ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ ʀᴇʙɪʀᴛʜ|ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒˣⁿᵃʳᵘᵏᵒ

A second chance

"It's about time we finished this, once and for all, don't you agree Kurama-nii?" a tall, young man said.

With hair shining as bright as the sun itself, the young man had roguish, spiky blonde hair that was messy and twin bangs that reached his jawline, framing his angular face. His shining azure orbs did nothing to hide his devilishly handsome appearance, and most distinctive of all were his exotic, birthmark-like whisker marks; three on each cheek, making him appear more mature than his age suggested and also more akin to a feline or canine.

He was wearing a battered and torn orange and black jumpsuit which was torn open at the front, exposing a fishnet body suit underneath which did little to hide his toned and well-muscled form. His azure orbs stared ahead, unwavering as he tightened his grip on a kunai knife in his hand.

A deep rumbling voice spoke into the young man's mind.

"I couldn't agree more," the voice said, "Considering what she did to your friends and father."

"I know," the young man replied, sorrow seeping out in waves, "That is why ... it ends here!"

"I have already assimilated the memories from your father," Kurama, the greatest and most fearsome of the Bijū (Tailed Beasts), the Kyūbi no Kitsune, said, "Put them to good use — do not let him down."

"Got it Kurama," the blonde replied, "Uzumaki Naruto never goes back on his word."

"That's the spirit — now kick her ass from here to Sunday."

"That's the plan!"

And the woman in question was suspended in the air, her three cold Dōjutsu enhanced eyes staring at everything before her, her expression blank and emotionless. The Goddess of Destruction, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, truly lived up to her namesake, as the landscape around her resembled an apocalyptic graveyard of gargantuan proportions. Dead shinobi and countless destroyed wildlife littered the scene, multiple craters decorating the land for miles around, and the sky was a dull grey, as if the gods were weeping from the death and destruction. After the traitorous Uchiha Madara sealed the Jūbi into himself, thus inadvertently releasing her, she had been on a rampage ever since.

For countless hours, the remaining shinobi of the battered Alliance who were not under the Infinite Tsukuyomi, slugged it out with the Goddess, but they soon realized that no amount of planning, strategizing, ninjutsu, booby traps, kinjutsu, genjutsu much less taijutsu of any kind could even put a scratch on her, much less kill her outright. Hatake Kakashi had already exhausted his chakra reserves and was recuperating with Haruno Sakura's help, and Uchiha Obito, the traitor-turned-ally was unconscious due to fatigue and severe chakra exhaustion. The reincarnated Hokages, the Shodai, Nidaime, Sandaime and Yondaime were also powerless as seen when the Nidaime's soul was forcibly pulled out of him, turning his body into ash, leaving behind a White Zetsu clone.

Uzumaki Naruto had come a long way since then. He was no longer the dense idiot that everyone knew anymore. After the merging with Asura's potent chakra, his mind had become clearer, and he was finally able to think maturely and rationally for once in his life. He knew this was a losing battle, even with Indra's successor, Uchiha Sasuke's help. He also knew that the only way to win this battle was to forcibly seal the Goddess back to her realm with the strongest fūinjutsu technique ever created, and can only be done in collaboration with Sasuke.

And there was also another reason: his father entrusted him with his own memories, and with that his 'Will of Fire'.

The Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, sacrificed his soul to protect his son when Kaguya tried to come at him from behind, resulting in Minato acting quickly by teleporting to his son and push him out of the way, but not before transferring his memories through the Shindenshin no Jutsu (Mind Transfer Technique) – a technique he learned from Yamanaka Inoichi. With one last tearful smile, Minato faded away like the Nidaime before him.

That was where Naruto found himself now, staring up at the Ōtsutsuki with a hint of hatred in his cerulean eyes.

Hearing footsteps from beside him, Naruto smirked. "Took you long enough, teme."

"Shut up, dobe," Uchiha Sasuke replied with a small smirk. He opened his eyes, revealing a fully matured Sharingan in his right eye and a Rinnegan in his left. "I was just letting you rest. Shouldn't you be thanking me?"

Nodding with a slight scoff, Naruto turned his attention towards the demon in front of him. "Let's do this Sasuke ... one last time." And at that moment his entire body was engulfed in a brilliant yellow light. When it died down, Naruto was standing there with his Rikudō Sennin Mōdo (Six Paths Sage Mode), azure eyes turning bright yellow as he glared at the woman who wanted to kill everyone he held dear. "Are you with me?"

Sasuke just smirked. "Do you even have to ask?" he said as he drew his katana, and they began their final assault.

In a space of a few seconds, Sasuke had already teleported right beside Kaguya and had his left arm extended in a seal, while Naruto appeared on the left with his right arm extended with the same seal. Both of them had almost touched the woman, when suddenly she vanished. Before they even had time to react to her disappearance, she reappeared behind them, palms extended outwards.

"Foolish children," the woman muttered before launching her Ash-Killing Bones from her palms, quickly skewering both men on them. "You stood no chance, from the very beginning."

And with that final parting, she went on her way to kill off the rest of the surviving shinobi.

Naruto couldn't believe it as his body was slowly dissolving into ash. They literally didn't have the time to react, much less defend against her attacks. They were outmaneuvered and outclassed since the start, even with their newfound powers. Tears welled in Naruto's eyes as he cursed silently, cursing himself for being so weak, for being unable to save his friends, for failing his father and mother's wishes.

He felt utterly and completely useless.

As his body slowly cracked and his vision slowly succumbed to darkness, the last thing he saw was Sasuke, lying next to him in a similar state, mouthing "Thank you, brother." to him, before he closed his eyes and let the darkness take over.

Naruto opened his eyes and was expecting to see something akin to flames and eternal suffering ... for failing to save his world from the merciless clutches of Kaguya. But instead he found himself in an ethereal, white plain, where unknown to him, time and space were practically non-existent. The sore feeling of his muscles — long hours of non-stop fighting did that to people — were gone as well as any fatigue he had accumulated. In fact, he finally noticed that he wasn't even breathing!

Naruto sighed as he found the situation he was in to be increasingly confusing and, as Shikamaru would put it, troublesome. He tested his arms and legs, finding out that he could move them which relieved him greatly — he didn't like staying in one place for too long. Although his patience tolerance was increased during his years of training, he still had a shorter fuse than most people and it still irked him greatly if he was kept waiting or couldn't do anything for long periods of time, but he was getting it under control at least.

Or at least trying to...

Pushing himself up to sit, Naruto looked around him to see if there was anything out of the usual white, which he found none. He took a deep breath, even though he couldn't breathe, and spoke out loud, "Hello! Anyone there?!"

The silence was his answer, and he asked again. "Hello! Someone? Anyone?" and was greeted again by the deafening silence.