Chapter 2

It has been said that the Uzumaki clan possessed life force like a fire. As long as there was still an ember, the flame could be rekindled.

The clan held to life with a tenacity unknown to others.

As Naruto’s body lay crucified against the God Tree, it turned to ash, it didn’t fall apart though, and it held its form.

When Naruto’s chakra was pulled from his body, his fire of life was blown out. However, a single ember remained.

That ember was absorbed by the God Tree where it continued to smolder.

The ember didn’t understand its existence. It had forgotten its name. It had forgotten what a name was, all it remembered was that it should have one.

The ember smoldered quietly inside the God Tree. The Tree had stolen the life and chakra of every living being in the Shinobi world, and condensed the chakra within the chakra fruit.

After the Fruit ripened, it was consumed by Kaguya, who left the planet, and never looked back.

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The planet was dead in all senses of the word. Not a single thing lived upon it, except of course the God Tree.

By stealing the life force of the planet, the God Tree would live for uncountable years on the silent world.

The ember burned though.

Years passed. Nothing changed.

The ember still burned though.

Years passed. Nothing changed.

The ember still burned.

The ember would’ve smoldered in place for eternity had it not one desire. It desired a name, but it did not know what a name was nor where to find it.

The ember had waited long enough. It would find the name if the name would not come to it.

And so, for the first time in a long time, there was movement in the silent Shinobi World, and the ember moved around the tree.

The ember moved slowly, it smoldered from place to place.

The Tree was very large, but the ember did not know time, and it searched.

Its search eventually led it to the body of Naruto, still formed of ash, still crucified to the bark of the Tree.

The ember felt a calling, and nestled within the ash.

Normally ash would smother an ember, but the ash was special.

It had spent uncountable years soaking in the aura of the God Tree. The Tree contained immeasurable life force, and some of it found its way to the body of ash nailed to its bark.

And so the ember found a place to burn. And Burn it did.

The ember settled in the very center of the ashen body, and starting from there, the body slowly regained its color.

What had once been ash, reformed to a living body due to the influence of the God Tree.

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The living body could host a flame, and for the first time in a long time, the ember became a flame.

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Naruto awoke with a start. He remembered dying, and his last memory was the of Kaguya. He was incredibly weak, he had never felt such weakness.

Try as he might, but he could not open his eyes.

A wave of exhaustion washed over him, and he fell into a fitful sleep.

The dreams were not good ones.

His first dream was the moment of his death. The feeling of his body turning to ash, his chakra being ripped from his body and taking something much more important with it.

He awoke. He could still not open his eyes. Exhaustion set in again, and he dreamt again.

This time he was Shikamaru, and he felt himself die as his chakra was removed.

He awoke. He could still not open his eyes. Exhaustion set in again, and he dreamt again.

This time he was Hinata, and he felt himself die as his chakra was removed.

He awoke, and the cycle continued.

Everyone he had ever known, many people he didn’t know. He continuously dreamt of their deaths.

The cycle continued. Though the God Tree had preserved Naruto’s body from the Ash Bone spears, it had done so as a terrible price.

The life force contained within the Tree, the life force that preserved his body, also carried the last memories of each life stolen by the God Tree, and as Naruto dreamt, he lived those memories.

Naruto experienced the death of everyone he knew and loved.

Everyone he tried to protect.

Everyone he didn’t know.

Everyone he fought.

Every one.

On the silent Shinobi world, years passed. Nothing changed

The cycle continued.

Years passed. Nothing changed.

The cycle continued.

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In a disconnected dimension, there was Sasuke.

He had been fighting Kaguya when he was separated from Naruto. The last thing that happened to him was he saw Obito through a portal, who then tossed his Sharingan through and closed it.

He immediately used his Rinnegan to absorb the dimensional powers of Obito’s Sharingan, but he couldn’t use them.

He could not cross dimensions. For some reason, Obito’s power’s were sealed.

He continued to try, but he eventually noticed.

He had been trying to use Obito’s ocular prowess for what seemed like years, but he hadn’t grown tired, and he hadn’t grown hungry.

He concluded that he was under some form of time-dilation genjutsu, reminiscent of Itachi’s Mangekyo.

So naturally he tried to escape the genjutsu.

Sasuke spend years trying to break the genjutsu, never growing hungry, never growing tired.

The seeds of doubt grew in his mind, and he tried to push them away, but a man can only last so long by himself with his thoughts.

One day, Sasuke gave up. He didn’t know how long he struggled for, but eventually he gave up.

Time continued to pass with passing. He never grew hungry, and he never grew tired.

He started to question himself. He rambled to himself like a madman.

The dimension he was trapped in was empty. A never expanding expanse of white in every direction.

He saw nothing, and experienced nothing.

How long had he experienced nothing? Was it short? Was it long?

Was something an illusion? Was nothing the reality?

Sasuke was losing his mind.

However, it seems that humans are blessed in some capacity.

A human can feel bored.

Sasuke was bored for a very long time.

When one is bored, they will do anything to kill the monotony.

Sasuke thought to himself, and spoke with himself.

When he began to doubt everything, he threw it all away.

What he was left with was simple.

He could think. He had a mind. He had awareness.

He was aware of himself.

After being reduced to nothing, he could find himself again.

He asked himself questions.

Does anything exist?

The fact that I am asking a question implies my own existence.

Without my existence, the question “Does anything exist?” does not exist.

If I exist, does anything else exist?

If I was the only thing that existed, I would be aware of everything.

Therefore, I would not be able to ask if “anything else” exists.

The fact that I can conceive of something that is not myself that I am unaware of implicates the existence of something besides myself.

I exist, and something else exists.

I have memories, but I cannot be sure if they are real.

If I have created them, they are real.

If I did not create them, they are not real.

If they are not real, they have been placed there by something that is not me.

From this, I derive that either my memories are true, or they are created by something else.

If the were created by something else, then the memories are true for that being.

The memories have been created, and whether they were created by me or by another, they are real.

Therefore, I can take the memories as true even while existing in a timeless state of nothing.

There is nothing I can be besides “Sasuke” and therefore I should act according to my interests.

Sasuke, who had lost himself, found himself once again.

Sasuke had a goal, which was escape from nothingness back to something, and he had a lot of time to figure it out.

He pored over his memories and analyzed every possibility for his current situation based on the memories.

By systematically ruling out every wrong solution, he could eventually come upon the right solution.

Uncountable iterations of experimental solutions occurred, each one with a premise, and each one being systematically ruled out.

Sasuke had long since stopped talking out loud, but his thoughts went something like this.

The next premise is that I am separated from the Shinobi World with Space-Time ninjutsu, and Obito’s sharingan can only cross the spatial component, but since I am unable to cross the time component, I am still trapped.

Theorized solution- Develop time traveling ninjutsu. Utilize it in conjunction with Space ninjutsu.

Sasuke, through uncountable iterations of systematic elimination had eventually arrived at the correct premise and solution.