Happy Shall He Be part 4

This is the final portion of this chapter. Comments, even small ones, are definitely welcome.Hope you enjoy.

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Obito decided to not be quick in his teleportation, waiting to sit in his personal dimension like he did sometimes.

The blood of Uzumaki Ashina, minus a drop from use, was in one of his chest pockets, awaiting use once more.

With the likely death of Orochimaru, a potential ally/threat was off the table now.

Since the age of 14, Obito had relied on his own instinct and training to keep the plan working. Zetsu was excellent at spying, but he had to do much of the legwork, including molding the Akatsuki to suit his needs, and putting Yagura under his control.

But right now, he didn't know what to do.

He didn't enjoy the thought of killing Minato's son or daughter. Minato wasn't there to save Rin, thus he didn't care about the man's death, but Kushina was an unfortunate one. If there was a way to have spared the hotheaded, but kind, red haired woman, Obito would have taken it.

But they both have the Kyuubi sealed in them.

He probably should have simply ordered the Kyuubi to retreat instead of rampaging across Konoha, but Namikaze needed killed.

The Juubi could possibly be revived with just half of the Kyuubi. Ensuring that the nations were too weak to fight him would mean the Juubi wouldn't need its full strength to hold them off until the Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast.

'Madara will give me that much, after all I've accomplished.'

Uzumaki Rin would live. Naruto was a greater threat, but that wouldn't have mattered if it was the other way around.

This world stole one Rin away, and Obito wouldn't add another.

Besides, it wasn't that much of an inconvenience.

'I will make your brother's sacrifice worth it.' He thought to himself, the very minor twist of his vision present as he appeared in his own dimension. 'You will have him in your reality, Rin. This counterfeit world will give way to paradise.'

Obito decided he would capture the boy. With his death, the grey rain curtain of the world would be one step closer to rolling back, the white shores and green country of a heaven on earth being revealed.

Obito slowly opened his eye, gazing at the environment.

'What's going on?!' He thought sharply, alarm bells going off in his head.

Something was wrong. His Sharingan was picking up an extremely dense layer of chakra all around him.

In an instant, his body stiffened and he started looking around, a kunai in his hand.

'Someone is here.'

His Sharingan took in the etchings on the ground, noting the ungodly amounts of male genitals deeply carved in the ground.

A lack of maturity, but that wasn't the thing that had him almost choking on air.

A carved image of two people, people he was extremely familiar with, scarred his personal space away from the world.

Both were young teens, a masked boy, his right arm crackling with electricity and driven elbow deep through the chest of a girl with neck length hair.

Above it was one sentence.

"I do not accept this."

Those were the exact words he screamed as Rin was taken from him and his belief in a good world died.

The slight imbalance in his composure left an opening he never would have shown in any other situation.

A faint rustle behind him reached his ears and he turned, trying to swing the kunai gripped in his fist.

A golden blade of chakra got to him first and he felt it lodge deep in his lower back, the pain making him gasp.

Another appeared from in front of him, aimed at his right eye.

'No!' He screamed internally, throwing up his hand to stop it. The blade sank into his palm, continuing on. Obito jerked his hand down, diverting the blade enough to stop it from tearing out his eye.

The blade instead pierced his mask and scraped against his orbital socket, tearing a shout of pain from him.

The element of surprise was over and Obito was ready, flaring his chakra and gritting his teeth as the grafted flesh of the Shodai suddenly felt cold for a moment.

Wooden spikes shot out of him and impaled his invisible attackers, twin puffs of smoke appearing.

Obito drew another kunai as his hand healed, preparing himself.

"I don't how you got in here," He snarled, his teeth clenched, "But you made a mistake."

No response was made aside from a water dragon flying towards him from hundreds of meters away.

Obito Shunshined out of the way of it, shooting a fireball at the area of origin as the dragon struck the ground with enough force to crack it deeply, sending water and debris flying.

Right as he Shunshined again to keep moving, another chakra blade appeared right where his head was going to be, aimed for his right eye again.

One time was a coincidence, two was targeted.

The infiltrator knew about his eye!

Obito shifted out of the way, stabbing near the invisible target. His enemy diverted the attack and lashed out with a kick, Obito's Sharingan barely spotting a chakra outline.

With a shout, Obito managed to grab the leg and stab forward. His kunai made contact and he expected a puff, not an explosion.

The bunshin blew up as the steel sank into it and sent him to the ground, making his ears ring for a moment.

A Genjutsu struck him before he could pull himself up, making his vision spin and nerves flare like he was burning, but he blinked his eye once and it fell off, followed by him leaping to his feet.

"It will take more than that," He taunted his opponent, ignoring the itching of his burns healing from the blast, "I can leave whenever I wish."

"And yet, you won't until you have answers." The voice of Madara echoed across the area, making Obito freeze.

A figure in black appeared and went through hand seals, his chakra swirling around him.

Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu.

A frighteningly large amount of water shot towards him and he made his own hand seals, blasting a gust of wind at it.

Futon: Daitoppa.

The two clashed in a loud boom, mist impeding his sight as the jutsu tore each other apart.

Another jutsu came screeching through the mist a split second later, the chakra unnaturally dense like the other jutsu.

Suiton: Water Severing Wave.

A concentrated blade of water shot from the masked figures mouth, coming straight towards him.

Obito made his own hand seals, smashing his palm into the ground.

Doton: Mud Wall.

He sank more chakra into the ground and added the Mud Wave jutsu at the end, hoping to unbalance the man.

The tactic didn't stop the deceptively dense water from ripping clean through the wall and tearing through his lower chest, stealing the air from his lungs.

Obito gasped in shock, staggering as he glanced down at the fist sized hole torn through him.

As he coughed up blood, the demonic roar of a man possessed came from beside him and he saw his enemy more closely with his Sharingan.

Red hair, Warring Clans era armour, and a pair of golden eyes burning with hatred.

A bone rattling punch struck his face, the mask cracking under the fist. Obito's ears rang, but he recovered enough to get his arms up and began trading punches with the Shinobi, trying to get an opening to escape.

Another punch slipped through and he felt an open palm strike his bicep, the limb suddenly sagging.

'Damnit!' He growled, taking a spinning kick to the face when he couldn't lift his arm that nearly tore his mask from his face and knocked him to the ground.

Obito rolled to the side and used his good arm to flip up as a foot struck where his head was, spinning and sending an exploding tag at the mysterious attacker.

The man actually caught the tag and pulsed chakra into it, causing it to sizzle and disintegrate.

With a second to check whatever was done to his arm, Obito tore his sleeve off and looked at his arm.

The limb was completely numb, even the muscles seemed to be totally relaxed.

'What kind of seal is this?!'

His chakra wasn't being impeded, flowing through his arm just fine, but his entire limb was numb.

Taking a risk, Obito grabbed at the muscle on his arm and pulled, tearing a chunk of flesh away that had the seal on it.

He suddenly had feeling in his arm, and by Kami did it hurt. It was likely some type of seal that absorbed electricity, acting like a paralytic.

Another blur of movement and Obito saw the man use a half seal to send a ball of water at him, followed by a wind jutsu that screeched towards him from a different direction.

'There's more than one.' Obito sank into the ground, shooting towards the likely leader.

Without leaving the ground, Obito pulsed out several wood spikes and twisted, lashing out blindly with them to restrain him.

Something was caught and Obito jumped up, triumphant as his opponent was restrained in the vice grip of wood.

A slippery bastard, but still beaten.

Before he could begin interrogating him, the masked man laughed.

"Hashirama and Madara were better." The golden eyed redhead flexed his arms, shattering the wood when several chakra blades tore the wood apart.

A Shunshin made him a red and black blur as they clashed once more in another bout of taijutsu, Obito wielding his kunai again.

Even if his first Sensei was almost unmatched in wind release, Obito was still capable at it. Channeling wind chakra through his kunai, he slashed at the man's face, hoping to cut him down.

The wind blade shattered against the golden blade raised in a defensive stance that Obito struggled to break, making the Uchiha twist to avoid getting impaled.

The two backed away from each other, Obito practically tasting the amusement in the redhead's posture.

"You cannot kill me," The man laughed viciously, twirling his blade as his left hand went up in preparation for a jutsu. "Not even your master could."

Obito remained silent, his hand still twitching a bit from the effects of the one seal.

"I don't know who you are, assassin," He bit out, raising his own off hand, "But I've survived far worse than the likes of you."

"I'm more dangerous than boulder-kun, Obi-chan," Another laugh came from behind the mask, "You cannot imagine what I would have done to have you right here, after your crimes."

"You know nothing," Obito spat, circling the man, "I will save this world from itself and bring a better one."

"An illusion," The man snarled, his chakra visibly shaking and making pebbles move away from him, "Wake up to reality, Obito. Rin is dead and she cannot return. Let go of this foolish dream!"

Obito laughed at the pathetic attempt at turning him away from his purpose.

He was unnerved by the knowledge of the assassin, but he would get answers soon enough.

Not even Minato could kill him.

"You are a fool to think you can convince me with that."

Another cold laugh echoed across the area.

"I'm not the protagonist of this little tale," He practically cackled, his chakra blade glowing brighter, "But neither are you."

The two charged forward and the screech of steel against chakra cut through the air as they clashed, both men seeking to land a lethal hit.

Obito noticed the posture of the man shift towards a more defensive one, his steps precise as he backed away.

Obito pressed forward and slashed his kunai downward, striking the golden blade and twisting to stab again. The stab was blocked and the redhead still retreated, his eyes narrowed into slits.

A slash at the face, a spinning kick to the chest, a flurry of punches and slashes; none got through as his opponent seemed to be perfectly centered as he slowly pulled away and barely diverted attacks away with his blade.

His opponent's chakra resembled a hurricane, being tumultuous on the outside, but the very core of it was perfectly calm, unstained by emotion.

Right as Obito knocked the blade aside and drove his fist towards his opponents face, the man made a faint whistle sound, a water senbon shooting from his mouth.

The senbon went straight through his hand and grazed his shoulder, not penetrating anything vital.

The seamless way he did it meant the Shinobi had done it before, baiting someone into the eye of the hurricane that was his defense.

With his hand injured, Obito was just slow enough to miss the man, who ducked and kicked at his leg, aiming for the knee.

Obito shifted his body to avoid his knee from shattering, but something jerked at his other leg and sent his whole body forward, falling towards the ground.

But a foot kicked his face before he could hit the ground.

The ringing in his ears was back and he swung blindly, catching something. It turned out to be his opponent, the man's arm having the kunai wedged in it..

Obito rolled away once more, but was dragged across the ground by what he now realized was a water whip from a clone.

Growling angrily, Obito pooled chakra into his gut and adjusted it slightly different to a fireball.

Katon: Hiding in Ash jutsu.

He expelled a cloud of ash to conceal himself and stomped on the whip, managing to break it.

Jumping to his feet, he blinked his eye to teleport away, but fate had other plans.

An ironclad grip was felt on his shoulder as the figure materialized in front of him, eyes blazing. His shoulder felt like it was lit on fire as a seal was placed on him, his tenketsu screaming in protest.

The hand that was gripping him then crackled with lightning, a high pitched whine nearly deafening him.

"Suffer me now!" The redhead roared, jamming him directly in the chest.

Obito howled as his entire body spasmed, the smell of ozone and burning flesh overwhelming him.

Blindly reaching at his chakra, Obito willed himself away, collapsing on a cobblestone road as he rematerialized.

Gasping for air as he was still spasming, Obito looked up at the sky and saw several buildings.

Based on the structure, he was in Hi no Kuni, and only one city was this developed.

The capitol.

Forcing himself to his feet, he bit down as his artificial healing factor worked hard to fix the nerve damage from whatever seal trap was used.

That lightning should've exited his feet as it went into the ground, but it kept circulating through his body instead. The only thing that happened was that recent seal placed on him.

Without hesitation, Obito grabbed another kunai and tore another chunk of flesh off his shoulder, removing the seal. He then made a hand seal, generating fire to burn the flesh to ash.

'A seal master. Red hair. Uzumaki.' The quick fire thoughts were all he needed to know, and prepared to escape, knowing his arrival might have been noticed by the Shinobi in the Daimyo's employ.

The injured Uchiha then noticed a part of his robe was smoking from the lightning. Scowling, he patted at it, but noticed something bad, very bad.

The vial was gone.

Arguably the most valuable thing in the Elemental Nations that wasn't Madara's Rinnegan was now missing.

"No..." He reached in the pouch, but it wasn't there, "Damnit. Where is it?!"

Now was not the time to panic, but Obito was doing that just now.

"Looking for this?" A voice came from a few feet from him, the Uzumaki sounding gleeful.

Clenched in his hand was the vial, still looking perfectly fine, albeit a bit scuffed.

Obito's eyes widened, staring directly at the man. He probably grabbed ahold of him as he teleported away.

"Give it back," He demanded desperately, his eyes flicking around him.

"In the words of the most well spoken part of my anatomy," The Uzumaki flipped him off, darting down the street.

Obito gave chase, tracking the movements with his Sharingan.

"Empty one. Empty one. Empty one." He heard a faint chant from his target, not knowing what it meant.

"Bingo!" A ball of water the size of a carriage shot from the man's mouth and struck a building, breaking down the door and front wall with a loud crashing noise.

"Intruders!" The man roared at the top of his voice, "Iwa nin are attacking!"

A Henge formed around the Uzumaki and the ANBU outfit of Iwagakure covered him.

As if it were a demented and twisted game, multiple different types of jutsu were fired to damage buildings in the loudest way possible.

The only similarities in the Jutsu was the low chakra cost.

'Is he trying to cause a diplomatic incident?' Obito thought, racing after him faster.

As they got towards the eastern section of the city, Obito caught sight of blurs along the rooftop.

Shinobi.

Henging to conceal himself and his robes, Obito pumped more chakra in his legs and shot forward, ignoring the strain on his knees.

A wind and fire combination jutsu cut him off from his prize, but he ran straight through it, biting down the urge to scream as it burned him.

Pain was temporary.

"Run run, fast as you can," The Uzumaki shouted, leaping towards a building and jumping to another, "You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"

Obito still pursued, but the other Shinobi were closing in and he didn't want to risk fighting an entire city when his only avenue of escape was still potentially compromised by the unwanted guest.

Uzumaki reached the wall of the city and took a flying leap, flinging a water whip out like a rope and catching a post, yanking himself forward.

Turning on his heel, he sent another sharpened blade of water at Obito, who knocked it aside with a small wall of earth.

Obito vaulted over his construct, but his target had already jumped down, going full speed with the Shunshin across the grassland.

Obito roared in anger, turning and facing the other Shinobi.

He may have been able to pursue, but he would have a tail constantly and would have to fight them off. Failure after failure, death after death. This cursed world refused to die like it should to bring about a better one.

To hell with subtlety, he was going for the throat.

Wrenching his chakra forcefully, he blurred through hand seals to use the signature jutsu of the Uchiha.

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu.

The ball of fire tore through the building the one Shinobi was leaping towards, being unable to avoid it.

Not even a scream was heard as he was burned to ash, half the building melting from the scorching flames.

Obito shot across the street, flinging a wind coated shuriken at another Shinobi.

The shock of one of their own dying had them off guard, which Obito took advantage of.

A kunoichi swung a sword at him as he rushed her, but a kunai coming from his sleeve blocked it. She didn't know he was an Uchiha, so she looked into his eyes.

With a squint, Obito ensnared her in a Genjutsu, making her go slack as he grabbed her hair and bodily swung her in the way of an Earth bullet aimed at his back.

The Jutsu shattered against her, the Genjutsu breaking as the pain registered.

Obito dropped her to the ground, shooting another fireball at the one who just mortally wounded his own comrade.

Not wanting her to warn them of his Sharingan, Obito stepped over her and stomped on her trachea, not even looking down as the wet crunch echoed over the crackle of flames.

With that done, Obito grabbed her sword and rushed towards the shocked man, raising it to strike.

Despite not being the most well versed in kenjutsu, Obito took apart the shoddy defenses of the barely jonin level threat.

Slash to the outer thigh, stab blocked by kunai, a few back in forth clashes and Obito drove the blade through his chest, then jerked it out and swung at the man's throat, taking his head off in a shower of blood.

With the immediate Shinobi dead, with others on the way, Obito made another ash cloud to conceal himself, teleporting away.

Arriving back in his dimension, Obito started looking around, making sure the intruder was gone.

The use of jutsu, including Kamui, and the healing of his noticeable amount of injuries had bitten into his reserves, but the grafted flesh and his own above average reserves for an Uchiha meant he still had enough to fight if need be. But it still made him a step slower.

Something that stood out to Obito, something that wasn't present before, was a very strong scent of oil.

The silence was broken when a spinning tide of water materialized and formed into a dragon, shooting towards him.

With a roar, Obito tore through hand seals and sent another ball of flames at the dragon, shooting towards the Uzumaki that managed to still be there.

Right as the fireball struck the dragon, Obito realized why it smelled like oil around him.

The dragon was made of it.

With a frantic use of the Mokuton, Obito wrapped himself in a cocoon of wood as a deafening explosion and rush of wind sent him careening backwards, bouncing against the ground.

The wood probably saved him from getting incinerated by the exploding dragon, but it did nothing to prevent the air being stolen from his lungs and his ribs shouting their displeasure at being used as a cushion.

'Whoever he is, he's definitely an S-rank that came prepared to fight me specifically.'

Only two knew how he fought, including his Kamui.

Both were dead.

Flipping to his feet, Obito kept the wood around him as mist was blasted around him, spinning clockwise around the eye of it, being the caster.

'He's up to something.' Obito knew for a fact, primed and ready to defend himself

Suddenly, the mist sharpened into thousands of water senbon, twisting and flying at him with the assistance of the mist spinning at a frightening pace.

Clenching his chakra, Obito blurred through hand seals and formed a studier wall of wood around him completely, jumping to the top and shooting a stream of flames at the ground for good measure.

He was rewarded with two pops indicating that two bunshin had sunk into the ground to reach him, only to be incinerated.

Obito dropped to the scorched ground and heard the crunch of wood breaking under the constant storm of senbon.

A fracture in the barrier caused close to a dozen flying through, his borrowed sword going up to protect him.

Using his Sharingan to read the flight tragectory, Obito twirled the blade's flat end to intercept the senbon, letting none through.

Another dragon came shooting towards him, but Obito didn't take the bait.

Turns out, his opponent flung an exploding tag at the dragon and ignited it, a deafening explosion hitting him point blank.

The wood groaned and started falling apart, barely withstanding the impact.

'That was close.' Obito glared through the holes in the wood, planning to enjoy killing the man.

After the jutsu ended, the remnants of wood fell away and Obito clenched the sword he had taken in his fist, ready to fight.

In a blur, his opponent was in front of him, growling as he swung down at his head.

To Obito's horror, the redhead had evidently ran through his own jutsu to get at him, judging by him currently being lit on fire!

"You will die by my hand," He snarled, smashing a golden blade into his steel one with such force that he staggered, "Friendless and forgotten!" He roared, twirling in a blur as he created a second blade.

'Why does he want me dead this much?!'

Several rage fueled attacks had Obito frantically deflecting or dodging as best he could with the assistance of his Sharingan, but his technique wasn't enough for the endless stream of gold that sought to tear him to ribbons.

A horizontal slash at his throat was avoided by him leaning back, but his opponents momentum had him spinning on his left leg and roundhouse kicking him in the chest with the right.

Obito was driven back several yards, stabbing into the ground with the sword to slow himself.

His robes were torn from near misses and several cuts rapidly healed from where he couldn't avoid them.

His Sharingan spotted a slight ripple in the air next to him a moment later and he slashed at it, a bunshin appearing as it made a chakra blade to deflect the hit.

Obito twirled the blade and ducked under a stab, twisting as he spotted another ripple and deflected a strike aimed at his face.

Whatever sixth sense he had forced Obito to turn towards the original, who had just sent a concentrated blade of water towards him, the water sparkling slightly when he looked closely.

Obito jumped and had his body completely horizontal, avoiding getting sliced in half as the bunshin took the hit.

The clone evidently was the unstable kind that exploded, because he got blasted away again.

As he struck the ground and got up, a ball of water struck him broadside and sent him flying back again like a ragdoll.

Obito, barely being able to stand up, blindly swung the borrowed sword at the red and black blur that had Shunshined at him as he was being thrown around.

The golden chakra blade that would have taken his arm off bit into the already abused steel, snapping the blade in half. The momentum of the man carried through and his blade cut into Obito's arm, before he sped past him.

Obito dropped the now useless blade and hissed as the cut healed shut, going slower than it should.

The Shinobi stopped running and gestured at him from around 30 meters away to come hither, which the Uchiha did just that.

Water had slowly built up on the ground from the constant Ninjutsu, but Obito didn't care. Forming anything of note out of it took too long and could be predicted.

Or so all except one of his teachers said so.

Whatever kind of chakra had been floating like a haze around him since the beginning seemed to sharpen as the unknown man made a half seal, the water beneath him practically glowing.

With a curse, Obito jumped upward, trying to avoid whatever was being done.

The water practically came to life, and to his horror, formed into a giant fist as all the strange chakra coalesced into a spinning vortex, grabbing him from the air and slamming him into the ground with so much force he thought he may have been split in half.

Whatever chakra had done that now looked more diminished to his eyes, the water collapsing back into its normal state.

Barely being able to stand up, Obito coughed up some blood and gazed at the man, his vision swimming.

As he prepared to fight once more, another hand seal was made by the man and he fired, for the first time in the fight, a ranged lightning jutsu.

The bolt crackled towards him and Obito slid under it, forcing wind chakra into his feet as he water walked to insulate him from the suddenly electrified water.

The two were on a collision course, but another seal made had Obito raising his hand to fire a wind jutsu to cancel the inevitable lightning.

It was a surprise when four Mizu bunshin formed right beside where he stepped and stabbed forward. He avoided two, but one drove a blade through his shoulder while the other in his side.

Lightning from the first jutsu arced through the Mizu bunshin and caused him to spasm uncontrollably, the bunshin collapsing a moment later.

That was when the main one struck.

The storm of fists and kicks were too fast for Obito in his temporary weakened state, all of his energy not being enough.

A kick to his head was ducked, but the chakra blade that came from his fist tore his sleeve the rest of the way off.

Several punches were blocked and the last one involved Obito focusing his chakra to stick it to the redhead as he jerked his arm, hoping to dislocate the limb.

It failed when the man spat a water senbon at his face just inches away.

The water cut through his already cracked and abused mask, sinking into his cheek, a molar coming loose as part of it was split in half.

Obito refused to die. He was going to kill this mysterious assassin, but not until he figured out how the fuck he got in here.

Obito blinked his Sharingan to cast a Genjutsu on the man, his fist lashing out in a counter.

The attack made contact, but the Genjutsu was shattered a moment later and the two exchanged punches again, Obito now prepared.

Constant hairline fractures were appearing and healing as he defended himself and his opponent didn't seem to be slowing down.

Obito caught an overstep and took advantage, casting a minor Genjutsu and focusing chakra into his fist as best as he could. The Uchiha ducked a slash that was slightly off and sank his fist into the man's chest up to his forearm.

A choked gasp escaped the man and he wheezed, barely standing up.

Breathing heavily, Obito let out a triumphant laugh, clenching his hand to cause more pain.

"I'll heal you if you tell me how you got in here." Obito lied, clenching his hand a bit more.

Caught up in the adrenaline rush at defeating the unknown S-rank, Obito didn't make the connection that no blood was dripping out of the gaping wound, nor did the thought of anybody taking an intentional mortal injury like that come up.

As if he hadn't been impaled at all, the man snarled and lunged forward, grabbing at Obito's face.

His thumbs pressed forward as his vice grip wrapped around Obito's head and jabbed at his eyes.

"Ye have sown death," He snarled, squeezing so hard that Obito swore he felt his skull crack, "And so shall ye reap it! Take it!" He roared, clenching his fingers.

Obito screamed as pain shot through his face and head as he flailed around, trying to push the man off. In desperation, the scarred Uchiha grabbed an exploding tag from his pocket, detonating it in between the two.

The thumbs thankfully left his face as he was sent flying back, everything having gone white and his ears ringing.

Obito blinked repeatedly, dreading the pounding in his right eye more than the burning of his skull.

'My eye. Kami, my eye.' He couldn't even breathe, and his arm had no feeling in it.

With an iron will, the third remaining Uchiha craned his neck, looking down at his shattered body.

Thankfully, his eye was intact to see and use, but it was tinged red and he could feel blood dripping down his face.

He almost wished he couldn't see himself.

His intestines were still connected, but they were strewn all over his chest and a little to his side. He thought he saw one of his kidneys, but he couldn't be sure because his vision was doubled over, a few feet away, and his tes-

'No.' He nearly retched, but his stomach was probably more akin to ground meat. 'That's not them. That's not them.'

Probably the only functioning limb he had was his one remaining arm, the other disintegrated by holding the tag and his legs were broken.

Obito slowly waited for his body to knit back together, but the sight of his opponent horrified him.

His arm was missing and his armour was severely cracked and portions missing, but he was still standing like it meant nothing.

"I always took you for a dickless little bastard," The red haired demon slowly reformed before his very eyes, his missing arm and scorched armour repairing itself, but the mask remained scorched still, "But you actually blew yourself up. Kind of like me, now that I think of it."

For the first time since he was left for dead under the rock, slowly bleeding out after he had torn his own eye out, Obito felt the cold terror of dying.

Without hesitation, Obito grabbed a handful of his guts, stuffed them back in as best as he could and teleported away, running like a coward.

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"You're a cheating motherfucker!" The drunk roared, swaying in his seat.

The bar in Hi no Kuni's capital was packed today, music playing in the background.

"You're drunk, idiot," One man at the table rolled his eyes, holding his cards, "Quit bitching and place a bet already."

The drunkard scowled, but tossed some chips.

"I should never have gotten in a game here."

"We've played against Konoha Shinobi when they're here on missions," Another laughed, "You learn to play against cheaters real damn quick."

"I swear," The drunk declared, looking up at the ceiling, "Oh, Kami, hear my prayer. Show me a sign that I will win this."

Silence. Nothing happened.

The table began laughing.

"Like that would do anythi-" One snickered, but was cut off by a swirl of colour and a crashing noise.

The whole bar went silent as a man appeared from thin air, gasping for air and covered in blood.

"Ugh," The man groaned, struggling to breathe, "Damnit."

The man's shoulder was glowing and his body was twitching.

People began rushing towards him to help, the man looking at one in particular.

"Where am I?" He wheezed, clutching his shredded stomach as he groaned in sync with the pulsing of his shoulder.

"The Prancing Kitsune," Was the reply, the bar being a popular one in the capitol.

The unknown man muttered an extremely profane word, and just as fast as he appeared, he vanished again.

Everyone looked at each, the whole room silent. It was broken by the other men at the gambling table folding.

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Obito reappeared in his dimension, preparing to sacrifice the spare eye he had pulled from an Uchiha he killed during the massacre. He had a substantial supply, and this one was needed now.

Another seal had been put on him, and the moment he had left the dimension, it had started shocking him severely.

His would be killer stalked towards him, blade resting at his side.

Letting out a wheezing laugh, Obito spat blood out at the man's feet.

"That was rude." The man said mockingly, as if he were a scolding parent.

"You can kill me, but you will never destroy me." Obito hissed, hating this man more than anything at the moment.

A slight tsk sound came as a response.

"Is that the only thing the ghost of Uchiha Obito has to say?" The man laughed viciously, "I almost want to kill you just for that pathetic attempt at foreboding."

As Obito waited for his gaping chest wound to seal up, the red haired man removed his mask.

Another tag was in Obito's hand, ready to be used so he could trigger Izanagi.

In a blur of speed, the man stood right above him, pulling him up roughly by his hair.

As Obito prepared to blow himself up a second time, he caught sight of the man and truly looked.

His eyes were identical to Kushina's.

Once, they were a golden colour, but they now reminded him of his Sensei's beloved, the same hatred Kushina had for him when he ripped the Kyuubi out of her was reflected in this man's violet eyes.

"I see you recognize me," He whispered, looking directly at him, "I would enjoy nothing more than gouging your eyes out and skull fucking you for what you have done to my family, but I will accept you being blown apart once as sufficient payment for now."

With that, Obito was dropped unceremoniously to the ground with a groan.

"Who," He coughed, still trying to holding himself together as his injuries slowly healed as best as they could, "Who are you?"

The definite Uzumaki held the mask he'd just worn in his left hand lazily, taking a deep breath.

"A dead man."

The Uzumaki looked around thirty, a well kept beard, and his face shifted a bit like he was under a minor Henge.

Suddenly scowling, the red haired menace made two hand seals, his hand glowing green.

"I'll stitch your damned wound together," He offered coldly, walking towards him, "We will be having a discussion that I want you to survive to hear."

Obito went to pull away, but he knew he was in no state to do so. If Uzumaki wanted him dead, he wouldn't do it under the guise of healing him.

With extreme difficulty, Obito held still as the hand that nearly killed him constantly slowly eased the burning in his chest and stomach.

"Who are you?" Obito asked again, focusing on the face.

"A dead man," He repeated, retracting his hand as the worst part of the injury was helped, "But if you're asking for my name, that depends."

"Depends on what?" Obito asked coldly, wincing as he stood up slowly.

He was covered in water, smelled like cooked meat, and felt like he was thrown through a wood chipper. He had little patience for games.

"It depends on whether you will be attempting to kill Uzumaki Naruto and Uzumaki Rin." He replied simply, running his hand through his beard.

"What do they matter to you?" Obito said stiffly, glaring at the man that looked roughly his own age.

"They matter to me in the same way a bright and kind girl mattered to a pathetic and worthless orphan that remained in everyone's shadow."

Obito bristled at the comment, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

"How do you know these things?"

"The same way I know that Nagato possesses Madara's eyes and that you plan to revive the Juubi."

'He knows everything.'

Obito was internally freaking out. The way Uzumaki was dropping comments like that nonchalantly was a ploy to unsettle him... and it was definitely working.

"I can assist you if you want." Uzumaki offered, smiling dangerously, "But it will come at a price."

The predatory look in those violet eyes had Obito hiding a flinch. This person truly wanted him dead.

"What price?" Obito questioned, not dropping his guard.

"Do not kill either of the Uzumaki Jinchuriki, bring Zetsu here, and don't revive Madara to use Rinne-rebirth on him."

Obito's thoughts were racing, the most tightly kept secrets of his known to this Uzumaki. No one aside from Zetsu knew of the plan to revive Madara.

"No." Obito replied simply, ready to escape and think of a new plan to kill the man. "Only Madara can be the host of the Juubi and wield his Rinnegan properly."

The laugh from the red haired man wasn't expected.

"That is not true," Uzumaki smirked, "There is another. Would you still aid Madara, even if I told you that he is responsible for Rin's death to manipulate you into what you have become?"

'What?!'

That statement cut through his soul like the sharpest knife, stealing his breath away. But the shock quickly turned to anger.

"You lie!" He growled, ready to begin the fight again if need be, "Do not lie about her to twist my mind!"

The world was broken, and Obito didn't believe it until Rin had been killed. He didn't even blame Kakashi for it. It wasn't his fault that the village system turned him and the world into tools.

"I do not lie," Uzumaki said clearly, "I know everything that has transpired in your life and how the grand chorus of events painted the canvas that is Uchiha Obito."

Perhaps he should have just retreated instead of staying to speak.

"If that truly is the case," Obito clenched his fists, "Then you understand why the Infinite Tsukuyomi is the only way."

Nothing could fix the world. It couldn't be saved, but the people could be.

"It may very well be the preferred option," Uzumaki nodded, flipping his mask up and catching it again, "But I will not sacrifice either Naruto or Rin for your dream."

"The Juubi must have the Kyuubi's chakra," Obito commented, eying the potential ally speculatively, "And if you wished to possibly assist me, why try to kill me?"

Uzumaki let out a barklike laugh, showing nothing but teeth. "You would have been a smear on this very ground if I truly wished to kill you. You were an amusing chew toy, Scarface. But as it is, you can help me, so I will forget your transgressions and cooperate, so long as you deliver me Zetsu and spare the Uzumaki twins."

Obito was seeing Rin in his arms right now, the memory of her pale face, blood covering her, it was dancing in his head.

All the other horrific things he witnessed, the rejection from his clan, the condescension, and all the horrors of war, wasn't enough to wake him up from this horrible reality. It took a kind girl and his friend dying to make Madara's truth sink in.

"Prove to me that you aren't lying," Obito almost couldn't fathom it being true, "You went through the effort of getting in here, so tell me everything that has happened and how you know."

Uzumaki remained still for several seconds, not even breathing. After the silence stretched on, he spoke.

"I can tell you about the time of Otsutsuki Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths, when he first began teaching the world the art of Ninshu."

"You already know about the Sage choosing his youngest son over the elder," Uzumaki continued, not brokering any response, "I assume Zetsu told you that, along with how the eldest was the Patriarch of the Uchiha, while the younger was the Patriarch of the Senju."

Uzumaki was right about Zetsu telling him this, citing Madara as the one who discovered the true history of the Uchiha and Senju.

"And how does this tie into anything?"

"It will make more sense when I give details that Zetsu and Madara left out," Uzumaki grinned, his fingers twitching in a rhythmic pattern.

"I will tell you the story of Indra and Ashura, and how their refusal to die has cursed this world with conflict."

/////////////////////

The clone of Ashina that managed to snag the blood kept racing towards the east, a specific destination in mind.

With the guarantee of Ashina staying in the dimension until Obito relented and turned over Zetsu, the greatest threat to the free world would be ended.

After hours of trekking across the land, the clone started to recognize the same path taken almost three decades ago, but only felt like weeks at most.

The air became heavier with moisture as the sea started to get closer.

Finally reaching the cliff several miles north of his destination, the full moon illuminated the most beautiful, and tragic, sight ever seen.

Uzushiogakure.

"I'm home." The clone whispered, deciding it would pretend to be the real Ashina for now.

The rest of the journey was a walk, the nature chakra still remaining in him making the remnant chakra signatures flare in his sight.

Whimpering softly, he still kept walking, fighting through the nauseating memories of the physical and spiritual pain he endured.

'Bones burning as marrow leaks from badly repaired fractures, skin flaking off from nature chakra, bloody cough from chakra pill overdose. A shattered body for a broken man.'

He killed dozens in such a broken state before they even knew he was there. Men and women in their forties, nearly ready to retire, had fallen to his sword. Children, for there was nothing else to describe the youths that never grew old because of him, were taken from their parents because of him.

Demon. Murderer. Kage. Touchan. Jichan.

With only the silent wails of the dead echoing through the chakra residue in the air even miles out from the heaviest fighting, Ashina starting singing the first of many songs to drown it out.

But the songs were haunting in their own way.

"Their smiles below say I don't owe them my life."

Failure. Abandoned them to their deaths. Selfish.

'Another song.'

"Hope fades into the world of night."

Truth. The last spark of life was him, an unworthy murderer. Practically a kinslayer.

'Another.'

"On the wind I heard a sigh."

"As the snowflakes cover," Ashina whispered, his voice cracking, "My fallen brothers, I will say this last goodbye."

The snow was always beautiful. It had an ethereal nature to it, the pureness of white born from a perfect prism of all colours.

Harmony. Peace. Peace grown from the deaths of far better people than he.

The ruins of his home, the paradise he built, were coming closer in sight, the carrion not targeting the remains from the dread radiating from the site of a bloody harvest.

No sound, save for footsteps and the near sobs of the only sign of life in the village, was present.

The walls and barricades with automated seals to absorb Ninjutsu were long destroyed or weathered to be useful, but there were still active mines across the village.

Ashina remembered where all of them were.

Not particularly caring because they wouldn't go off anyway from his chakra, Ashina ventured towards the docks, the instinctive need to breathe overwhelming the lack of actual need to.

Ashina looked among the skeletons, hissing quietly at many of them not having heads.

Trophies.

He eventually came across what he believed was the headless body of one of his earlier students, part of the group after Tobirama.

"Hello, Kimiko." He mumbled, gently reaching for the bracer wrapped around her skeletal arm.

Her head wasn't the only thing missing.

Her ring finger was as well.

"So it seems the plant was indeed here." Ashina muttered, standing up.

He made communication rings for different people that had his trust, including his sons daughters, and more than one student.

He based them off of the Akatsuki rings he saw in his dreams and visions.

To think it was possible that the very rings that inspired him were made by himself.

Zetsu, to Ashina's now realization, had a signature similar to Hashirama's from his cells. Senju were closely related enough to not trigger the seals. It could've stolen the rings and given them to Obito to use.

'I'll try and find another to prove the possibility.'

And indeed he did. Ashina found one intact body, another student, and later a blast crater that left only a shattered arm and shredded vambrace on it.

He remembered hand etching the seals in it as an 18th birthday present for his youngest.

No finger, no ring.

A choked sob left him as he walked away from where his little girl died, clutching all that remained of his daughter in his hand.

The cruelty of that alone wasn't enough, so the memory of him holding her hand as a little girl burned through him as he held the same one.

Body after body, ruin after ruin, there was nothing but death as he staggered to the docks.

Bombed out homes, the playground he helped personally build, the hospital. His own little slice of Eden had been consumed in the fires of war.

'We are lost from this world. From home.'

Once he reached a certain spot, what remained of his control crumbled.

Choked gasps escaped him as he got to the sight, gazing at the missing chunk of earth where he died.

'And as the sun westered.'

The memory of the sky dimming on the sixth day as the last desperate attempt to delay the enemy held.

"Here, we stood, and gave way no more." He murmured, remembering the final desperate fight that shaped the future.

'Why did you do this?' He visualized the Mizukage, Nidaime Raikage, and Onoki. 'I only wanted to help people and be left alone. You feared us, so you killed us.'

The hopes of Kumo and Konoha allying with one another ended when Tobirama was nearly killed by Kinkaku and Ginkaku, sowing distrust between the two villages.

Kiri betrayed Konoha in the middle of the war, deciding to jump ship. And Iwa did as they always did, killing Konoha nin throughout every single conflict.

Two of the three Kage were dead, and that might change soon enough.

Ashina ignored the crater, kicking aside the corpses of Kumo and Iwa nin to find him.

His brother.

The youngest of five and idealistic boy long turned man refused to leave, despite direct orders. The only one other than him that could still physically fight on the front because he was ten years younger.

Dead from a venomed kunai in the eye.

"But the brothers drew the remnant of the Shinobi of Uzu about them, and foot by foot they withdrew, until they came behin-" Ashina paused, clenching his hand as he remembered it.

'All my clansmen, valiant to the end, were slain about him in a heap.'

Setting down what he was holding with a gentleness only a father knew, he picked up his brothers remains, then what he set down, and marched to where his son, Tadamichi, had been buried.

It didn't take long, for he remembered the location with an unforgiving clarity.

He buried his boy with his own hands.

Setting the two down, Ashina carved into the hilltop overlooking the sea, one section to the right of the worn and weathered tombstone of his son.

After finishing the first, he gently set what remained of his brother in the grave, gently using his chakra to move the earth to cover him up.

He needed to be quick. His chakra needed conserved.

The second was dug as deeply, but was still done with the same reverence and care.

With that done, Ashina stretched out his senses to hopefully get an echo of any others, wanting them to be buried together.

He couldn't.

The time and exposure mixed all the signatures together. He could barely tell the Uzumaki and others apart.

He sighed sadly and looked at the stone, noting the crack running through it.

"And death itself would turn backwards." He murmured, shaking his head at the memory from a bygone life.

A new stone was needed, and he could sense one through the earth somewhat.

Pressing his hand in the ground, he coaxed his chakra to manipulate the ground, pulling the stone up.

Washing it off with a thin jet of water, he moved the stone right next to the tombstone and started carving into it with his bloodline ability.

The words he wrote elicited more memories, this time of when he spoke to one of his great grandchildren who was one of the last to be evacuated.

/////////////

"I didn't think it would end this way." His grandson said quietly, a sword far too large for him in his hand.

"End?" Ashina tilted his head at the boy, a faint but reassuring smile on his face, "No, the journey doesn't end here."

"Death...is just another path. One that we all must take."

No boy should be fearful of death. He didn't know it, but he was going to be dragged to a ship, restrained if need be.

"The grey rain curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass..." A long pause came as he thought of what he had said. "And then you see it."

The expression of curiosity on the young teen's face was something he could stare at for days.

"What, Jichan? See what?"

A long look, his eyes gazing at nothing, but imagining everything.

"White shores," He looked at the boy who should never had been brought into a world full of such hatred and death, "and beyond," Ashina gazed at the young boy who was enraptured by his words, "A far green country, under a swift sunrise."

The look of complete faith shining in his eyes, beautiful and violet, just like his little sister's, made him almost forget that his life would soon end.

"Well, that isn't so bad."

//////////////////////

"No," Ashina gazed at the moon, having finished what he wanted to carve into the stone, "No it isn't."

Rising to his feet, Ashina circled back to the docks, arriving there minutes later. One of many broken, snapped, or shattered blades clutched in the skeletal hands of untold corpses that he slew brought back a vexing reminder.

Ashina's sword had broken during the days of fighting, already having taken a beating from Madara and the mad dash back to Uzu. The blade finally broke when it was buried hilt deep in a Yuki that thought herself to be the princess of Arendelle in how bold she was in trying to kill an old man who had just ripped a summon the size of a rhinoceros in half with his bare hands.

"Þaet ceald me drefde næfre gehu." He muttered coldly, still rankled by the loss of his sword.

He ended up wielding the bitch's own sword in the final confrontation after breaking her fingers to get it.

'Wait a moment,' he thought, 'It may not have been destroyed.'

Ashina looked around for a few minutes, looking for a broken hilt. It proved fruitless when he realized the hilt would have been in the blast radius of his Jutsu, forcing him to give up.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, the red haired Uzumaki glanced at the ground again.

'It would be too much of a stretch to think it was found and improperly repaired. The hilt similarity and the broken section is just that... a coincidence.'

Giving himself a shake, Ashina looked at the ground.

Faint traces of weather worn paper were strewn about amongst the corpses, armour still on said bodies. They were remnants of the seals he used to absorb jutsu and detonated them after flinging them away.

More deaths.

Ashina turned towards the docks, looking at the emptiness where ships had once came in with supplies and goods that were traded for seals.

Nothing remained, only memories.

Tearing his gaze away from calm waters that had no business looking so beautiful with the moonlight shimmering on them while the dead wasted away here, Ashina walked towards the spot of his death and knelt, running his fingers through his hair.

The blast radius was fairly impressive from how little chakra he had left in his body at the time to power it.

Aside from the residual nature chakra that powered his jutsu, there was nothing else. It was a complete and total dead space, a wound in the flow of death in the village.

But that wasn't a surprise. It did what it was supposed to, he just screwed up on his end.

The feeling of shock from the Raikage, so proud just moments prior, his chakra crackling in triumph as he pulled him out of the pile of corpses, was burned into his mind. Which wasn't a surprise because it was the last thing he saw before dying.

Looking at the ground, Ashina could still visualize the oceans of blood on the ground, the starlight being the only natural light at the time.

'I could barely see anyway.' Ashina shivered, remembering how he swore he could feel his body crackling like stone in the last few minutes of his life. His vision, along with most of his other senses, had almost completely stopped working at the end, only his sensory ability, bolstered by Senjutsu, keeping him alive.

Even the Raikage couldn't be seen by him, only his crackling chakra telling him who he was.

94 years old, a death match with Uchiha Madara, a nonstop race across the continent, and days of constant fighting and plotting, no sleep at all, caught up to him in the end.

'I will make sure it was all worth it.' Ashina swore, digging lightly into the ground, holding the earth of his home in his grip.

'And you can have it all... my empire of dirt.'

"I swear it will be worth it in the end." He vowed, standing up and leaving the sight of his death now that it served no purpose to think of that traumatic event.

'I wish I had enough chakra to burn the bodies.' It would take too long to bury all of them, but something needed to be done. A pyre would be acceptable.

"I know what to do now." He muttered to himself in English, having not spoken it to anyone other than clones.

Naruto did a magnificent job incorporating the language that didn't resemble Japanese in the slightest into a supposed encoded language that everyone shrugged off as twinspeak.

'He adapted to another set of memories better than I did.' He kept making his way towards the central tower, specifically the vault. The streets were bombed to hell and back, making it time consuming to get there, but he pressed on.

Naruto had the fortune of being young when he learned so many different things. The Lightning Cloak, Hiraishin, the fortune and misfortune to be a Jinchuriki, all were best done when starting young. Ashina had a better instinctive grasp on things as a child that made little sense and strange dreams, but they didn't resemble a modicum of coherence until he was sixteen.

He was a prodigy, but his ability wouldn't reach the degree that Naruto was capable of reaching.

'He'll need everything to change this world like he wishes.'

His grandson took the security of his notes seriously. The seal traps set up across the house were excellent and it would've been somewhat difficult to break through and put them back together without any notice had he not designed over 90 percent of them himself.

The place Naruto hid the notes was also smart, including the explosives he set to trigger if any signature not keyed into the seals interfered.

As if that would stop him.

The notes Ashina left would help the boy out to fulfill his dream of a better world. Turning invisible and the other seal schematics he left when he flung Hyuga Neji out the door were also priceless.

Ashina always wanted to put the little shit in his place.

If the Akatsuki were defeated, and the plans Naruto wrote in his journal worked out, the Shinobi wars could be stopped for decades, the presence of several High Kage level Shinobi in Konoha would dissuade war as long as they lived.

Naruto. Rin. Sasuke. Three young genin that were unnatural in one way or another, possessing immense potential.

All three stained by the dead, the dead that refused to let go.

With a groan, the door to the tower opened under his hand and revealed a few more bodies, mostly Kumo nin.

Still trying to drown out the feeling of death surrounding him, Ashina was shaking as he continued his actions, walking up the steps to his office.

Ashina noticed the chakra lock was broken, probably from Orochimaru, and he pushed it open, gazing upon the dust covered room that bore witness to years of study and preparation.

"Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far," He recited, drawing on the memories of another life, "And grace will lead me home."

Walking straight towards his desk, ignoring the cheap decorations his wife forced him to put in to make the room less intimidating, and pulled open a drawer, gingerly grabbing ahold of the last remaining photo of its kind.

All of his children, including Mito, who snuck out of Konoha for a short time with Tsunade's help, his grandchildren, and great grandchildren were gathered around him, an endless sea of red hair, the only variation in looks being their eyes.

Blue, green, grey, and only a couple of violets that matched his own.

The only other copy of this precious image was in a pouch just above his heart as he died.

He caressed the photo, gazing at the girl closest to him in the photo.

Kushina was perched on his shoulder, this picture having been taken only a few weeks before Mito discovered she had a health issue her maternal aunt had, making her holding the Kyuubi a catastrophe waiting to happen.

'I designed that seal.' He let go of the photo to not damage it as his fists clenched. 'But no matter how good it was, it wasn't enough to protect my child.'

Ashina stood up, walking up to the wall and staring at his creation.

Overlapping seals, chakra immune metal from the Land of Snow, and so many fail-safes and other defenses in place to protect the two most sacred material things to him. Truly a work of art.

Not even Zetsu or Obito could enter it.

Casually pressing a bit of chakra into the matrix, the entire wall lit up in his sensing.

With the little remaining Nature chakra still in him, the bunshin of Uzumaki Ashina focused it into his hand, popping open the vial of blood in his other.

"Speak friend," He whispered, flicking a drop of blood on the one section that required it, causing the lock to spin, "And enter."

No other statement could possibly be more relevant. He designed the rings that inspired the Akatsuki's, if not the actual ones he made, making him a ringmaker, and made an entrance that only allowed friends in.

'I have the undead wraith portion nailed down as well.'

His other hand pressed against the lock, which was spinning as it should, and pulsed nature chakra through it. With several loud clacks and a flash of chakra, the vault door opened with a hiss.

Grabbing the photo, Ashina walked into the room, eyes flicking towards the shelves as the door stayed open.

993. That's how many people held the blood and name of the Uzumaki clan from the last census he had done before the Second War reached them.

And the shelves contained 992 blood samples.

He gathered them under the guise of developing different kinds of treatments for certain poisons if Kiri or Suna declared open hostilities.

Pressing out with his sensing, the feeling he got back had him falling to his knees, his long held fear being confirmed.

The preservation seals failed, expending the chakra needed to keep them running.

Living blood had a faint chakra glow to it, his clan's blood even more so.

All that remained was a dark and empty abyss where they were supposed to be.

"No..." He wept, his fingers clawing into the ground. "No."

It was as if he lost them again.

The Edo Tensei would not work on them, meaning Rinne-rebirth was not possible. The desperate dream he dared to hope for was mercilessly cut down in front of him. No amount of knowing that the samples wouldn't still be preserved prepared him for it. Even if there was a 1 percent chance, Ashina had held onto it the moment he was brought back by Orochimaru.

There was no were gone. His light was gone.

He howled in rage and despair, grabbing a table and throwing it, the wooden object exploding into pieces, sending the papers on it flying everywhere.

Reining in his fury to not destroy the papers themselves, Ashina stomped towards another table that had a jar that held two floating, crimson orbs on it. There was no chakra glow at all, the orbs unchanged.

Failure.

"Hello, Fuji," He snarled, grabbing the jar of preservative, "As you can see, I'm still here."

The screams Fuji made as his eyes were ripped from his head still rang through Ashina's mind like a beautiful swan song.

"There's a reason nobody from the other world knew your name, Indra spawn!" He spat, jiggling the jar, "No matter how much of Hashirama's cells I injected, or Senjutsu used, I couldn't get a fucking Rinnegan from your diseased eyes!"

Fuji's eyes should have become Rinnegan after Ashina introduced some of Hashirama's blood, even if it took a couple of decades.

These eyes hadn't change after 50.

The only reason possible is that different generations of reincarnations wouldn't mesh, meaning Madara couldn't have grafted cells and chakra from the Senju that housed Ashura's chakra before Hashirama and evolved his eyes, and Sasuke couldn't do so with Hashirama's blood.

Or some other nonsensical reason that sought to deny him what he wanted.

"I could have saved them if it worked," Ashina growled at the eyes, "I could have left the village, put the eyes in my head, and brought them back after I used the Edo Tensei on them. I didn't need to scalp Madara for his eyes."

If only Uzu had been attacked a few years later. Perhaps Madara would have had his Rinnegan then to be taken.

But he didn't when Ashina killed him.

"I hope you're listening, Hagoromo," Ashina looked around, honestly not knowing the depths of the dead man's abilities beyond the grave. Perhaps he was going mad. "You are the reason my family is reduced to only two. I've killed your son twice, and it still isn't enough!"

The revelations of the clearing of the memories wasn't the only thing revealed to him when he synced his chakra with the world's through the mask.

Not only did he get all the memories cleared and ordered properly, he saw flashes of the future and past, the events not adding up to the tale of Uzumaki Naruto, protagonist of a story.

Ashina distinctly remembered dreams of an older blond and raven haired duo, fighting a horned entity that was handily facing them. He remembered a pale entity not native to this planet trying to extract Kurama, only to be defeated by the Seventh Hokage and his son.

The means to see the future, including the statement by that creature about Kurama, meant that it was indeed possible to see the future.

Gamamaru saw the future, and so did Momoshiki, albeit through different means. The Byakugan could see chakra. If reality flowed like a river, leaving faint ripples, a dojutsu that could see chakra might be able to translate those ripples into "Visions".

Senjutsu, specifically the sensory part, meant that a blind man could see his surroundings better than one with only their eyesight, and Ashina always had suspicions on how the old toad could see future events.

Experiences left a mark on ones chakra, clearly shown by trauma and emotion maturing a Sharingan. It stood to reason that any sufficiently large event in the past could be felt as an echo in the chakra of the world itself, and could be felt by the Sage who took in nature chakra.

It worked with shadow clones returning experiences, so the logic was there.

This very theory was what had Ashina trying to replicate Gamamaru, needing to know whether something more dangerous than Kaguya was out there and hopefully how to combat it.

A sample of toad oil and snake venom was more than enough to experiment with.

That was the very reason he didn't kill Madara as a teenager when he had the chance. He might have been useful in fighting such a threat.

But the mask did a better job than he expected, causing a full blown aneurysm that nearly killed him. He felt the ripple of past and future events, more potently than what Gamamaru ever did in his prophetic dream.

The results had shocked and filled him with both rage and relief.

This was a completely different universe from the one the memories showed. Kaguya's life was identical to Toneri's, which confused him. It meant that the fight he witnessed between Kaguya and her twin sons didn't end the way he originally saw it.

The moon already existed and wasn't made by Hagoromo.

She fled to Earth, being the last of her Branch house after a civil war, and tried to cultivate a new start, and the rest was history.

Nothing pointed to the likes of her clan existing in the way he saw, meaning this world was spared that kind of nightmare.

Evidently, her motive to dominate the world was so that nobody would kill and destroy themselves like her family had; an understandable stance.

And more damning still, Ashina wasn't certain on whether Zetsu was created by her. It may have in fact been Indra that created it, because Kaguya had been straight up killed by her sons, the youngest being so wracked with guilt that he left his brother and became a recluse, only coming out of his shell when he fell in love with a woman.

With that threat nonexistent, Ashina had no qualms about forming a hit squad to kill Madara and shatter the rancid hellscape that was "Canon".

Ashina shook those thoughts away, setting the jar back down and turning towards the papers.

"Temper, temper." He cursed his violent outburst, practically hearing the melodic voice of his wife in his ear.

She always scolded him for his impulsiveness, not speaking with him for days after he nearly got himself killed for the upteenth time. Fighting toads, hunting Uchiha, designing extremely dangerous seals, or melting his brain with one. He had no idea why she put up with him for the near 80 years they knew each other.

Ashina got on his knees and started reorganizing the papers, sparing glances at them.

Most of the esoteric seal schematics were inspired by the series, especially Jinchuriki seals.

'The existence of Jinchuriki in the future made me create seals for them, which ensured they existed in the first place.'

Catching Ninjutsu and hitting people with it was inspired by Jiraiya sealing Amaterasu, paralysis seals were inspired by Tsunade disrupting Kabuto's nerve signals when Orochimaru needed his arms treated, and so many others inspired by imagination and the understanding of future events.

Events occurred because of the seals he made, but the seals were made because the events occurred.

Like a snake eating its own tail, a constant loop with no discernable beginning or end.

"It desires us." Ashina snorted derisively, finally reorganizing them and pulling out one particular collection of notes. "The worm loves us."

The collection of papers held evidence of several... problematic things. Naruto was no fool, and neither was Jiraiya.

Jiraiya would make the deduction that he had experimented and probably seen the future, which wasn't exactly wrong, and encrypted the text.

Naruto would know better. Naruto one upped him in writing his own notes. It took a well read mind, or an extremely paranoid one, to write notes of future events in English, German, and Old English of all things.

Ashina only wrote it in cursive English.

'You may as well have written it in binary as well.' Ashina thought of his grandson, truly hoping he didn't make the same mistake he did.

He didn't tell a single person about his greatest secret.

None of his family knew; not his parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, or his wife. It was a burden he kept to himself.

It caused issues, even more so when they didn't understand why he'd have mood swings or idiosyncratic moments where he couldn't differentiate himself from the memories, almost getting lost in them.

Whether Naruto had it as bad as he did or not, it didn't matter. He was making this choice to help a boy he was uniquely qualified to.

'This will force you to share.' Ashina looked at the different notes, focusing on a few specific ones. They would have warranted destroying, but they weren't overt enough for anyone but Naruto to realize what they meant in the grand scheme.

'Should I destroy them?' He wondered, knowing that their existence would cause issues.

Ashina still didn't know precisely how the two brothers were able to will themselves into reincarnating in their descendants, but the research he made, despite burning the actual records of it, could be seen clear as day to someone reading between the lines when he noted different things about Ashura and Indra.

'I don't care.' He finally decided, organizing the notes and grabbing a relatively useless sheet. 'I will not let you keep this secret to your own detriment.'

Ashina grabbed his personal brush and pot of ink from a second table, containing a few trinkets.

He wrote out a message on the paper in English, knowing Naruto would understand it.

Finishing it, Ashina stacked the papers in different sections, organized as they were.

Images of the Rookie 9 and Konoha 12, with their names and certain details about them being a failsafe if Jiraiya or any other friend managed to get inside required proof of his knowledge. Enough for even a Doubting Thomas to believe.

Drawings of the rookie genin were set aside though, the blue eyes of a whiskered blond seeming to torment him the most.

Would Uzumaki Naruto, the blond, have been born if he never lived? Did he kill his own grandson?

'No.' He shook his head, refusing to go their. 'You know that wasn't what happened. Your actions didn't kill him.'

Red hair, not blond. Intelligent and quiet, not loud and impulsive.

'This is not the same universe. You were wrong about that. Quit blaming yourself. Rin has Ashura's chakra, not Naruto.'

'But why did Ashura only ever reincarnate into a girl this one time?' a voice seemed to say to him traitorously.

Ashina shook his head and glanced at the other set of papers, reading the summary of a non-existent timeline.

The sheets next to it were definitely useless. They detailed what he knew of the following generation, a generation that wouldn't exist in this universe because of the differences.

No Otsutsuki to prepare to face in this world, thankfully.

Deciding to keep them there, the chakra construct that had the same memories as Uzumaki Ashina went towards the seal matrix next to the vial of blood, the seal inert.

Naruto may need the blood for later, and the seal needed chakra.

What are clones made of?

As he reached out to feed himself to the seal, the clone thought of its inevitable death.

Clones return to their creator, meaning their experiences live on. What happens when the chakra has nowhere to return to?

The real Ashina would not see the memories. He would never have the final knowledge of what Uzu looked like, nor the final fate of his children.

He could not grieve in his own home.

"By the rivers of Babylon," The clone said shakily, holding the picture like it were made of glass, "There we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion."

The clone remembered the thoughts that went through prime's head after what he did to Roshi.

Death may have been preferable to becoming a Trojan Horse.

The village of Iwa went through his head, the village going unpunished for its crimes.

"O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed. Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us." The clone recited, those memories being some of the most vivid in his mind.

"Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."

The clone began sinking chakra into the seal, its body shaking.

Looking at the photograph once more, the final memory of Kushina played in his head.

/////////////////////

"I love you, Kushina-chan." He whispered, his hand on the girl's cheek.

"I know you miss your grandfather, but it was his time." He said again, putting an aged hand on her shoulder.

His granddaughter's father-in-law had died, leaving Kushina with one less grandfather.

"I want to see you every day, 'ttebane," Kushina cried, grabbing ahold of him in a hug, "I miss home. I'm gonna miss you."

They were outside of the village, Ashina deciding to escort her on the first portion of her journey to Konoha.

Heaven willing, the vague description of Uzu's destruction in the series could be avoided. Or perhaps reversed in the worst case.

"You will never be alone." He shushed her, running his fingers through her hair, just as he did with his younger sister after having a nightmare, "I want you to think of me everytime you feel the seal. It will be my chakra that painted it. I will always be a part of you."

Mito could have done it, but Ashina couldn't let her. He needed to be the one to do it.

"Just pulse some of your chakra and you'll feel an echo of mine." He whispered softly, kissing her forehead.

His darling granddaughter deserved to at least have a part of him if everything failed.

Kushina sniffed.

"Okay." She whispered, letting go of me, "Where will it be?"

"Just lift your shirt up a little." He said, "Just up to your stomach, no higher." He explained.

Kushina lifted her shirt up a bit and Ashina began the task of preparing the seal that would house Kurama against his will.

'I pray it is not necessary.' He thought sadly as he applied his chakra to the seal, 'I don't think I can endure more.'

Madara would need killed, and he feared he may not return from it. The backup planned filled him with dread. He had to kill Madara and get his eyes.

He already had a runner selected to take the blood to Konoha if he died, along with a letter.

If Uzu held, then he could save the world. Ashura would not need to be reborn to save it and steal a happy life from his grandson.

Ashina would not allow it.

/////////////////

The clone started swaying, its vision swimming.

'All the memories I have of Uzu will die with me.' The clone looked closely at the picture, letting out a sob at its encroaching death.

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

"Time to die." He mumbled, saying one final phrase in a language never spoken aloud here, before popping from lack of chakra.

The picture of Uzumaki Ashina's family slowly fell to the ground, the vault as quiet and cold as it had been for years since its creator had departed.

///////////////////////////

End chapter.

This chapter did not seem to have a good part to end it, so I just kept writing. I should've split it, but I didn't. I have no idea why I didn't split it in two.

Several big things happened that will set the pace of the AU Shippuden arc. Rin has some firsthand exposure to why Hashirama was seen as such a good man, as well as her hatred for Itachi stoked.

Sasuke was never going to take it well. I believe this is a realistic reaction to his biggest motivator being outed as a deception and lie. He was sixteen when he found out in Canon and it messed him up. Imagine if he found out younger. It also sets the pace of Rin not turning on him, despite his emotional turmoil.

Naruto basically does his own thing pestering Tobirama about stuff. He's becoming less emotionally reliant on being around Rin all the time, and double that for Rin being less reliant on him.

Jiraiya confides in Kakashi about his belief in Naruto, mainly from the fight with Orochimaru reminding him that he can still be killed despite being an S-rank.

I debated on having that put in, but the theme about someone having your back is something I've stressed in the story before. Everybody's acting on incomplete intel and Jiraiya, who only has Tsunade and had Hiruzen as a peer powerwise, chose Kakashi to confide in. If Jiraiya gets killed, he needs someone to protect Naruto and Rin, at least emotionally.

The Akatsuki stuff is self-explanatory. Naruto is firmly in their sights and the evolving plans will be as close to unique as I can do for the Shippuden arc.

I enjoyed writing Ashina beating the ever living shit out of Obito. Zetsu will not be dying well.

The Uzu portion was difficult for me. The journey through the ruins, and finding remains, creates bad visuals in a writer's head, and I'm not any different. The thoughts are chilling to think about, let alone having to write and immerse myself in it.

I basically glossed over the Kaguya part because I'm not planning this story to carry over into Boruto. The easiest way to do that is just make this a different universe, problem solved. And it gives reasoning behind Ashina not straight up mercing Madara at the earliest point if he has confusing memories about a different universe.

A detail or two Ashina saw could be incorrect, such as who created Zetsu or Kaguya being straight up killed. He had an aneurysm when he got all the visions injected into his head.

But, that's the end of the chapter. Comment what you think and I hope you all enjoyed. Have a wonderful day.

Raging.