27 Time Skip

It's been a bit over a year, closer to two years than one. I was now 15 years old with my birthday being a few months off. I knew things were about to kick off because Naruto returned roughly a week ago, which meant Gaara was going to get kidnapped soon. I was ready, though.

My chakra maxed out first, leaving me with reserves that could compete with the largest tailed beasts. My kenjutsu followed shortly after. My taijutsu was next even though all my skills in it weren't maxed out.

[Taijutsu

Skills: [Personal Style, lvl 48] [Hummingbird Style, lvl 20 (max)] [Strong fist, lvl 35(max)] [Eight Gates, lvl 8(max)] [Medical style, lvl 20(max)] [Flash Step, lvl 30 (max)], [Academy Taijutsu, lvl 5 (max)] [Hakuda, lvl 30 (max)] [Ikkotsu, lvl 5 (max)] [Sokotsu, lvl 5 (max)] [Strength Technique, lvl 8].

Progress: 100%]

The fact that I could still add and max out skills meant that I could gain strength that the system wouldn't track. Sure, I wouldn't get a significant boost every percentage, but it leaves hope for the future.

I made the most progress in the Strength Technique. I mastered chakra reinforcement to the highest level, but I still struggled with releasing the strength with perfect timing. It wasn't that I couldn't, it just took too much concentration to be combat-viable. I did gain a lot of pure physical strength just off the fact that I was better at reinforcing my muscles. It wasn't as much of a boost as Tsunade got, though.

The only frustrating thing was my fire release; I was stuck at 99%. I just needed one more push to get 100%, but it wasn't easy to find opponents like that. I considered trying to hunt down the Akatsuki, but that wasn't viable for a couple of reasons.

First, was that tracking wasn't my specialty and if they were found, I would probably be sent after them anyway. So there was no point in going off on my own. Second, was that I kind of needed them to be alive. This got more complicated the more I thought about it.

I needed to kill Kaguya. And to do that, she needed to be revived by Black Zetsu. Now, some might think that Kaguya can't be killed and only sealed. They would be mostly right. But I had a theory that hinges on fully mastering my fire release.

Mostly because of Yamamoto's most powerful ability; being able to summon all the foes he's slain. It's really only an assumption until I unlock the ability, but I think that it works as a form of sealing. Because how else would he summon indestructible skeletons that can take on the likeness of the person they were before Yamamoto killed them?

I think that if I kill Kaguya, or at least incinerate her on a molecular level, I might be able to trap her with that ability. If I was wrong, I planned to kill Black Zetsu whenever he shows up. That was risky, though. I don't know if Kaguya had any other contingencies besides Black Zetsu that just didn't get covered in the show or not.

Also, I don't like the idea of worrying about her resurrection for the rest of my life in this world.

If all else fails, Naruto will probably fix it, but I'm not going to bet on it. Who's to say that it will go exactly like canon? And that's not because I think I caused a huge butterfly effect or something, just that this world is already bigger than what is told in the original story. What else is different or more realistic? What other threats are out there?

That's not even considering the events of Boruto, which I know very little about. Hell, I don't even know much about Shippuden. Like, I only vaguely remember when Pain's assault on Konoha happens. And even that's not foolproof information considering I'd already offed a few extra Akatsuki members.

Speaking of Pain's assault, I don't want to mess with that. Because unless I can prevent Pain from destroying the village, which is doubtful, I have no way idea how I would talk Nagato into reviving all the villagers.

"Kaen."

It grated me to think that I would have to rely on superficial knowledge for it to just turn out well. I wasn't going to sit idly by though. I had a couple of plans, mostly involving a way to keep Danzo from fucking around as Hokage. This might not be a problem since Hiruzen is alive, but preventing Tsunade from going comatose can't be a bad thing.

"Kaen?"

God, there was so much to do and I don't even know if it would work out. I mean, who's to say that everything will work out in my favor? That's retarded and definitely not how the world works.

I felt a hand slapping towards me and caught it, looking up in confusion.

"Finally back with us?" An irritated Isamu asked.

I looked across the table to see an equally irritated Ayame. Yeah, I was currently seated next to Isamu and across from Ayame in a booth at our favorite barbeque place. Whoops?

"Uh, sorry? I was lost in thought." I said sheepishly.

Isamu rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I couldn't tell."

I chuckled awkwardly, "What were we talking about again?"

"When to take our next mission," Ayame interjected, "We've already been waiting for a week because you wanted to take a break."

"We'll go on a mission soon," I placated, "I have a feeling something exciting is going to happen."

"Besides," I continued, "We have a perfect mission record and a stellar reputation; what's a week or two of downtime gonna cost us?"

"Because I'm getting bored?" Isamu added.

I smirked, "We could always spar a little."

Isamu paled at that, "No thanks. Go find Lee or something. He's the only one crazy enough to consider what you do a 'spar.'"

"A shame," I added, "Guess you'll have to suck it up and be bored for a while."

Yeah, I had agreed to have a rematch with Lee a while back. Which turned into another rematch. And another. And another. Then we kind of became friends? Acquaintances? Sparring buddies? I don't really know, but it turned into a regular occurrence when we were both in the village.

I beat him into the ground every time, of course, but it was a valuable experience for me anyways. As long as I held back a good bit, that is.

I continued to chat with my team as we enjoyed our barbeque when something exciting actually happened. An Anbu messenger appeared in front of us.

"Lord Hokage requests your team's presence urgently," they said before disappearing as fast as they arrived.

I looked knowingly at Isamu as I put some cash down to pay for our meal, "I told you something exciting would happen soon."

He deadpanned at me, "That's bullshit; you had no idea this was going to happen."

He was mostly right, but I wasn't going to admit it. We quickly flickered, or flash-stepped in my case, to the Hokage's office. We entered the office with me at the front. I bowed slightly upon entering.

"Lord Hokage."

As I bowed, I looked around the room, noting the presence of Team Guy.

Tsunade nodded, "I'm going to be blunt; the Kazekage has been kidnapped by Akatsuki. Team Kakashi has already been sent to Suna. I'm going to send both of your teams as backup since you're available."

We all nodded seriously, understanding the importance of this mission.

"It's sudden, but leave within the next thirty minutes. Your goal is to rendezvous with Team Kakashi. They will leave a summon animal, most likely a dog, that will lead you to their location if they have left. Guy will be leading the mission as the most experienced shinobi. You are dismissed."

""Yes, Lord Hokage!"" We said in unison, before leaving the office.

No words passed between my team as we all understood what to do. I went home to inform Mom and gather some rations before flashing to the front gates. I was the first to arrive as I was the fastest.

In 5 minutes, everyone, including Team Guy, had arrived.

"Everyone ready?" Guy asked. We all nodded.

"Good. Let's go!"

///// A/N /////

This was a very short chapter so sorry about that. The next chapter will be longer so don't worry. I was going to write this yesterday but I ended up needing to do a ton of research on the non-filler shippuden arcs. I have to say, the fourth shinobi war is dumb; it's literally a bunch of filler fights for the most part.

The only thing that actually matters is when Madara is summoned, gets a rinnegan back, Obito becomes the ten-tails, Madara gets his other rinnegan and becomes the ten-tails jinchuriki, and Kaguya is summoned. Everything else is just a waste of time so I had a lot of planning to do.

That's not to say the fights weren't awesome or anything, they just aren't super relevant to the actual plot. So the way the war will go down will be hopefully more original and relevant than canon.

I still have a lot of planning to do, but I finally have a basic outline for how I want to end the story and an epilogue!

I'm going to say it now so no one's disappointed later: This is not going to be a long story or turn into a multiverse story. It's also not going to cover Boruto, because the only reason I even know Boruto exists is because Naruto makes a badass Hokage.

I just have so many ideas I want to write and worlds I want to play with. I'm already struggling to focus on one story at a time, so if I made this super long I would probably lose my passion for it. And if I'm not passionate about it there's no point for me to be writing anything imo.

That's pretty much it, so leave a review and let me know if you like the characters I did with ai.