Sage's Resurrection

Chapter I

Thoughts/ flashbacks

Normal speech/ jutsu/ whatever

Naruto Uzumaki hated to spend nights alone. And now, he was forced to do so once again. Outcast and ostracized by those that lost their loved ones during a catastrophic disaster known and dubbed by the public as the Nine-tails attack.

 This attack caused over 1000 shinobi deaths, with over 7000 civilian casualties, with damage repairs costing up into the millions of ryo. 

 Naruto was going to spend another night alone. He looked on as everyone turned away from him, as people spit on him, insulted him. While he didn't show it, he was hurt by what they said and how they interacted with him. It truly pained him that they didn't even consider him worthy of even a glance. He knew that his pranks wouldn't do anything good for him, so he just kept his head down and tried to let all of the pain and loneliness wash past him. And even if he had a bright and cheerful facade, that was what it was - a facade.

A deep voice boomed across his mind. "You're especially miserable today."

Naruto and the nine tails were friends. They met when Naruto received a beating from a shinobi who lost his whole family to the fox over a year ago. It took just over a year, and many tense moments, but the nine tails finally told him the truth about not only the night of Naruto's birth, but also his name, given to him by the Sage of Six Paths: Kurama.

 Naruto, with this information, trusted the nine-tails enough to also partially release the seal that held him in place, allowing Kurama to exit and re-enter the seal, although at a much smaller size, no bigger than an average fox. The Hokage, the leader, also knew the first half of this information, courtesy of Naruto himself.

Naruto was bored, and while he was ruminating, he wandered about the training grounds. Knowing that the worst thing that could happen is that he finds something that he isn't supposed to, and with that he ventured into training ground 44.

 While Naruto was wandering about the forest, he heard a voice whispering, calling to him. Curious as to who or what it was, he followed the voice, into a cave where a sword was sheathed on a stand, within an indentation in the wall. This sword was styled like a katana, 80 centimeters long, with a black pommel, a black and red handle, made out of solid steel, with a sheath that seemed to glow in the dark cave. Compelled to take the sword, he approached it, and fell over.

 He found himself within the sewer that some called a mindscape. Water reached his ankles and the walls were made out of a cold, stained concrete. Naruto ran towards Kurama's cage. Under normal circumstances, the bars reached 100 meters tall, and reached far enough so Naruto was never able to see to the back. Notable memories lined across the walls like tablets. Kurama sat there, stunned. Moss grew out of- wait. That wasn't normal. As far as he knew, his seal was designed to reflect the state of the user's mind. Naruto's personal mindscape reflected what he felt at the moment, and he had no idea what moss in his unconscious plane was supposed to mean.

"Hello child." The person greeted Naruto with a small smile. With brown, wispy hair, a black shakujo, and a white yukata, black tomoe lining the collar, he motioned for Naruto to talk.

"Um, Hello there, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, what's yours? How are you here?" Naruto inquired further. "Why are you here?"

"I am the Sage of Six Paths. I am the one who brought peace and order to the world. You may know me as the forefather of all shinobi, but call me Hagoromo. As for why I am here, you are near one of my sacred weapons, and you are the only one who I have found to be worthy of potentially being my successor. Does that answer your question, young Naruto?"

Naruto, listening to all of this, was extremely dumbfounded and was now at a loss for words. The sage was a household name among those in ninja villages like the leaf or the stone, known through fairy tales, how he defeated the ten-tails, a calamitic beast even stronger than the nine-tails, bringing peace to the world, wielding the strongest eyes the world had ever seen, the rinnegan, even something as crazy as creating the nine tailed beasts. There was a saying that all myths have some basis in truth, and the tale of the sage was apparently no different, but to meet him in person was absolutely improbable.