Accident of Time Chapter 1, a naruto fanfic

Chapter One: The Uzumaki Boy

Naruto ran on the hard cobbled streets where some of the cement had cracks and crevices running along the pavement: remnants of the wars that Konoha had participated in. The blonde haired, blue eyed boy pounded his legs hard against the wet streets as rain pounded on the hood of his orange slicker, creating the same sound of rain hitting rooftops. The sound of the pebble sized rain drops hitting against his orange jacket strangely comforted him, and the little comfort he could get in this cold freezing rain amid shouts from the village mob chasing after him, looking ready to kill him, he was thankful for.

He sped down a side alley. Konoha was built without a plan of urban housing, and it had evolved as more people migrated from various lands to live within the richness of Konoha's city-village gates, protected from the harsh world outside by ninja, highly skilled. What was different about Konoha that made it a great place to live was that it was welcoming. Everybody cared about each other, lighting up people's day with happy smiles of friendship and carefree camaraderie. Only Naruto was the exception. Even foreigners (flatlanders they were called) were treated better than Naruto, who was quite famous in the village despite the fact that the Hokage had made it an S-class secret to talk about the Kyuubi living inside the boy.

Only Naruto felt like he was an outsider, alienated and hated from his village. The village Pariah ran down the alleyways where he had never been before. In Konoha there were so many sprawling alleys and pathways, it was a maze barely navigatable. The villagers, old, forty year old men, burly and strong, and women, some kuniochi even, some who had lost their husbands and children in the war against the Kyuubi no Kitsune, chased after him and what was worse was that they knew this place. They knew how to transverse the maze, and for Naruto, it was his worst day. What bad luck, he thought, why did I ever try to go in the Red Scorpion?

The Red Scorpion was a ninja restaurant that served everyone and anyone, and didn't ask any questions. They even served children who had not even been made genin. Well, Naruto, barely ten years old, had been invited by Inuzaka Kiba, Chouji, and a few others to go with them and in his naivitie he did so.

They were halfway through the meal when Naruto finally noticed the people in the restaurant had ceased talking and were openly staring at him with the same pure utter looks of loathing he had encountered from most adults in the village. Hate was a powerful emotion, but it also bred caution and animalistic cunning. Naruto had concentrated on eating his food, quite good if he said so himself, and when the bill came, nobody said anything. The genin all just paid and wanted to get out of there, because the students had all noticed the stares which were directed at Naruto and they all felt uncomfortable.

Naruto was the last one to leave, but before he could, a hand stopped him. Grizzled, wrinkly, old. It belonged to a balding white bearded man with yellow teeth and bright white spots over pinkish swollen gums. Sunken black eyes that watered constantly, or at least the left one did. The right one had a diagonal scar that ran along the nose, ending in a loop from ear to ear like a necklace.

"You!" The old man said, "What's your name, boy?" The entire restaurant was quiet and they were all staring at him, foreheads scrunched up in disapproval and barely restrained anger. Still, they respected the old man, and let him have his say.

"Um, Uzumaki Naruto, sir," The demon container said as he looked back and forth in nervous fear. "What's yours?"

The man gave him a crooked grin, and Naruto noticed he had a staff in his left hand. The staff was made of emerald green wood, like the leaves sprouting on the numerous trees in Konoha. On the head of the wood there was a brilliant azure gem, the sort of color of his blue eyes, that almost glowed and dimmed like a heartbeat. Naruto thought he was imagining it though, because there was no way it could be real. The man's eyes turned dark, as if Naruto was staring into a deep hole.

"Boy, you just fucked with the wrong people in coming here. Do you have any idea where you are?"

"Red Scorpion," Naruto replied, voice wavering. He felt something stuck in his throat and wanted to gulp but he was scared and he didn't want the old man to know.

"This place," the man said, punctuating every word with hot spittle that flew from his diseased mouth and onto Naruto's face, "This place," the old man's voice roared to a crescendo and some of the customers stood up, hands clenched, pasty faced with anger. Not on his behalf though. Naruto's heart thudded and he wanted to pull away but he felt something freeze him from the insides. It came from the man.

Killer intent, Narto thought. The man's going to kill me.

"This place is where the Kyuubi killed my only son!" The man drew his right hand from Naruto's shoulder, and the boy breathed in a sigh of relief which ended soon after when the old man smacked him across the face with the back of his hand. "You disgust me," the old man said. "I hate you! It's your fault my family's dead. Your fault I'm crippled!"

Naruto didn't stay long after. He kicked the man in the knee upon reflex and ran out the door. The old man's pain filled howl filled the empty streets, drowning out the steady thundering of the rain.

Naruto didn't know in which way he was going, only that he had to run, he had to get away from there for his own safety. A second or two passed before the mob moved in tandem out the door, and followed hot on the heels of the village pariah.

"Come back here brat!" An angry voice roared, and the voice was almost behind Naruto's ear. Such was the speed of a ninja.

With unexpected strength Naruto put an extra burst in his speed, and saw from the corners of his eye that the ninja were chasing after him on rooftop to rooftop. Nothing happened beside the dog-chase for exactly three minutes and ten seconds, if Naruto had been counting. But that's when a kunai, thrown by one of the chasing ninjas, one of many thrown (and missed) kunai, hit right between his two shoulder blades. He felt sharp hot pain shoot up his neck and reached back to pull out the kunai. He felt his blood run down his hand as he pulled, but it was lodged too deep and it hurt too much. Naruto panted, he couldn't run anymore, and he fell to his knees, crawling away. The village mob, angry and ready to commit murder, raced after him and almost caught up with him when a Chuunin who had watched the proceedings put himself in between Naruto and the mob.

Naruto turned around and looked with disbelieving eyes as the Chuunin ninja, young, barely fifteen, black eyed, black haired, a sharp pointy noise, angular face, wearing the traditional ninja vest, said in a sharp voice that brooked no disobedience and filled with hard rock-like hate said, "What the hell do you people think you're doing?"

Naruto gulped. Finally, he was saved! The Chuunin stood tall as the mob approached, shouting in a flurry of mixed voices so great that nothing could be made out.

"Stop!" The chuunin said, "We can take this up to the Hokage, understand?"

One of the ninja following from the rooftops dropped in front of the chuunin. "Yuugi-kun, get away from here," he said.

"Sensei?" The Chuunin, whose name was Yuugi Naruto gathered, said. "What's going on here?"

"This… you don't belong here… you're too young. Just go, Yuugi, run away from here and don't tell this to anyone. Understand?"

The Chuunin shook his head, "You're chasing after a little child. And he's hurt!" Yuugi turned to Naruto and leaned over him, "Come on, lets get you to the hospital-" Yuugi choked, and blood spurted out of his mouth over onto Naruto's yellow slicker. The ninja behind him, his sensei, had stuck a katana in chuunin, at the same place Naruto had gotten hit with the kunai.

Yuugi fell to the ground in front of Naruto and with a last tear filled gaze at the billowing grey clouds above, he closed his black eyes which would never open again for the chuunin who had tried to save him was now dead. Naruto saw the death in a dream like state of mind as he thought to himself, "This isn't happening, this isn't real." He didn't realize he said it aloud until the ninja responsible for the murder said in a harsh unforgiving tone:

"It is very real, boy. He's dead because of you! You did this! You!" He waved the bloody katana and Naruto watched with apt fascination as drops of blood hit the pavement and mixed with the rain water that was flooding the streets. Red turned pink, and all Naruto could think was that it's my fault. He died because of me.

Witnessing a murder is never easy, and though he had watched people die on the television – in movies that Iruka showed the Academy students to impress upon them the harshness of the ninja life, watching a person die in real life was completely different. It was real, it was startingly shocking and more so it called up a choking emotion from within Naruto, something great that rose upward from his chest, a mixture of sadness, anger, and strangely enough, happiness. This man had died for him. He felt loved, he felt hated, he felt reality shatter around him like a clay pot thrown on the floor, and he felt himself changed, from the inside.

He would never be the same innocent Naruto again. Not with the image of the rain washing the blood that still spurted out from the dead chuunin's arteries where the Katana had fatally wounded the ninja resting firmly in his mind.

The killer was watching him with hatred in his eyes and he drew the katana overhead. Just as he was about to swing it down, Naruto snapped out of his reverie. It was only his instincts and luck that saved him from the katana's downward swung. The sword missed by a hair as Naruto crouched to his feet, pain in his shoulder blades completely forgotten.

He ran faster than he ever had before, and he heard behind him the killer ninja shout to the mob, "Come on, after him! After the Kyuubi brat!"

Kyuubi brat? What did that mean? Some part of his mind – a childish mind – was fascinated by small details that would go unheeded by adults, details like why Iruka's shoes were always muddy on Tuesday mornings or why Nara Shikamaru always seemed so tired. As he ran, his mind focused on it, and he felt some genius part of him slowly put the pieces together. He felt himself solve the mysterious puzzle that had plagued his entire life but the answer to the puzzle was still beyond him, and as he ran, he tried to understand. It was like trying to remember something that you've long since forgotten, like an answer to a math problem you did ages ago.

The pain between his shoulder blades had stifled to a slight tingling but the angry mob's roars behind him still pushed him onward. And that's where we see him right now, turning left on an alley way to lose himself in Konoha's alley maze. Only the alley was a dead end, and Naruto was cornered. The mob closed in on him, some had kunai and shuriken drawn, others were quite willing to use their fists. They neared, he was cornered, he was going to die, and he felt fright paralyze him. He trembled in fear as the mob neared… what were they going to do to him? His runaway thoughts were brought together when he felt a fist hit him from the side and crack his jaw. The force of the momentum threw him against the brick walls of the alley, where he hit the wall on his head. He heard a soft splush sound as he fell to the pavement, dragging a trail of bright red blood on the wall.

They closed in on him, grinning in malicious hate and as they neared.

"Why?" Naruto groaned out as he felt somebody kick him in the side. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"You don't know?" The old man laughed as he swung the emerald staff over Naruto's limp form, creating a sound of cracking bone. "Have you forgotten, Kyuubi-sama?" He said it mockingly.

"P-please…" Naruto whimpered as he tried to shrink in on himself.

The beating started, vicious and ruthless, and all of them got in a good shot at "Kyuubi-sama" and after they were done, Naruto was bruised, bleeding in many places, arms legs and bones broken. The old man stepped forward, the crowd parted. He gave the killing blow. First he grabbed the head of the staff, the azure globe like thing and he pulled it off, revealing a blade that shot out of the hole from the staff.

"Have a good trip in hell, Kyuubi!" The man said hatefully and swung the staff into Naruto's gut.

The demon container coughed up blood, groaned and passed out. The mob watched for a few more minutes, in the pounding rain and suddenly felt horrible for what they did. There was no Kyuubi here. It was only a little boy. They turned and walked away and the old man was the last to go. But before he did, he turned and spat on the village pariah. "That's for my son, you bastard."

Then Naruto was all alone, half dead, whimpering every now and then, and he finally felt peace – a strange sort of peace, more like exhaustion but peace just the same. He was going to die. In death there would be nothing, no likes or dislikes, no happiness, no pain, nothing whatsoever. It would be perfect bliss.

Naruto smiled as he eagerly awaited his death but it didn't come.

It was the day of the Destruction of Konoha, Naruto's birthday as well: October Tenth.

The Kyuubi roared flame in a blaze of glory, eyes yellow and black sweeping the ninjas of Konoha with its deadly gaze and unmatchable killing intent, nine tails running over forests and mountains with ease as if parting through water. Everywhere the forestry burnt, buildings burnt, destruction, pain, death. Screams. Blood. The Kyuubi loved the sight of blood, it engaged him, pounded the arteries, cleansed the chakra. The nine tailed demon fox loved blood because it made him feel alive, and as he killed the puny ninjas and civilians alike one by one like he was killing ants, he pondered on the meaning of life.

In his own roundabout way of course, he thought about what it meant to kill, how rich with desire and hunger it made him feel, how alive he felt as he killed a human.

Konoha had once been the brightest village to lit the world, full of power and potential, and the burning fires of youth according to one eccentric Chuunin taijutsu master. Maito Gai was one of the few to come out of the ordeal uninjured, because he helped put out the fires in the forest. Taijutsu didn't really do much against a gigantic five story tall demon. Coming close to the Kyuubi meant burning yourself and not many people were eager to do that. The only way to fight this demon was to use high powered jutsu to subdue it and make it retreat.

The Kyuubi was dumb. In his bloodlust, his analytic skills took a sharp drop. He didn't realize what was going on, how he was being led like a sheep into a trap until after when he brooded in the seal.

He?

That's what the people of Konoha thought he was.

The Kyuubi didn't exactly have a gender, not being human and all, and being a demon made out of pure chakra. But he preffered to be a female. So she as she thought of herself, didn't notice what was going on until it was too late when the annoying midget sized Yondaime Hokage rode on Gama Bunta the giant frog. He put the seal on the Kyuubi, transferred it to a little baby while calling up the shinigami at the same time… and she had never forgiven the Yondaime for being trapped in his son, Naruto Uzumaki.

She was trapped in the seal for all of eternity it seemed – or at least until the child died, whereupon she would die with him. It sucked to be the Kyuubi sometimes. What would her anscestors in the other world think of her, getting beat to a human like that.

Still, as she watched Naruto getting beaten up with a modicum of satisfaction, she still wanted to live, even if she lived a gruesome existence in the seal. She needed to be alive because one day an opportunity might come – she didn't know what kind – where she could escape. She just had to be patient.

She didn't start the healing process until after the mob was gone, but then all at once, she flooded the boy with her chakra through the sixty seals that held it in place. She healed the boy as well as she could… or tried to.

As she pumped chakra into his blood stream, she encountered a minute resistance from the boy's life force. Damn, she thought, as she could feel the boy's life slipping away. This isn't possible! The Kyuubi dying to a bunch of village idiots! No! She pumped even more chakra into Naruto but it didn't do much except increase the healing rate. Still, pumping chakra was exhausting, but she didn't want to die at any rate.

There was only one thing to do: overpower the seal to save the boy. But if she did that… well she might escape or she might kill the boy. But she didn't want to do it for no reason, only as a last resort. Well, it was apparent the boy was dying, couldn't be saved, not even by the nine tailed demon so she did the only thing she could think of. She tried to overpower the seal.

The Kyuubi no Kitsune took a deep breath and transported herself in the mindscape – the sealscape more like. This was where the seal existed, in a reddish huish forest of sorts, but it pained her to be in here as she examined a big blue box that floated in the sky, glowing with barely repressed energy – the life force of the Yondaime himself was in that box. The fourth hokage was no pushover, and his sealing arts was unsurpassed.

The Kyuubi had spent many many hours examining the box and she had come to the following conclusions: the seal could be broken and if she did break it she might die.

So she would only break the seal if there was no other choice and chance the risk of her dying.

But what if she had made a mistake?

The Kyuubi powered up the blue box with glowing red chakra. She had her demonic chakra seep into the box like blood seeping into sand. It was a painful process, almost impossible and it took all her determination to do it as well. But as she pushed reddish chakra – hurtful demon chakra into the box, she felt herself being lifted as if she were floating, or flying on powerful wings. The box seemed to glow in many places as if it were breaking apart and then suddenly there was a humungoes boom, and an explosion that shook the very foundations of the mindscape she was in.

When she came to, she saw that there was no box anymore, and there was no mindscape. It was an abyss of pure blackness. Was this death? She wondered.

What had she done?

Outside, if one was looking at Naruto's unconscious form they would have noticed a rising tide of chakra coming out from Naruto's body in waves, breaking the skin… reforming it into a new body, fresh, powerful, strong, lithe. The new Naruto stood up, eyes completely white with no pupils and moved his head from side to side, making cracking noises.

From his two palms blue balls of chakra came forth and met in a single strand. In the middle there was a triangular red and right at the center of the triangle there was a small black spot, and in the black spot if someone were to look with a magnifying glass they would have seen the Kyuubi no Kitsune in her true form, a spiderish being made of gray matter from beyond the fringes of the universe where her true home – the home of her ancestors resided.

But of course nobody was around, and if anybody had been they would have soon died because there was an explosion like the one in the mindscape except several times larger, taking in the entire quarter half of Konoha's buildings, alley ways and permanently weakening the city.

The casualties from the explosion, which the civilians thought was a result of an explosion in the gas lines but the ninjas knew better, numbered more than ten thousand. The ninjas in the village all sensed the Kyuubi's chakra radiating from the single spot where Naruto had stood, and within minutes squads of ANBU units were mobilized. They were the front line men and immediately made their way to the exposion to scope out the situation. Hatake Kakashi, ANBU captain, reported to the Hokage, saying there was no imminent threat. Then jounin and genin teams, as well as chuunin went to put out the fires, much like they had after the Kyubi's attack. Sarutobi would invariably decide to quarantine off the entire section where the explosion had sprouted from and conduct his own special investigations… which would last for four years when he would be assassinated by Orochimaru in the Chuunin exams.

Naruto lived, contrary to popular belief. Right before the world around the boy exploded, time stopped, and the red triangle grew larger and larger until it swallowed Naruto whole, and then everything, all the blue, red, and shinigami black energies compressed to create a rip in the space-time dimension, taking out the city block and causing the great explosion to rip through Konoha.

But for Naruto the story continues…

The Kyuubi felt a rippling sensation go through her very being as the blackness around her seemed to evaporate almost instantly. But she saw with a sinking heart she was right back where she started with in the mental mindscape, the blue box of the fourth Hokage looming overhead. At least she wasn't dead though, she had to thank her lucky stars for that.

Now would be a good time for the reader to get a picture of the mindscape. It is unlike any corporeal creation, unlike any city or village, though it is roughly that size. It exists in a swirl of reddish hue that emunates from the Kyuubi no Kitsune's chakra. Indeed, the entire mindscape is powered by the Kyuubi, including the seals of the Yondaime hokage. Down below there is reddish blackness, with a forest of red oakwood trees coming forth from this blackness and all though they have no bottom they do have a top, leafy canopies loom over the Kyuubi's spider-like body (her real one, she has nine legs, not tails), though she can change her body any time she wants to. Overhead, black clouds billow in no particular direction, sometimes this way sometimes that depending on her endlessly shifting moods and states of mind. Long ago she had figured out that she couldchange the mindscape, instead of trees she could put a lake, instead of a lake a mountain. But she liked the iron-strong trees, she liked the never ending trunks and the sheer horror of the place. If a normal human would come into the mindscape their entire body would be burnt off, so if she could draw a human mind in here, she would have the perfect torturing device. But that dream seemed distant and far away. Beneath the endless trees, if one looked deep enough there wasn't just empty blackness like the abyss from which she was created, but something much different: a sea of gray swirls, with dark navy blue fishes sometimes jumping out. They were paper thin, and had sharp protruding teeth. The trees reached into the sea and endlessly beyond it but the Kyuubi had never journeyed through the ocean and to the other side: she didn't have the courage. She remembered her time as a little kit, in the far reaches of the universe from whence she had come. Her anscestors had raised her, and had changed her from a lovely little demon who had perfectly nice manners and a loveable personality to a… a monster. The fishes, with their evil eyes and sharp teeth were metaphors for her anscestors, and the tortures she had been through when she had erupted from the abyss as a newborn babe.

No, she didn't venture into the ocean, though sometimes she watched it from far above with a look of such venomous hatred, it compared nothing to the hatred and dislike she held for humans… hatred that had been bred into her by the fishes in the sea. Beyond the sea there was something and beyond that there would be something else as well. The mindscape was an endless realm just waiting to be explored but despite Kyuubi's terminal boredom, she didn't have the courage to venture to the sea filled with her metaphorical anscestors.

However, the seal on the box was breaking, only a small tiny crack she noticed as she examined the blue box, but in time that crack would grow. She smiled grimly to herself, deciding to bide her time and wait for the seal to break away. Then she would be free once again.

Meanwhile Naruto Uzumaki, most surprising ninja in Konoha was in for a surprise when he woke up in a gigantic cavern ten times the size of Konoha… the cavern was also made of ice. Naruto took all this in with wide basketball sized eyes. He closed them, clenched them tightly shut more like, and said, "No way, no way, no way." When he opened them again and saw the cavern of ice, with its glassy walls, shiny ceiling with icicles hanging from the sides and its glossy diamond exterior, he almost fainted in disbelief. He thought it was a dream, because there was no way the ice cavern could be real, not with the statues that adorned it: of dragons, of elven maidens and warriors, of monstrous creatures with four legs and a horse's upper body, and other deformed things.

Where in the world was he? This question ran endlessly in his mind, a litany of confusion and frustration. If this was a dream, this was a damn good one, Naruto had to admit as transversed the cavern to a doorway that lay on a mountain like structure far far away. Naruto could see a winding path he had to take around the mountain to get to the doorway but to get to the mountain itself would be a long long journey.

Naruto began walking, and in a few hours he was tired, thirsty, hungry, and all the ice creation's mystique and wonder had worn away to dull annoyance. Still he trudged onward, and before he knew it, by taking one step at a time and concentrating on nothing else, he was already at the foot of the tall blue-iced mountain. The doorway was a triangular black and red, and it seemed to have an aura of magical energy surrounding it. Naruto could almost feelsomething there, something that drew him to the doorway. Where else would he go anyways to get to the outside? To get back to Konoha.

As he walked up the winding ice path, slipping constantly, he learned to use a kunai – a blunt old one that he had in his back pouch – to grapple with the ice and make himself climb up. It was tough, but it was worth it as well… at least until he got to the platform of ice where the doorway stood, tall and mighty. That's when a thought – how did I get here? – sparked off a memory: his last memory of Konoha… the chuunin dying, him getting beaten up, an explosion or something, and here he was.

He fell all the way to the bottom of the winding path and as he was sliding down he tried to stop himself using his palms but all that did was bruise and burn them from the fiction. He landed on the floor in a crumpled heap. Dusting himself off, while screaming a litany of curses at the same time, he prepared to journey all the way up the mountain again, only he realized he had left the kunai up there. Damn, it was his last kunai too.

Now how was he going to get over there? He wondered to himself. A ten year old boy is not anything but resourceful and creative and he quickly thought up a good solution: he would run as fast as he can, and if he ran fast enough the ice won't get a chance to make him slide… or something. To the ten year old demon container, this made a lot of sense, so without any doubts or worries and with a bright smile slightly dimmed by the memory of the chuunin's death he took a head tart twenty feet away from the path up the mountain.

He ran as fast as he could, and unconcsciously started using the demon's chakra. Red swirls of energy melted the ice surrounding him within a foot's radius. As he ran up the mountain, the ice melted into water and steam but he didn't know he was destroying the mountain as he ran up to the doorway. If he had known he would have probably cheered himself further in his annoyance of the ice cavern. He reached the doorway in three seconds exacty, turned a black knob and released the energy of the Kyuubi as he relaxed. He opened the door, and a bright white light filled his eyes.

It took some time to adjust to the two suns of this world, as opposed to the bluish light that seemed to be emitted from somewherein the cavern. But as he got used to the bright light, with just a slight dull pain in the back of his eyes, he noticed the sand first: shiny yellow brown, glistening in the sunlight. Then he noticed the two balls of orange-red above, shining from two directions in the sky: west and east. Two suns, he thought in wonder. What was this place?

Poking out from the endless sea of sand were small round metal orbs, and it all had the same doorways that the cavern had. In fact, as he stepped out of the cavern and looked back, he saw that the cavern was only a foot long, a small circular globe of steel. How was that possible when it had been so long inside? A shrinking jutsu perhaps?

Maybe I am in an enemy village, he considered. "Okay enemy ninja! Come out! Fight me!" Naruto yelled out, perfectly confident in his ability as a ninja and his destiny to become the Hokage. "Fight the future Hokage of the Hidden leaf!" His voice echoed throughout the desert and immediately he regretted saying it.

The doors opened, slowly, but surely, they opened and out stepped the tallest people Naruto had ever seen. All of them easily reached seven to eight feet in height and were as skinny as twigs. They had sunken black eyes, and mud caked hair that reached to their shoulders as well as two bright blue swords in each hand that looked sort of like lightning. They neared and came closer and closer.

Naruto gulped. "Uh… I mean… don't fight me."

"Who are you, little child?" said a loud thundering voice that seemed to shake the very foundations of the desert. Naruto looked to the voice's origins and saw to his surprise the first woman in these collection of warriors: tall she was, like the others, and had bright azure coloured hair and golden eyes, pointy ears that seemed to point to the suns on either side of her and pale brown skin. She wore a robe the sort Naruto had never seen before, long and billowing, red and blue and jewelry all across her body in every place one could see: arms, nose, lips, eye lids, forehead, fingers, on her bare feet. Gold, diamonds, rubies, chips of onyx.

"A-are you the Kage of this village?" Naruto said, voice breaking.

She snorted. "Village? You idiot, I am the queen of the ice-city!"

"Doesn't look like a city," Naruto said with false bravado. "Looks puny to me."

The warriors growled and came closer. The queen raised on hand: fingers curling and stretched unnaturally. "Stop, I wish to talk with this boy." Her voice reached such a high note that it seemed to spear Naruto's eardrums.

"Boy? Listen up you old hag-" they all gasped but it went beyond Naruto "-I'm a ninja and I'll kick your ass if you call me a boy again!"

"What did you call me?" She thundered, golden eyes blazing in fury. "Who sent you? Was it King Malek? Was it the Queen Bronze of the Red Dragons?"

"Huh?"

"You will answer me!"

"None of those people sent me," Naruto snorted. "I don't know nothing about them anyways, are you crazy or something?"

Her face turned red with fury. "Guards, take him to the prison-"

Naruto gulped and quickly shouted, "I'll tell you! You want to know who sent me? Fine, it was Konoha the hidden village of the Leaf who sent me and I am a super duper ninja who can kick all your asses with my pinkie finger."

The queen breathed in slow and deep and put a smile on her face, obviously forced. "Oh I see… a hidden village. Guards, stand down. He is an ambassador." She raised a hand, "Come, and escort him to the Royal Dining Room. I wish to talk with him in private."

She turned and walked away. Naruto couldn't see where she went; it was as if she faded away into the air. Then he noticed the other people doing the same until there was only one person left. A short wrinkled old fellow with a nose as long as a kunai. "An ambassador, you say?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, not knowing what that word meant. He simply couldn't believe that his lie worked though. Even he had doubts about that but it seemed nothing could stop the future Hokage, not some stupid ice mountain and certainly not these skinny twigs of a ninja.

"I have never heard of Konoha before…" he muttered doubtfully. "But that's why I suppose it's called the hidden village." Chuckling he grabbed Naruto's arm and started to drag him to the nearest steel globe.

"Where are you taking me?"

"You can't meet the queen in those drags. Come on, we need to get you washed up and dressed in royal finery. Come on!"

Naruto allowed the old man to take him into the doorway. "My name's Naruto, what's yours?"

The man gasped and whirled around at him, eyes bright with fear and awe. "You dare to tell me your name? B-but why?"

"Why not? Full name's Naruto Uzumaki." He said, shrugging.

The old midget man – who was almost the same height as Naruto – coughed harshly. "Why do you trust me so much? You just met me."

Huh? Did these people value other people's names or something? How stupid, thought Naruto.

"Yeah, but I like you. Are you going to tell me your name or not?" Naruto asked impatiently.

"Very well," the old man said with a bow, "My name's Rassuel, archivian and historian of the City of Ice, at your service."

Naruto nodded, "Good to have met you." Then he caught sight of where they were. "Whoa, what is this place?"

The room was enormous on the inside, triangular shaped like the doorway outside, like a pyramid, and most of all the air: outside it was hot as hell but inside it was cool and refreshing. Naruto immediately thought of the air conditioner in the Hokage's office, where he had been once… a memory that seemed to be a dream now that he was… here. Where was here? How come they had never heard of Konoha. He had so many questions about this place, and so he did the typical Naruto thing and instead of asking for questions – that would have made him looked less "kick-ass" he forgot about them and in typical childlike fashion, he accepted where he was without question.

The room was adorned by massive rugs, all of them red blue and yellow. They were soft and meant to be walked on on barefeet. Naruto took off his sandals as he ventured into the cavernous room. There were lots of shelves filled with books of all sorts and when Naruto caught sight of them he snorted. "I hate reading," he informed his guide, the midget man, Rassuel.

Rassuel for his part appeared shocked. "What? How can you hate the greatest invention in the entire universe? Reading is… is… like breathing! How-"

"Look, I've had experiences with reading, alright?" Naruto said annoyed.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" Naruto seemed embarrassed with his face red, and looking down at his feet. "Nobody ever taught me-"

"I'll teach you," declared Rassuel. "I'll teach you so much that you will be able to read all these books in my personal library."

"Yeah?" Naruto grinned. "What kind of books?"

Rassuel leaned toward him, offering a conspirative wink as he said, "Books about magic."

"Oh really? Always wanted to learn magic," Naruto exclaimed.

"Yes but not now, N-Naruto," Rassuel appeared uncomfortable saying his name. "We need to get you prepared for your meeting with the ice queen."

"That old hag?"

Rassuel gasped. "Don't say that," he said, wagging a finger. "If she hears you saying it again she might have your head off."

Naruto gulped. "W-what?"

"Look, I know you are brave and obviously powerful. I mean a hidden city sent you of all people, and you seem to be very confident of yourself but please… don't insult her."

"Fine," Naruto grumbled. Then he said, "You wanna be friends?"

Rassuel smiled, "We already are, young Naruto." He went over to a giant red desk and sat down in one of those plush leather chairs Naruto had seen in the Hokage's office once. "You told me your name, I told you mine. We are brothers in all but blood."

"Cool. What is all this stuff about names anyways?"

"What do you mean?" At Naruto's blank look, Rassuel said incredulously, "You don't know that names can be used to kill people?"

"Huh? What?" Naruto shouted, shocked. "B-but-"

"Don't worry Naruto, I will protect your name with my life." Rassuel said seriously.

"I… so I guess I shouldn't have told anybody my name huh…?"

Rassuel's face saddened, "Do you regret telling me your name, Naruto?"

"No, I don't," Naruto said. "It's okay."

"Good, we're running late though, follow me." Rassuel took Naruto down a side passage that was dimly lit, walls were reddish brown, and so dark Naruto couldn't even see his hands. They went through the passage, walking slowly and softly for a few minutes before they came across another one of those triangular doors and into another gigantic cavern (all the rooms were huge it seemed) where there were bathtubs and swimming pools stretched out in rows of ten. Naruto's eyes hurt at all the white gleaming porcelien and the pinkish flowers on the red and blue tiles. It looked so beautiful it almost brought tears in the demon container's eyes. "Here we are," Rassuel said, and pointed at a swimming pool. All of the bathtubs and pools were filled with hot swirling clear water, and smelt like flowers and good scents. Perfume or something.

"Shower up, and once you're done, wear one of these." Rassuel pointed at a long robe hanging from a bar next to the triangular door. "That's the traditional ambassador clothing."

"Yeah, I am an ambassador huh?" Naruto cheered.

"It seems that way," Rassuel said. "Meet me back in the library, I'll give you a lesson in reading."

Naruto's grinned stretched even wider, "Thanks Rassuel."

The old man nodded and the lights hanging from the ceiling hit his face perfectly for Naruto to really notice the old man: he had wrinkly pale skin, a beard that stretched almost to his waist (how could I have missed that, Naruto thought) and sparkling brown eyes, as well as bushy gray eyebrows and mustache and a receeding hairline. He wore pale navy blue robes with a small round insignia of an icicle on his left breast, as well as carried a wooden walking stick. Strangely enough, Naruto was reminded of the tall old man with the emerald staff who had led the assault and had tried to beat him up back in Konoha. But this man was nothing like that. This man actually seemed to care about Naruto as a friend…

…but was he a friend really?

Rassuel left through the door leaving Naruto to enjoy a nice refreshing bath. As he lowered himself in a tub of scalding hot water, he relaxed and forgot about his troubles: life was good now. He was happy in this new land, and he didn't miss Konoha, and the unfriendly stares of its villagers and ninjas, and the crappy apartment and lack of good food one bit. No, in this Ice City, he liked it here.

But he still didn't know one bit about this place, so after his bath, he resolved to ask Rassuel for a good explanation about this strange new place. He had never heard of a city of ice, and while he wasn't suspicious, he was curious.

After his bath, he saw a rack of folded white towels which he used to dry off. Then he put on those billowy robes (royal finery Rassuel had called it). It felt really soft and silky, and was very comfortable. Loose too. He left his old clothes which reeked of sweat and blood on the floor of the cavern and went into the passage and back into the library.

"Rassuel," he said as he entered the library and caught sight of the old guy hunched over a book on his red desk, "I want to know something."

"What do you want to know?" Rassuel asked helpfully.

"Everything," surmised Naruto and questioned Rassuel about everything he could think of… producing an explanation that helped make sense of this world.

"A long time ago, long after the era of the ninjas and samauri warriors, a man walked the earth. His name is remembered throughout the world as the creator of the dragons: Uchiha Itachi. This man had many abilities, and many skills but his greatest accomplishment was no doubt the creation of the dragons which we still have today. Unfortunately, he was killed soon after by his evil and vile younger brother, named Sasuke.

"There are five dragons in the world today: the dragon of ice, of fire, of wind, of water, and of earth. These dragons are the backbone of the great five cities of the world. Each city is ruled by the most powerful warrior of our people, the one who can control the dragon and although the dragons have been sleeping for over ten thousand years… our rulers are the only ones powerful enough who have the slightest chance of controlling them should they wake up…" Rassuel said to Naruto who took this all in like a sponge.

Inside, Naruto was whirling with this new information as it suddenly hit him: he was in the future, and not just a little bit in the future, but possibly thousands and thousands of years into the future. A lot of time had passed, a lot of wars had been fought, so many changes…

How in the world did he get here? He knew the Uchiha clan of course, they were massacred by this creator of dragons, Itachi. And Sasuke was a classmate in the Academy too!

"What… I mean… what kind of magic do you guys use?"

"Well, we basically control our elementals. The city of ice controls water and ice, and the city of fire and earth and wind control their respective elements. We are probably the most powerful in the world because we control two elements. You see, Naruto, a long time ago, the nation of water and ice went to war, and we won. Now we live in constant fear of war, all of our cities and alliances with the hidden villages are most crucial to us."

"Wait, you mean, you have more ambassadors from other villages?" Naruto sure hoped not because if they did, they might expose him for the fraud he was and that would be deadly fatal for him.

"Um… no, we don't. But our legends say that a long time ago hidden villages existed, and we have heard of the name Konoha before. Indeed we have been expecting an ambassador ever since we set out a call in all the slums of the world for a hidden village to contact us. Now that you have come… it is very fortunate."

"Right," Naruto said, hoping he could keep this deception up long enough to get out of here, but not before a sinister plan evolved in his mind: what if he learnt their magic? Then he would be super powerful, and he could become the Hokage when he went home, right? "So, tell me… is your magic restricted to your blood or can anybody use them?"

"If you have the right aptitude for it, of course. But if you really want to learn, I can teach you a few basic moves from all of the elements."

"You know them? All of them? But how?"

"Well… don't tell anybody, but I used to be a warrior a long time ago, and one day I found myself in enemy territory, holed up in a library in the fire lands. So I read through their scrolls and… well it's a long story."

"Can you tell it to me?"

"Later," said Rassuel. "Now it's time to meet with the queen. I'm sure you are hungry, Ambassador Naruto, and I'm sure you must be wanting food."

"Of course."

"But if you don't mind me asking, why did you want me to repeat information everybody knows and is easily available?"

Uh oh, thought Naruto, this is going to make me or break me. I have to give him a smart answer that he'll believe, or else he'll get suspicious…

Naruto was no good at thinking up smart things to say. But luckily for him, the Kyuubi no Kitsune helped him out. She said in a silky cat like voice, "Tell him I wanted to make sure my information was reliable."

Naruto listened to the voice in his mind and when he told Russuel, the old ice warrior nodded to himself, "Makes sense," he said. "Come on, let's go to the Royal Dining Room… But before we go, listen carefully. You must act very respectful and formal in front of her. She is easily insulted and-"

"Don't worry, old man, I will," Naruto said, eyes hardening as he thought: I'll do whatever it takes to learn the skills I need to become Hokage.

"That's excellent, Naruto," Russuel said. "Come on, follow me." The walls of the library were filled with those triangular doors which Naruto reasoned were entrances to tunnels that linked the rooms of the underground city of ice. "Hey, why's there no ice in this city?"

Russuel laughed, "We only use ice in battle, my good friend… and in the museum of history."

"Oh."

"Which reminds me, how did you get into the museum without any of us noticing?"

"Secret Konoha techniques." Naruto lied bravely.

"Wow, impressive," Russuel said.

The Kyuubi no Kitsune was estatic, it worked, it actually worked. The seal was crumbling slowly but surely and now finally for the first time in ten years she had gone a short step toward the long road of freedom. She had influenced Naruto's thoughts and speech, only for a little bit before being forced back to the mindscape via highway Hokage Seal, but just for a moment she had herself a taste of freedom, and it had never felt so good.

She wanted to try it again but amazingly enough she was exhausted. She just didn't have the energy – or rather couldn't draw the energy out from her spirit force. So she would have to wait to regain her energy but she was still quite happy. The seal wouldn't last long, the blue box was already crumbling bit by bit and it would only be a matter of time… she had all the time in the world. "I just hope the little brat doesn't die soon, or else all my plans will be ruined," she mused thoughtfully to herself.

The Kyuubi was nothing if not careful and detailed, and she paid extra attention to Naruto and his surroundings, and the explanation from Russuel. So… She had transported them into the future huh? Well, she knew exactly how this happened: it was a not so well known fact that the Kyuubi no Kitsune's ability – one of her three most powerful abilities in fact – was time travel. She had transported Naruto into the future by who knew what length of years, and even more so, she had done it with hardly even knowing she was doing it. Wow, that took some mad skillz, she thought and patted herself on the back. No more dealing with stupid little Konoha. Now she had a new world on the platter all to herself, as soon as the seal wore away though. She would be free as free can be –

Wait, no I wouldn't, she thought with a groan. She was going to be trapped in Naruto's body. She had forgotten about that. But still, it wasn't so bad, she could probably get the foolish naïve little boy to do her every whim, and follow her every command. The Kyuubi was smart and cunning and manipulating a ten year old kid who had the brain cells of a puppy would be easy enough.

If the Kyuubi had hands she would be rubbing them in malicious planning and gloating, instead she rubbed her two paws together as she awaited her freedom.

In a gloomy chamber lit only by a single candle that had been placed in the middle of a round oak table, there sat the entire council of the City of Ice, with the queen at the throne. The Queen was an impatient women, as could be seen by her tapping the wood with her long curly fingernails. "Well? Is the boy really an ambassador?" She asked as she scrutinized the three council members seated across the table.

The first council member was the War General. They were all known only by their titles because names – as almost everybody knew – could be used as an assassination tool. If a warlock or a witch knew your name they had complete and utter control over you and not even the Queen had the authority to force a name out of someone unwilling to give it for free. The War General was tall, as were all the people of the now evolved (only slightly) human race that inhabited the futuristic world. He had a small violet beard hanging from his chin, which he regularly stroked, and sand colored pupils with bloodshot eyes that comes from lack of sleep. He had been very stressed lately because the City of Fire were amassing their force on the City of Ice's borders, and it was indeed cause for worry. Fire had been their enemy throughout the centuries. They would not hesitate to attack Ice Kingdom if it meant victory, as they had done countless times in the past. Always, they failed because the War General – this general's ancestors – kept them at bay. Now here was this century's old War General, constantly worried he would fail his ancestors by letting the Fire nation destroy the Ice Kingdom. He hoped that would never happened, but this insecurity had made him harsh and unforgiving.

The council member seated in the middle was a smallish man in terms of height, with a black business style mustache, wearing a suit, and thick glasses. He spoke with a drawl that grated on the Queen's nerves and was the most hated member of the council in the entire Ice Kingdom which stretched for miles and miles of desert-land. He was known as the Economics Minister, and administered taxes and trade routes and economic diplomacy with the other nations. He was sneaky, shrewd, and ambitious to the utmost, having only the Ice Kingdom National Bank as his main interest, where he served the role of C.E.O among his other duties. The Queen hated him with the utmost loathing, because he always – and he usually got away with it – tried to undermine her authority… and there was nothing the proud queen could do about it except spread her legs and enjoy the ride so to speak.

The third council member was the youngest, and also a woman. She was known as the Back Up. If the Queen ever got assassinated she would be the one to replace her. The Back Up was also the Ice Queen's only grandchild, and loved dearly by about half of the kingdom. The other half wanted to rebel and declare the Ice Nation a democratic nation. Foolish, in the opinion of the Queen.

Finally there was the Queen herself: rude, selfish, spoilt, and strong. She had been bred to be the Queen from birth and as such it had led to her having a big head, and full of hot air. And her grandchild was no different. The Queen and the Princess usually voted together on topics, so as to outdo the other two member's votes – the War Chief and the Economics Minister rarely agreed on anything. In this cunning way the Queen controlled her country well. However the Ice nation had started on a decline, and was growing weaker and weaker by the day while the Fire nation grew stronger and stronger, with their hungry gaze turned on the Ice Nation, mouths watering out favors to other nations with the express intention of having them not interfere if war were to break out.

That was why alliances with potential superpowers – hidden ones no less – was very important. "So? Anybody going to answer me?" The Queen asked.

"Well…" Began the Economics Minister. "We just don't know, your highness."

Reluctantly the War General nodded, "It is true. He came… I don't know how he got past the border and into the heart of our kingdom… but he seems strong enough."

The Queen nodded, "I measured his power level… I'm sure you all did the same as well." She pulled out a little device that looked like a stop clock from the sleeve of her robe and showed it to the room. It read: 9999999999

They did not know this was because of the Kyuubi that Naruto's power level was so high on the power level device. Without the Kyuubi Naruto's power level would only be 3 or 4, the lowest of the low.

"Impossible," murmured the War General. "Our highest level warriors barely exceed two hundred…"

The Economics Minister had a greedy glint in his eye as he said, "Just imagine what an alliance would do… we could practically rule the whole world with-"

"Your highness," said the Back Up Queen.

"Yes, princess?" asked the Queen.

"If this hidden village, Konoha, is as powerful as we believe it is, then they might have sent ambassadors to the other cities as well."

"An excellent point," said the Queen. "War General, what are your thoughts on this matter?"

"We will need to convince the ambassador we are worth the Hidden Village of Konoha's support."

"But how?" asked the Economics Minister. "Surely you don't expect us to humiliate ourselves and cater to his every whim?"

"That's exactly what we must do. Just think of it, this boy could wipe out our entire kingdom with a twitch of his pinkie if he had a mind to it."

"But he's just a boy," protested the Economics Minister.

"Pah, I think not," said the Queen. "He's obviously an old sage. Probably a thousand years old. They've discovered the secret to immortality, I bet."

"Could be," said the Princess, "Maybe he'll share the secret."

"Then its agreed, we'll have to stroke his ego, and make him realize that this City is worth Konoha's support." The Queen said.

"Let's take a vote," said the Princess. "I agree."

"Very well," the Queen said, "As you all know I agree to this decision as well."

"I agree," said the War General.

"I disagree," said the Economics Minister, "We can't show weakness, not now. Please reconsider."

"No, it's already been voted on," said the Queen. "Next topic… Agriculture. Our food supplies are steadily decreasing so…."

The Queen waited until the entire council departed from the meeting room. She always left last, it was tradition and the Queen was nothing if not an aficionado of tradition. She went to the bath houses and refreshed herself for dinner with the Amassador from Konoha. They met in the Royal Dining Room, Naruto being led reluctantly by Rassuel, the crippled ice warrior, retired.

The Royal Dining Room was unlike any other, plush red carpets, a long rectangular table made of the blackest of wood, with golden silverware, and long columns of decoration for pillars that held up the dome shaped ceiling above which showed the starry sky. It was a glass ceiling… no, not glass, Naruto realized. The ceiling was made of ice.

The room was quite possibly longer than any other room Naruto had been in, with the possible exception of the ice museum. It was so long that the Queen was only a smudge on the horizon and it took at least four minutes of walking to bee seated at the table end to end, and even then they were so far away they could barely make out each other's features.

The dinner began when the Queen snapped her fingers. Doors opened from the side walls, and out walked thousands of creatures about the same height as Russuel and Naruto, demented humans from the seven foot tall originals. They carried food on silver trays, and Naruto gazed at it hungrily as the scents of the food – meat, nice and spicy, sweet pies, the smells of vegetable soup and what seemed like ramen, as well as bottles of juice drinks, all brought on shiny platters by the elderly and crippled. They were dressed in red suits, and wore their badges of service proudly. Naruto realized that their jobs as servants right now didn't mean it was a disgrace, rather, it meant they got the utmost grace as nobody felt useless in this kingdom. Naruto's perspective of human nature grew, subtly and slowly, a sign of maturity.

But he was still ten years old: "Wow, this looks great!"

"Thank you," said the Queen, too formally, almost cold. "Please, eat," she said. "Historian, please leave us."

Rassuel bowed, "As you wish, your highness." He left into the catacombs of the underground tunnels that led to the cavernous rooms.

"This is… wonderful," said Naruto as he savored a delicious piece of square meat, brownish blackened from the roasting. He drank from a goblet that one of the servants had wordlessly poured for him. They ate in silence, Naruto gobbled his food fast, hadn't realized how hungry he was, while the Queen nibbled at her food. When they were done, Naruto was full and drowsy.

That's when they started their talking, more like negotiations. "Ambassador," said the Queen, "What is your purpose in coming here?"

"I… want to learn all your magic," he said sleepily. "Haven't ever seen anything like this."

"And what of your Konoha, don't they have their own magic?"

"You mean jutsus? Sure," said Naruto, "but I don't know any."

"I see… what is your status in the village, Ambassador?" Asked the queen.

"I'm an Academy student…" his voice trailed off as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

'Only a student?' Marvelled the Queen, 'and so much power in him. Just think of what the adults in Konoha can do. Why they could conquer the world if they wanted to. But the Ambassador doesn't strike me as an ambitious one, so I suppose… they don't care about power. Interesting…."

When the Queen noticed he had fallen asleep, he ordered Rassuel to put him in his own room, the guest room that was reserved for royalty.

Rassuel bowed, and did as his queen desired.

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AN: I was aiming for 20k words for this chapter, but since its only the first chapter, 10k will be fine. Updates are slow, but they'll come, don't worry.