Naruto Uzumaki, a man who was once a ninja of Konohagakure no Sato stood atop a mountain as he looked at the vast lush of green forest. He had lived for more than 400 years and had been through many wars, risking his life multiple times to save the ninja world.
Being able to heal from any kind of injuries and sickness, he had grown tired of living while all his friends and family had long since perished.
Now, he had a smile on his face as his time with Kurama, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, was finally coming to an end. He was about to free his friend from his prison and in the process, pass on to the kingdom come. He was happy, he was content.
"Kurama, I guess its time," he said quietly.
"Do you really have to do it?" The beast replied with a sorrowful tone. "This world might still need you. You are Naruto Uzumaki, a legend! Even though chakra is dying, there are people who look up to you. You are their hope. Are you sure you want to give it all up?"
"Those people will die and I'll be the only one left. My descendants have already left the Elemental Nations. I have nothing left here. I want you to be free and live with your siblings. I have lived for far too long. I never wanted to be immortal. It's a curse. Though I'll never be able to repay you for saving my life for god knows how many times, but no, I never wanted this. I wanted to grow old like oji-chan and die of old age. I have made up my mind and I am ending this once and for all."
Kurama kept his silence. Though he wanted to be free and be with the rest of his siblings, he didn't want Naruto to die. He was Kurama's first friend and was the man Kurama respected.
"When you reform, I want you to go where the rest of the eight are. Together you can't be captured. There's a vast unexplored world out there, who knows when someone will come after you guys? Goodbye old friend, stay safe, I really cherish every memory you were part of."
Kurama grunted as his eyes welled up.
Naruto made a few hand seals, grabbed the seal on his abdomen and twisted it to release Kurama.
As Kurama was being expelled out of the seal, Naruto's life flashed across his eyes. He smiled wistfully as he saw all his people smiling back at him. He was going to see them again.
Darkness consumed Naruto as Kurama was finally expelled. He fell down the cliff never to wake up again.
(ROTS)
Edmund Vulpis woke up with a start, gasping for air. He had been having dreams about that man for years, ever since he touched an ancient-looking scroll in his mother's possession.
Clair Vulpis, Edmund's mother belonged to the House of Whirlpool that was nearly wiped out in the war against Grindelwald. She was a loving woman and she loved Edmund more than anything else. She was married to Altair Vulpis, a blood purist who used to be a Death Eater and avoided Azkaban by underhanded methods, through an old marriage contract.
When Edmund was born on 24th April 1980, Clair was ecstatic as he looked nothing like his father. He was born with golden blond hair and electric blue eyes like hers' and naturally tanned skin just like Clair's father.
But the most striking feature was the whisker-like marks on his cheeks just like she had seen in her house's progenitor's portrait. Her ancestors had moved to Medieval England back in the 1200s from a faraway land where her progenitor was born. They had interbred with the wizards and thus the House of Whirlpool was created.
Altair was very hostile towards Clair when he saw not a single thing in his son that resembled him.
Since that day, Altair made sure to make their lives miserable. Extended exposure to Cruciaticus curse from the Dark Lord had twisted his mind. When the Dark Lord was vanquished, he had no output left for his madness. So he took it out on the mother-son pair.
Although Clair was a talented wizard, she was unable to defend herself and Edmund from Altair. After seven years of torture, she succumbed to her physical and psychological wounds.
Edmund swore revenge that day. He would kill his father and his Dark Lord if he ever returned as his father hoped he would. After a tear-filled good-bye to his mother, he was rummaging through his mother's belongings as he was told by her in her dying breath. That was when he found the ancient scroll.
When he touched the scroll, he felt a similar kind of warmth rush into him which happened only when his mother hugged him causing all of his wounds to miraculously heal. He knew it wasn't magic as his mother told him, but he was quite familiar with this kind of warmth. He knew he had the same kind of warmth in him but no one else seemed to have it. He could sense it in his mother, but no one else.
Quite similarly, the warmth healed his wounds and beyond. He opened the scroll and looked at the scribblings carefully. They were in the foreign language which Clair had taught him. As he read the scroll, he learnt briefly about his mother's house and it's history. Following the instructions, he pricked his thumb and placed it on a circle with strange symbols on it.
When his blood came in contact with the seal, the scroll began to glow. Edmund felt the warmth flow into him but this time, it was not comfortable. He felt like his body was on fire. It took all of his willpower to stop himself from screaming. His eyes began to glow and his whole body was covered by an extensive amount of blue aura. He felt foreign memories flow into his brain that caused him to have a splitting headache. The pain was so unbearable that he fainted, but not before seeing the scroll vaporize.
He woke up two days later in St. Mungo's. After being discharged from the hospital, he attended his mother's funeral. Nobody noticed the hate-filled glares he was sending towards his father who was casually talking to Lucius Malfoy, another death eater who avoided Azkaban by throwing galleons away. That was the night when he first had the dream about Naruto.
Since then, he had been having dreams about Naruto's life. He learnt that the strange warmth was called chakra, a form of energy that people in Naruto's era used to do all kinds of stuff and was essential for their survival.
He learnt how Naruto became the container of the Kyuubi, how he spent his early life, his life as a rookie ninja and the various shinobi wars he was part of.
Naruto was hailed as a hero by his people. For hundreds of years, he had lived and fought for peace in his land. But nature itself seemed to be against him. A virus was born that fed on chakra. Slowly, everyone died due to lack of chakra and children were being born completely devoid of it. The last of the ninjas died as Naruto's descendants left the Elemental Nations after a lot of persuasion.
Four years of having dreams about Naruto's life, Edmund learned how he finally ended his life, thus freeing his friend from his prison.
In those four years, Edmund grew into a rather healthy eleven-year-old despite all the torture from his father. Since the day he awakened his chakra, Edmund was rather tolerant to pain. His senses became stronger, he had faster reflexes, heightened awareness and a sturdy body with denser muscles. Although he was still a kid, one could see that he had a rather defined body and was taller for his age.
Since he didn't have any scrolls for how to perform different ninja techniques as his mother had a very scarce amount of chakra, he had to postpone his plans for them till he could access the Whirlpool family vault in Gringott's. The scroll had told him that there were some other scrolls based on various ninja arts stored in the vaults.
He was able to do some other simple ninjutsu such as Kawairumi, bushin and henge, but nothing more complicated.
As Edmund got out of his bed after witnessing the death of Naruto Uzumaki, he quickly washed his face in a basin and asked a house-elf to bring him a calming draught. He had seen many deaths in the dreams, but it was never easy for him as he remembered all of them. Sometimes he wondered how those memories managed to be sealed in the scroll.
He was broken out of his musings when an owl arrived with his Hogwarts letter. He softly patted the owl and gave it some owl treat. He quickly sent his reply and went downstairs to inform his evil father about the letter.
Altair was waiting at the dining table for breakfast. He noticed Edmund approaching him and understood that the letter had arrived.
"The letter came. I've sent the reply already."
He only received a nod with a grunt.
They had their breakfast quietly. Just as Edmund was about to leave, Altair said, "Go to Diagon Alley yourself and buy what you have to."
He threw a pouch towards Edmund rather arrogantly which the boy easily caught, and continued, "I don't have time to babysit you so get what you want yourselves. The pouch has around 2000 galleons and that's all you'll need."
'Pompous shit,' Edmund cursed in his mind as he nodded and left the dining room with a menacing glint in his eyes. 'Just you wait, I will rip you apart with my bare hands and dissolve the Vulpis house that you're so proud of.'
After about an hour, Edmund changed into his public robes and used the floo network to go to Diagon Alley.