Amidst a sea of seemingly flowing purple energy a flash of brilliant light was seen. The light originated from a room on the highest floor of an ancient castle that was floating within the sea of purple. The room was hexagonal, built from stone more ancient than even the purple world surrounding it. Into the walls was carved runes of a language long forgotten, and statues of angelic beings stood in each corner, hands raised as if in prayer.

In the middle of the room a sword of intricate design was floating. The blade of the sword was brimming with barely contained power, and every now and then small bolts of violet energy would strike out from it.

Behind the sword stood a man. He wore a strange set of clothes that fitted closely to his pale skin. The cloth was extremely soft and dyed a white closely resembling freshly fallen snow. It was richly embroidered in gold, and was slightly opened up at the front, showing off a strange jewel embedded in the man's chest, just below the collar-bone. The long, golden locks of his hair fell down his back and hid the twin holes in his outfit where his shoulder blades were situated. Out of those holes erupted two large wings sparkling in every colour of the rainbow, seemingly made out of the same energy as the one the sword in front of the man was emitting. His face was regal and currently held no emotion, yet his one visible eye was furrowed shut in concentration, the other hidden by a lock of his hair.

A smaller flash of light, and a voice sounded from behind the man.

"Lord Yggdrasill."

The man, now identified as Yggdrasill, opened his eyes, showing icy blue irises. He turned to the one that had interrupted him, and raised an eyebrow at the sight that met him.

The person standing before him was garbed in a red and midnight-blue outfit, this one also embroidered with gold, with a cape that split further down thrown over his shoulders. His cyan coloured hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, save for a stray lock that fell over his right eye, partly covering it. Wings similar to that of Yggdrasill's sprouted from his back, yet these wings only glowed a light blue.

"Yuan? I never thought that I would hear you of all people address me by my title. It matters little though. I assume that you have something to tell me, so do so quickly as I have little time left before I must take my leave."

Yuan simply smirked a bit at the hidden surprise in his leader's voice and decided to comply with his wishes.

"I am merely here to report that your personal project is apparently ready. As for my sudden politeness, I simply saw you in deep concentration and wanted to make sure that you wouldn't strike me down for calling you by name before you knew who I was."

Yuan's smirk widened under his report, and the last part was said with a small wink, something that he knew would aggravate the man before him to no end.

Yggdrasill was again surprised by his subordinate's actions. Yet this time it was not a pleasant one. Yuan's attitude annoyed him greatly, yet he forced himself to keep his calm and respond to the report given him.

"Is that so? I will have to see that for myself when I return, yet if what you say is true then 3000 years of work have finally come to fruition. Is there anything else? If not, you may take your leave."

Yuan simply shook his head, bowed slightly and turned around to leave. Just when he was about to step onto the rune on the floor that was the only transportation to and from the room he stopped, turned around slightly, and opened his mouth to speak once again.

"Actually, I have a question. Could you perhaps explain this project of yours?"

Yggdrasill didn't bother to turn around to face the blue-haired man once again, yet just as Yuan assumed that he wouldn't get an answer, he spoke.

"If all goes well you will see for yourself soon enough. Though, if it would please you, I can say that it might be able to awaken her."

Slightly shocked, Yuan looked up at the blonde in front of him, yet said man made a wave with his hand and Yuan, knowing a dismissal when he saw one, bowed slightly once again and walked onto the rune of transportation in front of him.

Pleased that he once again was alone in the room, and that his patience with his project had apparently paid off, Yggdrasill once again returned to what he had been doing before the interruption.

'Are you certain that this 'disturbance' is true, and that it will appear where you said?'

The voice that answered came from everywhere and nowhere. It was deep and mighty, yet held a tone of reverence toward the blue-eyed man in the room.

'Yes, and we must make haste, or it might be too late. Do not forget that time flows differently in that dimension. Even I cannot predict how it will flow when you arrive.'

'Very well. Let us leave then.'

With that, Yggdrasill grasped the floating sword by its handle and swung it in a wide and gracious arc. Where the sword had struck, a distortion slowly appeared. It grew larger and larger, until it tore a rift in the fabric of the dimensions.

Without even a seconds hesitation, Yggdrasill strode through the newly-made portal and vanished, the rift closing behind him.


Smoke, screams and the coppery scent of freshly shed blood was the first thing that assaulted Yggdrasill's senses the minute he arrived at his destination. The second thing he noticed was the gigantic nine-tailed fox that was currently tearing through the population of the village far below him.

Not even giving a second thought to the fact that he was lucky that the rift had appeared far up in the sky so that he wouldn't have to bother directly with the massacre taking place below him, Yggdrasill immediately focused upon the nine-tailed monstrosity.

'A demon-lord here? But I closed off Niflheim completely 3500 years ago.' was the first though running through his head. He had even fought with his particular demon before. If his memory served him correctly, it was one of the high lords of Niflheim, and the commander of the demons that chose to take animal form. How it had appeared here he had no idea.

Sighing, he prepared to deal with the problem at hand when a large surge of power caused him to halter. Granted, it was nothing compared to his own, and the power itself was weaker than mana, yet for a human --for that was what had caused it-- it was great. His interest piqued, Yggdrasill flew down lower to see exactly who had caused the surge.

He was met with quite a bizarre sight. Upon a toad as large as a small mountain stood a tall blonde man dressed in a flowing white coat. He was glaring at the nine-tailed beast in front of him, and seemed to have put his hands in a strange sign, possibly this world's way of casting a spell.

What really drew Yggdrasill's attention though, was what was taking form behind the man. The creature --for there was no better way to describe it-- that appeared looked demonic, yet Yggdrasill immediately felt that it originated from this realm. It was surrounded by an aura of power. Power that was close to his own level.

He decided to wait and see what were to happen next.

'The disturbance. It is near, I can feel it.'

Yggdrasill snapped his attention toward the sword in his hand, frowned, and asked the voice where it was.

'I am not sure, but it will take a large part in what is about to happen to the demon.'

With a small nod, Yggdrasill turned his attention back to the battlefield below.

By now, the strange creature had pierced the man's body with one of its hands, which was currently reaching for the raging demon down below.

As soon as the hand reached the demon a great flash of light engulfed everything on the battlefield.

His eyes resistant to things such as that, Yggdrasill kept his gaze on the spot where the enormous demon was before the flash, and, as the light died out, he saw that no trace was left of the beast, and that the toad had seemingly vanished as well. Intrigued, he went to fly closer to the battlefield when a power that dwarfed anything that had happened earlier exploded out from somewhere on the mountain behind the village.

Slightly shocked, as this power was --even though it was but for a second-- greater than his own, Yggdrasill immediately teleported to the location from where the power had originated.

What he arrived to was not what he had expected. A small baby boy, not even three hours old, lied in the middle of a large array of strange runes. He was wailing in pain, and Yggdrasill watched interested as six small lines formed on the boy's cheeks at the same time as a spiral-formed mark appeared on the baby's belly. An aura of red, malevolent mana surrounded the small child, but was slowly drawn into the spiral mark.

'To think that a human would be able to do something like this. Actually sealing away a demon into another being.'

'That child is the disturbance. I can feel it clearly now, as there is no longer a fluctuation of mana to disrupt my powers.'

'Are you serious? A human?'

This was bad. All he had heard about this 'disturbance' was that it would play a large part in the future of the worlds. And now it turned out to be a filthy human. No, he would have nothing to do with this. He would leave the boy to rot here. He prepared to leave when the voice spoke to him once again.

'What are you doing? You have to make sure that the boy is safe! He will-'

'-Will betray us like everyone else of that disgusting race. No, I will have nothing to do with that filthy, inferior being!'

Yggdrasill was getting frustrated. He didn't care about what would happen to this world. He looked down at the sword in his hand once again.

'I cannot allow that.'

'Eternal Sword or not, you WILL know your place, and I will not have anything to do with that filthy human.'

Had it been possible, the Eternal Sword would've sighed. Its master could be so horribly stubborn sometimes. However, now was not a time to ponder about things like that, so it gathered its powers in one last attempt to hinder its master from making a horrible mistake.

Yggdrasill was once again preparing to leave when his mind was assaulted with bits and pieces of something. When he cleared his head enough to 'watch' the things taking place within his mind, he saw that it was the life of the baby in front of him. It was horrible. In fact, it made the things done to half-elves pale in comparison. Yet through it all, the boy simply smiled and apologised, even though he didn't know what he had done wrong. The pure selflessness and compassion of the boy caused Yggdrasill's heart, which had frozen a long time ago, to crack. It wasn't much, but it still happened, and Yggdrasill came upon a startling thought. The boy was just like her. Always thinking about others and doing his all to protect them. Even their deaths were similar; both sacrificing themselves to protect those they cared for from a traitor they once called close friend.

Then came what would happen should the boy die.

Meteors fell from the sky, crashing into the ground below. Hellish portals appeared everywhere, spewing smoke and sulphur high into the air. From the portals erupted legions of demons of every size and shape. The demons spread across the world, slaughtering anything they came across, transforming the world to a withered husk, any trace of life lost to the wind. The worst part though, was that this wasn't the world he was currently in. No, it was his home world, and nothing would survive the demonic onslaught. He would lose her once again.

Then, as swiftly as they came, the pictures vanished from his head.

His mind made up, Yggdrasill walked up to the now sleeping child and picked him up. He could feel the boy's heartbeat against his chest, as well as the strange power of this world surging through the small body. He looked at the blanket that the child was partly wrapped in. On one side of the blanket, something was embroidered. After a closer look, he saw that it was a name, written in a language that was unnervingly similar to that of the ninja village of Tethe'alla. The village was called Mizuho or something similar to that if his memory served him right. It took a small while to decipher the words, as he was not too proficient in the language spoken by humans of any sort, but he did, and figured that what he read was the name of the boy.

'Namikaze Naruto? A peculiar name to be sure, yet strangely fitting. If the maelstrom of tonight's events are anything to go by.'

'As glad I am to see that you have finally seen reason, I need to let you know that time is short. The demon is currently trying to influence the mind of the boy, thereby significantly decreasing his mental capabilities, in a try to take over his mind. The only thing I know of that may prevent that from happening is your newly finished project.'

'Are you implying that I should give up 3000 years of research on this human?'

'Yes I am. I showed you what would happen should the boy die. That was because the demon was released again, and with nothing to stop it this time, it broke the seal on Niflheim. Your project would be able to purify the taint of the demon from the boy, thus preventing that.'

'I see. Then I guess there is no other way. Very well, take us back to Derris-Kharlan so that I can place the project on the boy then.'

'There is one more thing. The boy must not grow up amongst those who dwell within Derris-Kharlan. Not only would that allow the demon to gain information on us, but it would also be a risk to the boy. He would need compassion for the purification process to succeed, and that would be impossible should he live within Derris-Kharlan.'

'Then what would you have me do?'

'Place him with the village you were thinking of earlier. It is the one that is closest to this world in traditions and way of life, and thus it would not inflict with the boy's instincts.'

'Instincts? I am afraid that I cannot see why instincts should be a problem.'

'Me showing you his life had consequences. The life he would've had is now permanently embedded within his subconscious. This is good and bad. It is good because it will allow him to be the same person he would've been, and not be influenced by other humans, and bad because should his upbringing conflict too much with his subconscious, he would eventually lose his sanity, something that would all but break the seal on the demon.'

Not bothering to respond, Yggdrasill simply nodded toward the Eternal Sword and turned around to prepare to open a portal back to Derris-Kharlan. Just as he was to cut through the dimensional wall, a silvery glint caught his eye. He stopped mid-swing and took a better look at the thing that had caught his eye. It was a silvery pendant, lying just beside the seal array that Naruto had been placed within.

His interest piqued, Yggdrasill picked it up and, after one glance at what was written on it, placed it around Naruto's neck. He might despise humans, but even he would not deny a newborn the only thing that remained of its parents.

With that, he yet again prepared to cut through the dimensions. The cut was swift and precise, and the rift opened a lot faster than the first one he had opened that night. He immediately walked through the rift, holding Naruto tight against his body, not out of compassion, but to eliminate the risk of dropping the boy when between the dimensions. It was due to this though, that he could feel the changes taking place within the small body of the baby when it was exposed to the high amounts of mana surging both from the Eternal Sword and the nether surrounding them.

Had Yggdrasill looked back when he entered the rift though, he would've seen the door to the sealing room open and the visage of an elderly man standing in the open doorway. Yet, he did not and so he believed that his meddling with that world had gone unnoticed.

The last thing that the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha remembered after opening the door to the seal room where most of the sealing on the Kyuubi no Youko had taken place was a brilliant flash of light, before he fell unconscious to the floor.


Two hours later, a newborn boy was found abandoned by the edge of the forest surrounding the village of Mizuho, home of the proud ninja of the Igaguri clan. The only things of note on the baby was the blanket he was wrapped in, made out of a seemingly expensive cloth and embroidered with the boy's name, a silvery pendant of intricate design, and a small, cerulean blue orb embedded in the boy's chest, just below the collar-bone.
Well, here is the prologue of my second story. It's a bit late, but I had almost no time to write during Christmas, and I didn't want to publish this until chapter one was at least halfway written.

I have a lot of ideas for this fic, and it will deviate quite a bit from the story in the game. I'll also try to write it in a way that will let you understand what is happening even if you haven't played Tales of Symphonia (though I really recommend it to those that like RPG's, it's a really great game).

If you have any questions feel free to ask, I might or might not answer. And I'd really like to know what you think about this story, or if you can find any grammatical errors etc.

For those of you who've read my other fic, A Matter of Time, I'm currently writing chapter four, and will upload it as soon as I can, though it is progressing quite slowly.

Thanks for reading!

/Andrin