Reign of the Shodai Hokage

Chapter 1: Planting the Seed

A/N: Yes, here it is. The SECOND Time-Travel story I'm writing. Odd how I swore I would never ever write a single chapter of a Time-Travel story, and here I am starting a second one. Down to business anywho. This is a response to a challenge issued by SeikoRin. A story that will contain eventual NarutoxTsunade Pairing. Don't expect that for a really long time. Anyways, here's the first chapter of my newest story, Reign of the Shodai Hokage!

---Begin---

Uzumaki Naruto was commonly known by the moniker of Konoha's Number One Surprising Shinobi. To date, he hadn't let that title go to waste. And today was going to be no exception to that rule.

If one were to describe Naruto's appearance it would probably include words like, "short," "blonde," "orange," or "atrocious." The simple fact being, Naruto was short. He was blonde too. And he wore the most hideous jumpsuit in either hemisphere. This odd choice of style had remained Naruto's trademark for many years and was destined to remain that way for a good number of years to come.

If things were to continue as planned that is. You see, Fate and Destiny don't really like each other a whole lot. People often mix the two up, and they get a bit picky over who controls what. Uzumaki Naruto just so happened to be the rope in Fate and Destiny's Tug-Of-War for the time being. How unfortunate.

But Fate and Destiny had two older Brothers they often failed to take into account when deciding their actions. Reality being one, and Chaos being the other. Reality made sure nothing too weird happened, and Chaos made sure things too weird happened. They were usually occupied with each other's actions to such a degree they overlooked their younger Sisters.

That is until one day Fate and Destiny got into a little pickle over what would happen to Naruto. Fate decided that Naruto would be trained by Jiraiya, the Gama-Sannin. Destiny liked the idea, but not that Fate came up with it. So Destiny decided that Jiraiya would teach Naruto to control Kyuubi's Chakra.

Chaos decided that Jiraiya would do so by throwing Naruto off a cliff. Needless to say, Destiny and Fate were rather pissed off. Also needless to say, Reality was even more pissed off. This resulted in an enormous three-way fight with Chaos off to the side giggling to himself, as much as a mass-less collection of omnipotent energy can at least, over the whole ordeal, leaving Naruto to fend for himself.

In the normal Reality, Naruto would have accessed Kyuubi's chakra to summon Gamabunta, the Toad Boss, to carry him to safety. However, neither Fate nor Destiny decided he should summon Gamabunta, so he didn't. Instead he kept falling.

Now, the Universe has an odd way of correcting itself. Naruto was supposed to grow more powerful and end up defeating Akatsuki, slaughtering Uchiha Madara, and saving the world. However, Naruto's fate had just changed to that of splat.

The Universe in its literally infinite wisdom, couldn't do anything about Naruto right then and there. So, the Universe went for the second best option. Make someone else do something. It chose the Kyuubi.

---1---

Naruto was falling. He was falling quickly. Far too quickly for his liking. It was this falling sensation, and his accompanying scream, that brought him to the inner recesses of his mind. Naruto frowned in disgust at his mind. No matter how many times he ended up in the putrid water of the sewer, he still didn't get used to it.

And so, it was with reluctance that Naruto made his way through the sludge to the enormous cell of the Kyuubi no Yoko. The Ninth and most powerful of the Bijuu. Walking up to the cage, Naruto cupped his hands around his mouth, and yelled.

"Yo! Fuzz-butt! You in there? Wake up!"

A loud groan and subsequent growl accompanied the shifting of an enormous mass of flesh coated in red fur. The terrifying visage of the Kyuubi turned to face Naruto's. It snorted at him, a wave of hot air, thick and damp, passing over him. "What do you want, Brat." The Kyuubi spoke in a deliberate manner, each of its words measured and taut with meaning. It wasted no energy.

"I need your chakra! If I don't summon Gamabunta, I'll die! And that means you'll die too!" The Kyuubi blinked at the boy. Slowly. Naruto thought he was going to rip out his hair because of how slow the blasted thing blinked!

"Very well. If you must. Just let me be. I am tired and your incessant whining does nothing to soothe me." With that, a swath of red energy pushed its way through the cage bars, seeping through like cold jelly before dripping down onto Naruto, almost like mud.

Naruto however, couldn't be happier. He returned to his reality, one of speeding air and approaching doom, and with the swirling mass of vile chakra, he formed several hand seals and shouted, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

It is important here to give a small explanation of the Summoning Jutsu. It works by applying chakra to a medium, usually blood, the automatically call forth a set of Summoning Seals. These seals then act as a beacon, anchored by the user to call forth the Summon Animal.

It is important that the jutsu always be done on a solid surface. Without one, the seals do not anchor to the person, and instead, attach to the nearest hard surface, and act in unexpected ways. This of course can be bypassed by using one's chakra as a temporary platform for the jutsu to operate on for a quick second. Naruto however, didn't know this. So in this case, the jutsu acted in a very peculiar way.

Naruto called out the name of the jutsu, but nothing happened immediately. So, as his first response to still being falling, Naruto screamed. And he screamed and screamed and screamed some more. Until he hit the jagged rocks at the bottom.

Actually, hit would not be the right word. Instead, Naruto seemed to meld into the rock and disappear from view. Jiraiya would look into the crevice several minutes later, mutter a small "Oops…" And leave quickly in the hopes that the Sandaime wouldn't hurt him too badly for this.

---1---

Exactly 47 Years Ago…

Jiraiya was incredibly excited. Today was the first day that he was finally going to get to try out his new Summoning Contract. At twelve years of age, being entrusted with one of Konoha's Summons by his teacher was a great honor. The twelve year old spiky haired child giddily formed the seals and molded the chakra. He slammed his hands into the ground and waited for the telltale puff of smoke and the appearance of something.

Instead, nothing happened. His sensei, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was also quite confused as he witnessed the strange effect of the jutsu. Sarutobi however, did pick up on the fact that the symbols had not disappeared. He slowly pulled Jiraiya away from the seals.

"Jiraiya… Did you do the jutsu exactly as I showed you?" Sarutobi was warily watching the seals.

"Yeah Sensei! I did the seals right and everything!" Jiraiya was protesting his show of seemingly inept abilities.

"Hm. Dobe can't even get a simple Kuchiyose to work properly." This statement had come from a dark haired and pale child. One Orochimaru. Future S-Rank Criminal and Missing-Nin of Konoha. Currently a Genin Student of Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"What was that Orochi-teme!" Jiraiya quickly sprung into action, intent on making the pale child eat his words. Their impending fight was interrupted by the words of their third teammate.

"Uh guys… I think you might want to see this…" Turning, they noticed the seals on the ground glowing. Sarutobi leaned in slightly to try and get a better look.

"What in the name of Kami…" Before Sarutobi could get much further, a scream, although seemingly faraway, was heard.

The four glanced around the immediate area, looking for the source of the noise. It slowly began to get louder. As it reached its apex something completely unexpected happened. Something shot out of the seals on the ground, and was launched into the air at an amazing speed. The four shinobi were left staring into the sky after the boy.

Now here is where we get into some applied physics. We know that that an object of some mass moving at some speed in an upwards direction will eventually be pulled back down by gravity. Now, moving at the speed that the object that came out of the seals was, we can assume it is going to go very high.

Now, we know that when an object starts at some velocity, it will return to the same elevation with the same velocity. However, at its apex, for one brief instant, the object is motionless. It was at that moment that one singular thought ran through the object's mind.

'Oh crap.'

It was with that that the object, a boy to be precise started his descent. Luckily for him, he would have his landing softened by an object below him. One pale dark haired Genin by the name of Orochimaru to be precise.

His impact was greeted with mixed results. One strangled scream of pain. One surprised gasp. One laugh of mirth at Orochimaru being crushed. And one worm sigh that you just knew said "There's going to be a lot of paperwork behind this."

And it was with that arrival that Naruto lost consciousness but not before catching a glimpse of Sarutobi and muttering to himself, "Oji-san?"

---End---

A/N: And there it is. The short prologue to the beginning of The Reign of the Shodai Hokage. The name referring to the time period Naruto landed in. Not sure how far the story will go. Anyways, if you think this is interesting, check out my original Time Travel Fic, A Place in Time! Until next time, Eternal Thief.