
Your hands are white. Do you think I'm stupid?
"It's an expression..."
I know what it is. I'm in your head.
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Speaking of that, why aren't you IN my head right now. I need some sleep."
I am.
"No, you aren't."
I am. I'm just projecting my presence to the point I'm real to you.
"Yeah that. Stop it."
No.
"God, why are you so anxious today?"
Because you aren't moving forward.
"I trained twenty hours yesterday, NOT including food breaks. Seriously..." Naruto yawned. "I'm tired."
Excuses to avoid the next step.
The blonde suddenly became quiet, eyes downcast.
-----------------------------------
Naruto remembered that day. How could he not? The dusk's presence, blissful orange warmth, breathed silence to the village. It was supposed to be an end to people's drudgery. Yet, it was the spark for Naruto's burning ambition.
He was seven, grinning and buoyant, staring at a black haired boy clad in blue, Sasuke Uchiha.
They stood ten meters apart, Iruka Umino between them, the class surrounding them, all filled with quiet anticipation.
The Chunin began, breaking the silence. "Now you two, I want a clean match. The first one to fall down loses. Is that clear?"
Naruto nodded cockily. "Yep!"
Sasuke remained silent.
"All right? Begin." He backed away. Naruto sprung forth covering the distance in three seconds. He whipped forth a punch. Sasuke side-stepped, holding his leg out. The blonde's eyes widened as he tripped. He held his hands out to stop his fall.
"Guh." Naruto grunted as Sasuke 's elbow smashed his back, pounding him into the ground.
"Winner, Sasuke!" Iruka claimed. The class began whispering amongst themselves.
Five seconds and the blonde had lost. The ache from the blow lingered, but the words from his classmates pierced.
"Wow, what a loser!"
"I think that's a record beat down."
"He's so stupid."
"Like an idiot will be Hokage…"
Iruka turned his heads towards the class. "Students." His voice held an icy edge.
The class became quiet. Naruto groaned and stood up, dusting himself off. Iruka gave the blonde a thin, but encouraging smile before regaining composure.
"Now, acknowledge one another."
The boys faced each other. Sasuke stared forth, eyes cold, but Naruto looked away.
He had wanted to win. At least, he wanted to prove himself. Sasuke was cool, calm, and quiet. All he did was be better than everyone else, and it earned him so much adoration.
Naruto wanted that. No, the blonde yearned for that. Yet, he just deepened people's opinions of him. For a moment he glanced at the class. Most of them, especially the girls, gazed at Sasuke with childish admiration, while the few who looked at him glared.
His heart sank. Yet, the blonde held his head up high, flashing his teeth and wrinkling his eyes.
"Thank you for the match." He held out his hand. The Uchiha took it, and blue eyes met black.
Naruto almost stiffened. They were cold, flowing with hatred, looking through him at an unknown figure beyond.
"Hn." Sasuke responded.
The class was dismissed and Naruto found himself walking home, dusk turning to night.
But then he stopped mid-road, eyes towards the starry sky, clenching his fist.
People told him he would never achieve his dreams. He didn't come from a revered clan, he wasn't particularly smart, and he didn't have a gift from god.
He was a loser, he could never achieve the impossible. He could never build castles in the sky.
But he didn't care. As far as he was concerned, all that mattered was the will to succeed. He would prove them wrong.
The blonde boy ran, legs propelling him forward. His footsteps resounded throughout the quiet street. Seconds and minutes bled away in wake of his inspiration and fervor. Panting and sweating, he came upon a wooden door of an apartment complex.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
A few moments and then a voice. "Who is it?"
"Your friendly neighborhood—come on, Sasuke! I know you're looking through that that peephole!"
The Uchiha opened the door with a raised brow. "What do you want…?"
The blonde's cerulean orbs burned. "I'm gonna beat you one day."
Sasuke's face was cold, eyes still full of hate, but intrigued. "Why?"
Naruto wiped sweat off his brow. "Because everyone loves you. Everyone admires who you are…" The blonde's eyes became defiant. "And after our match, you were looking through me. You think I'm beneath you. But you know what?" The blonde raised his head high, chest puffed out. "I just realized something. You see the old man's probably gonna die by the time I graduate. So there's no chance I'm gonna be the Godaime. But I can still be the Rokudaime, and guess who my top contender is? The person who is loved by everyone, the person who is unequivocally the best—you!" The blonde stated, staring into the Uchiha's eyes. "If I'm ever going to reach my dream, it's going to only be if I beat you, and I need to do this for me. You can't be offered, decline, then hand the sloppy seconds to me, got it? I'm going to be better than you by the time we both graduate. It's going to happen." The blonde pointed at his new rival. "Believe it."
For a moment, onyx eyes stared into cerulean blue. Each stood still, until the Uchiha said, "Looking forward to it." His hate filled stare cracked with reluctant amusement. For the first time in nearly six months, the boy gave a smile.
Naruto stood shocked. "Wait, really? Are my ears clogged or something? No, 'idiot'? No, 'you can't touch me'?"
The Uchiha's face morphed into a disgruntled frown. "Naruto, go to bed." He shut the door.
The blonde blinked. "I'll take it!" He laughed.
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A small smile graced Naruto's features. He had been so close to matching the Uchiha two years ago. Everything, even on the written portion, he rivaled him, even outmatched him. He could hit the same targets, trade the same blows, do the same jutsu… but the incident happened.
The blonde rubbed his arms, thoughts swirling in his head.
Giant flames… eyes screaming… He still remembered as his skin was seared away.
It was a flash, but Naruto saw it. Pain, but more specifically—fear streaked across the Nexus's eyes. Yet, it held Naruto's gaze, eyes swirling with determination, wiping the thought from his mind.
Are you ready?
The blonde clenched his fists. "You know the answer." Nexus's eyes twinkled.
Well, let's get going.
"Actually, I need to sleep..."
I do not—
*Smash*
The blonde suddenly collapsed on the table, snoring lightly, bowl of cereal flipped onto his head. Milk and ninja-o's caked his whiskered face.
Nexus stared. I could make a joke about cereal killers, but I won't.
---------------------------
It was the afternoon at training field seven. There was not a cloud in the sky. All was quiet except for a lone boy pounding into a log.
*Thwap* *Thwap*
The raven-haired youth let out a grunt, continuing his daily routine, practicing his form.
"Hey, butt-face!"
Then the boy stopped, turning his head towards his blonde rival, who stood ten meters away. "Butt-face? Really?" Sasuke sighed.
Naruto just stared forth, adorning sunglasses.
The Uchiha's face darkened. "What's with the get up?" He called.
The blonde was silent.
"Hmph." The Uchiha raised his nose in the air. "Just go home, Naruto. You can't even touch me." He raised his hand to pound into the log.
*Thwap*
Sasuke tumbled backwards onto the ground. He blinked. He cupped his swelling cheek. With furrowed eyes, the Uchiha slowly stood, gazing at the blonde boy two feet before him.
"Well..." Naruto flashed a smile. "I never thought you to be a liar, Sasuke."
The Uchiha blinked for a few moments. His brain buzzed, trying to process the scene before him. He had turned away for a second, and Naruto had punched him.
Thirty feet crossed in a flash.
'Impossible...' He had felt no rustle. There was no whirl in the wind. He had just... appeared. No, that couldn't be it. He must've dozed off. Yeah, that could be the only explanation.
Sasuke grunted, dusting himself off. "Lucky shot."
"Luck?" The blonde settled into a stance, legs firm and shoulders squared. "Or skill?" He beckoned Sasuke forward.
------------------------------------
Hinata watched from afar, form hidden by a grand oak. She had seen Naruto pass by, wearing those shades. Curiosity had drawn her to follow, to understand the simple change of attire.
She had activated her Byakugan so she could understand, but it had only served to confuse. She saw Sasuke standing, chakra flowing throughout his network, but it was the boy across her that chilled her core.
Naruto's energy had morphed. Underneath his skin used to be a bright blue ember, scattered throughout his broken network of coils, just wisps of power that could not form. Now the ember had ignited white hot inferno that shifted and swirled, cackling with raw might.
There was no system, no complicated pathway, just pure energy that...flowed.
At first the girl thought it was a different person. Nothing could cause Naruto's system to change into... that. Yet, it was him: the goofy grin, the twitching fingers, the puffed out chest. It was her Naruto, the person she had admired all along.
For the first time in years, the girl saw a light shine in the boy's eyes, happiness. He stood ten meters from Sasuke, challenging him with burning defiance. Then he became quiet, staring at the Uchiha with unbounded mirth, trembling in excitement.
Sasuke had turned to pound on a log, ignoring Naruto's proclamation.
Then something...miraculous happened. The burning flame inside Naruto roared as he held out a hand. It rushed out, swirling into a sphere that grabbed and bent the air around it. Naruto's form shifted, image distorting into fluorescent light, swirling into the sphere. It vanished.
Then the cackling sphere appeared like a flame next to the Uchiha. Naruto appeared in a flash of orange, fist cocked back. He thrust it forward.
*Thwap*
The Uchiha was blown away.
It had all happened in a second. Hinata was left a shaken mess.
Naruto had changed. Either that, or he had struck a deal with a demon.
-----------------------------------
"Hm." Sasuke channeled chakra to his legs, blasting forth, arm cocked back.
"Guh." The Uchiha spat. Naruto had closed the distance, appearing in an orange flash, smashing his forearm into Sasuke neck. The Uchiha's brain crashed, and his legs glided into the air. Naruto smashed his fist into Sasuke' gut. He was blasted into the ground, back cracking.
The blonde stood, grinning like a madman. "Haha, three seconds!"
The Uchiha was left blinking, body aching. "What?"
"I finally beat you." Naruto claimed. The tables had not just turned, but flipped. Same situation, role completely reversed, a miracle.
Sasuke glared, fists clenched. "How?"
"Skill." The blonde just continued smiling, holding out his hand to help him up. Sasuke slapped it away.
"Give me a real answer."
Naruto's mirth melted into pity. "Don't worry about it..."
Sasuke ignored the Naruto's words, focusing on the bead of sweat that trailed his cheek. "You're limited."
The blonde frowned. "What do you mean?"
Sasuke stood up, eyes glaring. "Fight me again!"
Naruto raised an amused brow. Sasuke blinked. The blonde was fifteen feet away in an instant. Sasuke had already begun running.
The sunglasses-wearing youth appeared in an orange flash, fist cocked back. Sasuke dove, ducking under his fist, turning on his toe with his leg revved up. Naruto had already shot out his Sandaled foot.
"Oof." Sasuke's chest caved in. He was blown back, skidding across the floor.
"Slow." Naruto grinned, stretching his neck.
"Damn it." the Uchiha growled, rubbing his sore chest. He flipped onto his feet, fingering his weapon pouch.
"Now you're serious!" The sunglasses-wearing boy laughed. "Let's go!"
The Uchiha had already unleashed a flurry of shuriken. They 'wshed' through the air, already inches away from the blonde. Naruto had disappeared. They sailed through thin air.
Sasuke felt a poke on his neck. "Behind you." The Uchiha turned around, hands finishing a seal, cheeks puffed out.
"Crap." Naruto's eyes widened as he held his hand out. Sasuke parsed his lips, tongues of flames spewing out. They stopped short of Naruto's hand, swirling into the air.
Then everything started to slow for Sasuke as his heart became gripped in fear. Naruto held out his other hand below Sasuke's chin. The flames roared into existence, blasting from below. The Uchiha pulled back, collapsing on his butt, eyes wide. His shirt had been singed, and his face was scorched.
The blonde was smiling. "Y...yeah." He panted, sweat caking his face. "That's right."
Sasuke didn't understand what the blonde did. He was left staring at the earth, mind racing. "H-how?" Sasuke gazed at Naruto.
The blonde just stared at Sasuke's eyes, face blank. Instead of waiting, the Uchiha flipped onto his feet again, rushing the blonde. "Answer me!"
Naruto wasn't processing the scene before him. He was just staring at Sasuke's eyes, red orbs that each swirled with a single black comma.
Sasuke was five feet away. The blonde felt pain shoot through his mind.
Four feet. Naruto saw flashes of fire.
Three feet. The blonde felt his entire body blasting apart by a concussive force, flames overtaking his skin.
Two feet. He remembered a figure clad in the stars, hand grabbing his throat, throwing him into a void.
One foot. Then he saw it, the man's eyes. One was red, like Sasuke's, the other purple, like a god's.
Sasuke had cocked his fist back. Naruto felt dizzy, fear surging through his skin. Sasuke smashed Naruto's face, he flew, glasses cracked and thrown into the air.
"You are destined to die..." A voice rang throughout the blonde's head, gruff and deep. He just collapsed on the floor, struggling to get up, sweat dripping from his face.
"Looks like your out of power, huh?" Naruto trembled, looking into the Sasuke's eyes. Instead of the Uchiha stood his shadow, one who was a shadow, with skin that reflected the cosmos. It stared back at him, one eyes a fully formed Sharingan, the other a purple orb with concentric circles encompassing the pupil.
The eyes gazed at him with hate, disgust, and remorse. He would have been even more afraid if it wasn't for the purple flames that enshrouded his form.
The figure blinked. "Your eyes?" Cosmic orbs stared back into crimson pools.
Naruto shook his head, gazing at Sasuke's form. The Uchiha was normal once more, brow raised in wonder.
For a moment, the boy saw a glimpse of a vision, one that he had never remembered. "Yeah?" He uttered.
Sasuke frowned. "Answer me. What happened to your eyes?"
"Oh..." The blonde dusted himself off. "I don't know."
Sasuke frowned. "You're lying."
Naruto refused to meet the Uchiha's gaze. "I need to go, Sasuke." He turned away, stuffing his trembling hands into his pockets.
Sasuke stared at the boy's back. "Are you walking away from me!?"
The blonde didn't answer, body shaken, and burning with a quiet rage. "I'll see you later, Sasuke."
"You don't just challenge me, use weird powers, and walk away, Naruto." Sasuke growled. "What happened to you?"
Naruto remained quiet as he continued walking.
"Answer me!" He ran, reaching for the blonde. "What's-"
"Shut it!"
The boy had grasped his arm, nearly crushing it. Sasuke stared in horror. The boy before him had change in an instant. Tan skin had been replaced with black pools swimming with stars, blonde hair had shifted to navy blue constellations, and cosmic eyes had vanished into voids of white.
What spooked the Uchiha even more was the lack of a mouth. It was a eternal voice that drifted into his mind. It was young and naive, but full of pain and rage, spanning further than he could comprehend.
The eyes sized his soul, threatening to engulf him. "We'll talk later." The Uchiha felt his arm crumble. "Got it?" Sasuke gulped, nodding slowly. Naruto let go of his the boy's bruised arm, form shifting to the norm as he shook his head.
"Good." The blonde was trembling, shaking in confusion. "I'll leave." He turned and ran.
Sasuke trembled in shock. His entire ideology, his entire belief about who Naruto was, what he did had shattered. It was clear, Naruto didn't even come close to running out of power. He had barely scratched it.
Yet, Sasuke also understood, even as his skin crawled. There was no doubt. That new ability Naruto had obtained, that power, was too much for him. It would devour him.
Whatever Naruto had wasn't a miracle, but a nightmare.
Hinata watched the retreating boy's form, trembling with fear. "Naruto..." She whispered. "Please be okay..."
---------------------------------------------
Naruto had walked home that afternoon, body trembling, shaking with fear, confusion, and exhaustion. He opened the door, shutting it exasperatedly. "Nexus..."
The cosmic being appeared to his right. You seem stressed...
Naruto threw his jacket to the side, walking to his bed. "What... was that?" That vision of that figure, that ghoul in purple flames.
The figure froze, eyes swimming with doubt. I... don't know.
"Don't... know?" Naruto growled, trudging towards his bed. "What do you mean? That thing looked like you?"
Naruto clutched his head. That vision caused his entire body to ache, as if he was consumed my flames. "That night..."
Nexus followed the blonde. That night... It echoed.
Naruto collapsed on his bed. Mind and body tense. Nexus stood gazing at the blonde with pain.
That man...
Naruto's mind made the connection as he shook his head. "He was there..." Naruto ran a hand over his heart. "That man.."
He remembered being enshrouded in yellow light, staring at the stumps that used to be his arms.
The man stood across, holding both limbs in a skeletal hand of purple flames.
Nexus and Naruto stared at one another, eyes widening in unison.
That man with the red and purple eyes.
Naruto was shaking, caked in cold sweat. "The person who killed my parents..."
The person who took away your chakra...
"The person who ruined my life..." Naruto whispered.
He remembered when Kurama spoke about a being, a figure of greater power than he could ever imagine, a person who had controlled its own mind.
"Why... why do I remember now?"
Nexus stared at Naruto once more, hands on his shoulder. "Memories that were unlocked..."
"Possibly..." Naruto groaned as another tinge of pain stabbed his mind.
Naruto glanced at his hands. White energy seeped from his fingers, funneling into a sphere that distorted the scene before him. "All I can do... is create portals." And each time the power he used wore down his body.
He could only create ten portals consecutively. Then he needed to rest for at least an hour.
Yet, that man... had no limit. The power Naruto had now wasn't even a fraction. "I could barely even beat Sasuke... I've still got a long way to go."
Nexus's eyes swirled with anticipation. "But will you still walk forward?"
Naruto licked his dry lips. "I'll try... this is just so sudden. So heavy." His words were breathless.
Understandable. Do what you feel is right. The being disappeared in a swirl of black and white.
Naruto gazed at the wall, glancing at the sun out the window. "I hope I'm not over my head." He lay down, eyes toward the ceiling. "Damn it..." he glanced at the textbooks to his side, giving out a sigh. "I need to study."
The blonde threw himself into the work. Seconds, minutes, and hours all blurred. His restless drive drove forward. He went over past notes, eyes widening as a discovery dawned upon him.
"I can read..." he whispered, tears trailing his cheeks. Naruto trembled as the realization sunk in. "Wh...what's been going on?"
Nobody answered, not even the being inside his consciousness.
Chapter 5: The Orange Flash
Chapter 5: The Orange Flash
A splurge of cold water smacked Naruto's face. His eyes snapped open, blinking as pain lingered throughout his form.
"What's going on?" As the words left his lips, Naruto couldn't help but gasp. His face ached, and his nose burned, groaning from the slightest breath.
"That's what I would like to know, Mr. Uzumaki."
The blonde's senses began to snap together. He realized where he was, but not why. The room stood, small and dark, the only source of life besides himself illuminated in a trench coat from the lone light above.
"Who are you?"
The scarred man grunted. "Your enemy."
The blonde's heart began to rise, jolted from the bite of the man's words. "Why?"
Silence met the boy's words. He noticed the man raise a brow, studying his face. "You... don't know." He sighed, cupping his head. "I thought the villagers were just paranoid people, you know? But, it turns out they're right."
The words struck like daggers at his chest. His heart struggled to pump. "You're just like them." he growled, reaching for the power within. Nothing came.
"Nice try kid, this chamber is littered with chakra suppression seals, not even a beast like you can break out. Heck, I'd be surprised if all the Biju together could break out."
"Yeah, yeah." Naruto snorted. "because I'm a Biju, right?" It wasn't the word that bothered him, but the connotation. A natural force of unstoppable destruction.
He snorted. "No, kid, I don't believe you're a Biju. You're something far worse."
Naruto eyes widened as he grit his teeth. "Explain."
"You're not human..."
"Che, you're just repeating yourse-" Naruto stopped as a fist connected with his cheek.
"I don't like to be interrupted by murderers, kid."
The boy breathed hard, mind ringing at the words. "M-Murderer?"
A sigh met his shock. "A clinically insane one."
"This is just a circular conversation." he grunted. His eyes glowed, nostrils flaring, muscle tensing. "You don't believe anything I say, right? You'll just keep on wailing on me until you get what you want. Geez, I don't know anything, okay? Why don't you just get a Yamanaka to search my mind already?"
The man raised a brow, pausing before saying, "You killed the one that tried."
Like a hammer to glass, the man's words broke Naruto apart on contact. His words may have been heavy, and his certainty chilling, but his caring, heartbroken tone is what drove the knife into the boy's chest.
Naruto froze. "What?" he felt a bomb had been armed.
The man sighed as his deep voice continued. "You also killed Umino Iruka..."
Tick.
His heart clenched.
"Shiohin Mizuki..."
Tick.
His ears rung, the words spinning, warping his mind.
"The Ichirakus..."
Tick.
The words began to slow, as if time began to warp and stretch. Naruto ceased to be aware of where he was, only what he heard and felt.
"Every single person..."
Tick.
Naruto couldn't breathe, his heart tightened. He wriggled, shaking. Air ceased to flow. What was going on? He stared at the man, unable to process. The hulking figure wasn't looking at him, but through him, as if unable to acknowledge his horrid life.
"...in your Apartment complex..."
Naruto's fists balled, winding tight like steel. Nails dug in, tearing flesh as blood flowed. His chest threatened to explode.
Tick.
"NO!" His vision had blurred, blinded by white. "No...NO!"
He saw a knife in Iruka's chest, ribcage ripped open in a canvas of gore.
However, the words that left his lips during the moment were what deepened the knife into his chest.
"You were a waste of a teacher..."
Tick.
He saw his arm, covered in gore thrust through Mizuki's chest.
The man stared back through horror-stricken eyes. The words that left his lips twisted the knife in his chest.
"M...Monster."
Tick.
He walked towards Ayame in a burning building, smog filling his lungs while he kicked away Teuchi's burnt, crisp form.
Ayame's burnt and ruined body made the knife yank out, splattering his innards, his reality apart..
"Why...?" she said. He ripped her head off with a wave of his hand.
Boom.
He felt it. Power, endless and deep, flowed through him.
White light encased him, and the air around him began to shift as he floated. The power blazed, burning with heat as it covered him in its light. His hair stood on end. He became a human star, bright as the sun itself. His features became indistinguishable from the mass of brilliance.
Time returned to normal and the man rocketed back from the onslaught of power.
"Dear God!" He gasped, throwing a gloved hand into a seal.
Naruto saw an array of black seals that layered every nook and cranny of the room. They glowed blue. Heavenly chakra chains shot out, latching onto his chair-bound form.
They dug into his skin, which cracked like glass. Spider web marking branched across his form. Pieces of broken flesh began to fly off, revealing an endless sea of orange light, brimming with endless rage.
Naruto roared. An explosion of orange light surged forth.
"What's going-!" The light washed over him, and Naruto saw his form erudite as he screamed, before his voice dies and his body crumbles into ash, bones clattering on the floor.
Naruto felt tears stain his cheeks, gazing at the man's bones. His eyes scanned over the pile as they clanged on the ground. He didn't realize that the human body carried so many. He almost gagged, especially at the smell of burnt earth and flesh, making his eyes widen further at the the scene around.
The room boiled, molten rocks glowing orange and radiating heat, as if cooked in lava. Naruto gazed at his form. He ceased to even have a body, just a mass of human-shaped...light. Orange-blue light. A quasar. He cringed.
He wasn't even human anymore. The villagers were right. Everyone was right.
The onslaught began.
"The hell..." His eyes widened. A scream erupted from his throat. The light cooked him from the outside, and the power threatened to explode from within. He felt like an egg boiled in a stove.
He needed to release this power. It would consume him, devour him if he didn't let it out. He looked up at the roof.
The thoughts flowed and the action followed. He willed it and an intense air smashed into the wall. It blew apart. Stone toppled down. The light encased him, breaking the rocks on contact as he flew through feet, meters, miles of earth in a burst of orange brilliance.
However, Naruto couldn't breathe. The power burned his diaphragm, cooking his lungs from the inside. Seconds seemed to turn to minutes, every moment threatening to suffocate him as he struggled for air while fighting through the earth.
"I'm gonna die..." He thought. He felt the last of his strength leave his limbs as he ceased to fly, pausing in mid-flight. "Dammit..." He fell, form smacking against the earth, breaking his bones, tearing through what was left of his skin. He watched bits of his broken body drift above burning to ash from the power.
At that moment, Naruto didn't feel pain. No, every nerve cell in his body had already been burnt to a crisp. Instead, he felt regret. He had ceased to survive for his best friend. He had ceased to move forward in his memory.
They say at death a person's life flashes before their eyes. For Naruto it was different. His mind raced to a single cherished moment.
----------------------------------
(Three Years Ago)
The village of Konoha quieted down, the usual life and joy of the area leaving as it surrendered to the beauty of the sunset, it's red-orange glow seeming to soothe everything within its bask.
However, a young boy sat on top of the homage monument, eyes distant and lost. He watched the adults gather their kids, some laughing, some scolding, but more than that...
Everyone had each other.
The boy sighed.
For a while, Naruto stared at the ceiling, settling into a sense of longing and desire that intwined his heart. "If only I could use chakra." He gave a dull smile. "I would be the most badass person this side of fire country." He grinned as images of grandeur swirled in his head. "I would have graduated two years ago, made some nice friends, and maybe..." His smiled drooped.
He watched a father carry his toddler on his shoulder. "Just maybe become somebody worth dying for." He laughed. "Then maybe they would write my name in the history books!" His eyes darted down towards the Hokage's heads. He held out his hand, as if going over the name. "Naruto Uzumaki, man of the hour." He chuckled as he stood up. "The man who would not relent." He began to imagine, dreaming of his soon-to-be accomplishments. "Graduated from the academy at age ten, Chunin at age twelve, Jonin at age fourteen." He pumped his fist in the air, admiring the setting sun. "And age sixteen, I would be in the bingo book. They would call me..." He paused, looking for a name, before holding his hands out for emphasis. "The Orange Flash." He grinned. "Then..." His grin grew threatening to split his face. "In the caption, underneath my picture, it would say "beware, beware, the blonde hair'." He laughed. "Nah, that'd be too cheesy. I need something awesome, something spectacular...something... awesometacular." He pumped his fist in the air, thinking of something equivalent to his greatness. However, before he could finish his thought, his rudely awakened (and quite peeved) comrade interrupted.
"Naruto, shut the hell up!"
The blonde snorted, the smile of reverence still reaching across his face. "Oh hey Kurama! Do you like watching the sunset and thinking about life too?"
He heard a grunt. "It doesn't fit you."
The blonde chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes."
"Seriously, you're not the philosophical type."
The boy paused, face becoming solemn. "That's true, but if anything. At the very least... I think I need to slow down." Naruto let the words hang in the air, reveling in the silence until the fox spoke with a softer voice.
"What do you mean?"
"The truth is, I don't know what's going to happen to me. All I have are my dreams, but every day that passes by, every time I get knocked down, the road towards them just seems so... long. So long, hard, and relentless. I'm always just running around, trying to cover up my fear, trying to ignore what everyone says, but..." Naruto sniffed as a tear slid down his cheek. ""It's hard. So... so hard. I'm not even sure if at the end of the day it'll make me happy. That's all I want really, to be happy, to have friends to be around with... to just feel glad about who I am, you know?" The blonde's thoughts hid the mess of mucus and tears smudging his cheeks and lips. If he had to talk, he wouldn't be able to keep it together.
In response, the beast remained quiet. Then with a sigh, it spoke, "Would you like to ask me anything, Naruto?"
The boy's sobs began to quiet, whilst he wiped away his nose, rubbing the mucus on the floor. "What's..." He paused as he searched for the right words. "What's it like for you to have so much chakra? How do you control it... what keeps you pushing through all these days? I mean, it must be lonely inside there, right?"
The child could tell the great beast was taken aback. "Surprisingly, the answer is the same for both. The days are endless, and the power is bottomless. If I don't focus I can lose myself in the midst of both. It's the same for everyone, child, not just you. We all have doubts, even me. But I digress. The only thing that keeps me whole is an anchor."
"What's an anchor?"
"A desire, a feeling, a belief, a dream. Anything, really. I just focus on what defines who I am, and then I let that drive me. It keeps me focused, sane, even if misdirected. But at the very least, it keeps me moving forward, even when everything around me stays the same. For you, Naruto, it's your dreams. Even if misdirected, don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Even me."
"Wait, what do you mean even you?"
"It's my job to patronize you, idiot. It'd be awfully boring if the only semblance of light in my life for the next fifty years wallowed in the darkness. I am darkness. That's my job. Let me wallow for you. Okay?"
The boy blinked, heart thumping as the fox's words slowly sank. "What are you saying?"
"God, you're a thick-headed kid. What I'm saying boy is that I'll always be there for you. It's never lonely for me because you're waking me up everyday, as whiny and stupid as you are. You're there. You're all I have. I'm all you have. Got it?"
Naruto cried again, tears streaming down. "G..." he sobbed. "Got it." he said.
"Now, don't ever mention this moment, okay? Or, I'll eat you."
The blonde boy wiped his eyes letting a small smile grace his lips. "Thanks Kurama."
The fox snorted. "For what?"
The boy admired the setting sun once more. "...Nothing. Don't worry about it."
Even though the fox would never admit it, Naruto could tell it smiled.
---------------------------------------
The words rang inside Naruto's mind as his body slowly burned away.
Anchor...
Kurama the greatest being of power in the five countries, said the only thing that held him down was his anchor. Naruto needed to use that. He needed to move forward, he needed to hold on to his dreams.
The boy grunted his wish as the power slowly consumed him, will igniting through the pain. "I want to live for my dreams." he gasped. "I want to live for my dreams..." That's when Naruto saw it. Through the momentous energy he felt something greater, grander, the source of this power. Something so big, grand that it wasn't apart of him. No, he was apart of it. Everything was apart of it. Through his mind, he could see a scar of orange electricity, brimming with more chakra than he could fathom. It beckoned him, calling for him to reach for it, to drop his anchor through it.
His eyes glowed with orange electricity. "I want to live!" he roared it out, his entire body blazing with an orange light. He was no longer him. He was something greater, something more than chakra. A source. The source of everything.
With another roar, his skin blasted apart and he blasted forth, ripping through the stone like katana through hot butter. In mere moments he felt it, air. He breathed in, and with a roar that shook the heavens he unleashed the energy that washed over him, hearing the earth shake, and the sky part in a sonic boom.
Then he felt relieved, floating among a cloud of dust.
Naruto gasped, chest heaving. He felt as if an intense pressure had vanished from his shoulders. As if he had stopped lifting the entire sky.
He tried seeing what happened around him, but a mass of dust clouded his vision. All that shines was the light of the sun overhead. His head whipped, to the left and right. The mass he floated above was blasted apart but held chunks. Faces, the visages of the heroes he worshipped while growing up.
The Hokage Monument.
He gasped, gazing at his glowing hands in disgust before looking once more at the shattered sculptures.
He had blown it up.
The dust slowly cleared as Naruto looked over himself, his form which sparkled with bluish electricity and orange light. But then the sounds came.
More screams.
He jerked his head, horror gripping his heart. He saw Konoha, burning. Buildings had toppled. People were running. Fathers broken and bruised, screaming for help. Mothers broken, weeping over their dead children.
And then he saw the building that stood above all.
The Hokage tower groaned, awash in flames...
Naruto gasped.
It fell.
He blinked. Ninjas had gathered, kids, adults, ANBU and Jonin. Everyone. They threw justus, flames, lightning, every single force of action possible. There was no thought, no coordination, just horror-fueled reaction.
The boy held his hand out, but wish he hadn't.
A spiral of energies blazed forth, destroying the sea of flames. A massive explosion rocked the village.
What was left of his village just ran. Nobody even tried to fight.
He remembered what the man in the trench coat said. "I don't believe you're a Biju. You're something far worse."
Naruto shook. "No!" his voice cried. He propelled forward, landing in the midst of destruction. The earth caved in on contact, and the ground burned at his touch. He held out his hand to a girl running by. She had lavender eyes and purple hair, and a face that would always blush. Hinata. She would understand.
Deep down he knew that this destruction, this endless carnage occurred from him. But he just couldn't take it. This moment in history, this reminder of the hatred everyone spewed at him slowly clenched his heart. The man in the coat was right. He was a monster. But Naruto couldn't acknowledge it. He needed someone to believe him. The only person that would.
"I'm sorry! Please, this isn't my fault!" He cried. Hinata looked at him with wide eyes. "Please..." Naruto whispered, reaching out. "I'm sorry." Her hand slowly touched his.
But then, like a firework, she exploded in a blaze of light, burning to ash as her bones clattered on the floor.
He stared, horrified. "No!" He fell on his knees, grasping the bones, trying to will his powers to not destroy, but save. Instead, the bones slowly blackened before they crumbled into ash.
Naruto shook as the endless power fizzled from his body and he dropped, naked. Blue eyes scanned around him as he shook. The smell of burnt flesh lingered on his nose, the continuous shrieks of the villagers pierced his ears, leaving him gaping in shock, and in pain.
He was worse than a Biju.
"Look at what you did, Naruto."
The boy looked and gasped, before him stood a man in a jacket of white. He was tall, yellow hair spiking up.
"Dad!" he gasped.
Minato's blue eyes beamed with satisfaction. "Look at what you did!" he jammed his thumb at the burning scene of death. "Or..." he quirked his head as his eyes looked past the blonde. "What you will do." His eyes widened, as if witnessing a delectable meal.
Naruto stared for a bit, blinking before laughing. "Of course..." he whispered. "This is just a dream. Of course! Just another dream." He stood. "You're not-" His head whipped back from the man's fist.
"Real?"
The blonde blinked as he lay on the ground, head reeling from the blow, blood leaking from his lips.
That punch. It was too fleshy, hard, detailed. Naruto's hands gripped the earth. "This... this is real." Terror struck his heart at the scene around him. Ears rang, tears began to fall.
"Now you get it." Minato's laughter boomed. He kicked the blonde with a boot. The blow rung throughout Naruto's frame as he cried out.
"Crap, think I broke a rib. I do get a little over-excited at times." Minato stroked his chin.
"Fu... **** you." Naruto groaned as he stood, staring at the man. He looked around, eyes taking in the scene of the burning signs. The smell of burnt flesh and wood filled his nostrils. The heat of the flames licked his skin, the muck of the earth licked his toes. "Just...just in my head..." Naruto whispered. 'I'll wake up soon enough..."
Minato smirked. "Come on, son! You've done these shenanigans for too-"
"**** YOU!" Naruto roared as his body burst into orange light. Whatever pain, whatever terror vanished within the light of the power. His fist flew, wind ripping as a sonic boom rocked the earth.
But he hit air. Blinking, his eyes darted back and forth. "Wh... where-"
"Did I go?" Minato answered, back to the blonde, electric bolts sparking around his frame. "Just needed to find something. Took forever, about half of that stupid love tap you did there." He twirled an object that gleamed. "Here, have a look."
Naruto stared at the reflection of a mirror. Before him was a burning red-orange man, crackling with blue flashes of electricity. A shadow-esque outline of himself. No mouth, just burning eyes that stared back.
"I'm..." He whispered, despite the lack of mouth. "I'm..."
"Chakra." Minato finished. "You became a being of chakra, the purest form drawing from the source itself."
Naruto was a loss for words. He, a being of Chakra? The Source? That power he felt earlier... His eyes widened as his shoulders went slack. Surprise after surprise wore down his already exasperated mind. He didn't know what to do.
"Reaction expected. Your mind is swimming with questions, no doubt." Minato said while walking and tapping his chin. "But..." He turned towards Naruto, grinning from ear to ear. "Might as well move forward, right?"
Those words shook Naruto as he stared at the man. His mind went backward. Synapses snapped together. Lightbulbs went off.
He remembered conversations, specifically a line, a mantra with the being who promised him the world. Looking back on it, the situation seemed absurd, and all his internal controls tried warning him to stop. Everything within him screamed that he was walking into a trap. He should have listened. Why didn't he?
The thought ended on a bleak note. One word came out of his mouth, a question that he knew the answer to.
"...Nexus?"
Minato smiled, confirming Naruto's fear. "Always slow..." His form shimmered into that of the being within his head, an outline of himself enshrouded in stars. Hewalked around him, stalking like a lion encircling its prey, rubbing his hands together, calking in sick glee. "Always behind both physically and mentally. I mean..." He crouched down, gazing at Naruto through white voids that threatened to swallow him whole. "You could never touch me. After all."
Naruto just stared, unable to focus as the blows continued to pound onto his psyche. At the same time, he remembered the pounding of a certain Uchiha's fists on the wood in a certain training field.
No, it couldn't be. It didn't make sense.
The being's eyes twinkled, face wrinkling as if to tell a joke.
"What, can't handle being a serial killer?"
Worse joke ever.
Naruto shook his head, clutching his ragged hair. "Were you..." His breath became ragged, fueling Nexus's joy. "...also Sasuke?"
Nexus eye-smiled again, standing up and clapping, as if impressed. His form shimmered once more, growing a bit in height, facial features morphing before staring him down, Sharingan eyes swirling.
"That's right, idiot." 'Sasuke' gave the smuggest smirk Naruto ever saw, only highlighted by the blazing flames of death around them. Then, he shrugged yawning while cracking his neck. "I've had my fun now." He turned around, walking away. But then he turned, Sharingan swirling with even further joy. "Actually, no. There's still more to tell. But..." he stroked his chin. "I'm going to keep it simple and save you time."
No way. That last line sealed the deal for the blonde. He couldn't function as he trembled, chest slowly caving in. He collapsed on his knees, eyes wide, shoulders slack in defeat. He remembered the conversation he had at the academy, the one where he was told he needed chakra, needed a miracle if he even hoped to pass. A single word left his quivering lips. "Iruka?"
'Sasuke' laughed. His form shimmered again, turning into the form of his teacher. "That's right, Naruto."
The boy blinked as the energy around him began to fizzle. However, the ground at his feet cracked, branching, giving way to beams of light.
"I... I don't even know anymore. i don't even know what's real! This is all crap!" He felt the power beneath his fingers swirling, groaning in a cacophony of fury. "This is all just crap!" It shot out in bolts at everything around him, blasting into buildings, uplifting stone, and turning running occupants to ash. 'Iruka' side-stepped the lashings of energy, disappearing in blurs, leaving after-images in his wake which each smiled, grinning at the boy's misery.
But in the midst of the agony, Naruto's mind began to churn. The power began to dwindle, and Iruka began to frown.
Realization dawned on Naruto. "When I woke up..." The power slowly silenced, washing over the boy like a cool ocean breeze. "...and Kurama said I needed to go to school. Kurama said I had an exam that day." he glared at the grinning being. "You made me see something completely different! There WAS an exam that day!"
"That's right." 'Iruka' grinned, disappearing once again. "Ever since you woke up from that dream, Naruto. Ever since the fox told you to go to school, you've been in an illusion."
The boy jerked his head from left to right, unable to pinpoint the location of the voice.
"I blurred the lines between reality and fantasy. It took so long too. I've been working for years, hindered by that goddamn fox, but slowly and surely I was able to extend my strings and control your life. At first, it started with you being unable to read. Then, it came in as nightmares of your father. That's what you always wanted right? To be like him? To be a person that inspired hope in others? A Legend? I figured that nightly terrors of your dream beating you down would slowly wear on your mind. You wouldn't be able to even have solace in your thoughts to comfort you from the hatred of the village, the hatred I started by killing your parents. The lashing out of terrors I created by controlling Kurama to destroy everything they ever loved. Brilliant right? And of course, you're too prideful, too damaged to ever talk to anyone about it. Even your only friend who you could talk to about it, Kurama, was left broken and destroyed."
Naruto saw a shadow hang over, and looked back to see Iruka with his arm folded. "So, I created an illusion, one that would push you over the end, one that would surely edge you over to your broken state." He closed his eyes. "And of course..." He shook his head. "You were desperate, so much that when my parasite appeared to you, offering to give you the powers that I took, you accepted it like a fool, flocking like a fly to a bug zapper."
The boy stared in shock, opening his mouth to yell, to scream. But all that came out was a croak of a beaten dog. "Why?"
For a moment, 'Iruka' remained quiet, face expressionless. He closed his eyes. "This explain anymore?" he opened them.
A sharingan in the left and something else entirely in the right.
The man with the red and purple eyes.
Naruto started scooting away. "You... you..." He found his back against the remnants of a burning building. He looked back, eyes widening at the wreckage of one of his sacred locations, a destination he would always escape for comfort.
Ichiraku's ramen stand.
"That's right, Naruto. It was me." The boy turned towards the being of hatred as he laughed.
No, the boy pondered. It wasn't a laugh, it was a howl, a wicked scream of sick satisfaction.
The boy didn't know what to say. The entire time he had been a fool, played. He collapsed on his hands and knees once again, left bare and normal once more. "Why now?" he croaked out once more.
The man snorted. "Originally, I was going to train you some more, push you a bit further until you broke, but your mind started to reform, and your dyslexia disappeared due to your new powers. Unlike the fox, who's bound by the curse of hatred, the powers started making you free of my control, healing you despite the damage. If I didn't act quickly, you were going to figure it all out."
Naruto barely even listened, staring at the cracked floor, absorbed in the lights through the cracks. One thought swirled in his mind. "You did all of this..." he spoke in wonder.
"That's right, Naruto. I killed your parents, I killed Kurama." 'Iruka' grinned. "I shattered your chakra system, obliterated your mind, gave you dyslexia..." he sneered, pausing as his face contorted into rage. "But you still found a way to be happy..." he clenched his fists. "Somehow you and that fox still continued on. He slowly changed your system, your genetic code, making into you something greater than I ever was, even though I changed his mind as well. Been awhile since I've seen a being with that much willpower. He even did while containing the parasite I planted in your body. But rest assured Naruto, it was me. ME! I've dedicated my entire life to ruining your existence."
For a moment, silence rang beneath the two. The being glared while Naruto looked up and stared with horrified eyes.
"Why?" He whispered.
"Because." he finished firmly, crouching down to his level. "All you do is let the world bully you, put you down. Instead of showing them who's boss, you just ask for their approval. It's disgusting. I hate you."
Naruto looked at the ground once more as the words continued ringing his mind. "You said you killed Kurama..." Naruto cringed as the words left his mouth. They reeked of stupidity. Naruto knew the truth. This man had killed Kurama, and the version he visited was a fake, an illusion. The thought lit a fire, burning through his fear as he steeled his resolve.
"Makes you angry, doesn't it?" 'Iruka' said. "I can see that you figured part of it out, but I'll fill you in on the bigger details. Yes, I killed him. But, I also destroyed his mind, slowly forcing him to bite at your own dreams, to tear you down, to remind you of all the hate you underwent. Then, after he wanted to be put out of his misery, I made him suffer even more. To put himself out of his misery, he gave you the power, so he'd die off. Not because he loved you, not because he wanted you to live your dreams. That's the truth, Naruto."
The boy stared at the being before him, core stricken down but rage ignited into an inferno. Power blazed around him, warping the air around him as if reality folded in on itself, straining against his presence. "I'm gonna kill you..." Naruto roared. "I'm gonna rip you apart limb from limb!" Bolts of lightning struck out again as he growled, snarling with primal rage born from the power that flowed through him. The air warped, twisting and caving in on itself as Naruto thrust his hand forward. A blaze of energy surged from his hand, ripping towards 'Iruka' before he side-stepped once more.
Naruto's eyes focused on the blast, it tore through the air, reality itself before exploding on impact with a building in a burst of electrified flames. The aftermath of the detonation caused both beings to stare.
A scar of twisting orange and white had parted from where the blast had razed. Everything around it stood still, frozen in time. The scene of the burning village and mutilated villagers became a three-dimensional canvas of destruction.
Whatever rage and fury that boiled within the boy's veins cooled. The power calmed around him.
"Wait..." Naruto gestured around him, blinking. "This isn't real, at least..." Naruto look at the man. "Not my real." His eyes widened at the realization. "That's why that interrogator froze..." Hope rose within the boy's chest while his mind whirled with questions. "Is this an illusion? No, it can't be. I mean, it makes sense though. The visions of me killing everyone was an illusion. Thoughts you planted. But this is far more intricate than anything I've seen." Anything he thought possible.
'Iruka' laughed, shimmering into the version of him enshrouded in stars, but one eye red, and the other purple. "I'm impressed..."
Naruto wanted to deck this man in the face right there. "Who are you? What is this?"
The man chuckled. "Whatever do you mean Naruto?"
"I want the truth. No more illusions. No more lies. The truth. Not some crap you insist on feeding me."
"The truth?"
"The truth."
"You can't handle the truth."
The boy snarled. "I've handled everything you thrown at me. I can handle anything else."
Nexus froze, red and purple eyes blinking. "Well..." he shimmered once more. "If you insist."
Naruto stared at the new figure, jaw agape. A young man stood around eighteen years old stood before him. He had hair that seemed to be kissed from the sun, and was so messy and tousled that despite the alert look on his face, made Naruto wonder if he had not just gotten out of bed. The boy's eyes were so blue and big that they seemed sapphires floating in pools of white light. His face was in the midst of turning from boyish to manly, and was adorned with three scars on each cheek, resembling the whiskers of an animal. His clothing consisted of a nearly solid black jacket, partially undone at the top, with strips of orange down both sleeves and several orange symbols near the bottom, resting near his thighs; his pants were inverted in design—completely orange save for a black strip down each pant leg. They were wide at the bottom, exposing his ankles, though he wore open-toed black boots as a typical shinobi might. Around his waist was a forehead protector—which bore the symbol of the Leaf in glinting steel, but had been split through the middle with a rough blade.
"You're..." The boy gasped, the sight making his power wither away as he lay bare once more.
"That's right, Naruto. I'm you." The older version grinned, blue eyes swirling with insanity. "The better you. The stronger you." He closed and opened his eyes, which turned red and purple once more. "The best you will ever be, the you that you need to become."
Naruto's expression was one of horror, of defeat.
Those final words were the blows that broke the dam that held his sanity.
"As for what this is-"
"He...hehe..." Naruto whispered as his eyes glazed over. "Hahahahahahahaha!"
The man raised a brow. "What?"
"...You're saying that I went back in time, killed my parents, killed Kurama, took away my own chakra, made myself miss the exam, and made myself dyslexic..." Naruto paused. "What is this, am I being filmed or something?" Naruto laughed some more as he looked into the sky, tears falling from his eyes. It made so much sense now. Horrible, horrific sense. The entire world just wanted to break him.
The older versions grinned. "I told you that you couldn't handle it."
"Oh my god!" Naruto laughed as the tears continued falling, smearing his face. "This is absolutely hilarious!" His eyes had become blank, lost in the sea of misery and shock.
The blonde continued laughing, even as his lungs caved in. The energy from him flooded out like water from a broken damn, washing over everything in an orange hue.
"Yes!" Nexus said. The orange light of electric flames and chakra swirled around him, seeping into him as he laughed. "Finally! Come on, more. More! Break!" He cackled. "Give it to me, give me all of the source." Nexus's eyes glowed white as the orange energy around him shifted, convulsing into a ghastly void of black.
He too laughed, howling in pleasure while Naruto broke down, bawling in misery, his entire mind broken.
"You know what I'm going to enjoy most?" Nexus grinned. "Going back to the village with you, and sealing the deal. We'll show the world who we are. We'll show them what happens when they bully the dragon!" He roared. "We will-"
"Hey!"
A clawed hand tapped his shoulder.
Another voice rung through Naruto's ears. A familiar voice, an impossible voice.
It couldn't be. The thought broke through Naruto's grief, slowing the flow of orange energy from his form.
"Do you know where the nearest insane asylum is?"
Nexus blinked and turned his head. The energy from Naruto dissipated, leaving him bare.
"'Cause I need to check you in."
Nexus's head flung back in a force that ripped apart the air, blasting him through building after building.
Naruto blinked in shock. He looked up, eyes wide. The attacker held his hands together as a mass of visible crimson chakra flew from his hands compressing, swirling into a black ball of death.
"Enjoy your stay!" he flung it like a baseball. The air cracked, whipping back as the ball ripped through, blazing towards Nexus's flying form.
*Boom*
A massive explosion of blazing, crimson energy rocked the world. The earth shook, the wind whipped, and Naruto's skin burnt from the friction of the force, eyes nearly going blind.
Until the attacker stood in front of him, body glowing with crimson chakra, protecting him from as the energy sailed over them like burning smoke.
Naruto just stared. Before him was... him. But more animalistic, more savage. His hair had lengthened, jutting out like a mane, the three scars on his cheeks were darker and more pronounced. His fangs jutted out, ready to rip out throats, and his nails were lengthened into claws.
But more importably, his eyes, those stupid round red eyes. Naruto smiled, relief washing over him. His big furry friend was back. And despite the onslaught around them he looked at peace. Better. Less troubled.
"Kurama!" Naruto yelled.
"Damn it, idiot what are you doing?"
"I'm hugging you to your grave!"
"Gah, stop that!"
"No! We are friends!"
Kurama groaned. "Naruto, you're naked!"
Naruto stopped hugging the demon. "Oh, sorry."
"Che, I need you to get us out of here though. He's probably gonna shrug that off."
As the words left the demon's lips the cataclysmic explosion began to compress, wishing, swirling into a spiral. Kurama stopped, looking back in shock, leaching his clawed hands, and baring his fangs.
Naruto gazed in awe. "The hell?"
The explosion vanished into a void of black, disappearing from existence. Nexus floated in the air, grinning like a madman, not a scratch on him. However, Naruto was not shocked by his survival. No, he was shocked by the scenery behind him.
A giant ocean of white, orange light that shifted like an endless ocean. The scenery that used to be the village floated aimlessly within the deep space.
Nexus smiled. "We're in a different dimension, Naruto, the source itself. The energy that connects everything. Anything and everything is possible if a guardian of its energy wills it."
Kurama grabbed Naruto's shoulder. He looked at him, confusion and terror in his eyes. The beast spoke a single word— one that demanded obedience.
"Go."
The word aligned with Naruto's state. His legs shook, his chest heaved, and sweat caked his entire body. He wanted to listen to Kurama, to run from here, but another sensation stopped him. He wouldn't. He couldn't.
"No." the blonde said.
Kurama grunted. "Dammit, Naruto, listen to me!"
"No, you listen to me! Despite the horrible fights we get into, the fact that you were forced into killing my parents, the fact that the entire village hates me because of you, that you wished nothing more than to get rid of me..." Naruto clenched his fists. "I always enjoyed our conversations. I always enjoyed the fights, when I thought you died they were the things I missed most, when you died I was reminded that with you, I was never alone. I always had a friend.." Naruto shook his head. "I'm not leaving you again, we're in this together."
Kurama sighed. "You idiot!" Naruto cringed as the demon held his hand up, as if ready to strike him. "I'll always be there for you." Naruto opened his eyes to see the fox ruffling his head.
"How beautiful, a boy and his fox." Nexus mused.
"Hey!" Kurama yelled. "I'm a maniacal fox!"
Nexus yawned. "I'm bored now." he waved, stretching his back. "But, I am curious though. How did you survive, Kurama?"
Kurama smiled, placing a hand on Naruto's back. The Biju's fingers drummed at mind-boggling speed, light-speed. Naruto knew immediately what it was, morse-code. Yet, one thing chilled Naruto above anything else. Not the message, but the fact that he could understand it.
Now, his mind processed everything around him. Every twitch, every wrinkle in the wind. His eyes saw, his body felt, and he understood.
He loves gloating, but he's covering up to start something big. Start tapping into your power. Everything. Don't worry, I'm here and I'll regulate it for you. We need to be prepared.
Naruto did as told, reaching for the power around him, plugging himself to the source inside as his body glowed an orange light, crackling with endless electricity.
"You can never kill a Biju, Nexus. You can only absorb or disperse its chakra. Unlike my brothers and sisters, I had to anchor myself, my power demanded no less. Through that anchor, no matter where and when, I can always reform. I always come back, even if it's weaker, even if it's like this." he gestured to his humanoid form. "That's why I'm still here, even after giving Naruto my powers."
Nexus nodded all to calmly while thunder struck above. Naruto tried to remained focus, but he could feel something stirring above, a force that mirrored his.
"So... when you gave Naruto your power, your chakra dispersed and you hid here in the source?"
The questions swirled in Naruto's mind, but he needed to focus. As he focused, the power continued to swell, threatening to engulf him. But it didn't burn. No, the orange light around him continued to foster, surging through him like a shock that pulsed around him and Kurama.
"That's right." The Biju stated. "I hid here, in this dimension, because I knew you would do whatever you could to get Naruto. It also gave time for my mind to heal from you ripping it in half."
The boy's eyes widened slightly. This entire place was a different dimension?
Nexus grinned, as if reading his mind. "Yes, Naruto, we are in a different dimension. This entire place is the source, the origin of all chakra, the place that cultivates and powers all of life. Kurama was it's guardian. You are his successor." He sneered. "Horrible choice if you ask me."
Wait a second? Did he just insult himself?
The guardian could hardly fathom the events around him despite the increased processing speed. Different dimension? Origin of all life? He knew that he struggled in his studies, but the academy didn't teach themany of this.
"I mean, you didn't even notice that those portals you created were my power." He grinned as his body glowed a ghoulish white light, black lightning cackling around his frame. "You didn't even notice that my portals carried you here, so I could get you. I was so close to ruining you, to exploiting you even more, but then my parasite was destroyed." He growled as the entire realm began to shake. "Thanks for that, Kurama!"
Naruto noticed the world went black, and a lone, crimson moon hung in the horizon.
Kurama's tapping knocked Naruto out of his musings.
Run, Naruto. Run!
Naruto blinked, obeying as his legs tensed and he rocketed forth, Kurama following suite with a clawed hand gripping his shoulder. However, the two encountered an endless stretch of land painted black.
Naruto felt Kurama tighten his grip on his shoulder, breath shaky. He didn't need to say anything because Naruto knew. He was afraid. Naruto couldn't be though, he needed to keep on running, moving forward.
But then he heard a voice that chilled his core.
"You can never run away." Minato was running to his right, grinning ear to ear.
Naruto felt another bomb placed in his chest as time slowed down.
Tick.
Anger, pure unadulterated rage, blazed through him like an inferno. This man just wanted him to suffer.
Tick.
"You can never escape this village." Another Minato appeared to his right. The sight reminded him of all the years he spent striving to be like his father, worried that he'd be nothing but a disappointment, a disgrace. This man had done it, he had planted seeds of doubt to ruin him, to see him fail.
Tick.
"You will always be an accident, a Jinchuuriki forced to bear the pain of the people around you." Another Minato appeared running backwards at light-speed in front of him, kunai prepped to stab him.
Tick.
Naruto wouldn't let that happen.
Boom.
"Shut!" His eyes glowed orange as his body blazed with power. "Up!" He roared the last word as the Minatos stared shock, evaporating as the land of black tore away, giving way to an endless stream of orange light.
He heard chirping, as if from ten thousand birds as the lightning surged around him in greater and greater waves. The energy flowing through him continued surging through, shocking every cell, every nerve at the slightest movement.
He wasn't human anymore. Nor did he care. Without warning, he started laughing, tears streaming down his cheeks. "This feels..."
"Amazing?" Naruto looked towards Kurama, who was running with him, enshrouded in golden light, pure chakra.
"Yeah..." The boy mused, eyes turned forward into the endless light.
"You're amazing, Naruto."
"Heh, you can stop being so sappy Kurama. Just point the way, and we'll get out of here."
As he said those words, the light around him began to shift, changing into images that drifted by his eyes.
He saw two men standing across from each other, one with eyes of red, and another surrounded with the chakra of the earth.
"Wha... what's going on?"
He saw himself lying down on a bed, a beautiful woman cupping his cheek with a look of worry.
"You're channeling the source Naruto. It's the center of everything, even space and time. What you are seeing are images revolving around your life, the past..."
He saw a blonde man and red haired woman cooing over a bundle in her arms.
"Your present, even your future."
He saw a canvas of fire, people screaming and running away.
"At least, a possible future."
The guardian blinked as the images continued passing by his eyes, drifting by in electric clouds. This entire event, this entire journey felt like a dream. He needed to sleep after this.
"Now think of where you want to go..."
Slowly, an image appeared before the boy as he felt a pull towards his destination. He opened his eyes.
There, in all its glory was Konoha, bathing and brimming in the morning sun.
Then a voice, dark as night, and rough as wood assaulted their ears.
"Banshō Ten'in."
Naruto felt an otherworldly force pull him back, slowing him down.
"Dammit!" Kurama roared. "Close. So! Close!"
The image of their beloved village vanished in a burst of black electricity.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Naruto's heart beat wildly at the voice. A demon appeared before him, crackling in black electricity. His skin was a pure white, no mouth. Features indistinguishable, except for the eyes. One red and one purple, both at the center of bottomless pools of the cosmos.
"N-Nexus?" Naruto said.
Kurama glared. "Dammit! Why now!"
Its eyes twinkled, face stretching into a visage resembling a grin. "You think with your new power you're a bigger fish now, eh?" Purple flames, resembling a skeleton started enshrouding his form. "Well sad to tell you little fishy, this isn't a tiny pond." Nexus's image screamed with more power than Naruto could fathom, reminding him of his dwindling fate. "This isn't even a big pond. No..." There was no point. He couldn't run from this thing. It would find him, no matter where he ran. "You're in the ocean now."
To the two's horror, the being's mouthless face began to part, revealing an endless abyss lined with teeth black as night. "And I'm the leviathan!"
The words spelled death for the new guardian. But, faster than he could blink, Kurama drummed his fingers on Naruto's back during the beast's boast, shooting forward as his final message of morse code played in Naruto's mind.
I'm sorry for being so selfish. I thought that we could escape together, but I only slowed you down.
"You think you can fight me!" Nexus roared. The skeleton flames had solidified into arms wielding blades. "You don't even have your powers!" he brought the blades down on the golden fox.
His plan was to drag you here, use your power, and escape into the real world. I can't let that happen, and you can't face him. Not yet.
The fox surged forward as his arms were severed, causing the being's eyes to widen.
His words about being you... that's true Naruto. He is you, a you that gave up. A you that surrendered to the hate, a you that seeked revenge.
Kurama roared as he head butted the being and he toppled on the floor, howling in fury. "Damn you! Damn you to hell!"
A possible future, but not your future. Don't give up on your dreams, Naruto. Run towards them, and don't look back.
The guardian sobbed as he ran forward, imagining the form of Konoha once more.
The future is never set in stone. We are not defined by our past, or our future, but what we do at the moment.
Clouds gathered, shimmering into the sun-bathed vision of his home.
Give everything you have. Show everyone who you really are, show the world who you really are.
The orange light surged around Naruto, blue arcs of lightning crackling in waves of brilliance. It threatened to devour him, engulf him, but he wouldn't let it. He couldn't let it.
You're the guardian now, Naruto. I wouldn't entrust my power to you if I didn't believe in you. Become the light in the darkness, the legend you dreamed to be...
Naruto let out a roar as his form started to dematerialize and he became pure power. He crossed miles in milliseconds, surging at everything around him as the image before him began to cave in, becoming a white scar, a hole in the fabric of space and time.
And remember...
He felt the hole close, but he let out another roar as the power forced it open and he ran into its depths.
I will always be there for you.
He became engulfed in a field of white, the space between dimension, tears trailing the air.
I will always care for you.
He began to fall, sighing in peace as the power blazed around his form in arcs of flaming electricity.
I will always love you.
And he didn't look back.
------------------------------------------
The village of Konoha was aloft with life: birds were chirping, bees were buzzing, and kids were giggling in joy. The sun shimmered in the cloudless sky, as if to highlight the joy throughout the townsfolk. It was clear everybody enjoyed the splendid afternoon.
But then, the sky darkened, turning a shade of green. Clouds formed, swirling, sparking with arcs of endless, continuous bolts of lightning. Opening to a scar, one which glowed white, glowing with electricity.
One which caused every single villager to stare in wonderment.
*Boom*
A giant bolt of blue smashed into the earth, hitting the street.
Occupants around the location stared. Dust lingered in the air as arcs of electricity, endless streams chirped like thousands of birds. People struggled to breathe, for the air had thinned, baked like a scorching oven.
Then the air slowly cleared, giving way to a sight that caused the occupants to gasp. A phantom of orange light stood, slightly crouched, breathing. He had no mouth, no indistinguishable features except for his eyes.
They were blue, leaking literal bolts of light. They jolted, arcing, and vanishing into the air.
ANBU and Jonin had gathered around the figure, gathering like bees to honey, confused and in awe.
One faceless man, an ANBU in a mask broke the pregnant pause. "Who are you...?"
The figure looked around, holding its head in pain, giving a tired breath. The energy around it slowly faded, dissipating.
"Me?" It asked, jamming a thumb towards its chest. "I'm..." The energy slowly cooled into a quiet hum, washing over its skin. "The Flash."
The energy vanished, and the body was revealed, collapsing on the ground.
All the ninja stared in wonderment, for once the trained combatants and assassins lost for words.
There lay Naruto Uzumaki, breathing slowly within a burnt crater, having fallen from the sky in a bolt of lightning, a flash.
An orange flash of light.
Finally, an ANBU in a rabbit mask broke the silence.
"I'm sorry, but the **** just happened?"
End.
--------------------------------------------
A/N:
DAMN!
SERIOUSLY!
THAT FELT AMAZING TO WRITE!
I hope you were throughly surprised by events of these five chapters, and hopefully, in any way felt satisfied by this work. Thank you so much for reading. I would love any of your thoughts and ideas, both for the future course of this story, and suggestions for improvements.
Let me know what you think,
Best,
Storm
