Yo,
To all the new readers, Welcome.
To all the old readers, Welcome back.
Here is a better version of Shadow Light. I rectified most of the errors my readers pointed out and added some text as well.
Note- To all those who may think I am lazy or 'it'(Naruto's Sacred Gear) is a plot hole, please read till Chapter 20, The Month End Meeting and decide.
Enjoy.
"Normal speech" people talking.
'Normal thought' people thinking.
"Kurama/Dragons" Kurama or Dragons Speaking.
'Kurama/Dragon thought' Kurama or the other Dragons thinking.
"Jutsu/ Magic" is being used.
Shadow Light
Prologue
Beginning with a Bang
After the conclusion of the Fourth Shinobi War, Uzumaki Naruto has gone on with his life and was made the Sixth Hokage of the leaf village after some years after the war, as Kakashi declined it. In those years he married Hinata Hyuuga and had 2 children. Boruto Uzumaki and Himawari Uzumaki. After achieving his dream of becoming the Hokage of the leaf village and maintaining peace and passing the hat to the next generation, Uzumaki Naruto lived a peaceful life with his family. He had become the new Jinchuuriki of the current Juubi, Kurama.
All the bijuu merged with the Kyuubi and created the new Juubi. Kurama already regaining his other half of chakra after the fourth great Shinobi war was more than happy to accept. Kurama himself is a large beast but merging with other Bijuu simply made him a colossal beast. Keeping his original features of orange fur and red eyes with black slits in them, he gained a third eye with a 6 tomoe Rinne-Sharingan in it. That eye will always be closed unless it is required.
During his remaining time after retiring from his Hokage duties, Naruto mastered all his new abilities gained of becoming the Juubi Jinchuuriki. That include his dōjutsu, increased physical strength and other skills. He got 2 out of the 3 legendary dōjutsu, Sharingan and Rinnegan and his Rinnegan was normal at first but when he started his training with it and mastered it, it became special just like Sasuke's, his Rinnegan also had 6 tomoes in them and because of his near-limitless chakra, he can activate and deactivate his tomoes in the Rinnegan at will.
The last one the Byakugan was received as a gift by his wife, Hinata. She gave him the gift of Hamura she received when she was taken by Toneri effectively giving him the Byakugan. And one of the most important things he attained by being the Juubi jinchuuriki was 'eternal youth'. Which in other words means Immortality. He won't age. But to keep things moving he used genjutsu just like Tsunade to appear old.
When he told this to wife Hinata that he was immortal and can't die she smiled and said "That's fine Naruto-kun. I got my wish of being with you. If I die I ask you to move on and find love in others. I know how lonely you felt in your childhood without your loved one's around, I know that you can't live alone without anyone. So, please Naruto-kun move on. If you like someone then express your love to them how you did to me for the first time. Promise me, you will move on from this life".
He promised her, to move on with his life. That brings us to the present day, where Hyuuga Hinata is being buried. She passed away a few days ago due to old age as they were 100 years old. He tried to prolong her life as much as he could but in the end, they reached her limit and she passed away. He stood on the Hokage monument looking at his home village for the last time before his departure.
"What do you plan on doing, Naruto," asked his friend and partner Kurama. Over the years after their initial partnership in the 4 the Shinobi war, the Kyuubi started to become more of a friend than a partner to him.
"I plan on leaving this world, Kurama. The world is at peace, the technology is developing and unity and power are equal among all countries, there is no more requirement of me or you here, Kurama. We shall move to a world where peace is necessary and shall attain it there. With the techniques, we have with your Rinne-Sharingan, I can positively say that we can go to a world where we are required. What is your say on this, buddy?" asked Naruto as he stood on his head on the hokage monument.
"It's your wish Naruto. As Hinata said it is time to move on, this world is in peace and there is no requirement for you or me. Where shall we go then?" asked Kurama curious as he wants to know where Naruto's plan to go.
"I don't know where, but we will go non the less. But I'm certain that we will go to a world full of adventure" said Naruto with excitement. As he wants to go to this new world and explore it and if need be he will bring peace to that world as well. But he will enjoy it. Being Hokage made some things clear to him. With Power comes responsibility and with responsibility comes Paper Work. He didn't how, but the hundreds of clones he made always lost to the bane of existence to all Kage and leaders, Paper Work. He doesn't want to endure it again. When Kakashi rejected to become the Rokudaime Hokage, Naruto thought the man felt worthless as he lost his Sharingan now. But he didn't know the man had tactfully escaped a death trap. He sighed remembering all those memories.
"Are you ready for our departure Kurama? Hold tight. We're going" said Naruto with excitement practically dripping from his words.
"You got it Naruto," said Kurama and Naruto prepared himself.
They both channelled their chakra into their third eye and a purplish-black portal opened in front of them. Naruto stepped into it and it closed behind him. And so Uzumaki Naruto, The Rokudaime Hokage(Sixth Fire Shadow), Hero, Father, Husband and most of all, a man who saved so many lives and remembered as the strongest shinobi to ever grace the elemental nations was gone.
(Scene Break)
Dimensional Gap
The Dimensional Gap is the gap that exists between the three worlds (Earth, Heaven, and the Underworld) and is considered a void world.
Nothing can survive within the Dimensional Gap without magical, demonic power or other protection. Anyone without such protection dies within a matter of seconds after being exposed to the "nothingness" within the Gap.
The Dimensional Gap is an endless void, wherein in every direction, there is a mix of iridescent colours.
As Naruto came through the portal to this empty void, he felt its immediate effects. He felt like his skin is being burnt from inside. Without any hesitation, he opened another portal and jumped into it.
Somewhere in Tokyo
It is nighttime in the city of Tokyo, the bustling Capital of Japan, most of the city is decorated in the colourful lights of the night. In a dark alley, on the outskirts of the city, a black portal opened and came a man. He landed on the cold floor and rolled on the ground like a barrel before stopping after bumping into a tree.
"Ouch." Naruto groaned. He didn't expect that he will come to a place where the instant he was ejected from the portal he would be burned. Though he knew that nothing would happen to his body because of his healing and regeneration abilities, he didn't want to take the risk. So, he immediately opened another portal which he hoped will take him to a safe place and he came here. As he slowly rolled on the ground and straightened himself with the support of the tree, he saw a man in front of him. 'That's odd, I'm not here for a full minute yet' thought the blonde.
The man is tall, appearing to be in his late-twenties with an average build, black hair, with some golden bangs and black goatee. Looking at him curiously. He had a gleam of a certain snake, Naruto knew well. He didn't like it.
"Hello there. Are you the one that opened a portal and came out of nowhere?" asked Azazel, curiosity oozing in his tone. Naruto couldn't answer as his body is still recovering from that damn place and simply nodded.
Azazel looked at him curiously. In front of him was a young blonde man, looking like in his late teens maybe 17 or 18 and on his face were 6 lines like whisker marks and has fair skin, is at least 6 feet tall. 'He has athletic built with his body's flexibility' thought Azazel looking at the man curiously. He looked like suffering from some kind of pain and is likely to die because of whatever he went through. Azazel got an idea. The proverbial light bulb shining brightly. He searched through his goatee and took out a ball, which is half black and half golden white. He kept it on the blonde's chest and waited for any reaction, it worked like a charm. With a blinding light, the said ball merged into his body and the blonde kid immediately healed.
"You okay there kid, it seems my device worked," said Azazel with barely hidden amusement. The blonde stared at him incredulously.
"What did you do now. I'm going to heal from it soon, you know. That black thingy is not required. If you didn't see, I'm healing myself before you put whatever that ball in me," said the blonde kid exasperated.
"Woah Woah. Calm down, kid. I didn't kick your puppy. I just helped you recover fast, that's all. But you should be thanking me because without my help I'm sure you would have died soon" he paused assessing the reaction, which is a blank face.
"Anyway, leave about it and tell me, do you feel any change in your body. Like light-headed or drowsiness or any other changes. Tell me" Azazel asked(more like demanded the blonde) in the same made glee and excitement Naruto saw in one other person. 'If his research was successful then this kid is going to be one of them' thought Azazel stepping closer into Naruto's personal space to scan him.
"What now, no, I don't...feel an..y..ch..an..ge." suddenly to both of their surprise and utter horror to Naruto, his body lit up, orange, white and black colours glowed simultaneously like they are in a light show and dimmed down slowly after some time. This sent Azazel back a few steps.
"Woah. What was that? I feel lighter now. Hey, old geyser what did you do to me?" asked Naruto with tick marks appearing on his face. Azazel scratched his left cheek sheepishly and replied not pressing on the comment of Old Geyser.
"You see, I'm a scientist and I experiment on Sacred Gears, powerful artefacts and in some cases create some. The ball I kept in you is one of them which contains two different Light elements and Shadow/Darkness. I used the holy light used by Angels and the Fallen Angels and combined it with the soul essence and power of a powerful Shadow Dragon named Skiadrum on his last wish before death. Which in turn should give you the power to use both Light and Shadows" he said giving Naruto a once over.
"And by the looks of it, my experiment was successful as you are still alive and kicking. Congratulations kid, you now possess a Sacred Gear which is on par with the mid-tier Longinus and a Dragon-type one to boot. Your sacred gear's name is Shadow Light." said Azazel with much enthusiasm and joy as his chest puffed out in pride. With this result, he can proceed to add this to his list of successful experiments and work on his own with Fafnir.
For Naruto, it is like listening to a Math class. Which means, he didn't understand anything. But he could feel lighter and his awareness about his surroundings had increased. While this old geyser was rambling about himself and his great inventions, Naruto asked his trusty partner about this.
"Kurama, you can feel it right. That ball gave us something related to light and darkness like this old guy told us, and he is strong. Though he is surrounded by something dark, his intentions and personality are good. What do you say Kurama, shall we go with him and learn about this world or venture on our own" asked Naruto eyeing the guy in front of him, waiting for his partner's reply.
Kurama thought about it for some time. He can sense Azazel's power and he is strong and he can also say that something did happen when that ball merged with Naruto as he is currently getting information on soo many things. He can say that the consciousness of someone is being transferred to him currently. 'Maybe these memories and information belong to that Skiadrum, that this guy told about' thought Kurama. And he seems to be a good person. So he made his decision.
"Go with him Naruto. He looks like a knowledgeable person and we also should know more about this 'Sacred Gear' thing and this guy seems to be our best option. Though the information I'm getting will help us, I don't think it in its everything this knows of" said Kurama in a matter of fact tone. Naruto gave a mental nod.
"Hey, old geyser. Did you say something?" asked Naruto playing the role of a dumb idiot maintaining his expression in a feign ignorance and clearing his ear with his finger. And it worked. Azazel got a feeling to kick the blonde in the gut for ignoring him like he was a mad scientist but he overcame it.
"Ah, I'm sorry, kid. I forgot about you. If you want more you can come with me and I'll explain more about this" said Azazel confidently. Naruto nodded and they both left to where Azazel lives in Tokyo.
Scene break
Azazel's House, Tokyo
After Naruto and Azazel settled down in Azazel's house Azazel began.
"I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Azazel" said the man scratching his cheek.
"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto" replied Naruto simply.
"That's a Japanese name," said Azazel aloud.
"Ok, now on to business, to tell you from the beginning about the history of this world, I need to tell you about the supernatural world's history first," said Azazel in an all-business tone to which Naruto nodded.
"The Three Factions were created from the power of the Biblical God or God of Bible, a religious God on this planet. When he first created us, everything was good going, all the Angels were following his orders and living peacefully. But one day Lucifer, one of the first Angels to be created had a disagreement with Father and took his followers and left heaven to raise war against heaven and father to take the throne of heaven from him. He shed his Angel wings and replaced them with the wings of a bat.
Coincidentally, at the same time, some of the angels of heaven committed or thought of doing one of the seven sins of lust, sloth, greed, envy, wrath, gluttony and pride and fell from grace from heaven and became fallen angels with the wings as black as night signifying their fall from grace. Most of the fallen angels under my leadership formed an organisation called Grigori which was already established when we are in Heaven and inhabited in the underworld otherwise called hell" he took a deep breath and continued.
"We had a conflict with devils on the territory as they also live in the Underworld. And so began what is now called The Great War. During the war, all the three factions of the Bible fought against each other for so many things. Devils fought to capture heaven and dethrone God under the leadership of the four great satan's, Fallen Angels fought with devils to get in the good grace of the God under my leadership and get back to our position back in heaven. Angels fought under God's orders to save humanity from the supernatural world and to maintain peace in the world.
The Great War lasted for several millennia resulting in drastic losses to all three factions. First we, the Fallen retreated as I saw no point in continuing the war any further after that both Devils and Angels also retreated creating a temporary truce. But the damage was already done. Because of the injuries suffered during the war the original four satan's Lucifer, Leviathan, Beelzebub and Asmodeus succumb to their injuries and died. Even the God of the Bible, my father died because of his injuries, Michael taking the leadership of Angels, maintaining the balance and becoming the protector of Heaven. This is classified information. So, I suggest you not tell this to anyone as its impact will be devastating on the three factions. And to my faction we suffered great losses in our number and are recovering from our losses" he said sadly with grief.
"Lucifer made creatures which are opposite to Angels in every way of speaking literally and figuratively. He, with his followers, originally formed the 72 Pillar Clans of Devils with different powers and bloodlines. He created a new race who are opposed to light and named them devils the opposite to angels. He, with 3 others became the first 4 leaders of the underworld to go by the name Maou or Satan. All devils are in a way his children with his wife Lilith.
There were 72 clans at the beginning but because they participated in the great war it was declined to 39 clans. After the death of the original Satans, it didn't deter their children from making plans to go to war on other factions. And when they were making plans on how to make their attack, all the other pillar clans opposed the idea as they feared that this may lead to devils as a race's extinction and formed into an anti-satan faction and so the civil war began. It went on for some years resulting in the victory of the anti-satan faction, banishing the children of original satans to the outskirts of the underworld.
The four-strong devils who played a great role in victory were made the new Satans of the underworld, and led to a peaceful time in the underworld. This resulted in a sharp decline in the surviving pillar clans as well which were declined to 27 if I remember correctly. The first and foremost clan is the Bael clan which holds the rank of 'Great King'.Famous for their Power of Destruction which erases everything from existence" and the list went about all other clans which included Agares, Belial, Phenex and so on. But Azazel didn't say about 4 specific clans. But he continued.
"And this concludes about the explanation of all devil clans expect 4 clans whose former heir becomes the current 4 great satans of the Underworld. Those are Gremory, Sitri, Astorath and Glasya-Labolas. The current strongest devil is known as the super devil and the Maou Lucifer, Sirzechs Lucifer is from the Gremory clan with he had Power of destruction through his mother. Serafall Leviathan formerly Sitri, the Maou Leviathan who is responsible for foreign affairs uses ice magic. Ajuka Beelzebub a former member of the branch family of the Astaroth clan is a genius who invented the evil piece system and another Super Devil. He has created the famous Kankara formula which was said to bend the reality and finally Falbium Asmodeus from the Glasya- Labolas clan who is the physically strong enough plough through buildings reinforced with magic.
These are the satan's and the strongest devils said to surpass even the original 4 satan's. The evil piece system created by Ajuka Beelzebub helps devils to reincarnate other races into devils. This system is based on a chess game. So the pure-blooded high-class devils can reincarnate humans into reincarnated devils to bolster their numbers. Angels also have the same type of system but, it is in the form of a Deck of cards. All the seraphs have their decks. We fallen angels don't have any such system as angels fall from heaven and we can have 'our' children to add to our ranks to increase our numbers and my effort of creating artificial sacred gears is one such attempt to improve our strength" said Azazel. Though it was a lot of information to take in, Naruto took it well but he had one question for this man. All this information was valuable and he is telling him all this, just like that, he didn't think.
"Why are you telling all this to me. I'm new here, but you didn't need to tell me all this and as I can say that it consists of some important facts like the death of the Biblical God and some other things. For all you know about me I'm a stranger who came out of nowhere and may use this information against you or something" asked Naruto calculating. If the man wants to play the game, who is he to object. Azazel simply smiled and replied.
"You are correct. I don't know anything about you. But I'm telling you this as a way of reminding myself of all the past that happened and I can tell that you don't know about this world by the way of your entrance. As it serves 2 purposes of giving a detailed explanation of the history of this world and reminding myself of my goal to achieve peace to this world and I can say that you are powerful from the power I can feel coming from you even before implanted the Sacred Gear. If I can make you an alley, that will be good for everyone in the future." said Azazel with a neutral tone.
During all his explanation Naruto didn't feel any kind of malice or animosity towards any other faction or any disrespect neither disdain towards the man who cast others out of heaven nor any pride in his achievements in his life or position as a leader of Fallen Angels. He can say that this man is powerful and intelligent and if he is telling all this to him and deduced that he is going to be a valuable ally in the future, Naruto knew that he had some kind of plan in mind to use him in future. He can't help but appreciate Azazel's straightforwardness. He was used to being respected and admired as a war hero and leader of the village during his reign as Hokage and after the 4th Shinobi war in Elemental Nations. As a fellow leader, he can appreciate Azazel's attempt to gain an alley by being straight forward and so Naruto concluded. Azazel is good with wordplay and his intentions are good as well, which means he is doing this for everyone not for any personal gain.
"Yes. I can use a person like you as an alley as you know more about this world than me." Naruto said smiling and continued.
"For giving me that Sacred Gear by 'reviving' me as you thought and all the information you gave me, I'll give 2 favours. As for my allegiance, I'll wait for a while and see" said Naruto and continued.
"I want to explore this world and know how it works for myself. Speaking of my sacred gear, can I conclude that you have a plan to train me how to use it yourself as you are very interested in making and using them" asked Naruto sharply, the calculating tone returning to his tone again.
Azazel smirked at this development. He thought Naruto would be intelligent but he didn't think Naruto's intelligence to be this sharp, but he can conclude that Naruto was indeed powerful and with the addition of his new sacred gear, he is going to be a monster in future which is just a bonus for his allegiance if Naruto decides to alley himself with them. As for another way, if Naruto didn't ally himself with them, he should think something about it in the future but from the looks of it the man in front of him is a good person and he concluded he will decide for the best. Azazel nodded his head to Naruto.
"Yes, I intend to train you in the use of your sacred gear Shadow Light. I'll agree to your terms, Naruto and hope for the best" said Azazel in a calm tone and extended his hand as a gesture to finalize their agreement Naruto also extended his hand and both men shared their hands agreeing. They both nodded their heads to each other gesturing they have a consensus on the matter.
"Now that is out of the way, let me explain to you about your sacred gear. Your sacred gear is called Shadow Light and as I said earlier, it is made from two elements or rather, sources. One is the soul and consciousness of the Shadow Dragon Skiadrum, who, in his last moments asked to use his remaining consciousness and energy to make a sacred gear to remind the world of his existence, the other being the pure light energy that angels and fallen angels use. As I was making it, I got an idea of mixing both elements one being made of pure light, and the other being made of shadows, darkness and void. And the result is that of the sacred gear you have to know and as there is no backlash on you, I can conclude that it is a success.
As for you using it, even without any training, you should feel familiar towards all the shadows and light particles in the environment." to which Naruto nodded as he can sense a familiar feeling towards everything around, even more so as it is nighttime from his connection with shadows. Azazel continued.
"Shadows can be used in several ways and I can tell you some, but special techniques are belonging to the shadow dragon himself if you search within your self you can find his conscious within you giving you all the knowledge and you can train with that knowledge yourself. I can help in training you with the use of light energy. As I'm one of the best to use holy light magic, as for the strength of the light items you make it will depend on your heart. If you are pure enough it will be strong but none the less it will be as strong as that of fallen angels. The purity comes into play if you won't make your strongest weapon.
Your strongest light spear will be as strong as that of a 12 winged angel or fallen angel. If you don't have any questions then we can begin your training immediately." said Azazel curiosity and excitement brimming in his voice and eyes as he is pretty much excited to test his newest creation. Naruto can understand Azazel's curiosity and nodded to begin.
And so began his training in the use of his Sacred Gear Shadow light.
And Cut.
That's it for this chapter folks. I hope you all enjoyed it.
Read, Review and Comment your opinion on the story.
I'll upload a new chapter weekly. So stay tuned for it but if you can get a surprise.
Suggestions are welcomed.
Thank you for reading.
Black Infinity 1289.
Ja Ne.