Chapter Text
Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
Prologue – Arc 1: The Soul Robber
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Prologue: How it goes on
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"Perhaps... that's what it means to be a ninja".
These are the words that Sasuke Uchiha recalls in his mind as he is laying on a tree branch in the south of the land of Fire. These words are the last that came to his thoughts when he last saw Naruto Uzumaki, just before leaving the village, peacefully this time, to begin his new journey. His travels brought him back to his native land once again. And now, he wonders whether he should or not go visit his friends in Konoha.
He already passed by the village only two weeks ago when Naruto wasn't there to protect it from the moon's falling, but he only blitzed through really fast to blast a meteor and didn't come back later. He heard of Naruto's exploits on the moon, and wonders if asking about the threat he faced is a reasonable motive for coming back. Sure, there are other ways to get this information, but he's already busy with his space-time training and can't take the time to go elsewhere..
Does he even need a good reason to pass by? Konoha is his home after all. It is where he'll go once his quest for peace is over, and it is the place where his loved ones, actually just his best friend and his woman, are waiting for him. The real reason he feels like he needs a good reason to be allowed there is because of the rest of the villagers.
For them, he's still Sasuke Uchiha: the nukenin who wanted to destroy the village and who almost killed their hero. Maybe that's what his quest is all about, he thinks. What he seeks is the forgiveness of the people, but not only. He needs their trust if he wants to stand next to Naruto as a partner.
Laying there on a tree branch, looking at the cloudy sky, a sudden sensation forces him off his train of thoughts. He feels an immense and unknown chakra a few village distances away. Such powerful energy... Unbelievable! Even Hashirama Senju, the first Hokage renowned as the God of Shinobi, didn't have such power.
Sasuke decides to go check where this feeling comes from, calmly as no danger seems to be around. After leaping down the tree, as he gets closer, he realizes this chakra is way more like his than like Naruto's, and even reminds him of Kaguya's. Bothered by this unique sensation, his curiosity makes him accelerate. To make it worse, he hears the scream of a woman's voice coming from the same direction. Guessing that the source of this chakra is currently threatening somebody, Sasuke hurries to the place.
When he arrives there, he sees a young girl sitting in the dirt after falling on her butt. Probably the one he heard screaming. But she isn't the only person there. She's staring in front of her at a person in a brown hooded cape holding a tall black haired man by the hair. It looks like a fight is taking place, and judging from the confused and fearful expression on the tall man's face, the winner is already decided.
Does Sasuke need to get involved? Is there a life at stake? Definitely. The caped person, apparently a male, isn't only holding his opponent down. He is slowly tearing something out of his body. It is his soul that he grabbed with his hand and is tearing apart from his victim's physical form.
This jutsu, Sasuke recognizes it. He never saw anyone use it but he knows it is one of his left eye's abilities: Ningendo, the Human Path. How is this person capable of using it? Plus if he succeeds, it will inevitably result in the tall man's death. Sasuke has to interfere.
Ameno Tejikara
Using the unique ability of his Rinnegan to switch places with the tall man, the Uchiha tries to strike the mysterious caped figure with a Chidori, but sees his target leap away in time…
He's fast. He managed to dodge it even from this close. Still, his hood got torn apart by the lightning, which uncovered his head. They can now all see the man's very pale face and his gray hair, long on the left side but short on the right. Most importantly, Sasuke notices his pair of red Rinnegan, and his two long pointy hollow horns. They resemble those of Kaguya but are protruding from his forehead and have the same color as his skin.
One of his horns looks like it was cut off while the other one is in good Sasuke, there is no doubt about the guy's status. He looks way too much like any of the Juubi's hosts and heirs to not be an enemy. Yet the Uchiha doesn't sense such a great power coming from him. His chakra is enormous for sure, but not as much as Kaguya's.
Bothered by the long silence, the stranger, also intrigued by Sasuke, makes his comments first.
"A Rinnegan? You must be one of the old princess' heirs."
Sasuke, having seen enough to consider the danger this man represents, pulls out his sword from its scabbard and tries to attack once again, aiming directly for the enemy's neck. This time, a shadow stops his blade. Not a silhouette, but an actual shadow emerging from the ground. It must be a jutsu similar to The Nara clan's shadow control. Held back with no counter attack, Sasuke decides to ask his questions.
"Who are you? Where did you get these eyes? How do you know this jutsu?"
Face to face with the mysterious man, he just throws at him every question that comes to his mind while his blade is still colliding with a shadow tentacle.
"That jutsu? I don't know it, nor am I the one using it." answers the intriguing being about the emerging shadow.
From this answer, Sasuke quickly deduces that the man isn't alone. But who is using this thing to protect him? As he analyzes his opponent's cover, he notices a black silhouette with 2 tails in the back jumping out of the man's shadow and attempting to strike him with large dark claws. Sasuke deflects the attack with his sword and leaps away. However, he feels himself being pulled back directly toward the mysterious man's held out hand.
Bansho Ten'in
The brown-caped man uses this jutsu to draw Sasuke closer to the two-tailed shadow so it can pierce through him with its claws. Even though his eyes have a different color, they seem to have the exact same abilities as Sasuke's.
"Let's surprise him with something his eyes can't do then." The Uchiha thinks. To block the claws, he summons the Susanoo's rib cage that closes itself around him. "Those claws are really tough." Sasuke thinks as he sees them slowly breaking through his armor.
To prevent it, a skeleton arm comes additionally to the rib cage and grabs the shadowy creature, only for it to vanish before he can tighten the Susanoo's hold around it and squash it down.
"What was that?" he asks the horned man, after leaping away.
"I only want the Minamoto's soul, Rinnegan owner." answers the man, ignoring Sasuke's question. "Don't interfere, or I'll have to take yours as well."
"Can't let you do that." answers the Uchiha who assumes that who is referred to as "the Minamoto" must be the man behind him. "Actually you're going down now." he adds before activating another power of his left eye.
Amaterasu
His Rinnegan starts to bleed as the horned man's coat catches fire, but the black flames are completely absorbed by his red Rinnegan. But the slight diversion it caused is enough to be taken advantage of. While his opponent is busy, Sasuke uses his left eye again, first to teleport behind the man, then to rip his soul out by mimicking the jutsu he saw him use earlier.
It's the first time he uses the ability of Ningendo. He knows that by doing so, he will access all of this guy's knowledge and memory and won't need him alive anymore. Since his target is unable to react, he successfully grabs his soul and starts tearing it apart from his body. However, to his surprise, even once confusion wears out, the pale horned being still lets go and leaves his soul to be ripped away. JUst before they separate, he whispers something:
Umashi Ashikabi Hikoji
Those are the words the man pronounces before his ripped out soul begins to move on its own and tries to grab Sasuke in return. It is now the Uchiha's soul that's being ripped out by a bodiless form. Sasuke, in an urge to save his life, pushes the opponent back with a small repulsion in his direction.
Shinra Tensei
The flying soul immediately regains its body that wakes up again as if nothing happened. A black space rift now appears behind him as he falls back.
"You're tough. I'll come back later. But I'll have to kill you." says the man before being swallowed by the dark spiral.
The portal closes and completely disappears with all that went through it. The enemy is gone. Sasuke stands still on the ground after witnessing this, and sighs. The space-time rift that this man just used to escape. He recognized it. It is the same as the type of portal he can barely open with his Rinnegan.
Since the fourth war, he's been thinking of ways to reach Kaguya's dimensions again in order to explore and understand them. By trying to establish a way back to these places, he discovered this ability of his Rinnegan but doesn't know how to properly control the destination of these portals for now. They also cost a lot of chakra, as he can't open more than three without wasting away almost all his chakra.
This man must be able to use this same jutsu thanks to his pair of Rinnegan, except he actually knows how to do it safely.
Who is this man? Why does he look so much like Kaguya? Since when is he around? What is that huge two-tailed beast that showed up to help him? And finally, Umashi Ashikabi Hikoji? Is that the name of the jutsu he used to survive the Ningendo's pull? So many questions pop in Sasuke's head as he realizes his journey just took a completely different turn.
Another question is however more important at the moment. What happened to the tall black haired man and the young girl who were being attacked before he arrived? Sasuke turns around and sees the man and the girl, both sitting on the ground and looking at him. Once she feels safe, the girl stands up first.
"Thank you!", she says. "You saved us!"
Sasuke turns his eyes to see the man who gladly doesn't seem to be injured.
"Are you his target? Are you who he called the Minamoto?" asks the Uchiha.
"Uh… That's just my last name." answers the man as he stands up. "I have no damn idea how this dude knows me or who he even was. He just came outta nowhere and said he wanted my powers and soul as a slave. T'was damn creepy!"
"Powers? What powers do you have that he could be after?"
"No damn idea! I'm not even a ninja. I just know a little Katon and some of the basics because of my clan's teaching. That's all."
Sasuke takes a moment to think about the situation. There seems to be a load of mysteries to unveil about the victims as well, but the most intriguing and urgent thing to figure out now, for Sasuke, is who the man he fought really is and what he wants.
"… What are your names?" he asks the two strangers. "I can't let you on the loose with such a threat after you."
"Um… I'm Tsubai. Tsubai Minamoto." says the tall black haired man before introducing the young woman as well. "And she's Himari Sakazawa, a friend of mine. We're just traveling around the country because staying in our home village is damn boring."
"And you?" asks Himari. "Judging by your skills and all, you must be a ninja. Are you from Konoha?"
"My name… is Sasuke Uchiha. I'm just a wandering ninja on a quest to find inner peace."
"Uchiha? You mean THE Uchiha?" asks the girl in a euphoric tone. "You're the man who helped Uzumaki Naruto to save the world, am I right? "
"Sigh… This idiot really became famous" thinks Sasuke, embarrassed, though he doesn't consider it a bad thing. If Naruto is known and trusted in other villages or even countries, it probably helps to maintain peace across the world. If this can stop ninjas from going against each other again, then he better keep this reputation. Now that the five great nations are united, they should keep it this way.
As things like the moon falling apart and the mysterious Rinnegan wielder he just ran into probably are just two of many similar threats, the nations should do their best to stay as one. Facing this kind of enemies all together worked 2 years ago during the fourth great ninja war, and Naruto believes it will keep working. He better be right.
"Well, Thank you for saving me, mister shinobi." says Tsubai Minamoto, interrupting Sasuke's silent thoughts. "But if you're capable of saving the world from a damn giant demigod monster, how could you let this ugly dude escape?"
"How?... I don't know."
Sasuke doesn't find it relevant to give an honest reply. It could only make this guy lose the faith he may have in him.
"Hey, Tsubai!" exclaims Himari, in reaction to her friend's rude question. "Seriously, you saw it, didn't you? That other guy seemed really strong too. They were both so fast I couldn't understand anything that was happening, but it looked like a tough fight."
"Well no, I did not see that." answers Tsubai. "You know I kinda almost fucking died right there so I was more focused on my damn soul leaving my body than on these two onion-eyes guys wrestling."
"Stop kidding around for a moment. Are you good now?"
"Well I don't know if anything happened to my soul, but I feel like I didn't become a vegetable, so no problem!"
Himari looks at him with a serious and worried face. Seeing her like that, Tsubai becomes serious too and says: "Don't worry, I'm okay. My soul is still in one piece, and I'm alive."
Seeing this conversation, Sasuke thoughtfully stares at the young woman, Himari. She's good with observation. It seems like he won't need to keep anything secret with her around. He can be himself. He now sees her look at him, and listens.
"Could you please keep going on the road with us for a while?" HImari asks the Uchiha. "If this guy ever comes again, we won't be able to fight back or do anything."
"That's what I intended to do." answers Sasuke. "But I have places to go. So you'll have to follow me around if you want to stay safe."
"Really? That's great! Thank you a lot!" she exclaims, keeping it positive. "We weren't going anywhere anyway, so it's fine."
"Yeah… Just anywhere but home." says Tsubai.
Sasuke raises an eyebrow while looking at the MInamoto. This man is just expressing the opposite feeling of what he was telling himself 10 minutes ago. While he is looking for a reason to go home, this guy right here, Tsubai, is trying to avoid his hometown? Why?... He'll probably ask this question later.
"And where is your hometown? So I know where we shouldn't go."
"It's a small village on the east border of the country." Tsubai replies. "So just don't go around there… Anyway, Wherever you're headed gotta be safe, right? Where are you going?"
Sasuke stays quiet, as he isn't headed anywhere. But he knows where he could go and bring them. This horned man is just the reason he was looking for. Kakashi and Naruto have to be warned about this. He, Sakura and them are the only ones who saw Madara but also Kaguya and the Rikudo-Sennin in action. They were all Rinnegan users with horns. His former teammates are the only people who could understand what kind of threat this mysterious man represents. Having made his choice, Sasuke looks back at the 2 travelers and firmly says:
"To Konoha."
The horned man with red Rinnegan, and Tsubai Minamoto. Sasuke Uchiha's encounter with these two people is, for him and for all of the ninja world, the beginning of a new era. In this new world, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and every other shinobi of this age and the coming generations will have to resist and fight through events and encounters with forces that greatly surpass everything that they thought they knew until now.
This story is about how a world trying to prosper in peace will enter a new age of conflict, and discover its real place in the larger scheme of all creation.
What about me, the teller of this tale? What is my place in this world? I, myself, do not know that. But whether you know or will know my nature does not matter. For now, I am just the one who will narrate the ongoing adventures of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha to you.
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End of Prologue – Next Chapter: Home