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Fanfic / Echoes (Kagaseo)

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Echoes, by Kagaseo is a Naruto fanfiction where a modification of the seal holding back the Kyuubi has surprising consequences. It's also something of a crossover with Yet again, with a little extra help by Third Fang.

The story begins with a slightly different version of the canon Naruto's fight with Orochimaru in the Land of Grass. However, Sai betrays the group early, leading Naruto, renamed "Kazama" to avoid confusion, into a battle with Orochimaru, during which his seal is twisted. This alters the mechanics of the seal, giving Kazama the ability to travel into other worlds, meeting alternate versions of himself, his friends, families, or even enemies. Most prominently featured are Naruko, a female Naruto; Chibaku, one that was trained by Sasori; Kitsune, one that had some issues with his Kyuubi; and more. The problem is that the group ends up followed by Madara and two of his duplicates, who want to control Kazama's power.

The story contains a deal of artistic license, created to fill in plot gaps that existed in the manga, while the driving force behind the fic is being a Deconstructor Fleet - not just from the manga, but moreso certain cliches that appear in Naruto fan fiction. However, being written prior to several revelations in the manga, there are discrepancies. For instance, Madara, the entire trio, actually possesses the abilities that Tobi had, before it was revealed that Tobi was Obito Uchiha, and that Madara Uchiha had a largely different powerset. There is another Tobi that joins the trio, but that one has little to nothing to do with Obito. Fortunately, given the premise, these changes tend to work out.

The story currently consists of the following story arcs:

  • The Introductory Arc (Prologue - Ch 4)
  • The Land of Waves Arc (Ch 5 - 10)
  • The Great Chase Arc (Ch 11 - 21)
  • The Separation Arc (Ch 22 - Ch 35)
  • The Reunion Arc (Ch 36 - Ch 49)
  • The War World Arc (Ch 50 - Epilogue)

As of January 1, 2017, Echoes is complete. There might be a sequel, but that is unlikely given the author's shift to original fiction.

Echoes provides examples of:

  • 0% Approval Rating:
    • If you kill a Kage expect their rather pissed off Village to start a war. With Yagura, Kiri will probably send thank-you cards to whoever got rid of him.
    • Alpha has been revealed to have one of these. Only Five and Three actually liked her. The rest of the clones were either apathetic to her fate, feared her, outright hated her, or were just psychos in it for their own sick kicks.
  • The Ace: The author is a staunch support of Anyone Can Die, downplaying this trope for the majority of the non-significant cast.
  • Affably Evil: Tsukuyomi has a gentlemanly attitude, while Amaterasu is guided by his own sense of honor, allowing his opponents a fair shot at defeating him, and even congratulating those that face him with honor. This also extends to the masters of the Jashinist Cults, who learned over time that being rude got you nowhere.
  • The Alliance: One is being formed by the worlds that the Arashi clans have visited in order to stand against Teikoku.
  • Alternate Self: With The Multiverse being the fics main premise how characters end up very differently is a major theme, with Naruto, Madara, Mikoto, and Zetsu getting the most focus.
  • And I Must Scream: Orochimaru's fate is explained after the Cloudverse arc: he was erased from existence, with pieces of his consciousness slowly stripped away one after another.
  • Anyone Can Die: The fic runs through supporting characters like coffee cups. Most of the supporting cast gets killed off, including Kabuto, Zabuza, Sasori, Kakashi...
  • Anti-Villain: N and Five are Type II's. Hanzo is Type III, while Shisui starts out as a Type II becomes a Type III before ending up a Type IV.
  • Apathetic Citizens: Izanami notes that the reason why Ame is full of idiots dying in droves is because they have all given up.
  • Arc Villain: Orochimaru and A. Shisui, Kitsune's Kyuubi, Kenta Ayatsuri, Hanzo, Yagura, and Alpha are each the villains of their own arcs.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: The nobility in Amegakure, which Kazama has to deal with after killing their leader and stealing his position.
  • Asshole Victim: Ame has a disturbingly high amount of these to the point that they could form an army. Every person in power besides Hanzo are perfectly fine with their country dying and their people suffering as long as they get to stay rich and powerful and every civilian is portrayed as an idiotic unsympathetic git who is incapable of running their own lives. It's pretty much impossible to give a crap about them.
  • Author Appeal:
    • Epithets: Most perspectives are introduced with these, such as 'The Healing Man', or 'Pure Evil', or 'The Sand Witch'.
    • Kagaseo likes A Song of Ice and Fire given that everyone seems to live in Ninja-Westeros.
    • Politics. Many of the younger characters get involved in debates with dictators and villains about the political states of their worlds.
    • Big Bad Duumvirates. Look at how many there are.
    • Destiny and prophecies are for suckers.
    • The author admits a preference to having multiple character deaths and anti-heroes.
  • Bad Boss: Orochimaru (usually), the OC Kenta Ayatsuri, Alpha, and an exaggerated version of Yagura, who tortures, flays, or eats people.
  • Batman Gambit: Alpha tries this by surrendering, but fails to consider that she has a 0% Approval Rating in her world.
  • Because Destiny Says So: Susanoo's purpose as a villain is this. His soul is even made of fatalism to drive the point home.
    • Minato and Kushina from Kazama's world also, earning the hatred of their son.
    • There's an unusual trend for characters with this justification to die horrible deaths in this fic.
  • Becoming the Mask: Shukaku, oddly enough. It, though in this story she, convinces itself that it is Gaara's mother. Naruko's Kyuubi empathy abilities have evolved to deceive/control others by predicting their emotional responses. Tsukuyomi takes considerable interest in Kazama instead of converting him.
  • Became Their Own Antithesis: Kazama. He began as the author's depiction of a more personalized, wiser Naruto, but his developments led him to becoming the head of the Arashi clan, losing his Bijuu, and fighting two Kage alongside a major villain. Then he met Amatsu-Mikaboshi who gave him a Breaking Speech, which on top of the corrupting exposition freely provided by Orochimaru, leads Kazama to stand against his belief in the village, his former mentors, and his friends.
    • And then Sasuke himself shows up, and reveals that he's become The Atoner for the (perceived) death of his best friend, and since Tsukiyomi never told him the truth of his clan's massacre. As such, he starts acting more and more like Kazama did before the entire plot of Echoes started up, and slowly becomes less and less like canon Sasuke. Ergo, Naruto and Sasuke have switched roles. Both of them Became Their Own Antithesis.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: The Madara Trio, fighting under the guidance of Amatsu-Mikaboshi, and the Warlord and his organization, Teikoku.
    • Big Bad Duumvirate: The trio, again. Orochimaru and A, Hanzo and Yagura, Yagura is actually in two at once and his Sanbi. There is now a Big Bad Decemvirate in the form of Teikoku.
  • Big Bad Friend: Tsukiyomi is becoming one to Kazama.
  • Big Good: The premise being The Multiverse, people like Madara Uchiha and Orochimaru are this; one is a scientist in one world, and the other a resistance leader in another.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Uchiha clans dysfunctions are put on full display in Echoes the most extreme example is when their coup ended with Shisui implementing a Final Solution out of sheer hatred of the clan.
    • When the Ootsutsuki show up how self-destructive a family they are is shown one version of Kaguya is trying to change but refuses to acknowledge what a bad mother she was. One version of Hamura grew into a bitter misanthrope Knight Templar because of his brother Black's genocide and Indra's pettiness. Another Hagoromo openly calls Indra and Asura idiots and failures unworthy of their legacy with his Indra agreeing that he as a vain jerkass when he shows up reformed as the Only Sane Man.
  • Black Comedy: Hidan and Kakuzu, predictably, as the former criticizes the latter for worshiping currency as a deity. Kakuzu even defends this (jokingly) by referencing money as the ultimate motivator. In the omakes, Kakuzu, to Hidan's amazement, actually worships "money-sama."
  • Boomerang Bigot: Many alternate Uchiha show a very low opinion of their clan, from realizing that they are the greatest contributors to the worlds war torn state or for more selfish reasons. The list consists of Tsukiyomi, Amaterasu, Izanami, Itachi, Sage Tobi, with Shisui being the most extreme example, his bigotry reaches genocidal extremes seeing all Uchiha as parasites.
    • a surprise last minute addition is Kaguya herself, before ones fall she ate the Chakra Fruit raw because she sought to rebel from her clan out of disgust of their greed and death toll they caused. It didn't work out, and Kaguya became what she hated.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Kazama's ability to travel the multiverse gives him the opportunity to learn more about a conspiracy, about many different paths his life could've taken, and defeat a number of villainous regimes. However, this power comes from Amatsu-Mikaboshi, and more importantly, rallies together a group of Madara Uchihas who want to abuse that power.
    • Blessed with Suck: It's also thrown the heroes into a score of life-threatening situations upon entry.
  • Blind Seer: Izuna, Amaterasu, and the Alive!Minato World's Madara all caught glimpses of the future after being blinded.
  • Body Horror: Orochimaru, even moreso after he survives the prologue. The damage actually retarded his mind and healing factor.
  • Break Them by Talking: All over the place but the biggest one was in the very first chapter with Orochimaru pointing out that Kazama has learned nothing while training under Jiraiya. It started the whole plot!
    • Five. 90% of what he says is a Breaking Speech. Given that he's an Expy of O'Brien this is justified.
  • Canon Welding: With the real canon - the author takes great pains to contradict as little of the narrative as possible, for the most part avoiding the need to Retcon the established narrative but still needing to bend the rules along with his own.
  • Character Development: A great deal, for almost all of the major characters.
  • Climax Boss: Amaterasu, for the conclusion of "The Great Chase Arc".
  • The Consigliere: Both Sasori and Tsukuyomi act as this to Kazama.
  • Co-Dragons: Five and Three to Alpha.
  • Cool Sword: The Kusanagi, Orochimaru's and later Kazama's sword has a far deeper and more powerful backstory than its Canon counterpart. First of all, it was used to kill the real Yamato-no-Orochi, second, it is the REAL Susanoo's sword.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Everyone except Naruko and Amaterasu. Naruko later becomes one after fighting Kitsune's Kyuubi.
  • Competitive Balance: Early chapters have categorized Ninjutsu into five different styles.
  • The Conspiracy: The Inner Council, a group formed by the clans of Konoha to oppose the Hokages power. The first two times it was formed was for valid reasons: The first formation was when Hashirama gave away eight bijuu to enemy nations and everyone thought he was an idiot. The second time it was formed was because the Village saw Sarutobi as unfit to lead after he let Orochimaru escape (and Orochimaru was caught killing babies) so you really couldn't fault them that time...the third and current incarnation is a major mystery and is a major plot point because it was not formed for good reasons like the first two times and is causing major problems.
  • The Corrupter: Tsukiyomi, toward Kazama. Orochimaru also counts.
  • Crapsack World: With traces of World Half Full, but (in this fic) as Tsukiyomi tells Kazama, most everyone he's ever known has had an ulterior motive including people he's long-respected, there's a conspiracy in his past made up of his Konoha peers' parents and assorted, and in nearly every world someone is screwing over his counterpart For The Good Of Konoha. Though admittedly part of the reasoning is warped into looking its absolute worse for Kazama's eyes because of Mikaboshi. The heroes are basically a ray of sunshine amidst this simply because they actually give a fuck about each other.
  • Crapsaccharine World: The Alive!Yondaime World at first looks like a Sugar Bowl because Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and Madara were defeated early. In reality, whilst this was a great blow to evil it didn't destroy it all, instead making it disorganized but present. In addition, the political situation is rather bad because of both a certain idiotic Genin Team and no Big Bad to keep certain people occupied, like A. However, it's rather pleasant compared to a lot of other worlds in the fic.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Sasori all the way. He has practically everything one could want or need sealed inside or built into his puppet body. One could wonder if he exchanged notes with Batman when he rebuilt himself.
  • Creepy Child: Kitsune, Gaara, Jinchuuriki!Sakura, the Omnicidal Maniac Naruto...
  • Crossover: The OC's from Yet Again actually appear at a convenient moment to save the Arashi clan from a horde of demons. This is even discussed in-universe, with the Yet Again cast explaining how Kazama's ability works and that when it malfunctioned, it sent them into an alternate multiverse, the one that Yet Again takes place in. This suffered from backlash due to the nature of their cameo.
    • Interestingly, the Deus ex Machina that occurs doesn't fix the problem of Kazama's world-jumping power creating 'holes' in the multiverse.
  • The Cynic: Sasori, so very much. Kazama becomes one as well.
    • Yugito is rather cynical as well, though not to the level of Kazama and Sasori. Even then her case is somewhat justified due to her growing up during war time.
  • Darker and Edgier: Much darker and more deconstructive of the story than canon.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: In this story the Edo Tensei has been given a proper justification for not being spammed - Use it to much and the Shinigami will make a very early visit. Even then, using it is treated like an In-Universe Moral Event Horizon moment.
  • Dark Messiah: All the Madara are different variants of Dark Messiah. Kazama might be becoming one, as well.
  • Deader than Dead: Orochimaru... again.
    • Jinchuriki-Sakura got this earlier when her essence merged into her Kyuubi, who is subsequently obliterated by Amaterasu.
  • Death Is Cheap: All of the Madara can perform Izanagi, a jutsu that can negate their own deaths by permanently sacrificing a Sharingan. Tsukiyomi wins the prize though - he has stated that he has almost a hundred Sharingan to spam. He basically has in-universe Plot Armor.
  • Death by Adaptation: It seems like every time the Naruto group goes to another world, at least SOMEBODY died who otherwise would have survived in canon. The opposite also happens, as a result.
  • Defiant to the End: This tends to be the general approach of both the good guys... and the bad guys... and everyone in between.
  • Determinator: Zabuza
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu??: Amaterasu kills KYUUBI to death. Yes, you read that right. Zabuza killing Amaterasu himself also counts.
    • Wait, so does that mean that if Zabuza killed Amaterasu, could he beat the Kyuubi?
      • No.
      • Never.
      • Absolutely not.
  • Dirty Business: Every member of the Arashi clan except Naruko has had to do this in the past.
  • Discard and Draw: A rather common thing in this fic. Hell, this trope along with a Breaking Speech started the whole freaking plot! To recap, Kazama lost the power of the Kyuubi in exchange for the power of the Shinigami which gave him the power to traverse the multiverse, along with his Uzumaki powers because the Kyuubi couldn't dick around with his chakra anymore (along with the power to make to make chakra chains). Sasori and Chibaku also use this trope a lot. They lose all their puppets in every fight they're in but because they are both Crazy-Prepared they have a new better model ready to go the time the next fight comes knockin'.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Despite not liking him Yugito is basically a female Kakashi, being an experienced, career shinobi knowing a wealth of information about the ninja world.
  • The Dragon: Technically, Amaterasu is this - he fills the role of being the most powerful antagonistic force for the heroes, and despite still being Madara he's probably the most-level headed of the Trio, content to let his comrades plan and acting as mediator (which is VERY ironic, given that he refers to himself as "war made flesh"). Until he's finally Killed Off for Real.
  • Dual Wielding: Deconstructed as one of the many, many reasons Orochimaru was killed by Kazama was because he was Dual Wielding two Kusanagi despite not being ambidextrous. Kazama also falls victim to this DeconstructedTrope when he tries Dual Wielding his two Kusanagi in a sword fight against Amaterasu. Later in the story, the Dark Wolf also does this, with much greater success, due to being ambidextrous.
  • Dysfunction Junction: The Arashi clan. Full stop. They're like a Darker and Edgier version of the Straw Hat Pirates. Every one of them has some sort of psychological trauma, suffers from some sort of psychological problem or has a Dark and Troubled Past. See The Woobie for details.
    • Note: Kuebiko doesn't count because he isn't part of the Arashi clan. He's just helping them because he's a Nice Guy. Though he is somewhat bigoted and has a very Selective Memory when his brothers dickier moves come up or the flaws in the Will of Fire.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: According to the Author's Notes, this is the heroes' ultimate goal given the utter shit they tend to wade through - time will tell if they manage it.
  • The Empath: All of the Naruto are able to emphasize with their opponents in battle and they use it in different ways. For Kitsune, his empathy destroyed him. Naruko uses her empathy exactly like her Canon self. But later slipped into Mind Rape and quit being The Empath when she found this out. Chibaku uses his empathy to be a Manipulative Bastard, using his understanding of his opponents mental state to destroy them. And finally, Kazama is in the middle ground between Naruko and Chibaku. He uses his empathy to connect with the rest of his clan to help them while using it against his enemies to formulate Trash Talk and "The Reason You Suck" Speeches to make them screw up.
  • Everyone Has Standards: This is how Edo Tensei is treated in Echoes. To even consider using Edo Tensei in this story you either have to have no idea of the repercussions aka the guy who invented it. A special kind of evil, like Orochimaru, Kabuto, or Susanoo. Or a special kind of broken, like Izanami. Using Edo Tensei seems to be the equivalent to violating the Geneva Convention in the Echoes-multiverse. To prove the point, when Susanoo revived five Kages who hated each other with it, they all agreed they wanted to kill him for sinking so low.
  • Evil Mentor: Tsukiyomi plans to be this to Kazama. Kenta was one to Kakashi.
    • By the Ame arc, Tsukiyomi has suceeded in making Kazama his apprentice.
  • Evil Counterpart: A major theme. Multiple times, the heroes face alternate versions of themselves or other characters that turned out badly. For example:
    • Kazama has Tsukiyomi, and to a lesser extent Yagura.
    • N to Kitsune.
    • Alpha to Hashirama Senju.
    • The three Naruto shown by Mikaboshi to canon Naruto. One of them, an Omnicidal Maniac, managed to disturb Madara himself.
    • Five to Haku.
    • Isobu to Kurama.
  • Evil Old Folks: It's hard to remember that the Madara are over a century old given how active they are.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Try explaining that three versions of the mightiest Big Bad in existence are after you and your friends to the people around you and see how long it takes for you all to realize just how fucked you are! Go on. Try it.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Orochimaru, Susanoo, Alpha... just to name a few.
  • Freudian Trio: The three Madara have an evil one going on.
    • The Spock: Tsukiyomi is the most logical, level-headed and manipulative, and seems to have plans within plans.
    • The Kirk: Amaterasu, despite being a Blood Knight tends to act as the mediator between Tsukiyomi and Susanoo. With his death, there are now hints that Tsukiyomi and Susanoo are plotting to Starscream each other. Unless Izanami takes his place...?
    • The McCoy: Susanoo is a bit of a Leeroy Jenkins, and his first solution to any problem is to smash it.
  • Gambit Roulette: Deconstructed. The two big canon gambits the Moon's Eye Plan and Child of Prophecy tend to undergo extreme Epic Fails thanks to the free will the multiverse grants to differing characters leading to scenarios where they never pick up steam (Naruko's World and the Dystopia-verse), completely fall apart ( Kitsune's world where the Uchiha ruin everything) or allow someone worse to take control... like the universe where Red Zetsu killed Madara, made Kaguya his bitch, and rules the world.
  • Gender Flip: Naruko, Haku and Gaara. Now we have a Genderflipped Tobi renamned Izanami. Later subverted: Izanami is another version of Mikoto Uchiha.
  • Generation Xerox: Inverted with Sasuke and Naruto and their mothers, Mikoto and Kushina. Naruto obsesses over Sasuke while Sasuke doesn't care. Mikoto on the other hand is hinted to have wanted much more than friendship from Kushina in at least three worlds, while Kushina sees her as just a friend Sasuke is later shown to have inherited his mother's crazy when she goes for revenge. Mikoto proves to be far more Deadly Than The Male.
    • Kazama himself could be consider a rather horrific deconstruction of this trope or a different form of inversion.
  • Hate Sink:
    • Behind his status as a Konoha jounin, a philanthropist and the founder of an orphanage, Kenta Ayatsuri experiments on children, turns them into Tyke-Bombs or into prostitutes to fund his activities. Raising Kakashi after his father's death, he turned him into a child soldier, and out of spite towards Minato when the latter took Kakashi away from him, sold information to Iwa and orchestrated Obito's death. Kidnapping a pregnant Rin in the Wave-Verse after she married Kakashi, he killed the baby and tortured Rin to death. In the Alive!Yondaime verse, Kenta is introduced sending his dogs to maul a young Kin to death because she cried when he gave her to a brothel. Kidnapping Alternate!Rin, he blamed her for taking Kakashi away from "his rightful owner" and tried to kill her. He later revealed that he committed all of this to turn Kakashi into his "masterpiece", and so that he will be remembered. When Kakashi replies that he will do everything to forget him, a spiteful Kenta attempts to kill him and Rin. AM hypocrite, he claimed that bonds with others were useless, while constantly using others to fulfill his ambitions.
    • In Kitsune's world, Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha have none of their canon counterpart's qualities. Forced in a political marriage despite hating each other, they grew jealous of Minato and Kushina's happy marriage, (especially Mikoto, because Kushina rejected her advances) and revealed their location to Amaterasu (Kitsune's World!Madara Uchiha), during Kushina's pregnancy, leading to the Kyuubi attack, resulting in Minato and Kushina's sacrifice and countless deaths in Konoha. They later plot a coup against Konoha, supposedly for the good of the Uchiha clan, but Fugaku in truth doesn't care about the clan, not even telling them of his role in Konoha's attack, and just wants power for himself, not caring about who lives and who dies in their coup attempt. While Fugaku was uneasy about handing over a Jinchuuriki, Mikoto happily promised to give Kitsune to Amaterasu as a weapon out of spite towards Kushina. Even Amaterasu, one of the main villains, is disgusted by their actions, and call them out on it, to no avail. Fugaku and Mikoto end up being so despicable they're responsible for everything bad in Kitsune's world.
    • In the "Ame-Verse", Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, also lacks his canon counterpart's redeeming qualities, leaving only a murderous Social Darwinist. Willingly starting the canon graduation program in Kiri's Ninja Academy consisting of students killing each other (to weed out the weak in favor of the strong), Yagura sent his "Blood Police" kill any "weak" civilian, shinobi and clansman, and also plans a genocide against anyone who's unlucky enough to have a bloodline. Allying with Ame's Hanzo, he chose to kill Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan, not due to his alliance with Hanzo, but because he hated them, stating that he would have killed them even if he wasn't allied with Hanzo. After killing Yahiko, he laughed while Konan cried, and mocked Hanzo when the latter also regretted having to send Yahiko to his death. When challenged alongside Hanzo to a fight by Kazama and Tsukiyomi, he accepted and later came close to killing part of the audience during one of his attacks, and released the Sanbi out of spite when Kazama defeated him.
    • In the "Road to Ninja" verse, Obito Uchiha discards his canon counterpart's likable traits. Winning against the Shinobi alliance, Obito launched the Infinite Izanagi technique, killing everyone in his world, and creating a new world in his image, where he creates people. While claiming that he respected Naruto and regretted to kill him, it is only Moral Myopia as he is an emotionally Abusive Parent to Menma Uzumaki, Naruto's alternate counterpart, and he can't even bother to care about the people he personally knew and ruined, much less for the people he murdered who he did not know personally, failed to replace them in his new world, citing them as unneeded or unimportant. His entire fighting style is bullying, and to gain a small psychological advantage against Kazama, he wipes out his own world's Konoha, not caring for his own creations. When it's pointed out his wife, Rin, was there, Obito replies that he doesn't care, as he can always recreate her. His pettiness is upped to eleven as he plans to spread the Infinite Izanagi in the multiverse, despite already having a personal paradise.
  • Hero Killer: The three Madara, BIG TIME. Especially Amaterasu, who has the story's highest body count for the moment. Hell, as badass as Zabuza and Jiraiya were in taking him down, he'd also partially weakened himself via his Honour Before Reason - meaning that had he fought dirty he might have killed them both and still survived.
  • Hero of Another Story: A major theme of the Seperation arc was to show that the multiverse doesn't revolve around Naruto with the role of being The Hero, The Protagonist, and basically being the main character of their world was given to Itachi, Minato, and Orochimaru with the Naruto of two of those worlds being Demoted to Extra and side characters and in one world he was the Big Bad instead.
  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Sasori to Kazama and Yugito to Kamui. While these characters are not incompetent or sidekicks they fit the bill perfectly due to their sanity and efficiency compared to the person they work for.
  • I Just Want to Be You: After becoming The Atoner Sasuke seems to be modeling himself after canon Naruto.
  • Insane Troll Logic: Orochimaru, after becoming Axe-Crazy, plans to kill Kazama and then take over his body with his Grand Theft Me no Jutsu. When Kazama points out that Orochimaru can't body-jack corpses, Orochimaru 'rationalizes' this by pointing out that Sasuke has 'killed' Kazama twice so he must have three lives so killing him one more time will be okay.
    • The whole Child of the Prophecy and the Moon's Eye plan has been reduced to this because of free will.
  • In Spite of a Nail: A few things remain constant in most of the multiverse, no matter how different other actors tend to be. For instance:
    • The Kyuubi attack - whether Madara found immortality/longevity or not, someone orchestrates it unless things were very different in the backstory (such as in the Dystopia-verse). One of few variants is where Sakura, not Naruto, is the jinchuuriki instead.
    • Naruto himself appears to be a constant - even if Minato does not have a child with Kushina, if he has one with someone else (such as Tsunade or Mikoto) it will (usually) be a son of the same name. Naruko is a slight break from this, but her world is still highly close to Canon regardless (a few characters' allegiances notwithstanding).
  • Irony: A key part of this fic is the parrallels it draws to Canon mocking how the series has become made out of Broken Aesops, thus, if a character gets any Character Development there will be some irony to go along with it. To check it out go to the character sheet, The list is way too long to write here.
  • Jade-Colored Glasses: Everyone in this fic except Naruko wear Jade Colored Glasses of various shades. It's actually healthy in this fic to be cynical to a certain degree, but Kazama has recently become the most cynical, beating Sasori in the cynicism department.
  • Kirk Summation: Minato unwittingly performs an inverted version of this trope on Kazama. It causes him to cross the Despair Event Horizon and go crawling to Tsukiyomi for power.
    • Sasori and Good!Orochimaru, of all people, preform a straighter version on Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Alpha. She doesn't take it well.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Zabuza and Good!Orochimaru fit this trope too a T. Kazama was close to becoming one, but he became a Fallen Hero instead.
  • Knight Templar: One alternate version of Naruto, and the Raikage.
  • Laughably Evil: Although Hidan and Kakuzu are extremely dangerous bad guys, they are extremely funny as well. Though this is actually Invoked by Kakuzu in a form of Obfuscating Stupidity to get people to underestimate him... Hidan's just plan nuts.
  • Make Way for the New Villains: At around the the fics half way point the original Madara triad falls apart or dies, they're swiftly replaced by Teikoku, a multiversal Legion of Doom.
  • Man-Eating Plant: The heroes end up in a world filled with nothing but plants that can use the Sharingan... there are no humans and the plants try to EAT the heroes. The rest sort of falls under the category of Fridge Horror when you try and consider (A) what happened to all the people and (B) what happened to MAKE those plants, anyway?!
  • Mêlée à Trois: The ending of the Another Wave arc turns the battle for the bridge into a DBZ level blood bath. The three factions include: The soon-to-be-Arashi clan (Kazama, Naruko, Chibaku, Kitsune, Sasori Kakashi/Kamui, Normal!Naruto, Jinchuuriki!Sakura, and Sasuke) vs Kisame, Zabuza, Haku, and Kimmimaro vs the Madara Trio (Tsukiyomi, Susanoo, and Amaterasu). The final results didn't really end well for anyone.
  • Mind Rape: Alpha's shtick and, surprisingly, Naruko's as well (albeit by accident).
  • Mood Whiplash: The fic begins with multiple Narutos looking out for each other. But once other members join their group, they start focusing more on why their childhoods were so messed up, with Kazama becoming a subscriber to Amatsu-Mikaboshi, several well-known characters dying off, and three absurdly powerful villains chasing them like dogs.
  • A Mother To Her Men: Alpha, though she cares about her soldiers, it's more like a small child caring about her doll collection instead of seeing them as living, breathing people. When a new doll comes along, she just gets rid of the old one she doesn't like as much.
  • More Deadly Than the Male: You think Sasuke, Obito, and Madara can be disproportionate and extreme? Wait until you see the devastation Mikoto's pettiness can cause!
  • The Multiverse: The entire premise of the entire story.
  • Multiversal Conqueror: Each different Madara aims at ruling the multiverse. Amatsu Mikaboshi, too. The Teikoku are successful ones.
  • The Needs of the Many: Minato believes in the Fate/stay night maxim of "sacrifice the one to save the many". He basically admits to Kazama that he will willingly sacrifice his family to create peace. In a complete contrast to his father, Kazama believes in a Inverted version of this trope - that only a handful of people deserve salvation. If any of the original series' philosophy remains intact, this is not a good thing.
  • Next Tier Power-Up: Purposely deconstructed in this story. If you get a cool new power, don't expect it to automatically let you win against your latest foe. Just because you have a cool new super move doesn't mean that you can use it properly. Expect to have your ass handed to you by the same technique that was beating you earlier because while that technique may be weaker, your enemy has mastered it to the point of perfection, while you don't know all the pro's and con's to your new powers.
  • Nice Guy/Nice Girl: Kuebiko and Haku.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Many, but Kitsune's Kyuubi and Five are the most obvious examples. And possibly Kazama too, now. He's recently grown out of it. But that might not be a good thing...
  • No One Could Survive That!: Orochimaru just won't stay down... at least, until ending Deader than Dead.
  • Obliviously Evil: Many of the villains can come off as this, mainly Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, and Izanagi. They truly think that they're doing the right thing(except Izanagi). Best shown when Susanoo and Izanagi were planning to defeat Kazama. They seemed a lot more heroic than Kazama has been.
  • Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: This is Orochimaru and Alpha's basic relationship, although Alpha takes it much more personally than Orochimaru, who just wants to defeat her to save the world.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Kitsune's three Kyuubi. An alternate version of Naruto shown to Madara by Mikaboshi declared his intention to become one, and an alternate version of the Sage of the Six Paths actually pulled it off. Mikaboshi used to be one, but now its plans are mysterious. Word of God is that the Warlord is also one.
  • One-Man Army: The Madara trio, 3rd Raikage, Hanzo, 1st Hokage, Sage of the Six Paths, and the bosses of Teikoku are all this.
  • Passing the Torch: The Will of Fire has suffered a deconstruction in this story. It is pointed out that the Will of Fire passes everything down to the next generation, including things like hatred, bigotry, revenge, and racism, which in turn creates people like Danzo, Kazama, Kitsune, and Kitsune's Kyuubi. Realistically, the Will of Fire actually propagates the Cycle of Hatred, not stops it. Pretty much every Naruto's suffering is caused by the Will of Fire due to the hatred that is passed down from adults to children. And let's not get started about what it did to the Dystopia-verse...
  • Peggy Sue: Orochimaru is a villainous example. During the incident that gave Kazama his powers it sent Orochimaru back in time in an unknown universe. Like all Peggy Sues, Orochimaru used his foreknowledge to make his life better - and by better, we mean that he destroyed Konoha.
  • Power Parasite: For his final battle with Kakashi, Kenta has incorporated the Kaguya bloodline, the Byakugan, and Karin's Uzumaki Healing Factor into his body, and it has been hinted he has even more powers sealed away...
  • Protagonist-Centred Morality: Good lord, is Kazama ever adopting this... So, mate, if someone is on your side (like say, Sasori) you call them "good" and ignore their more negative attributes or deeds; if they are your enemy or have done things not for your best interests, then they are bad regardless of motivation. Geez, whatever happened to your more forgiving younger self? Granted, at least part of the reason for this utalitarian mentality is Amatsu Mikaboshi slowly corrupting him.
    • Naruko shows signs of this as well, without an excuse. As long as someone agrees with her idealistic idealology they're "good". And she - like Kazama - tends to ignore her friends and enemies faults. A good example of this is Shisui. While he is remorseful about ruining Kitsune's life, he does not regret orchestrating the Uchiha Massacre where he brainwashed and used Itachi as his pawn to kill everyone except Sasuke, including non-combatants, civilians, and children, and more importantly - people that were not involved in the Inner Council conspiracy.
    • This is not unnoticed by the author, and it is being lampshaded, justified and deconstructed along the way.
  • Rescue Arc: Part of the Reunion arc focuses on rescuing Vajra from Teikoku.
  • The Rival: Yugito has a rivalry with Kakashi. Originally Yugito wanted to kill Kakashi for killing the Raikage. But now it has evolved into a more friendly rivalry.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Naruko and Chibaku. Naruko is a Idiot Hero who uses The Power of Friendship and the Kyuubi to win all her fights and never kills her opponents no matter how despicable they are. Chibaku is a Guile Hero borderline Manipulative Bastard who uses his empathy to manipulate his opponents emotions and relies on tricks and traps to win his fights and always goes for the kill. They also argue over everything as is typical of such a relationship.
  • Red Herring: It turns out that the Inner Council isn't out to get Naruto. He's just collateral damage no one cares about.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: Kabuto was killed off precisely to invoke this effect. He's one of the lightest casualties, too.
  • Sacrificial Lion: Zabuza just can't catch a break, can he?
  • Serial Killer: Kitsune, under the Kyuubi's influence.
  • Screw Destiny: It's basically the Arashi clan's job. They destroy the fate of almost every world they go to. For better or for worse.
  • Seinfeldian Conversation: Chibaku and Yugito commonly have really weird conversations with their respective Bijuu.
  • Shoot the Dog: All of the Naruto's except Naruko have had to make or made morally questionable decisions. Kazama killed Sai in the first chapter in self-defense. Chibaku's use of this trope is the most blatant when he killed N. And finally there are Kitsune's many, many killing sprees.
    • Haku has recently joined the club by killing Five.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: While they aren't siblings, Naruko and Chibaku fit this trope well. Naruko is an implusive, Hot-Blooded, Genki Girl who is Unskilled, but Strong due to her constantly using the Kyuubi's powers to smash her opponents, and seems to be working her way up to The Big Girl. Chibaku is a calm, cool, collected Deadpan Snarker and always plans things out, is The Smart Guy and Crazy-Prepared, and is Weak, but Skilled because the Kyuubi's brute strength doesn't mix with his delicate puppetry techniques. They also argue over everything.
  • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: To the point where idealists make things worse in this story. Don't trust an idealist with a pair of safety scissors in this story. They will find some way to ruin a cynic's attempts to do good work with them. Cynics are the people who are competent and actually save the world in this story.
  • Shout-Out: Amaterasu is one giant call-back to a certain King of Heroes.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Falls firmly on the cynical end: when someone's Fatal Flaw is having too much faith in humanity you know you're in a Crapsack World.
  • The Social Darwinist: Tsukiyomi and Amaterasu are different faces of the concept. Tsukiyomi believes that the gifted should rule over the masses by virtue of being better, whereas Amaterasu believes on Might Makes Right. Another alternate version of Naruto shown by Amatsu Mikaboshi also believes in this.
  • The Sociopath: The author claimed he wrote Kenta as his take on a real-life sociopath.
  • So Proud of You: Kushina to Naruko, before sacrificing herself to save Gaara.
  • The Starscream: Kazama makes it very clear to Tsukiyomi that he will kill him either the first chance he gets, or when Tsukiyomi teaches him all he needs to know. Overlaps with him being a Bastard Understudy. Izanami successfully Starscreamed her Madara when he tried to pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on her. This also helped seal her Magnificent Bitch status.
    • It seems to be a common multiversal occurrence for Fugaku and Mikoto to be Minato's and Kushina Starscream. And they have a frighteningly good track record. Although Itachi usually gives them what they deserve. Though in one universe he got what was coming to him in the form of his own wife killing him. One version of Mikoto got such a horrible fate that a self-professed misanthrope was disturbed. The Godaime!Itachi world subverted this, though.
  • Stepford Smiler: Jinchuuriki!Sakura is a Type A that turns into a Type C.
  • Suicide by Cop: Raikage N has constantly been trying to do this - Chibaku becomes the cop.
    • Five forces Haku to do this. He even says "What took you so long?" as he dies.
  • Superpowered Evil Side: Kitsune's entire fighting style revolves around giving in to his Superpowered Evil Side. Subverted after his Kyuubi is killed.
  • Take That!: Rather markedly:
    • The dominance of Action Girl(s) compared to the shortage of powerful female characters in canon.
    • The author relates Yagura's poor fighting skills to the canon Naruto. Yagura prioritizes ninjutsu boosted by his own Tailed Beast and relies on it.
    • Kakuzu never considers killing to be too good for his enemies.
    • Naruko's speech to Susanoo was a Take That! at the Broken Aesop Naruto-Neji fight.
    • Kazama's mental state is a Take That! at the Generation Xerox Broken Aesop.
    • Black calls the Uchiha clan a race that loves themselves too much.
  • Take Up My Sword: Kisame entrusts Samehada to Kitsune, knowing she's already fond of him and he'll take good care of her.
    • Kitsune's Kyuubi forcibly does this to Kitsune before it dies by downloading all of its memories into him in an attempt to turn him into a new Kyuubi. It seems to be working. And it has been hinted that Tsukiyomi is training Kazama to be his Dragon Ascendant just in case he dies.
  • Taking the Bullet: Gaara for Naruko - only intervention on Kushina's part saves her life.
  • Team Dad: Zabuza acts as a rather grumpy but extremely effective one for the Arashi Clan. He helps out a lot of people with their Character Development. Especially Kakashi.
  • Team Mom: Shukaku, of all Bijuu, seems to be becoming one for the Arashi Clan.
  • Technicolor Fire: Tsukiyomi and Yugito both use blue fire. Tsukiyomi because of his mastery over Katon jutsu. And Yugito to represent her Soul Power.
  • That Man Is Dead: This is how Kazama Arashi feels about his former identity of Naruto Uzumaki.
  • Theme Naming: The villainous team (except of course Kazama) have all picked names from notable Shinto deities - the Madara Trio are Tsukiyomi, Amaterasu and Susanoo; their new ally is named for Izanami (or "Nami"), the goddess of creation and death. And Izanami's Madara, after Susanoo revives him, takes the name Izanagi.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: A commonly used tactic. Best shown when Chibaku uses one in order to kill N and when Kazama kills Orochimaru.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: In the Alive!Yondaime world, Zabuza was able to become Mizukage. Also, Mikoto was able to get into a relationship with Minato.
  • Time Master: Kazama's seal has recently shown the power to travel through time as well as space. Best shown with Orochimaru being sent back in time and creating the Cloud-verse. And it later sent Kazama, Tsukiyomi, and Susanoo back in time sometime around the Third Shinobi World War but before the Rise of Pain. Though given the nature of the multiverse, it's hard to pin down the exact time period.
    • Kuebiko can also manipulate time on a small scale such as speeding up time around him or slowing down an injured persons' time or creating Time Stop bubbles.
  • This Cannot Be!: Yes. Just... Just yes. Most of the villains say this upon their defeats. Especially Cloud-verse Orochimaru!
  • Token Evil Teammate: Sasori for the Arashi clan. He has no morals whatsoever but no one cares because he is a Magnificent Bastard. After his death, Kazama and the Dark Wolf seem to be taking his place.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • There seems to be something in the water in Ame, the citizens...aren't that smart, Yahiko tried to appeal to an insane war-mongering cannibal with peace, and the Madara that lived there thought treating the woman in charge with keeping him alive like shit was a good idea.
    • Really Kushina, was it that great an idea to tell Kazama that Tsukiyomi is right about your actions in implanting the Kyuubi inside him when he's on the brink of a Heroic BSoD, having learned that most people he knew were manipulating him? You couldn't have waited until after to tell him you royally fucked up his life? As for what happens right after... well, sorry, but for the kind of stupidity you presented there, you kind of had it coming
  • Too Powerful to Live: If Kisame had survived, he would have curb-stomped many of the heroes' enemies too easily and removed much of the potential tension.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Pretty much everyone from canon, but Kakashi/Kamui takes the cake. Once he decides to get over his Death Seeker habits he figures out how too use the Susanoo jutsu (with one sharingan), and kills the Raikage.
  • Trash Talk: Kazama during his final fight with Orochimaru - he kept on pressing all the guy's Berserk Buttons to make the bastard slip up. But the iceing on the cake was when Kazama began to call him Orochimaru-kun - he totally lost it.
  • Trauma Conga Line: The author uses this trope to great effect. He's like Shakespeare with this trope. He always finds a way to ruin his main characters lives, often putting them in positions where they have to make rather questionable decisions or make their backstories even more tragic - except Naruko, she's had it ridiculously easy compared to everyone else. But this is a case of Tropes Are Not Bad. A lot of great Character Development comes out of their trauma.
  • Übermensch: Tsukiyomi is an evil one. He even calls his idealology the Will to Power. Kazama is becoming one by rejecting all of Konoha's beliefs and starting his own clan. But has recently devolved into a Nietzsche Wannabe. Kazama has recently recovered but his idealogy has become noticeably Darker and Edgier revolving around a mixture of Might Makes Right, Right Makes Might, Humans Are Flawed, and an Inversion of The Needs of the Many. Naruko thinks she's one, but since she has the personality of the canon Naruto and this story is a Deconstruction she sort of comes off as an idiot.
  • Undead Child: Guess what Susanoo does with the remains of Team Seven. Go on. Guess.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Izuna, Madara's brother. Because he made a deal with Amatsu-Mikaboshi he started a chain of many horrible events which led to Madara becoming the Big Bad.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Alpha's world. The author based this world off of 1984. Subverted. Alpha only wants to be proven right. So in the end it's just Despotism Justifies the Means for her. Even if she'll never admit it.
  • Victory-Guided Amnesia: Gaara.
  • Villainous Friendship:
    • Amaterasu has a Type I with both his counterparts - they both like and respect him and both were greatly saddened by his death.
    • Tsukiyomi and Susanoo have a Type IV - while they work well together, Susanoo's fatalism grates the nerves of Tsukiyomi, a firm believer in free will.
    • Yagura has a extremely twisted Type I with the Sanbi - it's probably the only thing he cares about, they come up with new torture techniques together, and they worked together to create their genocide program. Yagura even calls it "Dear Isobu".
    • Tsukiyomi and Kazama are beginning to form a mixture of a Type I and a Type II. Tsukiyomi honestly seems to like Kazama and treats him like the son he always wanted, and goes out of his way to help Kazama with his goals and gives him solid advice... while Kazama makes it clear that he's a Bastard Understudy and will Starscream Tsukiyomi the first chance he gets. But at the same time, Kazama admits that he's never had a better father figure.
    • Hidan and Kakuzu have a really weird mixture of a Type I and IV. They both claim that they're going to kill the other but they never get around to doing it.
  • Visionary Villain: The three Madara. Alpha claims to be this, but is actually a subversion - she just wants to prove she's right.
  • We Can Rule Together: Tsukiyomi keeps pitching this too Kazama. Given his personality it's hard to tell if he's honest. Given that Tsukiyomi seems to truly like Kazama and treats him like the son he always wanted - even while he's trying to kill his loved ones - makes the honesty of his offer ambigious. Recently Kazama has accepted an offer from Tsukiyomi for power. And in a strange way Tsukiyomi has become the closest thing Kazama has ever had to a proper father-figure, making how honest he is very ambigious.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Naruko cannot seem to realize that she is in a Deconstruction of Naruto and the multiverse hasn't gotten around to telling her this compared to everyone else.
  • Wild Card: Izanami, it's like cocaine to her. She somehow mangages to be part of the Big Bad Ensemble, a Dragon, Dragon with an Agenda, Dragon Ascendant, Enigmatic Minion, a Fake Defector, AND The Starscream AT THE SAME TIME! Maybe...?
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Jinchuuriki!Sakura - After seeing both her teammates die, she unleashes the Kyuubi and destroys Wave Country. Luckily she doesn't get any farther thanks to Amaterasu.
  • Worf Had the Flu: A lot of the Arashi clans victory's can be attributed to this trope. Kazama was able to kill Orochimaru because his brain was literally rotting and he was constantly picking up the Villain Ball because of it. The Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Sarutobi revived with Edo Tensei only lost to Haku, Zabuza, Sasori, and Yugito because they literally couldn't think - Jiraiya even summoned a toad that saw him die, which immediately began helping the Arashi clan. Raikage N was a Death Seeker. Amaterasu only lost to Zabuza, Jiraiya, and Kuebiko because of Honor Before Reason. Susanoo had lost his Space Master powers, was dying and his Paths were telling their opponents their weaknesses.
  • Worthy Opponent: Amaterasu views most of his enemies this way. Special mention to Kisame and Zabuza.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: No, Naruko - unlike Canon, The Power of Friendship will not save everyone and make the world a bright shining place of peace and love. You might be able to help on a limited scale, but you are not all-powerful. She seems to drop this after the fight with Kitsune's Kyuubi.
  • You Are Number 6: All of the Real Naruto Clones have numbers for names in the ANBU-verse such as Alpha, Three, Five, Twenty, and Ninety.
  • You Fight Like a Cow: Kazama constantly insults Orochimaru's skills and achievements in life to make him slip up during their fight. It works.
  • You Have Failed Me: Kenta constantly does this because no one but Kakashi can live up to his insane expectations.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Izanami's Madara tried to do this to Izanami because he found a new apprentice that wasn't a woman. She disagreed. Vehemently.
  • You Kill It, You Bought It: The only way to gain the Kusanagi's full power and loyalty is by killing its previous owner.
  • You Need to Get Laid: This is what the Niibi thinks of Yugito.

Alternative Title(s): Echoes

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