LETTERS FROM THE DEAD
Underlined - English
‘Italicised’ - Thoughts
In Text Bolded - Tailed Beast
NARA SHIKAMARU
Dear Stag, Ruto, Kakashi-nii, and Sasuke,
I hoped that you would never read this. If you did … then that would mean that everything I have ever done was for nothing, because I died. I couldn’t save us all, and that was always what I wanted. Always.
When you finish reading this, please keep that in mind. From the first moment I knew you - really knew you - I realized that I couldn’t let history run its course. I couldn’t let sleeping dogs lie and allow fate to have its way. No matter how arrogant I was to think I could change anything.
From the moment I was aware of myself I knew I was different. There was no Auntie. No tribe. No anything. My name isn’t even Noa, as much as I wish I was the girl I told you I was.
Reincarnation is real, apparently.
English is a language of a different time. The life you all live is one put down in books as stories lost to time. I knew how the story was to end. From the moment I met you, Ruto, in the Red Light District all those years ago, I knew how you all would live, love, and die.
And the story had a happy ending, in a roundabout way. And I may have destroyed that by interfering. That’s why I wrote this. Because if I die before I can fix everything - ensure that you all get the happily ever after that you deserve - then this will have to be your guide to finish the job, as you would’ve had I never existed.
The job to save the world.
I hope you can forgive me. It’s a small penance, but everything I remember with as much of it verified as I can and strategies to use and adapt … it’s the best I can do.
All my love, and may I not disgrace the love you gave me,
Tsubasa Noa, Clan Head and Apprentice to the Godaime Hokage Senju Tsunade-hime
Noa of Konoha, Student to Maito Gai and Hatake Kakashi
Noa of the Nomads - Sister to Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, Friend to Nara Shikamaru
Hisoka the Demon Child - Disgrace of the Tsubasa Clan
Tsubasa Hisoka - Heir to the Tsubasa Clan
Shikamaru swallowed roughly at the decoded translation of the first passage of the first book. There were three total … and this was what she had been hiding. Always hiding.
He picked up his pen again, bearing down on the page again.
… the Uchiha Massacre was orchestrated by …
… the leader of the Akatsuki is a man using the name Pein, however he’s actually …
… Hashirama and Madara were the best of friends (and I’d wager lovers, too) …
… Kakashi, I’m sorry. Uchiha Obito never died. Zetsu saved him at the last moment…
… Orochimaru is actually less of a problem than Kabuto is in the upcoming war …
… Kurama is actually rather helpful, especially as he teaches Ruto the Bijuu Ball …
… Sorry not sorry Shika. Temari is amazing, and I’m dead now so maybe you can …
… Hidan kills Asuma. Don’t worry, I have a plan for that. The seal he makes ...
… Zetsu can use Mokuton, but the real problem is the mimicry ability of the clones …
… not the only reincarnations after all, Sasuke, Ruto. You two both have the spirits of …
… Obito is doing this all for Rin, and in a way for Kakashi …
… Be wary. Danzo can and will ...
… cycle of hatred …
… Fourth Shinobi War …
… United Shinobi Forces …
… Sakura …
… Shikaku dies …
… Eye of the Moon Plan …
… Eternal Genjutsu …
… I’m sorry …
The Nara heir placed down his pen. Closed the back cover of the third and final book. Looked at his notes.
“Holy actual fuck.”
THE MAN WITH NO NAME
The barrier was effective. It would’ve kept anyone else out.
Unluckily for the woman before him, he was Uchiha Madara and Tobi of the Akatsuki and (once, long ago) Uchiha Obito - so he wasn’t just anyone else.
Passing through the pocket dimension to enter was simple. Child’s play, even, for a shinobi of his caliber.
Hidan and Kakuzu, the supposed immortals, were both dead. Finally, the world was free of their stench. Rin would’ve hated them, with their callous disregard for what was right. What was fair.
And this was all for Rin, after all.
The girl on the ground kind of reminded him (whoever he himself was, these days) of Rin. Small, compact, and dangerous - a medic, too. Who Rin would’ve grown up to become or teach if Bakakashi hadn’t -
She was curled in on herself, back pressed against the barrier linked to her heartbeat as her breathing slowly grew more and more shallow.
He reached down silently, chakra mased, and placed a hand on her chest. Watched her breathe.
And he plunged his hand through her ribcage, phasing her heart out of her chest.
He waits. The barrier flickers and falls. He pulls her heart back into the right dimension.
The sudden shift changes something, though, and she is coughing, fighting back into awareness.
Can’t have that.
The Uchiha leans town and peels back an eyelid, an unfocused pupil and bloodshot red eye greeting him. His Sharingan comes to life and he coaxes her back down, layering sheets of relaxation, peace, and satisfaction under piles of exhaustion and sleep. He was an Uchiha, and genjutsu was in his blood; after all, he was trained by the best.
The best way to hold a prisoner is to make sure they never realize they are even being held. Enough layers and she won’t wake up to know she isn’t free. Enough incentives to stay in her own head and she won’t even bother to escape.
He scoops her up, cradling her small but muscled form. Her silver hair (so much like an arrogant boy he once knew) falls over his arms and shoulders, and if he ever smiled these days he might’ve at the sight she made as she sighed in her fabricated reality - at peace, even if it wasn’t real.
‘Peace is an illusion anyway. This was the plan, after all.’
And with that final though he slipped into the night.
HATAKE KAKASHI
“Kakashi!”
I turn from talking to Genma to see Shikamaru running towards me. That alone is enough to set off all kinds of alarms, because Nara. Don’t. Run.
But the look on his face.
“I need you, now,” The young jounin hisses, eyes flickering warily around. “Now, now.”
I only have time to nod a quick goodbye to a startled Genma before Shikamaru’s hand is around my bicep, sushining us away at high speed until we end up in Noa’s old apartment, boarded up and sealed to high hell.
“Read this,” He demands, shoving a pile of papers snapped together with a rubber band at me. “Sharingan. Now.”
I do.
I have to stop halfway through ... Sensei, Obito -
I force myself to finish. It takes less than five minutes burning chakra, and I burn it all right. Shikamaru paces nervously the whole time.
I think I’m going into shock.
“Find Sasuke and Naruto,” I order him, already scrambling for some idea of how the hell I was going to explain this all to the Hokage.
‘TOBI’
“Leader-samaaaaaa~~!” ‘Tobi’ laughed, appearing in the middle of the Mountain’s Graveyard with the silver haired woman still in his arms. “Look who I found! Look who I found!”
Pein and Konan look up from their pile of paperwork, tensing at his arrival. “Look! She was next to Hidan and Kakuzu’s dead bodies! Can we keep her? Can we keep her?!”
Immediately Konan is up, slipping over to look at the woman in question, a scowl on her face. Hidan and Kakuzu weren’t their - Pein and Konan’s - friends, but they were mercenaries under their command. Their numbers were dropping rapidly, and it wasn’t looking good and she knew it.
“This is the Fukushuu no Megami?” Pein asked in his deep, deep voice. “She’s the one whose been killing off our men?”
“But Leader-sama, she only killed Kisame ‘n Itachi ‘n Orochimaru ‘n Hidan ‘n Kakuzu!” Tobi corrected him with his bubbly persona. “Sasori ‘n Deidara are dead cuz of the Kyuuubi~!”
“Yes, we know, Tobi,” Konan attempts to shut him down. “But that’s four of our own and one of our former members dead because of her. How did you even capture her?”
“Oh, Tobi saw her asleep inside a bubble,” He informed her joyfully. “There was Hidan’s Scythe and Kakuzu’s coat and lots of fire, so I went in the bubble to investigate. And she was all asleep, so I put a genjutsu on her! Can we keep her? Please?”
The two of them share hesitant looks (well, Konan was hesitant. Pein had a poker face to rival Madara’s). “Well,” Konan finally relents. “Better for her to be locked up here than killing us out there.”
“Keep her unconscious,” Pein finally orders, eyes on the woman’s still form. “Do whatever you need to to make sure she doesn’t get out.”
“Hai, Leader-sama!” He shrugged a shoulder in place of a salute, skipping off into the deeper halls of the base.
SENJU TSUNADE
Shikaku and I are in the middle of a meeting about this Fukushuu no Megami when Team 7 and the Nara brat burst in like Orochimaru’s snakes are on their tail.
When they finished their garbled half-explanation and papers of evidence are passed around, and I feel like punching everyone in the room and drinking until my blood turns into sake.
‘Sensei, why couldn’t you have shoved this onto Jiraiya?’
“What haven’t we addressed?” I finally grit out, giving up and breaking into my emergency-emergency stash. I should’ve known better than to trust my winning triple rollover lottery ticket. “Half this shit we’ve already dealt with.”
“Akatsuki and - and Obtio,” Kakashi starts, form weary. “Kaguya and Zetsu.”
“Pein and Konan,” Sasuke adds, holding himself stiffly. “The Fourth War.”
“Oh, so just the biggest shit shows on the table then,” I laugh out bitterly. “How much of Akatsuki is still even alive?”
“Pein and Nagato and Obito,” Naruto supplies, eyebrows furrowed.
“And then Hidan and Kakuzu, if this Fukushuu hasn’t killed them too, yet.” Shikaku adds, clearly feeling his years. “She seems to have a fondness for that - plus pyrotechnics, barrier seals, and destructive taijutsu.”
The room freezes.
“You’re fucking kidding me,” Kakashi hisses, visable eye flared wide. “She never does anything by half does she?”
“Oh, can’t save the world through the village?” Sasuke asks rhetorically, mimicking Noa’s higher voice and accent. “Guess I’ll just have to become the most feared and dangerous bounty in the Bingo Book since the Yellow Flash - you know, Naruto’s dad? The Yondaime Hokage?”
“Kabuto isn’t dead yet?” Naruto continued on in the same vein. “Oh, I’ll just burn Oto to the ground and face a Sannin while I’m at it. I’m sure that killing the most notorious missing nin in the Nations won’t be a big deal, at all! Oh, what could happen?”
“I need an apprentice that won’t give me heart attacks,” I tell Shikaku dryly, gesturing vaguely at the door. “Put in an order. Must be easy, grab Haruno - apparently she was to be the Neo-me in an alternate timeline, so she should be up to par.”
“This entire situation is insane,” Sasuke hisses, composure shattered as he scans the room, the ANBU in him automatically looking for a way out. “What the hell do we even do now?”
“Oh, sorry wasn’t it obvious?” Naruto cuts him off, grinning at him. “Noa’s hunting down Akatsuki. If we finish the job for her, then she’ll have to come back.”
I collapsed in my chair, letting my head drop to my desk as an impromptu counsel to prevent a war we didn’t even know was coming from killing us all with the moon.
God I needed a drink. A proper one.