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Minato was broken out of his thoughts as he sensed someone land on the roof just outside of the office and climbed through the window.
"Sensei I didn't expect you to be back so soon. I would have thought that you would at least stop by the hot springs for a few hours to do your research."
The toad sage let out a chuckle, "Normally I would have but the information I have is too important." Minato's face lost all of its playfulness from before, "The toads summoned me to Mt. Myoboku a few days ago...they came to me with a prophecy."
Minato immediately remembered how seriously the toads take their prophecies. The previous one Jiraiya believed was about him and how he would bring peace to the Elemental Nations. It hasn't happened yet be believed it would someday. "What did they say sensei?"
Jiraiya closed his eyes as he remembered what the prophecy was, "They told me that: a child born from great power but with memories of old shall pave the way toward a new era of peace. Whether they walk the path of light or is forced into the darkness shall determine what the future will hold. Their predecessor has already burned the path for them, but it shall be their will of fire that determines whether they will walk it or forge their own."
"Minato, I believe that the child the prophecy speaks about is either Nawaki, Narumi, or Natsuki...I'd like to let them sign the toad contract when on their birthday."
Minato looked shocked, "Are you sure their ready? And they've already signed Tsunade's slug contract too. Can a person even hold two contracts at once?"
Jiraiya just nodded, "I have already spoken to Tsunade about this. She and the slugs both agreed so it should be fine. Besides their birthday is still two months away and they'll start the academy a few weeks after so it'll be perfect."
Minato looked excited for the first time in weeks. "Okay I'm sure they'd love it. I think I'll teach them how to summon after they start the academy."
Jiraiya nodded and left out the window to do his research. Minato could here him giggling as soon as he left.
Little did they know that they couldn't be more wrong about the prophecy.
[ Naruto's Hospital Room ]
It was dark, almost midnight. Visiting hours were over long ago and only nurses working the night shift could be seen around the hospital. Though if you were to look into one of the rooms you would see a skinny, frail-looking blonde stirring. His fingers would twitch every now and then. Groans could be heard escaping his mouth and his breathing became irregular. Then there were flames. Orange-red flames surrounded his body and and he started glowing. After the flames disappeared from view anybody would be shocked at what they saw. Gone was the skinny and frail build that looked as if he would break if you pushed him over and laying there was a tanned muscular blonde that looked as if he didn't have an ounce of body fat on him.
Naruto slowly took off the oxygen mask that was hooked up to life support and tried to open his eyes. The key word was tried because there were bandages covering his forehead and the entire right side of his face. He unhooked himself from all of the machines pulled himself to the side of the bed and sat up. The first thing he noticed when he opened his left eye was that almost all of his body was covered in medical bandages.
He noticed that he was in a hospital room and his mind tried to come up with the possibilities of why he was there. It was then that flashes of his fight with Natsuki made their way into his mind. 'Oh yeah Natsuki lost control during our spar and almost killed me. I guess living someone else's memories in fast forward messes with your memory a little...they were real right? Of course they were they were to real to be any kind of dream...I must have been out for a while if I was on life support.'
It was then that he headed towards the bathroom to see why he had all those bandages on him. Naruto slowly got up off of the bed and stumbled a little due to not walking for so long. After a minute or so he managed to recover and walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror.
What he saw made him realize that his first assessment was correct. The entire right side of his body was covered in bandages. Naruto then noticed the length of his hair it had grown considerably and resembled a hairstyle that Uchiha Madara had favored. He noted that what he had on were solely medical bandages so that any wounds he had received under them would be able to breathe and heal over time. He closed his eyes and braced himself for what he would see. Not wanting to make any conclusions until all of the bandages were off, he proceeded to unwrap them with his eyes closed.
He unwrapped the last of the bandages and let them fall to the floor at his feet.
He opened his left eye, for some reason his right wouldn't open, and stood in front of the body-length mirror with a speechless expression. His mind was black and couldn't even form words for a minute. The first thing he did was move closer to the mirror and forcibly opened his right eye lids with his index finger and thumb. It was then that all his worries were confirmed his eye was gone.
Naruto removed his fingers from his face and focused more on the large scar over where his eye used to be. He traced his hand over its length and chuckled dryly at its design. The scar itself reached from his mid-forehead on the right side of his face and extended through his eye and ended to the right of his mouth in a lightning bolt pattern. Yep a freaking lightning bolt.
His eyes then moved downward and saw the scar that started near his trapezius and ended just a few inches above his waistline. It was several inches thick with fraying edges every inch or two. He felt every centimeter of the scar with his right hand and cringed, remembering what the pain of being sliced open felt like, by all means he should have bled out.
It was then that Naruto noticed that the skin on his right hand was burned off. The burn extended to an inch or two above his wrist. There wasn't a single patch of skin left in that area. What caught his sight next was That the burn on his leg had the same characteristics as his hand, only in the shape of a claw.
All in all he was a mess, but for some odd reason he smiled. 'Battle scars huh? Proof that I fought and survived...I suppose that it's fitting for the past to mark me before moving on to a new future.'
With those thoughts in mind he walked out of the bathroom and the hospital room he had been staying in and moved into the hallway.
He looked out the window of the hallway while walking, 'Huh must be close to midnight.'