What If Hagoromo Reversed Time and Chose Naruto as His First Son?

# What If Hagoromo Reversed Time and Chose Naruto as His First Son?

## CHAPTER 1: THE SAGE'S REGRET

The ancient temple atop Mount Myoboku groaned under the weight of a millennium's memories. Moonlight sliced through crumbling stone pillars, casting long shadows across the weathered floor where Hagoromo Otsutsuki sat cross-legged, his once-mighty frame now hunched with age. The Sage of Six Paths—creator of ninjutsu, savior of humanity, father of shinobi—had become little more than a husk of chakra and regret.

A violent coughing fit wracked his body. Specks of blood splattered against the stone floor, glimmering like rubies in the moonlight.

"So, it comes to this," he wheezed, his ringed Rinnegan eyes dimming as he raised a wrinkled hand to examine it. Power that once shaped continents now trembled with the effort of simply staying aloft. "A thousand years of watching my sons' hatred poison generation after generation."

The chakra surrounding him pulsed erratically—purple, blue, gold—as if responding to his turbulent emotions. Within his inner sanctum, spectral images flickered across weathered scrolls: villages burning, children crying, shinobi locked in eternal combat. A never-ending cycle of vengeance, each whisper of peace inevitably drowned by screams of war.

"Was it arrogance?" Hagoromo's voice echoed against ancient stones. "To believe I could entrust the future to Asura alone, while casting Indra aside?"

Behind him, nine massive stone statues—representations of the Tailed Beasts he'd created—seemed to watch silently, their carved eyes holding judgment he couldn't bear to face.

"Speak, if you wish to condemn me," he addressed them, a hint of his former authority cracking through his fragile voice. "I who split the Ten-Tails and created you, only to watch you become weapons in human hands."

Only silence answered him. The whisper of wind through cracks in the temple walls carried echoes of distant battles—his legacy of failure.

With trembling hands, Hagoromo unrolled an ancient scroll bearing symbols that predated even his own birth. Characters so forbidden that merely reading them caused the air to thicken with warning. His mother Kaguya had once mentioned this technique in passing—a way to fold time itself, to undo what had been done.

"The Eye of Rebirth," he murmured, tracing the complex seals with a finger that left traces of glowing chakra in its wake. "A technique even I feared to contemplate... until now."

The old sage closed his eyes, diving deep into the currents of time and possibility. His consciousness expanded beyond the confines of his failing body, beyond the temple, beyond the world itself. The vast cosmos of probability stretched before him—infinite paths, countless realities.

"I seek one thread," he whispered into the void. "One possibility."

His mind surged forward through centuries yet to come, past generations of hatred, through endless wars and brief, fragile peacetimes. Then—a flash of brilliant yellow chakra caught his attention. A boy with sun-bright hair and ocean-deep eyes, bearing whisker marks on his cheeks and an indomitable will that burned like a star gone supernova.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Hagoromo breathed, watching as this future child—Asura's distant reincarnation—fought with a spirit that transcended mere power. The boy who would eventually unite all that had been divided, who would see beyond hatred to the possibility of true peace.

"Not as my successor's reincarnation," Hagoromo decided, his voice stronger now as certainty filled him. "But as my first son. Not Indra, but Naruto."

The forbidden scroll began to smoke beneath his fingers as he channeled the last vestiges of his immense chakra into the arcane patterns. The nine stone statues behind him cracked, their eyes glowing as they sensed the disturbance in the natural order.

"**Six Paths — Temporal Rebirth Jutsu!**"

The words exploded from him with thunderous force. Blood streamed from his eyes and mouth as reality itself began to bend around him. The temple walls fractured, stone pillars twisting like taffy as time and space protested the violation of their most sacred laws.

"I offer all that remains of my life force," Hagoromo declared, his body beginning to dissolve into pure chakra. "I offer my eyes, my blood, my very existence—to rewrite what once was!"

The universe screamed. Stars blinked out and reappeared in different configurations. Mountains crumbled and reformed. Oceans swallowed continents and then receded again. And through it all, Hagoromo held the image of that bright-eyed boy in his mind, threading his essence backward through time, altering the very fabric of creation.

"Naruto," he called through the chaos as his physical form disintegrated entirely. "My son."

And then—silence.

* * *

Cherry blossoms swirled on a gentle breeze as Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths, stood tall and vital beneath a cloudless sky. His ringed eyes widened in momentary confusion as he looked down at hands unmarked by age, at the vibrant purple robes adorning his powerful frame.

"It worked," he whispered, awe coloring his voice as memories of a timeline that no longer existed settled alongside new ones. Two sets of history now occupied his mind—what had been, and what now was.

"My lord!" A young acolyte came running up the path, face flushed with excitement. "Lady Kaguya's labor has begun! The midwives say the child comes quickly!"

Hagoromo's heart leapt in his chest. "Take me to her."

The sage's long strides ate up the distance to the birthing chamber where Kaguya—not yet the Rabbit Goddess, not yet corrupted by power and fear—lay amid silken cushions. Her long white hair splayed around her like moonlight made solid, her normally pale face flushed with effort.

"Hagoromo," she gasped, reaching for his hand. No third eye marred her forehead yet; this was Kaguya as she had once been—fierce, proud, but not yet consumed by darkness. "Our son is eager to meet the world."

He knelt beside her, squeezing her hand gently as the midwives bustled around them. "Our son," he repeated, the words carrying weight she couldn't possibly understand.

A final push, a moment of suspended breath—and then a cry split the air, high and defiant.

"A healthy boy, my lord!" The eldest midwife announced, her weathered hands cradling a small bundle wrapped in cloth-of-gold. "Strong lungs, this one has."

When the woman placed the infant in Hagoromo's arms, time seemed to still. The baby's shock of bright yellow hair—so unlike either parent's—stuck up in unruly tufts. But it was the six whisker-like marks, three on each chubby cheek, that made the Sage's breath catch.

"Naruto," he whispered, the name falling from his lips unbidden.

The baby's eyes—startlingly blue and alert—locked onto his father's ringed Rinnegan. For a heartbeat, Hagoromo could have sworn he saw recognition there, as if some essence of the future had carried backward with his jutsu.

"Naruto?" Kaguya repeated, propping herself up weakly on her elbows. "It is an unusual name... but fitting." She reached out to stroke the infant's bright hair. "He will bring maelstroms of change to this world."

"Yes," Hagoromo agreed, cradling his son—who was never supposed to be his son, who would now rewrite history by his very existence. "He already has."

Outside the birthing chamber, cherry blossoms continued their dance on the wind, unaware that the universe had fractured and reborn itself. Unaware that the crying infant with whisker marks had been summoned across time itself to prevent a future that would now never come to pass.

As if sensing the weight of his destiny, baby Naruto's cries quieted, and his tiny fingers wrapped around his father's thumb with surprising strength.

"Welcome to the world, my son," Hagoromo whispered. "Together, we will create a different path."

# What If Hagoromo Reversed Time and Chose Naruto as His First Son?

## CHAPTER 2: HEIR TO SIX PATHS

Morning sunlight fractured through ancient cedar branches, casting dappled shadows across the training grounds where ten-year-old Naruto stood—eyes closed, whisker-marked face scrunched in concentration. Sweat beaded on his brow, trickling down his temples as chakra pulsed around him in visible waves of blue-gold energy.

"Focus, Naruto." Hagoromo's deep voice carried across the clearing. "Not with force, but with harmony."

The Sage of Six Paths sat cross-legged atop a moss-covered boulder, his ringed Rinnegan eyes tracking every fluctuation in his son's chakra signature. Ten years had passed since he'd rewritten time itself, and every day brought new confirmation that his gamble had been worth the sacrifice.

With a sharp inhale, Naruto thrust both palms forward. The air shimmered, distorted, then cracked open as raw chakra coalesced into a perfect sphere—a Rasengan without the need for shadow clones, spinning so rapidly it hummed like a swarm of angry hornets.

"Yes!" Naruto's eyes snapped open, brilliant blue irises practically glowing with excitement. "Look at this one, Father! It's stable!"

The sphere wobbled slightly at his outburst but didn't dissipate—a testament to the boy's extraordinary control.

Hagoromo's lips twitched upward beneath his neatly-trimmed beard. "Impressive. Most shinobi twice your age couldn't maintain such complex chakra manipulation."

Naruto's grin widened, revealing teeth that seemed too bright against his sun-kissed skin. The compliment sent him bouncing on the balls of his feet, Rasengan still whirling perfectly in his palm.

"Do you think I could add nature transformation next? Maybe wind? Or—" His words tumbled out in a rush that matched his exuberant chakra.

A twig snapped at the edge of the clearing.

The Rasengan vanished as Naruto's attention shifted, his heightened senses immediately pinpointing the source. "Tetsuo! Come out! I know you're spying again!"

Silence answered for three heartbeats, then branches parted to reveal a boy of nine, his entrance as dramatic as it was reluctant. Tetsuo Otsutsuki moved with a fluid grace that contrasted sharply with his older brother's boundless energy. Where Naruto was sun-bright and open, Tetsuo was midnight and shadow—raven-black hair framing a face that already carried the sharp angles of adolescence, eyes dark as obsidian but occasionally flashing with hints of crimson when emotions ran high.

"Spying implies I care what you're doing," Tetsuo said, voice cool as he stepped into the clearing. "I was merely observing proper technique, since you so rarely display it."

Naruto's laugh burst from him like summer thunder—sudden, powerful, and without malice. "Says the guy hiding in bushes! Come on, let's spar! Father can judge who's got better technique."

Hagoromo's expression remained serene, but his eyes tracked the interaction with careful assessment. In the original timeline, such rivalry between Indra and Asura had sown seeds of resentment that flowered into generations of hatred. Here, he observed something different—competition without contempt, challenge without cruelty.

"Perhaps another time," the Sage interjected, rising from his perch with fluid grace that belied his massive frame. "Naruto, there's something I wish to show you today. Tetsuo, you're welcome to join us if you'd like."

The younger brother's face remained impassive, but something hungry flickered in his dark gaze. "What will you be teaching?"

"Not teaching," Hagoromo corrected gently. "Introducing."

He led his sons through the dense forest surrounding their mountain sanctuary, the path winding ever upward. Naruto bounded ahead, occasionally stopping to examine interesting insects or strange-colored fungi before racing back to his family's side with observations and questions. Tetsuo moved with deliberate precision, memorizing every landmark, analyzing every potential tactical advantage the terrain offered.

They emerged onto a plateau overlooking valleys that stretched to the horizon—forests and rivers and distant settlements all laid out like a living map. Hagoromo gestured for his sons to sit on stone benches worn smooth by centuries of meditation.

"Close your eyes," he instructed. "Extend your senses beyond your physical form."

Tetsuo obeyed instantly, his posture perfect. Naruto fidgeted, crossed his legs, uncrossed them, then finally settled with an exaggerated sigh.

"Now," Hagoromo continued, "feel the chakra of every living thing around you. The trees, the birds, the people in the villages below. All connected through the same energy that flows through you."

Naruto's eyes flew open. "I can feel them!" he exclaimed, wonder brightening his face. "There's a man in the eastern village with chakra like... like warm sunlight. And a woman to the north whose energy feels like... like the moment before a storm breaks!"

Hagoromo's eyes widened marginally. Most students took years to develop such sensitivity. "And the creatures beyond humans?" he prompted.

Naruto closed his eyes again, his whisker marks seeming to deepen with concentration. "There's... something huge. Far to the west. Its chakra is... angry? No—lonely. Powerful but... wounded."

"Shukaku," Hagoromo said quietly. "The One-Tail."

Tetsuo's eyes snapped open, interest breaking through his careful composure. "One of the tailed beasts? You actually separated the Ten-Tails?"

"I did," Hagoromo confirmed. "In this timeline as in the—" He caught himself. "As I always intended to."

Naruto was already on his feet, practically vibrating with excitement. "Can we meet them? The tailed beasts? I bet they're incredible! And probably super lonely if nobody understands them!"

Something tightened in Hagoromo's chest—recognition of the empathy that had made future-Naruto a unifier of nations. "They are not pets or weapons, though many will try to make them so. They are beings of pure chakra with wills and hearts of their own."

"That's what I mean!" Naruto insisted, gesturing expansively. "They're people! Just... giant, super-powerful chakra people!"

Tetsuo scoffed. "They're constructs, created from the Ten-Tails. Tools, essentially."

Naruto rounded on his brother, blue eyes flashing with sudden intensity. "Would you like being called a tool just because Father created you? They have feelings—I can sense them! The loneliness, the confusion... it's like they're calling out, wanting someone to understand them!"

Tetsuo blinked, momentarily taken aback by the unexpected rebuke.

Hagoromo watched the exchange with growing certainty. Somehow, despite altering the timeline completely, Naruto's connection to the tailed beasts—particularly Kurama, though they hadn't yet met in this reality—had transcended time itself.

"This is the essence of Ninshū," the Sage said, drawing his sons' attention back. "Not the power to dominate through chakra, but the ability to connect through it. To understand others' hearts by sharing in their energy."

"But power matters," Tetsuo insisted. "The strongest vision should prevail. Otherwise, chaos rules."

"Strength without understanding brings only destruction," Hagoromo replied. "Naruto, what do you think?"

The blond boy dropped back onto his bench, unusually thoughtful. "I think... everyone's got something worth listening to. Even Tetsuo when he's being a jerk." He flashed a grin at his brother, defusing the tension. "The strongest person should be the one who can hear everyone's hearts and find the path that works for all of them."

A flicker of irritation crossed Tetsuo's fine features. "That's idealistic nonsense. People don't set aside self-interest for pretty words."

"Maybe they would if someone actually tried understanding them instead of just ordering them around!" Naruto shot back.

"Enough," Hagoromo said, though his tone held more pleasure than rebuke. "Tetsuo, your pragmatism has merit. Naruto, so does your idealism. Neither is complete without the other."

The brothers exchanged glances—challenge in one pair of eyes, invitation in the other.

"Now," Hagoromo continued, "I want both of you to practice extending your chakra. Try to connect with each other—to understand without words."

Naruto's face lit up. "Like this?" He thrust his hand forward, chakra already pulsing from his palm in warm, welcoming waves.

Tetsuo hesitated, suspicion narrowing his eyes before curiosity won out. He extended his own hand cautiously, darker energy reaching tentatively toward his brother's.

When their chakra streams connected, both boys gasped.

"I can feel... your confidence," Tetsuo whispered, wonder cracking through his composed exterior. "It's... warm."

"And you're always calculating, analyzing everything!" Naruto exclaimed. "It's like your mind never stops working—it's exhausting!" He laughed, the sound echoing across the plateau. "But also kind of amazing."

For one brief moment, Tetsuo's guard dropped completely, and something like a genuine smile touched his lips.

Hagoromo observed silently, hope expanding in his chest. This—this connection between brothers so different in temperament yet bound by blood and understanding—was what he had rewritten time to achieve.

The moment shattered when a messenger hawk screeched overhead, diving toward the Sage with urgent purpose.

"We must return," Hagoromo announced after reading the tiny scroll attached to the bird's leg. "Your mother wishes to see you both before sundown."

As they descended the mountain path, Naruto dropped back to walk alongside his father while Tetsuo forged ahead.

"Father," he said, uncharacteristically quiet, "sometimes I have dreams of another life. A village hidden in leaves. A boy with eyes like Tetsuo's who was both my enemy and my friend. A giant fox with nine tails who hated me, then helped me." He glanced up, whisker marks catching the dappled sunlight. "Are they just dreams?"

Hagoromo felt something between terror and awe grip his heart. "What do you think they are, my son?"

Naruto's eyes—so young yet sometimes so ancient—gazed into the distance. "I think they're important. Like memories of something that didn't happen but still matters." His serious expression dissolved suddenly into his typical brilliant grin. "Pretty weird, huh? Race you back home!"

He bolted past his startled brother, whooping with delight as he bounded between trees with reckless abandon.

"Idiot," Tetsuo muttered, but a moment later he too was running, a reluctant smile tugging at his lips as he accelerated to match his brother's pace.

Hagoromo watched them disappear into the forest, these sons who were rewriting destiny with every step. "Not memories," he murmured to himself. "Echoes of a future that will never be. But perhaps... perhaps a better one awaits."

The Sage of Six Paths followed his children home, the weight of two timelines balanced across his shoulders—lighter now than it had been in a thousand years.

# What If Hagoromo Reversed Time and Chose Naruto as His First Son?

## CHAPTER 3: THE SHADOW OF KAGUYA

Lightning split the midnight sky as Naruto bolted upright in bed, sweat-soaked sheets tangled around his trembling legs. The nightmare's echoes still pounded against his skull—his mother's gentle face contorting, a third eye ripping open on her forehead, her scream merging with his own until he couldn't tell where her pain ended and his began.

"Just a dream," he muttered, pressing palms against his whisker-marked cheeks. "Just a stupid dream."

But the chill racing down his spine told a different story.

Dawn hadn't yet breached the eastern mountains when Naruto slipped from his chambers, bare feet silent against polished wooden floors. The compound slumbered around him—except for one room where lamplight spilled through paper screens like liquid gold.

His mother's meditation chamber.

Naruto hesitated, hand hovering inches from the door. Something pulsed beyond—a chakra signature that should have been familiar but instead raised the fine hairs on his arms.

"Mother?" he called softly.

The energy inside fluctuated, flared, then settled into the serene pattern he recognized. The door slid open, revealing Kaguya kneeling gracefully on a cushion, her impossibly long silver-white hair cascading around her like a waterfall of moonlight. Her pale eyes—normally gentle despite their alienness—regarded him with momentary confusion before warming with recognition.

"Naruto. You're awake early." Her voice chimed like crystal wind bells. "Is something troubling you?"

He stepped inside, nostrils flaring slightly. There was a scent in the air—something metallic and ancient. "I had a bad dream. About you."

Kaguya's smile didn't waver, but her fingers tightened imperceptibly around the teacup in her hand. "I'm perfectly fine, as you can see."

"Yeah..." Naruto let his senses expand, just as his father had taught him on the mountain plateau. Beneath her calm exterior, Kaguya's chakra roiled like storm-tossed waves—flashes of molten rage punctuating currents of icy fear. "Are you sure? You feel... different."

Something flickered across her perfect features—surprise, quickly masked by maternal concern. "Your sensitivity to chakra has grown impressive." She extended a slender hand, beckoning him closer. "Come, sit with me. Watch the sunrise."

Naruto hesitated, then folded his lanky frame beside her. They sat in silence as gray dawn light filtered through bamboo screens, painting patterns across the tatami mats. His mother poured a second cup of tea, the steaming liquid black as midnight.

"Try this," she urged. "A new blend I discovered. It enhances chakra clarity."

The cup felt unnaturally warm against his palms, and something about the tea's aroma made his stomach clench. He pretended to sip but kept his lips closed.

"Mother," he ventured, "where did you go yesterday? Tetsuo and I waited, but you never came to the evening meal."

Kaguya's hand paused midway to her lips. "I visited the sacred grove. To meditate."

"The place Father forbade us from entering? The one with the weird tree?"

Her eyes narrowed fractionally. "Your father doesn't understand everything, despite his wisdom. Some knowledge requires... direct experience."

Outside, branches scratched against wooden panels as wind picked up, whistling through the compound's eaves. The sound mingled with a faint buzzing in Naruto's ears—a warning signal that intensified when he reached out with his senses toward his mother.

Darkness. Hunger. Loneliness so profound it threatened to swallow his consciousness whole.

Naruto jerked back physically, tea sloshing over his knuckles. "Mother, something's wrong with your chakra! It's like there's something inside you that's not—"

"Enough!" Kaguya slammed her cup down, tea leaves swirling in violent patterns. The ground beneath them trembled, and for an instant—so brief Naruto almost convinced himself he'd imagined it—a third eye flickered in the center of his mother's forehead.

Horror flooded his veins with ice. The nightmare. Just like the nightmare.

"I—I need to find Father," he stammered, scrambling backward.

Kaguya's expression smoothed like water closing over a thrown stone. "Naruto, forgive me. I didn't sleep well either." Her smile returned, radiant and achingly familiar. "Please don't trouble your father with your imagination. He carries enough burdens."

Naruto nodded mechanically, desperate to escape the sudden wrongness permeating the air. "Sure. Yeah. I'll just... go train or something."

He fled the chamber, chakra pumping through his limbs in uneven bursts. His bare feet slapped against dew-dampened grass as he raced toward his father's study, mind reeling with implications too terrifying to fully process.

---

"You're certain?" Hagoromo's ringed eyes bore into his son, the Rinnegan's power seemingly stripping away all pretense, all possibility of exaggeration.

Naruto paced the confines of the study, restless energy making it impossible to stand still. "Positive. It was like... like looking at Mother through smoke. She's still there, but something else is growing inside her. Something hungry."

Scrolls and ancient texts lay scattered across low tables—evidence of the Sage's interrupted studies. Morning sunlight streamed through open windows, incongruously cheerful against the gravity of their discussion.

"And the third eye?" Hagoromo pressed. "You're certain you saw it?"

"For like a second." Naruto made the shape with his fingers, pressing them against his forehead. "Right here. And her chakra... Father, it frightened me. Not because it was dangerous, but because it was suffering."

Hagoromo closed his eyes, shoulders sagging beneath invisible weight. "It's happening again," he whispered, so softly Naruto almost missed it.

"Again? What's happening again?"

The Sage straightened, decision crystallizing in his expression. He moved to a hidden panel in the wall, pressed his palm against symbols that flared briefly with chakra recognition. The wall slid open, revealing a chamber Naruto had never seen—a repository of weapons, scrolls, and strange artifacts that pulsed with ancient power.

"Father? What is all this?"

Hagoromo lifted a staff topped with interlocking rings, its metal singing faintly as it cut through air. "Contingencies. For a day I prayed would never come."

"You're scaring me." Naruto's voice cracked, suddenly reminding both of them that despite his extraordinary abilities, he was still just twelve years old. "What's happening to Mother?"

Hagoromo knelt before his son, placing massive hands on the boy's shoulders. "Long ago, before you were born, I foresaw a possibility... a darkness that might take root in our family. I created these tools as a last resort."

"But what's causing it? How do we fix her?" Desperation edged Naruto's words.

"The God Tree." Hagoromo's voice hardened. "Its fruit contains power beyond imagining, but that power demands a terrible price. It doesn't just grant abilities—it transforms desires into hunger, fear into paranoia, love into possessiveness."

Naruto's eyes widened. "The sacred grove. She said she went there to meditate yesterday."

"Then we may already be too late." Hagoromo rose, moving with sudden urgency. "Naruto, I need your help. Your connection to chakra, your ability to sense negative emotions—these are gifts beyond even what I possessed at your age. We must monitor your mother closely."

"Like spying?" Naruto recoiled. "That feels wrong."

"What feels wrong is watching someone you love transform into something unrecognizable while doing nothing," Hagoromo countered, his normally measured tone sharpened by urgency. "Would you rather wait until she's completely consumed by darkness?"

The bluntness hit Naruto like a physical blow. He swallowed hard, nodding once. "Tell me what to do."

---

Days stretched into weeks. Summer heat blazed across the valley, wilting flowers and turning streams to trickles. Inside the compound, tension thickened the air far more oppressively than any weather.

Naruto trailed his mother like a shadow, disguising his surveillance as filial devotion. He brought her tea, suggested walks through gardens, asked for lessons in chakra manipulation—anything to keep her in sight, to monitor the darkness festering within her chakra network.

Tetsuo, excluded from these secrets, watched their strange dance with increasing suspicion.

"What game are you playing?" he confronted Naruto one sweltering afternoon as they practiced kunai throws in the training yard. "You never cared about mother's botanical studies before, yet suddenly you're fascinated by toxic flora?"

Naruto's kunai thudded into the wooden target, splitting another blade buried there. "Maybe I'm maturing. Developing new interests." His smile didn't reach his eyes. "Jealous of the attention?"

Steel flashed between Tetsuo's fingers, five kunai launching simultaneously to form a perfect pentagon on the distant target. "Don't insult me, brother. Father disappears for hours into his private study. You shadow Mother like a prison guard. Something's happening, and I'm being excluded."

Guilt gnawed at Naruto's conscience. His brother's perception had always been razor-sharp. "It's complicated, Tetsuo."

"So explain it. Unless you think I'm too stupid to understand?" Challenge flared in Tetsuo's dark eyes.

"It's not that—"

"Then what?" Tetsuo stepped closer, voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Do you think I haven't noticed Mother's changing chakra? The way plants wither when she lingers too long in the gardens? The servants who fall ill after preparing her meals?"

Shock froze Naruto mid-retort. "You've noticed too?"

"I'm not blind." Bitterness edged Tetsuo's words. "Just apparently unworthy of inclusion in whatever plan you and Father are concocting."

Naruto grabbed his brother's shoulder. "That's not it at all! Father wanted to protect you—"

"I don't need protection!" Tetsuo snarled, shrugging off the touch. "I need truth!"

The brothers stared at each other, years of complicated emotions crashing between them like storm waves. Finally, Naruto nodded.

"Tonight. Father's study. I'll tell him we need to include you."

Something like gratitude flickered across Tetsuo's features before his customary composure reasserted itself. "Good."

Before Naruto could respond, a piercing scream shattered the afternoon quiet—a servant girl burst into the training yard, blood streaming from both eyes.

"Lady Kaguya!" she shrieked, fingers clawing at her face. "Her eye—her eye saw inside me!"

The brothers exchanged horrified glances before racing toward the main house, feet barely touching the ground as they channeled chakra for speed.

They found chaos—servants fleeing in terror, ornamental trees withering before their eyes, the very air crackling with malevolent energy. At the center of it all stood Kaguya, her elegant robes billowing despite the absence of wind.

And in the center of her forehead, fully manifested and weeping crimson tears, a third eye pulsed with hypnotic power.

"Mother?" Naruto stepped forward cautiously, every nerve screaming danger.

Kaguya turned slowly, her movement unnaturally fluid. All three eyes fixed on her firstborn son, and her lips curved in a smile that held no recognition, no warmth.

"Mine," she whispered, the single word reverberating with possessive fury. "All chakra is mine. All life is mine to reclaim."

Hagoromo appeared beside his sons, the staff with interlocking rings clutched in white-knuckled hands. "Kaguya," he called, his deep voice steady despite the horror etched across his features. "Fight this. Remember who you are."

For an instant, something flickered in her pale eyes—confusion, perhaps recognition. Then her gaze hardened again as she rose several inches off the ground.

"I know precisely who I am," she replied, her melodic voice distorted by undertones that seemed to emanate from the earth itself. "Mother of all chakra. Rightful ruler of this world. And you—" her third eye swiveled toward Hagoromo, "—you would divide my power, distribute my gift to unworthy vessels."

"Father, what's happening?" Tetsuo whispered, unconsciously shifting closer to Naruto. "What is she?"

"Becoming what she was always at risk of becoming," Hagoromo answered grimly. "The Rabbit Goddess. Consumer of the God Tree's fruit. Harbinger of the Infinite Tsukuyomi."

Naruto shook his head violently. "No! That's not her! Mother wouldn't—"

"Wouldn't what, child?" Kaguya interrupted, suddenly directly before him despite having been across the courtyard a heartbeat before. Her cold fingers traced his whisker marks, sending shards of ice through his veins. "Wouldn't seek power to protect what belongs to her? You understand hunger, don't you? The beast sleeping within you recognizes me."

Naruto recoiled, confusion twisting his features. "What beast? What are you talking about?"

The third eye blinked—once, twice—then widened with sudden realization. "Fascinating," Kaguya murmured. "This timeline is... different. No matter. The outcome will be the same."

She vanished in a swirl of silver-white hair, leaving behind only the lingering scent of cherry blossoms and decay.

Hagoromo's hand landed heavily on Naruto's shoulder. "We must act quickly. She'll return to the God Tree to complete the transformation."

"To do what?" Naruto demanded, desperation cracking his voice. "Kill her? She's our mother!"

"To save what remains of her, if possible," Hagoromo answered. "But more importantly, to prevent what she will become if we fail."

Tetsuo stepped forward, obsidian eyes hardened with resolve. "Whatever you need, Father. I'm ready."

Hagoromo nodded grimly. "Both of you, follow me. There are seals you must learn, weapons that must be prepared."

"And Mother?" Naruto asked, the childish name suddenly feeling inadequate for the being he'd witnessed.

Hagoromo's Rinnegan eyes reflected the dying light of day, ancient and sorrowful. "She goes to consume the fruit completely—to take into herself power that was never meant for mortal vessels. When she returns, she will not be your mother anymore."

---

Moonlight bathed the sacred grove in silver, transforming the massive God Tree at its center into a twisted cathedral of shadows. Its branches reached toward stars like grasping hands, bark pulsing with veins of phosphorescent blue. At its apex hung a single fruit—luminous, hypnotic, pulsing with promise.

Beneath it stood Kaguya, her white robes discarded, naked form glowing with unearthly power. Her third eye remained fixed on the fruit while her normal eyes closed in anticipation.

"With this," she whispered, voice no longer entirely her own, "all will be as it should. My children will understand. My husband will remember his place. This world will know peace under my eternal embrace."

Her feet left the ground as she floated upward, silver hair swirling around her like living tendrils. When her fingers closed around the fruit, the entire grove trembled—ancient trees groaning, animals fleeing in blind panic, insects dropping dead from overexposure to raw chakra.

Kaguya brought the fruit to her lips, its glow illuminating the hunger in her expression. One bite. Two. Three—until nothing remained but a darkened husk that crumbled to ash between her fingers.

Power exploded outward in a shockwave that flattened everything within a mile radius. When the dust settled, Kaguya hovered at the center of the destruction, transformed. Horns sprouted from her temples, her third eye now permanently open, her skin bleached to porcelain perfection. The very air around her bent and distorted, reality struggling to accommodate her existence.

Miles away, Naruto collapsed to his knees in his father's study, gasping as if struck. Tetsuo steadied him, alarm widening his dark eyes.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

Naruto looked up, terror blanching his normally sun-kissed face. "She's done it. The fruit—" He clutched his chest as if physically wounded. "So much chakra. So much hatred and fear and hunger. It's like a black hole where her heart used to be."

Hagoromo closed his eyes briefly, ancient foreknowledge and fresh grief colliding in his expression. "Then it begins," he murmured. "Again."

But this time, the Sage of Six Paths didn't stand alone against the coming storm. This time, his sons flanked him—one radiant as the sun, one shadowed as the moon—united despite their differences, determined to rewrite a fate that had once shattered a world.

Naruto's whisker marks deepened as determination hardened his features. "We'll save her. Somehow."

Outside, the night sky fractured as the moon began to change, its surface rippling as an ancient eye began to open across its cratered face.

# What If Hagoromo Reversed Time and Chose Naruto as His First Son?

## CHAPTER 4: BROTHERS IN ARMS

Lightning crackled between Naruto's fingers as he skidded backward across the training grounds, sandals carving twin furrows through rain-softened earth. Sixteen now, he'd grown tall and lean, his sun-bright hair longer and wilder, whisker marks deeper against tanned skin. The jutsu he'd been attempting to contain pulsed dangerously in his palm, threatening to detonate.

"You're overfeeding it!" Tetsuo called from the sidelines, voice cutting through the sizzle of unstable chakra. "Nature transformation isn't about brute force!"

Naruto's eyes—blue as mountain lakes and just as deep—narrowed in concentration. With an exhale that emptied his lungs completely, he allowed the jutsu to collapse inward rather than explode outward. The lightning condensed into a sphere no larger than a marble, spinning between his fingertips with the intensity of a miniature star.

"Like this?" he grinned, sweat beading along his brow as he maintained the impossibly dense concentration of elemental chakra.

Tetsuo uncrossed his arms, fifteen-year-old face softening with reluctant admiration. "Actually... yes." He circled his older brother, obsidian eyes analyzing the technique from every angle. "You've finally grasped compression over expansion."

"Only took seventeen lectures from you," Naruto laughed, the sound so bright it seemed to chase away the storm clouds gathering overhead.

With a flick of his wrist, he sent the lightning sphere streaking toward a practice dummy fifty yards away. It pierced the reinforced straw figure cleanly, then erupted out the back in a spectacular flash that left nothing but smoldering ash in its wake.

"YEAH!" Naruto punched the air, boundless enthusiasm undiminished by the years. "Did you see that?! It went straight through and then BOOM!"

"I have functioning eyesight, yes," Tetsuo replied dryly, but the ghost of a smile tugged at his lips. Unlike his boisterous brother, Tetsuo had grown more contained with age—taller than most fifteen-year-olds, with elegant features that mirrored their mother's before her transformation. His long raven hair was tied back with a single cord, emphasizing cheekbones that had sharpened with adolescence.

"Your turn," Naruto elbowed his brother playfully. "Show me that new fire technique you've been hiding."

Tetsuo's eyes widened fractionally. "How did you—"

"Please. You smell like burnt hair every morning, and the eastern forest has a new clearing that wasn't there last week." Naruto tapped his nose. "Enhanced senses, remember? Can't hide anything from me."

For a moment, Tetsuo's composure slipped into something like embarrassment. Then, with a resigned sigh, he stepped into the center of the training ground. His hands formed seals so rapidly they blurred, fingers moving with precision that bordered on artistry.

"Fire Style," he whispered, chest expanding as he drew breath, "Celestial Phoenix."

The flame that erupted from his lips wasn't the typical red-orange of fire jutsu but a brilliant blue-white that spiraled upward, forming enormous wings that blocked out the sky. The heat was so intense that grass withered thirty feet away, and Naruto felt his eyebrows singe despite his distance.

The fire phoenix screamed—an actual cry that tore through the air—before diving toward a row of boulders at the training ground's edge. Upon impact, rather than exploding conventionally, the flames compressed to a single point before expanding into a perfect sphere that engulfed everything within a twenty-foot radius.

When the light faded, nothing remained but glass—the rocks had been instantaneously melted and reformed.

Silence held for three heartbeats.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Naruto's voice cracked with excitement as he bounded toward his brother. "How did you make it scream? And that compression effect! It's like what I was doing with the lightning but WAY bigger!"

Tetsuo swayed slightly, chakra depletion evident in his suddenly pale face. "It's... still imperfect. The compression phase consumes too much energy, and I haven't figured out how to—"

His knees buckled. Before he could hit the ground, Naruto was there, arm around his shoulder, supporting his weight.

"Whoa there, genius. Let's get you sitting before you face-plant."

Tetsuo didn't resist as his brother guided him to a fallen log at the training ground's edge. "I should be able to maintain consciousness after using it," he muttered, frustration evident in every tense line of his body.

Naruto dropped down beside him, producing a water flask from somewhere within his orange-and-black jacket. "Here. And stop being so hard on yourself. That technique is jonin-level at minimum."

"Father mastered fire manipulation at twelve."

"Father's a literal god," Naruto countered, nudging the flask closer. "Drink. And anyway, you've already surpassed his genjutsu abilities, and your chakra control makes mine look like a drunk elephant."

That earned a small snort from Tetsuo as he accepted the water. "A drunk, color-blind elephant with an inner ear imbalance."

"See? That's the spirit!" Naruto clapped him on the back, nearly sending him tumbling forward.

From the shadow of an ancient oak tree, Hagoromo observed his sons' interaction, Rinnegan eyes missing nothing. The Sage of Six Paths had allowed his beard to grow longer in recent years, streaks of silver now weaving through the dark strands—a reminder of the stress inflicted by Kaguya's transformation six years earlier.

His sons had not emerged unscathed from that trauma either, but not in the ways he might have feared from his memories of another timeline.

Naruto, rather than growing resentful of Tetsuo's prodigious talents, celebrated them. And Tetsuo, instead of isolating himself in arrogant superiority as Indra once had, grudgingly accepted his brother's support—acerbic comments notwithstanding.

It was a delicate balance, one that could still tip toward the darkness Hagoromo had sacrificed everything to prevent. Yet watching them now—Naruto demonstrating a chakra circulation technique with exaggerated hand motions while Tetsuo corrected his form with exasperated precision—hope kindled in the Sage's chest.

"Not interrupting brotherly bonding, am I?" Hagoromo's deep voice carried across the training ground as he stepped from the shadows.

Both young men straightened immediately—Tetsuo with formal respect, Naruto with barely-contained excitement.

"Father! Check out what Tetsuo can do! He created this fire phoenix thing that literally screams and turns rocks into glass and—"

"Perhaps a demonstration another time," Hagoromo interrupted gently, noting the exhaustion still evident in his younger son's posture. "I've received troubling news from the eastern province."

The playfulness evaporated from Naruto's expression, replaced by sharp focus that transformed his face from boyish to commanding in an instant. "Kaguya's followers?"

Hagoromo nodded grimly. "A settlement has fallen under their influence. The village of Shimizu."

"Shimizu?" Tetsuo frowned, fatigue forgotten. "That's one of the largest trading hubs in the region. At least five thousand inhabitants."

"Five thousand potential sacrifices," Naruto added darkly, unconsciously touching the kunai holster strapped to his thigh.

In the six years since Kaguya had consumed the God Tree's fruit and vanished, a cult had emerged in her wake—devotees who claimed the Rabbit Goddess spoke to them in dreams, promising divine power to those who prepared the way for her return. Their practices had grown increasingly violent, with entire villages occasionally disappearing overnight.

"This time they've been less subtle," Hagoromo continued, producing a scroll marked with the symbol of the eastern province's daimyō. "Public executions of dissenters. Forced conscription of young men for what they call the 'Celestial Army.' They've established some kind of altar at the village center where they conduct ritual sacrifices."

"We need to move fast," Naruto was already on his feet, eyes hardening with determination. "Before they can complete whatever ceremony they're planning."

"Agreed," Hagoromo said, "but not recklessly. These cultists appear to have access to corrupted chakra—possibly relics from your mother, or worse, direct communion with her."

Tetsuo stood as well, fatigue masked beneath perfect posture. "What's the plan?"

"Reconnaissance first," Hagoromo answered. "Determine their numbers, capabilities, and the nature of their ritual. Then strategic intervention."

"Sounds boring," Naruto muttered, earning a sharp look from his brother.

"It sounds like not getting thousands of people killed needlessly," Tetsuo retorted.

Naruto's expression softened slightly. "You're right. Sorry." He turned to his father. "When do we leave?"

"Immediately," Hagoromo replied. "Pack only essentials. We move within the hour."

---

Dawn painted the hills surrounding Shimizu in watercolor pastels, the beauty a stark contrast to the wrongness emanating from the village below. Naruto lay flat against cool grass, utilizing a sensory barrier technique to mask his chakra signature as he observed through a small spyglass.

"This is bad," he murmured to Tetsuo, who mirrored his position a few feet away. "Like, really bad."

The once-thriving marketplace at Shimizu's center had been transformed into an execution ground. A massive stone altar dominated the square, its surface stained dark with what could only be blood. Surrounding it, concentric circles had been carved into the earth, filled with strange symbols that pulsed with sickly purple light.

Villagers moved through the streets like puppets—eyes vacant, movements mechanical. Many bore a mark on their foreheads: a single red dot that mimicked Kaguya's third eye.

"Mind control," Tetsuo whispered, his own spyglass trained on a procession of white-robed figures emerging from the largest building. "Look at their chakra networks."

Naruto adjusted his focus, channeling sensory chakra to enhance his already formidable perception. The villagers' normally blue-gold chakra pathways were threaded with dark purple tendrils that centered on the marks on their foreheads.

"Possession or manipulation?" he asked, more to himself than his brother.

"Both, perhaps," Tetsuo replied anyway. "The central chakra nodes are compressed while the peripheral channels are dilated. Classic signs of external chakra interference."

Naruto shot him a quick grin. "Sometimes your brain terrifies me, you know that?"

"At least one of us should understand what we're facing," Tetsuo countered, but there was no real bite in his words.

The white-robed figures—eight in total—formed a circle around the altar. Their leader, distinguishable by a headdress of antlers reminiscent of Kaguya's horns, raised his arms. The symbols carved into the ground flared brighter, and all the possessed villagers turned toward the square with eerie synchronicity.

"They're starting something," Naruto hissed, muscles tensing as battle instinct surged through his system.

From their position a half-mile to the east, Hagoromo appeared in a swirl of midnight robes, moving with silent grace despite his imposing stature. "The ritual is more advanced than I feared," he said without preamble. "They're attempting to create a dimensional tear—a doorway to allow Kaguya to return physically."

"Can they succeed?" Tetsuo asked, eyes never leaving the village.

"Not completely," Hagoromo replied. "But even a partial manifestation could be catastrophic."

Naruto rolled onto his back, facing his father and brother with uncharacteristic gravity. "So what's our play? Frontal assault?"

"That would be suicide," Tetsuo countered immediately. "There are at least fifty cultists with enhanced chakra, plus hundreds of possessed villagers who would be caught in the crossfire."

Naruto's eyes sparkled suddenly, an idea taking shape behind them. "What if we could break the mind control first? Free the villagers before confronting the cult leaders?"

Hagoromo stroked his beard thoughtfully. "The connection appears centralized—likely focused through that altar. Disrupting it could free the villagers, but someone would need to get close enough to..."

"I'll do it," both brothers said simultaneously, then glared at each other.

"I'm faster," Naruto argued.

"I'm better at stealth," Tetsuo countered.

"I can create diversions with shadow clones."

"I can cast genjutsu to mask my approach."

"Enough," Hagoromo interrupted, though a ghost of amusement flickered across his stern features. "Neither of you could succeed alone. But together..."

The brothers exchanged glances—challenge, assessment, and finally understanding passing between them in heartbeats.

"I create the diversion," Naruto said slowly, ideas already forming.

"I infiltrate during the chaos," Tetsuo continued, "while you—" he looked at Hagoromo, "—neutralize the cult leaders when they're forced to respond."

The Sage nodded once, satisfaction evident in his ringed eyes. "Precisely."

Tetsuo extended his hand toward Naruto, palm up. Without hesitation, Naruto clasped it, their chakra rippling where skin met skin—gold-blue melding with indigo-black in a display of synchronized energy that even Hagoromo found impressive.

"We'll need a signal to coordinate timing," Tetsuo said, practicality asserting itself.

Naruto grinned, reaching into his weapons pouch to produce three identical kunai marked with intricate seals. "Been working on these for months. Thought they might come in handy." He handed one each to his father and brother. "Channel chakra into the handle and all three will pulse in synch. Silent communication from any distance."

Tetsuo examined the weapon with evident surprise. "This is... remarkably sophisticated work."

"Don't sound so shocked," Naruto laughed, but pleasure at the rare compliment brightened his eyes.

As they rose to implement their plan, Hagoromo placed a hand on each of his sons' shoulders. "Be careful," he said simply, volumes of meaning compressed into those two words.

Naruto flashed his trademark grin, whisker marks crinkling. "Always."

Tetsuo merely nodded, but determination hardened his dark eyes to obsidian.

---

Chaos erupted at Shimizu's northern gate precisely as planned. Dozens of Naruto clones—transformed to resemble random travelers—staged a convincing battle against another group disguised as bandits. Explosions rocked the perimeter, flames climbing high enough to be visible from the village center.

The cult leader's head snapped up, antlered headdress wobbling precariously as he barked orders to his white-robed subordinates. Half their number immediately broke away from the altar, racing toward the disturbance with inhuman speed.

In that moment of disruption, a shadow detached itself from beneath a merchant's cart in the square. Tetsuo moved like liquid darkness, body flattened so close to the ground that he seemed to meld with it. No footsteps, no rustling of fabric, no detectable chakra signature—just smooth, relentless progress toward the altar.

Above the village, perched atop the tallest building, Hagoromo waited—a gargoyle of focused intent. His Rinnegan tracked the remaining cult members, noting their positions, analyzing their chakra networks. His hands remained folded in a meditative seal, but power rolled off him in waves that distorted the very air.

Naruto's diversion intensified. The clones' "battle" had drawn a crowd of mind-controlled villagers, their movements still jerky and unnatural as they responded to the threat. The real Naruto—concealed among his duplicates—guided the chaos carefully away from civilians, leading the cultists on a progressively more complicated chase through Shimizu's northern district.

Meanwhile, Tetsuo reached the outer ring of symbols carved around the altar. Up close, the markings were even more disturbing—not carved but burned into the earth, pulsing with chakra that made his skin crawl. The final ten feet to the altar lay exposed, with no cover available.

Inhaling silently, he formed a single hand sign. His body shimmered, then seemed to evaporate into a heat haze—a high-level genjutsu that bent light around him, rendering him nearly invisible.

Three steps into the open space, disaster struck. One of the remaining cultists—a slight woman with milk-white eyes—suddenly stiffened, head turning unerringly toward Tetsuo despite his concealment.

"Intruder!" she shrieked, voice containing harmonics that scraped against the eardrums like rusty nails. "The Mother's eye sees all!"

Tetsuo abandoned stealth for speed, lunging toward the altar as white-robed figures converged on his position. His hands flashed through seals, and a wall of blue-white flame erupted between him and his attackers, buying precious seconds.

Across the village, Naruto felt his brother's chakra spike with battle energy. Without hesitation, he pressed his thumb against the special kunai, channeling a pulse of chakra into it.

On the rooftop, Hagoromo's identical weapon vibrated against his palm. The Sage's eyes narrowed as he rose to his full, imposing height. The time for waiting had passed.

Tetsuo reached the altar just as the cult leader completed a sequence of hand signs. The ground beneath Shimizu trembled, and the sky directly above the square rippled like disturbed water. A tear appeared in the fabric of reality—small at first, then widening to reveal a void of absolute darkness.

"She comes!" the leader screamed, ecstasy and madness mingling in his voice. "The divine mother returns to claim what is hers!"

Within the dimensional tear, something moved—a pale shape advancing through absolute darkness, horned and terrible.

Tetsuo slammed both palms against the blood-stained altar, channeling every ounce of his chakra into the stone. "Release!" he shouted, voice raw with effort.

The altar cracked—a hairline fracture that zig-zagged across its surface before spreading outward to the carved symbols on the ground. But instead of shattering as expected, the stone began to absorb Tetsuo's chakra, purple tendrils wrapping around his wrists like living manacles.

"Foolish child," the cult leader laughed, turning away from the widening portal to face Tetsuo. "Your strength only feeds her glory!"

Pain lanced up Tetsuo's arms as something foreign invaded his chakra network—cold and ancient and unutterably wrong. His vision blurred, the world tilting sideways as his knees threatened to buckle.

"TETSUO!"

The voice—his brother's voice—cut through the encroaching darkness like a blade of pure light. Naruto crashed into the square, no longer bothering with stealth or subtlety. Golden chakra blazed around him like a solar flare, his eyes shifted from blue to amber, whisker marks darkened and more pronounced than ever before.

"Get away from my brother!" he roared, the sound containing something not quite human—something that made even the cultists falter.

The leader recovered quickly, gesturing toward Naruto with a twisted smile. "Another sacrifice for the Mother! Seize him!"

Cultists and mind-controlled villagers alike surged toward Naruto, who stood his ground, hands forming a familiar cross-shaped seal. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Dozens of duplicates exploded into existence, each radiating the same golden aura as the original. They intercepted the attackers, buying Naruto time to reach his brother's side.

"Hang on," he growled, wrapping an arm around Tetsuo's waist to support him. "I've got you."

Tetsuo struggled to focus, the purple corruption now halfway up his arms. "The altar," he managed through gritted teeth. "It's not just amplifying the ritual—it's the source of the mind control. But I can't... break it alone."

Understanding flashed between the brothers without need for further explanation. Naruto shifted his grip, supporting Tetsuo with one arm while placing his free hand atop his brother's on the altar's surface.

"Together, then," he said simply.

Their chakra signatures—so different in nature—merged at the point of contact. Gold-blue and indigo-black swirled together, neither dominating, both strengthening. The altar's pull intensified, greedily consuming their combined energy.

"More," Tetsuo gasped, sweat streaming down his face as he fought the corruption trying to consume him. "It needs more than we have."

Above them, the dimensional portal widened further, Kaguya's silhouette now clearly visible—horned, third eye blazing, hands outstretched toward the world she sought to reclaim.

"No," Naruto growled, determination hardening his features. "It doesn't need more chakra. It needs a different kind."

He closed his eyes, diving deep within himself, seeking something he'd glimpsed only in dreams and fragments of another life. There—buried beneath layers of his own consciousness—burned a different chakra. Ancient. Powerful. Angry yet familiar.

"Lend me your strength," he whispered to this hidden wellspring. "Just this once."

Something answered—a presence vast and vulpine, wreathed in flames that could burn the world. Naruto gasped as red chakra suddenly erupted from his core, mixing with his golden aura to create a coruscating orange energy that engulfed both brothers.

"What is this?" Tetsuo whispered, feeling the corrupt tendrils retreating from his arms as this new power pushed them back.

Naruto's eyes snapped open, pupils elongated to slits, irises crimson rather than blue. "Kurama," he said, though he couldn't have explained how he knew the name. "The Nine-Tails."

Together, they channeled this hybrid chakra into the altar. The stone didn't just crack this time—it screamed, a sound like worlds colliding as fissures raced across its surface. The carved symbols surrounding it flared brilliant purple before shattering into dust.

Throughout Shimizu, villagers collapsed as the controlling influence vanished from their minds. The portal above the square shuddered, its edges wavering as the power sustaining it faltered.

"NO!" the cult leader shrieked, abandoning his remaining followers to lunge at the brothers with a ceremonial dagger raised high.

He never reached them. A massive hand closed around his throat, lifting him effortlessly from the ground. Hagoromo stood like an avenging deity, Rinnegan blazing with cold fury.

"Enough," the Sage said simply, voice resonating with authority that brooked no defiance.

With his free hand, Hagoromo made a single seal. The dimensional portal contracted violently, reality reasserting itself as the tear shrank to a pinpoint before vanishing completely.

Within it, Kaguya's silhouette reached desperately toward the closing aperture, a silent scream visible on her perfect features before darkness swallowed her once more.

The cult leader dangled from Hagoromo's grasp, face purpling as he clawed ineffectually at the Sage's wrist. "She... will... return," he wheezed. "The cycle... cannot be broken."

"Perhaps," Hagoromo conceded, "but not today. And not through you." His grip tightened momentarily before he cast the man aside like discarded trash. "Bind him. He will face justice for his crimes."

Tetsuo slumped against the remains of the altar, exhaustion evident in every line of his body. The purple corruption had faded completely, leaving his arms unmarked but trembling.

Naruto knelt beside him, the foreign red chakra already receding, his eyes returning to their normal blue. "That," he panted, "wasn't exactly how we planned it."

A laugh escaped Tetsuo—small and surprised, but genuine. "When do your plans ever proceed as intended?"

"Hey, we got the job done!" Naruto protested, though his grin undermined any real indignation.

"At significant risk to yourselves and others," Hagoromo observed as he approached, though pride softened his rebuke. "But yes, you succeeded where even I might have failed alone."

The brothers exchanged glances—shared accomplishment momentarily bridging their typical differences.

Around them, villagers were beginning to stir, confusion and horror dawning on their faces as they remembered what they'd been forced to do under the cult's influence. The surviving white-robed figures were being rounded up by shadow clones, their powers seemingly diminished with the altar's destruction.

"How did you know it would work?" Tetsuo asked quietly, looking at his brother. "That... red chakra. What was it really?"

Naruto's hand unconsciously touched his stomach, resting over a seal that didn't exist in this timeline. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "It felt like... like something I've always known but forgotten. Like it was supposed to be part of me."

Hagoromo observed his eldest son with knowing eyes but remained silent. Some truths were best discovered rather than told.

"Whatever it was," Tetsuo said finally, "I'm glad you found it." The admission clearly cost him some effort, his natural reserve battling with genuine gratitude.

Naruto's face split in a grin bright enough to rival the sun now climbing toward zenith. "Aww, did nearly dying make you sentimental, little brother?"

"Don't push it," Tetsuo growled, attempting to stand and nearly falling before Naruto caught his arm.

"Easy there, hero," Naruto teased, but his support was steady and sure as he helped his brother upright.

Watching them—the sun and the moon, so different yet finally working in harmony—Hagoromo felt certainty settle in his ancient heart. This timeline, this choice... it had been right. Whatever challenges lay ahead—and Kaguya's thwarted return promised many—his sons would face them not as rivals but as brothers in arms.

Across the square, freed villagers began to gather, looking toward the Sage and his sons with expressions of awe and gratitude. The brothers stood side by side, supporting each other both literally and figuratively—a united front against whatever darkness might come.

It was, Hagoromo reflected, a vision worth rewriting time to achieve.

# What If Hagoromo Reversed Time and Chose Naruto as His First Son?

## CHAPTER 5: THE DIVISION OF POWER

The air crackled with electric tension as Hagoromo knelt before the massive containment seal, its intricate patterns spiraling outward across the stone floor like a galaxy of luminous ink. Sweat beaded on his brow, rolling down weather-worn cheeks into his silver-streaked beard. The chamber—carved deep beneath their mountain sanctuary—thrummed with raw power that made the very air waver and distort.

"Are you sure about this?" Naruto's voice cut through the oppressive silence, unusually subdued. His lanky seventeen-year-old frame leaned against a carved pillar, arms crossed over his chest, blue eyes reflecting the seal's pulsing glow.

Behind the elaborate matrix of symbols, something massive stirred—a darkness that seemed to devour light, punctuated by a single, baleful eye that swiveled wildly. The Ten-Tails. Kaguya's corrupted form after her failed attempt to reclaim the world six months earlier.

"There is no alternative," Hagoromo replied, his deep voice echoing off ancient stone walls. "Her power grows daily. Even this seal—the strongest I can create—will not hold her much longer."

Tetsuo, sixteen now and nearly as tall as his brother, stepped from the shadows. Moonlight streaming through a skylight high above caught in his raven hair, giving him an ethereal quality that emphasized his otherworldly beauty—a beauty that increasingly mirrored their absent mother's.

"You captured the Ten-Tails once before," he said, each word precise and measured. "Why not simply seal it within yourself again, as tradition dictates?"

Hagoromo's ringed eyes narrowed, memories of two timelines superimposing in his mind. "Tradition," he echoed, the word heavy with bitter experience. "Tradition would see this power pass to a single vessel, then divide between warring descendants until blood soaked the earth for a thousand years."

The Ten-Tails roared—a sound felt more than heard, vibrating in bones and teeth and the spaces between thoughts. The chamber shuddered, dust raining from the ceiling as the massive beast hurled itself against the seal's boundaries.

"We're out of time," Hagoromo grunted, hands flying through a sequence of signs so complex that even his prodigious sons struggled to follow. "Stand back."

The brothers retreated to the chamber's perimeter as their father's chakra manifested visibly—radiant purple energy encasing his body like divine armor. The Sage rose slowly from his kneeling position, arms spread wide, Rinnegan blazing with unmatchable power.

"Creation of All Things," he intoned, voice reverberating with authority that seemed to bend reality itself. "Divine Separation."

The Ten-Tails screamed as Hagoromo's technique took hold, its monstrous form beginning to fracture along invisible seams. Tendrils of chakra—black as deep space and just as cold—whipped violently around the chamber, slashing gouges into solid stone.

One tendril lashed toward Tetsuo, who didn't react fast enough. In a golden flash, Naruto appeared before his brother, the chakra whip slicing a shallow cut across his whiskered cheek instead.

"Pay attention," Naruto flashed a tight grin, blood trickling down his jaw. "This isn't a spectator sport."

Tetsuo's dark eyes widened fractionally—the closest thing to open shock his composed features could manage. "You're bleeding."

"Yeah, that's what happens when interdimensional chakra monsters try to kill you," Naruto quipped, wiping blood away with his sleeve. "Weird, right?"

Before Tetsuo could respond, a shockwave of power knocked both brothers off their feet. The Ten-Tails' massive form contorted impossibly, stretching and dividing like dark matter being torn apart by competing gravitational forces. Its single eye multiplied, splitting into numerous smaller orbs that glowed with malevolent awareness.

Hagoromo staggered, clearly struggling to control the immense energies he'd unleashed. Sweat poured down his face, and blood trickled from his nose—signs of chakra depletion that alarmed both his sons.

"Father!" Naruto scrambled to his feet, instinctively moving toward Hagoromo.

"Stay back!" the Sage commanded, voice strained but unyielding. "I must complete—" His words cut off in a pained gasp as the Ten-Tails' chakra lashed back at him, nearly breaking his control.

Naruto froze, torn between obedience and protective instinct. His eyes darted to Tetsuo, who for once looked equally uncertain.

"He's failing," Tetsuo whispered, rare fear threading through his typically confident voice.

The realization hit Naruto like a physical blow—his father, the god-like Sage of Six Paths, might not be strong enough to complete this task alone. Not even he could safely divide a power as vast as the Ten-Tails without consequences.

Making a split-second decision that would alter the course of history, Naruto charged forward, ignoring his father's warning.

"Naruto, don't!" Tetsuo shouted, but his brother was already moving, golden chakra flaring around his body as he approached the struggling Sage.

"I can help!" Naruto declared, skidding to a halt beside Hagoromo. Without waiting for permission, he placed his hand on his father's shoulder, channeling his own considerable chakra into the older man's network. "Take what you need!"

For an instant, Hagoromo's concentration faltered in surprise. Then understanding dawned in his ancient eyes, and he nodded once—a gesture of both gratitude and permission.

"Tetsuo!" Naruto called over his shoulder. "Get over here! He needs both of us!"

The younger brother hesitated only a heartbeat before racing to his father's other side, placing his palm against Hagoromo's back. Indigo-black chakra flowed from him, merging with Naruto's gold-blue energy to create a swirling matrix that steadied the Sage's faltering technique.

Power surged through the three Ōtsutsuki men—father and sons united in purpose despite their different natures. The Ten-Tails' thrashing grew more desperate as its form continued to separate into distinct entities.

"It's working!" Naruto shouted over the cacophony of screaming chakra and rumbling stone. "Look!"

Where the single monstrous Ten-Tails had been, nine distinct shapes now took form—still amorphous, but clearly individual beings rather than aspects of a single entity. Each pulsed with a different frequency of energy, colors spanning the spectrum from blood-red to midnight blue.

Hagoromo's voice cut through the chaos, addressing his sons even as he maintained the separation technique. "They need... purpose. Direction. Otherwise, they'll revert to mindless destruction."

"Give them personalities," Naruto blurted, inspiration striking like lightning. "Not just power—actual identities!"

Even in the midst of phenomenal strain, Hagoromo managed to look surprised. "Personalities?"

"Yes!" Naruto's eyes blazed with conviction. "Names, characteristics, individual wills. If they're just living weapons, they'll be feared and hunted forever. But if they're beings with thoughts and feelings—people will have to acknowledge them!"

Tetsuo's brow furrowed. "That's... unprecedented. No one has ever attempted to create sentient chakra constructs at this scale."

"Maybe that's the problem!" Naruto insisted, never taking his eyes off the forming entities. "Maybe that's why the world falls into cycles of hatred—because we keep treating power as something to control instead of something to understand!"

For a moment, the three men stood frozen in tableau—Hagoromo contemplating his son's revolutionary suggestion while chakra swirled around them like a multicolored hurricane. Then, slowly, the Sage nodded.

"Very well." His hands shifted, forming a seal none of his sons recognized. "Creation of All Things—Divine Consciousness."

The nine chakra masses pulsed, their forms solidifying further as Hagoromo channeled not just power but consciousness into each. The chamber filled with blinding light as the technique reached its climax, forcing Naruto and Tetsuo to shield their eyes.

When the radiance faded, nine distinct creatures stood within the remnants of the seal—each unique in appearance, size, and demeanor.

A massive tanuki with sand-colored fur and black markings glared suspiciously at them through yellow irises set in black sclera. Beside it, a two-tailed cat composed of blue flames stretched languorously. A three-tailed turtle stomped massive feet, creating small tremors. And so they continued—each beast bearing one more tail than the last, culminating in an enormous fox with nine undulating tails that seemed to command the attention of the entire room.

For a breathless moment, no one moved. The newly-created tailed beasts regarded their makers with expressions ranging from confusion to outright hostility.

The fox—largest and most imposing of all—curled its lip to reveal gleaming fangs. "What trickery is this?" it growled, voice deep and resonant, layers of power rippling beneath each syllable. "One moment we are one, the next nine? Explain yourselves, humans."

Hagoromo stepped forward, exhaustion evident in the slump of his shoulders but dignity undiminished. "Not humans. I am Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, and these are my sons. We have freed you from the mindless rage of the Ten-Tails."

"Freed?" The fox laughed, a harsh sound that made the chamber's pillars tremble. "You've carved us up like meat at a butcher's block!"

Naruto moved before thinking, stepping past his father to stand directly before the massive fox. "That's not true! You were imprisoned before—stuck inside a monster with no will of your own. Now you're... you!"

The fox's enormous head lowered until one crimson eye—larger than Naruto's entire body—fixed upon him. "And who might you be, little morsel, to speak so boldly to Kurama?"

Naruto blinked, momentarily taken aback. "Kurama? Is that... your name?"

"Of course it's my name!" the fox snarled. "Do you think I wouldn't know my own—" He stopped abruptly, confusion replacing hostility in his massive eyes. "How... do I know that?"

"I've given each of you names and awareness," Hagoromo explained, gesturing to encompass all nine beasts. "Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Gokū, Kokuō, Saiken, Chōmei, Gyūki, and Kurama. You are no longer merely fragments of the Ten-Tails, but beings in your own right."

The two-tailed cat—Matatabi—tilted her flaming head. "For what purpose? So we may better serve as your weapons?" Her voice carried a feminine lilt despite its underlying growl.

"No!" Naruto protested before his father could respond. "So you can be free!"

Eight pairs of eyes shifted to stare at him with varying degrees of skepticism. Kurama snorted, hot breath ruffling Naruto's hair.

"Free?" the nine-tails echoed. "Nothing born of human hands has ever been truly free."

"We're not exactly human," Tetsuo interjected, stepping forward to stand beside his brother. "And you weren't born—you were released. There's a difference."

Naruto nodded emphatically. "You all have your own chakra now, your own thoughts. You don't have to follow anyone's orders—not even Father's."

The tailed beasts exchanged glances, silent communication passing between them. It was Gyūki, the eight-tails, who spoke next—his voice surprisingly measured for his monstrous appearance.

"If not weapons, then what would you have us be in this world?"

Naruto's face lit with a grin so genuine it seemed to brighten the dim chamber. "Partners! Friends, maybe, if you wanted. Definitely not slaves or tools."

Kurama threw back his head and laughed—a sound like mountains collapsing. "Friends! The cub thinks we could be friends! How delightfully naive."

"I'm serious!" Naruto's eyes flashed with stubborn determination. "Power doesn't have to corrupt or control. It can connect. That's what Father's been teaching us about Ninshū, right?"

The fox's laughter died abruptly, replaced by calculating interest. His massive tails swished through the air, stirring up dust and debris. "Your cub has strange ideas, Sage of Six Paths."

"Indeed," Hagoromo agreed, a touch of pride warming his exhausted features. "Though in this case, I believe he may be wiser than his father."

Son Gokū, the four-tailed monkey, beat his chest impatiently. "Pretty words, but what happens now? You've created us—do we simply walk away into the wilderness? Humans will hunt us for our power the moment they sense us."

"I have considered this," Hagoromo acknowledged. "I propose a covenant between us. I will provide each of you territory—sacred spaces where humans dare not trespass. In return, you will maintain balance in natural energy and assist me in one final task."

"And that task would be?" Shukaku demanded, sand swirling agitatedly around his rotund form.

"Preventing Kaguya's return," Hagoromo answered simply. "She will seek to reclaim the power I've divided among you. If she succeeds, all consciousness—yours and humanity's alike—will be subsumed into her eternal dream."

Silence fell as the tailed beasts absorbed this information. It was Kurama who broke it, crimson eyes narrowing as he regarded Naruto with peculiar intensity.

"This one," the fox rumbled, tails gesturing toward Naruto. "There's something different about him. He smells of... me."

Naruto startled, unconsciously touching the spot on his stomach where a seal might have existed in another lifetime. "What do you mean?"

Kurama leaned closer, nostrils flaring as he inhaled Naruto's scent. "Your chakra resonates with mine, as if we've been connected before. Impossible, since I've only existed in this form for moments... and yet..."

Hagoromo exchanged a meaningful glance with his eldest son, neither willing to explain the complexities of rewritten timelines to these newly-formed beings.

"Perhaps some connections transcend time itself," the Sage offered cryptically. "Naruto has always had an affinity for sensing and understanding chakra that even I find remarkable."

The fox's eyes narrowed further, clearly unsatisfied with this explanation, but he withdrew without pressing the issue.

"Your covenant has merit, Sage," Gyūki declared after conferring silently with his siblings. "But we require assurance of our autonomy. We will not be used as weapons in human conflicts."

"You have my word," Hagoromo placed his hand over his heart. "I will make it known throughout the lands that you are not tools but guardians of natural balance. Sacred beings to be respected, not exploited."

Chōmei, the seven-tailed beetle, buzzed her wings skeptically. "Humans rarely heed such edicts once power is at stake."

"Which is why each of you will retain your full strength," Naruto interjected passionately. "You'll be able to defend yourselves if anyone tries to capture or control you."

Kurama's massive head swung back toward Naruto, renewed interest gleaming in his crimson eyes. "You speak as if you care what becomes of us, little human."

"I do care!" Naruto stepped even closer to the towering fox, fearless despite the power differential. "Because everyone deserves freedom and respect—even giant chakra foxes with attitude problems!"

A shocked silence fell over the chamber. Tetsuo pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "idiot." Hagoromo seemed to be fighting the urge to smile despite the gravity of the situation.

Kurama stared at Naruto for one long, tense moment—then did something none of them expected. He laughed. Not the mocking, threatening sound from before, but something almost genuine.

"You're either the bravest or most foolish human I've ever encountered," the fox declared, tails swishing with what might have been amusement.

Naruto's grin returned full force. "I've been told it's a bit of both."

With that exchange, some invisible tension in the chamber dissipated. The tailed beasts, while still wary, seemed less openly hostile. Even Shukaku's aggressive sand settled into calmer patterns around his feet.

Hagoromo seized the moment, formally outlining terms that would establish a tentative peace between the tailed beasts and humanity. Each would receive territory according to their nature—deserts for Shukaku, volcanic regions for Son Gokū, islands for Isobu, and so forth.

As the details were settled, Naruto found himself repeatedly drawn into conversation with Kurama, the two developing an unexpected rapport that didn't go unnoticed by the others present.

"You're making friends with the most powerful and temperamental of all the tailed beasts," Tetsuo observed during a brief moment alone with his brother. "Naturally."

Naruto shrugged, watching as Kurama argued some point with Gyūki across the chamber. "He reminds me of someone."

"Who?"

"You, actually," Naruto grinned at Tetsuo's affronted expression. "All prickly on the outside but not as mean as he wants everyone to think."

Tetsuo scoffed, though a reluctant smile tugged at his lips. "I am nothing like that walking natural disaster."

"Sure, sure," Naruto clapped his brother on the shoulder. "You're much prettier."

Their banter was interrupted as Hagoromo called everyone's attention back to more pressing matters. The tailed beasts would depart for their designated territories by nightfall, but first, the Sage had one final announcement.

"Before you leave," he addressed the nine beings, voice carrying the weight of prophetic significance, "know that I will soon choose a successor to carry forward the principles of Ninshū and maintain balance in this world after I am gone."

A murmur ran through the assembled creatures. It was Matatabi who voiced what many were thinking. "And this successor will have authority over us?"

"No," Hagoromo shook his head firmly. "The successor will be a guide, not a ruler. Someone who understands that true power lies in connection, not control."

Every eye in the chamber—human and beast alike—turned instinctively toward Naruto, who shifted uncomfortably under the collective scrutiny.

"When will you announce this decision?" Gyūki inquired, eight tails swaying thoughtfully behind him.

"At the next full moon," Hagoromo replied. "Representatives from all the major clans will gather to witness the ceremony. It is essential that humans understand the new covenant with the tailed beasts, and the philosophy that must guide chakra's use in the world."

Kurama's massive head swiveled toward Naruto once more, crimson eyes narrowing speculatively. "Interesting times ahead, it seems."

The fox's words carried prophetic weight that settled uncomfortably in the pit of Naruto's stomach.

---

News of Hagoromo's impending announcement spread across the land like wildfire, igniting speculation and political maneuvering among the nascent shinobi clans. The compound that had once been a peaceful sanctuary transformed overnight into a hub of diplomatic activity as clan representatives arrived daily, each bearing gifts and thinly-veiled ambitions.

"This is insufferable," Tetsuo muttered, watching from a balcony as yet another procession wound its way up the mountain path. Elaborately armored warriors flanked palanquins bearing clan elders, banners snapping in the breeze. "The Uchiha delegation is even larger than yesterday's Senju contingent."

Naruto leaned against the railing beside his brother, unusually subdued. "They're all hoping Father will choose their clan for special recognition."

"When they should know he'd never be so short-sighted," Tetsuo sniffed. "Still, you have to admire their optimism."

Below them, servants scurried to accommodate the newest arrivals, directing them to increasingly cramped guest quarters. The compound grounds, designed for solitude and contemplation, now teemed with strangers whose chakra signatures created a cacophony that made both brothers uncomfortable.

"Do you think he's made his decision yet?" Naruto asked suddenly, blue eyes tracking a falcon circling high above the crowded courtyard.

Tetsuo gave his brother a sidelong glance. "You know he has."

"Yeah." Naruto's fingers tightened on the wooden railing. "I guess I do."

Something in his tone made Tetsuo turn fully toward him, dark eyes sharper than usual. "You're worried."

It wasn't a question, but Naruto answered anyway. "Aren't you? This whole succession thing—it's turning into exactly what Father wanted to avoid. Politics. Power struggles. Everyone looking for an advantage."

"That's human nature," Tetsuo observed dispassionately. "Father can divide the Ten-Tails and create sentient chakra beasts, but even he can't eliminate ambition."

Naruto straightened suddenly, resolution hardening his features. "We should talk to him. Make sure he understands what's happening out here."

Without waiting for a response, he pushed away from the railing and strode toward their father's private chambers, Tetsuo following with a resigned sigh.

They found Hagoromo in deep meditation, floating several inches above the floor with his staff balanced across his knees. The Sage's eyes opened as they entered, Rinnegan gleaming with awareness that suggested he'd been expecting them.

"My sons," he greeted them warmly. "I was just communing with the tailed beasts. They've settled into their territories remarkably well."

"Even Kurama?" Naruto couldn't help asking, a smile tugging at his lips.

"Especially Kurama," Hagoromo's eyes crinkled with amusement. "Though he'd be loath to admit it, he finds the forests north of Mount Myōboku quite to his liking. But I sense you didn't come to discuss our new allies' living arrangements."

Naruto glanced at Tetsuo, who nodded encouragingly. "Father, have you seen what's happening outside? The clan delegations, the politicking—it's turning your succession announcement into exactly the kind of power struggle you've always warned against."

Hagoromo sighed, gravity settling over his features. "I've observed. It is... disappointing, if not unexpected."

"Then why continue with the ceremony?" Tetsuo asked bluntly. "Why not simply name your successor privately and avoid the spectacle entirely?"

The Sage's staff twirled slowly between his fingers as he considered his response. "Because symbols matter. Because public commitments are harder to abandon. Because the world needs to witness the passing of authority from one generation to the next—not as conquest, but as continuity."

"And if your choice causes conflict?" Naruto pressed, uncharacteristically serious. "What if the clans that aren't favored decide to take matters into their own hands?"

"Then that would be regrettable," Hagoromo replied evenly, "but not surprising. Change never comes without resistance, especially when it challenges existing power structures."

The brothers exchanged glances, a silent conversation passing between them. It was Tetsuo who voiced their shared concern.

"Have you considered not choosing either of us?"

Hagoromo's eyebrows rose marginally. "Explain."

"The clans would accept an outsider more readily than either of your sons," Tetsuo continued, his analytical mind dissecting the political landscape with characteristic precision. "They'd see it as fair—arbitrary, perhaps, but not nepotistic. Someone like Arata from the Senju clan, or Hikaru of the Hyūga. Both are reasonable men with moderate views."

"And both would be torn apart by more ambitious factions within weeks," Hagoromo countered, not unkindly. "No, my choice must have not only wisdom but power sufficient to enforce that wisdom when necessary."

Naruto paced the room, restless energy making it impossible to stand still. "But that's exactly the problem! The moment you attach power to the position, it becomes something to fight over rather than a responsibility to shoulder."

A smile spread slowly across Hagoromo's bearded face, pride evident in his ancient eyes. "You understand more than you realize, Naruto."

Before further discussion could unfold, a commotion erupted outside—shouts and the sound of running feet, followed by a crash that shook the entire building.

"What now?" Tetsuo muttered, already moving toward the door with fluid grace.

They emerged into chaos. In the main courtyard, clan delegates had formed defensive circles, weapons drawn as they faced off against each other. At the center of the disturbance stood two men—one bearing the red and white fan of the Uchiha clan, the other the distinctive armor of the Senju.

"Your clan has always coveted what isn't theirs!" the Uchiha shouted, his eyes bleeding into crimson as the earliest form of Sharingan activated. "We won't allow you to monopolize the Sage's favor!"

"Rich accusations from thieves who steal techniques with those cursed eyes!" the Senju countered, wood beginning to sprout from the ground around his feet—the first manifestation of what would one day become Mokuton.

Chakra surged as both men prepared techniques that would undoubtedly devastate the surrounding area and anyone caught within it.

"ENOUGH!"

The command cracked across the courtyard like thunder, freezing everyone in place. Hagoromo descended the steps, flanked by his sons, power radiating from him in tangible waves that pressed the gathered shinobi to their knees.

"This is how you honor the invitation of the Sage of Six Paths?" His voice carried disappointment sharper than any blade. "With petty squabbles and threats of violence in his own home?"

The courtyard fell silent, shame evident on many faces. The Uchiha and Senju combatants dropped their hands, chakra receding as they bowed their heads.

"Forgive us, Lord Sage," the Uchiha murmured, eyes returning to their normal black. "Tensions have been... high."

"So I see." Hagoromo surveyed the assembled clans, Rinnegan gleaming with ancient wisdom. "Perhaps it is time to end speculation and make my intentions clear."

A ripple of anticipation swept through the crowd. Naruto tensed beside his father, acutely aware that history itself seemed to hang in the balance of the next few moments.

Hagoromo raised his staff, channeling chakra that caused it to glow with inner light. "Let all present bear witness. Three nights hence, at the full moon, I will name my successor—the one who will carry forward the principles of Ninshū and guide humanity's use of chakra in the generations to come."

Murmurs broke out among the delegates, questions forming on eager lips. Hagoromo silenced them with a gesture.

"Until then, there will be no more demonstrations of power, no more political maneuvering. Any clan that cannot abide by these terms will forfeit consideration permanently." His gaze swept the courtyard, lingering on the Uchiha and Senju representatives. "Am I understood?"

Nods and murmured agreement rippled through the crowd. Satisfied, Hagoromo turned to reenter the building, his sons following closely.

"That will only delay the inevitable," Tetsuo observed once they were out of earshot. "You've given them a deadline for their scheming, not ended it."

"Perhaps," Hagoromo acknowledged. "But sometimes, knowing a decision is imminent forces reflection rather than reaction."

Naruto remained uncharacteristically quiet, thoughts churning behind eyes that had seen too much for his young years. Two timelines—memories of the past that had been and visions of a future that would never unfold—converged in his mind.

"Father," he said finally as they reached the privacy of the inner sanctum, "whatever you decide... I'll support it. We both will." He glanced at Tetsuo, who gave a single, solemn nod.

Hagoromo regarded his sons with complicated emotion. "I never doubted it. Now go—help restore order among our guests. I have preparations to complete."

The brothers bowed respectfully before departing, leaving the Sage alone with thoughts as ancient as the chakra he commanded.

---

Midnight oil burned low in Hagoromo's study as he meticulously inscribed seals onto a massive scroll. The brush in his hand moved with deliberate precision, each stroke channeling not just ink but chakra onto the parchment. Nine distinct sections took shape under his careful ministrations—one for each tailed beast.

"A failsafe," he murmured to himself, adding a final flourish to the complex matrix. "Should the worst occur."

A sudden chill swept through the room, guttering the lamp flame and raising gooseflesh on the Sage's arms. He stiffened, brush poised mid-stroke, as reality itself seemed to bend around a presence he knew all too well.

"Always planning, always scheming," a melodic voice chimed from the shadows, beautiful and terrible at once. "Did you truly believe I wouldn't notice?"

Hagoromo set down his brush with deliberate calm, though his heart hammered against ancient ribs. "Kaguya. I wondered when you would return."

She stepped into the pool of lamplight—ethereal, perfect, and utterly inhuman. Horns gleamed atop her head, the third eye in her forehead half-lidded but watchful. Her white robes floated around her as if underwater, defying gravity just as she herself did.

"You divided my power," she stated, no inflection in her musical voice. "Carved away pieces of me and gave them consciousness to spite me."

"To free them," Hagoromo corrected, rising to his full height. "As I once tried to free you from the God Tree's corruption."

Kaguya tilted her head, the gesture reminiscent of a curious bird examining something small and potentially edible. "And now you prepare to name a successor. To ensure your betrayal outlives you."

The air between them thickened with tension, chakra pressing against chakra like tectonic plates threatening earthquake.

"How did you discover my plans?" Hagoromo asked, genuinely curious despite the danger.

A smile ghosted across Kaguya's perfect lips. "I have eyes everywhere, husband. Devoted followers who worship me as I always deserved." Her gaze drifted to the scroll on his desk. "Another seal? Always seals with you. Always trying to contain what should be free."

"You speak of freedom while seeking to enslave all humanity in eternal dream," Hagoromo countered. "That is not freedom but its antithesis."

"SILENCE!"

The command exploded from her with physical force, cracking the stone floor beneath them. Her third eye opened fully, blazing with furious chakra. "You will not lecture me on freedom when you've stolen what was rightfully mine!"

Outside, alarms began to sound—clan sentries detecting the surge of malevolent chakra. Footsteps pounded through corridors as shinobi mobilized for defense.

Kaguya's smile widened, becoming something terrible to behold. "Your little gathering saved me considerable effort, husband. All the strongest bloodlines assembled in one place—how thoughtful."

Horror dawned in Hagoromo's eyes as he realized her intent. "You wouldn't."

"I would." She floated higher, all three eyes now radiating blinding light. "I'll take my power back, piece by piece. Beginning with our sons."

The door burst open as Naruto and Tetsuo charged in, alerted by the chakra disturbance. They skidded to a halt at the sight of their mother hovering before their father, power rolling off her in waves that made the very air shimmer and distort.

"Mother?" Naruto's voice cracked on the word, hope and fear warring in his expression.

Kaguya's head rotated toward him, movement unnaturally fluid. For a heartbeat, something flickered in her pale eyes—recognition, perhaps even affection. Then her third eye fixed on him, and that momentary humanity vanished.

"My firstborn," she murmured. "The catalyst that altered everything. How fitting that you should witness the restoration of proper order."

Naruto took a step forward despite Tetsuo's restraining hand on his arm. "Mother, please. Whatever you're planning—it doesn't have to be this way. We can help you."

"Help me?" Kaguya's laughter chimed like breaking crystal. "Child, I am beyond help. Beyond mortal constraints. Beyond even time itself, as your father discovered when he tried to rewrite history."

Naruto froze, confusion etching across his features. "Rewrite...?"

"She speaks in riddles," Hagoromo interrupted, moving to place himself between Kaguya and his sons. "The God Tree's influence has corrupted her mind completely."

Kaguya's expression hardened. "Always lies, husband. Even now, you keep secrets from our children." Her third eye swiveled to focus solely on Naruto. "Ask him about the timeline he erased. Ask him why you dream of a village hidden in leaves and a boy with eyes like your brother's. Ask him why chakra that isn't yours answers your call."

"Father?" Naruto looked to Hagoromo, bewilderment and hurt clouding his normally clear eyes. "What is she talking about?"

Before the Sage could answer, Kaguya raised her arms. Reality fractured around her fingertips, dimensional gateways opening throughout the compound. Through these tears in space, gigantic wooden constructs emerged—humanoid figures with blank faces and reaching arms.

"These are my Divine Trees," Kaguya announced as chaos erupted beyond the study walls. Screams and the clash of weapons echoed as clan shinobi engaged the monstrous wooden beings. "They will harvest the chakra of every human here to fuel my return to power."

"You'll destroy everything!" Tetsuo shouted, abandoning composure in the face of such threat. "Even your own sons!"

Kaguya regarded him with something almost like pity. "I'll remake you better, child. Purged of your father's weakness."

"ENOUGH!" Hagoromo's voice thundered with authority as he slammed his staff against the floor. A barrier of pure chakra erupted around the study, temporarily sealing them off from the chaos outside. "Naruto, Tetsuo—go! Rally the clan leaders. Evacuate everyone you can."

"We're not leaving you!" Naruto protested.

"That wasn't a request!" For perhaps the first time in his sons' memory, Hagoromo's tone brooked absolutely no argument. "Go, now! Do as I command!"

Something in his expression must have conveyed the deadly seriousness of the situation, for even Naruto hesitated only briefly before nodding. "Come on," he urged Tetsuo, dragging his brother toward the door.

"How touching," Kaguya murmured as the young men reluctantly departed. "A father's sacrifice. It won't save them, you know. Nothing can stop what comes next."

Hagoromo's hands formed a complex seal, chakra gathering around him in a maelstrom of energy. "Perhaps not. But I will die trying nonetheless."

Outside, Naruto and Tetsuo raced through corridors already filling with smoke and debris. Divine Tree constructs smashed through walls and ceilings, wooden limbs grasping at fleeing clan members.

"We need to get everyone out of the compound!" Naruto shouted over the din, pulling a disoriented Hyūga elder to his feet. "Head for the eastern pass! It's the fastest route down the mountain!"

Tetsuo nodded, already implementing his brother's directive with characteristic efficiency. His hands flashed through seals, creating a massive fire barrier that temporarily blocked pursuing constructs.

"What about Father?" he called as they guided panicked delegates toward escape routes.

Naruto's face hardened, determination settling over his features like a mask. "We follow his orders first. Then..." His fists clenched at his sides, chakra flaring gold-blue around his body. "Then we come back for him."

A tremendous explosion rocked the compound's foundation, originating from Hagoromo's study. Stone and wood rained down as an entire wing collapsed, crushing everything beneath it.

"FATHER!" Both brothers screamed in unison, instinctively starting back toward the destruction.

Before they could take three steps, a shockwave of pure chakra knocked them off their feet. The night sky above the compound distorted, stars blurring as reality itself bent under Kaguya's power. The moon—nearly full—rippled as if made of water, its surface transforming to reflect a massive, hypnotic eye.

"The Infinite Tsukuyomi," Tetsuo whispered in horror. "She's beginning the ritual!"

Naruto grabbed his brother's shoulder, blue eyes blazing with desperate resolve. "We need the tailed beasts. Now!"

Understanding flashed between them. If Hagoromo had fallen, only the nine beings he'd created from the Ten-Tails' chakra stood any chance against Kaguya's godlike power.

"How?" Tetsuo demanded as they dodged falling debris. "They're scattered across the continent!"

A memory—or perhaps a vision from another timeline—flashed through Naruto's mind. His hand went to the pouch at his hip, withdrawing one of the special kunai he'd created months earlier. The communication seal inscribed on the handle pulsed with latent energy.

"I have an idea," he said, eyes reflecting the fires consuming their childhood home. "But you're probably going to hate it."

Behind them, Kaguya rose through the collapsing roof of Hagoromo's study, arms spread wide as dimensional gateways continued to multiply across the compound grounds. Her laughter—beautiful and terrible—echoed across the mountainside as human screams provided gruesome counterpoint.

The battle for the future had begun.

# What If Hagoromo Reversed Time and Chose Naruto as His First Son?

## CHAPTER 6: MOTHER'S WRATH

The sky fractured like breaking glass as Kaguya descended, her ghostly form trailing wisps of otherworldly energy. The moon—now a massive, hypnotic eye—cast sickly pale light across the compound's burning ruins. Where her bare feet touched earth, vegetation withered and crumbled to ash.

"MOVE!" Naruto shoved Tetsuo behind a fallen pillar as one of Kaguya's bone spears shattered the ground where they'd stood moments before. The impact sent rock fragments spraying like shrapnel, slicing shallow cuts across Naruto's whiskered cheeks.

Tetsuo's hands flashed through seals. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" A dozen miniature fireballs spiraled toward Kaguya, each containing a hidden shuriken at its core.

She didn't bother dodging. With a dismissive flick of her wrist, the fireballs inverted—flames sucked inward until nothing remained but the metal weapons, which clattered harmlessly to the ground.

"Is this the best my children can offer?" Her voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere, musical yet terrible. "How disappointing."

The compound lay in ruins around them. What had once been a sanctuary was now a battlefield strewn with bodies—clan representatives caught in the initial assault, their chakra harvested by Kaguya's wooden constructs. Those still alive had fled down the mountain, guided by the few shinobi who'd maintained their composure in the face of godlike power.

Naruto's fingers dug into pulverized stone as he pulled himself up, blood streaming from a gash above his eye. "Where's Father?"

As if summoned by the question, a massive chakra signature flared amidst the destruction. Hagoromo emerged from the rubble of his collapsed study, his robes torn and stained, but the Rinnegan blazing in his eyes with undiminished power.

"Kaguya!" The Sage's voice thundered across the devastation. "This ends now!"

She turned languorously, all three eyes focusing on her husband. "Indeed it does." Her pale hand extended, and reality distorted around her fingers. "Return what you've stolen from me, husband, and perhaps I'll grant our sons mercy."

Naruto scrambled toward his father, dodging through debris as wooden constructs lunged at him from every direction. He slid the final distance, coming to rest at Hagoromo's side just as Tetsuo materialized on their father's other flank.

"Are you alright?" Naruto panted, scanning the Sage for injuries.

"Focus on the threat, not on me." Hagoromo's voice remained steady despite the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "We must implement the contingency plan."

Tetsuo's normally composed face tightened with alarm. "The nine-point seal? Here? Now? We'd need all nine tailed beasts, and they're scattered across—"

"Not all of them." Hagoromo's hands formed a seal Naruto had never seen before. "I've summoned Kurama. The others will follow his chakra signature."

As if on cue, a bone-rattling roar split the night. Over the mountain's ridge, an enormous silhouette appeared—nine massive tails lashing against the corrupted moon's light. Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox, had answered the call.

Kaguya's perfect features contorted with rage. "NO!" Her outstretched hand clenched into a fist, and the ground beneath them liquefied, becoming a churning sea of gravitational energy that threatened to crush them into nothingness.

"Universal Pull!" Hagoromo countered, his Rinnegan pulsing as he manipulated the very forces Kaguya had unleashed. The gravity well stabilized enough for his sons to leap clear, landing on more solid ground.

Kurama bounded into the devastated compound, each massive paw impact shaking the mountain. "Sage!" the fox growled, crimson eyes narrowing as they fixed on Kaguya. "This is the threat you warned of? Your mate?"

"Former mate," Tetsuo corrected automatically, earning a sidelong glare from both Naruto and the fox.

"Really? Now?" Naruto hissed, ducking as another bone spear whistled past his ear.

Kaguya rose higher, her horned silhouette eclipsing the transformed moon. "My child," she addressed Kurama, her voice suddenly honeyed. "Don't you recognize your true mother? Come, return to me. Become whole again as you were meant to be."

Something like uncertainty flickered in Kurama's massive eyes, ancient instinct warring with newly-formed independence.

"Don't listen to her!" Naruto shouted, leaping onto a broken wall to place himself in the fox's line of sight. "She just wants to absorb your chakra—turn you back into a mindless weapon!"

The fox snorted, hot breath nearly knocking Naruto from his perch. "I'm not so easily manipulated, human kit."

"Then prove it!" Naruto challenged, blue eyes blazing. "Help us stop her before she enslaves every living thing on this planet!"

Kurama bared massive fangs in what might have been a grin. "Bossy little thing, aren't you? Very well—I'll fight, but on my terms."

Around the periphery of the ruined compound, more massive figures appeared—the remaining tailed beasts arriving one after another. Shukaku's sand-formed body crested a eastern ridge, while Matatabi's flaming blue form illuminated the forest to the north. Son Gokū and Kokuō charged up the southern path, their distinct four-tailed and five-tailed silhouettes unmistakable against the night sky.

Kaguya's eyes widened fractionally—the first hint of concern she'd shown. "You would turn my own power against me? Foolishness!" Her hands formed a series of seals so complex they blurred, and the air around her began to crystallize into ice-like dimensional fragments.

"Truth-Seeking Orbs!" Hagoromo commanded, summoning a ring of black spheres that orbited him like miniature planets. They expanded, forming a protective barrier around the Sage and his sons just as Kaguya's technique detonated.

The explosion transcended conventional force—it was reality itself rupturing. Space-time fractured across the entire mountaintop, sending everyone except Kaguya herself flying like leaves in a hurricane. Naruto slammed into a stone wall with enough force to crack ribs, while Tetsuo disappeared entirely, sucked into one of the dimensional rifts that now pockmarked the battlefield.

"TETSUO!" Naruto screamed, struggling to his feet despite the searing pain in his chest. Blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth—punctured lung, his body told him clinically.

"Focus, Naruto!" Hagoromo's voice cut through his panic. The Sage stood firm despite the devastation, Truth-Seeking Orbs reforming around him. "Your brother is resourceful. We must trust him to find his way back."

Kurama skidded to a halt nearby, tails lashing defensively. "Impressive, Rabbit Goddess," the fox growled, crimson eyes narrowed to slits. "But I'm not rejoining you willingly."

"Willingness is irrelevant." Kaguya's third eye opened fully, blazing with hypnotic power. "All chakra returns to its source eventually."

She gestured, and the dimensional rifts began to pulse, each one exuding tendrils of hungry chakra that reached for the tailed beasts. Gyūki, the Eight-Tails, bellowed in pain as one tendril latched onto his muscular arm, instantly beginning to drain his energy.

"We need the nine-point seal!" Hagoromo called to Naruto, his voice strained as he used multiple Truth-Seeking Orbs to sever the chakra tendrils attacking the tailed beasts. "But it requires all nine beasts in formation!"

Naruto's mind raced, adrenaline temporarily overriding his injuries. Tetsuo was missing, Kaguya was actively draining the tailed beasts, and the corrupted moon overhead was growing brighter by the second—a sure sign that the Infinite Tsukuyomi was approaching completion.

Something clicked in his mind—a memory or instinct from that other timeline, that other life. Without consciously deciding to, Naruto found himself dropping into a meditative stance, hands forming a seal that felt simultaneously foreign and intimately familiar.

"What are you doing?" Hagoromo shouted, deflecting another of Kaguya's attacks with visible effort. "We need action, not meditation!"

"Trust me!" Naruto called back, eyes already closed as he reached outward with his senses. The natural energy of the world around him—the mountain, the trees, the very air—suddenly became visible to his perception. It flowed like countless rivers, interconnected and alive with possibility.

"Natural energy," he whispered, understanding blooming. This was the power he'd glimpsed in dreams of another life—Sage Mode.

His body began to absorb the energy automatically, as if it remembered a training his current self had never undergone. The pain in his ribs faded as accelerated healing kicked in, and when he opened his eyes, Hagoromo actually took a step back in shock.

"Your eyes..." the Sage breathed.

Naruto couldn't see himself, but he knew instinctively that his pupils had changed—horizontal rectangles, toad-like, marked him as having entered an imperfect Sage Mode. Raw power surged through his system, heightening every sense to supernatural levels.

"I can track Tetsuo," he stated with absolute certainty, the dimensional rifts now visible to him as tears in the fabric of natural energy. "And I can help channel chakra for the nine-point seal."

Before Hagoromo could respond, Kaguya attacked again—this time targeting Naruto directly. She recognized the threat his new power posed. Bone spears materialized around her, firing toward him like white lightning.

Naruto didn't dodge. In Sage Mode, the spears seemed to move in slow motion. He caught the first one bare-handed, the enhanced strength in his fingers allowing him to snap it in half. The second and third he deflected with precise taps, altering their trajectory just enough to miss him.

The fourth he caught and, in a fluid motion that surprised even himself, hurled back at Kaguya with augmented force.

She bat it aside contemptuously, but her expressionless face betrayed a flicker of genuine surprise. "What are you?" she demanded, floating closer to examine this new development. "This power isn't your father's."

"I'm your son," Naruto answered, golden chakra visibly mixing with the green-blue energy of Sage Mode around his body. "But I'm also something you never expected."

Without warning, he launched himself at her—moving so fast he seemed to teleport. His fist, encased in nature energy, connected with an invisible barrier inches from Kaguya's face. The impact created a thunderclap that cleared the smoke from the battlefield, revealing the full extent of the devastation.

Kaguya drifted backward, reassessing. "Interesting. You've acquired sage techniques without training." Her third eye focused on him intently. "There's something... altered about your chakra pathway. As if it's been overwritten."

"Naruto!" Hagoromo called, urgency in his voice. "I've located Tetsuo! One of the rifts leads to an ice dimension. I can maintain a connection briefly, but you'll need to retrieve him!"

"On it!" In a flash of enhanced speed, Naruto bounded toward the pulsing rift his father indicated. The swirling vortex of space-time energy would have been suicide to enter normally, but with Sage Mode, he could perceive the currents and flows within the distortion.

Kaguya moved to intercept, but found her path blocked by a massive orange paw. Kurama had positioned himself between the goddess and Naruto.

"Your quarrel is with me, Mother," the fox growled, tails spreading wide in challenge. "After all, I hold the largest portion of your stolen power."

Naruto didn't wait to see her response. Taking a deep breath, he hurled himself into the dimensional rift, letting Sage Mode guide his passage through the twisting corridors of space-time.

The transition felt like being turned inside out while simultaneously being compressed to the size of a grain of sand. When reality reasserted itself, Naruto found himself standing on a vast plain of ice under a pale lavender sky. Jagged crystal mountains rose in the distance, reflecting light in hypnotic patterns.

"Tetsuo!" he shouted, voice echoing across the frozen wasteland.

No answer came, but Sage Mode enhanced his sensory perception dramatically. He detected a familiar chakra signature about two miles distant—dimmer than normal, but unmistakably his brother's.

Channeling chakra to his feet, Naruto sprinted across the ice, covering the distance in minutes. He found Tetsuo wedged in a crevasse, his lower body pinned beneath a collapsed ice formation. His normally pale face had taken on a bluish tinge, lips nearly purple with cold.

"Took... you... long enough," Tetsuo managed through chattering teeth, attempting his usual sardonic tone despite obvious pain.

"Yeah, yeah, I got distracted by the nice scenery," Naruto retorted, relief making his voice thick as he began carefully shifting ice chunks away from his brother's trapped legs. "How bad?"

"Left... femur... definitely broken. Right... uncertain." Tetsuo's clinical self-assessment was undermined by the involuntary groan that escaped when Naruto moved a particularly large piece of ice.

"Sorry, sorry!" Naruto winced in sympathy. Using Sage Mode's enhanced strength, he finally cleared enough debris to reveal the extent of the damage. Tetsuo's left leg was indeed broken, the bone visibly misaligned beneath torn fabric. His right appeared intact but severely bruised.

"This is going to hurt," Naruto warned, positioning himself to lift his brother.

Tetsuo attempted a dismissive scoff that came out more like a whimper. "Just... do it."

Naruto carefully gathered his brother into his arms, trying to stabilize the broken leg as much as possible. Tetsuo bit back a scream, his fingers digging into Naruto's shoulder hard enough to leave bruises.

"Wait," Tetsuo gasped once the initial wave of pain had subsided. "Your eyes... what happened to you?"

"Long story. Tell you after we save the world." Naruto adjusted his grip, making sure he had his brother secure. "Hold tight. The return trip's going to be rough."

The dimensional rift pulsed about fifty yards away—visible to Naruto's Sage-enhanced perception as a tear in the natural energy field. He took a deep breath, channeled chakra to his legs, and sprinted toward it.

"Naruto," Tetsuo said suddenly, his voice steadier than it had been. "If we don't make it back—"

"Save the touching speech," Naruto cut him off with a grin that crinkled his whisker marks. "We're definitely making it back."

They hit the rift at full speed, reality inverting around them in a kaleidoscope of sensory overload. This time, the transition felt like being stretched across infinite distance before snapping back like a rubber band.

They erupted back onto the battlefield amid a scene of chaotic devastation. During their absence, the tailed beasts had fully engaged with Kaguya, turning the mountain peak into an apocalyptic warzone. Massive craters pockmarked the ground, dimensional rifts tore through the sky like wounds, and the corrupted moon overhead had grown so bright it cast shadows as harsh as midday sun.

Hagoromo stood at the center of it all, maintaining a complex sealing array that stretched hundreds of feet in every direction. Golden chains of pure chakra extended from the array, binding several of the tailed beasts in position despite their continued battle with Kaguya's wood constructs.

"Father!" Naruto shouted, carefully setting Tetsuo down behind a protective outcropping. "We made it!"

The Sage's head snapped toward them, relief momentarily breaking through his intense concentration. "Hurry! The seal requires all three of us, and Kaguya is moments from unleashing the Infinite Tsukuyomi!"

Naruto glanced skyward, where Kaguya hovered directly before the transformed moon, her arms spread wide as she chanted in an ancient language that hurt the ears to hear. The air around her shimmered with accumulated power, reality itself bending to her will.

"Tetsuo can't move!" Naruto called back, gesturing to his brother's broken leg. "How can he—"

"Carry me to the third sealing point," Tetsuo interrupted, pushing himself upright with a grimace of determination. "I can still mold chakra, broken bones or not."

Naruto nodded, scooping his brother up again. Using Sage Mode's enhanced speed and perception, he navigated the battlefield in a series of blinding leaps, dodging wood constructs and bone spears with hairsbreadth precision.

They reached the third vertex of Hagoromo's massive triangular seal just as Kurama batted away three consecutive dimensional rifts with sweeps of his massive tails. The fox looked worse for wear—patches of fur missing, angry red welts visible on his exposed skin where Kaguya's attacks had connected.

"About time, kit," Kurama growled, positioning himself at the seal's northern point. The other tailed beasts were taking up similar positions—Gyūki to the northwest, Chōmei to the northeast, and so on until all nine formed a perfect circle around the triangular seal where Hagoromo and his sons would stand.

"What do we do?" Naruto asked, setting Tetsuo down carefully at the marked position.

"Channel everything you have into the seal," Hagoromo instructed, his voice strained from maintaining the massive construct. "Your chakra, your will, your very life force if necessary. This is our only chance to contain her."

Above them, Kaguya's chanting reached a crescendo. The corrupted moon pulsed once, twice—then began to rain down beams of silver light. Wherever these beams touched, reality rewrote itself. Trees transformed into grotesque fleshy cocoons, rocks melted like wax, and the very air became thick and syrupy.

"NOW!" Hagoromo roared, slamming his staff into the ground at the exact center of the triangle.

Naruto dropped to one knee, plunging both hands into the seal inscribed on the earth. Sage Mode allowed him to perceive the incredible complexity of Hagoromo's work—layer upon layer of interlinked chakra pathways, each attuned to a specific frequency of energy. His consciousness expanded outward, connecting with Tetsuo on his right and Hagoromo on his left, their three chakra signatures harmonizing despite their fundamental differences.

Through this connection, he sensed Tetsuo's pain—the broken femur was worse than it had appeared, bone fragments threatening a major artery. Yet his brother channeled that pain into razor-sharp focus, his precise chakra control allowing him to redirect energy with surgical accuracy despite his wounds.

From Hagoromo, Naruto felt something unexpected—fear. Not of Kaguya, but of failure. The weight of two timelines pressed down on the Sage's ancient shoulders, knowledge of consequences too terrible to articulate driving him beyond normal limits.

"She's targeting the seal!" Tetsuo shouted, eyes tracking Kaguya's movements through the Sharingan he'd activated in desperation. The tomoe in his eyes spun wildly as he predicted her next attack. "Three o'clock, incoming!"

Naruto didn't look up—couldn't, without breaking the seal's connection. Instead, he pushed more Sage energy into the matrix, reinforcing the section Tetsuo had indicated. He felt rather than saw Kaguya's attack connect, the impact reverberating through the chakra network like a stone dropped in still water.

"Hold!" Hagoromo commanded, his own massive chakra reserves flooding the seal to stabilize the disturbance. "We need ten more seconds for complete activation!"

Those ten seconds stretched like years. Kaguya, sensing the danger, abandoned all restraint. The sky itself split open, revealing glimpses of alien dimensions beyond—worlds of fire, of ice, of caustic acid and crushing gravity. Attacks poured through these rifts from every direction simultaneously.

Kurama roared in defiance, nine tails forming a protective canopy over the sealing triangle. The other tailed beasts added their own defenses—Shukaku's sand, Matatabi's blue fire, Isobu's coral formations—creating layers of protection that absorbed the worst of Kaguya's assault.

"Five seconds!" Hagoromo's voice had taken on an otherworldly resonance, the Rinnegan in his eyes spinning so rapidly they appeared as solid purple discs.

Naruto felt his Sage Mode beginning to falter, the strain of maintaining both it and the seal overwhelming even his monstrous chakra reserves. Darkness crept at the edges of his vision, and the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth.

"Three!"

Tetsuo collapsed to one side, the pain from his broken leg finally overwhelming his iron self-control. Yet somehow, impossibly, he kept his hands pressed to the seal, fingers white-knuckled with desperate determination.

"Two!"

Kaguya screamed—a sound like shattering galaxies. She abandoned her position by the moon, diving directly toward the sealing triangle with all three eyes blazing. "NO! I WILL NOT BE IMPRISONED AGAIN!"

"ONE!"

The seal activated with a soundless flash that momentarily blinded everyone on the mountain. When vision returned, reality had stabilized—dimensional rifts closed, wood constructs crumbled to dust, and the moon above returned to its normal silvery appearance.

At the center of the triangle, where Hagoromo's staff had stood, a small stone object now rested—a perfect sphere about the size of a man's fist, covered in microscopic sealing scripts that shifted and moved across its surface like living things.

Kaguya was nowhere to be seen.

"Is... is she gone?" Naruto croaked, collapsing onto his back. Sage Mode had completely dissipated, leaving him drained to the point of paralysis.

"Sealed," Hagoromo corrected, his own voice barely audible. The Sage had fallen to his knees, blood streaming from his eyes, nose, and ears. "Within... the sphere."

Tetsuo dragged himself across the ground until he could peer at the perfectly innocuous-looking object. "That holds her? All of her power?"

"For now." Hagoromo coughed violently, crimson spattering the ground before him. "Eventually... another vessel... will be needed."

Naruto forced himself onto his elbows, alarm cutting through his exhaustion. "Father? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

A sad smile crossed the Sage's blood-flecked lips. "The price... was higher than anticipated." He gestured weakly to his chest, where a spreading dark stain revealed the true extent of his sacrifice. A wound—invisible during the chaos of battle—had opened directly over his heart, chakra leaking from it in diminishing pulses.

"No!" Naruto crawled toward his father, desperation giving him strength he shouldn't have possessed. "We can fix this! Tetsuo, help me!"

Tetsuo, face ashen with combined pain and shock, shook his head slowly. "This isn't a physical wound, Naruto. It's his life force itself... he channeled too much into the seal."

"He's right," Hagoromo confirmed, each word clearly costing him. "A binding seal of this magnitude... requires sacrifice. I chose... myself."

"You knew?" Naruto's voice cracked as realization dawned. "You knew this would kill you? Why didn't you tell us?"

The Sage reached out with trembling fingers to touch his eldest son's whiskered cheek. "Would you have proceeded... if you'd known?"

Tears spilled down Naruto's face, carving clean tracks through the grime of battle. "There had to be another way!"

"There wasn't." Hagoromo's gaze drifted to the sealed sphere, then to the tailed beasts who had gathered silently around the triangle. "Kurama... approach."

The massive fox padded forward, his usual aggression subdued by evident respect. "Sage."

"Guard this sphere... until my successor is ready. Trust... no other."

Kurama lowered his enormous head in acknowledgment. "I will protect it with my life."

Hagoromo's breathing had grown increasingly labored, his massive frame somehow diminished by encroaching death. "Naruto... Tetsuo... come closer."

The brothers positioned themselves on either side of their father, mutual grief temporarily erasing any trace of their usual differences. Tetsuo's typical composure had shattered completely, silent tears streaming down his aristocratic features.

"Listen carefully," Hagoromo whispered, strength fading visibly with each passing second. "The sphere must never be opened. Not until... a worthy vessel is prepared. Kaguya cannot be destroyed... only contained."

"We understand," Tetsuo assured him, voice surprisingly steady despite his tears.

"In three days..." Hagoromo continued, "when I would have named my successor... you must still hold the ceremony. The clans must be united... or all we've sacrificed will be for nothing."

Naruto wiped angrily at his streaming eyes. "How can we hold a ceremony without you? You're the one they respect, the one they'll follow!"

A ghost of Hagoromo's usual wise smile touched his bloodless lips. "They will follow... my chosen successor. As will the tailed beasts."

"Who?" Tetsuo asked, though something in his expression suggested he already knew the answer.

The Sage's gaze fixed on Naruto, Rinnegan eyes dimming but still penetrating. "The child who changed time itself... even before his birth. The one who sees beyond hatred... to the connection between all living things."

Naruto shook his head in denial. "No. No, I'm not ready. I can't—"

"You must." Hagoromo's hand found his son's, gripping with surprising strength for a dying man. "This was always... your destiny, Naruto. In both timelines... you were always meant to unite what was divided."

"Both timelines?" Tetsuo repeated, confusion momentarily overriding grief. "What does that mean?"

Hagoromo's eyes shifted to his younger son. "Ask your brother... after I'm gone. He dreams the truth... though he doesn't yet understand it."

The Sage's breathing grew more ragged, each inhale a struggle that shook his entire frame. The tailed beasts moved closer, forming a protective circle around the dying creator who had given them individuality and purpose.

"Father," Naruto sobbed, clutching Hagoromo's hand as if he could physically prevent death from claiming him. "Please don't go. We still need you."

"You have each other," Hagoromo whispered, gaze moving between his sons. "That... is enough. That... changes everything."

His eyes found Kurama one last time. "Watch over them... old friend. They carry... the future."

The massive fox lowered his head in solemn promise.

With visible effort, Hagoromo raised one hand toward the night sky, now cleared of dimensional distortions and returned to peaceful starlight. "I go... to join the cosmos. Remember... chakra exists... to connect hearts. Not to... divide them."

His hand fell, strength finally exhausted. The Rinnegan—source of so much power and wisdom—faded to ordinary eyes, then closed for the final time.

The Sage of Six Paths, creator of ninjutsu, father of the shinobi world, and architect of two timelines, breathed his last beneath the stars he had treasured. The mountain fell silent in tribute, even the night creatures stilling their songs in recognition of passing greatness.

Naruto threw back his head and screamed—a sound of pure anguish that echoed across valleys and forests for miles in every direction. His chakra flared wildly, golden energy shooting skyward like a beacon of grief visible from distant villages.

Tetsuo reached across their father's body to grasp his brother's shoulder, anchoring him with touch when words would have been inadequate. For once, the younger brother offered silent support without criticism or reservation.

Around them, the tailed beasts maintained their vigil—nine monuments to Hagoromo's vision of a world where power served understanding rather than domination. Kurama's massive tails curled protectively around the brothers and the fallen Sage, creating a shelter of living chakra beneath the star-strewn sky.

Dawn would eventually come, bringing with it responsibilities neither brother felt prepared to shoulder. Succession, sealing, strategy—all would need to be addressed. The clans would need leadership, the tailed beasts direction, the world protection from threats similar to what they'd just overcome.

But for now, in this moment frozen between one era and the next, there was only grief—pure and overwhelming. Two brothers united in loss, keeping watch over the father who had sacrificed everything to give them a chance at a better future than the one he'd witnessed in another lifetime.

The sealed sphere pulsed softly between them, a reminder that victory had come at devastating cost—and that their greatest challenges still lay ahead.

# What If Hagoromo Reversed Time and Chose Naruto as His First Son?

## CHAPTER 7: INHERITOR OF WILL

Dawn painted the funeral pyre in hues of blood and gold. Flames devoured the earthly remains of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, carrying his ashes skyward in spiraling tendrils that seemed to reach for the heavens themselves. The sacred fire crackled and snapped, its heat pulsing against the faces of those gathered to witness the passing of an era.

Naruto stood motionless at the pyre's edge, the dancing flames reflected in his ocean-blue eyes. Three days of sleepless vigil had hollowed his cheeks and darkened the skin beneath his eyes, yet somehow he looked older, more substantial—as if grief had carved away something boyish and replaced it with immovable resolve.

"He looks like Father now," a clan elder whispered to another, their voices carrying on the morning breeze. "The resemblance was never so strong before."

Tetsuo caught the words from his position beside his brother. His splinted leg forced him to lean heavily on an ornate staff, but he maintained perfect posture despite the pain etched in the tight lines around his mouth. "They're already looking to you," he murmured, eyes never leaving the pyre. "The vultures barely wait for the body to cool."

Naruto didn't reply. His attention remained fixed on the diminishing form of their father within the flames, memorizing every detail of this final image. The mountain breeze tugged at his hair—longer now than he'd worn it before, brushing his shoulders and catching the sunrise in flashes of liquid gold.

Behind the brothers, representatives from every major clan stood in solemn rows. Their numbers had been decimated by Kaguya's attack, but enough remained to form a substantial gathering. Senju and Uchiha, Hyūga and Sarutobi, Nara and Yamanaka—ancient bloodlines whose futures would be shaped by what transpired in the coming hours.

And beyond the humans, massive shadows loomed against the horizon—the nine tailed beasts had maintained their vigil since Hagoromo's fall, a living barrier between the mountain sanctuary and the outside world. Kurama's massive form dominated the northern ridge, nine tails sweeping slowly back and forth like metronomes counting down the moments of the old world.

As the flames began to die, Tetsuo shifted his weight, grimacing as pain shot through his healing femur. "It's time," he said quietly. "The succession ceremony can't be delayed any longer. The clans grow restless, and rumors of Kaguya's defeat have spread to the villages. People are afraid."

Naruto finally turned from the pyre, his face a mask of conflicting emotions. "I'm not ready."

"You are." Tetsuo's voice brooked no argument. "Father believed it. I believe it. Even the fox believes it, though he'd sooner bite off his own tail than admit it."

A ghost of a smile touched Naruto's lips before vanishing. "Always so certain, little brother."

"One of us has to be." Tetsuo straightened, masking his pain with practiced dignity. "The sacred chamber has been prepared. The sealing sphere rests on the altar, and the succession scrolls await your blood. All that remains is for you to claim what's already yours."

Naruto's gaze drifted to the sealed sphere that contained their mother—or the monster she'd become—resting in a cushioned box carried by two stone-faced Uzumaki clan members. Their distant red-haired cousins had arrived the previous day, drawn by rumors of unprecedented sealing techniques and the fall of the Sage.

"And if I refuse?" The question hung in the air between them, dangerous as a paper bomb.

Tetsuo's dark eyes narrowed, something like anger flashing across his aristocratic features. "Then everything—Father's sacrifice, the tailed beasts' freedom, this entire timeline—was for nothing."

"Timeline." Naruto seized on the word, turning fully to face his brother. "You heard him too. 'Both timelines,' he said. What did he mean?"

A muscle ticked in Tetsuo's jaw. "The sacred chamber. After the ceremony." He jerked his head toward the waiting clan representatives. "They're watching our every move. Any sign of division between us will be exploited before the ashes cool."

Understanding dawned in Naruto's eyes. With visible effort, he squared his shoulders and arranged his features into a mask of confidence that almost concealed the turmoil beneath. "You're right. Let's go."

Together, they turned from the funeral pyre and approached the assembled clans. Whispers rippled through the crowd as they passed—speculation, assessment, calculation. These were shinobi, after all, even in mourning. Power was being redistributed before their eyes, and every clan sought advantage in the new order.

"Representatives of the shinobi clans," Tetsuo addressed them, his clear voice carrying across the assembly. "The time has come to formalize the succession. Please proceed to the sacred chamber for the ceremony."

The procession formed with practiced efficiency—clan heads first, followed by their heirs and advisors. Naruto and Tetsuo took the lead, their matched strides disguising Tetsuo's limp with brotherly precision. Behind them, the Uzumaki seal-bearers carried Kaguya's prison with reverent caution.

The sacred chamber—one of the few structures to survive Kaguya's rampage relatively intact—lay at the heart of the compound. Ancient stone steps led down into the earth, the air growing cooler with each descending footfall. Torches guttered in wall sconces, casting dancing shadows that seemed to whisper secrets from one corner to another.

At the chamber's center stood a single altar of polished obsidian, its surface etched with sealing matrices so complex they made the eyes water to follow them. Nine pillars surrounded the altar in a perfect circle, each carved with the likeness of a tailed beast. The ceiling soared overhead, opening to a single skylight that allowed a shaft of morning sunlight to fall directly upon the altar.

As the clan representatives filed in, taking positions behind their designated pillars, Naruto felt something shift in the air—a gravity beyond the physical, a weight of expectation and destiny that threatened to crush him beneath it.

"Breathe," Tetsuo murmured from beside him. "Remember who you are."

"That's the problem," Naruto whispered back. "I'm not sure I know anymore."

Before Tetsuo could respond, a rustle of movement drew all eyes to the chamber's entrance. The nine tailed beasts couldn't physically enter the underground space, but they had sent proxies—smaller versions of themselves, no larger than wolves, composed of pure chakra rather than flesh. These miniature embodiments padded into the chamber with ethereal grace, taking positions atop their respective pillars.

Kurama's fox-shaped chakra construct fixed Naruto with an unsettlingly intense stare. "Cub," he growled, voice reduced in volume but not in power. "The time of choice has come."

Murmurs rippled through the human onlookers—most had never heard a tailed beast speak, and the casual way this one addressed Hagoromo's heir sent speculation spiraling through the assembly.

The Uzumaki seal-bearers approached the altar, carefully placing the sealed sphere in a depression at its center. The moment it touched the obsidian, the sealing matrices carved into the stone illuminated with blue-white chakra that spread outward like frost across glass.

"The Sage's will is clear," intoned the elder Uzumaki, his weathered hands forming a seal of authentication over the sphere. "The succession shall proceed according to ancient law. Who stands as witness for the Ōtsutsuki bloodline?"

Tetsuo stepped forward, leaning heavily on his staff. "I, Tetsuo Ōtsutsuki, second son of Hagoromo and Kaguya, stand as bloodline witness."

"And who claims the mantle of the Sage?" The elder's piercing gaze swept the chamber before settling on Naruto with unwavering certainty.

A moment of silence stretched like an eternity. Naruto felt every eye upon him—human, beast, and something beyond both. The weight of expectation pressed down, squeezing the air from his lungs. In that suspended heartbeat, he glimpsed flashes of another life—a spiraling leaf symbol, a mountain carved with faces, a red-eyed boy whose hatred consumed him, a war that engulfed the world.

Tetsuo's fingers gripped his forearm, anchoring him back to the present with surprising strength. "My brother," he said, voice pitched to carry to every corner of the chamber, "Naruto Ōtsutsuki, firstborn of Hagoromo and Kaguya, inheritor of the Will of Six Paths, claims the mantle by blood and deed and our father's final command."

The formality in Tetsuo's voice startled Naruto back to himself. He stepped forward, breaking contact with his brother's steadying grip, and faced the assembly alone.

"I am Naruto Ōtsutsuki," he declared, surprising himself with the steadiness in his voice. "I claim the succession not by right of birth, but by acceptance of duty. If any here challenge this claim, speak now or acknowledge me as the Second Sage."

A heartbeat of silence, then another. Eyes shifted between clan representatives, calculating glances and subtle gestures communicating complex political considerations without words. The Uchiha delegation appeared particularly intense, their dark eyes occasionally flashing red with momentary activation of their bloodline.

Finally, a tall man with long black hair stepped forward from the Senju contingent. "The Senju clan acknowledges Naruto Ōtsutsuki as the Second Sage, under certain conditions."

"Name them," Naruto responded, meeting the man's gaze without flinching.

"That chakra be shared equally among the clans. That no bloodline be elevated above others in the new order. That the tailed beasts remain free rather than distributed as weapons."

Naruto's lips curved in unexpected approval. "Butsuma Senju, isn't it? Your conditions align perfectly with my intentions."

The Senju leader blinked, clearly surprised at being recognized and even more surprised by the easy acceptance. Before he could respond, another figure detached from the assembly—an Uchiha with stern features and calculating eyes.

"The Uchiha also acknowledge the succession," he stated, voice cool and measured, "provided that access to the Sage's techniques and scrolls is granted equally to all major clans."

"Knowledge should never be hoarded, Tajima Uchiha," Naruto agreed, again demonstrating familiarity that startled the clan leader. "My father's teachings will be preserved and shared, not locked away as secrets."

One by one, the clan representatives declared acceptance, each with conditions that Naruto addressed with unexpected political acumen. Through it all, Tetsuo watched his brother with growing amazement—this was not the impulsive, emotion-driven youth he'd grown up alongside, but a leader who seemed to understand the complex web of clan politics with intuitive clarity.

When the last clan had spoken, the Uzumaki elder raised his hands for silence. "The succession is acknowledged without challenge. Let the inheritance be completed."

He gestured to Naruto, who approached the altar with measured steps. Nine scrolls lay arranged around the sealed sphere, each marked with the symbol of a different tailed beast.

"Blood of the heir must sanctify the bond," the elder instructed, producing a ceremonial knife of gleaming silver.

Naruto accepted the blade without hesitation. Drawing it across his palm, he allowed crimson droplets to fall upon each scroll in turn, moving clockwise around the altar. As his blood touched each parchment, it seemed to sink into the fibers, causing the scrolls to glow with chakra signatures as distinctive as the beasts they represented.

When he completed the circuit, returning to his starting position, Naruto placed both bloodied hands directly on the altar's surface, framing the sealed sphere. "I accept the inheritance, the responsibility, and the burden," he declared, voice resonating with power that hadn't been there moments before. "I vow to preserve balance, to honor the covenant with the tailed beasts, and to guide chakra's use toward connection rather than conflict."

The chamber trembled as a surge of energy shot upward from the altar, enveloping Naruto in a cocoon of multicolored light—nine distinct chakra signatures, each representing a tailed beast, spiraling around him in a double helix pattern. His eyes flew wide as foreign power flooded his system, ancient and wild and fundamentally transformative.

The assembled shinobi stumbled back, shielding their eyes from the blinding display. Only Tetsuo held his ground, squinting against the glare as his brother underwent a metamorphosis that transcended physical change.

Inside the maelstrom of chakra, Naruto experienced lifetimes in moments. Each tailed beast's essence carried memories, perspectives, knowledge accumulated over centuries—all pouring into him in a torrent that threatened to wash away his very identity. He felt himself stretching, expanding beyond the confines of his physical form, consciousness briefly touching realms beyond normal perception.

And at the heart of this transformation, he encountered his father—not physically, but as a chakra impression Hagoromo had embedded within the inheritance itself.

"My son," the impression spoke directly into Naruto's mind, the familiar voice bringing tears to his eyes even within this metaphysical space. "If you perceive these words, the succession has begun. There is little time, so listen carefully."

Images flooded Naruto's consciousness—another world, another timeline. He saw a masked man releasing the Nine-Tails upon a village hidden among leaves. He witnessed a blond man who looked strikingly like himself sacrificing his life to seal the fox within his newborn son. He observed that child growing up alone, hated, yet somehow maintaining an unbreakable spirit that eventually united the world against a threat from beyond.

"This was the world I erased," Hagoromo's impression continued as the visions flowed. "A world where my original sons, Indra and Asura, became locked in a cycle of reincarnation and conflict that spanned a thousand years. Their chakra passed from generation to generation, inhabiting new vessels who inevitably clashed—Uchiha against Senju, Sasuke against Naruto."

The name sent a jolt of recognition through Naruto's entire being. Sasuke. The dark-haired boy from his dreams, whose eyes reminded him so much of Tetsuo.

"In that final cycle," Hagoromo continued, "your soul inhabited the body of a boy named Naruto Uzumaki—a child of prophecy who achieved what none before him could. He ended the cycle. He forgave what seemed unforgivable. He built connections where only division had existed."

More images—a dark-haired youth with red eyes, consumed by vengeance yet eventually pulled back from the brink by the blonde boy's unshakable friendship. A war against a white-haired manipulator who claimed to be Kaguya's will personified. A final confrontation that cost both boys an arm but ultimately healed a millennium of hatred.

"As my life neared its end," Hagoromo's voice continued, tinged with sorrow, "I realized that while the cycle had been broken, the fundamental flaws in how chakra was shared remained. The boy Naruto had succeeded where all others failed, but the system itself was built upon the original sin of my choosing one son over the other."

Understanding bloomed in Naruto like a lotus unfurling its petals. "You rewrote time itself," he whispered into the void. "You made me your firstborn instead of Indra."

"Yes." The simple acknowledgment carried the weight of cosmic consequences. "A forbidden technique that consumed my remaining life force in that timeline. I reached across the fabric of reality and reshaped it, bringing your essence—the soul that had finally broken the cycle—into my bloodline from the beginning."

"But why?" Naruto's question echoed through the metaphysical space. "Why not simply guide Indra better? Why replace him entirely?"

Sadness permeated Hagoromo's response. "Pride. My greatest flaw. I couldn't admit that my firstborn's fall was my own failure as a father. It was easier to replace him than to acknowledge my own shortcomings." The impression of Hagoromo seemed to sigh. "Even gods make mistakes of ego, my son."

The visions accelerated, showing glimpses of both timelines side by side—parallels and divergences, tragedies averted and new challenges created. Through it all, Naruto began to understand the immensity of what his father had done—and the responsibility that now fell to him as the inheritor of both worlds' legacies.

"The power I now pass to you," Hagoromo's impression concluded, "is greater than what I bestowed in the original timeline. The complete Six Paths Sage Mode, portions of all nine tailed beasts' chakra, and knowledge from two versions of history. Use it wisely, my son. The threat of Kaguya remains, though contained for now. And other dangers may yet emerge from beyond our world."

The impression began to fade, its purpose fulfilled, its chakra integrating into Naruto's expanded consciousness. "Remember," Hagoromo's voice whispered as it dissipated completely, "you were chosen not for your power, but for your heart. Your capacity to see beyond hatred to the connections that bind all living things."

"Father, wait!" Naruto called into the fading vision. "There's still so much I don't understand!"

But the impression was gone, leaving him alone with the nine chakra signatures swirling through his transformed being. As the external manifestation of the inheritance ceremony reached its climax, Naruto felt his body changing—adapting to accommodate the massive power now housed within it.

His eyes burned as new patterns formed within them—not quite the Rinnegan his father had possessed, but something similar yet distinctly his own. Six-pointed stars set against a backdrop that shifted between blue and gold depending on the angle of light. His whisker marks deepened, becoming more pronounced, and his chakra pathways widened to accommodate energies no human had ever contained before.

With a final pulse that sent shock waves throughout the chamber, the transformation completed. The multicolored cocoon of energy dissipated, revealing Naruto standing with both palms still pressed against the altar. Steam rose from his skin, which glowed faintly with residual power.

The assembled clan representatives stared in awe and not a little fear. The boy who had entered the ceremony was gone. In his place stood something more—a presence that filled the chamber with tangible authority, radiating power that made the strongest shinobi present feel like academy students in comparison.

Naruto raised his head, revealing eyes that shone with complex patterns never before seen. When he spoke, his voice carried harmonics that seemed to resonate with the chamber itself.

"The inheritance is complete," he stated simply, stepping back from the altar. "I am the Second Sage of Six Paths."

Silence gripped the assembly until it was broken by the most unexpected source. Tetsuo, leaning heavily on his staff, dropped to one knee before his brother—the gesture clearly causing him physical pain yet performed with absolute conviction.

"The Second Sage," he declared, head bowed in acknowledgment. "My brother. My leader."

One by one, the clan representatives followed suit, kneeling in recognition of power beyond their comprehension. Even the chakra constructs of the tailed beasts lowered their heads in acknowledgment, though Kurama's manifestation maintained a sardonic glint in its eye that suggested respect rather than submission.

"Rise," Naruto commanded, discomfort flashing across his transformed features. "I didn't accept this mantle to be worshipped, but to serve. Kneel only to those who have earned your respect, not to those who intimidate you with power."

His words sent ripples of surprise through the assembly as they regained their feet. Such humility was unexpected—unprecedented in one who now commanded abilities approaching divinity.

"The ceremony is concluded," the Uzumaki elder announced, recognizing his role was now secondary to the newly-confirmed Sage. "All hail Naruto Ōtsutsuki, the Second Sage of Six Paths!"

Calls of acknowledgment echoed through the chamber, bouncing off ancient stones and reverberating back upon the assembly. Throughout it all, Naruto's gaze remained fixed on Tetsuo, concern evident despite the otherworldly transformation his eyes had undergone.

"Clear the chamber," Naruto ordered suddenly, his tone brooking no argument. "I require privacy with my brother. We will address the clans' concerns at sundown."

The authority in his voice sent the assembled representatives filing out without protest, though speculation buzzed between them in urgent whispers. Within minutes, the sacred chamber stood empty save for the brothers and the miniature chakra manifestations of the tailed beasts.

"You too," Naruto addressed the nine constructs. "Return to your physical forms. I'll summon you if needed."

Eight of the nine immediately dissolved into particles of colored light that streamed upward through the skylight. Only Kurama's manifestation remained, regarding Naruto with ancient eyes that held both amusement and assessment.

"Ordering us around already, kit?" the fox growled, though without genuine hostility. "The power hasn't been yours for five minutes."

"Kurama." Naruto spoke the name with strange familiarity. "Please. I need time with my brother."

Something in his tone—perhaps the absence of command and the presence of request—seemed to satisfy the fox. With a snort that sent sparks dancing across the stone floor, Kurama's construct dissolved into orange light that lingered longer than the others before finally exiting through the skylight.

Alone at last, Naruto sagged against the altar, the weight of transformation suddenly evident in every line of his body. "Tetsuo," he breathed, voice cracking with emotion. "I remember everything."

Tetsuo approached cautiously, uncertainty written across features normally composed to perfect control. "What do you mean? What did you see?"

"Both timelines," Naruto answered, raising eyes that seemed to contain universes within their patterned depths. "Father showed me everything. The original world where he chose Asura over Indra. The thousand-year conflict between their reincarnations. The final vessels—Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha."

Tetsuo's breath caught. "Those names. You've spoken them in your sleep."

"Because they were us, in a way." Naruto pushed himself upright, new strength flowing into his limbs as he adjusted to the power coursing through his transformed body. "Or rather, I was him—Naruto Uzumaki. My soul, my essence, pulled backward through time when Father rewrote reality."

Understanding dawned in Tetsuo's dark eyes. "And this Sasuke...?"

"Was like you in many ways," Naruto confirmed. "Brilliant. Driven. Proud. But without a brother who loved him enough to pull him back from darkness." He reached out, gripping Tetsuo's shoulder with newfound strength. "That's the difference, don't you see? In that timeline, brothers became enemies. Indra's jealousy poisoned generations to come."

"But here," Tetsuo said slowly, pieces falling into place, "you were the firstborn. The naturally chosen heir. There was no reason for me to resent you."

Naruto's transformed eyes shimmered with emotion. "You've still had every opportunity to hate me. I'm loud, impulsive, sometimes foolish. Father obviously favored me, even if he tried to hide it. Yet you never turned against me, not truly."

A complexity of emotions crossed Tetsuo's aristocratic features—pride, pain, affection, melancholy. "How could I? You never let me." A reluctant smile tugged at his lips. "Every time I tried to wall myself away, you broke through. Every time I succeeded at something, you celebrated louder than anyone. Every time I failed, you helped me up without comment."

He straightened, wincing slightly as weight shifted onto his healing leg. "Besides, it would be rather difficult to hate someone so pathetically, obliviously good."

Naruto laughed—the sound startlingly normal coming from his transformed being. "There's the Tetsuo I know. I was worried all this ceremony might have replaced my sarcastic brother with a respectful one."

"Perish the thought," Tetsuo deadpanned, though his eyes remained serious. "What happens now? With your new power, your new...awareness?"

The humor faded from Naruto's expression, replaced by solemnity that seemed to age him decades in moments. "Now we build a world different from either timeline. One where chakra connects rather than divides. Where the tailed beasts are partners, not weapons. Where clans cooperate instead of competing."

"Ambitious," Tetsuo observed. "The clans won't easily abandon generations of rivalry."

"They will if we show them a better way." Determination hardened Naruto's features. "Father's mistake was thinking he could change the world through choosing the right successor. But real change comes from many hearts moving in the same direction." He paused, eyes focusing on his brother with sudden intensity. "Starting with us."

Confusion flickered across Tetsuo's face. "What do you mean?"

"I won't rule alone." Naruto's declaration echoed against the ancient stones. "The Second Sage will have a partner, an equal. Someone whose strengths complement his weaknesses, whose caution balances his impulsiveness, whose precision counters his broad strokes."

Understanding dawned in Tetsuo's eyes. "The clans would never accept—"

"They'll accept what we show them works," Naruto interrupted. "Together, Tetsuo. That's what Father never fully understood. Power divided isn't power diminished—it's power multiplied."

Tetsuo stood silent for a long moment, calculation and emotion warring visibly behind his obsidian eyes. Finally, he spoke with rare vulnerability. "I don't have your power. I have no tailed beast chakra, no Six Paths transformation, no connection to another timeline."

"But you have what I need most." Naruto's hand moved from Tetsuo's shoulder to grasp his forearm in the traditional shinobi sign of partnership. "A mind that sees what I miss. Patience I lack. Precision I'll never master. And most importantly—" his voice softened, "—you have always been exactly who you are, unbound by echoes of another life."

The sacred chamber fell silent as the brothers regarded each other—one transformed by cosmic power yet unchanged in essential nature, one physically ordinary yet extraordinary in his steadfast loyalty.

"The sun sets in a few hours," Tetsuo finally said, a smile slowly spreading across features normally given to reserve. "The clans will expect their new Sage to address them. Perhaps we should prepare what we'll say about this...partnership."

Naruto's answering grin lit his transformed face with familiar brightness, whisker marks crinkling with genuine joy. "I was thinking we'd wing it."

Tetsuo's exasperated sigh echoed through the sacred chamber. "Some things don't change, even with the power of a god."

"I'm not a god," Naruto corrected, suddenly serious again. "That was Kaguya's mistake—thinking power made her divine. We remain human, Tetsuo. That's our strength, not our limitation."

Outside the underground chamber, the world waited—clan representatives eager for advantage, villages terrified by glimpses of Kaguya's power, tailed beasts adjusting to newfound freedom. Challenges beyond imagining loomed on horizons yet unreached. Threats from beyond their world gathered in shadows unseen.

But within the sacred space, two brothers stood united—inheritors of will, shapers of destiny, rewriters of fate. The Second Sage of Six Paths and his most trusted advisor prepared to emerge into sunlight, carrying forward a legacy transformed by brotherhood that transcended time itself.