Obvious context clues are obvious, I guess. You guys are smarter than me, lol. I'm back from another long hiatus (this time due to school starting and financial bs).

Single quotation marks will be used to express thought (if not explicitly stated) from now as per the request of a reader.

Chapter 7: Winds of Change

As one life ended, another began. Free from it's previous impurities and sins, all that was left after the taint was washed away was burgeoning curiosity… and love.

-With Sasuke-

Sasuke wasn't surprised. He had seen Naruto devastated before; had been the cause of it himself. Even over the centuries, knowing what he knew, it had been the hardest thing for the hyperactive knucklehead to just sit idly by.

"You always did want to play the hero" Sasuke spoke softly, turning his eyes back to the rubble that was present. Cleaning this mess up was going to be excruciating if he did it the old-fashioned way, so he decided to "cheat" with his rinnegan powers. Stretching out a hand, he willed one of it's powers to come forth.

"Bansho Tennin" he spoke, and some of the rubble lifted, forming into a sphere of junk and floating directly over his head. Ophis and Lilith looked on, their expressions resembling that of kids in a candy store (which clashed with their current mature and curvaceous bodies).

"Telekinesis?" Ophis asked.

"Something like that" he answered, already knowing where this was going.

"Seems like fun." Ophis shot out her hand (this action being mimicked by Lilith) and the rest of the rubble raised seemingly by itself and coalesced into a sphere similar to the one over Sasuke's head, albeit over Ophis' head this time.

Sasuke was genuinely surprised at this. Normally, anything having to do with ninjutsu completely snared her, prompting her to ask if she could be taught whatever technique had just been used (the fact that she couldn't be taught this technique conventionally not withstanding). It didn't occur to him that she could possibly already possess similar techniques to he and Naruto, as powerful as she was. He'd have to see what else she could do, but how?

A spar, perhaps?

Filing that thought away for later, he turned back to the two masses of floating rubble.

"What now?" Ophis asked. "Shall we destroy it?"

"Obliterate it?" Lilith asked.

"Annihilate it?" Now it was Ophis' turn.

Sasuke felt a small bead of sweat roll down his face in slight exasperation.

"All 3 of those are the same thing" he said. No, he wasn't going to destroy the rubble. He had a better idea.

"You can open portals, right?" he asked the two dragons.

"Yes" both responded.

"Where exactly can you do so to?"

"Anywhere" Ophis replied.

Perfect.

"Alright, that's good. Open a portal into an active volcano and we'll fling all of this in."

"I thought you said we weren't going to destroy it?" Ophis was confused. What difference did this course of action make towards the ultimate outcome?

"I did. We aren't going to destroy it." He smirked. He could be cheeky every now and again if he wanted to.

Ophis, in a rare sign of emotion, puffed her cheeks out slightly like an angry kid. This man was being coy with her, and it prickled her sense of pride (as miraculous as it was that she could say she had one). Was the mature body not enough? What would make him take her seriously?

Perhaps a demonstration of power? Oh, there's a massive amount of training dummies surrounding them as she thought. Perfect. She opened the portal, and the two dumped their garbage in, and turned back around nonchalantly.

Sasuke, having picked up on the sudden mass of presences surrounding them as well, cracked his neck and focused his eyes. Energy signatures sprung up everywhere within his sight, and there seemed to be waves of them. He couldn't see anything resembling chakra, chakra coils, or anything that looked like it gave life to begin with. Whatever was creeping up on them was more akin to a sea of puppets being controlled with strings than flesh-and-blood assassins.

"Come out. We know you're there" he spoke candidly. There wasn't any point in beating around the bush.

Suddenly, a rumbling could be heard coming from the surrounding area. A torrent of creatures came into Sasuke's vision. They were large, almost twice as tall as he himself. They had bodies made of rock and stone, and no discernible faces on what he guessed were their heads. They were, as he had surmised, probably just soulless puppets being controlled by someone else. He knew the workings of a puppet-master when he seen one, having been manipulated like one himself so long ago.

Without warning, the rock creatures shot towards them on all sides, their numbers seeming endless. Sasuke, Ophis, and Lilith stood there composed, not worried in the slightest. The creatures dogpiled on them, burying them under their weight.

"Shinra Tensei."

The creatures were all blown back by an invisible force. Their bodies fell apart, apparently having been poorly constructed. Sasuke stood in the epicenter of what had been the dogpile, completely unscathed along with Ophis and Lilith. His lowered his outstretched hand, the job seemingly finished. Ophis and Lilith turned towards him, stars in their eyes at this new technique.

Sasuke turned towards them, the obvious command (because that's what they were. Ophis never asked question, she made demands) hanging in the air.

"You can't learn this, it's genetic." He felt a bit of guilt looking at the puppy dog eyes that followed, but stood his ground. Everyone's attention was grabbed by the sound of rocks slamming against each other, and the trio turned back around. The rock creatures were putting themselves back together again. Sasuke's mouth formed a frown, annoyed by this discovery.

Regenerating enemies were always a pain in the ass.

He turned towards Ophis and her clone, seeing that they had come to some type of realization.

"Do you know what these things are?"

"Golems" both of them responded. "Soulless creatures that are manipulated by implanting an energy source and controlling their movements remotely. They can't be killed normally." Sasuke took their words at face value, since they seem to have experience regarding this matter.

"Seems like you know an awful lot about these golems. Have you ever made use of them yourself?" This time, only the original Ophis spoke.

"No. I have no interest in beings with such little power. I have, however, been attacked by them before."

Sasuke guessed that she was telling the truth. She didn't seem the type to be able to effectively lie (appearances can be deceiving, he noted), and she often said what she meant bluntly. She didn't take any interest in the fox spirit that Naruto had captured, nor did she pay any attention to anything else but them really. Her knowledge was definitely coming in handy in this situation, so he dropped his suspicions for the time being. He just needed to find out how to kill these golem creatures.

Said creatures rushed them again, throwing lazy haymakers and trying to grab them. Sasuke dodged and weaved through the horde with ease, not even bothering to look to evade the strikes. He turned his head back to the dragon-god twins, gauging how they were in battle. To his surprise, they just stood there and took the blows with nonchalant expressions. 'Not a challenge for them either, huh' he thought. He started speaking to them as he was dodging.

"So, how do we kill these things if they can't die normally?" A golem threw it's fist at his head, which he dodged with a casual craning of his neck to the left.

"There's a spell carved into their forehead that reads 'emet'" Ophis began. She reached up to one of their foreheads, finger poised to flick. "Just remove the 'e' and they'll crumble pitifully, like so." She flicked a chunk of the guinea pig golem's forehead out, and it crumbled. Lilith did the same another offending golem, and it crumbled as well.

"It's that simple?" Sasuke dodged a golem trying to take his feet out from under him. "Where was a glaring weakness like this when we were fighting Madara or Kaguya?" Sighing, Sasuke pulled out his sword and stuck it precisely through the letter on an attacking golem's forehead. The creature predictably crumbled, withering into dust. He ran through the horde, cutting them down with precision.

After about 10 minutes, he had finished off everything that his visual prowess allowed him to see. Ophis and Lilith stood in the same spot they had been for the entire battle, satisfied at having had the chance to annihilate inferior beings after so long.

"That was-"

"Fun" one started and the other finished, returning to their normal speech patterns. Sasuke was impressed. If nothing else, the two had overwhelming durability and power. No fighting style, but that's not really an issue. Naruto wasn't a taijutsu master, but skill is nothing when faced with raw, overwhelming power like his. Sasuke rubbed his chin, remembering all those times Naruto chin-checked him in their last battle all those last years ago.

Naruto hits hard. He could attest to that.

Refocusing back on the topic at hand, he looked back at Ophis.

"Any idea who would send weak foot soldiers like this to attack you?" He needed to see if she had any past enemies. He should've done so already, but he was just going with the flow since they were in a new reality. Now that he had been attacked, however, he couldn't lounge around anymore. His shinobi instincts wouldn't let him.

"No, not to my knowledge" the original Ophis spoke. "I scarcely interact with mortals, and even most immortals I do not associate myself with. Silence is and has always been my goal."

'There she goes talking about silence again' Sasuke thought. Well, whatever. If it wasn't a past enemy, it's likely to be someone trying to take advantage of her or him, or…

Naruto.

-With Naruto-

Naruto currently sat atop a hill, next to the site where he had to (reluctantly and once again) bury someone. He didn't weep or sulk or mope, she had made her choice. He was, however, confused. What was it that drove people to so vehemently reject compassion? He had seen this scenario play out so many times, and each time, it led to the downfall of the person doing the rejecting.

She had even confessed her love for him right before she died.

He beat his fists against his head, searching for an answer. Finding the answer to this question was almost as hard as finding the answer to the questions Nagato posed to him about peace. Harder, actually, as at least those questions could be partially solved with his fists. This one? It was all brain power. No matter what dimension, what person, and what circumstances, it always ended the same way, except for perhaps Sasuke.

"I just don't get it." He put his hand on his chin and adopted the Thinking Man pose. He felt a tug on his mind, and entered his mindscape, coming face to face with 2 of his 9 tenants. The others were probably asleep, he guessed. Kurama usually watched over him while he slept, so him being here was no surprise. The eight tails being present was a shock to him though.

"Do you guys have any answers? I'm kinda at my wits end here" he questioned the entities stored within him. Maybe they had some answers. They were all beings even more ancient than him, with more life experience and a different outlook from his own. As fine a group of consultants as one could have.

"I've never understood the heart of humans, least of all yours, brat" Kurama answered first, surprisingly. "That vixen acted much more human than fox, though."

Naruto scoffed at Kurama's admittance. He already knew that, damnit!

"Perhaps it is not a question of why, but how?" Gyuki, the eight tails spoke next. "What are the circumstances that produce types like that fox, and how can they be prevented?"

Naruto knew the answer to the first half of that question. Circumstances like his. Scorned, cast out, and alone in the world either physically or ideologically. Madara, Obito, and Sasuke all had this inherent loneliness, regret, and hatred in their heart. It drove them to do something, anything to ease their burden. That didn't explain why they all rejected compassion, though, since if anything, others helping them would've fixed the ache in their hearts like it did his.

He simply could not understand from his perspective.

"Maybe it's just because people don't truly understand one another" Kurama blurted out. "The old man always did preach about Ninshu and how chakra was meant to connect people, not harm them. You remember, right? That time the alliance saw your life, your struggles, your triumphs, and everything in-between?"

Naruto thought back. The 4th shinobi world war was indeed probably the highest point of understanding all the ninja of the world had with each other, and he shared his chakra with each and every one of them. How could he forget?

Wait…

"I've got it! Thanks, furball!" Naruto was ecstatic. Kurama was right. How could he forget about what the sage taught him? Chakra was the meeting point between everything in his home dimension, and he himself could spread his own. He didn't exactly want to save the world if he didn't have to (all that "child of prophecy" stuff was kinda just thrust on him back home), but if he could spread ninshu, he could prevent a lot of conflict.

A lot of pain

A lot of death.

He'd finally found a purpose.

He came out of his mindscape (Kurama's booming voice complaining about the furball comment) and turned to Tamamo-No-Mae's grave. A simple headstone that he had created was all that lay there, motionless as the rest of the hill. It reminded him a bit of Zabuza's grave in aesthetic, just without the overly large meat cleaver he called a sword. He cracked a somber smile. He didn't know her all that well, but he knew that the pain she was no doubt experiencing was over now.

His smile dropped as fast as it came.

"If you're gonna try to sneak up on someone, maybe you should hide all that malice" Naruto called out to his presumed observer. Just before he had left his mindscape, Kurama warned him of someone with egregious amounts of negative emotions that had been watching him for the past few minutes. Naruto had a hunch that he was being watched, but having Kurama confirm it was what made the possibility into a certainty.

"Oh, your instincts are good, venerable one~" A voice with a singsong quality came out of the shadows. A man who looked to be middle-aged emerged. He had long, silver hair and complementing hazel eyes. He had a beard and wore regal-looking clothes that Naruto found just a bit tacky.

"I don't know who you are, but I'd rather not be sucked into any trouble right now. I'm not in the mood." Naruto flexed his chakra to make a point, and the mystery man broke out in a cold sweat but maintained the obviously fake grin he had plastered on his face.

"Oh no no no, no trouble, I promise." Naruto didn't believe him. "I was just taking a stroll through this land and thought I'd do a little investigation into the powers I felt flaring. A young man like me has a knack for exploration, ya know?" Naruto almost scoffed at his mom's verbal tic coming out of this man's mouth.

It felt so wrong.

"Whatever. As long as you're not acting on any of those gruesome thoughts going through your head, I won't kick your teeth in… yet." Naruto didn't make idle threats.

"Who, me? Nooooooooo, I would never. I'm merely a scholar seeking answers, just like you. That grave beside you, for instance. I wonder what's buried there? How did it die? What type of powers did it possess in life?"

Naruto sighed.

'Great, another necrophiliac.' He lamented that people enjoyed playing with and disrespecting the dead so much everywhere he went. Kabuto, Orochimaru, even that Tobirama guy had apparently used edo tensei. Now this creepy old guy was marveling at the tombstone of a dead fox. He looked at her gravestone one more time.

Then he charged the man, rasengan in hand. His attack landed, drilling the unknown man's body through the epicenter of a nearby tree. He looked at the body on the ground, his hunch proven correct. Mad scientist types like this were the most dangerous exactly because they never showed their hands first. The body proved it.

"Just a puppet" Naruto said out loud. The body had deformed into an amalgamation of clay and earth, dissolving into dust as time went by. Naruto stretched, feeling the weight of today's events baring down on him. Life was stressful, but what could he do? Shinobi are ones who endure.

"Asura!" A portal opened up next to him. Out stepped Sasuke and the Ophis twins.

"Did someone attack you?" Sasuke queried. If he and Ophis had been attacked, it's not out of the realm of possibility for Naruto to have been attacked as well. In fact, it was the most likely outcome, given the situation.

"Not really attacked", Naruto started, "more like just annoyed. Some creepy old guy who turned out to just be a puppet body showed up and started asking questions." Puppets, huh? Sasuke was sure now that their incidents were connected. Someone had been keeping tabs on them, as hard as they tried to lay low, and had enacted part of their plan today. Who? He didn't know, but now that the cat was out of the bag, they'd have to be much more diligent.

"We should probably tell the sun goddess what happened here." Sasuke took his turn to speak. "It could have major implications, and we don't want to reach any kind of trust she might have in us. The more allies, the better." Naruto was silent for a while, obviously thinking of something, so Sasuke let the comment hang. After a few seconds, Naruto responded.

"Sure. I've got something I want to tell her myself."

Sasuke was intrigued. When he found out what it was, he was genuinely floored for the first time in centuries. Who would've thought the dead last in their class would have such thoughts?

-Abandoned Shrine-

"She did say we could contact her like this, right?" Naruto questioned. He didn't remember the exact details, but he knew they were supposed to come to a shrine. He cursed his short attention span and brain capacity, having not absorbed all of the information. The only thing he remembered in perfect clarity was exactly this. Remembering stuff was Sasuke's job, after all.

Sasuke almost facepalmed.

"What do you do in a shrine, idiot?"

"… Pray?"

"Exactly."

Naruto's face scrunched up. He had heard about prayer, but never really indulged in it. He made his dreams come true by working hard at them, so sending requests up to a deity had never crossed his mind. There was that one psychopath Shikamaru told him about that was in some insane cult. Hidan, he thinks the name was? Nevertheless, if he wanted to talk to granny sunshine, he'd need to do so.

The two shinobi clasped their hands together in silent prayer as the Ophis twins stood by and watched. A few minutes passed by with nothing happening. Naruto started to grow a tick mark on his forehead. Even as an immortal, something taking too much time irked him. He was a man of action, not patience.

Just as he was about to blurt out a random obscenity, a beam of light came down and focused itself just in front of the altar. Down from the heavens above, Amaterasu descended, her radiance illuminating the entire shrine. Day had transitioned to night, so the effects of her divinity were more pronounced than usual. Still, this place was secure.

They had made sure of it.

"Granny Sunshine! I was beginning to think you'd never show up!" Naruto blurted out his own personal nickname for her without a second thought.

Amaterasu was very taken aback. She'd never get used to that nickname.

'I suppose he is just excited to see me' she thought. She needed to get to the bottom of why they had called her here, though, so no more beating around the bush.

"It's nice to see you both as well, Indra-san, Asura-san. What made you call upon me?" Normally, these two were fine if they were left alone. It had been that way for months. Something apparently did crop up just recently, though. Two lords and their vassals participating in a small-scale skirmish for some unknown reason.

Were these two at the heart of that?

"Yes, we were involved in that conflict earlier today, if you were wondering" Sasuke answered, almost seeming as if he could read her mind. She turned towards him, not too surprised at this revelation. She noticed one missing piece of the puzzle, though. That vile yokai was not at their side. Had Asura ordered her to stay home?

Or perhaps…

"That's interesting, Indra-san. Would I be wrong to assume that it was the fox's doing?" She let the comment hang, watching Asura for any type of reaction. To her surprise, neither of the two budged. Asura was as unflinching as he was when she first met him.

"Your assumption would be correct." Sasuke saw no point in beating around the bush as always. "Tamamo-No-Mae was the cause of the incident earlier. She charmed two leaders into a fight over her hand, and the subsequent battle that took place ravaged the area." Amaterasu was slightly miffed that she was still able to cause trouble after she forced her into servitude. Asura must have given her too much freedom.

"And? What became of her?"

"She died" Sasuke responded simply. Naruto flinched ever so slightly. Amaterasu did not notice it. The expression on the goddess' face betrayed no intense emotion, but inside, she was secretly relieved. No longer would that heathen terrify her children and her land. No longer would she wreak havoc and disrespect her authority.

Yes, this was good news.

"Ara, a casualty of war I suppose." Sasuke could almost taste the smug aura rolling off her, but didn't say anything about it. Naruto took his turn to speak.

"Yeah, but that's not all, Granny Sunshine." His face had become that of a diplomat again, hardening and focusing. "There was another force at work here. Someone that was able to keep tabs on us without us noticing these last few months. He approached me, and attacked Indra with golems."

The goddess' face soon fell, a frown marring her beautiful features. Was there more trouble afoot?

"This guy, he's dangerous. I can tell. He approached me through a puppet, but it still reeked of negative emotions and had this menacing aura about it. His intent to harm is real." Naruto punctuated his sentence by putting emphasis on the last word. He hadn't felt such deep-seated malice since facing down Kurama in his mindscape for the first time.

"Your home could be in danger." Naruto's words caused Amaterasu to adopt a stern expression that looked alien adorning her features. Her pupils turned into what appeared to be miniature suns. Naruto was inwardly a bit happy. Anyone with such fierce devotion to their home couldn't be evil.

"Tell me everything you know" she almost commanded.

"There's not much, really" Naruto started. "He's average height with grayish-silver hair, an evil-looking goatee, hazel eyes, and tacky regal wear. That's how his puppet looked, at least." If the matter at hand wasn't so dire, she would've laughed. Alas, it was dire, so she kept up her stern look. Realization dawned on her face as the description he gave matched one individual she had had the misfortune of encountering once upon a time.

"Rizevim" she blurted out with venom. The son of the Morning Star, and the most nefarious individual she had ever met. She thought that she had banished him from her lands for good, but apparently, he was back up to his old schemes again. The brat was so obsessed with power and being evil for evils sake. She'd need to be much more hawk-eyed now.

"You know this person?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded affirmatively, wanting an answer as well.

"Intimately. He's one of the vilest creatures in all of creation. If I had to choose between resurrecting that fox, and letting him run free, I would bring her back every time."

"Wow. He sounds like a real handful, Granny Sunshine."

"You don't know the half of it." She didn't comment on her nickname if she had noticed it. Now that this was the situation they were in, she figured that she'd make her move. She had fostered good will with these two and let them stow away in her territory. They in turn hadn't done anything malicious or taken advantage of her. They even kept the Ouroboros Dragon under control.

It was now or never.

"Thank you two for coming to me with this. It's very reassuring to have two extra pairs of eyes and capable warriors looking out for my land. In fact, I'd like to extend a proposal to you both. How would you two like to become integrated into my pantheon?' She had lain her motives bare, now all she had to do was wait for their answer.

To say that they hadn't been expecting this would be a lie. Naruto and Sasuke were no fools. As kind as she was, they knew she gained something from having them around. There were very few beings in existence that did things on a whim and without expecting any remuneration. They themselves fell into this category with what they were about to request.

"About that…" Sasuke began. "I'd like to make my wish now, if you don't mind." Amaterasu had almost forgotten about that, but a promise is a promise. If it gets her closer to officially inducting them, she wouldn't hesitate.

"Yes, you did have a wish you could ask of me, didn't you, Indra-san? Speak it. I will accommodate you if it is within my power." She turned towards Sasuke, fully expecting his wish to be material in nature. Fortune? Land? Status?

"I want you to answer the question Asura is about to ask you truthfully." He turned towards Naruto, nodding his head and letting him have the floor. Amaterasu was puzzled by this. Using one's wish on such a simple thing for another. She would've already answered any questions they had as long as they weren't too sensitive, like her weaknesses. Nonetheless, she turned towards the other shinobi.

"What is it you want to know, Asura-san?"

"I've been thinking about a lot of things recently" he started off. "Pain, conflict, death, there's gotta be a way to prevent at least some of it, right?" Naruto knew this was going against one of his core values. Shinobi are those who endure, or so it was said. He was tired of enduring, though, and watching others endure.

"That's why, Granny Sunshine, I want you to tell me how to start a religion."

This chapter took me three days to revise the way I wanted. It's a bit longer than usual, so it used up all of my stamina (staring at a computer screen for hours isn't as easy as it used to be). Hope you all enjoy and leave feedback in the reviews!