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Prologue

The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth, bringing awareness to his mind. The silence was gradually splintered, cracked and broken by the drip-drop splatter sound that was growing clearer and clearer. He tried moving his body, his mind still groggy and unfocused. The sudden and uncomfortably close shrieking of metal halted his efforts, the sound sending a stab of pain through his head.

The pain was good. It sharpened his mind and tore through the blanket of grogginess that had coated his head, casting aside whatever hold sleep may have had on him. The pain was welcome, an old friend he never knew he missed until it was absent. He spat out the blood that had gathered in his mouth, ignoring the taste now that he had regained his bearings, and opened his eyes.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, he was in an enclosed room with little light to see. Well, room wasn't a good word to describe his surroundings; it was more like a basement of some kind, with the suffocating and oppressive feeling of a cell. Glancing to his side, he noted his right arm chained to the wall he was slumped against. Another glance to his left confirmed the same situation for his other arm.

Looking ahead this time, he allowed himself a moment to gather himself. He called out to the power that lay within him, gathering a sizeable amount of it and directing it all towards his right eye.

Focusing his gaze upon the center of the room, he activated one of his right eye's unique ability and felt himself being sucked into a distortion in space. Barely a heartbeat later, he was suddenly in the same spot he had been looking at, his limbs free from the chains that had found him.

Slowly rising to his feet, keeping his guard up in case his kidnappers decided to come and check on him, he rubbed his hands lightly and walked towards the metal door in front of him.

His eyes narrowed when he noted no lock on the door. Forming a cross with his fingers, a small puff of smoke appeared before disappearing just as quickly to reveal a clone of the young man. The clone immediately stepped forward while he quickly hopped back to the center of the room, keeping his gaze locked on the door.

If there were any traps that were set off by fiddling with the door, he did not want to be caught in their wake.

His clone placed its hand on the door and pushed, revealing the door to be unlocked. He still kept his distance, wary of any traps that would activate after a delayed response, and waited for a whole minute before signaling his clone to continue.

Making his way out of the room, he found himself in an equally dark tunnel that went on a ways before rising to some crudely shaped stairs. Scowling to himself, he nonetheless signaled to his clone to scout ahead. The clone nodded and silently blended into the darkness, completely invisible to normal eyes.

Now that he was alone, he retreated into the cell and scurried towards the darkest corner of the room. Settling down, he nonchalantly bit into his thumb and drew blood, which he then smeared across a black design on his left forearm. Another small puff of smoke was made as the contents of the seal were retrieved.

Quickly stripping off the rags he was wearing, he slipped on the mesh armor with navy accents under an identical T-shirt with a simple white belt around the waist and dark blue pants. Just as he finished putting on the long, black cloak with red clouds, a rush of memories came back to him.

'Ah,' he perked up, no longer as weary and guarded as he appeared, 'what idiots.'

With an image in his mind he immediately activated his distortion ability once more, being sucked into the distortion and immediately deposited unto a high point. Glancing about, he confirmed that he had indeed appeared on the highest structure in his vicinity, a large tree whose branches were thick enough to support his weight. He noted the guards in his vicinity were clearly not doing their job and were loudly conversing, as relaxed as civilians during times of peace. The fact that they hadn't noticed his clone coming up the stairs spoke of their inattentiveness.

At that moment, a cloud blocking the moon drifted past and something so strange and bewildering to him caught his attention.

'What…the hell?'

The moon was wrong. It hung in the night sky, large and beautiful like a pearl, but was inexplicably shattered. Its cracked pieces were strewn across the night sky, a scene that was more believable as an art piece than reality.

He took a moment to collect himself. Glaring at his right arm, he concentrated on the flow of his energy and watched for any irregularity in its flow. After determining that there was no tampering with his energy flow, he was forced to acknowledge what he had seen. Whether it was an illusion on a different level than he had experienced before or simply a reality he was denying was another matter.

Putting his thoughts aside for the moment, he proceeded to use the same technique as his clone and became invisible to the eyes of the people. With his form hidden away, he glanced down at the guards once more with a pensive frown.

'…I think I'll need these two to find my way out of here.'

A beat later, he dropped from his perch and landed as softly as he could, silent and deadly as a ghost. Making his way behind the guards, he was about to grab them before realizing that they were speaking in a language that didn't make sense to him. Perhaps he had been taken to lands beyond the Elemental Nations, where the people spoke a different language, but seeds of doubt were burrowing into his mind.

His frown deepened. 'More work. Annoying, but not impossible.'

Gathering his power once more, this time directing its flow towards his hands and increasing the vibrations, he immediately grabbed the lax guards by their shoulders as he initiated his attack, sending a potent surge of lightning through their bodies.

A moment later they were back in the cell, where no bystander could catch a glimpse of what he was planning to do. Cutting the lightning technique, he barely gave the two a moment before he struck them both in succession, each strike bending their knees in the opposite direction with sickening cracks.

As they fell to the ground, crying out at the pain and possibly shock, he summoned a clone that immediately grabbed the closest one just as he took a step and grabbed the other. Grabbing his victim's jaw, he roughly jerked their face towards his and made contact with the young man's clearly pained and terrified eyes.

He tore through the man's mind with the subtlety of a bull, battering through the feeble defenses of his mind and clawing his way into the man's memories. There were numerous details that surprised him, but he didn't have the luxury of time; he estimated a few minutes until someone noticed the two guards weren't at their posts and made an alert.

His extraction took a bit longer than he had anticipated, but when he released his hold over the man's mind he was satisfied with the information he had discovered. His clone dispersed as well, feeding him the memories it had unearth with its target.

Gathering his power once more, he focused it to one finger this time. Instead of the lightning from before, the energy that coated his digit was thin and sharpened as possible rather than vibrating it. The result was a shimmering aura that was barely visible.

Sliding his finger over the guard's throat, he noted how easily his digit had cut through the man's flesh and quickly moved unto the other guard. Silently slitting the other man's throat, he then dragged the dying men to the wall he had woken up at and quickly secured them with the chains.

Reappearing back on the tree branch, he checked once more for any signs of life. Cautiously dropping down to the ground once more, he began to make his way through the settlement. The streets were suspiciously bare, with little more than a few lights to indicate any kind of activity. The few buildings along the street were closed and boarded up.

'…This feels like a trap.'

Almost in response to his thoughts, he felt his surroundings change. What was once a creepy and dead area transformed into one that reeked of an unflattering mix of negative emotions. The change was quite sudden and jarring, but he felt no fear even as he stilled himself.

His eyes scanned his surroundings once more, noting that nothing had changed. Had he no means of detecting the negative emotions that wafted from the buildings, he surely would have found himself in some trouble during his escape.

He narrowed his eyes and grasped the vile chakra that was within him. Even though they were hidden, he had used this power enough times to know that orange-red flame-like markings had spread across his body. The chakra, filled with intense loathing and killing intent, filled his body and he could already feel his abilities increase significantly. The entire process took but a moment, a feat that demonstrated his body's ease and acceptance of the chakra.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

The unholy sound stilled him, utterly smashing through the silence with a sudden ferocity. It was unlike anything he had heard before, a scream so unhuman and bestial that nature itself seemed to quiver at its presence.

He immediately disappeared from the streets, reappearing back on the tree branch and swiftly casting the illusion once more to hide his form away from any wandering eyes.

There was a flurry of activity almost immediately after; human screams rose in the distance, lights switched on in buildings as people stepped out to investigate the disturbance. The small settlement was coming to life in the night, absolutely suffocating him with the intense and pungent emotions wafting through the atmosphere.

An explosion in the distance caught his attention, the fiery spectacle creating even more panic and fear in that area. He hunkered down in the shadows as a few of the settlers became visible, a small group of children and teenagers making their way towards his location. The group of five eventually passed underneath his position, their cries and words nothing more than incomprehensible sounds to him.

His eyes narrowed as he noted the two oldest looking members directing the group. They were clearly distraught, but their faces showed a fierce determination that suggested they had an objective and would fight to achieve it.

'…They may know a way out of this place.'

Dropping down to the floor again, he began to follow the kids as they made their escape. Silently keeping pace with them, which wasn't hard as they were travelling with youngsters and he was just better than them, he committed the path they were taking to memory.

One of the children, a young boy with auburn hair and golden-brown eyes, looked back and screamed, gaining the attention of the group.

The kunai was in his hands a split second before the sheer terror in the group damn near tripled. The surge in fear stayed his hand, and when he turned towards the disarrayed town he immediately understood why.

Stepping out of the destruction was a creature that resembled some of the monstrosities found in nightmares and twisted minds. It was humanoid, and stood at a height that towered over his own. The creature had long straight hair, reaching down to its waist, and markings decorating its chest stretching from the center across its chest and shoulders.

As it stalked towards him, he noted the black claws on its fingertips and toes as well as the small, furry red tufts, two starting from its collarbone and stretching around his neck and one each on his wrists and ankles, and white skin. The creature's face was a crude imitation of a human's skull, with four spike-shaped marks decorating it, two of them stopping by the forehead and the other two stretching past the eyes and teeth, going past its chin and joining with the marks on its chest. Small marks resembling a heart, but with the top and bottom open, extended from the inner corners of its eyes. Two long forward-pointing horns jutted out, with black strips extending from their center towards the tips.

The world came to a halt. The screams of the children beside him faded to nothing, leaving the pounding of his blood in his ears. The creature, clad in a ruined cloth that covered its crotch, clutched a black sword in its grip.

Its eyes, nothing more than pools of darkness, were focused directly on him.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

The beast's unholy scream tore through the air as it suddenly charged, instantly closing the distance between them. Even as his eyes caught the beast's movements as it drew closer, its jaws open and bearing its fangs down upon him, it struck far faster than he could react.

The children's screams doubled when the creature suddenly appeared before them, blood spraying all over from the severed arm in its mouth and the corpse it gripped in its hands.

Crimson eyes that pierced through the dimly lit room narrowed when the Scroll in her hands began to vibrate. Glancing down at the device, her frown grew when she saw who exactly was making the call.

Answering the call, the holographic screen displayed the picture of a young man as a voice spoke clearly, "Boss, we've got a problem!"

She sat up in her seat, picking up the agitation in his voice. "What is it?"

"Someone in the town fucked up and the target is on the rampage! At this rate it'll be out in Remnant in the next half-hour!"

Shit. Just what I needed. "I'm on my way. Return to camp at once and get ready to leave when I return." Without another word, she ended the call and stood up.

She had a youthful appearance and facial shape; though her eyebrows were a little bit higher, and there were slight age lines under her eyes. Her complexion was light, her hair black with red highlights.

She wore a shallow cut black dress, five necklaces with an assortment of beads, a red girdle-belt, and a pair of matching gauntlets with fingerless gloves. An object that looked to be made from feathers hangs from the right side of her skirt. She also wore detached black leggings with a red splatter pattern, and black leather boots beneath them.

Grasping her weapon, a long-bladed, single-edged ōdachi, she secured it on her hip and grasped an object on her desk. As she stepped away from her seat, the object was revealed to be a fearsome, full-face mask that resembled the face of a Grimm. The mask had four eye slits, further enhancing the character's inhuman appearance.

She drew her blade and slashed at seemingly nothing but air. Out of nowhere, a red and black energy field opened in the space before her. Without a moment's hesitance, she stepped inside and disappeared.

There was no warning.

No strange sound was made, no light glinted on the body. The scent of blood, as unusual as it was from the human it had struck, was the only scent that filled the air. There had been no attempt made by the disarmed human to save itself.

So why was everything burning? Why did the blood in its mouth turn to fire? Why did the wind itself cut at its body to fiercely?

Why was the human it had killed still alive?

It released another cry, shouting its pain to the world. It dropped the black thing it clutched to the ground as it shook itself and rolled on the earth. Its attempts to dull the flames hurt, but the flames and burning pain dimmed as it continued to throw itself at the dirt.

The negative emotions abruptly returned and suddenly nothing mattered. All the pain was pushed to the side as a deep, aching hunger overrode any other instinct it had. It staggered to its feet, staring at the human that rose from the earth.

Its cry was pitiful this time, a far cry from the powerful roars that had shaken the village before.

It took one step closer, towards the human absolutely drenched in negative emotions, only for its hunger to be swept aside once more by the flames that spewed from the human's mouth.

The scream intensified. It clawed at its body, its face, scratching at the fire that burned, burned burnedburnedBurned!

The fire kept burning even when it rolled on the earth, the pain sharp and unrelenting even as the negative emotion human kept moving farther and farther away from it.

There was a sudden sound and then everything ended.

Raven Branwen stared at the disappearing corpse of her target, the charred remains blowing away in the wind as the once peaceful village burned in the night. Switching her weapon back to its sword form, she turned in the direction that the young boy had taken after dispatching the unidentified Grimm.

She was intrigued.

A/N: It's been a while, hasn't it? To be honest, I didn't think it would take me this long to write another chapter for something…but that's life. Stuff happened, which killed whatever enthusiasm I had to write, and things have been getting more hectic right now.

I decided to remake this story because I realized my initial attempt wasn't what I wanted, and it put me in a corner that really had me stumped. I had a number of scenes planned that would've ended up as flashbacks because I cut straight to Naruto joining Beacon Academy. This time, I want to make a mini-arc about Naruto's crash course with Remnant, how different and messed-up he is compared to canon, and the reasons for his association with Raven all before we head to Beacon for Volume 1.

So, to summarize: what you saw in The Wild Card is still going to be present, but it will be done in a different way and at a slower pace. A few things may be tweaked, but this is the same story being told differently. Naruto's past and abilities? Same in both fics. What happens to various characters? Same in both fics.

Also, since I know people are going to ask and its not really a secret, Naruto's Mangekyo Sharingan are the same as Shin Unchiha from Naruto Gaiden. Just throwing that out there.

Please read and review,

MaelstromBankai.