Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Naruto: Tales of Ashihara

Kakumei – Arc 3: The Consumer of Worlds

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Chapter 31 – The Consumer of Worlds

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After Isami Kurama's defeat, he was captured and jailed in Kirigakure by Mizuno. Sasuke, who only had time to find Suto's original body when Sakura ended the enemies' plan, returned to Konoha to see his new born son. Still not feeling worthy of a calm life as a father, he resumed his investigation of the Otsutsuki clan, now helped by Tsubai Minamoto and Kobo Uchiha. Both are aware of Sasuke's fate and travel with him in hope to save him.

Naruto, who was training to catch up on Sasuke since Sojobo's attack, kept it on for years and very soon reached a point where he got back all the powers he had during the 4th war at least. He kept working hard to push his abilities to the limit, and greatly improved. Aiming to be the greatest ninja and Hokage of all time, he didn't realize he was far passed this level since long ago. He also was promoted from genin directly to jonin the same year, aged 21.

Now, almost 9 years have passed since Izuna Uchiha's (Sasuke and Sakura's son) birth. Sasuke occasionally met with Sakura outside of Konoha during these years, and they had a second child: a little girl named Sarada, who was born only a few months ago. Same goes for Naruto and Hinata who also had a girl called Himawari a bit sooner. Those 9 last years passed by even more peacefully and quickly as the 2 years before.

Shikamaru got married with Temari and together they had a boy named Shikadai. As the Nara clan leader planned it, Choji, who got engaged with Karui from Kumo shortly before, also had a kid: a girl that they called Chocho. Ino and Sai, in compliance with the tradition, made a second kid, a boy this time that they named Inojin. This last one isn't born yet, but is planned to be delivered next December, in 3 months. The oldest of these new kids is Himawari who's just 1 and half a year old. In Kiri, Kobo and Sana also married and had a child, a boy named Teru, 7 years ago.

But of all the things that happened during these 9 years, the most important, and the one that changed the ninja world forever, is the transfer of power from the 6th to 7th Hokage. Naruto Uzumaki has taken the mantle on 2 years ago now. Kakashi, after 11 years as the Hokage, considered having done enough to prepare the ground for Naruto, and let him focus on his new found objectives.

The day Naruto became Hokage was not only a national, but an international event. People from all around the continent, and even the world came to catch a glimpse of his first appearance and speech as the 7th Hokage. Naruto Uzumaki has now accomplished his life long dream, but only after enough time to realize that this goal was only a step of a bigger ambition he had.

His years as a ninja showed him everything that he had to do as Hokage. Sitting at the Kage council, having the cool hat and haori, and being respected by all his fellow villagers sure is rewarding, but the power to watch over and protect everyone is what he really was aiming for all along.

Today, in the capital of the land of Fire, the Daimyo invited the 5 Kage to have a council within his city. This is Naruto's first council as Hokage, and it obviously started with a round of applause and greetings to welcome the new comer. All sitting in a council room, Naruto is accompanied by Konohamaru and Kakashi. The Kazekage Gaara is with Kankuro and Baki. The Mizukage, Mei Terumi, is with Chojuro and Mizuno. And Kurotsuchi, who became the 4th Tsuchikage 5 years ago, is with her father Kitsuchi and Akatsuchi.

After the round of greetings, Naruto is the only one of the 4 Kage who doesn't sit down. Instead, as it seems to be expected by his colleagues, he gives a small speech about his goals as Hokage.

"I'm really happy to see you all so enthusiastic to have me here. Thank you!" he says, before getting serious. "But let's get serious as soon as possible. I won't be at this council only to keep the place warm. There are plenty of things to protect, to change, to improve, and I'll do my best to do so."

"So the dumb kid of the 4th war actually knows about politics now?" says Kurotsuchi.

"I spent a lot of time studying actually. So yeah… I have plenty of ideas to share, but I don't know how I'm supposed to start."

"Just go with what comes to mind, my friend." gently answers Gaara.

"Ok then… First I'm glad that Kakashi-sensei and you all managed to convince the Daimyos and reorganize this council as a Shinobi Union rather than an alliance, but what is the point of inviting other peaceful nations, if there is no other peaceful nations?"

"What do you mean?" asks Mei.

"Until now, the Union did nothing to help smaller countries to eventually get them to join us in the future. If we don't show our friendliness, nobody will ever want to join this council. So, as I promised to someone a long time ago, I took the lead. Just until a month ago, I had clones helping in the land of Rain's liberation."

"Liberation?" asks Kurotsuchi. "Why? What's happening there?"

"See how it is? You weren't even aware of it, even though Ame no Kuni is your neighbor land." says Naruto. "After Akatsuki's fall, the country was left weakened and no one to rule it, so an order of smugglers took the power. A resistance group, just like Akatsuki back in the day, was created and had spent the last few years fighting for their freedom. None of you did anything about it. A country was being forced back into war while we were acting as if we solved everything 13 years ago. However, there's no need to worry about Ame's case now since I handled it well, working with the young leader of the resistance. We chased the corrupted from the capital and I've put this young man in charge. When the time comes, I'd like his nation to join this council."

"I didn't know for Ame either…" says Mei. "But your initiative is great. I suppose you want us to start approaching other countries like you did?"

"Not yet necessarily. First, just act friendly and offer your help where it's needed. Don't be selfish. We, who have power over the continent, should use it for good."

"I agree, Naruto." says Gaara. "But just like those countries, we aren't all in peace. We also have local politics to manage. Like the mercenaries and greater threats, that are common to all of us."

"Of course. Don't overdo it, but still, do something. For the greater threats, Sasuke and his friends from Kiri are taking care of it for us."

As the Kage are already deep in the conversation, The 5th Raikage arrives with C and Samui. Darui who simply arrived late hurries to his seat and apologizes.

"I'm really sorry for being late." he says. "Hokage, it's pleasant to see a new but familiar face at this council. How are you feeling?"

"Great. Feels good to be here. What about you, Darui? How's your daughter?" asks Naruto.

"She's doing fine. And your kids?"

"They're good." answers Naruto. "Oh? This makes me think about it. Gaara, I didn't even ask about your son, How's he?"

"He's doing fine, but we should stay focused on what matters." answers Gaara.

"Right. What else do you propose, Naruto?" says Kurotsuchi.

"Well… I have a bunch of local politics, that could apply to you. Like this might be controversial, but I'd like to completely review the academic system. I know it isn't the same for all of us, but maybe it should."

"What's wrong about yours?" asks Darui.

"We all have the same issues. We don't live in a warring era anymore. So we don't need to overcome a workforce problem. Therefore, we should make the academy longer. Being sent doing a ninja's job with only 12 years old is unacceptable, yet it's what we were doing until now. Young genins still lack a lot of historical and political knowledge. This along with a few more training in ninjutsu should be enough to make those kids busy at the academy for a year or two more."

"This, indeed is controversial." says Kurotsuchi.

"How about you try to apply this in Konoha first, and we'll see how it goes?" proposes Gaara.

"I understand. I can do that. We could speak of it again in about a year then." says Naruto.

"Oh, Before I forget, Hokage, could you let me tell about something now?" says Darui.

"Go on, Raikage."

"As you know,…" says Darui as he stands up. "We meet about 2 time or less a year. And last year, for instance, we didn't have any council. Also, each time, these meetings require us to select bodyguards, a place to assemble and to plan our villages' management while we're gone." He turns around and grabs a scroll that Samui is handing to him. "Kumo's scientific, and more specifically technologic, department spent a lot of time working on a solution to spare our time and allow many more councils yearly. And here are their results."

He opens the scroll and leaves it on the table, revealing the plans of a communication device including a simple screen.

"This already exists, Raikage." says Mei. "The Daimyos have been using Video Communication for their councils since the 4th War."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" asks Darui. "I know about their systems, but they still need a lot of preparation for councils. In the end, all they saved is the effort of the travel. With my new technology, we could organize a council, whenever we want, directly from our desks. This would allow us to discuss a new issue as soon as possible, and to make more but shorter councils."

"Sounds cool. I like it." says Kurotsuchi. "How long before we get to use these?"

"I'd say a few months more and I'll be able to send people to install this in your offices." he answers.

"Seems useful. I'll wait to see." says Gaara. "Naruto, what else did you have to discuss?"

"Um… Nothing that is important enough to be discussed immediately." he answers. "Just so you know that as the Hokage, my priority will be to preserve and spread our values that are Peace, Innocence, Freedom and Integrity."

After these words, Naruto turns around, and fist bumps Konohamaru, leaving all the other Kages in confusion. To get over it, as it's probably just a private joke between these two, Mei brings on a new subject.

"Hokage, Could you tell about Sasuke Uchiha now? Is there anything new about this Otsutsuki clan? Last time we heard of them was roughly 9 years ago."

"About that, umh…" says Naruto. "Sasuke's been exploring Kaguya's dimensions and discovered a lot of things about them, but he didn't report anything. However, now that I'm the Hokage, this will change. He should be back to Konoha by the time of my return."

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At this exact moment, in another dimension, Sasuke Uchiha is with Tsubai Minamoto and Kobo Uchiha. But they aren't alone. For the first time in 9 years, they met living beings in another dimension, and not any living thing. 3 pale men with horns, supposedly belonging to the Otsutsuki clan.

All three of them have a pair of Byakugan. One of them, with 2 brown torn horns on top of his head and long light-gray hair, is just floating, away from the scene, and watches as his two partners fight. Sasuke is holding his ground in a sword fight against one of them. This one is extremely wide, and almost as tall as Sojobo was. His body proportions don't look human, compared to other Otsutsuki clan members that Sasuke met. He has short gray hair and a beard, and his forehead is covered by a headband-like horn that goes and points up on the left side.

Sasuke is using his sword to block the strikes of this massive man, who seems to use weapons made from his chakra. Even though they're just ethereal, these red glowing weapons are extremely durable. They remind Sasuke of his Susanoo's arsenal. Soon enough, Sasuke notices that this man also uses a jutsu similar to his in order to boost his speed and movements with lightning.

Meanwhile, Kobo and Tsubai are going together against a smaller man, around 1.72 meters tall. This one also has short gray hair, but his morphology looks human. He has a long pointy chin, no facial hair, and a brown ring like horn going around his forehead with a break in the middle, above his eyes. He is using some kind of black fishing rod as a weapon.

Kobo and Tsubai also changed during these last years. Kobo became a full-grown man, aged 26 now. Tsubai is still the same, but with longer hair going down his back. In this other dimension, he can't use Jikanteido to stop time and their opponent is as good at reading movements with his Byakugan as Kobo with his Sharingan. The fight is getting difficult for them, and Tsubai can only step back while Kobo keeps him busy with his swords. None of the Uchiha's attack lands, as this enemy keeps blocking them with his black rod.

Getting sick of it, and feeling triggered by the Otsutsuki's constant smile, Kobo raises his two swords and covers them in fire. When he lowers them both, the horned man doesn't block the swords but steps aside instead, still playing with his opponent. He looks behind Kobo and looks at Tsubai with his Byakugan.

"Quite unfamiliar chakra is it?" he says. "I'll take it."

He raises his fishing rod like he's going to throw it into water. Tsubai gets ready to block it.

Minogame

All of a sudden, Tsubai who was ready to react, is already pierced. The hook went through his body, still connected by a chakra string to the rod that the man is holding. He looks shocked at his torso, and internally panics, as he doesn't know what this weapon does.

"What just happened?" he asks his tengus.

"What? He didn't even throw the hook, it just appeared there!" says Kasha.

"Don't fucking move!" yells Daikoku. "Hold on to the string. Don't let it go. Nothing happened for now, so the effect of this thing will obviously occur when he pulls the hook back. Don't let it happen."

Tsubai does as Daikoku says. He firmly holds on the string and waits. Kobo doesn't do anything, afraid of messing up and causing the rod to be pulled. For nearly a second, they all stand still until Sasuke notices their situation. A second ago, he and his opponent were suddenly thrown at the end of their moves. He directly makes the hypothesis of the use of a jutsu that skips time. Since his opponent didn't do it, and that last person floating above isn't getting involved it could only have been Tsubai and Kobo's adversary.

Sasuke took the lead against his opponent, and is easily dodging all his attacks, whatever weapon he uses. As his opponent isn't keeping him busy enough, Sasuke can look away long enough to see Tsubai's situation. Quickly analyzing the scene, he sees the man holding the rod on the other hand of the chakra string that goes through Tsubai's chest. While he's looking away, the giant gets frustrated by his lack of attention and summons a heavy willow that he throws down to squash Sasuke, with all his strength.

Ameno Tejikara

Sasuke instantly transports the one holding the rod in front of him while taking a step back. Both surprised, the to Otsutsuki are unable to react in time, and the wide one crushes his partner into the soil. He hits the ground so strong that it completely shatters on a 200 meters wide area. Kobo and Tsubai are shaken, Sasuke jumps up and away, while the last Otsutsuki simply stays looking at the scene. The old giant dismisses his bat and sees his friend squashed and buried, barely alive.

Angered by what he was made to do, he creates a large axe and pumps up all of his muscles. He jumps to Sasuke who's still dodging all his attacks effortlessly, which makes him angrier and angrier. Tsubai stands still, relaxed. He still has the hook through his chest and doesn't know how to remove it, but nobody's pulling the rod now. Kobo runs to help Sasuke, even though he doesn't seem to need any assistance.

As he keeps missing his hits, the old Otsutsuki decides to put it all in one attack. He surrounds his arms with lightning and makes his muscles pump even wider. After lifting his axe up, he makes it grow bigger and swiftly crashes it into the ground aiming for Sasuke.

Chidori Shunshin

Sasuke uses this jutsu, that he developed during his travel to hide his movements in the lightning that emanates from his body, and quickly gets away from the impact. The axe crashes into the ground, and makes way more damage than the willow did earlier. The ground is sliced in half on such a great distance that their eyes aren't enough to see. The lightning that went from the weapon propagates through the ground and to the sky, causing a thunderstorm.

Sasuke is impressed by this demonstration of power, but stays focused. His enemy now has his guard down. He falls from from over him and slashes forward with his sword.

Chidori Katana

He tries to aim for the enemy's head, but misses and cuts off the tip of his horn instead. He lands with his hand on the mantle of the axe that is still buried in the ground and throws his two feet right in the wide man's face. The man lets go off the weapon, that disappears a few seconds later, and is thrown away by the two kicks in the face.

Amaterasu

Sasuke burns the blades of Kobo who is running toward the old man and preparing a fire jutsu.

Katon – Cross Fire

Kobo throws a black fire cross through the air and hits the target. The wide man lands on his feet, burning in black flames. Before the flames damage him too much, he completely absorbs them in his skin. "How did he do that?" wonders Sasuke. He doesn't see any Dojutsu or seal that should allow him to absorb jutsus. Before he can think more about it, he sees the last Otsutsuki come down from the sky and get near to the ground.

"Kinshiki, step back. I'll take care of it." says the majestic vagabond.

"Momoshiki, are you sure they deserve your implication?" answers the wide one.

"Looks like humans aren't all that weak after all, Rinnegan user." adds the younger one, while looking at Sasuke.

Momoshiki, as his name is, raises his hands and opens his palms, revealing a pair of orange rinnegan, one in each palm. Sasuke and Kobo make shocked faces. Momoshiki looks at Tsubai, who's struggling to find a way to remove the rod, and raises one hand to him.

Bansho Ten'in

He pulls the rod to him, forcing the hook back through Tsubai's body. It rips all of his chakra out at once, and causes him to faint, unconscious on the ground. Momoshiki grabs the rod with Tsubai chakra on the end of the string.

"TSUBAI!" screams Kobo.

"Hmmm… It seems that Earth's Daitengu has made quite a mess with his chakra and heritage." says Momoshiki while analyzing Tsubai's chakra with his byakugan. "And it appears that he's also cursed all of your lineage with the same fate, Minamoto."

Before he can absorb the chakra, Sasuke comes close and cuts the string off. Tsubai's chakra vanishes in the air. Momoshiki flies back to avoid the sword's swing. Sasuke throws lightning bolts at him, but he dodges them all and flies further away. Once he's far enough, the Uchiha decides to try something else. The thunder caused by Kinshiki's attack can be used at his advantage. Unsure of how troublesome the enemy is, he decides to take him down as quickly as possible.

A thunderbolt appears to connect Sasuke's hand to the sky and a thunder dragon briefly appears behind him before disappearing up in the sky.

"Thunder bending?" says Momoshiki. "Interesting! I'll take it as a test."

Sasuke hurries to finish his jutsu and lowers his hand, causing the thunder to fall at lightning speed down on his target.

Kirin

Unexpectedly, the Otsutsuki with only one hand raised toward the sky stops the thunder and absorbs it, regardless of its speed.

"What? How's that possible?" says Sasuke, shaken, as his Kirin is being absorbed.

Kobo doesn't let the surprise waste his time and hurries to attack again. Kinshiki stands back as Momoshiki asked and doesn't help. Sasuke sees Kobo preparing a jutsu and joins him.

Suiton – Suiryudan

Chidori Eiso

Kobo throws a water dragon bullet that Sasuke strikes with his Chidori spear and charges in electricity. The projectile flies toward Momoshiki who once again simply absorbs it.

"Well, Uchiha, you may be strong, but you're not dumber than I expected." says the Orange Rinnegan user.

He raises one hand that he turns to Kobo as to prepare for an attack.

Takami Musubi

From the eye in his palm, he releases the jutsu he just absorbed but 2 times bigger and throws it to Kobo, who can't dodge something that fast and that big right now. Sasuke hurries to help.

Ameno Tejikara

He switches his place with Kobo and absorbs the jutsu. While he absorbs it, he feels the nature energy flowing through it, implying that this man is using Senjutsu. Still, there isn't enough to stop him from absorbing it.

"FOOL!" yells Momoshiki who saw Sasuke just used Ameno Tejikara and knows he can't use it immediately again.

He raises his left hand, with which he absorbed Kirin earlier and points it toward Sasuke, who is still processing how the enemy was able to send a jutsu back. Seeing him ready to attack again, he understands what he'll try to do, and hurries to take cover, in panic.

Takami Musubi

Using the same jutsu, Momoshiki shoots Sasuke's Kirin back at him, but 2 times faster and stronger. This jutsu is enough to kill someone in one shot and Sasuke knows it well, since he usually is the thrower and not the target. Not confident enough to try something as crazy as his opponent, Sasuke unleashes the perfect Susanoo as quickly as possible before the deadly thunderbolt is shot.

He's struck and the whole ethereal armor he just summoned is completely destroyed. The shock sends him fly away and causes him to loose all focus for a minute, as he falls, he feels something that he didn't feel since the 4th War. The pressure of an enemy far beyond his level.

Momoshiki lowers his hand and sees Sasuke fainted to the ground. With his byakugan, he slightly looks around and clearly sees Kobo coming from behind. But being a bit too late, he doesn't manage to completely dodge the surprise attack and gets lightly cut, through his hair only. Slightly angered by this, he quickly turns around to face Kobo who's still falling toward him.

Kami Shibari

The mysterious being controls his hair and uses them to grab and bind all of Kobo's limbs. While he holds him with his arms and legs spread apart to keep him from doing anything, he raises a hand as to perform a gentle fist.

Bakuton – Jiraisho

He hits his palm against Kobo's abdomen, and explosive chakra is pushed forward, piercing a flat hand-sized hole through Kobo's body. Sasuke, who just gets back to his senses, raises his head and sees his friend, held up, with an explosion going through his body.

"KOBOOO!" he screams before hurrying to stand up.

Kobo looks down to his stomach and sees it disappeared. Feeling the urge to cough, he takes it as a last advantage and coughs a bloodstain right into his enemy's face, to cover his eyes.

"Huh! You dirty inferior piece of shit!" says Momoshiki who throws Kobo away to Sasuke with his hair.

Before he catches his friend's body, Sasuke raises his hand and makes a well-known hand-sign.

Chibaku Tensei

Using Ameno Tejikara together with this jutsu, he transports the gravity center he just created right behind Momoshiki and causes all the land, who was already damaged and shaken by the fight, to quickly rise and crush together against him and the jutsu. While the enemies are left in confusion, Sasuke catches Kobo with the hand of his Susanoo and hurries to join Tsubai who's lying unconscious on the ground.

Chimatakami

He opens a portal to escape this dimension while he still can with his two friends. Kinshiki sees Sasuke escape. He turns to see the meteor that is forming while destroying the place and trapping Momoshiki. He lifts a hand and makes a spear that he throws through the planetoid to destroy its center. It collapses the jutsu and frees Momoshiki, who gently lands on his feet.

"Momoshiki!" says Kinshiki. "The humans got away."

"Don't give a fuck." he answers. "Now where the hell is Urashiki?" he says while looking around with his byakugan.

Bansho Ten'in

He pulls his unconscious and severely injured friend out from the debris and notes his sorry state.

"I attacked him unwillingly." says Kinshiki. "What should we do?"

"…" Momoshiki stays quiet and thinks as he thinks he'll have to do something he doesn't like.

"Crap… We'll bring him back to Ashihara."

"Really? How long has it been since we last went there?"

"Whatever… He'll be healed there. We won't be staying anyway. I think it's about time we finally retrieve Kaguya's chakra."

"Is it now needed?" asks Kinshiki. "You know as much as I do that they won't let us do that."

Momoshiki stays quiet for a moment and activates his Byakugan to look at Kinshiki.

Unmeishin

He uses a strange jutsu with his eyes that allows him to see his partner's destiny through his chakra. Analyzing the patterns only he can see, he gets a bad feeling, but isn't surprised.

"Yes. It's time I take this power for myself."

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In the land of Water, Sasuke falls out of his portal with his partners. Tsubai falls, still unconscious, lying on the ground. Sasuke gets on his knees next to Kobo, who's lethally injured and hardly breathing.

"Hold on, I'll get you to your wife. She'll fix that." says the wanderer, in panic.

"Don't you… See… it…" hardly says Kobo, trying to smile despite his current state.

"Don't talk."

"We made… it. What-ver happens to… me, now. You're alive. We saved you from that fate."

Sasuke stares, confused, at Kobo. He didn't know that he knew about Tsubai's prophecy. He looks down to see a complete hole, surrounded with severed and burnt skin, in his soul brother's body. As an intense feeling of anxiety, comes to his mind, he firmly holds Kobo's shoulder with his only hand. Kobo slowly lifts his arm up with the little strength he still has and holds his fist against his brother's chest.

"You're alive. Don't you dare let this go to waste…" he says as Sasuke remains speechless. "Come closer, I have something I need to tell."

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End of Chapter 31 – Next Chapter: Before the storm