Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/12369576.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Underage
  Category:
      F/F, F/M
  Fandom:
      Naruto, Highschool_DxD
  Relationship:
      Toujou_Koneko/Uchiha_Sasuke, Uzumaki_Naruto/Valerie_Tepes, Rias_Gremory/
      Uchiha_Sasuke, Himejima_Akeno/Uchiha_Sasuke, Ravel_Phenex/Uzumaki_Naruto,
      Rias_Gremory/Himejima_Akeno, Gaara/Haruno_Sakura
  Character:
      Uzumaki_Naruto, Uchiha_Sasuke, Rias_Gremory, Himejima_Akeno, Valerie
      Tepes, Ravel_Phenex, Gaara_(Naruto), Haruno_Sakura, Ophis_(Highschool
      DxD)
  Additional Tags:
      Politics, War, Philosophy
  Series:
      Part 2 of Ouroboros/Resonance
  Stats:
      Published: 2017-10-15 Updated: 2018-02-24 Chapters: 7/? Words: 21298
****** Paradox Aeternum ******
by The_Jingo_(The_King_in_White)
Summary
     Summoned back across the void; Naruto and Sasuke must navigate the
     remnants of forgotten peace and a shattered Konoha. Only one thing is
     certain: "This place no longer feels like home."
***** Chapter 1 *****
Shifting golden sand sought the horizon, with curving dunes hollowed out by the
wind as the breeze uplifted clouds of blazing grit to be lit up by the evening
sun. To an unbiased bystander it was a sight that spoke of the majesty of
nature and the inevitable breaking down of all things into the dust of
creation.
Naruto didn't even register it, his azure gaze sightlessly staring into the
distant landscape of Kaze no Kuni. He was too caught up in thoughts of blood
tribute, burnt souls, and resurrections to worry about something like aesthetic
beauty.
"Naruto."
The blond turned, his grimace sending the whisker birthmarks on his cheeks
rippling with discontent. It was an uncommonly sour expression for the sunny
young man, but given the events of the past hour it suited.
Grey sclera circled perpetual Sharingan, the red of Sasuke's eyes seeming
darker and less brilliant than Naruto was used to. It suited the Uchiha in a
depressing way, considering the faint cracks visible on porcelain skin and the
faint but ever-present scent of grave dirt.
The sight only made Naruto even more bitter. "How could they just do this? Why
couldn't they just…" Naruto trailed off, running a hand through his sunbright
mane and scowling fiercely. "I wanted to come back, yeah, but not…"
"Not like this." Sasuke finished, the exhale intensifying the smell of death.
As a reincarnated summon, the Uchiha didn't strictly need to breathe. But the
habits of the living were hard to break. "What do you want to do?"
The implicit acknowledgement of authority actually made Naruto feel a bit
better. Sakura and Gaara – who were aged and harder than he'd ever seen them –
might have torn the two of them across worlds and out of the grave, but at
least he had Sasuke at his back. "I don't know. Do you think we'll be able to
get back sometime, or are we stuck like this?"
'Like this' meaning that they were a pair of travelers outside time, pulled
back into a familiar place and an unfamiliar struggle with one walking among
the living and one striding with the dead.
There were too many questions Naruto needed answers to, beginning with why
they'd been resurrected by their teammate and what the hell she'd been
thinking. Why call them after so long? Why not sooner, if they were so
desperate?
"Hard to say. It depends on Ophis I suppose." Sasuke muttered, his bloodless
lips drawing tight as he reflected on the Ouroboros Dragon. The Dragon God had
brought them into the new world in the first place, and she seemed the one most
able to pull them back out; but the last glimpse they'd had of her had been
when she was bleeding and furious. Was Sakura so desperate she'd struggle with
a god for the right to use them?
A faint note of unusual concern entered Sasuke's usually neutral voice.
"There's nothing we can do about it now. Let's just go back in. Or did you need
another minute?"
"No." Naruto denied, an unusual hardness filling his voice. "Let's go." Then
the reborn jinchuuriki turned, stepping away from the desert sunlight and into
the shadowed confines of the sub-baked hospital.
The undead shinobi followed the living, their connection thrumming strong
despite the gulf of mortality. One might move with blood and breath while the
other was filled with cinders and soil, but they were united by a tie stronger
than death; twin vessels born out of chakra and forbidden sacrifice.
===============================================================================
Ophis was ill pleased. She had rather carefully selected Uzumaki Naruto and
Uchiha Sasuke as candidates for rebirth, and in migrating their souls she'd
decided to bind their spirits to her own. Sasuke had been bound even closer, to
the point where his essence had started to run into her own and become
dependent on her existence.
So it was no shock that when those arrogant shinobi had managed to steal their
souls back that it backlashed at her. The sudden frayed connection spanning
universes had hurt, and raised up other questions. She'd regretted it when she
was forced to feel the Uchiha boy's emotions, but that had just been
inconvenient. If some lowly mortals could strike out at her and make her bleed
through those children, then the connection wasn't simply troublesome. It was
reckless and dangerous.
Sasuke and Naruto had become liabilities, and there were only two ways to solve
the problem they now presented. The first was to simply cut her losses and
leave them out to dry, and the second was to bind them so tightly to her that
no amount of human sacrifice and summoning could tear them away.
"Well." Rias Gremory began, arms folding over her chest with a single finger
tapping anxiously at her elbow. "That's a relief. However, that simply leads to
more questions. If you're sustaining them here, then where did they go? And
more importantly, how do you plan to get them back?"
Half-lidded grey eyes refocused on the impertinent mortal that seemed to have a
death wish. The Gremory girl wasn't one of her soldiers, and she had nowhere
near the power needed to survive anything more hefty than a backhand from
Ophis. Her only point of value was her relation to Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha
Sasuke. A relation that she could, perhaps, make use of.
"They have returned to their universe of origin, summoned back by the shinobi
to live in that world once more." The Dragon God shrugged one black silk clad
shoulder. "As for duration, it is uncertain. Even for once such as I,
transmigrating souls across realities is no simple thing. Doubly so if their
souls have been bonded to that world rather than simply reborn in it."
Flicking up a hushing finger to quiet Akeno when the Thunder Priestess opened
her mouth, Ophis never allowed her passionless gaze to waver. "In the meantime,
there is another problem you must attend to. At the best of speeds, the return
of their souls will not be immediate. Yet Naruto Gremory is well known enough
that he must be seen. His disappearance will not pass unremarked for long, so
someone else must pretend to be him and give the image of health. Preferably
you, Rias Gremory, because of your near blood relation. No one else would mimic
his mannerisms and abilities as well."
Truthfully speaking, Ophis did not care about the lives of the mortals crowded
in the room. They were mere window dressing compared to the potential she'd
seen in Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. But regardless of her preferences
they had a common interest, so Ophis turned her mind to the situation at hand
with unbounded eons of wily old cunning.
If she needed to deal with these children, then the least she could do was make
sure that without a doubt she owned them.
A bright red eyebrow arched. "And how to you suggest we do that? Illusion magic
can only do so much, and considering the magical skill of the nobility at large
that Naruto needs to be seen by, it would be discovered sooner or later." Rias
was suspicious of the Ouroboros Dragon. Ophis made too much of a habit of
breezing in and out of their lives like a hurricane, caring nothing for the
destruction she left behind. Why now was she suddenly deciding to be helpful?
Ophis' gaze turned bright and cold, with the lolita holding out a hand and
gathering dark power in a flex of sorcery. Black scales shimmered like heavy
oil under the sunlight, refracting into a faint rainbow of slick colours and
shimmering patterns. "Well, that is not such a difficult task. All I need you
to do is open wide, girl."
The air filled with the sibilant hissing of a great serpent.
===============================================================================
A faint crackle rumbled through his chest every time Sasuke made his undead
body breathe in. It was barely noticeable compared to the horrifying colour of
his sclera or the thin fissures that marred his clay face, but when he stood
silently vigilant behind Naruto's shoulder the Uchiha couldn't help but hear
it.
Breathe in.
Fragile bone cracked as ribs shifted to accommodate the expansion of undead
lungs, the shift of cartilage grinding gruesomely.
Breathe out.
Paper rustled as the jutsu that animated his dead body worked to heal the
microfractures and restore him to the pristine peace of the grave.
"I want to know everything – and I mean everything." Naruto bit out, azure eyes
blazing. There was a level of command in his voice that had been absent the
first time he'd died, and its sudden appearance made Gaara and Sakura raise
their eyebrows.
Gaara's mismatched gaze - one eye teal green and the other the rippling violet
of Sasuke's Rinnegan – flickered towards the dust covered surface of the
conference room table. Like much of the hospital, it was pitted with the marks
of long use and had a dubious remaining lifespan. "Have a seat." The Kazekage
invited in a gravelly voice, syllables rasping as if he'd once had his vocal
chords cut.
Considering the dark ropy mass of scar tissue curving around the front of his
neck, that probably wasn't so far from the truth.
Without hesitation Naruto grabbed hold of a rickety office chair, ignoring the
squeaks as he wheeled the piece of cracked leather furniture about to plop down
on. Maybe it was maturity or perhaps it was simply the result of years of
training as a Gehennan noble, but he had no urge to bounce around the room
screaming like he would have in his first life. He was more contained than
that.
Sasuke chose to remain standing, undead flesh hard and tireless. He had no need
to rest, and no desire to start exchanging pleasantries like it was a damn tea
party.
"I don't wanna beat around the bush." Naruto decided harshly, thinning his
lips. Maybe if circumstances were different he'd have been glad to see his old
friends again, but his plan to revisit Konoha had never included what was
basically a heart attack followed by waking up in a new body again. "It's
obvious you guys decided to revive us. Why?"
Chewing one ragged thumbnail, Sakura examined her two resurrected teammates
with a faint light of nostalgia in emerald green orbs. "Seventeen years ago you
both died." She prefaced quietly, pulling her thumb away from her teeth and
settling her folded hands on the table. "Five years after that, Kumo and Iwa
declared the Fifth Shinobi World War."
Sasuke blinked when Naruto jerked back in surprise. Was it really that odd? The
Third Shinobi World War might have ended in a victory for Konoha against the
combined forced of Iwa, Kumo and Kiri. Relations with Kiri had eventually
normalized, but Konoha's relationship with Kumo and Iwa had always been
contentious. Even temporarily allying for the war against Obito wouldn't have
entirely soothed all tensions. If Konoha was going to fight anyone, those
countries would be the most likely opponents.
Gaara exhaled when it became obvious that Sakura had lost herself in her own
train of memories. Settling a hand over the woman's pink locks, the grizzled
Kazekage boldly offered Naruto a challenging stare. "Two years after that
Konoha was destroyed, leaving its people a scattered remnant that took refuge
in Suna or Kiri. Since then we've been deadlocked in a constant war with the
Iwa-Kumo alliance."
That declaration hit Naruto like a mule's kick to the chest. Swallowing dryly,
the blond reached up to rub at his neck in an effort to force back the burn of
bile. What the hell? He'd known it had to be bad or they wouldn't have
resurrected him, but Konoha was just gone? "Well I fucking hope you brought us
back here to fix all this shit."
"It was Kakashi's last decision as Rokudaime Hokage to revive the two of you."
Sakura sighed. "We needed your strength, so we brought you back with the Edo
Tensei. But we needed the real Naruto too, rather than just his power, so
sensei used the Rinnegan to fully revive him."
"My Rinnegan." Sasuke said coolly, studying with eye implanted in Gaara's left
socket with a narrowed gaze. It might make him a hypocrite considering how he
himself had basically pillaged Itachi's corpse to obtain a new set of eyes and
stave off blindness, but their willingness to desecrate his body galled him.
Sakura hesitated a brief moment before giving a sharp nod. "That's right." She
was well aware that Sasuke would have a negative opinion of her decision –
she'd known that when she first extracted his eyes decades ago – but she still
stood by that choice. It had been necessary for the good of Konoha.
Demand sharpened Sasuke's voice until it seemed every word would draw blood.
"Where's the rest of my body then?"
Caution made Sakura's words slow and measured, with the war weary expression on
her weathered features deepening. She looked like she was sixty years old,
rather than her true age of nearly forty. "The rest of your body except for
your eyes was destroyed a long time ago, on Kakashi's orders. We didn't want
other countries playing pirate with your body for your power after you died.
The left eye is as you see." She motioned vaguely towards Gaara. "While the
right eye became the genetic basis for your Edo Tensei summoning."
Sasuke's first instinct was to offer up a blisteringly sarcastic reply. It was
okay for Konoha to hoard his power for itself, but it was a crime if any of the
other village wanted to do the same? It was just another prime example of the
duplicity that had driven him to decide that revolution of the system was
necessarily in his first life.
But Sasuke's first instinct was only his old bitterness rising up, and he'd
vowed years ago to try and leave the storm of rage and revenge behind him; so
instead he bit through his unfeeling tongue and fell silent. At least they
hadn't started pumping his corpse for sperm or trying to graft his genetics
into infants like the experiment Orochimaru had once conducted with Hashirama's
cells.
In the end, Sasuke had committed too many crimes for power in his day that he
couldn't really point fingers at anyone else.
"Damn it, Sakura!" Naruto finally exploded, raking a hand through his golden
mane with his face twisted into a rictus of despair and fury. "What the hell
went wrong? We all came together to fight against Madara, and when it was all
over we were comrades. The world I left behind was on the path to peace, not
the road to genocide!"
"The weakness of humanity to their own fear and hunger." Gaara murmured,
folding his arms over his chest and seeming to age a hundred years in a blink.
"When the villages committed to peace, we agreed to strive for a world without
violence. Shinobi weren't going to be hired thieves and murderers anymore. But
without those missions going into our pockets, the shinobi villages entered
economic decline. Protection missions also dried up, as many shinobi were only
employed as guardians against other shinobi. If we weren't killing, we didn't
need to be guarded against after all. Some found employment in other fields of
work, but for many trying to adapt was hard… too hard."
Sakura tilted her head in agreement. "Shinobi were trained to be warriors and
spies, not farmers or glassblowers. It was the only lifestyle they knew, and
when things got tough they fell back on it. We started taking on assassination
and espionage missions again, and the economy improved. The ideal of peace was
forgotten when it was war that put food on the table, and with you and Sasuke
dead everyone suddenly remembered how weak Konoha actually was. The Kyuubi did
us no favours, Orochimaru just compounded the issue, and Pein nearly destroyed
us."
A bitter chuckle burst from Sasuke's mouth; the Uchiha shaking his head
ruefully with a rustle of long dark hair. "Naruto and I fought that last time
to decide the future, and in the end we agreed to move forward with the idea
that peace could be built on bonds and mutual understanding. But everyone only
agreed to peace out of fear of our power. That's…"
The slap of Naruto's palm on the tabletop was deafening, cutting off Sasuke's
rumination with an echoing clap. "No." the jinchuuriki decided, lurching to his
feet with a flash of blue fire in his eyes. "I'm not going to accept that. We
weren't wrong the first time, Sasuke. Peace though understanding is possible."
A curled fist thumped against Naruto's thigh as the blond glowered in
frustration. "I didn't want to be reborn this way, but I'm here now, and I'm
going to figure out what went wrong and fix it. That's my promise for this
lifetime, and I never go back on my word!"
The pinched look on Sakura's face relaxed into gentle nostalgia and exasperated
fondness. "That's the knucklehead I remember."
"Sasuke." Turning on the spot, the Uzumaki fixed a sharp stare on his undead
friend. There was no frivolity pulling at his whiskered cheeks or humor
gleaming in his gaze. The only thing that could be found was burning resolve
and diamond determination. It was the gaze of the king. "Will you help me?"
And there he was, Sasuke realized. Naruto's second life had taught him to be
polished like a son of the nobility, but it had also stolen the magnetic
gravitas that had enabled a blond orphan to change the world. Perhaps it was
being in his old body that did it, or possibly it was finally taking up a goal
he cared passionately for, but that certain spark was back.
A smile curved gravedirt lips. "Moron... do you even have to ask?" Sasuke would
be standing there next to him; right to the very end.
***** Chapter 2 *****
Naruto wrapped his worn tan headscarf tighter around his face, covering
everything up to the eyes in an effort to keep the blowing sand of the desert
out of his mouth. Sweat stung the corner of his vision; brought out by the
blaze of the sun despite the late hour of the day.
"I still think you should have just used Tailed Beast Mode. Scurrying around
like rats is beneath us."
"Settle down, Kurama." The blond muttered, bracing his knees when a strong gust
of wind pulled at their travelling party. "This way is smarter and you know
it."
"Tch."
When he'd been a kid Naruto never would have let himself travel anywhere so
covered up. Everything he did had been about getting noticed.
But he was much older and wiser now. They had to stay below the radar if they
didn't want his and Sasuke's return to be blabbed about from one end of the
continent to the other. Secrecy was important, so he hadn't kicked up a fuss
about taking the longer route to Sunagakure.
If they were discovered before they'd had a chance to come up with a good plan,
there was no telling how the other villages would react. Twenty years dead had
probably dented his reputation, so the younger generation of ninja from Kumo or
Iwa might think his story was just a bunch of puffed up bullshit and do nothing
about it. Or they could panic and escalate from the current stalemate into
total war.
In the end, they had to play their cards right to prevent more death. Naruto
wasn't dumb or selfish enough to value pride over human lives.
"Sakura." The blond coughed when the wind finally died down, falling into step
beside his aged squadmate. "What happened to everyone else? You and Gaara are
right here obviously, and Kaka-sensei…" Naruto trailed off, biting the inside
of his cheek until he drew blood.
Damn his stubborn old teacher! He would have been fine just being an Edo Tensei
summon like Sasuke, so there was no reason for Kakashi to just go and die like
that. But Kakashi had always gone the extra mile for his team. It was part of
what Naruto admired about his first sensei.
Glittering emerald orbs shifted from the distant sand dunes to peer at the
reborn jinchuuriki.
Sakura blinked the grit from her eyes, barely feeling the pain after her years
of get used to the arid clime. It was nothing compared to the agony in her
chest. "Hinata committed suicide a few months after we found you dead. Tenten
and Sai died during the invasion that destroyed Konoha. The rest of us made it
out, but not in one piece. Kiba lost his legs and Lee's blind."
Each name was like a fresh dagger to Naruto's already aching heart. He'd never
wanted to die, but knowing just how badly his absence had affected his friends
and his village made him wish more desperately than ever before that he hadn't.
If he hadn't let himself go that one night at the bar all those years ago, so
many things would be different.
"What else?"
"Shikamaru and Temari got married half a year after you died, but they got
divorced a couple of years ago and he's with Ino now. Chouji and Kankuro have
an understanding. Shino turned into a bit of a playboy, but everyone knows he's
the father of Kurenai-sensei's second kid." Sakura rattled off in a crisp tone.
"Gaara and I married for politics, right after the Exile."
Naruto was glad for the tidbits of gossip that helped distract him from
thinking about how so many of his friends were dead or crippled. "Kurenai-
sensei and Shino? That's…" he shuddered dramatically.
"What about Taka?" Sasuke spoke up for the first time in hours, his uncovered
hair rustling in the breeze. Unlike the rest of their small party, the undead
warrior made no concession to the heat and breeze he couldn't feel. "And
Orochimaru?"
The Uchiha asking after his old team and sensei wasn't entirely unexpected, but
the quiet scoff that Sakura gave off let Naruto know that even after all these
years the pink-haired woman was still holding a bit of a grudge. She blamed
them, and Orochimaru especially; for leading Sasuke away from Team Seven.
Naruto himself had forgiven Orochimaru a long time ago, but that didn't mean he
liked the man either. A creep was still a creep, no matter which team he was
playing for.
"Suigetsu went back to Kiri and reformed the Seven Swordsmen. He's now ranked
pretty high in their government and is one of our closest allies. Juugo died
when Kumo rolled right over Oto at the start of the war. Orochimaru was taken
prisoner by Iwa, but our spies say he's still not talking. Kabuto is one of our
most skilled Iryu-nin, in case you were wondering."
The absence of a particular name stuck out. "And Karin?" Sasuke prodded, his
voice coloured by only a cool sort of disinterest.
If Naruto hadn't known already, he never would have guessed his friend had
taken his distant relative as a lover once upon a time. It made him question
just how much emotion there actually had been in that affair.
Sakura's eyes crinkled with an anguish and pity. "Karin was captured by Kumo
during the fall of Konoha. They took her back to their village and put her in
one of their bloodline breeding programs. When she got pregnant she sabotaged
the electric system of the house they were keeping her in. In the end, she
burnt herself to death. It kept them from using any of her DNA after she passed
on."
"I see." Sasuke sighed raggedly, running a hand over the back of his head in a
stress-relieving gesture.
There was no reaction to the death and imprisonment of several of his old
comrades beyond that, and Naruto wondered if it was because Sasuke was simply
used to people he'd formed bonds with dying brutally. The thought was
profoundly sad.
"We're almost there." Gaara cut in, tossing a look over his shoulder as he
interrupted the depressing conversation. "Keep those scarves up – and that
includes you, Sasuke. Even twenty years later you're still recognizable, and we
don't need word about you two getting out quite yet."
Clicking his tongue at the Kazekage's order, Sasuke pulled the balled-up
headscarf from his pocket and swiftly wrapped its concealing folds around his
hair and face. "Let's just get this over with."
===============================================================================
Rias woke with a bitter aftertaste in her mouth and a heavy throbbing ache
between her eyes.
"Good, you're awake." Akeno's exhausted voice greeted her, and a soft warm hand
slithered underneath Rias' shoulders to help the redhead into a sitting
position.
Wincing at the stiff pull of muscles in her neck, Rias turned her attention to
her Queen and stopped short in shock.
Akeno looked awful, with heavy dark bags beneath her eyes and thick bloodshot
lines all through her white sclera. The skin of her face was greyed with bone
deep fatigue, and even more concerningly her pink lips had tinged to an
unhealthy blue.
"What happened?" Rias demanded in dismay. "How long was I out?"
Blinking in confusion, Akeno tilted her head. "Only a few hours, why?"
"A few hours?" The disbelief was think in Rias' strident tones. "But you look
like…" she trailed off, not quite sure how to say it without sounding outright
insulting. But it seemed like her hesitation was for naught, as Akeno suddenly
just looked very amused.
"Like death warmed over?" Akeno chuckled roughly, stepping back away from the
bed to give her mistress more space. "That's so cruel of you to say, Rias-tan."
Rias snorted at the teasing, relieved that at least that was the same and
rolling to her feet in a single smooth motion. Patting at her tangled mane in
an attempt to restore some order to the mussed strands, she smirked. "If you
have enough energy to act the fool, then you'll be alright. Now, what happened
with Ophis?"
Pouting just a bit, Akeno waved her hand about airily. "After she fed us our
reptile supplement she said she would be in touch, and then she went kapoof."
Rias frowned at that. "What do you mean us?" A niggling suspicion burbled up in
her gut, and Rias hoped she was wrong. She had decided to take on the risk of
venom alone, and she hadn't wanted the rest of her peerage to come gambling
along with her. It was stupid and unnecessary.
Scratching the side of her nose sheepishly, Akeno let her violet gaze track off
to the side to avoid meeting the redhead's piercing teal stare. "Well, once you
had the snake stuffed down your throat Yuuto raised a good point. You and
Naruto are practically brother and sister, and it would be strange if you
weren't seen together. So if you're pretending to be Naruto, then someone has
to pretend to be you, and we all agreed that I was the best choice. And then
Ophis made it happen."
"Idiots, all of you!" Rias exploded, clapping a hand to her forehead and giving
an exasperated groan. The Ruin Princess had no words to describe just how
thoughtless they were rushing ahead like that without even asking for her
opinion. Soul binding magic was complex and dangerous.
It was bad enough that one of their little family had to take the risk of
switching between bodies to keep Naruto's absence and past life a secret, but
playing a game of musical chairs with possession was just asking for trouble.
"You're being too reckless!"
Akeno gave her best friend a chilly glare. "And who exactly decided you're the
only one that is allowed to take risks, Rias? Because the last time I checked,
we were all treating each other as equals. You and Naruto might be nobility by
birth, but we're your friends, not your slaves. And if we want to stick our
necks out for you, we will. That's what love is about in the first place."
The rebuke came like a slap to the face, driving Rias to recoil with a jaw
clenched in indignation. Maybe it wasn't some rule they'd explicitly laid out,
but the redhead thought it was pretty clearly implied. The older members of her
peerage took care of the younger ones, and the strong defended the weak.
Rias was the second oldest and the strongest in their little family, with the
protection and resources of the nobility on top of it. Out of all of them, she
was the most qualified to take risks and make decisions. For anyone that wasn't
Sasuke to step up and throw themselves in danger alongside her without so much
as a 'by-your-leave' felt bizarre and disorienting.
Then again, maybe she should have expected it. Having lost her family once and
spending years on the run made Akeno even more reckless than Rias herself could
be. A few years of stability wouldn't tame the underlying insecurity.
So rather than throw down the gauntlet over Akeno's choice, Rias just screwed
on a blandly polite smile instead. "Well, I suppose it's too late to do
anything about it now." If she couldn't change things, Rias would just work
with them as they were.
She was good at that.
===============================================================================
The moon was high in the sky, hanging fat and pale like a swollen melon by the
time they slipped into the backstreets of Sunagakure. More than one patrolling
guard had flitted by overhead to inspect their party, but they always cleared
out once Gaara made a wiggling motion with his left hand.
Naruto couldn't help but find it amusing. Secret handshakes and code words?
Maybe the whole Kage game was much less serious than he'd always thought it
was, and much more like a bunch of kids playing in their secret base? The
Konohamaru Corps would have pissed themselves with glee back in the day if they
knew.
"I don't think you're one to talk. All you ever did was whine on and on about
being the Hokage."
"Shut it, furball."
Knuckling the sand out of one eye, Naruto dogged Sakura's footsteps as she led
him to one of the many squat homesteads that populated Suna. It looked exactly
like the dozen houses they'd already passed, and if not for the swelling
sensation of chakra at the edge of his still rusty senses Naruto wouldn't have
thought it was any different from the rest.
Sakura coughed dryly, knocking on the door twice, then five times, then once,
and then finally eight times. "Hurry it up, Kazui-kun!" She harangued in a
rolling tone better suited to a peasant fishwife than the Nanadaime Hokage.
"The dango is getting cold!"
"Troublesome bitch." A baritone voice rumbled from the other side of the door,
vaguely familiar and accompanied by the sound of a lock clicking open. "I knew
I should have told your parents to piss off with the whole marriage idea."
"Oh sure, I'm the problem." Sakura snapped as the door cracked open, turning to
usher in her followers without missing a beat in her contrived ranting. "It's
not that you smoke too much or that you drink too much, oh no. It's all me."
Naruto slipped through the thin opening, squinting his eyes as they were
plunged into complete darkness. The only thing he could see was Sasuke's
faintly burning Sharingan hovering in pitch black.
And then with the stink of burning pitch orange light flared. "About time you
got here." Shikamaru muttered, angry red scars curving across the planes of his
face as he harshly studied the two resurrected shinobi. "I expected you three
hours ago."
"There were complications with the Edo Tensei." Gaara replied frostily,
shucking off his cloak before squarely meeting his ex-brother-in-law's dark
eyes. "We needed more sacrifices to bind their souls than we expected, and
ended up burning through every volunteer before we managed to take hold of
them."
"Tch." The Nara grunted, holding his torch aloft to better considering Naruto's
lively flush and the grey pallor of Sasuke's undead flesh. "Well, at least it
was worth it."
"Sacrifices?" Naruto questioned lowly, with a particular edge to his words that
only came from slow-building fury. Both he and Sasuke were intimately aware of
what price had to be paid to use Edo Tensei or Rinne Tensei: at least one life
for each jutsu. But Gaara's words fairly clearly suggested they'd needed more
than that. "How many people, exactly, died to bring us back here?"
"One hundred each." Sakura broke in clinically, flicking the lock shut with
calloused fingers before grabbing the torch from Shikamaru's lazy grip and
plodding through the hallways of the empty home.
Left with no choice but to follow if he was going to get answers, Naruto
clenched his jaw and stomped after the pink haired woman.
More and more the blond was questioning what the fuck had happened to everyone.
He'd died and had faith that his friends would at least be able to carry on his
dream. Instead he came back to discover they were all dabbling in murder and
human sacrifice.
They descended a vast spiraling staircase, tunneling deep into the earth until
all sounds of the world above had faded away and the only sound was Naruto's
thrumming pulse in his ears. "Hey, are we almost there?" he prodded, breaking
the silence with a huff.
"Almost." Gaara answered, abruptly turning in place and feeling along the
bricked walls of the stairwell. Nimble fingers slid into recessed caches, and
the redhead shoved forward, pushing a hidden door inward on its hinges.
Coughing at the stale air, Naruto waved the dust away and moved into a great
chamber bathed in golden light and filled with the scent of wax candles.
"Yo, Naruto."
A grin split the jinchuuriki's lips, and for the first time in hours he felt
something like steady ground underneath his feet. "Wassup, dogbreath?" he shot
back, a teasing twinkle in his eye as he set his gaze on Kiba.
The Inuzuka clan head had let himself go in the decades since they'd last seen
each other. What used to be a tightly muscled abdomen had grown into a meaty
belly, pushing against the roughspun cotton of Kiba's tunic and jiggling when
the man patted at his great stomach. Really, the only thing that was the same
was the shaggy hair and the thick red tattoos marking his flabby face. "Just
waiting for you to lounge your wussy ass in here foxboy."
Naruto refused to look away from the stumps of Kiba's legs, rounded at the knee
and covered up with rolls of cloth and blankets. It would demean his old bar
buddy if he started treating the man like a freakshow cripple. So even if it
made his heart ache in his chest, Naruto was determined not to react to it.
"Well, better late than never, ne?"
The fanged grin on Kiba's face twisted. "Yeah." He replied, a brittle sound to
his booming voice.
"So, who all else is here?" Naruto questioned with a practiced smirk, azure
gaze shifting from one face to the next. Shino he had expected, and Chouji's
stern face; but the heavily pregnant Ino was a bit of a shock. "Fuck, you look
like you're about to pop!"
Sakura slapped the blond across the back of the head, near two decades later
but with all the familiar reflex of yesterday. "Naruto." The Hokage groaned,
shaking out her hand and glaring half-heartedly at her wincing squadmate.
Barking a sharp laugh, Ino cradled a protective hand over her belly and eyed
Naruto with an expression of nostalgic fondness. "I see you haven't changed."
She mused, cocking a pale eyebrow when Sasuke huffed. "And neither did you,
Sasuke-kun."
The smile Naruto offered the hodgepodge collection of his old friends was only
a little strained. Sure, there seemed to be too many faces missing. And sure,
the ones that were there were all marred by war scars and old despair, but they
were still his old comrades. If he turned away from them now just because
they'd had a few tragedies or because they were a little weathered, he couldn't
claim to be Uzumaki Naruto.
"So, what's the plan?"
***** Chapter 3 *****
Inhaling a lungful of smoke, Shikamaru pursed his lips around the stub of his
cigarette and bent over the pitted table that Sakura had spread a yellowed map
over. "We're thinking that we can smash their lines here and here."
The Nara traced curving lines that advanced from Suna's hinterland; deep into
the Land of Fire. "We want to move fast and hard, and reoccupy Konoha by the
third day. At that point, the element of surprise will be gone."
Naruto studied the shaded areas of the map representing lost territory with a
frown. Objectively he'd know it had to be bad, but it was different when he
actually could see how much of his homeland had been lost. Only a shallow
crescent along the southern shoreline between Kaze no Kuni and Mizu no Kuni was
still in the hands of Konoha-nin.
"Sasuke and I should split up then." Naruto decided, glancing at the Uchiha for
any traces of disagreement. "I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but
I'm pretty sure they don't have anyone hanging around that could take either
one of us. So it'll move faster if we each take a half."
"Tch, fine." Sasuke grunted, folding his arms over his chest with a faint creak
of splitting gravedirt flesh.
The sound brought a disgusted grimace to Kiba's face, and the shaggy haired man
made a quiet attempt to wheel away.
Shikamaru blinked in bemusement. "That's what I would've suggested." He
demurred. Maybe twenty years had passed and made his memory a bit foggy, but he
was pretty sure that the Naruto who'd died hadn't even been that tactically
aware. Did the jinchuuriki mature in the afterlife, or was there some other
factor at play transforming him from a living wrecking ball to a somewhat
competent strategist?
"Look." Naruto huffed, stepping closer to the table and gently nudging Sakura
out of the way. "If we follow the road system we're going to run into a few
choke points. Nothing we can't handle." He reassured the room at large without
removing his sharp gaze from the yellowed map. "But you might want to take the
time to really occupy them so you can use them as supply lines to Konoha. It
would stretch it out to four days, but we'd be better off."
"I agree." Sasuke offered, speaking up to contribute for the first time since
the discussion began. Compared to Naruto he was much less enthusiastic about
getting involved with the reconquest of Konoha, and it showed in his silence.
"You don't have a guarantee on how long the war will run, and they have
significantly more resources than you do. Give them time to retreat and fortify
your lines. If you try to force them into battles of annihilation you'll make
them desperate and run up the casualties on both sides."
Holding his palm up to forestall any further debate, Gaara offered his support.
"We'll go with Naruto's plan. Our alliance doesn't have the numbers theirs
does, and because we've kept Naruto's return and this invasion a secret we
won't have reinforcements from our allies. We don't have the manpower to
sustain heavy losses, so we need to focus on preserving our armies while
achieving strategic objectives."
"So there's no reason to go crazy about it and try to kill as many people as
possible." Naruto mumbled, shrugging off the sharp look his comment drew from
Sakura.
He didn't give a damn if it was an unpopular opinion. Naruto understood the
hunger for vengeance that his friends had, but that didn't mean he was going to
support it. Sasuke had caused enough trouble with that particular urge the
first time, and he had only been one guy. An entire village crazed for revenge
would be an utter clusterfuck. The only way to build peace in the long run was
to break the chain of hatred and step forward into the future together.
There was no point to taking back Konoha if it just led to more conflict and
more killing. They needed open dialogue and a new system that would deal with
the problems they'd had the first time they tried to build a world without war.
Thankfully, he had come up with a plan as soon as Sakura started talking about
invasions. Taking back their homeland would be enough to show the world that he
was really back and that the Southern Alliance had some actual bite.
At that point, Naruto just needed to get everyone around the table to hash out
the peace details. It would be easy enough to get started, even if all the
treaty haggling and paper pushing would make him want to dig his own eyes out
with rusty spoons.
===============================================================================
If there was one thing about Naruto that Sasuke had learned over the years, it
was that his friend never knew when to quit and take a breather. The
indomitable fire in the belly that Naruto possessed had led the man to some of
his greatest victories, but it also made him neglect his own wellbeing when the
pressure mounted.
So when Naruto's hands started faintly trembling, Sasuke knew he had to step in
before the blond ran himself into the ground.
"Stop wasting time." The Uchiha declared, shifting his dim red gaze from one
tired shinobi to the next. Exhaustion stamped itself into their faces with
wrinkles and dark bags; the hours long discussion taking its toll after having
continued through the night and into the early morning. "You've already decided
on your deployments. Now you're just talking in circles."
Sakura clicked her tongue irritably setting one hand on her hip as she glared
at her ex-squadmate. The lack of slavish adoration in her eyes still shocked
Sasuke from time to time, but he supposed that two decades of warfare would
change even that.
"Fine. Everyone head home and get some rest. We'll be moving at the end of the
week. Until then, no one say anything about Naruto or Sasuke. If word gets out
it'll be catastrophic for our plans."
A chorus of agreements escaped the crowd as they shuffled away in a fatigued
mass, leaving the resurrected shinobi alone with the two Kage.
"We need to get back to the office as well." Gaara explained, mismatched gaze
soft and wistful as he spoke to Naruto. "We'd like it if you two remained here.
I understand the accommodations aren't ideal, but as Sakura said we can't
afford to have word of your presence getting out quite yet. Until then
Shikamaru will look after you. There are a couple of spare rooms here for you
to use."
Glancing towards the short hallway tunneled into the back corner of the
conference room, Naruto gave an exasperated sigh and nodded. "Fine, fine. Ya
gotta do what ya gotta do." He didn't want to spend the next few days hiding in
what was basically a cave, but it seemed he didn't have much of a choice.
After exchanging goodbyes with the blond and the taciturn Uchiha, the two Kages
departed, leaving them alone for the first time in nearly twenty hours.
Naruto made it half a minute before exhaling all his breath in a ragged whoosh,
sagging down and steadying himself against the nicked roundtable. "What the
fuck." He cursed as anger mingled with despair. "I knew it was bad after they
gave us the rundown, but to actually see them…"
All the emotions in Naruto's chest tangled up into a wretched ball that seemed
to stick in his throat, choking out every breath he tried to take and making
his head swim.
Near two decades in another world had dulled the pain of losing all his bonds
and the life he'd built for himself. With difficulty, Naruto had come to terms
with it all. A quick peek at a happy and safe Konoha was all he would have
asked for, and he'd have been able to close the cover on his old life entirely.
Instead Naruto woke up and was forced to come face to face with the living
ashes of his dreams, seeing the devastation marked in scars and the conspicuous
absence of deceased comrades. He was surrounded by familiar strangers, and
could only hope that if he managed to do it right this time that he'd feel less
like an interloper and more like he'd actually come home.
"Uzumaki Naruto."
Jerkin violently as he was torn from his spiraling thoughts, Naruto flipped the
table and turned on the spot with a livid expression. "Don't do that. Fuck,
what's wrong with you?"
Ophis blinked, tilting her head at the worn out jinchuuriki before glancing at
Sasuke's amused smirk. "I felt speaking to you directly as soon as your human
compatriots departed was ideal, since there is no need for them to know about
me. Do you disagree?"
"Now I just know that you're pulling my leg." Naruto grumbled, shoving aside
all the memories of Kiba's broken body and Lee's broken mind to focus solely on
the Ouroboros Dragon. As long as he had something else to fixate on he didn't
need to think about how his fingers were shaking in his pockets or the nauseous
burn in his throat. "But fine, what's happening over there?"
Frowning at the mortal's demanding tone, Ophis primly dusted off her shoulder
before settling her glittering grey stare on the whiskers adorning Naruto's
cheeks. "I have contracted Rias Gremory to possess your body and act as a
suitable substitute for you during your stay here. When you return your
position in society will be undisturbed. The circumstances are not ideal, but I
will facilitate your travels regardless, as per our agreement."
"Possession is a dangerous spell." Sasuke pointed out with a thin veneer of
mildness over aggression. One word might be enough to move him to violence or
sooth his protective temper.
"I will sustain her existence the same way I've sustained yours." Leaving
Sasuke to mull over that bland reassurance, Ophis directed her next words at
Naruto. "Since I suspect you would prefer to handle the situation here without
my interference, I will leave it in your hands. Expect my return with a method
of communication in the coming days."
And then Ophis vanished in a puff of oily mist.
"Bitch." Naruto muttered, running a hand through his hair and exhaling
irritably. "I'm starting to get real fuckin' pissed off at the way everyone
seems to want to yank our chains lately. Do this, do that, remember this, bah!"
Quirking one eyebrow up as Naruto began to work himself into a spitting fury,
Sasuke reached out and flicked the whiskered blond on the ear. "Go to bed,
moron. You're not achieving anything getting all worked up." He'd remain on
guard out in the meeting room, needing neither food nor rest to sustain his
undead flesh.
"You're going to be the next one on my shit list if you keep that up."
===============================================================================
"Naruto is going to be a problem."
Rolling up the latest report on the economic decline of Suna with calloused
hands, Gaara threw it aside and rolled over to face his wife. "Perhaps." The
Kazekage allowed, fingering idly at the threadbare futon beneath them. "He's
slightly different, but death kept him young. Hopefully experiencing more of
the real world will cure him of his idealism."
Decades ago labelling Naruto a mere idealist would have been outright heresy
for Gaara, who had worshipped his fellow jinchuuriki like that blond was his
own personal prophet. But years of war had made him hard and bitter, and the
eyes that he looked out at the world with were jaded. He'd make allowances for
nostalgia, but that would only make him bend so far to accommodate Naruto.
Sakura snorted, sprawling on her back and settling her hands behind her head.
"I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope for that. I grew up with him and I remember
just how stupidly stubborn he is. He chased after Sasuke for years, not to
mention how he basically forced people to acknowledge him rather than the fox.
We admired it back then, but now it could get pretty damn inconvenient. I don't
think anything is going to make him wake up to how the world really works."
"Then put it out of your mind." Gaara suggested, letting his eyes flutter shut
as he struggled to relax and find a few hours of sleep. "Even if he disagrees
with us, it's not in his nature to betray us and side with our enemies. At
worst, we'll take back Konoha and then he'll unintentionally intimidate
everyone into a watchful peace. We can rebuild without fear of invasion as long
as he's alive, and if you don't name him your successor or pick a new Hokage
that would abdicate to him, we can keep him isolated from the levers of power.
He's a dreamer, not a builder, so he'll never be a serious opponent during
peacetime politics."
"Fair enough." Sakura mumbled back, not entirely appeased but willing to drop
it for now and let her husband get to sleep. Rationally, she knew Gaara was
right. If Naruto was truly so clever and manipulative, he would have been the
Rokudaime rather than Kakashi. Age wasn't a true impediment for charismatic
visionaries, as the Sandaime and Yondaime had proven, and a crafty Naruto could
have leaned on his war hero status to take the hat.
But Sakura couldn't quite shake the feeling that Naruto was not the same boy
she'd buried all those years ago. The Naruto she'd just finished a meeting with
was softer spoken, visibly watchful, and displayed a strategic insight she'd
never seen in the 'old' Naruto.
Some might dismiss her feelings as paranoia, but Sakura had learned the hard
way that it was paranoia that truly kept a shinobi alive. If Konoha had been
more suspicious of her so-called allies, they wouldn't have all been caught
with their pants down by the declaration of war.
So maybe it was just her hard-wired anxiety talking, but no matter what
happened; Sakura would be ready. If Naruto listened and learnt from their
experiences, then that was fine. And if he didn't, then she'd do whatever had
to be done for the sake of Konoha.
===============================================================================
Shifting into Naruto's body felt all kinds of wrong.
When Rias had first began feeding her energy into the ensorcelled black
gemstone pendant Ophis had given her, she'd expected a bit of disorientation as
her mind travelled between bodies. A dizzy spell, a bit of darkness, and then
she'd open her eyes having completed the shift.
Instead, she felt like she was falling, sinking through thick black oil that
choked out every bubble of air from her lungs. And in the last moment, when
Rias was sure she'd break from the combination of pain and fear, she passed
through to the other side and jolted into awareness.
Sucking in a gasp, Rias opened her eyes.
The sight of her own body slumped over in a fluffy scarlet armchair greeted
her, pallor colouring aristocratic cheekbones an unhealthy grey and darkening
pink lips to a sickly blue.
"Akeno." Rias rasped, flinching at the pained sting that Naruto's vocal chords
gave. Several days without use had stiffened up all the muscles in his body,
and a little pain was to be expected. She wasn't disturbed by the masculine
timbre that accompanied her words. She wasn't.
"You're back with us?" Cloth rustled as Akeno strode into Rias' line of vision
and settled a hand on one skirt-clad hip. "Does it all seem to be in working
order? No shakiness or numbness?"
Heaving Naruto's body to its feet, Rias rolled her shoulders and stretched out
the kinks. "No." she decided, cracking fingers that felt just a little too
thick and calloused. "Everything is stiff, but that's just to be expected after
laying around for a few days with no activity. I don't feel like my control
itself is subpar."
As the words rolled off Naruto's tongue, Rias found the movements of her lips
growing less stilted with every syllable. Even with a new metaphorical driver,
the muscles of her nephew's body had their own memory. Giving herself over to
instinct made everything easier, but it increased the disturbing feeling that
she wasn't truly in control of herself.
Irrationally, it reminded Rias of the horror stories she'd read where the
protagonist ended up a prisoner in their own body.
"That's good." Akeno made a face, calling into question just how sincere that
sentiment really was.
Sure, possession was nothing more or less than what they'd agreed to. But soul
magic was taboo for a reason, and knowing there was someone else behind
Naruto's azure eyes probably gave the Thunder Priestess visceral chills. "Well,
there's no time to waste then. You and Ravel are going to be practicing a mock
dinner in an hour, so you should get ready. I'll hide your body with Sasuke's."
Tousling crimson strands that felt distressingly short, Rias grimaced. It
wasn't that she disliked Ravel by any means, but playing the blonde's lover was
quite a few steps out of her comfort zone. Playing Akeno's lover on her own
time was difficult enough, even if it had become shockingly easy once the
initial hump was crossed. Adding another layer of emotional deception would be
draining. "Alright, but first I want to try something."
Rias turned inward, brushing aside the dark siren call of the gemstone necklace
around Naruto's neck that was paired with her own. As comforting as returning
to her own body would be, she couldn't afford to be weak now. She'd already
agreed to walk down this path, and she intended to see it through to the end.
Seizing control of the flowing red energy that seethed through Naruto's every
cell, Rias pulled and shaped. Enchantment surged forth, bucking against an
unfamiliar master and searing with raw heat. There was so much power that rose
up at her command, and Rias couldn't help but marvel at just how strong her
nephew had become.
And then the Ruin Princess let go, sparking red lightning from the tips of
blunted fingernails that crackled into the small forks of a handheld electric
storm. Blood and ashes it hurt. The pain was so sudden and sharp that Rias
couldn't help but wonder why Naruto's body seemed unharmed. Of course, it was
his magic, and forcing it to answer to her would never come without cost.
But despite the psychic pain Rias could command it, and for the sake of their
ruse that was all she needed.
***** Chapter 4 *****
After three days of living in what was little more than a well-lit cave, Naruto
was starting to get just a little prickly. Conversation with Sasuke had gotten
stilted after the first day since neither of them felt like it would be a great
idea to start talking about their life in Gehenna while surrounded by shinobi.
It was like there was an invisible line dividing one world from the other, and
neither wanted to cross it.
Or maybe they just didn't want to face the judgement that would probably be in
their comrades' eyes when everyone realized that while the shinobi had been
fighting and dying, Naruto and Sasuke had been living it up. Things in Hell had
been pretty damned luxurious, and they'd made no real efforts to find a way
back home.
Sighing explosively, Naruto pressed his face closer into the thin mattress of
his rusted cot and shoved those heavy thoughts away. It was better that he
dwelled on something more mundane, like that fact that he was bored out of his
mind!
At the least he'd hoped that his old friends would take advantage of the time
before the storm to drop by and catch up, but the only person he'd seen besides
Sasuke was Shikamaru. And while the strategist would answer Naruto's questions,
it wasn't the same as speaking to the actual people he once called nakama.
"Stop whining. It's annoying." Sasuke demanded coolly, his dim red gaze
shifting away from counting the cracks in the ceiling to stare at Naruto's
prone form. There was no heat in his words, just a steel-edged sort of
resignation. It was like all the passion had been drained out of Sasuke,
leaving only an unbending need to succeed and a willingness to endure beyond
human limits.
Naruto had an inkling that was how Uchiha had dealt with the endless tension on
the front lines of the war with Mictlan, and wondered if he'd turn out to be
just as jaded over the next few months. It was a frightening thought.
Rolling onto his back, Naruto gazed up at the sandstone ceiling with a clenched
jaw. "I hate this." He confessed, knowing Sasuke would understand exactly what
he meant. He hated not knowing how their friends back in Gehenna were doing. He
hated waking up in a world where everything had gone so horrifically wrong. He
hated seeing the broken pieces of his friends that had been left behind by war
and violence. The destruction of Lee's eyes, the loss of Kiba's legs, the
deaths of Tenten and Hinata and Sai and all the rest – he hated it all.
And most of all, Naruto hated the way that he no longer understood anyone
around him. He was surrounded by familiar strangers in what had become a land
foreign to his memories. Nothing and no one were the way he remembered them,
and the longer he looked the more the rose tint faded from his eyes. What
exactly had he missed so desperately?
===============================================================================
A quiet jolt of sorcery sent warmth back into her cooled mug of hot chocolate,
and with a quiet sip Ravel considered Naruto's swaggering steps. Or rather, she
considered the self-confident gait Rias made as she moved her nephew's body
back and forth across the lounge. "Try and make it just a touch less effusive
and I think you'll have it."
"Try to frown a bit less." Akeno chimed in, shifting her teal gaze up briefly
before returning to the paper crane she was folding.
Just as Rias was settling into Naruto's body, Akeno was getting used to Rias'.
It was an ongoing project, since while they'd been comfortable enough to be
seen briefly passing through by the unfamiliar public, there was always the
possibility that those who actually knew Naruto and Rias would pick up on
something being wrong.
The quest for the perfect façade had turned a bit neurotic, if Ravel was
entirely honest. Not that she blamed the others considering the enormity of the
secret they were trying to contain. One mistake could lead to their collective
ruin.
Smoothing the muscles of her brow, Rias quirked the edge of Naruto's mouth up
in a lopsided grin and winked at Ravel. "Better?"
"Better."
Giving a tired sigh of relief, Rias flopped down in a faded green armchair and
slung her knees over the side in a lazy gesture that was more like the boy she
was pretending to be than her true self. "I hope we're ready for this." She
muttered, knuckling at the bridge of her nose. In just a few short hours they'd
be meeting her parents for an informal supper, and they'd finally find out if
all their practicing could hold up the ruse.
A sudden knock at the door startled the three young women into watchful
stillness, drawing their stares to the dark double doors.
Rias and Akeno traded looks before the Thunder Priestess grimaced and mimicked
Rias' cultured tones. "You may enter."
There was no creak from the well-oiled hinges as Yuuto cracked open the door
and poked his head in. Rather than offer words, the blond Knight just gave a
strained smile before shoving the door fully open to lead Ophis in.
Koneko dogged at the Ouroboros Dragons' heels, amber orbs drilling into the
back of the gothic lolita's head. Her semi-hostile vigilance was a visible
expression of the inner feelings of both peerages, who'd reluctantly accepted
that the goddess was part of their life now; knowing there was little they
could really do but accommodate Ophis' whims.
Without Ophis, they had no chance of getting Naruto or Sasuke back.
But that didn't mean that dealing with her dictates and lack of regard didn't
rankle.
"What can we do for you?" Rias greeted, skipping over the pleasantries she knew
Ophis didn't really care about.
Ophis' expression remained placid as she considered the two young women. "You
are taking advantage of the artifacts I created for you. Do not use them for
longer than six hours at a time. Your life force is being drained to sustain
the possession, and your true bodies may expire if you exceed that limit."
The look Yuuto gave her was utterly horrified, but Rias brushed it off; just
like she brushed off the sudden chill of fear in her gut. They'd never used the
crystals for longer than four hours at a time, so it wasn't like she had come
near to accidentally killing herself. "Thank you for the warning, but I doubt
giving it is why you came here today."
"Indeed." Letting her focus drift idly from one face to the next, Ophis finally
settled on squarely meeting Valerie's timid crimson eyes. "While they are in
the other world Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke have no method of
independently contacting me, and I have no desire to constantly observe them.
Their chakra would be unable to interface with any relics I gave them.
Therefore, I will transport two of you to that world and give you the ability
to call on me."
Ravel's first instinct was to volunteer herself, but she only got as far as
setting her mug of cocoa to the side before her rational side reasserted
itself. She doubted that Ophis was going to be a daily ferry, so whoever was
brought dimension hopping would be in for the long haul. Rias couldn't go
because she had to pretend to be Naruto, Akeno couldn't go because she had to
pretend to be Rias, and Ravel herself couldn't go because she had a high
profile of her own.
If the pinched quality Rias gave Naruto's mouth was any indication, the Ruin
Princess had come to the same conclusion as Ravel.
"I will go." Koneko declared neutrally, folding her hands behind her back with
all the rigid tension of a trained soldier. "Yuuto may be needed to act as
Rias' escort to social events, and Gasper is too young to be involved in this."
"Very well." Ophis accepted before anyone could raise an objection. "And the
other?"
"What do you mean 'other'?" Rias questioned sharply, the baritone in her
borrowed voice rumbling with hints of tense displeasure. "Surely you only need
to borrow one of us?" Maybe it was a bit petty of her, but their little family
was already strained at the seams. Why did Ophis seem so content to scatter
them to the winds?
For the first time since she'd entered the room Ophis' blank façade slid away,
with her eyebrows pinching together in irritation and impatience. "Naruto and
Sasuke will not necessarily travel together. In fact, based on the babblings of
those humans they are currently aligned with, they will make a habit of
operating separately. Therefore, it would be more prudent if they each
travelled with someone capable of making contract with me. I have no desire to
squander the investment I have made in them because of sentiment. Now, who is
the other?"
Rias clenched her jaw, but subsided into sullen silence when Akeno placed a
cautionary hand on her shoulder.
"It's me." Valerie spoke up, breaking the tense stillness with an unusual steel
note to her voice. Even her slitted red eyes had shifted from quiet anxiety to
a gentle sort of determination. "There's no one else who can go, unless we tell
other people about Naruto's secret. Which I'm not going to do, and which I'm
not going to let anyone else here do. So, it has to be me."
"Yeah." Ravel sighed to herself, ducking her head down and picking at the edge
of her fingernail to hide her discontented expression. "It does."
===============================================================================
Naruto wrinkled his nose at the smell of horseflesh, pulling his kasa down to
better cover his eyes and absently chewing the stalk of wheat he'd plucked from
the roadside. They might still be in southern marches of Hi no Kuni patrolled
by Konoha-nin, but the demarcation line was rolling closer with every second
and his disguise needed to hold up until the last possible moment.
"I don't suppose you've got a bit more of that jerky?" Naruto prodded the
driver as he leaned back against the straw-filled cart, rubbing a hand over his
rumbling belly and wishing they'd been given rations of ramen rather than dried
beef. "I'm starving!"
A thick-set brown moustache twitched as the driver – whose name Naruto really
couldn't remember – glared out of the corner of his verdant eyes. "No." the
Suna-nin intoned deeply, looking like he was swallowing down a barrage of
prickly curses. The obvious frustration was almost enough to make Naruto feel
sorry for the guy.
Almost. The driver was just too much of a prick for Naruto to feel real
contrition.
"Alright, alright, fine." The jinchuuriki moaned lowly, rubbing a knuckle into
the thick-smeared makeup that hid his birthmarks. "There's no need to get your
panties in a bunch over it."
"Hmph."
Rolling his eyes at the dismissal, Naruto let his focus drift back out over the
grassy countryside. The warm sun beaming down over the enormous prairie was
nostalgic. How many dozens of times had he seen a similar landscape when he'd
gone to visit Gaara for a while all those years ago? The sight made him feel
just a little bit closer to home, as opposed to the creeping alienation he'd
experienced living underground in Suna.
"Do you think they're already there?" the blond questioned vaguely to break the
silence. 'Them' being Sasuke's group and 'there' being the point of invasion.
The final plan had first contact expected for high noon – rather than in the
middle of the night like a cliché – and Naruto's own caravan was right on
schedule. But was Sasuke on time, or had the Uchiha been delayed? Maybe
Sasuke's status as a literal zombie made him push on faster than Naruto's
convoy.
It wasn't that Naruto was worried about Sasuke per se, but he still liked to
know what was going on. Especially now that he'd come back to find half his
friends dead or crippled simply because he wasn't around to watch over them.
"No. There's no reason to expect them to be, and our friends are a pretty
punctual sort. They wouldn't have pushed through the night and risked a lame
horse." The reply was absent and meandering, which was exactly the sort of
response any watching Kumo-nin might expect out of a real civilian farmer.
Or from two ninja in disguise with another six hidden in the hay behind them,
pretending to be nothing more than a pair of rubes.
The blast of flame and fury was as sudden as a thunderbolt, slamming into the
side of the cart and making it explode into a conflagration of woodchips, grass
seed, and swollen embers.
"Contact left!" Was shouted in the vicinity of Naruto's feet, and with a slow
sigh he realized that he'd been blown off to lay spread-eagled in the ditch.
Rolling languidly to his feet, Naruto dusted the soot from his green tunic.
"And this is why you should let me use sage mode, ya idiots." He mumbled,
cracking his neck and wiping a bit of soot from his cheek before finally
turning to consider the battlefield.
Streaks of dark brown flitted over the grasslands to the north as a squad of
Iwa shinobi dodged his team's attempts to return fire. The air was full of ash
and the coppery scent of blood, and Naruto knew that one of the men placed
under his command had died in the first strike. He spared an absent thought of
regret for the loss before putting it out of his mind.
The surprise had whittled things down to ten on seven, not counting Naruto
himself.
Evidently, their disguise had been less perfect than they'd hoped, but better
than they'd feared. A squad of ten is what Kumo might sent to be part of a
routine border skirmish. It wasn't nearly enough to fight off a sustained
invasion, especially when the attacking team had a jinchuuriki at their backs.
Naruto gave his shoulders a final roll to work out the kinks, and then opened
himself up to Kurama.
The sensation of red demonic chakra seething into his system hit the blond like
a drug, shrinking his slitted pupils to pinpricks and making his heart thunder
in his chest. It was only a fraction of the power Kurama could give him, but
the burn was so nostalgic and invigorating that Naruto found himself giving an
involuntary feral grin.
It had been too long since he'd been in true open battle like he'd been born
for, and even though he could kick the ass of every shinobi on the field with
one arm tied behind his back; Naruto wanted to give himself over to the joy of
battle. A few back-alley fights in Azmarin had nothing on real ninja combat.
Rocketing forward like an arrow launched from a bowstring, Naruto barreled
right past his startled allies and picked out his first target. A green eyed
blonde-haired Iwa jounin swiftly found himself with a knee to the face,
knocking him out instantly and leaving Naruto profoundly unsatisfied.
"Oh, come on, is that all you guys have?" he complained, turning on the spot to
face a shocked red-haired woman. "I'll even give you the first shot." Naruto
offered, letting his arms flop lazily to his sides. "Make it count."
The combination of nonchalance and implied mockery was enough to push the woman
from surprise to anger, and with a heavy surge of chakra she formed three one
handed seals. A thick spray of lava burst from her mouth, glowing bright orange
and setting the grassland aflame in a dozen places as the torrent arced towards
her target.
Naruto blinked and hopped to the side, clearing several yards in a single bound
and quirking an eyebrow as the continuous stream of magma followed. "You
wouldn't happen to be related to the old Mizukage, would ya?" he wondered
aloud, not bothering to wait for an answer as he ducked low and lunged.
The smack of his fist on the tender flesh of the redhead's stomach was loud
enough to be heard over the clash of combat surrounding them, and Naruto winced
as she collapsed bonelessly over his arm. He'd been trying to scale back the
power in his strike, but it was still a one hit knockout. Twenty years in
Gehenna hadn't done anything for his control, and he'd forgotten just how much
stronger he was than the common shinobi.
"They're all weak." Kurama rumbled, irritated at his host's antics. The bijuu's
disapproval prompted a scowl from his host.
"So I'll just go after them like they're made of wet paper." Naruto shot back,
quickly engaging a ponytailed brunette. This time his punch was only enough to
knock the man back, rather than disable his opponent completely. "And why does
it bother you so much anyway?"
"It's a waste of our time."
Naruto disagreed, but he knew that Kurama would never agree with him on this,
so there was no point in arguing over it. The fox only found joy in overcoming
strong opponents or in mercilessly crushing weak challengers. The thought of
trying to meet someone on the field of combat with equal strength simply to
feel the joy of pitting skill against skill held no appeal to Kurama.
Blocking an overhead axe kick with his forearms, Naruto decided Kurama's
boredom didn't matter in the long run anyway. Soon enough the real invasion
would begin and he'd be expected to overwhelm the opposition as Konoha's secret
superweapon, which would satisfy the fox's preferences.
But until then Naruto wanted to at least enjoy himself. As a devil Naruto had
trained himself to fight with sword and sorcery, relying on the refined
training demanded of a scion of the Gremory clan. Here and now, in his old
body, he could return to his roots as a brawler and finally let himself go.
"Bring it on!"
===============================================================================
***** Chapter 5 *****
Blood splattered in thick dark droplets as Sasuke clenched his fist, the
translucent fingers of his Susanoo mimicking the motion and crushing the last
of the Kumo shinobi into wet paste. Little chunks of gore dripped through the
spaces between the ghostly warrior's knuckles, landing on the broken ground
with wet plops.
"Keep moving." The Uchiha ordered his handlers, letting their horrified gazes
slide off his back like water. He had never been the sort of person overly
concerned with what the faceless masses thought of him anyway, and with the
thrill of victory humming in his undead chest Sasuke gave even less of a damn
than usual.
It had been too long since Sasuke had experienced the feeling of utterly
dominating his enemies. In Gehenna he was an ant scurrying underfoot trying to
avoid the predations of giants. But here, in the world he had been born in,
Sasuke was strong. He was stronger than anyone else in the world except Naruto,
and even that was questionable given that an Edo Tensei construct never tired
and felt no pain.
So what if Gaara's little stooges were losing their lunches? Their opinions
meant less than nothing to him next to the feeling of violent fulfillment.
He wondered if Naruto – who had been born and bred for war just as Sasuke
himself was – also shared the uplifting sensation of triumph that now bloomed
in his breast.
Letting the last vestiges of his Susanoo fade away, Sasuke eyed the coral tint
that slowly stained the horizon. Dusk was drawing near.
With the undead Uchiha spearheading their offence the Southern alliance had
crushed half a dozen outposts since they'd started fighting just after high
noon.
If they pushed on through the night at a similar pace they'd be in spitting
distance of Konoha itself, but it was probably better to cut their speed in
half. The armies following his invasion force could only invest and fortify so
quickly, and while Sasuke didn't need to eat, he'd rather not have his handlers
die because the defenders cut their supply lines.
It was better to take the time to do things right; a lesson he'd learnt hard in
his first life.
Turning away from the shattered battlefield, Sasuke gave Shino a sharp nod and
launched into a tireless sprint.
A handful of curses met his ears as the living shinobi scrambled to follow in
his wake, but Sasuke didn't bother to look back. They had orders to follow him,
and since he'd done all the fighting there was no reason for them to be too
fatigued to keep up.
"I would suggest-"
"I know. Half-march." Sasuke ruthlessly cut off Shino's puffed words once the
Aburame had managed to draw level with him. He already knew what the best
course of action was and didn't have the patience to have strategy babyfed to
him by his old classmate.
Naruto would have scolded him for being rude, but Sasuke had no attachment to
most of the people he'd left behind. Twenty years apart had dulled his
sentiment to the point that it was no skin off his back if the Aburame got all
pissy about being shrugged off. All the people he cared about now lived in
Gehenna.
Sasuke only cared about Konoha in abstract terms, because he didn't want to
admit that everything he'd fought for had been for nothing. If their sacrifices
in the name of peace for Konoha had turned out to be pointless, who was to say
any sacrifices they made for the sake of Gehenna wouldn't be similarly
pointless?
No.
Sasuke viscerally refused to accept that possibility. They would have peace by
any means necessary.
===============================================================================
The stub of his left arm throbbed with phantom pain, but A bore it stoically
and signed the last of his paperwork off with a flourish. For twenty years he'd
lived with the pain, rejecting the well-meant suggestions of his subordinates
to get some kind of prosthetic.
The Yondaime Raikage always scoffed that looking for a replacement for the left
arm Uchiha Sasuke had cut off was an affront to his pride. The idea of grafting
on one of those Zetsu limbs was repulsive, and beyond that he'd just end up
looking like a warrior ashamed of his scars. But beneath the pride was a sense
of shame, the feeling that even if he could that he didn't deserve to walk
around hearty and healthy.
A had chosen war over peace for the sake of his people's continued survival,
soaking his hands in blood and turning his back on the supposed 'Child of the
Prophecy'. A bit of phantom pain and a few ugly scars in exchange for the lives
lost and the dreams abandoned was a cheap payment.
Ah, if only the Uzumaki boy had lived! Naruto had an earnest innocent and
exuberant charisma that appealed to everyone from brats in their cradles to
hidebound war veterans like Onoki. With Naruto as their spokesman maybe the
shinobi could have weathered the economic depression together and found a new
destiny. The future Naruto had promised had been so bright it was like a
spiritual fantasy, ringing down from some distant heaven.
Maybe though, even with Naruto on their side, fantasy was all peace could ever
be.
Shinobi weren't warriors, they were liars, killers, and thieves, and if they
stopped being paid to do those things, then what was left? How could they put
food on the table when no one hired them to wage war? There'd been some talk of
adapting jutsu to the various civilian industries, but that kind of development
took time.
Time no one had when the people were marching in the streets looking for
someone to fill their hollow stomachs. If Kumo hadn't gone to war against
Konoha, it would have eventually gone to war with itself, which was even more
unthinkable.
"Raikage-sama?"
"What?" A barked irritably, slapping his meaty palm on the desk and glaring at
his sheepish secretary. "What do you want, girl?"
Long used to the Raikage's moods, his secretary didn't quail or stutter at the
first sign of his displeasure. Instead she simply pouted a bit before stepping
fully into his office and laying a thick folder down in front of him. "This is
the latest batch from the Tsuchikage. The cold war with Sand might go on
forever, but she's pitching a few ideas about how to solve the economic
problems without a Kumo-Iwa war if we do conquer them."
"Fine, fine." A grumbled, waving her off and eying the papers with half-hearted
interest.
Everyone with any political sense knew that it was in the best interest of all
the shinobi nations to prolong the conflict rather than have a definite victor.
Promoting eventual victory for the sake of patriotism or imagined slights was
simply abut appealing to the masses. A could have destroyed the Southern
Alliance years ago if he wanted a purely military victory. Allowing the 'enemy'
to exist was necessary for the survival of the shinobi system, because enemies
meant competition.
When some chubby merchant decided to get one over on his rivals by hiring a
Kumo's shinobi to assassinate them, his rivals fought back by hiring Konoha's
shinobi. Obviously no village would pit its own soldiers against each other in
death matches as a matter of course – the decline of the Bloody Mist was all
the proof anyone needed of that. Naruto's peace had made them function as one
decentralized village, turning away conflicting missions for the sake of
avoiding bloodshed, which meant a lot of shinobi had been forced out of work.
They needed the pay that came with competing missions to flourish, and thus
they needed war.
So Kurotsuchi's little peace proposals could be one of two things. Either she
was naïve enough to believe that the shinobi lifestyle could ever lead to
peace, or she was just putting on a show of seeking a new path for the sake of
her advisors and political opponents.
A personally was never quite sure what that girl honestly wanted. She played
her cards too close to her chest. It made him miss Onoki, stubborn old fossil
the man had been. At least A had understood him, fellow men of war that they'd
been.
===============================================================================
Totsuka Ken rubbed at one crusty brown eye, fighting back the urge to yawn. He
hated night shifts; almost as much as he hated getting posted in Konoha at all.
It was too hot, too humid, and too hostile. The natives glared at him like he'd
personally murdered their babies every time he walked down the streets.
Compared to the clean cool air of Kumo and the warm faces of his countrymen,
Konoha was a shithole.
Not to mention Ken had left his fiancé behind when his bosses had deployed his
team down to the South.
Airi was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, with her warm green eyes and
fingers calloused from good honest farming. Sure, she wasn't a supermodel, but
she was more real than any of the bimbos he'd seen in the magazine ads, and Ken
loved her. Once he finished his current rotation, he'd have saved up enough
money for them to get married and start a new life. Maybe he'd retire and work
on a farm himself? Shinobi work paid a lot better but he wanted to die in his
sleep at the age of a hundred years rather than die with a kunai in the throat
at half that.
"Still mooning over your girl?" A voice barked in his ear as a heavy arm was
slung over his shoulder.
Yakumo mussed up his best friend's hair, grinning when Ken squawked and tried
to shove him off. "Look bro, I get that you want to keep it all on the up-and-
up but a man's got needs. No one's gonna rat you out if you go take a tumble.
You're missing out! Not to mention the girls down at the Maiden are just…" he
kissed the tips of his fingers.
A cherry red flush lit Ken's cheeks, and he pulled away from the older shinobi
with a glare. "No way! I'm not a dirty perv like you."
"You're just saying that because you're still a virgin." Yakumo crowed.
"I am not!"
Bringing his fists to his chest, Yakumo flapped his bent arms like wings and
clucked like a chicken. "What was that, Virgin-kun? I couldn't hear you over
all the chirping. Bwuck, bwuck, bwuckack!"
"Fuck off!"
Their antics drew the attention of a couple of their fellow watchmen, who
joined in on ribbing Ken with gusto. Their good-natured teasing ate up the time
and might have carried on longer if not for the sudden flicker of flame that
appeared on the southern horizon.
"The hell is that?" Yakumo muttered, squinting at the small but growing light.
"Did some asshole decide to get their breakfast in right before dawn and start
a forest fire?"
Ken sighed, brushing off his sleeves and standing tall now that his friend had
been distracted. "Might be." The chuunin agreed easily, sparing a glance for
the slowly spreading fire. "Wouldn't be the first time these asheaters forgot
how to cook like civilized people. Do you want to send the message or do you
want me to?"
Screwing his face into an expression of distaste, Yakumo turned shook his head
and shoved at Ken's shoulder. "No chance. You can deal with the captain this
time. Sage knows he'll be passed out drunk in some wrinkled whore's tits again,
and it's not my turn to listen to his rants about proper respect."
A rather large part of Ken wanted to just roll his eyes and try to bribe Yakumo
into doing it again. Everyone hated Iwari-taicho and the captain hated them
right back. It was mystery how someone so disliked by the men ended up in
charge of them – most people put their bets in bribery or blackmail. Ken
personally thought Iwari had used family connections to leapfrog his way up the
chain of command.
But the larger part of Ken nagged at him to be fair. Everyone took their turns
putting up with the captain for the sanity of the whole unit. So when his term
came around, he really should do his part. "Fine, fine. Just don't expect me to
badger him about your vacation request. That's on you."
Yakumo grinned toothily, but whatever reply he offered was drowned out by a
sudden rush of sound as the trees below the walls of Konoha suddenly exploded
with a sun bright flash of brilliant orange.
===============================================================================
Twenty years out of the saddle left Naruto feeling a bit winded, perfectly
resurrected body or not. But that little bit of fatigue burned away in an
instant when he cleared Konoha's walls in Kurama Mode only to find that the
faces of the Hokage Monument had been smoothed away, leaving a featureless grey
expanse.
At the point, the only thing left was a red-hot ball of pure rage boiling in
his gut. Slitted orange eyes narrowed as Naruto forced his gaze away from the
empty space where his father's face should have been to the foreign tower
crowned with a Kumogakure flag. "Bastards." He rumbled, lurching forward.
Rock and wood crumbled beneath the toes of Kurama's fluid body as the giant
chakra monster stomped up the streets, roaring so loud hundreds of windows
shattered. Maybe he should be a bit more careful about the collateral damage,
but the deeper he moved into Konoha the more Naruto found his anger building.
It wasn't just the Hokage Monument that had been scored away. He could see the
distant grove where the memorial stone should have been, but instead the entire
forest had been cleared away for a cluster of condos. The rounded red tiles
roofs of his childhood had been almost entirely replaced by square shining
metal panels.
The invaders hadn't just conquered Konoha, they'd destroyed it and remade it in
their own image. There was nothing left of the home he had such precious
memories of.
"Easy kid."Kurama cautioned. "Buildings are just buildings. Blow 'em up and
rebuild 'em later if you want. Don't lose your head."
Swallowing thickly, Naruto clenched his fists before relaxing with a sigh.
"Yeah, I guess." He allowed, trying to throw off the fury and focus on his
mission. He couldn't get too attached to material things. The conquest might
have turned Konoha into an eyesore, but if he couldn't forgive that how could
he ask people to forgive the lives that had been lost?
Fireballs and bolts of lightning rippled over the flank of Naruto's summoned
chakra construct, sucking at his reserves like tiny little mosquitos. They
wouldn't be a threat for another few hours, but if he just sat around
eventually he'd tire out.
Time to take care of business.
Mentally stepping back a bit, Naruto let Kurama's consciousness come to the
fore. As he gave up bits of control over his own body, the flaming orange fluid
of his bijuu transformation began to turn solid. If they switched entirely the
liquid chakra would be replaced by flesh and bone, but they didn't need to go
that far. They just needed to go far enough for Kurama to be able to speak.
"Surrender now, mortals, or I'll slaughter you all!"Kurama's voice projected
over the village like a sonic blast, making Naruto snort in amusement even as
the seemingly wild bijuu made threats.
Then, just to prove he could, Naruto swirled up a tailed beast bomb and fired
it directly up into the sky. A couple of heartbeats later the ball of chakra
exploded, splitting the clouds with a nova of pure white flame. It was large
enough to blot out the rising sun, and the rush of wind it generated rose to a
ghostly wail.
"You want another one, bitches?"
"Are you trying to be a yakuza or something?" Naruto muttered, glaring down
when the volleys of elemental jutsu launched at them only increased. "Because
it's not all that scary. Just corny, yeah? Have to give these assholes points
for being brave though, I'd have thought they'd be pissing themselves running
home to mommy by now."
"Bite me."Kurama sulked, giving up all control to Naruto. "You're on your own
then."
Shaking his head at the tempermental bijuu, Naruto clicked his tongue before
lashing out with one of his tails. The orange appendage wrapped around the
nearest watch tower and began to squeeze, painfully slow enough to give the
enemy soldiers inside time to escape. He wasn't afraid to kill when he had to,
but they weren't at that point. Not yet anyway.
"How much longer are the rest of them going to be?" the blond wondered aloud as
he sought out a tower flying an Iwa flag and barreled right through it, bricks
and mortar shattering beneath the weight of Kurama's body.
Naruto had gotten a bit excited when he caught sight of Konoha, but he hadn't
run that far ahead of the troops. They should have showed up by now and started
pushing for a surrender.
Then blue flame collided with Naruto's construct, throwing the giant orange fox
off its feet and into the face of the former Hokage Monument.
Shock gave way to resolve as Naruto climbed back out, wincing at the crack of
granite that echoed as an entire sheet of rock fell from the ridge and hit the
ground far below in a shower of dust and fragmented stone. "We should have
known." He murmured, more to keep Kurama calm as the fox swiftly shifted from
surprise to an all-consuming hatred. "I'm sorry."
"These fucking humans are all the same."
Naruto thinned his lips, but ultimately didn't deny that. He didn't have time
to get in an argument with Kurama over the idea of collective guilt. Not with
the giant azure hellcat glaring them down.
In the end, it shouldn't have been a surprise. They'd chosen war over peace, so
why not create more jinchuuriki?
"Let's do this."
Then he launched forward like a missile, chakra burning with hostile intent.
***** Chapter 6 *****
White splinters of bone poked up grotesquely through tanned skin, with porous
marrow glistening wetly under the sunlight. A single bit of flying rubble had
been enough to completely crush Ken's limb, torn arteries pumping out precious
blood with every stuttering heartbeat.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! But I have to do it!"
Ken's wail of utter despair spiraled up into an ear-splitting shriek as Yakumo
brought his katana down and severed his friend's arm just below the shoulder.
"Fucking Sand-nin." He grit out, blinking through the sting of tears in his
eyes as he bent to tie a tourniquet around Ken's bleeding stump.
The combination of blood loss and pain was enough to make Ken pass out by the
time Yakumo managed to apply enough pressure to keep Ken from bleeding out. It
would buy Ken a few minutes while Yakumo tried to find him a med-nin, but any
longer than that and the shock would probably kill him.
Not that Yakumo had much hope for that as he heaved Ken's limp body onto his
back and began to move through the rubble of Konoha.
How in the hell had Suna managed to get their hands on the Kyuubi? It had
vanished years ago when Uzumaki Naruto was assassinated, and it was supposed to
take another few decades at least before the beast's chakra gathered enough for
it to be reborn.
Fuck, fuck! He'd just wanted to finish his shift, sleep through the day, and
hit the town for his weekend off. Now he was just trying to stay alive while
the fucking Sand-nin poured in through the broken walls and the new Kyuubi
jinchuuriki fought a death match with the Nibi's jinchuuriki right over their
heads.
A shockwave threw Yakumo to his knees, grating the skin of his shins and making
him shout in shock. Biting his lip as he lurched back to his feet and
readjusted Ken's deadweight, Yakumo glanced up at the sky and gaped.
A set of bright orange fists were grasping hold of an azure forearm the length
of a skyscraper, chakra flames of different colours sputtering weakly as the
enormous Kyuubi pulled. The sudden jerk was enough to yank the Nibi over before
throwing the giant two-tailed hellcat into a cluster of buildings with a
thunderous crash and a hurricane gust of wind.
"Shit." Yakumo gasped, crouching against the gale as a storm of dust swept over
the village. He held strong for a heartbeat before Ken was torn from his back
and swept up into the tempest. "Ken!"
Instinctively, Yakumo knew Ken was dead, and with a bitter scream he turned and
plunged through the fog in search of some allied unit to give him orders and
clarify what the fuck he was supposed to do. He was just a career chuunin
pushed into border patrol, he wasn't trained to handle a bijuu invasion!
Another explosion rumbled, and Yakumo stared numbly at the rapidly approaching
orange streak falling from the sky. "Gods, have mercy…"
Everything went black.
===============================================================================
In the middle of a fight, it was hard to tell when he ended and Kurama began.
Naruto and the fox were so mentally melded that sometimes he felt like he was
Kurama, with excitement and rage at the bijuu's enslavement pounding through
his veins.
Naruto rolled, knocking over half a dozen buildings as he gathered his paws
beneath him. Then he shuffled, the dark tip of his nose sighting down the Nibi
before firing off a swirling bijuudama.
Not waiting to see if his missile connected, Naruto struck like a bolt of
lightning. Orange fur rippled as the giant fox leapt up and over a cluster of
streets to land on the Nibi's back, and Naruto bit down.
The azure hellcat gave a hissing wail, bucking frantically and trying to
dislodge Naruto's chokehold. Around and around the tangled pair went, rolling
through a trio of office buildings before slamming face-first into the former
Hokage monument.
Caught between fire and stone, Naruto spat a curse and bit down hard. His nine
tails wrapped around his opponent's limbs and pulled. The Nibi was strong, but
the Kyuubi had four times as many tails and more power besides. It only took a
few minutes of struggle to force down the other jinchuuriki. "Give it up
already!"
"Never!" A deep and unmistakably male voice roared back, startling the blond.
He'd been expecting Matatabi's new jinchuuriki to be a girl like Yugito. "Now
get off leafeater!"
With that the Kumo nin began to fight harder, wailing and flailing until the
tangled mass of bijuu rolled back into the village, leaving a bulldozed
wasteland behind them.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Naruto shouted, twisting so he could brace his
back feet against the broken ground and stop the rampage of destruction. "Are
you trying to get blow up the entire fucking village?"
"I would rather destroy this whole village than let Konoha take it back." Where
before the younger jinchuuriki had been all venom and passion, his voice fell
to grim icy determination. Then the blue flames that made up Matatabi's hide
began to shift and burn.
"Naruto you need to move!"
"What?"
"He's going to explode and take us all with him!"
Heat seared against the skin of Naruto's face, burning away spots of skin and
leaving red blisters that Kurama's chakra rushed to heal. Damn it, was this kid
that proud? There must be thousands of his own allies still fighting, not to
mention the civilians and the combined Sand-Leaf shinobi. He'd wipe out the
whole village because he couldn't deal with losing?
Or maybe it wasn't arrogance. Maybe it was fanaticism. The Kyuubi being in the
hands of the Leaf again would have the Cloud and Stone pissing themselves.
Throwing his own life away and the lives of his comrades might seem like a fair
price to pay to get rid of that kind of 'superweapon'.
Fuck.
"Naruto!"
"Die, Uzumaki Naruto!"
The blond took a steadying breath against the shock of being addressed by name,
clenched his jaw, and made a choice.
===============================================================================
Sasuke wasn't delusional enough to expect Konoha to look exactly the same. No
city could go through a war without rebuilding into something different. But in
of all his vague suppositions of how the village might have changed since he'd
last seen it, the Uchiha had never imagined it looking like a nuclear
wasteland.
Black glass stretched as far as his Sharingan eyes could see, breaking into
sharp edges and sudden dark gaps that tunneled into the earth. It was an
utterly lifeless scene, with not even the Hokage monument spared from the
blast. There was a huge crack splitting the plateau down the portion where the
Yondaime's head had once been.
What the hell did Naruto do?
Waving off his so-called allies, Sasuke stepped out into the apocalyptic
landscape. Ash puffed under his heels as he wandered over the ebony hills,
drawn northwest like the needle of a compass. Maybe his state of undeath made
him more aware of the bonds tugging at his soul, or maybe his Rinnegan just
enhanced his chakra sensing ability. Either way, he knew exactly where to find
Naruto.
When he finally settled his gaze on the blond, Sasuke exhaled a sharp gust of
displeasure. "You still alive there, dobe?" he prodded, getting a wordless
groan in reply.
To put it bluntly, Naruto looked like shit warmed over. The jinchuuriki's
sunshine strands had grown to a waist length tangle, stained with white streaks
any toothless granny would be proud of. The whiskered skin of Naruto's face was
lined with faint wrinkles. Ropy red scars crisscrossed over the naked flesh of
his left arm and chest, while Naruto's right arm was simply gone just below the
shoulder.
Gritting his teeth so hard that they cracked and healed anew, Sasuke bent down
to scoop up his heavily wounded friend. "I'd break your skull over my knee for
your reckless stupidity, but someohow I don't think the message would sink in."
The threat was half-hearted, and when Naruto coughed a fine mist of blood
Sasuke found himself protectively pulling the blond tighter against his chest.
Another person would have been bursting with questions about how Naruto had
gotten to be in such a horrific condition, but Sasuke knew the man well enough
that he didn't need to ask. Everything could be inferred from sight and his
knowledge of Naruto alone. Kumo or Iwa had deployed some sort of weapon of mass
destruction, and Naruto had tried to be a self-sacrificing fool and contain the
blast with his own body. Unfortunately it hadn't worked all that well, seeing
as how real life wasn't like the movies.
Turning on his heel, Sasuke began hopping back towards the remnants of the
southern walls. The idiot needed medical attention, and when he woke up Naruto
would find his body in a very different state than what he'd left it in. The
rapid wounding and healing cycle the blond went through to survive the
explosion had probably aged him twenty years, and there was no telling what
other scars had formed internally during the blast.
"Moron." He muttered lowly, blowing the hair out of his eyes. No doubt he'd
have to sit on Naruto to make him stay in bed long enough to heal up from this
latest bout of moralism. The Kyuubi gave Naruto a powerful healing factor, but
it wasn't perfect. A body could only take so much abuse before giving out, and
Naruto wasn't allowed to die before they managed to fix the shitshow they'd
come back to.
"Uchiha Sasuke. Do you care to explain this latest idiocy?"
A startled blink.
"You."
===============================================================================
Naruto woke to red shards of agony threading through every cell of his body. It
felt like he'd run an Olympic marathon before fighting a war and then going to
sleep underneath an elephant. Every breath was a pained struggle against a
suffocating weight, crowned with the sensation of broken glass in his lungs.
It felt like it took more effort to open his eyes than he'd had to spend
fighting Kaguya.
The dimly lit sight of a canvas medical tent greeted him, weather stains
dizzily drawing his confused stare before Naruto forced himself to shake off
the last dregs of unconsciousness. "Hello?" he rasped with the note of gravel
over pavement.
"Do you make a habit of being suicidally reckless, Uzumaki Naruto?" A grey gaze
set in a face wreathed in black hair taking up half of Naruto's view. "Because
if so I believe I will have to reconsider your worth as my soldier."
"Ophis?"
"At least part of your brain seems to be working." Amber glittered as someone
else leaned over the confused jinchuuriki. "Though that's not saying much
though, considering it's you." In contrast to the cool words a warm hand
briefly touched over the stump of Naruto's right arm.
"Koneko?"
A wordless hum was the only answer the nekomata gave before she withdrew to let
a teary-eyed Valerie monopolize the blond's attention.
"How are you feeling? Do you want me to get you a glass of water? Fluff your
pillow? Another blanket? Some pain medication?" The dhampir rambled on with
concern, visibly rattled even as Ophis snorted and also pulled away.
Footsteps padded away as the two girls slipped out of the tent, leaving Naruto
alone with Valerie.
Naruto licked his cracked lips with a tongue that felt like sandpaper, coughing
faintly before shaking his head. Even that tiny motion felt like his skull was
rotating on a rusted spike. "Why are you here? How are you here?" he demanded,
gaze sharpening as his scattered wits turned away from the sheer discomfort he
was in to refocus on his Bishop.
Valerie quirked her mouth up into an awkward grin, crimson eyes shifting away
before skittering back to meet Naruto's expectant look. "Ah, well, Ophis
decided that someone needed to cross over here. She said she didn't know how
long you'd need to be here, and since she couldn't spend all her time watching
you, that a couple of us needed to be here to summon her when you and Sasuke
were finished."
To Naruto's displeasure, the blonde girl was obviously lying. Or perhaps not
lying, but she was certainly leaving out some things that he would want to
know. "I see, and what else is Rias up to?"
Shrugging lightly, Valerie fisted her hands in her lap while struggling against
the urge to look away. "She's not doing a whole lot. Mostly she's just been
spending her time lying to everyone and pretending that both peerages are on a
vacation. Nothing too difficult."
The frustration that churned in his chest was foreign. Naruto couldn't remember
any time where he'd honestly been frustrated with Valerie. His Bishop was easy
going, kind, and more than a little easy on the eyes. She'd never tried to hide
anything from him before, and the fact she was trying to now put him on edge.
Still, maybe Naruto would have better luck getting whatever it was out of her
when he wasn't stuck in a bed. So with a drawn out sigh the jinchuuriki dropped
it, relaxing back into his pillow and considering Valerie with a half-lidded
stare. "So, is it just you and Koneko that came over?"
"Yep." Now that Naruto's hospital bed interrogation was over, Valerie found
herself studying the little stump that was left of Naruto's right arm. It
horrified the blonde to see her savior so badly hurt, but she comforted herself
with the knowledge that once they returned home Naruto would be back in his
whole and healthy devil body.
Squirming a bit at Valerie's concerned hangdog expression, Naruto twisted his
head and frowned off to the side. "It's not that bad." He mumbled. Sure, it had
hurt like a motherfucker getting blown off, but it wasn't something he hadn't
lived through before.
Naruto didn't want anyone's pity. It made him feel weak.
"Naruto…"
Cloth rustled as the tent flap drew back and Sasuke stepped inside, the
Uchiha's sudden appearance cutting off Valerie's stutter. "Finally awake are
you, knucklehead?"
"Bastard."
The corner of Sasuke's porcelain mouth curved, gravedirt crackling and
reforming at the motion as he passed Naruto a glass of water. "So I see you're
up to speed on our unique situation. Ophis and I spoke and we decided the
smartest thing to do would be to keep the girls out of sight and out of mind,
as best we can. None of the grunts are going to question us, but you can be
damn sure Sakura will if she finds out about them, and that would add…
complications."
Gleefully gulping down the blessedly cool water, Naruto mulled over the
implication that Sakura couldn't be trusted. Twenty years ago he'd have
answered that kind of suggestion with his fists. Team Seven had seemed so
unbreakable back then.
But the Sakura he'd seen bits of pieces of since his resurrection was a very
different woman.
A woman he no longer knew.
Besides, was it really any of their business anyway? Kaguya had proven there
were different worlds, so it wasn't like they were keeping a huge secret from
her. A new life in a new world was basically the same thing as wandering around
in the afterlife; functionally anyway. Gehenna and Konoha didn't touch, except
for a rare alignment of secret stars, and perhaps they never would again.
"Yeah, yeah." Naruto grimaced, shoving his empty cup back at Sasuke. "I'll keep
my mouth shut. What other news do ya got for me?" With the dust washed away
from the inside of his mouth and throat, Naruto's mind felt clean and
revitalized.
Folding his arms behind his back in an idle military posture that Naruto
assumed he'd picked up on the frontlines in Gehenna, Sasuke began. "You were
out for five days, so by now we expect everyone from here to Yuki no Kuni to
have heard that the war is back on and Konoha is fielding a Kyuubi jinchuuriki.
We're hoping they assume it's a new one rather than realize that Sakura pulled
us out of the grave."
Naruto sent a quick smile towards his Bishop, reassuring the blonde girl as she
uncertainly made to leave. "You don't have to go." Then he returned his focus
to Sasuke. "No, they probably know its us. Jiraiya-sensei told me that if I
died with the seal intact Kurama would disperse for fifty years or so. It's
only because I'm alive again that his chakra all gathered back together. Kurama
said something about his mind, the nexus, and the seal or whatever. I didn't
really get it, but they might. So they're probably going to know. And there was
that kid…"
"What kid?" Sasuke demanded sharply.
"The guy they sealed Matatabi into. He called me by name, so he definitely knew
it was me. So either Kumo and Iwa already know all about jinchuuriki revivals,
or Matatabi told him when we were fighting." Naruto didn't want to believe the
second one, but he knew it was the more logical option. No one had ever revived
a jinchuuriki that hadn't gone through an extraction before dying as far as he
knew, so some random kid from Kumo knowing about seal theory that he barely
knew about was pretty farfetched.
Matatabi had been his friend, but she still seemed willing enough to lend her
power to his opponent and bring the fight to him. Willing to go to the point of
a suicide strike even. Had she really been his friend at all? Maybe she'd just
been amused by the little mortal monkey spouting ideals at her.
Thinking of the hellcat brought a very important question to Naruto's mind, and
he gave Sasuke a steely look. "What about the village? I know after five days
we've probably got some reinforcements and a decent base camp set up, but how
bad is the damage? Kurama and I tried to contain the blast."
Tense silence hung in the air.
"Sasuke."
"When we got here the place looked like someone had dropped a nuke." Sasuke
hesitated before shaking his head. "There were no survivors."
Naruto pressed his hand to his leaking eyes. "Of course there weren't." And
then he began to bitterly laugh.
===============================================================================
***** Chapter 7 *****
To Koneko, the entire world Sasuke and Naruto came was wrong. She was so used
to the subconscious thrum of chakra moving through reality that coming to a
plane without it felt like being wrapped in cotton. Everything was missing just
a touch of colour, everything was just a little bit muffled; and even the air
seemed to be leeched clean of rich aromas.
But she hadn't been pulled across the void to complain about the lifelessness
her destination, so Koneko kept her mouth shut and her opinions to herself.
"Now that Naruto's awake, we're going to be moving out. You should get ready
for a midnight march." Sasuke huffed quietly as he came up behind the nekomata,
the crunch of the black ash under his feet reaching her ears long before his
voice did. "Here."
Koneko accepted the purple bandanna he shoved at her with a grimace, tying the
cloth over her distinctive white hair and settling the hitae-ate over her brow.
It had been recently washed, but she could still smell the faint scent of
blood, making her suspect Sasuke had scrounged it off someone's corpse. "Does
it fit?"
Unsettling red eyes that were ringed with dark sclera traced Koneko from head
to toe, studying the makeshift shinobi outfit they'd constructed. While
questions would be inevitably asked if she stuck around the Uchiha, suspicion
would be delayed if the dimension-hopper looked like just another soldier under
Sasuke's command.
"It'll do."
"Fine."
Having completed Koneko's disguise, Sasuke turned away and stared over the
ebony wasteland with a desolate expression. A stranger wouldn't have noticed
the slight downturn to his lips or the faint crease between his brows,
especially with the winding cracks of resurrection marring his skin, but Koneko
saw it clearly enough.
Asking him if he was alright seemed like a stupid question, so Koneko squared
her shoulders and settled her amber gaze back on the desert Konoha had become.
"They'll rebuild it." She declared, making an instinctive attempt at
reassurance that she wasn't sure was even wanted.
Sasuke's agreement came in a nearly silent murmur that was snatched away by the
evening breeze. A heartbeat passed before he gave a louder sigh. "But I'm not
sure they should." A sort of bleak wistfulness brightened the crimson of his
Sharingan. "Even if they try, they're not going to be able to get back what
they lost."
The clinical othering in his miserable words caught Koneko's attention, and her
shoulders drew tight with a mixture of relief and guilt. "Them?" she dared to
question, watching as a dune of ash began to disintegrate in the distance. "Not
we?" The thought that Sasuke might want to stay had crossed her mind from time
to time, but she'd tried not to pay it any heed.
"No." Sasuke sounded as if he'd aged ten thousand years in a moment, remorse
and nostalgia mingling on his tongue until his very breath was heavy with the
tone of defeat. "I think I knew the moment we woke up here that we didn't
belong anymore. Even Naruto is starting to realize that. This place no longer
feels like home. And for me, I don't know if it ever did."
===============================================================================
Valerie drew her cloak tighter around her shoulders, following faithfully at
her King's heels like a determined bloodhound as they leapt through the trees.
As far as she'd been picked up from the camp gossip before they set out, they
were travelling to resupply at an abandoned outpost that had once been owned by
a man named Orochimaru before travelling northeast towards the Land of
Lightning.
Those names meant nothing to Valerie, since she hadn't even bothered to glance
at a map before rushing after Naruto. It didn't really matter to her where they
were going, as long as she stayed by his side and made sure no one hurt him
anymore.
To Valerie the land of shinobi that her King described had always seemed like a
fairy tale. There were bold warriors and hateful villains in his stories, but
good always beat evil. She knew what Naruto told her was a good-natured fib,
but she hadn't thought reality would be so different.
She hadn't thought Naruto might almost die, surviving as a cripple that burnt
through his youth in a single battle. He'd been in so much pain when he woke
up, both physical and emotional, that it lit a quiet ember of rage in the
blonde's breast.
Why did these stupid humans have to turn to Naruto to solve all their problems?
Why couldn't they have just worked through whatever greedy squabble they had on
their own without involving him? It didn't matter that they thought he was
happily in the afterlife rather than happily in another world. They were
greedy, short-sighted, and selfish either way.
"You know, if you think too hard your brain is going to start smoking." Naruto
threw a grin over his shoulder at her, mouth pulling up into an attempt at
reassurance despite the dark hollows of his cheeks and the corpse white streaks
through his hair.
Valerie smiled back, ruby eyes dull with insincerity. "I'll try not to." They
were pretending at happiness, pretending that nothing had changed despite the
pain this world had rewoven into Naruto's heart.
Some fanatic shinobi had blown himself up, massacring hundreds of troops and
tens of thousands of civilians, but it was Naruto who felt he needed to bear
the burden of that bloodshed rather than laying it at Kumo's door where it
belonged.
The smile on Naruto's lips went brittle, and Valerie knew that he'd seen
through her poor lie. But rather than confront her, he merely tipped his head
before turning away. It was just more evidence to Valerie that the shinobi
world was draining the life out of her King.
Birdsong echoed as they ran on through the night, trees hills giving way to wet
lowlands and rice paddies. Eventually dawn broke over the eastern horizon, and
with a sharp whistle Sasuke urged the whole company to halt. "We're here."
Valerie grimaced as mud squeezed in though the open toes of her shinobi
sandals, but she put the minor discomfort out of her mind as she moved to
shield Naruto from any prying eyes. "Do you need water?" she offered, her
hooded head bent low.
"Sure." Naruto accepted her canteen, gulping back a mouthful before passing it
back to her. "You take the rest."
"I don't really need it. Rias made sure I was well… watered before we came
here." The euphemism would fly over the heads of any eavesdroppers, but Naruto
knew about her blood hunger already.
Drawn as close as they were with the unyielding steel in Naruto's spine, to the
rest of the shinobi it would look like Naruto was just having a private
conversation with a pretty young woman. But Valerie took note of the grey
pallor to her King's face and the faint trembling of his remaining hand, and
she worried.
In her opinion Naruto needed a few weeks of rest to finish healing, but the
blond had quietly told her before they set off that war waited for no man.
Konoha was depending on Naruto, and he wasn't willing to let it down.
He was too selfless.
If she didn't love him so much for it, Valerie might scream with frustration.
Would it kill him to maybe accept that he couldn't solve the whole world's
problems? Because it was definitely going to kill him if he tried.
"There's a few scraps here and there, but it looks like they picked it clean
when they swept through here after taking Orochimaru." Sasuke cut in, striding
up with an idle hand resting on the hilt of his chokuto. The Uchiha considered
Valerie with his unsettling undead scrutiny for a moment before looking back
towards Naruto. "Orders came in by hawk. Sakura wants us to force a march right
to the Yu-Shimo border before Kumo does. But it's up to you."
Naruto knuckled at his left eye, mouth twisted into a fierce frown. "Meaning if
I don't feel up to it, we won't, because there's nobody around that can make us
do it, yeah?" Snorting at the thought, the greyed blond shook his head. "No,
I'm not going to drag us down. Tell them that they've got an hour to rest,
because after that we're going right to Kaminari no Kuni. I'm not dragging this
out any more than I have to."
Sasuke hummed noncommittally, a wary expression on his face as he studied
Naruto. "If you're sure." Then he spun about, stalking back towards the
faceless crowd with a stiff back and a silent Koneko plodding after him.
Without the brief distraction Sasuke provided, the two blonds fell into an
uneasy silence. "You know, Val, you don't have to run around after me." Naruto
scratched the bridge of his nose pensively. "Things are gonna get pretty
violent from here until its all settled. No one would think less of you if you
wanted to hole up some place until all the fighting's over."
"I would think less of myself." The dhampir instantly refused, threading her
dainty fingers together as she latched a deliberate narrow stare on her King's
empty sleeve. "You're right. I don't like violence. But I'm not a child like
Gasper is, so please don't send me away."
Valerie wasn't like Ravel or even like Koneko. If Naruto didn't want her around
then she wouldn't force herself on him to ease her own worries. A servant swore
to follow the orders they were given, every last one of them, and she didn't
want to give Naruto a reason to throw her away. But just because she would obey
didn't mean she wanted to.
Holding her breath, she waited, and just when the silence seemed unbearable the
protective clench to Naruto's jaw relaxed. "I suppose I couldn't expect you to
do something I wouldn't. Just remember that some of the people we're going
against are pretty strong. Strong enough to kill a devil. So be careful, okay?"
For the first time since she'd step into this hellish world, Valerie found her
face slipping into a real smile. And maybe it was a reaction to her sincerity,
or maybe it was just her imagination, but it seemed like the heavy cloud of
despair that had hung around Naruto for the past day was finally lightening.
===============================================================================
Phantom pain thrummed in the empty space where his right arm had been, but
Naruto forced it down as he stepped over the ice coated grass of midnight Shimo
no Kuni. He had no time to spend drowning in self-pity when a war was riding on
his shoulders.
Peripherally, Naruto was aware of the tired grumblings of the men that Gaara
and Sakura put under his command. The long march was draining even him, and the
girls weren't doing much better. Only Sasuke, undead creature that he was,
seemed unaffected by the long march and the chill that turned every exhaled
breath into white mist.
Naruto guessed, based on hazy decades old memories of the landscape before the
Fourth Shinobi World War, that they'd hit the border of Lightning Country just
after dawn. After that it was a gamble to see if A and Killer B would march out
to meet them or if he and Sasuke would need to stomp right into Kumogakure
itself.
Once they took Kumo out of the war Iwa would probably fold, since the former
was much more powerful after managing to get six – five now after the
clusterfuck in Konoha – bijuu in its arsenal. That wasn't even mentioning the
fact that Kurotsuchi was more flexible than A or Onoki. If he gave her a reason
to come to the table and talk it out, Naruto believed she would.
Rationally, open war couldn't go on much longer, and Naruto clung to that hope
like a drowning man. He never wanted to wake up against with ash on his tongue
and the knowledge that he'd failed so miserably. Kurama quietly pointing out
that if Naruto had been ruthless enough to go for the kill from the start he
could have prevented it made the whole thing even worse.
"That's just the way the world works, Naruto."
"Not now, Kurama. Just not now, okay?"The blond shot back irritably, the crunch
of ice under his heels intensifying as he took out his frustration on the
frozen ground. He didn't want to hear Kurama ranting on about how he should
just go for the throat the next time he got in a fight. That wasn't his way.
"And if not now, then when? Humans rule each other through violence. The losers
are exploited, enslaved, and killed. That's the way the world works. That's the
way it always has, and that's the way it's always going to be."
"So what, you think I should just start murdering everyone that disagrees with
me? That kind of world isn't even worth living in."
Orange chakra curled warmly under Naruto's skin, bringing a pink flush of life
to the jinchuuriki's cheeks as the Kyuubi prowled through his container's
mindscape. "You're just like the old man was, Naruto. And I'm going to tell you
now – I loved that old man, but Indra did get one thing right. Peace is
something that can't exist without sacrifice and the power to enforce it. Isn't
humanity's constant state of war proof of that? Good intentions aren't enough."
"If you won't even consider that the world can change, it never will."Naruto
hadn't fought so hard against Madara to in the end become him. He wanted to
bring life to the beliefs of Jiraiya-sensei, not the beliefs of Kaguya.
"And what happens with the Raikage refuses to back down? Are you going to force
him to the table and try to create peace through understanding again? Are you
going to have the strength to kill him if it comes to that? And even then, the
fact that you need to resort to violence at all proves the failure of your
ideals."
Stung by the blunt assertion by someone he'd thought would have his back,
Naruto bit his tongue until it bled and shoved Kurama's mental presence away.
The loss of the bijuu's chakra let the cold seep back into his bones, but the
iciness was welcome company compared to the sharp burn of anger.
But of course, Kurama wasn't willing to let him have the last laugh.
"One day, either here or in Gehenna, you'll learn Naruto. The ruthlessness to
do what's needed for the cause is a necessary quality in a ruler."
"Fuck off."
"What did you say, dobe?"
"Nothing!" Naruto spat, turning away from Sasuke's inquiring expression as he
leapt over the snow-crowned hills with his friends at his side. Explaining the
whole stupid little argument with Kurama was pointless. They'd already decided
what they were going to do to try and heal the land before going back to Sheol,
and Kurama was at best a third party to the future of the shinobi system.
The jinchuuriki ignored the niggling suspicion in the back of his mind that if
he explained the whole conversation Sasuke would agree with Kurama. They'd
already had a battle over their ideals once, he didn't want to do it again.
===============================================================================
Death was on the cold crisp wind. In his mind, he wanted to give it a pleasant
scent. Something sweet and flowery with the sugar of heaven, maybe.
As age turned the trim lines of his body into weathered muscle and deep
wrinkles, Killer B found himself speaking less and listening more. His self-
made rap had dwindled to nothing, and now days could pass in utter silence
without even a word from Gyuuki. It sounded lonely, but Killer B wouldn't
describe it like that.
It was more like they'd made their peace with the inevitable end, so spouting
hot air wasn't needed anymore.
Killer B wordlessly met his brother's gaze through the dark lenses of his
sunglasses, and with a final nod to each other the two warriors of an older era
slipped through the gates of Kumogakure. Just like with Gyuki, Killer B didn't
need to ask A what was on his mind. They knew each other too well for things
like that.
When word had reached Kumogakure that they weren't just facing the Kyuubi, but
a resurrected Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, they'd both known the war was lost.
Twenty years of struggle and dominance were swept out to sea by the one
revelation. Twenty years of blood and cruelty on top of earlier decades of
blood and cruelty. They'd done it for the sake of the village, without
hesitation, but now they were tired.
"I hope that those kids don't decide to come after us." Killer B finally spoke,
voice raspy from long disuse as they raced through the darkness. "It's not like
I ever told them they needed to toe the party line, bro. Ordering them to stay
isn't enough."
When Kumo had decided to strike first and recapture the bijuu, they'd ended up
with five squalling babies that were promptly dumped in Killer B's lap to
raise.
It hadn't been easy, what with the crying and the pooping and the teenage
rebellion, but in the end Killer B was proud of them. Proud even when word came
that Green D had gone wild and annihilated Konoha, because despite that horror
the boy had still been like his own son.
"They won't." A declared softly, booted feet scraping over grey stones and
moss. He didn't offer any other explanation, but Killer B didn't need one. He
trusted his brother when the man said it had been taken care of. Maybe the kids
had been drugged or maybe they were sealed up by fuuinjutsu masters, either way
would be fine as long as they stayed back home.
Naruto had risen from the grave to take his pound of flesh from the world that
had failed him, so the old men would pay the toll and hope it would wash the
slate clean. There was no need for the younger generations to get involved. The
past needed to be laid to rest before the future could begin.
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