Immortal's Prophecy (2)

A year and a half ago, Mount Myōboku.

Naruto Uzumaki, ten and a half years old, took five minutes to "re-master" perfect Sage Mode.

"Incredible..." the elder sage Fukasaku remarked from the side, while Jiraiya, his left sleeve empty, smiled and waved his right hand at Naruto atop the stone spire forest. "Hey—Naruto—time to go—we're heading to the Great Toad Sage—"

From up high, Naruto called back, "Coming—" Bam. The moment his voice trailed off, he dropped straight from the sky, smashing through several stone spires, leaving the ground beneath him cracked and littered with rubble—yet he himself was completely unharmed.

"That's way too much, Sage Mode..." Naruto shook his arms, kicked his legs, and looked up at the height of the spires.

Fukasaku chuckled. "The strength under Sage Mode gets a leap in enhancement..."

Naruto curled his lips. Beneath his red sage eye markings, his blue eyes gleamed with spirit. "Let's go, Pervy Sage... get the key, and then..." He touched his stomach and grinned with narrowed eyes. "I've gotta have a good fight with this guy!"

Hmph... Kurama lay in his cage, lifting his eyelids just a little.

At the Great Toad Sage's place.

"Hey there, Great Sage!" Naruto greeted the enormous, ancient toad sage enthusiastically.

Jiraiya was speechless—how did his disciple end up just as rude as him? Fukasaku, standing nearby, was silently thinking the same thing...

The Great Toad Sage, old and frail, spoke weakly: "Hmm... you two... what were your names again?"

Both master and disciple broke out in a sweat. Jiraiya sighed. "Great Sage, I'm Jiraiya, and this is my disciple, Naruto Uzumaki..."

The Great Toad Sage's wrinkled face showed no change, as if nothing had been said, and he continued, "Naruto... I saw you fighting side by side with the Nine-Tails... Gama Tora..."

He turned to a small, slender, tall toad beside him. "Give Naruto the key to the seal... I saw him unravel that technique. Jiraiya, don't worry... he won't fail..."

Naruto wasn't surprised at all, while Jiraiya quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Time to dig in—"

Naruto grabbed his chopsticks and stabbed downward, but to his surprise, he couldn't lift them... Opening his eyes, he saw the chopsticks pinching Fukasaku's white eyebrow, and Fukasaku was staring at him with a pained expression.

Naruto stared back, fell silent, and finally set the chopsticks down sheepishly. "Good thing you guys hadn't made noodles or anything yet..."

Fukasaku sighed. "I reverse-summoned you for a reason. The Great Toad Sage's latest prophecy about you has come out... Let's go, Jiraiya's already waiting for you there..."

Naruto scratched his head and followed Fukasaku.

Arriving at an open space, Naruto nodded to Jiraiya, Fukasaku, and Shima, then sat cross-legged, forming the hand seal of natural energy.

Still.

Mind at peace.

Soon, natural energy began gathering from the surroundings toward Naruto, and two red eye shadows slowly emerged. At that moment, Naruto's consciousness had already entered that place...

In front of the cage, Naruto in Sage Mode grinned at the Nine-Tails. "It's starting, Kurama!"

The Nine-Tails chuckled. "You're pretty confident..."

Naruto smiled, then slowly grew serious. He extended his right hand flat. Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff—five flames of Chakra flickered at his fingertips, a mass of black Curse Marks spread across his palm, and then he pressed his right hand hard against his stomach.

Crack—

The sealed cage swung wide open!

The Nine-Tails leaped out!

Watching the red Nine-Tails Chakra continuously seep from the seated Naruto, Shima worried, "Could there be a problem? The Demon Fox's ominous chakra is getting thicker..."

Fukasaku frowned deeply, but he trusted the Great Toad Sage's words.

Jiraiya remained silent, staring intently at Naruto, whose half body was already covered in the Demon Fox's chakra. He thought, Kushina's chakra should be coming out soon...

"Mom..." Naruto stared fixedly at the red-haired woman before him. The boy, not even eleven yet, felt his nose sting, and tears spilled from both eyes.

Kushina stroked her son's golden hair, tears welling in her own eyes, and called out with tenderness, "Naruto..."

"Mom!!" Naruto couldn't hold back any longer. He shouted and threw himself into his mother's embrace.

So warm. His mother's arms were even warmer than he remembered.

Tears wouldn't stop.

This must be happiness.

"I saw it all, Mom saw it all... Naruto... you did well..." Kushina comforted her son with a pained heart. She had seen everything he'd been through over the years from inside his body.

She could imagine how lost, scared, and worried her young son must have felt after being struck by that sudden flood of memories—but he got through it. He strengthened his resolve, used those memories to temper his will, and spurred himself forward...

"You're amazing, Naruto... Mom and Dad are sorry..." Kushina's tears fell like rain, her chin resting on top of Naruto's head, her voice thick with guilt.

The son was enduring an unexpected trial of fate, yet she and Minato could do nothing.

Here, she was merely a fragment of Sealing Jutsu Chakra carrying a portion of her consciousness, much like the other fragment of Minato's Sealing Jutsu Chakra inside Naruto—unable to do anything except appear under specific circumstances and fulfill its mission, utterly powerless.

But still, it was good—good that she could see Naruto, could tell him how much they loved him, could tell him how happy they were to be his parents...

The crimson in Naruto's eyes gradually faded, and Chakra chains suddenly burst forth from his back!

"Hmph, here it comes... Kushina..." The Nine-Tails, locked in a tug-of-war with Naruto, had long anticipated this.

Naruto's eyes cleared, and he smiled confidently. "I saw my mom! Kurama! I'm going to defeat you! My mom is watching!"

"Hmph... you little brat, can't win so you call for your mom..." The Nine-Tails said disdainfully, though it had been holding back, intending to help temper Naruto's will.

"Senjutsu: Infinite Massive Rasengan Barrage!"

"Rasenshuriken!"

Naruto followed Fukasaku into the Great Toad Sage's hall.

Jiraiya was already there, and Naruto greeted him naturally. "Yo, Pervy Sage! Hello, Great Toad Sage! Long time no see!"

Seeing Naruto had arrived, the Great Toad Sage began, "I called you here today... um... what were your names again?"

The master and disciple broke out in a cold sweat—history always repeated itself in startling ways.

"Sage, they are the master and disciple pair, Jiraiya and Naruto..." This time, Fukasaku reminded the aged and addled Great Toad Sage on behalf of the awkward pair.

The Great Toad Sage continued, "Right, Naruto... about your prophecy... many have come..."

Jiraiya and Naruto grew serious—the future... must have changed, hadn't it?

"Before long... you will encounter a snake... and a tanuki... though what I saw isn't very clear, it must be the scales of a white snake and the markings of a tanuki..."

The Great Toad Sage's speech was truly halting, making one worry he might breathe his last at any moment:

"In the future... you will also meet a man with powerful dojutsu... later, you and a youth with the same dojutsu will save the world..."

Jiraiya and Naruto exchanged a glance.

"Snake" and "Tanuki"—the master and disciple understood each other well. "A youth with the same dojutsu saving the world" should refer to "Sasuke Uchiha"... but who was this "man with powerful dojutsu"? What man would share the same dojutsu as Sasuke? Could it be "Itachi Uchiha"? Or was the one who would "save the world" alongside Naruto... someone else?!