Naruto chased down Gaara, while Shikamaru chose to stay and hold off the enemy sound Nin, Naruto and Hinata moved on ahead after Shikamaru bluffed his way into convincing them. Like what happened in the original timeline he was saved by Asuma at the last second. Hinata and Naruto ended up being stalled by Kankuro. In order to help Naruto catch up to Gaara, she decided to stay and fight, while she made Naruto go on ahead without her."Don"t you trust me?" Hinata pouted puffing up her cheeks; making Naruto frustrated, he then looked at Kankuro and said, "If you hurt her, I will kill you."
Naruto blasted the full power of his killing intent onto Kankuro as showed off his Kyuubigan; Kankuro gulped and began to sweat. Naruto took off and the scene with Gaara ended up a bit different than the original timeline.
After a single attack Naruto had forced Gaara to use his full on Shukaku mode, but Naruto summoned the current boss of the Kitsune clan, his name was Kitsurama and he was the direct descendant of Kurama, his body is covered in dark red fur, and was bit shorter than the 1 tailed beast. He boasted incredible power that was no less than Shukaku and showed incredible battle instincts.
After head-b.u.t.ting Gaara, and using his famous Talk-No-Jutsu on him, Naruto pointed to his siblings and said, "See you got people who care about you right besides you." Gaara saw the worried expressions on Temari, and Kankuro"s faces as they stood in front of Gaara defending him from Naruto.
Naruto sighed as he decided to let them go, the Suna Siblings carried him away on their shoulders, as they left the outskirts of Konoha"s territory Gaara called out to them and said "I"m sorry."
Naruto had just returned to the village with Hinata, Shikamaru, and Asuma by his side; after defeating Kankuro she returned to help Shikamaru, seeing Asuma there she informed them that Naruto was still chasing after Gaara; they decided to go help when they caught the end of Naruto"s fight with Gaara.
After meeting back up they headed to the village while defeating more Sound Nin along the way. Hinata and Naruto appeared inside the arena holding hands. While they looked around at the mess they noticed that all the civilians had already been evacuated; there was only Shin.o.bi"s left in the stands.
Although they were covered in blood from their battle, they only looked only slightly exhausted; because of a strange fully covered Suna Ninja going around and kidnapping the other Suna Nin before they could do any damage, there were only Sound Ninja left for them to slaughter leaving them with a lot more energy.
As soon as they spotted Naruto all eyes turned to him, Naruto looked around and said "What?" Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke had appeared, they looked like they had to tell Naruto something but didn"t know how, when Sasuke said "Good news or bad news?"
Naruto noticed Sasuke"s Sharingan evolved into the Mangekyō form and felt a chill crawl up his spine, when he saw the downcast look that came over the faces of team 7, Naruto replied "Good news first, I don"t like the looks on your faces." Just as Sasuke was about to speak a loud female voice rang out "MY BABY!"
A red haired woman appeared in front of Naruto and scooped him up into her arms and began squeezing, Naruto felt his bones starting to creak when he said "Who is this crazy lady?" Kakashi had a bland and almost terrified look in his face as Minato appeared beside him "That crazy lady is your mother young man." Naruto saw Minato and looked back towards Kushina, as he figured it out water began to fill his eyes, "MOM!" Naruto began crying while saying "How? How is this possible?"
Kushina took began crying as well as she pulled Minato into the hug, the sound of both their bones could be heard cracking when he noticed a sad smile on everyone"s faces, including his parents. He pulled his chaotic emotions in and managed to ask through his tears, "What"s the bad news?"
Kakashi frowned and began telling Naruto what happened after he left, when he heard about Karin"s death and that Kibo was in the hospital in critical condition, he felt hollowed out inside, Hinata began crying her eyes out, as the two dashed off towards the hospital with his parents following behind.
Sasuke moved over to sit down and he sighed, "Master Kakashi, will it always feel this bad?" Sasuke had an exhausted and bland look on his face, when Kakashi looked at him and shook his head, "It will always hurt, but the pain numbs as time pa.s.ses." Sakura fell to the ground and starting crying again. Kakashi gripped his hand and squeezed it till blood began to drop from his hand, "I failed again, Rin, Obito." Kakashi let out a few tears as he patted his two disciples on their shoulders.
Sarutobi was sitting in the hospital"s waiting room, Hashirama, Mito, and Tobirama were listing to everything that"s happened since they died, "I don"t know how he pulled this off, but were not Edo Tensei corpses, where flesh and blood, living at an age where our bodies were at their prime." Tobirama said confused, because after all he was the creator of Edo Tensei.
That"s when an extremely depressed Kibo-Clone showed up, "That"s because it isn"t your Edo Tensei; it"s my Pure World Resurrection technique." Sarutobi was shocked as he looked over and saw one of Kibo"s clones walking next to Jiraiya.
Jiraiya was just as stunned to see the group gathered in front of him, "Master, what"s going on, how are the previous Kage"s alive? Not that I"m not happy to see you." Mito smiled at him as Hashirama said, "Well, if it isn"t little Jiraiya, it"s good to see you again." Sarutobi quickly informed Jiraiya of the situation, when Tobirama looked over the Kibo-Clone with wide eyes.
"How? My shadow clone technique? No this is a bit different isn"t it?" Kibo looked at them with dead eyes and said, "It is. Only slightly altered by me is all, unlike normal shadow clones, I don"t need my main body"s Chakra to support my existence."
Hashirama grabbed Tobirama by his head and forced him to bow, "Little Kibo, Sarutobi has told me all that you"ve done for the village. You have our eternal thanks. If you need anything please don"t hesitate to ask." Mito bowed as well, when Tobirama said "I don"t see why you"re so down, can"t you bring her back to life like you did us?"
Clone-Kibo shook his head, "My technique is a counter to Edo Tensei, only the one casting it can be the sacrifice, and there are 3 things needed, a Bio-Clone of her body, her living Chakra sample, and her soul. She was absorbed by a forbidden Jutsu that merged with her entire body, and we need her body to make a Bio-Clone, a hair or genetic sample isn"t good enough. Not to mention that if I"m the one who initiated the process it wouldn"t work. The main difference between the Edo Tensei and my technique is that, my Pure World Resurrection can only be used through a chance; unless you"re offering up your life to cast the Edo Tensei technique." Tobirama lifted his brow at that last bit, when Kibo continued to explain.
"Even then it might not work, Karma play"s a big part in the technique, the only reason I was able to revive you, was because Orochimaru activated the Edo Tensei and I took advantage of the moment to use him as a sacrifice and supply the negative karma to the technique. Stopping him also supplied the positive Karma as the Edo Tensei disrupts the natural order of the world. I don"t think the world will would view my selfish actions as a positive action." Tobirama bit his tongue back and apologized, Kibo looked even worse, as the bags under his eyes showed how tired he really was.
Naruto had walked in as Kibo finished explaining, and spoke out "Nii Chan is that true?" Kibo flinched as he looked at Naruto, when Naruto saw Kibo"s dreary expression instead of his usual confident smile; it broke his heart even more. "Yes it"s true, now can you excuse me, I need to heal my main body."
Kibo noticed Hinata and Naruto"s parents arriving; he saw the guilty look on their faces, as he let out a breath of foul air Jiraiya almost broke into tears, "Minato, Kushina is that really you?" The two nodded their heads but only felt worse when they saw Kibo"s face, in response to their expressions Kibo said "Please don"t blame your selves, no one forced me to make this choice, just like no one forced her to make her choice to save me."
Kibo turned to Sarutobi and asked, "Hokage, may I enter?" Sarutobi nodded and said, "Of course Kibo, but you might not like what you see though." Kibo walked through into the emergency operating room to see his body was hooked up to intravenous drip, and many Medic Ninja scurrying around him while they used their mystic palm technique on him.
Kibo"s real body look thin as you could see most of his bones, his skin"s complexion had darkened, and he was currently breathing very slowly.
The medic Nin saw the Kages enter the room and immediately bowed, Clone-Kibo walked up to his body and grimaced, his Tengan was fully active as he scanned over his condition, he sighed before thinking "So this is the blow-back from forcing the Gate of Pain open, if it weren"t for my Life Gate, and Healing Gate working at full throttle I would have already died." Kibo saw every muscle and tendon in his body snapping and healing constantly, his entire Chakra network was a mess, and his bones constantly had spider web fractures spreading along their surface. Most of his healing gate was supporting his brain, it wrapped it up in a green energy coc.o.o.n and protected it from most of the damage.
Naruto walked up beside him and asked, "Can you heal your main body?" Kibo shook his head and said "Yes, but it would take all of this entire clone"s energy to do so, and in my current condition, the strain from the clone"s transfer could kill me."
A chime went off in the clones head. Making him sigh, as a clone he could only send things and take things from his storage. He could still hear Navi, but he couldn"t use any other of the system"s functions. If he could; he would have just bought and popped a full cure pill in his mouth. The pill he left with Sarutobi was taken apart by the Medical Nin; during this time they had managed to discover three fourths of the pill"s ingredients, but they used up the rest of their sample tying to find out the last three components.
[Quest: Find Tsunade and have her heal the main body. Reward: 3 Star Chamber Relics]
Kibo sighed and said out loud, "It"s just like Gama said. I guess it"s time to select the fifth Hokage." Hashirama seemed to have smiled when Sarutobi nodded his head, as he then asked "Did the Great Sage Toad happen to say anything about that?"
Kibo nodded his head as he said "Yes, he told me the next Hokage is someone from Hashirama"s lineage." Tobirama lifted his brow, and Hashirama laughed "Someone from my clan, who is it someone I know?" Kibo looked to Hashirama and said "Yes, after all she is your granddaughter."
Hashirama and Mito gasped, when Kibo continued, "Lady Tsunade will be the next person to inherit the position of Kage; she is also the only person who can heal me right now." Sarutobi laughed a little as Hashirama said, "Can"t we just have the fourth take back over?" Minato looked at Hashirama and said, "I must apologize lord 1st, but I won"t be accepting, our time has pa.s.sed, and I have a lot to make up for." Minato looked to Naruto and smiled, "I"ve been absent from my son"s life for 13 years, I wish to spend my remaining time with my family."
Sarutobi looked to Hashirama and said, "Why don"t you or Tobirama take over?" Hashirama laughed as Tobirama said, "Because like the fourth said, our time has pa.s.sed. The Konoha we served is too different for us to take charge, if it were a time of war perhaps we would offer up our services, but the Konoha that it today needs to look to the future for its changes, not returning to the past."
Hashirama patted his brother"s back and said, "Well put brother, I couldn"t have said it better myself." Tobirama looked to Hashirama and said "I"d be surprised if you could articulate anything well Nii Chan." Hashirama looked down as he turned to Mito and said, "Tobirama"s picking on me, comfort me wife."
Naruto looked at the group in front of him and said, "These are the previous Kage?" Minato laughed a little as he placed his hand on Naruto"s shoulder. Kibo looked to Jiraiya and asked "Can you locate Tsunade?" Jiraiya laughed as he said "Of course, in fact I even have a good idea where to start looking."
Kibo turned to Minato and said, "After Karin"s funeral we"ll head out to return with the 5th. Kibo placed an energy gathering seal on his main body before informing the Medical Nin "This will stabilize my condition until I return, there"s no need to use the mystic palm technique on my body anymore."
Kibo turned around and started to leave when he told Minato and Kushina "You can stay at the Hoshi Estate with my family until you settle back into Konoha and find a place of your own." The two bowed and thanked him when Naruto asked "Where are you going?" Kibo sighed. "To inform her mother." Kibo clenched onto Karin"s head band. He slumped his shoulders over and went to inform Kana. He made it to her door and knocked, after she answered Kibo informed her of what happened, he held her in his arms as she broke down in tears. Kibo joined her, and after they managed to calm down he told her the date of her funeral.
She hugged Kibo and said that it wasn"t his fault, and that she didn"t blame him, Kibo thanked her, but couldn"t help but feel guilt over his weakness and failure to protect the woman he loved, and an unimaginable hate for Hiruko.
Kibo gripped he fist and a loud cracking noise was heard as he Vowed revenge.