Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

Two Hours Later

"THIS IS NOT WHAT I HAD IN MIND!" I shout out as I leap from building to building, covering frankly stupid distances with each bound.

I'm being pursued. Turns out that I must have left an impression on the puppet user that was controlling that trio because they've sent just a few more my way.

How many is a few? Oh, nothing too major, only what feels like two hundred or so.

"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!" A literal wave of fire spews forth from my mouth, greedily swallowing up seven puppets all by itself. Their sudden absence is quickly filled by countless more that eagerly fly up to take their place. "That makes sixty four! How many of you bucketheads are there?"

~You can't be surprised by this. You know what you said.~

"Fuck off this shouldn't be a thing!" I shout out as another wave of fire spews from my mouth that incinerates another batch of puppets. "Chiyo was renowned as one of the best puppet masters of all time because she could control ten! Sasori, you know the Akatsuki guy I have on my people to kill list, he can control a hundred! Supposedly he took down a whole country with them or some shit like that! Whoever this is, they're outdoing Sasori of the Red Sands! That shouldn't be a thing!"

~Yes, but that's just in quantity.~

"I know! That's what's pissing me off!" I land on a building and tense my legs. Instead of leaping away from the mob behind me and continuing our merry chase, I'm headed straight towards the heart of the flying puppets. Behind me trail ten faintly white strands of rippling air that seem nonthreatening. Once I'm in the center of them, I start to rotate. Spinning myself faster and faster, all the while I'm letting my wind whips reach out and shred whatever they touch. I'm a whirling ball of death in the middle of the sky. Dozens of the puppets fall to the loosely improvised attack, it's like an offensive version of my Elemental Sphere Defense.

Man I haven't used that defense in a while. I should really revisit my chakra strings sometime. Definitely later, I've got a more pressing matter to attend to first.

"These damn puppets are so fucking weak!" Now, don't misunderstand me here. They're durable, I have to use higher level attacks to destroy them. My strength is stupid, my jutsu are devastating, and my mind is equally good at using those effectively. The puppets also have some fearsome attacks. That chakra cannon is nothing to scoff at, I've seen it punch straight through concrete as if it was wet paper. The hammer puppet has smashed straight through bridges, bringing them tumbling to the ground with ease. The claw puppet can shred through flesh as if it was warm butter. It's not the puppets themselves that are weak, it's who is using them. They simply lack any skill. Their only method of attacking is straightforward: throw puppets at it until it dies.

Unfortunately for whoever the hell is behind this, that method won't work on me.

You see, there are two ways to take out a high level shinobi. The first, obviously, is send out someone who is the same or of a higher level and have them deal with it. Second, and one that is usually not used, throw countless bodies at the high level shinobi to wear them out. Whittle down their strength until they have none left. But that usually takes a ridiculous amount of bodies to accomplish, and even then it isn't a guaranteed success.

This puppet user is obviously employing the second method, throw puppets at me until I pass out from exhaustion. But it's me. I don't get physically tired. Unless I churn out S-rank jutsu after jutsu for hours on end, I'm going to be set on chakra since I recover it so quickly. So the only way to wear me down is mentally. And I've gone a week if not more without sleep before. His plan just isn't plausible against me. Oh, it's definitely possible, but there's way that he can pull it off.

"I'm getting tired of this running around bullshit. What say we make a stand?" I ask my loyal companion as I land on another building to watch as the puppet pieces fall from my Wind Whip Spin Attack Thing. I've got to get a better name for that.

~A stand? Is that really the correct word for it?~

"Stand. Slaughter. Close enough, they both start with S." I drop off the building, letting gravity claim it's hold over me once more. If I'm doing this, I want my feet to be on the ground, not on a building or flying through the air. Plus then I can get my earth element involved. "Any preference on how we do this? Crazy jutsu, good old fashion taijutsu, some form of seals and shit I'm sure I've got something tucked away somewhere, or shall I unleash you and the five of us fight it out?"

~The last one. It's so rare that you use all four hearts outside of you. You tend to always keep one close, which while understandable does limit the amount of fun I can have.~

"It's decided." I crash into the ground and leave behind a small crater. No biggie, my face has made bigger ones before. That's a sad thought. "We'll draw them all in close, then I'll unleash you. How's that sound?"

~Delightful. Too bad they can't make facial expressions, I'd love to see the whites of their eyes as we decimate them.~

"Here they come." Sure enough, those two hundred or so puppets are creating a semisphere over me. They're cutting off all forms of escape, no matter which way I look there's puppets. It's perfect.

I could always run away underground, but where's the fun in that?

Slowly, ever so slowly, they start to move inwards as one. Meter by meter, they shrink the sphere, eating away at the room I have to move in. They're fifty meters out. Forty. Thirty.

"Is this it?" I call out to them despite knowing I'll get no response. "Is this really how it's going to end? The final battle, all of you against all of me?" I palm two kunai, one in each hand, and let a crazy smile that I've become known for blossom on my face.

All of the puppets in unison unleash something new. Out of the floating rings they have around themselves comes ten kunai per puppet. They all spring forth with trails of purple chakra behind them, and all are aimed at me. Two hundred puppets at ten kunai apiece. Two thousand kunai all together. It still doesn't phase me the slightest.

"So, the final fight begins." I abandon my two kunai and fly through handsigns for one of my own jutsu, Ascent to the Heavens. A simple powerful blast of wind will counter all of those kunai like child's play. "I wonder if you brought enough pupp - the fuck?"

There's a single kunai that is moving faster than the rest. Like, stupidly faster than the rest. It zips past the oncoming storm of kunai, but it's going to fly wide of me. Not by much, barely a meter at best though probably less. As the fast kunai gets closer I can't help but study the offending weapon.

It's long, nearly the length of a dagger, and has two prongs jutting proudly out of the sides. The handle is a dull yellow with intricate black markings on it. That's all the more I notice as a man suddenly appears with his fist around the handle and an arm already reaching out to me. There's no hope for me to dodge, there's no hope for me to attack, hell there's no hope for me to react in any meaningful way.

His hand firmly grasps my shoulder and suddenly I'm yanked away.

With Sasuke and Naruto

"Where am I?" Naruto asks as he pushes himself up to his feet. He was sprawled out on his back after being pulled to where it is he's at now.

"Brilliant." Sasuke groans out, likewise pushing himself to his feet, as his eyes dart around taking in the desolate room that they've appeared in. "Not only did I lose Alvarcus, you're here."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto barks out at him as his eyes narrow slightly in distaste.

"It means that I like him better." Sasuke frostily says to Naruto. His coal black eyes quickly run down then up Naruto's body, taking in his general appearance. "And that he's more useful. You have a single kunai pouch on you. You have no other weapons."

"And you're one to talk?" Naruto steps into Sasuke's personal space. "You've got a sword and a pouch. How the hell is that any better?"

"Because you have no idea what's in my pockets." Sasuke blandly replies, completely unphased by Naruto's close proximity. "Double that with the fact that I'm friends with a seal user, well, do I really need to go on?"

"Can we just not right now?" Naruto sighs out and takes a step back. "We can bicker when we're not in a weird place."

"So there is some intelligence in that head of yours." Sasuke snarkily replies. "For the record, this does not mean we're buddies again. It simply is an… alliance of convenience."

"Whatever. I've always liked Alvarcus better anyways." Naruto grumbles out.

"Finally, something we agree on."

"Speaking of Alvarcus, do you think he's here too?" Naruto looks around briefly for any traces of him. "He was hit before us, it would make sense wouldn't it?"

"I have absolutely no idea. There's only one way to find out." Sasuke begins to make his way to the only door out of this decrepit room.

"If he is here, how do you think we'll find him?" Naruto falls in step next to Sasuke as they both walk out of the room. "I don't know about you, but I'm terrible at tracking."

"I'm going to politely ask the first person we come across if they've seen anyone of his vague description." Then Sasuke's face turns dark. "If that fails, then I plan on looking for something exploding. Or ridiculous amounts of jutsu. Or maybe a few giant spiders. Or on fire."

"Strangely enough, I'm not surprised by that."

With Alvarcus

The moment I get my bearings back I go on the offensive. A black spear of threads shoots out of my shoulder right where the hand is - was - gripping me. The owner of said hand wisely didn't hold on for longer than necessary, however, he's still within taijutsu range. No doubt he plans on capitalizing on that fact, especially since he's still holding that weird kunai.

Unfortunately for him, I've just completed the handsigns for my jutsu.

"Ascent to the Heavens!" A burst of gale force winds explodes from my person. Grass is ripped from the ground, the scattered leaves - would you look at that we're in a forest of some kind - and twigs become airborne as they're tossed about. Most importantly, the kunai wielder is pushed away from me.

He nimbly lands on both his feet and lowers a single arm to the ground for a three point landing. It's not like he needed the extra stability, he must have wanted to show off.

It's at this moment that I can fully take in his appearance. He's wearing what could be any Village's ANBU gear. Black pants, black shirt, dark brown vest with pockets on it. It's too generic to link back to any village. The man has blonde hair, spiky blonde hair. He's wearing a colorful owlish mask. I think that's supposed to be an owl, I'm not really sure.

"You made a mistake." I gravelly speak as I lunge at him. I'm not in the mood for pleasantries right now. I don't telegraph my attack. There's no rearing back to strike with a fist in a dramatic fashion. All of my flashiness is gone for the moment. Instead, this man is treated to the sight of me speeding towards him. At the last possible moment I snap my fist forward, pouring as much speed on the punch as I can. It gets a sliver of a centimeter away from his stupid owl mask.

Then he disappears in a yellow flash.

The momentum from my punch carries me forward, any lesser shinobi would have been knocked off balance from the lack of impact. I, however, simply keep moving forward as if I meant to run right through him. If this guy can teleport or whatever the hell that was then I know that staying in one spot is tantamount to suicide.

"I did make a mistake." What has to be his voice comes out from the treeline off to my right. "I made the mistake of saving you, a hostile shinobi."

"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!" The gale force wind that tears from my mouth annihilates the forest where his voice came from. Trees are bent away from me at the sheer force they're subjected to. Loose leaves and twigs go flying. I just hope I got him, I spread the attack out over a wide range.

"You have an impressive amount of chakra for someone your age." His voice is on the opposite side of the clearing now. God damn this fucker is quick. "It's a shame that you won't be able to leave here alive."

"Those are supposed to be my words- the fuck?" My sentence ends in surprise as dozens upon dozens of three pronged kunai suddenly litter the battlefield. They're everywhere, stabbed into the ground, speared into trees, nailed into the few large rocks that are covered by moss. "The Hiraishin."

"Strange." The man says from another new spot. "Usually it's fear that's associated with recognizing my technique. You don't sound afraid, if anything you said it with reverence."

"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!" I roar out as a blistering hot gout of fire also roars to life. It eagerly swarms across scores of trees, igniting leaves and branches alike. Even after I cut off the flow of chakra to the jutsu the fire continues to consume the forest as acrid black smoke billows upwards.

"You have no regard for your surroundings." He softly whispers into my ear. He got right behind me and I never even knew. Holy shit that's terrifying. "You are a danger to my mission, and as such I must remove you. I'm sorry it had to end this way."

I feel the cold steel of what has to be a Hiraishin kunai pierce the base of my skull. It is a clean strike, a quick in then out. Minimal blood will be spilled and likewise it requires minimal effort. Just a simple push then pull. Why work hard?

Counter to everything that this man has seen, I don't instantly go slack and fall to the ground. Instead there's a blast of water, focused and under so much pressure that it could cut through steel, that rips a hole through my top layers of clothing. It's one of my fastest attacks, second to only False Darkness. The only reason I didn't use the lightning jutsu was because the water mask is in a better spot to hit him.

The moment I see the remnants of a yellow flash I know that the water cannon didn't connect.

"You can use three elements." He speaks from my right. "Very impressive, doubly so for how young you are. It's generally considered a jonin skill to use two, and here you are using three." Now he's to my left. "What's even more impressive though," Behind me. "Is how you're still standing." In front of me. "I know that I connected. So how are you alive?" He steps out of the treeline from in front of me, totally relaxed.

He just demonstrated that he can be anywhere and everywhere at a moment's notice. Truly, the Hiraishin is a formidable technique.

"There is a weakness to your technique." I ignore answering his question to go on my own tangent. Also I need to stall for a couple seconds. "Curious?"

"A little." He tilts his head casually while remaining relaxed. "More about how you're still alive than this 'weakness' in the Hiraishin."

"The Hiraishin uses the kunai as anchors." I explain as numerous chakra strings extend from my back. "It's one of the main assets to the technique. You can have as many anchors as you want, limited only by how many you can make in your free time. Which can be a lot. By having so many anchors you can have that many spots you can teleport to and that fact is what makes the Hiraishin so dangerous. No one knows which spot you'll pop up at. But, what happens if all those kunai - all your anchors - are in the same spot?"

At my command, every single one of the Hiraishin kunai that litter the battlefield are pulled out of what they're stabbed into. They all quickly soar through the air and land directly before me in a pile of deadly instruments.

"It's simple, you only have one spot to teleport to." It's my turn to smirk as I let the ramifications of what I just did sink in. If he tries to Hiraishin out of an attack I know where he's going. If he tries to Hiraishin close to me, I know which direction he's coming from. If he tries to Hiraishin anything I know where he's going.

His response is nothing like what I expected. He tilts his head to the other side and then disappears in a yellow flash. Instantly I lash out with ten sweeping earth whips over the pile of kunai to catch him. I have some questions I want to ask.

But they never found purchase on his body.

"That's assuming that I marked only the kunai." He says from behind me once more. This time I don't feel the pinch of the cold steel slipping into my spine. Instead I feel it smoothly slice through my neck, cleanly reopening the scar that Kisame gave me all those years ago.

He does the smart thing: Hiraishin away from me just in case I have another trick up my sleeve. Intelligent man. The moment my head and body became separate - for the who knows what time - the Jiongu sprung into action. The black threads didn't let my head travel far, it barely rolled forward before being tugged back into place. Numerous black threads painstakingly stitch the two pieces back together as they have many times before.

"You tagged my shoulder." I growl out at him.

"You're still alive." He bluntly points out. He's much calmer than he has any right to be. "What are you?"

"A damn good shinobi." I growl out again as I firmly grasp my shoulder where he did. With the sound of ripping flesh and snapping strings, I tear out a chunk of my own shoulder and ruin both my coat and shirt in the process. I throw the mass at him as black flakes trail behind it and the skin wetly flops on the grass short of reaching its target. "You made me ruin my clothes."

"That's what you care about?" The masked man has a tinge of surprise in his voice this time. I guess ignoring being beheaded will do that.

"He's strange like that." A new voice says. Both my eyes and the man's eyes dart to the source. It's a welcome sight.

"Sasuke! Buddy! You're here too!" I gleefully shout out. Perched on a branch with something slung over his shoulder is none other that my favorite Uchiha. "I'm not alone in this mess! WOOT! Wait how the hell did you find me?"

"The forest is on fire." Sasuke points towards the trees that are still blazing in my inferno.

"Well…" I sheepishly rub the back of my head. "It was bound to happen eventually, right? I'm just surprised it took this long."

"We can discuss your fire obsession later." Sasuke pulls off what is slung over his shoulder - turns out it's a body - and holds it out to me. "We've got a problem."

"Holy shit." The words escape my lips without my consent. He's holding an unconscious boy by the scruff of his shirt. He's wearing a black tank top with black armwarmers that cover his forearms. Standard shinobi pants and footwear, nothing surprising there. But what really is a cause for concern is his spiky white hair and the face mask that's covering everything below his eyes. "Is that kid Kakashi?"

A single kunai soars through the air directly at a point between Sasuke's eyes. Sasuke simply tilts his head out of the way to let the kunai pass.

Huge mistake.

The man disappears in a yellow flash and reappears gripping the handle of the kunai that's right before Sasuke's head. He swings it down - thankfully - at Sasuke's arm. The one holding Kakashi. Sasuke does the smart thing and lets go of Kakashi in favor of keeping his arm. The man swiftly grabs kid Kakashi and pops away in another flash of yellow. He's not even around the battlefield at the moment, he must have another kunai somewhere.

"Who was that?" Sasuke asks as he joins me in my spot. We instinctually go back to back as we await the fury of the teleporting man.

"Well… if that was kid Kakashi, then, uh, the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze?" I can't believe I just said that sentence. "This is fucking ridiculous. Did we time travel or something?"

"GUYS HELP THE FOREST IS ON FIRE!" Bursting into the battlefield is an orange clad shinobi. He's running fast, he's panting and sweating - though it appears from nerves instead of exertion - and he has a frantic air about him. "ALVARCUS! HELP! I DON'T KNOW ANY WATER JUTSU!"

"You've gotta be shitting me." I groan out as Naruto runs around like a headless chicken. "No wonder shit got weird."

"Excuse me?" Sasuke asks with a quirked eyebrow. I don't need to see him to know that he's quirked his eyebrow, I just know.

"Think about it." My eyes ping pong around the forest battlefield, waiting for Namikaze fucking Minato to show back up. "It's the three of us together."

"Fair point." Sasuke concedes. "Time travel seems fairly plausible now."

With a faint yellow flash we're joined by Minato. Fuck that sentence. Fuck it sideways with a rake. A rusty rake. Just fuck everything!

"Who are you and why did you attack Kakashi and how did you know it was Kakashi - you're an Uchiha?" Minato gives his anger pause as his eyes lock with Sasuke's blazing Sharingan. Then he takes in the latest member to our get together, Naruto. Who is frantically trying and failing to put out the fire. "Leaf shinobi? What the hell is going on here!?"

"You want this one Sasuke?" I offer to him. "I was about to kill him barely ten seconds ago, he probably doesn't want to listen to me."

"You know him better. I just met the guy." Sasuke counters. "Plus I did have Kakashi unconscious and slung over my shoulder. That's a really good first impression."

"And mine was better? Hello! We were in the process of killing each other! Oh I know, we could make Naruto do it." I counter offer his counter offer. That's going to get confusing really quickly.

All three sets of eyes turn to Naruto. He's gotten the ingenious idea to try and blow the massive fire out with a wind jutsu. That was an incredibly dumb idea, he just made the fire burn hotter and spread faster.

"I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY!" He flails about wildly. "ALVARCUS I REALLY COULD USE SOME HELP HERE!"

"Yeah not him." I say as Sasuke wordlessly agrees with me. "Though I should probably put that fire out."

"Why haven't you done that yet?" Sasuke asks, no doubt stalling for time. We're getting our story straight in out heads before we want to share it with Minato. Fucking weird.

"Because… it's pretty?" My flimsy excuse falls flat. "Would you believe that I was using it to limit the battlefield? Stop that man from teleporting all over the place? No? Damn. Fine I was enjoying watching it burn! There! Happy now!"

"Just go put the damn thing out before someone gets burned." Sasuke sighs out in resignation. "You know what, send your water mask to do it. Then we can both explain what we think is going on."

"You're no fun." I grumble as a mass of black threads pours out the bottom of my shirt. Barely three seconds later my water minion gallops off and starts spewing wave after wave of water to douse the forest fire. "So… you've probably got some questions. Ask away?"

"State your names." Minato asks in a tone that brokers no arguments. He's not really asking, he's ordering.

"Alvarcus Mar." I easily answer him. Can things get any weirder?

"Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke says with a hint of apprehensiveness. I can't blame him, Minato is from Konoha. The Uchiha are from Konoha. It isn't too big of a logical leap to realize that the Uchiha before him sporting the definitely-not-Konoha village symbol is a missing nin.

"Thanks Alvarcus!" Naruto pants out as he joins Sasuke and me. "Hi! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen and -"

THWAP

"Stuff it he doesn't care about all that extra stuff!" I stop him before he can go on his rant.

"Why are you all here?" Minato asks his next question. Slowly, ever so slowly, he's lowering his guard.

"Short version or long version?" I open my mouth before the others can.

"Short." Minato decides instantly. Probably for the best, I don't really have a long version to tell him.

"Basically we were sent on a mission to Roran to get a specific item and a seal malfunctioned and we think we may have… uh… there's no real good way to put this so I'm just going to say it." I take a deep breath. "We think we time traveled. To the past specifically."

"Wait what?" Naruto blurts out in shock. "Time traveled? Is that even possible?"

"Considering that the kid Sasuke had subdued is Kakashi and that the person questioning us is Namikaze Minato, yeah I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that we're in the past."

"YOU'RE THE FOURTH HOKAGE!?" Naruto blurts out in astonishment as he points at Minato.

"And here come the time paradoxes." I groan out. "Fan-fucking-tastic."