Authors note: I own nothing, Naruto belongs to Misashi Kishimoto, and Asura's wrath is owned by Capcom.

A man stirred and thrashed, cold sweat breaking out across his body, reflexively throwing innumerable punches. While, surely, they would have been destructive, were it encased in flesh and the man wasn't merely asleep… another man; his appearance was one of an elder, his back hunched over as he sat cross legged above a watery surface not one bit of him touching save for parts of the sagely robes that he was adorned in; let out a long suffering, and almost pained sigh of annoyance, waking this man up might be rather problematic… but he has to, he had requested the powers that be if he could requisition such a person, best not to let their generosity go to waste… a staff appeared in one hand and he poked and prodded the man, keeping a good distance… as he expected, the musclebound punch drunk brawler on the ground was more than happy to snap the staff as he woke with a start.

"It's good to see that you have regained consciousness." the old man pulled the splintered staff away, watching the man get up, looking around quickly, before noticing him and getting into a rather aggressive posture.

"Who are you," the man asked in a low growl, clenching his fists, "where am I?" the man waves a hand at the vast empty expanse.

"My name… is Hagoromo Ootsutsuki, and as for where you are, you are in the destination where all go when they have ceased to be, the ultimate destination as it were, however not yours as I would imagine that being a little more unpleasant than this." The wizened old man answers…. He sees the rage contort on the man's face.

"SPEAK MORE SIMPLY!" he demands of Hagoromo, who sighs.

"You are in the afterlife…. You are dead." he says summarily.

"I'm… dead?" the man's face pales… if it weren't for that tanned skin of his; he'd be as pale white as the hair on his head. Hagoromo feels some pity for the man as he proceeds with the next question "My wife… my daughter… what happened to them?!"

Now it was time to be delicate with the man, otherwise, the sagely old man might be subject to having to fend off some unwanted assaults… and to be honest he was too old for that thank you very much. He reshaped and reformed his staff, causing the man to get ready for an attack when Hagoromo just simply touched the blank surface of the world they were in… what filled the void was a picture of a meteor. The man looked angry as he recalled the offending rock. "you're telling me… that thing killed me?"

"Well… to be blunt… yes…. And to answer your next questions… yes, it took the lives of all your beloved ones as well… I am sorry for your loss…" he bowed his head apologetically and sincerely.

"So.. I let them down…" the man grits his teeth.

"On the contrary… they were proud… a little upset that you would be foolish enough to face such a massive natural disaster as a mere human… but they were proud." Hagoromo assures him.

"You act like you know them." The man grits his teeth angrily "where are they?!" he takes a few moments to register what the man said earlier "take me to them! Take me back!" he marches towards the old man before him.

Hagoromo holds up a hand in a placating manner. "In due time, I promise you will see them." He hoped that would stave off this man's anger. "I just wish to ask a few questions… and make a request of you, Asura-san." He tried to give the man an assuring smile… He was thankful he had been half expecting the punch that came towards his face.

Asura had let out a scream of unfathomable rage, noticing his punch was dodged and he instinctively pressed in with a back hand, which Hagoromo, despite his age, was quite able to duck, and sway out of every attack Asura threw. "Asura-san, it's only a mere couple of questions." Hagoromo droned rather unamusedly… he didn't like violence. He ducked underneath a punch.

"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR QUESTIONS!" Asura screamed, his rage shaking the watery surface they stood until it looked as if it were a tumultuous sea, he rushed the old man with one more roar…

This time Hagoromo didn't dodge but rather simply, he blocked, and was thankful that he could still hold his ground, and the punch's force carried through carving a passing trench in the reflective surface of this other-worldly scape… Asura backed off still clenching his fists, ready to fight, but giving the ever so instinctive glance down at his hands.

Hagoromo took advantage of this, "Your spirit seems to remember a portion of the power you once held, so that answers one question… and another is answered, as you don't seem to remember at all." He mused.

Asura glares at him gritting his teeth further. "What does that mean?" he grinds out between his teeth, now a little interested in listening to the old man.

The sagely man let out a relaxed sigh and tapped the surface of the water… and it played out many of Asura's former exploits. Asura looked at them with a hard face. "what is this old man?" he growled glancing up at him.

"this, is you. These events you are witnessing is basically what I've gleamed from observing your life when I requested your soul be brought here to this afterlife, rather than the afterlife where you belong."

Asura continued to watch until an uncomfortable pain began to blossom in his head, and it got stronger as he watched himself destroy dozens of demigods and Ghoma alike… it felt like a hammer was pounding away in his skull, or his master's fist during that… one… he paused to ask himself why he just recalled his master, if he didn't have one in his human lifetime…

"It seems to be that you're starting to remember. Don't worry; the others underwent the same thing." The old man comforted, taking this chance to change up the scenery in the water again. "by that I mean your wife, daughter, and brother in law. I've brought them along too, but you were out far longer."

Asura glared "where are they?"

"Here and not here, give me a moment to rectify this." With a wave of his staff the particular people in question materialized, a raven haired woman rushing to her husband's side. "ASURA!" she embraced him in a tight hug, and Asura hesitantly held his wife, before returning the hug in full. "Durga…" he murmured. He pulled away just in time to receive a hug from the young girl who had been standing next to them, "Mithra…" he put a hand on her head… before he noticed the man walking over, his brother in law. He grit his teeth before promptly lashing out with a punch, the man blocked. "Yasha," He ground out through his teeth, before grinning.

"What kind of idiot tries to take on a meteor?" Yasha asks, still managing to be dumbfounded by his brother in laws thick-headedness.

Asura simply grunted and turned his head away from his brother in all but blood, to glare at Hagoromo questioningly. "What is all this?" he asks warily.

"You are cautious. Good." Hagoromo strokes his chin, lightly tugging at his beard as he thought of how to properly word this.

"I am, Hagoromo Ootsutsuki, known in the world this afterlife belongs to, as The Rikudo Senin, or The Sage Of Six Paths. apparently a moniker placed upon me by those of later generations claim me to be the god of all shinobi." The Sage watches Asura's lip curl in disgust over the mention of the word god, his daughter moving behind him slightly, due to her own experiences with gods, even Yasha seemed to stiffen slightly, and move to cover his sisters family. "I... To assure you all, I do not hold any such assumptions of what I am. powerful though I may be and as close to... godlike... as I was, i was never that powerful, nor would I claim such a mantle if I am indeed that powerful, I have no wishes to test it, and it is not my place to. And to be honest I myself have rather... off putting experiences with people who claim to be gods." His tired old face seemed to sag.

They all stood in silence, or rather sit, in Hagoromo's case, as he had not moved from his sitting position at all... It strangely reminded the two former generals of Kalrow, but this man at the very least didn't give the arrogant and seemingly duplicitous and scheming aura that that old man had.

Before long Hagoromo spoke up, "Forgive the pause... I have... a request. simple, yet important all the same."

Asura looks to his family, his wife and daughter first and second respectively, before turning a warriors gaze towards Yasha's own, the man returning it in kind, before they look to the man before them. "What do you want?"

Hagoromo sighed softly. "to get to the point of my request one must know my history first. I, as I said, have been dubbed, god of shinobi... if you are familiar with the word, as I am sure you must have some knowledge of... I have been dubbed the god of those who lurk in shadows, and kill for money, beliefs, any any other such sort of thing, but nonetheless... they do it, in this world it is even a major occupation and there have even been a number of major shinobi world wars..." He shook his head sadly. "In this world how ever, shinobi are... different. They use mystical abilities, granted to them through rigorous training, and mental fortitude, allowing them to perform feats that normal man has only dreamed of."

He tapped the surface of the world they stood upon and it became once again a looking glass... everything seemed still, what they saw was definitely a calm, peaceful almost beautiful night in a forest before the sound of metal catching metal, a horrid shrieking noise almost signature to such an occurrence, erupted, above the trees two shadows sailed past one another, landing at the top of the trees before turning to one another, a pale blue glow surrounded their hands momentarily, as they weaved through various strange hand signs, before unleashing a blast of fire, and water from their mouths, with such ferocity in the hopes of killing their foes.

"They do this by wielding chakra..." he tapped the surface again and the two shadowy figures bodies lit up with blue lines that weaved and crossed and entangled themselves all inside their bodies in intricate and delicate patterns. "Chakra..." he murmured once before sighing. "Chakra is an energy source that comes from both the physical and spiritual and mental aspects of a human being, or any living being for that matter, that lies solely in what is called the chakra coils, the circulatory system of ones own chakra." He looked to them and was impressed by the focus they were exhibiting.

He continued on, tapping the surface again changing the views into a hell scape, molten terrain and frozen waste-lands, and ruined parched and boulder riddled earth existed side by side in molted patches across the world, the sky clouded and storming, lightning breaking the darkness illuminating the world. on the vast horizon a beast shrouded in darkness save for one baleful red eye with concentric rings and six visible tomoe placed at equidistant points in the eyes within their respective rings. three on the center most ring, and three have a home on the ring just before that, its body was... the monster was... hideous, hideous in a way that is comparable to the hideous forms of the gohma that threatened their former world and lives, taking in the destruction it wrought upon the land with ten tails, mighty and strong and fleshy and could they even begin to be called tails to begin with?

"What... What in Gaia's name is that?!" Yasha took a step back as if visibly repulsed, while Asura growled lowly at is, holding his daughter close to him, as well as his wife, feeling their bodies quiver in shock, horror, and disgust.

"That... is the juubi. the body of the wrathful shinju... the god tree of our world." the Sage said solemnly. "the body of a god whose fruit was plucked and eaten by a foolish, foolish mortal who sought power..."

"That thing is no god." Asura growled, his gaze scornful upon the creature.

The sage nodded, "all the same... This thing... is the origins of chakra."

This drew surprised gazes from the group, looking at the man who kept his gaze on the creature, with both hate and sorrow in his ancient concentric eyes.

He sighed. "It is the result of the folly of a mortal woman who used to be my mother, and a tragic decent into insanity. Regardless, with the help of my brother, we defeated it by sealing it away. The process of which is unimportant, though I will say it involved sealing that formidable horrid beast into myself." he motioned to the figures of two men before the beast, himself an a man with pale long white hair who had horns upon his head and dressed similarly to Hagoromo, though his eyes were a pale faded lavender, almost white. the two men lunged at the creature with battle cries before the imagery faded away back to the regular reflective surface of this world.

"It was sometime afterwards that I journeyed through out the world, many seeing me as a god, though i detest such labeling... I refuse to call myself as such, even now. as I did I spread chakra and a belief I called ninshu to all those I met through out my travels. Ninshu and chakra combined were to be a way to allow ones chakra to expand, and then allow them a method in which they can intermingle and share their chakra amongst one another as I had, to offer an understanding of those around them." He shook his head. "It worked only for a while."

He waved his shakujo over the water and again it rippled into forming visuals. images of two young men fighting and of nine powerful looking beasts, each with a different amount of tails, the largest being nine on what looked like a fox. "These... are my children. two of them born the natural way, and the nine tailed-beasts, the Bijuu, born from a bid to prevent the juubi, the ten-tails, from ever reviving in the case of my eventual death." He sighed.

"None of my children saw eye to eye. I had asked a question of my two human children, Indra the eldest of the two, and Ashura the youngest, to see who would be the best to lead Ninshu... of the answers i preferred Ashura's and so gave him power and the mantle of responsibility. feeling slighted, Indra began to instigate fights which would evolve into millennia spanning wars... the Bijuu frowned upon my teachings being turned into methods of war, and so began to slowly come to despise humanity, and my two sons. It came to pass humanity began pestering them, viewing them as mystical beings or objects to try and garner favor with or hunt or control for the sake of their wars... Kurama, the nine tailed fox, began demanding his siblings fight back, after years of trying to keep out of human affairs the constant intrusions on his peace had angered him, he was always the most volatile. When they refused him, he accused them of being weak, and so they too began to fight until they went their separate ways." he banished the images.

"How does any of this tie into your request?" Yasha asks during the pause that ensues shortly after the images fade away. "Are we expected to cease the fighting? spread your teachings?" he rose an eyebrow.

The man simply shook his head. "no... they've entered now a state of peace... tenuous at best, under strain and heavy durress at the worst." he admitted with a frown. "It is just a lull before soemthing big happens." He sighed sadly. "and crime is rampant as are exhiled dishonorable ninja but regardless there is no war going on for the time being. No... the reason i bring up this history is to bring us to the subject of my request."

He waved his hand over the water and it showed them an image of what looked to be a young girl. A young girl in what looked to be a bright orange sundress, mud splattered around the bottom... her limbs were frail looking, much too thin, her golden hair messy tangled and lacking a healthy luster. There was frustration in her eyes as she rounded a corner of an alley way into a dead end. She was about to double back until a foot connected with her back sending her into the wall. three men surrounded her and began to beat her ruthlessly. their lips moved but no sound came, but it was evident they were saying derogatory drivel. the only sound that could be heard was the young girls pained cries of outrage and suffering. the next hour was filled with these three beating on the child, several members of the ninja forces standing by, just watching it all happen.

"What...?" this came as a shock to the group though Asura was quickest to vocalize... the cries of the young girl made him remember the cries of his own daughter that plagued him during his time waging his one man war against the seven deities and their forces, and the helplessness her felt now to be unable to cease the pain brought forth the memory of the girl he couldn't save. "Why are you showing us... this?!" he all but snarled.

The sage looked at them, his face one of impassivity... but his eyes were mournful. "Everyday since this child was born I've heard their cries." He said rather solemnly. "This young girl who is forced to bear the weight of the sins of my child Kurama." He met their puzzled gazes. "Almost one hundred years ago from this point in time mankind had found a way to control the tailed beasts. They could not seal them in mundane objects, for extended periods of time, the only sure fire method was to do as I did with the Juubi. they began sealing them in living beings. Most commonly, small children as their chakra coils are not fully developed, therefor malleable and flexible and would not rupture under the stress of such volatile and dense chakra. They are called jinchuriki, the power of human sacrifice." the group turned their eyes with renewed horror towards the beaten girl.

They had to listen to her sobs echoing in this vast plane of existence. "To further compound this problem... the girl is an orphan. there is no one to care for her save this villages leader. He does what he can, and summarily executes those who hurt the girl... but he cannot make such executions public for fear of riots, and as such there will always be some one who tries. her current age as we are seeing now is about five years old. She will begin enrolling in the ninja academy close to the fall in order to fulfill her aspiration of garnering respect and acknowledgement. when she is accepted into the academy with the backing of the hokage, this villages leader, the hokage shall ultimately outlaw and forbid any further attempts to harm her as attacking a student is tantamount to treason."

"Let me guess... just another Temporary fix." Asura ground his teeth in fury.

The sage nods his head and waved his hand over the images and they see a fast forward, teachers encouraging bullies to beat on her in taijutsu spars, ignoring her outright... the girl slowly becoming desperate, trying to show off, starting to pick fights here and there...before it comes to a scene of the girl running for dear life once again, through a forest, at night.

"At seven years old, one of the teachers will have had enough. He will attack her." they notice she's covered in cuts and her skin is bruising, a number of kunai sticking out here and there. Mithra covered her mouth with both hands, her mother with one as they saw blood oozing from the girls wounds as her dash slowly became weak stumbling, her feet beginning to drag as a figure lands behind her in the shadow of the trees.

Asura clenches his fists tightly as rage begins to smolder in his eyes his body shaking, and Yasha's face is set in a deep frown and his sharp glare trained on the shadowed figure.

Slowly the man walks from the shadows, as the girl falls and attempts to drag herself away, her sobs filling with fear and despair. She looks back with fear filled eyes. "w-why Mizuki sensei?" she tries to drag herself further away from the man.

The man in question had light blue silvery white hair, his leaf headband done in a bandanna style, and he wore two large shuriken on his back. his face set in a sneer, his lips moved, again there was no sound.

"w-what do you mean? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" the girls voice was frantic and shaky.

The man responded, tilting his head to give her a condescending chin up looking down at her sort of look as he explained something to her.

The girls mouth moved before she began wailing. "N-no! That's not true! I'm Not! NO! I-I- NO!" she stammered out between wails of despair.

The man looked like he was laughing as he talked.

The girls body shook as she continued to wail out her sorrows.

"He had just told her her burden, but said that she was Kurama, in the body of a child, meant to be killed in penance for the destruction that happened the night she was born." The sage explained as he paused it here. "he will proceed to beat her and her spirit and body will be broken. He will try and kill her, but he will fail. the hokage will intervene, though already too late, and kill him. The girl will never recover from the psychological truama and will be forced to stay in her home for the rest of her life, just sitting there... she will not move, she will be force fed, she will not sleep. Her body will begin to breakdown under disuse before finally she takes her own life from the pain she will feel from this day on." He shakes his head.

"Is... your request for us to save this girl?" Asura asks.

The sage nods. "this is the subject of my request."

"Just her? you said there were others..." Yasha inquires next.

The man sighs. "There are, and they all suffer in similar manners, some worse... some can endure, some prevail over their condition and are seen as heroes... but this is the only one I can hear." he motions at the girl. "Her cries are the only ones that permeate this silent world... because she is the reincarnation of my youngest son." He explains.

"What?" this was the question from the four, though in various ways from outspoken to widened eyes.

"The conflict between my sons was so intense that fragments of their souls and their powerful chakras were passed down to lay dormant in their descendants." He looks at them. "but it's not just that she is the reincarnation of my son that i ask for you to save her. It's that she will save others who are like her, and because she is a chosen child who will bring about an everlasting peace that i had once tried to promote so long ago."

"You... You want to use her?!" Asura roars in indignation.

The sage looks down. "It is one of the few paths she may or may not take. But it will be of her own volition, based on the morals and teachings you will instil upon her." He looks at them sternly.

"You mean for us to raise her." Yasha mutters as he looks at the sage.

"Yes. To save her from the hate that will crush her, and so that maybe, perhaps she can save this world, she needs a family who will love and protect her." The sage states calmly.

"I'll save her by BEATING IN YOUR FACE!" Asura charges recklessly. he HATED others using others for their own gain and this man was no different. The punch he threw was easily caught by the old sage how ever, despite the fury behind the attack.

"You caring about her right now is good." He nods before simply throwing Asura back to the group so precisely as to not bring harm to the two non-combatants.

Yasha's frown increases and he stops his brother from rushing again and steps forward. "Why would you put such a burden on such a young girl? why not let us save the world in her stead."

Hagoromo gives a shake of his head. "Because there is but one truth that arrogant god your world was plagued by that was ever spoken as truth... That the world must be saved by one of its own. If i were to send some one to save it then it would hamper their evolutionary process, slow it down or cease it so entirely. They will expect to be saved by divine intervention, and that is unacceptable. Even if i were to take your memories of this meeting, and i will, i require you to hold some semblance of your strength in order to not only protect her, but be able to fight along side her if events come to pass that will end in her requiring your aid."

"But that's still wrong!" everyone looks at Mithra who shouts. "She's suffered enough being used to hold one of your children!" she herself didn't enjoy being used at all either, seeing as her father suffered through fights to free her from her captivity, and finally dying for her sake.

The sage nods. "It is... I make no mistake in assuming I am in the right. But at the same time, It is the only way to ensure that the world will not only come to peace, but my children will finally find peace, the souls of my sons no longer trapped in a cycle, and the bijuu no longer hated nor coveted for being powerful and different. So that no one else has to ever suffer this atrocity ever again!" He slams the bottom of his shakujo against the world and it goes blank again with a loud thud.

"It's the only way and it's a slim narrow way that's fraught with peril and danger, she will suffer, she will face loss, she will bleed and cry. But she will have you... each of you. She will have a father in you Asura." he looks at the white haired man who seethed in silent fury. "a mother in you, Durga." He looks to Asura's wife. "she will have uncles..." He looks to Yasha. "and..." he looks to Mithra. "She will have something that she has been denied for the first seven years of her life. LOVE. the village leader may love her, but he cannot protect her and so she cannot feel it... the single food stand that will serve her, they may love her but they cannot protect her and so she cannot feel it. eventually the village may come to feel sorry for her but the scars they've inflicted upon her will prevent her from feeling any love from them. They may come to resent themselves and honoring her if she takes her life but she will be dead." He looks them all in the eyes. "I am doing more than using her... I am giving her something that she desperately needs, and desires: family, love, and hope."

The group falls silent...

Minutes tick by before Asura lets out a loud exhale, trying to quell his mounting fury before he turns to look at his wife, his fury melting away, then his daughter, meeting her eyes and his fury becoming only the faintest whisper, and then to Yasha and nods. before he looks to the sage. "We will do it." and then his fury ignites once more. "But once this is through I'll break you in half!"

The sage actually smiles. "I expect no less." He murmurs softly.

Once again it's silent.

Durga quirks an eyebrow. "uncles?" she catches the plural once she reviews everything.

The sage winces and looks apologetic when a raucous familiar laughter fills the empty world and Asura's glare is particularly scathing.