When one thinks of the word 'Reincarnation', what is it that mostly pops up in your mind?
Is it the ability to gain new powers the likes you haven't before? Or maybe it is somehow something to do with time travel of some sort? The word Reincarnation in our language means the rebirth of a soul in a new body, but we are only human so what exactly do we know in the grand cosmic scheme of things?
At the dawn of time, when light and darkness was all that existed, an entity that became known as the Absolute Being split the light to create the group known as the Rulers and split the darkness to create their polar opposites, the Monarchs. As the Monarchs were born to destroy the world given they were made from the darkness and the Rulers were born to protect it given they were the opposite, it wasn't long before they engaged in a devastating war with each other.
After eons of endless war with no victory in sight, the Rulers asked the Absolute Being to give them the strength to extinguish the Monarchs for good and finally put an end to the bloodshed. However, the Absolute Being did not reply and it was at that moment that the Rulers realized that their war with the Monarchs was mere entertainment to him, and that the Absolute Being did not want the war to end.
This fact along with the realization that the war would never end as long as the Absolute Being was alive led seven of the eight Rulers to rebel against their god. One who bore the name Ashborn, the last and strongest Ruler, was the only one who remained loyal and tried his best to stop them, but they defeated him and left him for dead. Now with no one left to oppose them in their revolution, the Rulers marched into the throne room and speared the Absolute Being to death. Ashborn would later find the god's corpse still sitting on his throne, with the Rulers' swords sticking out of his chest and neck.
As his injuries in his fight against the other Rulers were fatal, Ashborn believed that it was the end for him and prepared for death, a deep rooted feeling of regret for not being there to protect his master flowing through him. However, before he could die, he discovered that the Absolute Being had hidden a monstrous power inside his body and promptly activated it, transforming himself into what would be named the Shadow Monarch. Now back to full health and even stronger than he was before his fight with his former brethren, Ashborn returned to the battlefront to continue the fight. But by the time he got back, he found out that he was too late, as the rebellion was already over and the Absolute Being was already dead.
He would question just why was it that his master had done nothing to stop his own demise, and yet he never would get the answer to his question since the only one who could answer it was dead right in front of himā¦
After the Rulers captured Legia, one of the strongest Monarchs within their members, Ashborn realized that the Monarchs would lose if he didn't step in and decided to offer his help, an offer that they quickly accepted given they had lost one of their strongest and needed the strength to fill in that gap. Unfortunately for Ashborn, however, even though he managed to stabilize the power balance and keep the war going, his overwhelming powers came to earn him great fear from both sides and eventually led two Monarchs, Beast and Baran, to betray him and ambush him with their armies. Although Ashborn easily defeated both Monarchs and killed Baran in retaliation for his treachery, his own army did not hold up well and was nearly annihilated.
Right after he killed Baran, the Rulers descended in front of Ashborn and asked him for his forgiveness. Although Ashborn initially refused to accept their gesture of peace and furiously demanded that they kill him so that they could finally win the war, the Rulers persisted in their plea and Ashborn was so emotionally overwhelmed that he couldn't give them an answer. Deciding to seek revenge against the Beast Monarch instead, Ashborn left the battlefield and went into hiding to rebuild his army, allowing the Rulers to finally defeat the Monarchs and force them into hiding. At some point after this, however, Ashborn returned to the Monarchs and Antares, the strongest Monarch, was quick to welcome him back to their ranks, as two of the Monarchs were lost and the rest were still greatly weakened from their loss against the Rulers.
Centuries later, when the Monarchs launched their assault on the human world once more as they had done in the past, Ashborn followed them out of his own desire to find his place in the universe, as he never felt like he belonged in the chaos world. At the same time, he also started looking for a suitable human vessel with the help of a servant known as the Architect and spent years searching with little luck until he came across a human named Sung Jinwoo. This man would later on become not his vessel, but his successor. And Sung Jinwoo would go on to defeat the Monarchs so as to save the human world from their destruction.
Once the fight was all over, and the dust had settled, it was only then that the young man had seen just what this war had cost him. So many of his friends along with so many innocent people had died in this insane war. He wished he could fix it so that no one would have to suffer like this, and just as he wished for it the Rulers appeared before him with a magical item known as the Cup of Reincarnation.
The cup was first created eons ago by the Absolute Being, but for what reason the Rulers had no clue. After the Rulers murdered him for his cruelty towards them, they took his place as the new Gods and stole his tools for themselves, including the cup. They never looked into why this cup existed, only on what it did. As for what it didā¦ It reversed time by about 10 years.
Centuries later, or the present time, when their first attempt to prevent the Monarchs from destroying the human world failed, the Rulers used the cup to rewind time ten years back and give themselves another chance. Unfortunately, this only prolonged what seemed inevitable, as the human world would always be destroyed regardless of which side won the war. Even worse, despite the fact that it was created by God himself, the cup's power was not infinite and as a result, the Rulers eventually realized that it was starting to wear out.
Ten years before the events that led to Sung Jinwoo standing here victorious before them, the Rulers turned to their last resort by spawning the various gates, portals to other dimensions filled with monsters of all sorts, and exposing mankind to the existence of magic beasts. This way, it would only take a few years for the human world to be saturated with enough mana to withstand the brunt of their war with the Monarchs unlike all the other times they had failed to save the human race. Also, assuming that they won the war, the Rulers would no longer have to use the cup.
After he defeated Antares, the very leader of the Monarchs themselves, Sung Jinwoo had asked the Rulers to use the Cup of Reincarnation one last time so that he could bring back all the people he lost in the war with the Monarchs. Although the Rulers had warned him that no one would remember him if he did this and that they were doomed if he failed, as the cup only had enough power left for one last run, Jinwoo remained adamant in his decision. Realizing that Jinwoo intended on carrying on everything by himself, the Rulers wished him the best of luck and used the cup one last time, completely exhausting its power and sending them all ten years back into the past for the last timeā¦
At leastā¦ that was what was supposed to happenā¦
Never once had the Rulers wondered or questioned why this cup existed. Not once, and because of that they never knew the curse that had been put on the item by the very person who had made the thingā¦
If one was to look at the Absolute Being's demise from an outside perspective, one would question just how did he allow it to happen. This Godā¦ this Absolute Being that had made the universe, was in fact killed by his own creations. It didn't seem likely given he didn't even fight back. He had just been skewered on his own throne, his body left to rot there. The answer to that was simpleā¦
The Cup of Reincarnationā¦
He had always known that one if not both factions he had made to fight one another would turn against him and thus he made the Cup to turn back time so as to find a means to stop his own death if it ever came to that. And he had used the Cup numerous times and yet no matter what he had actually done things never worked out the way he wanted with either his own death or the destruction of all things which he didn't want since then he would be alone and bored. So after experiencing this time and time again, he had simply let what happened happen, but not before cursing the very item he had used.
When he had made it, it was known as the Cup of Reversal, hence why it was able to turn back time, but after cursing it it became the Cup of Reincarnation and its uses were limited. Basically it was the Absolute Being's way of saying 'fuck you' to his own creations. He knew that at some point one of the factions would find and use the Cup, and by reversing time they would prolong their war. The Cup would diminish in use since he himself was no longer around to keep it powered, and with its final use the Cup's actual power, the curse he placed upon it would activate.
So at that moment, with Sung Jinwoo activating the Cup of Reincarnation for the final time, time did not turn back as he had expectedā¦
No, he was reborn into a new body, his abilities as well as his memories sealed like the Absolute Being had planned to do to his creations. But since the seal was meant to work on either the Rulers or the Monarchs, and the Shadow Monarch was not something he took into account when the curse was placed since he had forgotten all about giving Ashborn that power, the seal on his power would weaken with time.
Given the sheer godlike power the Shadow Monarch wielded both as Ashborn as well as when reborn through Sung Jinwoo, the very fate of the world itself would be influenced by the actions taken against the one who would eventually unlock this power.
And unfortunately for the people of the new time and dimension that Sung Jinwoo was reincarnated into, the people of the village his new body had been born into were currently attacking his weak defenseless formā¦
This did not bode well for the world in the slightestā¦
(Present Day - Konoha, Elemental Continent)
This is the story of a child, one whose destiny was unknown to all, even to himself. But while the child may be small now, he would become a powerful ruler in the future. Whether his rule was benevolent or tyrannicalā¦ only time could tell.
Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze was born on October 10th, a day that haunted not only him, but the people who lived in the village he unfortunately found himself residing within as well. On this day, he was born, and his birth weakened his mother so that the demon she had sealed within her many years ago broke free from its seal and began to wreak havoc across the place. His father had fought off the demon, yet even with him doing so, there was so much damage done to the village as well as many lives being lost, which ended with his fathers as well as his mothers. So within less than a day of being born, this poor child was now orphaned.
The demon did not want to be sealed away once again like it was before and tried to kill the newborn baby so as to stop any attempts to reseal him. Yet the child's mother blocked the attack at the cost of her own life, and she died proclaiming her love for her newborn child being the last words that left her mouth. His father had sacrificed his own soul itself to summon up the god of death so as to form a seal that placed the demon into his son. His final words were to the previous leader of the village Hiruzen to make sure the village saw Naruto as a hero, but Hiruzen had no intention to heed his final words. The man had taken one look at Naruto and had smirked with a smile full of greed. He didn't care for the now dead man's words, he wanted a weapon, a tool to use against any and all threats the village might/would face in the future. So while he would allow the boy to live, it would be something less than human in his eyes.
Naruto's life from that moment on was nothing short of hell, as Hiruzen allowed the villagers of Konoha to hurt the child in retaliation to what the demon had done to their homes, as well as the countless people it had killed. Hiruzen allowed this to happen, so as to play the 'caring' grandfather role and enforce the boy's loyalty to him as a weapon in the future. And his sickening plan might have worked, but things happened that he could neither plan, nor expect to happen as they did.
When Naruto was only seven years old, not that you would know this given the malnutrition he was suffering through stunted his growth something fierce, he was attacked yet again as he had been many times before by a large group of villagers. They had basically dragged him against his will towards a back alley and beat him black and blue with their fists, pipes, and a two by four that they broke on him from overuse. Once they had their fun, they all left him to bleed out in that alley, smiling and laughing about the fun they had torturing this kid. But while they were walking away, Naruto simply waited half conscious for whatever ability he had been blessed, or cursed, with heal him slowly. What he was unaware of was that the demon sealed within him, which was another thing he had no clue about since no one had ever told him he even had such a thing within him, healed him since if he died the demon died too. This was the way the seal keeping the demon locked away worked.
But today wouldn't end like it normally did when the villagers got done with their attacks against Naruto, since at this very moment inside his body, a seal that was hidden away from everyone cracked and from that crack the power of a Hunter long since passed began to unseal itselfā¦
(Mindscape)
Naruto woke up and looked around to see just where he was, and to his surprise he wasn't in the alley that the people had just spent the last hour beating him within an inch of his life in. He didn't recognize this place in any way, and from what he could see it looked like some sort of sewer or something. This made him question if the people dumped him down into the sewers or not, but it wasn't like he was going to get his answers just laying there so he got up and dusted himself off.
Now that he was up, the main question of which way to go became prominent in his mind. There were only two directions and both of them led down darkish, barely lit tunnels so he had no idea what way led to what. So he simply chose a direction and walked down it. He walked for what seemed like hours, but he didn't have any means to tell the time given the lack of natural light. So he continued to walk wondering what awaited him at the end of this tunnel and eventually he found out exactly what it was.
Right now, he stood before a large prison of some sort. It was barred off by thick metal bars and a fairly large seal that was placed upon it. Naruto had no idea what this prison was doing here nor did he want to know since the thing was massive so that meant whatever was inside was larger than he could handle so he was not going to mess with it. Since this way only apparently led to a prison, he would go the opposite direction in hopes of finding the way out of wherever this place was.
But as he turned around to go and walk away, he was unaware of the large orange tail that snaked its way out of the prison until it was too late. Naruto felt as it grabbed hold of him and pulled him into the prison. He screamed as he was pulled in and screamed louder when he saw the thing the tail was attached to, for it belonged to a large nine tailed fox demon. The thing roared in his face and opened its mouth to devour the child, but it was stopped by an unexpected source.
Out of the darkness came a man who rushed through the air and sliced the tail that was constricting Naruto's movements. The beast roared in pain, but the man looked at the fox demon and held out his hand. The demon's roar was instantly silenced, and not only that, it was forced to lay flat on the ground like a dog does when they are submissive. Once the demon was put into such a pitiful position, the man looked towards Naruto, who saw the man's eyes glowing a menacing bright purple color.
The man standing there looking at him was a handsome and muscular young man with gray eyes, black hair, and sharp facial features. He wore a black dress shirt over a white one underneath that included a black tie. He wore black pants and black shoes as well. It seemed this guy was a fan of the color black given most of what he wore was that particular color. Naruto couldn't help but think that this guy was dressed like he was going to a funeral or something. Naruto wondered if this guy was going to attack him or was he a friend, but he eventually got his answer.
"So this is what we have become has it," said the man with a closed eye sigh, "to think I actually used the Cup and became like this. This was not the expected outcome"
"Uhā¦" said Naruto in confusion since this was out of context entirely and he had no idea what the man was talking about. "Who are you?"
"Oh," said the man with a chuckle, "sorry. I sort of needed a second there to sort some things in my mind. But as to your question you are asking the wrong one."
"What do you mean?"
"You asked me who I am," said the man with a smile, "when the real question to be asked is whoĀ weĀ areā¦"
As soon as Naruto heard the man say those words, his head began to throb with a head splitting headache beyond description. It felt like his actual soul itself was trying to break through his skull for some reason. But in that moment of pain, visions of a life he himself did not live came to himā¦
His time spent known to the world as the weakest Hunter of All Mankindā¦
His horror at seeing the deaths of many within the Double Dungeonā¦
His apparent sacrifice to the Statueā¦
His rise in power as a Hunter when he recoveredā¦
The missions he was sent on to grow in strengthā¦
His trip ascending the Demon Tower that ended with the death of the Demon Baranā¦
His rise to becoming the world's strongest S Ranked Hunterā¦
The war with the Monarchsā¦
And lastly, him using the Cup of Reincarnationā¦
Naruto felt as his head stopped hurting, and then he looked up at this man since he now knew who he was, or rather who he himself wasā¦
"Sung Jinwoo." Said Naruto simply as he looked at his former self with awe. To think that he had been capable of such amazing feats. To see himself as he was now, being abused as he was by the people of Konoha, it only made him furious.
"So you remember." said Jinwoo with a smile, "I actually wondered if you would."
"But what happened to us to make us become like this?" Asked Naruto in confusion.
"I am wondering about that myself," said Jinwoo with a sigh, "when I used the Cup of Reincarnation I was told I would be sent back ten years. Yet not only did that not happen, I was actually reincarnated into a whole new body in another dimension of all things. And to top it all off my power was sealed away as well."
"How do you know we are in another dimension?"
"Because there are neither Monarchs or Rulers here. Trust me when I say after being around them so much that you just know when they are around. Since I don't sense them, they are not here anymore."
"Point taken, but don't you have any sort of clue as to why we were reborn like this?"
"My only guess," said Jinwoo with a shrug of his shoulders, "is that whoever made the Cup put some sort of hidden curse on it or something. Since otherwise I can't think of why this happened."
"So what happens now?" asked Naruto.
"Why are you asking me?" laughed Jinwoo, "since I am nothing more than just the memory of our past. This is your mind and I am just who we were. I have no power nor will I continue to exist once you leave. So it is up to you on what to do."
"So all those things I saw youā¦ us, do in the pastā¦ Do I have those abilities?"
"Indeed you do," said Jinwoo with a serious tone of voice, "whatever magical power brought us to this point, the same one that has sealed our power for years, it is beginning to weaken. I am guessing that time is weakening it and now that you know about your own power, and now can access it once more, that barrier will break faster than time itself would do it."
"So how do I access it?" asked Naruto, who was still a bit confused on how to do so.
"That's easy," said Jinwoo, who was beginning to fade away from existence, his purpose fulfilled, "say the words. Say the words that you know deep down in your very being. Now go. Go and show the world the strength of the Shadow Monarchā¦" And with those last words, Jinwoo ceased to be. Though his body might be gone forever, his memories as well as skills would live on in his new life.
Naruto stood there for a bit, all the while letting this all sink in. The fact that his past strength was coming back to him from a past life was a bit much to comprehend, but in the end he would adapt as he had before when he had gotten said power in the first place. But now came the question on what he would do with this reacquainted power of his. The world was his playground now given he had godlike power to do with as he wished yet he had no idea as to what to use it for. But then out of the blue he knew. He knew without a shred of doubt what he would doā¦
Liveā¦
That one word ignited the fires of rage that he had felt when he had first remembered his past. He had once been the most powerful man on the planet, one who saved it from an enemy that sought to wipe out Humanity as a whole. Now he was a weak kid who no one respected or allowed a sliver of happiness. No more. He refused to have his neck pressed down under the heavy weight of some random fucker's boots anymore. So with a new drive to better his life in every conceivable way, he said the words that like Jinwoo said were deeply embedded into his very beingā¦
"Arise."
With that one word, the dark power that he once used in a past life flooded out of him. The demon who was still bound to the ground this entire time perished within seconds of it being unleashed, and within its final moments it knew the true feeling of fearā¦
(Real World)
Naruto woke up back into the real world, his body feeling stronger than it had before. He wondered if what he had experienced was some sort of hallucination he suffered from brain damage, but he grabbed a thick wooden portion of the two by four that had been used to beat him into the ground and crushed it with his bare hand. So no it was not a dream, since he didn't have this type of strength before all this. He now had the strength to become the strongest person alive, but that would take some time given whatever barrier had sealed his power from the start was still there just slowly breaking apart. Plus as an added bonus, whatever had happened with the seal to his power had greatly increased his intelligence. He might be only 7 in body, but his mind was of a man in his prime. This would help him immensely since he would need to think of a proper plan here if he wanted to improve his situation.
"Well then," said Naruto as he hopped up back onto his feet. He took a bit of time to crack his various limbs since his body was far more stiff than he would have liked it to be. Cracking his body felt so nice as he did it. "Seems like I need to figure out just what I can do at the moment. I wonder ifā¦"
Naruto looked around his immediate person to see if there was something he could pick up to test something, and luckily he found a can. He picked it up and tossed it in his hand a few times before he sent it away and stored it in his Inventory as he had his weapons and potions in the past.
"So my Inventory is still intact," said Naruto to himself with a smile, "that is good to know. But now it makes me wonder if my old gear is still in there."
Naruto connected with his Inventory, which was like a mental connection of sorts since he was able to see what he had stored away without having to visibly see it. When the Architect had died he no longer had the screen from the System to look at but the ability to store things away was still usable by him. And while Naruto still had the ability to use his Inventory, unfortunately none of his old gear was still inside it. All there was was the can he chucked in there as a test.
"Well that is a bit of a disappointment," said Naruto with a sigh, "I could have used my old weapons. But now that I think about it fully it doesn't really matter in the end since there are no Gates in this universe. Since there aren't, there is no need for magical weapons to defeat the various monsters that inhabit them. I'll need to find a proper replacement, and sweet merciful Kami I have no idea where to get that. But what to do now?"
Naruto actually stood there for a few minutes thinking heavily on what to do. It wasn't like he had a proper family to get back to like most kids. And his shitty ass apartment wasn't really something he was looking forward to going back to. While it was a place to lay his head at night so as to not be caught in the cold or the rain since it had a roof, though it was one that leaked, it was the bare minimum to call a place to live. Plus it also added the detriment of being a place many people who wanted to hurt him could find him to do exactly that. After a few minutes he finally thought on what to do.
"I need to find a quiet place to train," said Naruto once more to himself, "since the people here will only hinder me if they think I am getting too strong. While I may remember what I could do in my past life, I will still need to train my body to regain my strength. Plus now that I have chakra as well as the magical abilities I had back thenā¦ That makes me question just what I can do with that knowledge. Questions for later since I need a place to train first before I test my abilities. But where is there a place to do just that? I can think of one, but I don't know if I am ready to go thereā¦"
Naruto then remembered his ability to use Stealth. This ability was able to camouflage him with his surroundings and hide all traces of his presence, essentially turning himself both physically and magically invisible. This would help him immensely, especially if they sent Tracker Nin in the future to find him. So now that he had the method to get places without being found, he just now needed the proper equipment to protect himself.
With a plan in mind along with an ability to succeed in his plan, he set off towards the main street of the village. This was where most of the stores were, and while he walked toward it he felt his stomach grumble. It made him chuckle a bit since he had not really thought of getting food in all this. But given what he had just recently gone through it made sense. So he made a detour towards a food stall. This one sold grilled meat on a stick. The owner of the stall hated him like so many others and had stabbed him on several accounts in the past. So Naruto had no guilt as he activated his Stealth ability and snatched a few skewers of meat while the owner was shouting out about his wares before he left to eat them.
Naruto ate his food in peace behind one of the few Shinobi equipment stores this village had. This one was the only place that would sell him clothes, and yet it was only the bright orange ones he had gotten used to wearing. Naruto made a mental note to switch up his wardrobe to something more appropriate given shinobi were meant to be stealthy. Bright orange was not a stealthy color. Once he was done eating, he once more activated his Stealth ability and walked into the store. He did chuckle a bit since it was one of those places that had a door with the bell over it to allow the person working at the moment to hear that someone had entered. So he saw someone come out from the back area to greet a customer after hearing the bell jingle, only to not see Naruto since he was invisible through his ability.
Once the man went back towards the storage room in the back, Naruto walked over to where there was a large rack full of kunai. Looking back to make sure that the man manning the store was not there to see him, he then began to pull out the kunai from their slots and stored them away in his Inventory. While he probably didn't need all the kunai he was taking, this was slightly personal since the people who ran this store would always sell him such low quality anything including kunai. So he was just taking what he paid for and they refused to give him. Once he had cleared out the rack, which was about a hundred kunai, he then left the way he had come. He could only wonder how the man working right now would explain so many kunai being stolen, but that didn't concern him in any way.
Now that he had what he needed, he set out towards his destination which was known as The Forest of Death. This place was a large forest that was surrounded by a tall metallic chain link fence to keep the beasts within it inside of it. It was used in the various Chunin Exams that the village would host from time to time. Since no one came here for anything other than those exams, it was perfect for his training. Sure there were deadly creatures that could spell his demise if he wasn't careful, but he was confident he could handle them given he had dealt with far worse when he was in his past life. These were not magical beasts, just normal ones so he could handle them.
Once outside the Forest of Death, Naruto looked around to see that no one was there and once he was sure that the coast was clear he climbed over the fence and hopped back down on the other side. He dusted himself off as he walked further into the dark place, and once he got far enough into the forest, he then stopped.
"Well I might not have my gear from my past life," said Naruto to himself, "but now I wonder if my old shadows are still available. I could surely use their assistance for the future. Arise!"
To Naruto's chagrin, none of his old shadows came out like they would usually do. This sucked, but to be honest he kind of expected this. While it was true that he had once acquired the shadow army of Ashborn when he was given the full power of the Shadow Monarch, this apparently was different since it was a new dimension as well as time. But while he didn't have his old massive army of shadows at his beck and call as he once did, he did still have three that arose out of the ground.
Out of the three that appeared before him only two were humanoid while the third was the fox demon that had tried to eat him, albeit far smaller than it was before. Right now it was the size of a bear at most, which was still pretty big. All three of his minions bowed to him, but while that was to be expected since this happened even in his past life, Naruto couldn't help but question just where the hell the other two shadows had appeared from. The fox demon he could understand since when he unleashed his power it killed the thing sealed within him, but so far he had not killed anyone as of acquiring these powers again. He wasn't near any gravesite that he was aware of since the people didn't bury their dead in the Forest of Death so summoning up the shadows of the long deceased was out of the picture.
He ordered the man of the two, with the other being a female with what he would admit was beautiful hair which was a dark red color, like black but with a dark red tint to it, to lift his head so as to see just who he was. What he saw made him fall backwards onto his ass since it surprised him that much. Shadows, while they might be bright blue or purple skinned, still retained definable features that they once held when they were alive. So Naruto looked at this man and easily saw the face of the infamous Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze. How he had acquired such a legend as his shadow, he had no fucking clue since he knew where the man was buried and he had not gone in that direction since getting his powers back.
"Howā¦" was all Naruto was able to manage to say as he saw the man he admired so much kneeling before him as a literal shadow of his former self. Naruto actually felt guilty over this and held out his hand to release the man from his service out of respect, but before he could do so the shadow spoke to him.
"Sā¦ Sā¦ Soā¦ Son,"Ā was all Minato's shadow was able to say. He was having a hard time speaking, which didn't surprise Naruto since many of his past shadows suffered the same effect. But that one word had stopped him dead in his thoughts as well as his tracks.
"What did you just call me?"
"Sonā¦"Ā said Minato again, but more clearly this time,Ā "Naruā¦ Narutoā¦ Sonā¦"
Naruto waved his hand, doing so sent all three of his shadows away. He wanted to be alone right now since this was not how he expected things to go today. To be honest he had not expected to remember a past life where he fought against godlike people for the fate of humanity before he was reincarnated either but that was besides the point.
That random bit of info that he had heard felt like a puzzle piece to a puzzle you just couldn't find for so long after putting it together finally being placed into its proper spot.
Things began to make so much sense for him now.
With his added intelligence after his power was unsealed, he understood genetics far better than he did before. He was a blonde haired blue eyed kid, and last he checked the only blond haired people in Konoha were from the Yamanaka clan. He obviously wasn't part of their clan since he was alone on the streets with their members attacking him like the rest of the citizens that made up this place. So that left the one other person who had the same characteristics as he himself had.
He knew the story about the Kyubi, since who in Konoha hadn't heard about Minato's great victory over the beast. So that told Naruto that the demon he had slain within himself when he had unleashed his power was in fact the Kyubi. This made him beam with pride for a split second since he had apparently done what even the Great Minato Namikaze had been unable to do and killed the damned thing. He didn't know if his personal hero and potential father would be happy about that or jealous, but he wouldn't think too hard about it.
Even with all these facts presented to him, there was still that inkling of a doubt that he had and he needed to squash it for good measure. And luckily for him he had the perfect means to get the answer he sought right now in fact. He couldn't ask anyone since he knew that they would lie to him in some manner. His increased intelligence helped him understand that he was being manipulated since it was so obvious with a more mature mindset like he now had. So the higher ups would not be of any aid to him. So he would go the direct route, since in all honesty that was the only one he had to take now.
In school, what little of it he was allowed to attend since the teachers were always finding some means to kick him out of the place one way or another for various reasons, they had gone over ever so briefly on the subject of seals. He knew there were basic ones that clans used to seal up their homes that were genetic in nature so only those of the immediate family could activate said seals. Minato was known for being a Seal Master and as such his home was sealed to this very day since the man himself had been dead for years now. So Naruto would go and see if the seal would activate from his touch. If it did then he would know without a shred of any sort of doubt that he was in fact the son of Minato Namikaze.
So with a set destination in mind, Naruto set off towards Minato's home although he was a bit irked about coming all this way towards the Forest of Death only to have to leave it not much later without really doing anything sort of training. He did manage to kill a rabbit on his way out and make a shadow out of it. Given he could swap places with his shadows, it would help in the future since he knew he was going to come back here so now he had the means to skip the long walks between both places.
It took a bit to get to his destination, which wouldn't have been so long if he had activated his Stealth ability, but so much was going through his mind right now so it only dawned on him as he got closer to Minato's house. He did activate it as he got closer though since he didn't want people to see him come in this specific direction. When he got there, he saw that the house itself was firmly intact, but the yard was like a miniature jungle. The grass was so high he could easily hide in it if he so wanted. He walked up to the front gate and saw the seal that kept the gate shut and the various traps that made up the defenses of the place active. So with held breath, Naruto placed his hand on the seal and felt as if some sort of energy passed through him. It lasted about 2 seconds before he heard a click, signaling that the gate had unlocked itself.
This one action alone proved without a doubt that he was related to Minato Namikaze. But now was not the time to fanboy on that bit of information, so he quickly entered and closed the gate behind him so no one could follow him. Once through the gate, he trudged through the miniature jungle that was his front lawn and made it to the front door. He opened that up easily enough since the door to the house itself was not locked just the gate was.
He walked inside his rightful home and closed the door behind him. He looked around and saw everything was covered in a lot of dust. But given no one had been inside this place in the last 7 years it came as no surprise that it happened since there was no one to clean up in so long. Naruto's first instinct was to flick on the lights, but he stopped himself from doing so for two reasons. The first was that he was easily able to see in the dark. Apparently being the Monarch of Shadows gave him perfect night vision. The second as well as the far more important reason is that he didn't want people to see the lights on from the outside. If they did that would tip off the higher ups, who he was dead certain knew his parents' identities and would put two and two together, and they would try and come after him. Plus given there were the Yamanaka clan who had the ability to not only enter the minds of people but erase their memories as well, and it would not end fondly for him if he was captured. They would make sure that he remembered not a damn thing by the time they were done with him.
So he began to see just what sort of home he would have lived in if his parents were still around to take care of him. While he knew about who his father was, he had no idea who his mother was. He thought hard on who Minato was married to, but he was drawing a blank since they never talked about her, just Minato himself. He saw this place had a large kitchen, a door that led towards the basement that he would check out later, three separate bathrooms, a master bedroom, two guestrooms, and then he came towards a bright blue door that led to the last room of the house. He opened it up and saw a room that was painted bright blue, but with clouds and leaves painted on the walls as well. In the center of the room was a baby crib, one that never got used.
Naruto walked up to the crib and felt sadness sink into his heart. This would have been his if only his parents had still been alive to this day. It was at that point that he looked up and what he saw made him cry a bit. On the ceiling of the room was a full mural that showed Minato and his wife, who Naruto recognized as the female shadow he had summoned back in the Forest of Death, holding a wrapped bundle. He could only assume the wrapped bundle was supposed to be him since there was no head to it, but instead there was a mirror that was aimed at the crib itself. So his parents didn't paint a face since they had no idea what he would look like upon birth, but the mirror was actually a nice touch.
Naruto couldn't help but cry harder as he saw this, since this was literal proof that his parents cared for him. No parent would go through this much effort to make a room appealing to a toddler if they wanted said toddler to suffer like the people of Konoha had made him suffer for the past 7 years. But as he stood there with the tears in his eyes, he began to think hard on what he had gone through, and the more he thought about it the angrier he got. It got to the point where his anger went to full on rage and even then it still did not cease to grow.
And eventually, Naruto's mind snappedā¦
He didn't scream out in rage or anything like that. Noā¦ he began to laugh hard. But this laughter of his was not one of joy or happiness in any sense of the word. This was the laughter of a sadistic insane man.
"They stole from me my childhood," said Naruto through the laughter as he was still fighting back the tears, "they were planning on robbing me of my home, my history, my very future itself. They tortured me for years without any thought of ramification. Well Konoha, allow me to show you the error of thinking that way. While I am not ready to seek vengeance as I am right now, give me some time and I will see this place destroyed, and when it happens I won't feel one single ounce of guilt as you all burn in the hell of your own making."
And with that, Naruto stopped laughing, wiped the tears from his eyes, and set out to get the first good night's sleep he has ever gotten in his lifeā¦
(6 months later)
The past 6 months have been heavenly for Naruto. He stuck to a strict schedule of learning as well as training and it showed given his large arsenal of skills he has acquired in time. While the seal that had kept his abilities as the Shadow Monarch was weakening, and it showed with the amount of strength that Naruto had gotten which was not normal for a now 8 year old to have, it was still not his full potential since it was still there.
Every day was the same thingā¦
He would use his Stealth ability to sneak around the village and steal the food he would need for the day. It wasn't like they were going to sell it to him even if he had the money since they always upped the price on the things they sold to him and even if he could pay they would give him the garbage they were about to throw out anyways. So he had no qualms about stealing food.
Once he got the food he needed, he would head back home and eat a hearty breakfast before he descended into the basement. There under the house was a vast library of scrolls and books of all sorts. It was here that he learned about his family history, mostly his mother's side since his father was an orphan like himself. He learned his mother's name was Kushina Uzumaki, and that she was not some random whore like the various villagers kept telling him his mother was for years. She was in fact one of the strongest kunoichi in the village at the time. He read about the clan he was from, the Uzumaki, and began to learn everything he could about them. He was an extremely fast reader so he was able to go through so much in such a short time. It had taken him the 6 months leading to this point to read everything in this place. Once he finished reading them, he placed them in his inventory since he planned to preserve as well as share said knowledge in the future, either with a student of his own choosing or a family he would start in the future. Only time would tell which route he went.
Speaking of his family, he had released his parents from servitude as his shadows. Never would he use his own family like that, since after reading the journals the two of them kept he knew that they would have loved him dearly if they had lived to raise him. While Naruto couldn't quite understand why his father would seal a powerful demonic beast within him as he had, he was sure there was a good reason for it that didn't involve the extreme amounts of torture the people of the village brought upon his person.
While reading, he did find something interesting within all the scrolls and books. Strangely enough it was a token that was hidden in a scroll. The token was made of strong metal and had a hammer etched into it. The scroll it was inside was a thank you note sent to his mother stating that the blacksmith she had saved was grateful and owed her one weapon forged free of charge with the token being proof of that. Naruto pocketed the token since it would most likely come in handy later, especially since the man who gave her the token was none other than Muramasa Sengo himself. The man was a legend when it came to making blades, but apparently his blades were cursed as well from the rumors. Those who he made blades for died violently in the end. Maybe that was why his mother Kushina never redeemed the token to get a blade forged.
After reading up until noon, he would then eat a big lunch, and then swap places with the rabbit shadow that was within the Forest of Death and begin training himself there. He punched trees to harden his bones, he ran for miles around the place, and he did nonstop pushups as well as sit ups along with pullups. He worked his body to the core, and it began to show since his body was no longer thin and sickly looking as it had been in the past. Now it was the body of a fit 8 year old child.
While he did train in the Forest of Death, where many deadly beasts were known to prowl, not a single one of them ever attacked him. Animals were smart and knew an alpha male when they sensed one. They felt that messing with this child would end with their deaths and so went out of their way to stay hidden from him. This worked for Naruto, who wasn't aware of this since he didn't really care. In his mind he was just lucky is all.
While many of the jutsu he read within the library inside his house he could not use, mostly since his chakra had been converted to magical power so he no longer had chakra to use, he did learn to duplicate some of the more complex things he saw. One of the biggest changes with his reincarnation was that when he was just Jinwoo, he had no elemental magic of any sort. He had mage shadows for that but he himself did not have such abilities to use himself. But now he did. Yet while he did have elemental abilities now, he only had the elements of lightning and wind to use. Not bad really, but he would have liked fire as well, but beggars can't be choosers here so he would accept this.
His magical abilities that involved elements were quite numerous since what he could do with it was mold it in a numerous amount of ways or just flat out toss it in various forms such as balls or spikes. The best way he used it was by amplifying his weapons such as his fists or his kunai. He would get a better, more proper weapon in the future but he used what he had access to right now.
Yet while Naruto was hidden away from the public eyes of the village growing stronger, the village was going through some drastic issues without him thereā¦
Hiruzen had noticed Naruto's disappearance within a few days after he had unsealed his true power. When he ordered one of the few shinobi whose job it was to observe the brat to find him so as to plan another attack on his person, the shinobi came back and told him he was unable to find Naruto. This bit of information confused Hiruzen since how do you lose track of a 7 year old child who has barely been taught to survive in the world? So he ordered more men to look for Naruto and to not return until he was found.
His men searched everywhere the brat frequented. They went to the orphanage he stayed at, but given the cheery mood of the woman who ran the place they knew he wasn't there since she hated the boy so much. They went to his favorite ramen stand, the one where the owners poisoned the brat on the orders of the various council members, the playground, the training fields, abandoned buildings, even the various alleys all over the village and they found nothing.
At this point Hiruzen grew as worried as he did angry. He called in a man known as Danzo, who for years had been telling Hiruzen that they needed to turn Naruto into a mindless tool of a shinobi so as to control him better, but Hiruzen knew that Danzo meant for Naruto to be controlled by Danzo alone. Hirzuen had ripped into Danzo, demanding to know whether or not the man had kidnapped Naruto himself, but Danzo had repeatedly stated he had not. It was then at this point that Hirzen began to sweat bullets since they needed to find the brat and they needed to find him now. The loss of a Jinchurikki, and the one who possessed the strongest Biju of all things, would be a loss they could not recover from.
Hiruzen called an emergency meeting with the village heads, all who knew about Naruto and loathed his existence as other than a tool for them to use in the future once molded properly. Hiruzen told them all that Naruto was missing for the past several days and they needed to find him. It was also at that meeting that a vote was taken to go with Danzo's idea of controlling Naruto once found since it was clear that Hiruzen's plan had failed if the brat had escaped their sight for so long. Hiruzen was against it but in the end he was outvoted.
So now there were even more people searching for Naruto, not only within the village but outside of it too since if he wasn't anywhere in the village he must have left it. If only they knew he was still within it in the one place they couldn't reach him. But as so many people looked for him, Naruto got stronger and smarter with the knowledge left to him.
But as he trained his mind and body, he knew that his time within this place was coming to an end. He knew that as long as he stayed here that he would never truly be free since those in power would do absolutely everything to keep him under their boot and he wouldn't have it. So he pondered on just what to do. He saw as so many people ran past him to try and search for him, since they were very vocal about it. They didn't see him since he was using Stealth and so he was invisible to the naked eye. He knew that if he wanted to leave he would need a distraction of some sort, and it would have to be a big one at that since they were already looking outside of the village to find him. If they caught any sight of him they would send the calvary and try to force him back here against his will. So he needed a plan that was not only a distraction but somehow weakened the village as a whole so they didn't have as many shinobi to send out after him since they would need to protect their village insteadā¦
It was at that point that a thought came into his head, and it was a wicked one at that. He had the perfect idea as to what to do to escape, and now all he needed was the materials to set his plan off without a hitchā¦
(1 week later)
Fugaku Uchiha was not having a good dayā¦
To be fair though, he hadn't had a good day in quite some time really ever since the Kyubi attack about 8 years ago. Ever since that damned beast attacked Konoha, his clan had been the social pariahs of this place and it had only infuriated him as time went by. After the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's Attack, the village somehow connected dots out of thin air and accused the Uchiha clan of orchestrating the attack as they did not take action against the tailed beast. That was such a large leap in logic it made him question just where in the hell they had come up with it.
This random situation, combined with the Uchiha being relocated further away from the village, caused a rift between the village and the Uchiha clan after so many years. Despite this, there were still some of the villagers that still admired Fugaku and the Uchiha Clan's efforts of maintaining peace within the village as their main police force. But time and bitterness over losing the position as Hokage to Minato Uzumaki of all people made him conspire to cause a coup d'Ć©tat that would allow the Uchiha clan to take control of the village out of spite.
Minato Namikazeā¦ that name alone causes him to spit out of angerā¦
How Fugaku hated the man. During the 3rd Shinobi war he had gained infamy as a fierce warrior on the battlefield with all the praise and admiration that it came with. But then it was dwarfed by Minato single handidly ending the war with his fucking Hirishin Jutsu. Kami Dammit! If only he could get his hands on that technique he could easily overshadow what Minato had done, but it was locked away in the now dead man's home with no way to get it. The protective seals that were all over the property still worked and so no one could get their hands on what was inside the house.
He was supposed to become the Hokage, not that fucking orphan of a man who had no clan name to back him up like he did as an Uchiha! His own sources had said that was the case, and the only reason it changed was that the people of Konoha wanted the strongest to take the position and a man who could single handedly slaughter so many enemies with a single jutsu was indeed perfect for the position. Fugaku loathed to admit that the people were right, and he still refused to admit it to this day.
8 years ago when Minato had died defending the village, he had hoped that he would finally gain the position that had been taken from him, but then Hiruzen took up the mantle once more which only infuriated Fugaku more. But at least Fugaku got his enjoyment out of putting Minato's brat in his place. He knew who Naruto's parents were. All the clan heads did. They just didn't care since as a Jinchurriki his life was set in stone as a weapon to be molded and used as the village saw fit. It amused Fugaku so to see the offspring of one of the most powerful shinobi of their age being put in his place at the feet of his betters. Hopefully Minato saw this in whatever afterlife there was and if he did, he so hoped that dead fucker was crying his eyes out about how his poor brat of a son was suffering and he couldn't do a damn thing to stop it.
But over the past few months, Fugaku had found others within the Uchiha clan who were like him in being sick of the attitude the village had towards them since the Kyubi attack years ago. They were convinced little by little to join in a coup that would make them the top clan as well as run this village. And eventually the entirety of the clan was in on this plan. It had taken quite some time, with Kami blessing them with the means to keep the plans secret since Hiruzen was diverting so many shinobi in an attempt to find Naruto since he had been missing for the past 6 months. Today was supposed to be one of the last meetings to solidify the plan, and so the main players were in the meeting hall of their clan to discuss things in secret.
None of them noticed the young man, the very one Hiruzen had been searching the past 6 months for, walk around the perimeter of the hall and place seals all over the building. They were too busy scheming to notice the young man come into the hall itself from an open window on the roof and sat on a beam looking down upon them, overhearing everything they were saying. But what they did notice was when the air started to smell a bit funny. At first they couldn't quite place it, but then the air started to change into a greenish color and they knew that they needed to get out. But when they tried to open any of the doors or the windows to get out of the poisonous gas that was becoming more visible, they were shut tight via the seals on the outside of the building.
The Uchiha clansmen and women tried desperately to get out, but no matter what they did they could not get out in time, and one by one they fell over dead from the poison they inhaled. Eventually all there was was Fugaku, who was coughing heavily, with his vision blurry. He did see though as someone fell from the ceiling and began to walk towards him. While his vision was blurry, he would recognize that blonde spiky hair anywhereā¦
"So this is how the Uchiha's die," said Naruto with a chuckle, "not in some grand battle that will be spoken about for years to come, but alone and isolated by poison. How fitting of an end."
"Minato'sā¦ *cough cough*... brat," coughed out Fugaku since the poison was getting to him and it was hard to say words. "How are you alive?"
"Oh this?" said Naruto as he used his hands to send more poison towards his nostrils as he breathed it in heavily, "I ingested the antidote before I set this trap up. Do you want it?" Said Naruto as he pulled out a small vial of purple liquid and put it on the ground between him and Fugaku. "Then crawl for it like the dog you are."
Fugaku seethed at being insulted like this, but he would deal with it once he took the antidote. He managed to weakly crawl towards it and grab ahold of it before he uncorked it and drank the contents. But instead of healing him, it in fact caused him to puke blood violently.
"Oh," said Naruto with a sadistic smile, "did I mix up the antidote with the vial of concentrated non aerosolized poison. My bad."
Fugaku could only weakly glare at him a bit with an outstretched hand, so desperate to use it to strangle the life out of this brat. But he then fell face first onto the ground and died like the rest of the Uchihas had.
"Well step one is complete," said Naruto with a laugh. While it was true that he had made the poison, which did in fact have an antidote since the book he read about it in said so, he didn't need it at all so he didn't make it since there was no point. He was completely immune to poisons. One of the many great perks from being the Shadow Monarch. "Now on to step 2. Arise!"
Out of the corpses of the Uchiha he had just poisoned to death, their shadows began to arise up out of the corpses that littered the room. After a few seconds of them being summoned by their new master, they all bowed towards him as one to prove their loyalty to him.
"Oh the irony of this," laughed Naruto hard, "since you all did so much to hurt and hate me for years. To see you all bowing on your knees to me is quite a sight. But enough about that. Time is of the essence here. Hear me my shadows! I give you one simple order to complete. Leave this room, go out into the rest of the Uchiha district itself, and kill every last one of your former clan members. Spare none. I don't care if they are weak, sickly elders or newborns. Kill them all."
The Shadows didn't even hesitate for a second after hearing this and left through the open window Naruto had himself come through. As they went to complete his order, he walked out the front door and began to cackle to himself. While it might make him a monster to order the deaths of even innocent children like he was doing right now, he was simply doing as he had been taught all his life. The people of this village showed him it was perfectly fine to ruin the life of a child if you hated them enough, and so since he hated everyone in this Kami forsaken village with every fiber of his being, it was perfectly legal given the lessons learned. The things they did to him should have killed him, but it was the demon that was once inside him that kept him alive all these years so he was simply returning what they had done to him.
As he walked towards the edge of the Uchiha district, he saw his Shadows all return one by one since their mission had been completed. He sent them away as they returned since they were not needed for the time being. Once they were all sent away to await for when they were summoned next, he turned around and summoned up several balls of pure electricity. This caused a few things to light a flame within the houses, and soon the fire began to spread. He launched them into several of the now vacant houses and then turned around and began to walk away again.
While he walked away, he did walk near someone he didn't expect to seeā¦
Sasuke Uchihaā¦
Apparently the young Uchiha had been away doing something elsewhere when the massacre of his clan was happening. While at first Naruto thought about killing him, instead he decided to let him live.
Don't get me wrong, this was not an act of mercy in any sense of the word. This was in fact the complete opposite. What little Naruto knew about Sasuke was enough. The boy went to the same class as he did sometimes on those occasions he wasn't kicked out for some dumb reason. The boy was arrogant and believed he was the best since he was not only an Uchiha, but the younger brother of Itachi Uchiha himself, a shinobi with a fairly impressive record himself. Naruto couldn't blame Sasuke since his ego had most likely been stroked by his now deceased mother and father so that he truly believed he was the best. Naruto could only smirk since Sasuke was about to get a cold hard realization that the Uchiha weren't as great as they thought they were, and now were dead as well.
Before Sasuke noticed him, Naruto activated his stealth and walked past him. He couldn't help but solidify this moment as one that would haunt Sasuke's memory forever, so in a eerily haunting voice, he began to sing a eerie song:
O, Death
O, Death
Won't you spare me over til another yearā¦
Sasuke heard a strange voice sing this song and looked around him as he heard this. While Naruto's Stealth ability could hide his presence it didn't hide his voice. The song made the hairs on Sasuke stand up since it was fairly disturbing to hear, especially since there was no one around him that he could see. So after slightly freaking out about hearing that song out of the blue, he picked up the pace a bit and continued onwards home. All the while unaware of what he would find there once he got thereā¦
But by the time Konoha saw the smoke from the houses lit aflame, or went into lockdown as they tried to stop the fires from spreadingā¦
Naruto was already walking out the front gateā¦
And without so much as a look back he took his first steps towards a new life. A better life that he deservedā¦
One fit for a kingā¦
Or a Shadow Monarchā¦