Hi! So here is the start of Shadow's new adventure... If you haven't read Game On 3.5 I recommend you do since it does the groundwork for the baisis of this world!
Hope you enjoy!

Intro

"Hey jiji..."
"Yes Naruto?"
"Can you help me with my words?"
"Sure, but why the sudden interest?"
"It's because of the green words, it's so annoying, I don't understand what they mean!"
"The green words?" the old, gray haired man didn't drop his pipe, but his eyebrow did rose in intrigue at the affirmation
"Yeah, you know the green words around!" the kid nodded, hands flying wildly around
"Ah... I'm afraid I don't have green words, Naruto."

"Er? How come? Is that why the teachers were even meaner than usual when I asked about it?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen hid a sigh at the innocent comment – even if orders had been given out, people did enjoy toeing the line, and punishing the civilians excessively wasn't something he could afford in a village that was barely getting up from near destruction, they needed the income, quite simply.
"Here," he gestured the kid over, taking him on his laps "can you draw the words you didn't understand?"
The small blond nodded enthusiastically, and painstakingly drew the green words he saw in his field of vision...
"Uh, I'd forgotten it would be romaji..." the old man mumbled, before reading aloud

[Welcome to Chaos Game 4.0
Uzumaki Edition]

"You know about the clans of Konoha?" he chose to ask while deciding about how to best explain the situation
"Er... yeah?"
"Remember I told you you weren't supposed to ask about somethings..."
"Like that girl's white eyes, but she's not blind!"
"Yes, like little Hyuuga Hinata eyes." Hiruzen sighed at the blunt answer "Because traditionally, clan's member don't share their secrets."
"Alright?"
"Well this is your clan secret."
"Eh? What do you mean, my clan?"
"You," the old man explained with a smile, tracing with a gentle finger the swirl present on all the boy's clothes - something he'd personally ensured "are Uzumaki Naruto. Your parents may not be alive, it doesn't mean they didn't love you."
"You don't know that." the little boy contradicted with a frown "You told me you didn't know who they were." he eyed the other suspiciously "You lied?"
"I did." the other admitted "But now that your inheritance has awakened, I can't anymore."
"Why?"

Old eyes gleaming with regrets, as he engulfed the small child in a hug as he started to cry and tempest against him.
"To protect you, Naruto." he eventually answered as the blond finally calmed down "Because people could be even meaner..."
"Why? They didn't like my parents?"
"On the contrary Naruto, they loved them, and people do strange things for love."
"Oh. Grown ups are strange."
"But your parents loved you, and from one of them, you inherited a secret, just like the other clan child."
Taking a scroll from his large desk, he unrolled him to point at a map.
"Here. This is Konoha..."
"I recognize the leaf symbol!" the boy smiled proudly
"Exactly. Do you recognize something else?"
The boy eyed the map a moment – then his eyes widened...
"This! It's on my clothes, isn't it! And also on the shinobi uniforms!"

"This is the symbol of Uzushiogakure. They were a shinobi village allied to Konoha since it's creation, this is why our shinobi have their symbol." A smile "Most of the shinobi in Uzushio were also part of the same clan... The Uzumaki Clan."
The blue eyes of the young child grew wide in wonder "Wow! Does it mean I come from an awesome clan, eh, eh, jiji?"
"It does, indeed, Naruto."
The enthusiasm quickly calmed down, as the child suddenly realized a problem.
"Wait... I've never met any other Uzumaki..."
"That's because you're the last one in the village." Hiruzen answered, rather sad to cause the unusual expression of anguish on the usually happy little blond "Uzushiogakure was destroyed during the Second Shinobi War." he explained "We arrived too late to save them, and the survivors mostly went into hiding ever since."
"Destroyed? But... Why?"
"Because people were afraid of them." the old man answered, more for himself now than the child, eyes turning toward his memories "Because they were too powerful, yet too small to defend themselves." a sigh "We tried to save them, but were too late."
"Oh..."

The child was still unusually depressed, learning in the same moment that he had a clan, but was all that was left of it had been hard on the orphan. Pushing his memories of the failed expedition to save their ally, Hiruzen went back to the original topic.
"You know, I've told you this was you clan secret, yet I'm not an Uzumaki."
"Sure but... you're old, you know everything!"
The old man laughed "It's not quite true I'm afraid. But my teachers were the first and second Hokage..."
"Woah, really? You're actually awesome, jiji?"
A laugh "Well, I told you only the best shinobi could become Hokage." he reminded the blond "Anyway, the Shodaime, Hashirama Senju, was married to an Uzumaki."
"Wow? Really?"
"Yes. Mito-sama was a very strong woman, and while she never was my sensei, she never turned me away from her house even after her husband's death. When Uzushiogakure fell, she called for me and told me a bit about her clan's inheritance."
"Why?"
"Well, for you I guess."
"What? How could she know me?"
"She didn't know you, but she realized that with the clan gone, there maybe other little boys or girls around who'd see green words and don't understand why."
"Wow. That old lady was awesome too!"

¤.¤.¤

It was a few months later.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, Hokage of Konoha had been stunned with how far Naruto had come in such a small lapse of time – the teachers had all but given up on making the hyperactive blond learn to read, but the boy had caught up with the other children now that he had an interest in learning.
"Say jiji?"
"Yes Naruto?"
"Who's that?"
The old man, turned his head to eye the boy Naruto was pointing at.
The boy was a few years older than Naruto himself, with dark spiky haired tied in the back, and startling green eyes. Despite being only seven, the boy also had the Leaf hitai-ate tied around his neck, marking him as an official shinobi of Konoha.
"This is Nara Ren." he answered, wondering what had caught the attention of the blond that was eyeing the older boy quite intently

Intently enough, that Naruto dropped down from the tall stool on which he'd impatiently been waiting for his ramen, and stalked toward the dark haired boy, stopping just before him and looking at him right into the eyes. The Nara boy was rather strange, Hiruzen remembered – because he was born with red mark on his cheek reminiscent of the ones of the Inuzuka, mark the dog loving clan apparently recognized, and which in turn made them afford him as much respect as their clan head. He also had a green leaf eerily like that of Konoha inked on his brow, that mark too there from birth.
The strange occurrence had been reported to the Hokage, of course – but they had found no trace of meddling from Orochimaru, and a spy that young and conspicuous would be all but useless...
"You're not an Uzumaki."
"I'm not." the other confirmed amicably, making the Hokage relax – the Nara weren't stupid, he knew, but Ren was one the numerous orphans made by the Kyuubi nearly four years before

"Then why does the green words say you're like me?"
Both Nara and Sarutobi eyes' widened at the affirmation, and the green-eyed boy mumbled "Oh, so you're of the bambina's descendants, er... Or Fate's chosen, maybe?"
Seeing the bowls arriving on the counter, Hiruzen called "Come Naruto, and introduce me your new friend."
The boy obeyed the implied order, taken a seat near the old man and the young boy, greeting him with a "Hokage-sama."
"So..." the village leader said softly as soon as Naruto was busy eating "I know your parents well-enough to know they weren't unfaithful, so how did you come by an Uzumaki inheritance?"
The green eyes that paused on him, as if assessing him, were far older than any seven year old eyes' ought to be, then after a long moment, the boy answered "Do you believe, Hokage-sama?"
"Believe?" the old man took an instant before realizing what he meant "are you talking about the gods?"
A smile.
The gray man took his time to answer.

"We shinobi have abilities that normal men think of like magic." he eventually answered "So it would be easy to think ourselves superior and deny anything else..." he mused "But I've seen people perform acts even chakra couldn't explain... I couldn't say that I believe in any particular god, but I do believe we aren't all that there is in the world."
The young shinobi smiled in what was clear approval "Then you haven't grown arrogant despite your powers and position." he praised, before adding toward Naruto "Would you like to hear a story?"
Given the enthusiastic approval his suggestion was met with, the trio was soon heading toward the small, nearly derelict flat the orphan was living in alone since a few weeks ago, when the Hokage had realized the orphanage had thrown him out...
"Once upon a time, a long long time ago, before the Sage of the Six Path and the shinobi, the world was a very different place..." a smile "There was no chakra in this world, but there was magic..." Ren started "But not everyone could use magic, so the people grew jealous. Eventually the witches and wizards decided to hide themselves from the jealous people..."
"But why? Couldn't they make people leave them alone with their magic?"
"Because they were powerful but there wasn't many of them."

"Powerful but not enough?" Naruto remembered "Should have Uzushiogakure hidden themselves?"
"Maybe..." Ren shrugged "But you know, hiding yourself all the time is tiresome after awhile, and it isn't a perfect solution."
"So what happened?"
"Some people didn't like to hide, and decided they were better than those that didn't have magic. But not everyone agreed and so there was war..."
"Oh! Like did they use powerful technique and..."
"Ah ah ah," Ren stopped him "Remember there wasn't chakra back then. Do you know what chakra is?"
"Er... the thingy that makes awesome technique?"
The fond smile was rather unexpected on the rather serious face of the black-haired boy, but then again, Hiruzen remembered, Ren lived with the Nara Clan head, who was his direct uncle, and as such was used to live with a young child "Chakra is a mix of physical and spiritual energy. But magic was different, magic was the power of the mind." he explained "But it was still pretty impressive, they could control the element just like with jutsu..."
"Oh... And then?"

"There was a young couple in this war, just out of the school for witches and wizards, and decided not to let the bad guy win. They fought against him not once, or even twice but three times!"
Around the young Nara, the shadows were starting to move, Hiruzen noted, surprised, the shapes of people fighting appearing on the wall behind him under Naruto's wide eyes...
"And then, Fate decide to sent help. A child would be born, who could win against the bad guy!"
The shadows were showing the couple, now with a baby.
"But the bad guy found out, and decide to kill the baby before it was too late. He went to the couple's house, killed the father first, then went into the room, and killed the mother..." by now, Naruto was nearly hidden under his covers, eyes wide and expecting
"And then, when he tried to kill the baby with a spell that no one could win against..." he clapped loudly in his hands, making the blond jump "BOOM! The house was destroyed, the bad guy disappeared, and only the baby was left."

"But how?"
"That's the question, eh?" a wink "People in the magical world were happy, with the bad guy gone, the war was over... And meanwhile, the baby was sent to the only family she had left, her uncle and aunt, people that didn't have magic." a sigh "Because the little girl was magical, she was different, and so they didn't like her a lot. They only saw her as a freak, a trouble-maker, a waste of space..." he quoted
Naruto eyes widened in recognition at the familiar slurs, and he became even more interested.
"And what happened to her?" he whispered
"She grew up alone, bullied by her cousin. And one day..." a large silhouette appeared near the little form that was the girl "A giant came, and took her to the magic school."
"Yatta!"

"The little girl didn't really like the magic school at first."
"What? But why?"
"Because the bad guy had disappeared against her, people were always staring at her and whispering. It wasn't hate anymore, but it wasn't very fun either..."
"Oh." Naruto was frowning "Being popular can be annoying too?"
"It can." Ren nodded "Have you ever seen a Uchiha run from fan-girls?"
"I've seen them! It's funny!"
"For you, but do they look like they enjoy it?"
Understanding dawned on the blond "Nuh uh, they were annoyed. One of them threatened to fry me the next time I told the fan-girls where they were..."
"Exactly. Except the girl couldn't run away, she was just a young witch, and everyone else had magic just like her." a smile "But after a while people started to get used to see her, and so they left her alone, and she finally manage to make friends."

Two more silhouettes rose in the shadows "The girl and her two friends were very curious, and they realized that some things strange were going around the school..." the shadows rose more ominous "The bad guy wasn't dead, he had lost his body but was trying to come back!"
Naruto shrunk back.
"The teacher didn't believe them, so they decided to go by themselves under the school, working together to tame wild beasts, dangerous plants, and other traps, and confront the bad guy..."
"Oh! Did they win?"
"They did." Ren confirmed "But only because they were lucky." a shrug "You see, there was an old man, very respected, that knew that the girl had been sent to save them, but because she was young he wanted her to have fun, not fight bad guys."
"But if she didn't fight, the bad guy would have come back?"
"Exactly." the shadow user confirmed "But this was a world where children didn't fight, only adult did, so they didn't want to teach a child... Except the bad guy didn't care about how young the girl was, year after year, he tried again and again, and eventually, he managed to come back."

The blond let out a startled gasp "And the girl?"
"She survived." Ren reassured him "But now people had realized that she had been right all along, so they wanted her to save them..."
"Couldn't they fight themselves?"
"They didn't want to, they were too afraid of the bad guy."
"But it was alright for the little girl to fight?" Naruto, as young as he was, easily understood that this wasn't right
"Well she had been sent for that." Ren quoted "So it was alright if she fought." a sigh "She didn't really like those people, but she had friends now, a lot of them, so she decided to fight for them."
Naruto nodded eagerly, waiting for the continuation.
"Eventually, with her friends, they managed to figure why the bad guy hadn't died the first time, he had cut his soul in pieces, and hidden them away..."
Several items appeared in the shadows, and Hiruzen eyeing them, couldn't help but shift uncomfortably at the serpentine figure "One after the other, they hunted the soul bits and destroyed them, before going back to the magic school, where people were ready to fight against the bad guy."

"I thought the children didn't fight in this world?"
"Usually. But eventually, the children realized the adults weren't fighting back, nor teaching them how to fight back, so they decided to do things themselves."
The blond nodded enthusiastically.
The hokage was more thoughtful - clearly, the young generation taking things in it's own hands was rather positiv from them; but it was also a clear proof that the elders had failed in their duty of protecting and teaching the children...
This tale was that of a broken society, even if the dark-haired shinobi wasn't saying it, and saving them from one bad guy wouldn't be enough to change it. The old man focused back on the story.
"The battle started, and it wasn't going very well for the good guys. They were young, and nobody had trained them..." the child eyed him worryingly "And in the middle of the battle, the bad guy made everyone stop, telling them they were losing. That was when the little girl realized why they weren't wining..."
The shapes of the battle receded, leaving only the girl.
"They had missed a little bit of soul, that the bad guy himself hadn't realized he had lost because he'd already cut his soul so much."
The Hokage realized where the young shinobi was going with this – and the girl that had reminded him of Naruto in her younger years was now reminding him of another, older blond. Another hero.

"The bad guy had left a piece of soul in the girl. So she went, and let him kill her, making him mortal once more."
Naruto gasped loudly, eyes wide in horror, tear visibly gathering in the two blue pools...
"But the girl woke up. The old man, that hadn't trained her, had known from the start she would need to die... But he also loved her like a grand-child even if they weren't blood related, and so, he had found items left behind on Earth by Death himself, and gave them to her without telling her."
A loud, relieved sigh.
"The little girl was a hero. And she realized that it wasn't as fun at all as in the story, it was more scary... That's when Chaos came to her." a smile "He and the other gods had watched her struggles, and humans weren't suppose to win against Death, so they invited her."
"She became a god?"

"She became a god who would help heroes." Ren nodded "She went back again and again, to find the people chosen by Fate to help them, so that when they found their own bad guys, they wouldn't found themselves alone, and without training."
"Oh wow!"
"And Chaos, because he liked to have fun, gave her something called ChaosGame."
"Ah! So that's why you also have it? Are you a hero?"
Ren laughed "No I'm not, I'm her husband."
"Er? But where is she then?"
"She hasn't been born yet." Ren answered, eyeing his mate and bonding mark
"But how come I have ChaosGame too?"
"Because you're one of her descendants from her last life." a wink "After all, she doesn't just come to do a hero's job instead of him, she gets reborn, have a new family and friends each time... And sometimes, she even gets married and have children, just like in the stories."
"Wait wait wait, you mean that the girl hero was my many many many time ancestor?"
"Exactly." Ren smiled "This is why all the Uzumaki have their own version of ChaosGame." a wink
The little boy smiled sleepily "I hope she gets born soon..."
"So do I." the Nara shinobi confirmed with a worried smile the already sleeping boy didn't see

¤.¤.¤

A smile Hiruzen did pick on.
"A goddess to help heroes, eh? So what about you?"
"A man too stubborn to let even Death separate us." Ren commented with an amused smile
"Not a mortal anymore then." the other easily understood – her wasn't renowned as the Professor for nothing after all
"My body is just as mortal as anyone else's." the young shinobi pointed out easily
"You are revealing your secrets pretty easily?"
A shrug.
"I didn't even try to hide them from uncle. The Nara are much too intelligent to be talked around, and you aren't renowned as The Professor for nothing." he admitted "Besides... Naruto has a difficult destiny ahead."
"So he's not really her descendant?"
"Oh he is." Ren contradicted "But he is also one of Fate's Chosen."
The Hokage smiled, amused "To think Jiraya was convinced it was his father." his eyes grew worried "Still... Isn't the burden he already bears enough?"

"Hero isn't an easy job." the dark-haired shinobi simply answered "And they're never forced into anything."
"Which is why you didn't tell him?"
"He'll have to decide by himself whether he wants to fight or not." the Nara agreed "But he's too much like her to try and escape his fate."
"There's more to it, isn't there?" the Hokage realized, as the boy still look too worried for his current revelations to be the only one
"Godly Powers aren't meant to be used in the Mortal Realms, but sometimes... It can't be helped."
The Hokage didn't ask the young boy to elaborate, knowing that he would when needed.
After that, Naruto had gone out of his way to look for Ren quite a few times – and the shinobi always seemed to manage to make some time for the hyper-active blond. Having one more people care about him was making wonder for the young orphan, especially someone who, as old mentally as he was, was also a child – not to mention someone who knew much more about the Uzumaki inheritance than he did himself, and could as such point Naruto in the right direction with it.
It was barely a few weeks after Ren had shared his tale with them that the Nara boy had started to display a rather unusual smile.

Naruto had been the one to explain excitedly at their next ramen date "She's born! The little girl, she's been born!"
The old man had shared the happy grin – because as much as he worried about the coming destiny that would weigh on the little blond's shoulders, he at least knew that unlike the girl that had just been born, he already had some help assured thanks to her.
Yes – he really looked forward to meeting the newly born goddess...
Then, as the weeks dragged on, he realized worryingly as he spotted the young Nara when he dropped by with his team to take new missions that his smile was slipping.
And finally, about six months after the girl's birth, it had been pure panic that had been marring the deity's face as he'd barged into his office as another team was leaving the room...
"There's something wrong with her!" he'd affirmed urgently "She hasn't been born in the village, and someone's torturing her!"
The affirmation worked as a cold shower, and he stopped the ANBU that had been moving to remove the young insubordinate shinobi before he could step out of the shadows.

"What can you tell me?"
The Nara took a shuddering breath, then pointed at the ring he always wore, something rather unusual for a shinobi that the Hokage had long since picked upon.
"She made this in our first life together..." he explained "It was back before I'd even ascended too, so she made it so I could have an idea about how she felt the world around her." at the intrigue in the other's eyes, he elaborated, not begrudging the Professor knowledge "High deities have three majors powers linked to their dominion, and gain others along the way. For Death, its powers over the soul, blood and shadows. The power over souls was the first she mastered."
"Not unexpected given her first foe."
"Indeed. That mastery means the bambina feels all souls around them. Their name, age, life-expectancy, species, and current feelings..."
Hiruzen's eyes widened at the affirmation.
"That's..."

"Powerful, but it can be tuned out like any other senses." a nod from the Hokage and he forged on "This rings doesn't tell me who she is in this life, but I could feel her as soon as she was born, as well as a general direction of where she is."
"Which is how you knew."
A nod.
"I can feel what she feels." he reiterated
Hiruzen's eyes widened, remembering what he'd first affirmed.
"Torture."
"I wasn't sure at first, she's just a baby... But apparently, she's been pushing herself to improve faster to deflect attention from the other babies." he shuddered "She's somewhere with a lot of other children, and there is training and human experimentation going around, that's about as much as I can get." he closed his eyes "Only her soul is immortal, Hokage-sama." he reiterated
The other closed his eyes too, sighing heavily.

"How are your skills?" he finally asked
"Mid chuunin level." the other estimated easily
"Get to jounin level, and I'll get you in my personal Anbu guard. Then you can go and search for her."
As much as he wanted to protest and get out to search right now, the young boy managed to restrain himself, in a show of self-control that impressed even the Anbu that were hidden in the room.
"Meanwhile I'll have Jiraya look into this. Do you have anything that'll make her know he's coming from you?"
"Call her Shadow, and me Light, and she'll know."
"This has my traitorous student mark all over." Hiruzen warned "We've been after him for years."
"With me pointing the way, you'll find at least the place she's in."
It had taken but weeks for Nara Ren to be at the level to take the jounin exam – then be inducted in Anbu. That was when Nara Shikaku had barged in his office in a way very reminiscent of his nephew's own way to demand to be told what the fuck was going on.

¤.¤.¤

It took much to anger the clan leader – but putting his family in harm way was a sure way to do it. With how intelligent all clan member was, no one seemed to wonder why there weren't more well-know child genius like the other clans were so proud of among the Nara. The explication was rather simple – the Nara were more intelligent, and as such they had long since realized what the others had failed to see, that all child genius became broken somewhere along the way by the harsh world shinobi lived in.
Shikaku had no wish to see such a fate befell the nephew that was all he had left from his little sister.
"He's got someone to find."
The simple affirmation had stopped the Nara clan head in his tracks, and he'd asked "The little magical girl in his tales?"
A nod.

"Oh. So there really will be war in our future yet again, huh." the jounin commander sighed
Hiruzen echoed him – while Ren had told him war didn't follow all heroes, the young deity realized just as well as they did that their world was a violent one.
"I guess I shouldn't slack too much on Shikamaru's training then." he whispered, before leaving – not needing to hear anymore explanation
The Hokage was of two mind, as he realized that like always, when one clan head had acted, the two others had followed – and that the training of the youngest generation of the Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi had been sensibly upped.
Not enough to make anyone not looking for it realize, but still more than the usual clan training in this peace period.

As soon as Nara Ren had completed his training, he'd been given the one partner the Hokage felt he could trust with the god's quest. Hound had been a bit surprised when he'd been read in, but realizing that even if they did exist, gods didn't have that much say in the day to day life of the mortal world hadn't surprised him.
He couldn't think of a god who could have wished for the Yondaime's death after all.
And knowing – that there really was something beyond death had been just as reassuring for him as it had been for Hiruzen, or could be for anyone who'd been a shinobi for long enough.
Because at least now – they knew that their loved ones still had a future, even if it was in a different life.

[Naruto/ Age 4 / Level 2
Physical Main Stat 35(42):Strength 13(13) / Agility 10(13) / Endurance 12 (16)
Spiritual Main Stat 30(45): Intelligence 10(10) / Will 10(19) / Wisdom 10(16)
Social Main Stat 30(55):Presence 10(11) / Perception 10(12) / Luck 10(32)
Secondary Stat:
Health Points 118(148) / HP regen/min 1,19(1,51) / Chakra Point 175 / CP regen/min 1,75
Damage 12,1(13) / Defense 12,3(15,1) / Reaction Speed 10,6(13,9)
Chakra control 8(11) / Chakra Density 10(18,1) / Mind Speed 10(11,8)
Critic Chance 0,8(1,32) / Critic Damage Multiplier 1,21(4,16), Loot Bonus 10(23,8)]