A/N: I've designed this story to be an arc driven one, the first arc will take a couple of chapters, and most of the others I am planning on just being one-shot chapter arcs about a rogue Naruto in an alternate version of the Narutoverse. At some point (depending on how many more Arc ideas I come up with) I will make a conclusive arc to the story that will be a couple of chapters long. As a whole I'd say this story is going to take somewhere between 12 and 26 chapters.
Update: I've edited this chapter according to some advice that I received. I did my best to fix the dialogue as much as possible, and I think I've done a pretty good job, but some of it still feels off to me. I find it very hard to balance dialogue with chapter progression. So, that is something that I have to work on and improve. I'll probably edit this chapter in future some more until I am fully satisfied with it. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy reading this chapter.
Tales of a Rogue Jinchuuriki
Introduction
The Tailed-Beasts, also known as the Bijuu. They are gigantic godly creatures of immense power. One stamp of their feet can cause earthquakes, a swish of their tails can rip up tidal waves out of the oceans or wipe away mountains. In total there are nine Bijuu each with a different number of tails. The One-tails is a gigantic sand raccoon, the Two-tails is a flaming bakeneko, the Three-tails a colossal tortoise, the Four-tails a prideful fire elemental Gorilla, the Five-Tails a Whale-horse hybrid, the Six-Tails an immense slug, the Seven-tails a giant flying rhinoceros beetle, the eight tails a titanic Octopus-Ox and lastly the strongest of all, the Nine-tails a demon fox. The power of the Bijuu is considered by many people to be too great to control. However, one method was found to be successful, by sealing them inside people. People like this are called Jinchuuriki, once the Bijuu is sealed inside, the Jinhcuuriki may be able to borrow some of the Bijuu's chakra and thus wield some of it's power. Not surprisingly Jinchuuriki are often treated like garbage. To their superiors they are nothing more than human weapons, simply assets to be used in times of war. They are viewed by normal people as demons or sub-humans.
This is the story of Naruto Uzumaki, Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, who left his home Konoha –The Village Hidden in The Leaves- in pursuit of love and freedom.
Chapter 1 – Inari's fate
A new chapter in the life of Naruto Uzumaki was heralded not by a bright new day but with the darkness of a cloudy night where even the stars are concealed. Naruto who was now fifteen years of age stepped out of the small wooden boat which smuggled him into his new home country, hardly a word was exchanged between him and the smuggler who would hush the blonde lad quickly if he tried to strike up a conversation. If the authorities found the pair of them they would most certainly be killed. The ruler of Wave Country did not like anyone coming into or going from his land that he did not know about, and he ruled with a blood stained iron fist. Wave Country was a minute, miserably stormy and impoverished land and so most people would not even consider going there anyway. The exception was one particular set of individuals, rogue Ninja. Because Wave Country didn't have its own Ninja village to persecute them many rogue Ninja saw it as a safe haven. It was for this reason that Naruto came here, he wanted to live a humane peaceful life. Four years ago he left his birthplace Konohagakure and had been hunted from place to place ever since. In each place he stayed although it was only for a short while he made a living by hunting for food and stealing. Theft was not something Naruto liked doing as he felt it was dishonourable and so he resigned himself to taking only what he felt was necessary like food, clothing or cash.
Once Naruto stepped out of the boat the smuggler had already begun to leave, silently pulling his oars he faded into the misty dark.
Naruto scrambled about to get a bearing of where he was, it seemed that the smuggler had dropped him off on sparse area which was surrounded by nothing but empty fields and the odd farmhouse. He trundled his way across these fields, onto a road and eventually found a place to rest. It was in an open clearing surrounded by thorny scrubs not far from the roadside, he lit a small fire and fell asleep in a position where he would be ready to guard his belongings if needed. His possessions were few, he wore an orange shirt and khaki pants both of which he stole from somebody's clothes line and shinobi sandals which he mugged from a drunken Ninja outside a bar. On his back he wore the rucksack which was stolen from a shop, containing a blanket to sleep with, some food, a canteen of water and medicinal herbs which Naruto had gathered on his travels. He also kept a kunai knife sheathed in a pouch at the side of his rucksack.
Naruto awoke to the morning light which was filtered by a thick layer of pale grey clouds. It was two hours past dawn. He shook the dirt off his blanket, picked up his things and went on walking along the path.
In his travels Naruto never once got a job, the reason for that was because most jobs were boring hard labour usually on a farm and didn't pay much. They were practically slavery, and the whole point of Naruto's defection was to be free. But on a small island country like Wave Country the fishing industry would be very large and Naruto figured that being a fisherman would be more interesting of a job. It had its hardships to be sure, but Naruto was well used to hardships. At heart Naruto was an adventurer and to go out and brave the dangers of the sea time and time again sounded like something that would suit him. He wanted to head to a town or village to try and find a job in the fishing industry.
After a couple hours of walking aimlessly he eventually found a river and followed that river to an area that was thick with mangroves, he struggled through the dense woodland in order to follow the river and was about to give up when he found a small bridge that crossed the river, he climbed onto the bridge and followed the small dirt track that came after it. There was a smell of sea salt in the air much to Naruto's delight and in the distance he could see a sizeable settlement, he began to run very quickly eager to get to the place. Only to slow down to a walk when he began to approach two shady looking young men in their mid twenties standing on either side of the road.
The man to Naruto's left had his very muscular and tattooed arms crossed. The man to the right possessed a katana.
When Naruto was within two metres of the duo they shifted their position to the middle of the road blocking Naruto's path. They looked to each other and smirked assuming that the boy would be intimidated by them. This was not the case however.
"Get out of my way!"
The two men were taken aback by Naruto's shout. The one with the katana was so surprised that he visibly flinched at Naruto's mere words. These two thugs were used to dealing with easily intimidated people who didn't have the guts to fight back. They had confronted the boy without properly assessing him and assuming that he'd be just like any citizen of the country who were as cowardly as sheep but now that they took a proper look at him they realised that couldn't be further from the truth. With his long untamed and uncut spikey hair that draped down to his back, the whisker like marks on his face and the fierceness of his eyes he looked more like a wild animal to them. One that could not be intimidated.
Naruto stared at the men for a moment sizing them up for himself. This made them highly uncomfortable, sweat poured down their faces as they visibly crumbled before him. Seeing this display of cowardice Naruto laughed loudly at the thugs and continued walking.
They stepped aside for him.
Then he turned his head to the thugs and insulted them by saying; "You should should stop spending your time harassing people and switch to pigeons because that's all you cowards can probably handle."
"Y-you should watch your t-t-tongue!" One of the thugs stuttered angrily.
"Oh yeah? Or what!"
"Our boss Gato has tons of men!" The other exclaimed. "If you don't show respect you'll be sorry!"
Naruto smirked. "Well, if the rest of his men are even slightly like you two I don't think I need to worry."
The man with the katana gritted his teeth and unsheathed his sword "Bastard!" He ran to the boy and held up the katana to strike. Naruto swiftly grappled the hilt of the katana and swept his leg under the man's to nock him over. The thug fell to the ground on his back and his comrade watched helplessly as Naruto now had possession of the sword. The blonde manoeuvred the sword so that the blade was facing downwards. Then the man gave a screech of terror as Naruto stabbed downwards. After a moment of whimpering the thug looked opened his watery eyes to see that Naruto had stabbed the ground and not him.
The blonde then put his weight on the blade and snapped it in two. He threw the broken weapon aside and much to the delinquent duo's relief he left them alone, sauntering over to the town without so much as a cautious glance backwards.
The town that Naruto came to lacked any sort of vigour. The people seemed to walk around despondently, their chatter was not happy, many of them looked half starved and some of them were homeless. The pallid wooden buildings in the town were in disrepair. As Naruto walked about he began to question if he should have come here at all. As he made his way through the streets he came upon a rather large commotion. A crowd of people had gathered and were watching something happen. Naruto asked one man what was going on as the throng of people was so thick that he could not see for himself what even had attracted the crowd.
"Oh, Gato's men are taking away some people again."
"Who is Gato?"
The man frowned, "You're not from here are you? You should be careful they'll try to take you away too."
"Oh? But I didn't do anything." Naruto lied while trying to prevent his lips from twisting into a smile.
"That doesn't matter. Gato is a terrible man, he's been the bane of this country from the very moment he set foot in this land. But recently he's gotten even worse, he takes away homeless people or people who can't pay their taxes."
Naruto's eyes widened. "Really? What happens to them?"
"We don't know." The man said gravely. "There is a rumour that they get taken away to an island in the Land of Sea, and that's about all anyone knows."
"I see." Naruto said as he began to move forward.
"What are you doing?!" The man asked.
"Naruto turned his head and said with a smile, "I'm going to stop these bastards!"
A couple of the people in front of him overheard him and moved aside for him. Seeing this the rest of the crowd followed suit. They all watched in astonishment and fear at the fifteen-year-old boy's bravery or as they saw it recklessness. Naruto was not being brave from his perspective however, for these thugs did not scare him in any way. In fact, what Naruto found more startling was how not scared he was.
The thugs looked at him very fearlessly themselves for they outnumbered him twenty-five to one. They were all men between the ages of twenty and fifty and were armed with spears or katanas.
They had a group of people tied up in a circle with rope, many of them had been crying but had stopped and now looked to Naruto with astonishment in their eyes. The men readied their weapons. Naruto did likewise, taking out the kunai from the sheath in the pouch of his rucksack which he then threw down in front of him.
"Well well." One of the thugs said dryly. "Looks like we have a hero. Or rather a little boy who thinks he can play hero!" The thugs broke into a guffaw, but Naruto took that as an opportunity to jump on one of them, the man toppled over onto the ground as Naruto stabbed him in the head. The men stopped laughing and for a brief second each of their faces turned to a mask of shock. This only lasted for a moment and they began to charge brandishing their weapons.
Naruto met them head on and bashed a good few of them over with his shoulders. His kunai seemed to move on it's own, like a bloodthirsty hawk it thrust into the gangster's bodies taking their lives ravenously.
And in what seemed like only a few seconds fourteen more of the men were slain. The ten remaining men fearfully swarmed away from Naruto, like panicked cockroaches they scrambled over each other in a desperate attempt to flee.
The crowd on onlookers did not rush to help the tied up people as they themselves were afraid of the blonde after having seen the quick battle. Even the people that Naruto had saved were somewhat fearful of him, the flinched as Naruto cut open the ropes with his knife.
Once they had been liberated they left with the crowd, some thanked the boy nervously, only one of them stayed. He was a boy four years Naruto's junior with black hair and tattered clothes. He sat despondently staring at the ground not caring that he was freed. "You're an idiot." He mumbled.
"What? I saved your ass and now you insult me." Naruto said indignantly.
"You'll get yourself killed, you may be strong enough to take out a few of Gato's men but he has hundreds more of them. Some of them are Ninjas even stronger than you. My father tried to sand up to Gato and got himself killed. My grandfather hired Ninja from Konohagakure to protect him and he was still assassinated for trying to build a bridge to the land of Fire."
"I didn't ask for your life's story twerp." Naruto folded his shoulders.
The boy looked at Naruto utterly speechless. He wasn't expecting Naruto to be so unsympathetic to him, and least of all so rude. He'd lived in lonely isolation for so long now. Begging all day for food, hiding away from Gato's henchmen at night. He had nobody to talk to, and when somebody finally came around to talk to him, that person just insulted him. It brought tears to the boys eyes and he soon began to cry.
Naruto watched the boy cry until the boy's cry subsided into a tired sob.
Naruto shook his head. "Crying isn't going to get you anywhere kid."
"What else am I supposed to do?!" The boy bleated angrily. "What else can I do? My life is over, everyone I loved is dead, nobody is around to take care of me anymore, and I can't face this world by myself!"
"What's your name?"
"Inari."
The blonde took the Inari's hand and helped him up."I'm Naruto."
Inari looked up at Naruto. "You're an asshole Naruto."
"Maybe." Naruto replied. "But I'm an asshole who cares. Believe me when I say I've gone through something similar to what you're going through now."
Normally Inari would have scoffed at a comment like that but something in Naruto's eyes told him that there what Naruto was saying was true.
"Hungry?" Naruto asked.
"Inari nodded."
"Thought so. How about I teach you how to find food for yourself in the wild?"
An hour later Naruto and Inari began searching around the coastline for discarded fishing nets, or any useful pieces of litter, they quickly found some torn fishing net material that had presumably been torn off by jagged rocks. Naruto showed Inari how to repair the net using a method that was shown to him by a fisherman he met along his travels. Once that had been done the two kids made their way down to the river that Naruto had came to the town by, the river here was a tributary of one of many much larger rivers that cri-crossed Wave country, and indeed rivers served as the main route of transport in this land which Inari told Naruto, cutting through the mangroves to build paths was quite difficult.
They went to a shallow part of the tributary that was about shin deep. Naruto began building a makeshift blockade across the river consisting of a two lines of rocks that began from both sides of it's banks and stopped close to the centre just before they met. This centre was where Naruto placed the small amount of fishing net that he repaired.
"What we are trying to do here", Naruto explained to Inari, "is to channel the fish into the net by throwing rocks at the river and startling them so they swim into the net. The lines of stones stop them swimming around it."
As Naruto instructed Inari began to throw rocks further ahead upstream of the line of stones and eventually after nearly an hour of effort they were successful in catching two small fish. Inari looked at the creatures with hungry eyes which didn't go un-noticed by Naruto. "Let's find somewhere that we can rest and light a fire so we can cook these beauties eh?" The younger boy nodded eagerly. Looking to the sky the blonde decided that it would be OK to sleep in the open as it mas much clearer now and was unlikely to rain.
They made their way down to a beach and settled at a spot that was above the high tide mark, Naruto sent Inari out to look for driftwood while he cut the heads off of the fish and gutted them. He also placed stones in a circle to mark out where the fire would be located. Inari returned struggling with a large pile of driftwood in his arms Naruto immediately began to light the fire using a lighter and some a tinder ball that he made from some grass and flakes of bark.
As Naruto did this he was reminded of the people of his home and how many of them possessed the ability to light a fire without using a lighter or matches. Instead they could use their chakra to create a flame, sometimes with chillingly deadly efficiency. Naruto did not possess this ability. In fact, his use of chakra was terribly poor. He couldn't even manage something as elementary as a simple Transformation Jutsu or a Clone Jutsu, these were simple techniques of illusion that just about every Shinobi know.
Once the fire had got itself going Naruto stuck a stick through each of the slices of fish and began roasting them in the fire with Inari, they each ate half of the fish they caught. As they were eating Inari picked up a seashell and asked Naruto how to cook shellfish. At this Naruto made a face of disgust. "You have to be very careful with shellfish." Naruto explained. "I made the foolish mistake of eating one that was already dead, and even though I cooked it it still made me as sick as a dog." Naruto visibly cringed. "I thought I was going to die back then."
"How do you tell if it's dead or alive?"
"If it is closed then it's most likely alive, if it's open then close it and if it opens up again then it's definitely dead." Naruto shook his head. "They don't contain that many nutrients anyway. You'd probably need to eat about forty clams to get enough protein for one day."
Inari nodded. "Oh and on a side note how would you light a fire without a lighter."
"Fire sytle ninjutsu." Naruto said plainly. "But I'm guessing you don't know that."
Inari shook his head.
"Well then I'd say your best bet would be to use flint and steel to make a spark. You can find flint wherever there is chalk formations. Also flint can make some pretty useful tools for cutting as well." He reached into his bag and took out a flint stone which he threw to Inari. "Here take it."
Inari took the flint and placed it in his pocket. As he did so he realised that for the first time in years he felt truly happy. At first he thought Naruto was little better than the thugs that he feared, somebody who liked to gloat about and exert his strength over those weaker than him. But as Inari got to know Naruto he soon learned that wasn't so at all. Naruto was like his deceased stepfather, Taiza. Spending time with Naruto reminded Inari of the time he spend with Taiza. He began to cry again. This time It was tears of happiness.
"What the hell." Naruto said to him self amusedly.
That night the two boys went to sleep soundly, and glad of each others company.
For the past four years Inari had woken up cold and alone with no idea if he'd have anything to eat that day and nobody to talk to. And for those first few moments he thought that he was still in that situation. But now he had a companion who helped him out in so many ways, and for the first time in years he felt a warmth of heart that he hadn't experienced since his grandfather was alive and his mother was at his side.
But Inari had all too quickly forgotten the situation that he was in.
It was a still morning and the clouds had returned in the skies, the sea was quiet. There was a hush in the air. Inari looked around for his new friend and didn't find him. In fact, none of his possessions were at the fireplace save alone the blanket that was wrapped around Inari that Naruto had lent him.
Suddenly Inari felt a sharp pain in his side and he realised that he'd somehow been propelled across the beach, he tumbled in the sand and the small grains of earth got into his eyes, his nose and his throat. When he stopped rolling he only had a second to right himself and attempt to cough out the gritty material in this throat before he felt two hands grab him by his arms. He forced his eyes open despite the insurmountable instinct to keep them closed, to see that he was being held by two of Gato's thugs. Only this time not ordinary brutes, but Ninjas. Their faces were covered and they each wore a battle gauntlet on one of their arms, which probably were poisoned and had some sophisticated uses.
"Where is he?" One of the Ninjas demanded. "Where is the man you were with, the one who killed fifteen of our men! Tell me or I'll break this puny arm!"
Inari was too shocked to say anything.
"Don't wast your time Meizu." The other one replied. I don't think we'll be able to get much useful information out of this one anyway. We'll still have a lot of work to do when we get back to the compound. Torturing this one would be a waste of our time brother. And besides I'm not sure if he was with anyone anyway, I can't sense any sort of a presence other than ours, so he must have left this one on his own a while ago. Either that or he's just really quick, and if that's the case we should let Zabuza fight him instead."
Naruto watched from afar as the two thugs took Inari away. He'd woken up early to scout out the land and was just on his way back when the Ninja arrived. Once he saw them he ducked down behind the marram grass on the sand dunes and concealed his presence. He watched the discourse unfold helplessly. As the two thugs took Inari away he watched helplessly, following them from a distance not getting too close but not letting them out of sight either. They moved quickly. They did not seem like the strongest of Ninja, but he knew well that he was still no match for them. Nevertheless, he felt an obligation to rescue Inari. He'd grown fond of the boy and came to think of him almost like a younger brother despite not having known him for very long. The two of them were very similar in many ways.
After an hour of following from a distance Naruto reached a small compound near a pier which appeared to have been built recently. The blonde did not go near the building and hid in the nearby mangroves, concealing his presence, and watched. For hours. Guards lined the walls of the place and stood atop the cliffs facing behind it. None of these were Ninja, but they would most certainly be able to alert the Ninja from earlier who Naruto had not yet seen leaving the compound. Eventually Naruto bore witness to three boats filled with people leaving the pier. He could not see Inari among them but knew that he must be. Eventually he saw the two Ninja leaving the compound an hour after the boats had left. Naruto had assumed rightly that they were waiting for him in ambush probably expecting him to rescue the prisoners.
He watched them make their way out of the compound and into the distance, once he was sure they had left he began to make his way into the compound for himself. Getting past the guards was quite tricky but Naruto was as good at sneaking around as a jungle leopard. He scrambled through the mangroves right down to the shoreline, quickly making sure first that there wasn't any dangerous wildlife lurking nearby. He took off his clothes and left them in the bag, taking only his kunai with him.
He swam over to the pier beside the base, like a crocodile he lay in wait underwater for a guard to turn his back. The chance arrived and he grabbed a guard from behind covering his mouth so he could not scream. The man flailed about as the Jincchuuriki dragged him down into the water. Because he was panicking so much he lost his breath all too fast and was quickly drowned. Naruto let the man's corpse float up to the surface. It came to the attention of the other guards and they panicked at the sight of it, abandoning their posts. This gave Naruto the chance he needed to sneak into the building unnoticed.
At this point Naruto began to feel an inkling of fear. He did not know who was inside the structure, there could be other Ninja, perhaps even stronger than the two who took Inari away. Not wanting to draw any attention to himself Naruto crept threw the halls and ducked into rooms as people passed by. Eventually he found a room entitled 'manager's office'.
Naruto burst into the room to find a very startled man in a suit who instantly recognised the boy. He told the boy everything that he knew about where the boats were going, it wasn't much though. All the man knew was that the boats were going to the demon island in the Sea Country. Naruto told the man that he was not going to kill him and that he would just nock the man out. He lied. The blonde struck the man with a blow to the head that made him unconscious, but after that he slit the man's throat. He could not let the man live because he would be able to inform people where he was headed, that would be risky.
After searching around the building more Naruto managed to find a compass, an atlas and some food. He ate as much of the food as he could in one setting, and decided to use the other two items to navigate his way through the journey ahead. He was able to sneak out of the building and return on foot as the death of the manager had drawn all of the guards into the building. He returned to the cover of the woods and came back to his bag in order to dress himself, just in time as the tides were rising. He wasted no time in making a raft to take him out of this land. By scouring the coastline for litter he found materials that would be useful, such as driftwood, netting, the broken end of a discarded oar and most important of all some rope. He searched the wilderness for bamboo.
He built the base for his raft by lining up large shafts of bamboo beside one another, he chipped a hole in the ends each using his kunai and placed a smaller shaft of bamboo through the holes at each side to hold them in place. He further strengthened the raft with some rope. He then tied down another bamboo shoot at the end as a cross beam to give further strength to the raft. He then began to make a sail, the frame of the sail was made from bamboo, and the sail itself wad made from palm leaves woven into a discarded fishing net which Naruto had cut into a sail shape. He spent the night gorging himself as much as possible on whatever nuts and fruits that were remotely edible that he could find as well as collecting as much fresh water as he could into plastic bottles.
He left at the crack of dawn as he did not want to be sailing in this raft at night time. It was quite a struggle for Naruto to make his way through the breaking waves he paddled with all his might and just managed to get across the breaking waves and onto open waters. At this point his raft lay low in the water and the the sea crept up onto his legs. Naruto had to do running repairs for the next few hours just so he could stay afloat. Using his sail, his oar and and his compass he navigated his way across the empty seas, and for hours he could sea nothing but the horizon. Only when the sun began to set did he see any land at all and he reached it at the end of twilight. Exhausted from his journey he shuffled his way up the beach and fell asleep in the middle of a field next to some farmer's livestock.
He awoke the next day to birdsong and the the gentle whistling of grass. He hastily gathered his things and moved onwards to a seaside town, judging by the signage he could tell that he had arrived in Udon no Kuni as he'd planned. He hailed the first person he could find, a fisherman who was folding his nets down in his dory. "Do you have any ship bound south to the Sea country archipelago or to Tea Country? The fisherman shook his head.
"Nay, although there is an ship headed for the Eastern reach of this land."
Naruto bid the fisherman his thanks and in the same haste as he had come to the town he found the ship of which the fisherman spoke. She was a large trim boat of fifty oars painted red. Naruto sought out the shipmaster and asked passage of him.
"Do you have any money?"
Naruto's supply of money was very little, his income was limited to picking up whatever he could find on the ground and he'd learned to live in the wilds without the need for money. Naruto showed the ship master everything he had, all in all about 220 ryo, which would not be enough to pay for the journey.
"No." Replied Naruto. "But perhaps I can earn my passage. Do you need a pair of hands? I can row for you."
"Well we're short two men. Find your place in the benches." And after that the shipmaster left and paid Naruto no more heed.
So, laying down his bag of possessions Naruto became for five bitter days an oarsman of that grim ship. They left at noon and that day Naruto thought that he would not survive the journey, for all training in Konoha and travels had not prepared him for the relentless pull of the galley oars to the beat of the drum. Each shift of rowing was about three hours or so, and the time or rest only seemed enough for Naruto's arms to stiffen. The second day was even worse for Naruto, but after that he hardened to the labour and got on well enough. There was no camaraderie among the crew of this ship. Most of the oarsmen were slaves, most likely bonded into labour in order as a result of falling into debt. The others were like Naruto, they worked for passage, and some worked for money. Although the pay was hardly worth it. The ship masters were harsh slave drivers who whipped relentlessly at the bondsmen. They never laid their whips on the back of an oarsman who worked for pay or passage. But there would be no friendliness among a crew of whom some are whipped and others are not.
When they arrived at the Eastern Cape of Udon no Kuni Naruto saw a high coastline battered by rainy winds and a small grey town crouching at the back of a harbour, in the only low part of the headland. It was here that the free men were bid to leave, it was already dark and Naruto was tired. He desperately wanted shelter so he went to an inn and spent all the money he had. However, for one night he got to sleep in a soft bed. It was pure bliss to him. The next morning, he lingered as long as he could before he was bid out by the inn owners. After which he went outside into the blistering winds, there were a few people about. Although nobody would go out to sea in this weather. Naruto asked the men if they knew of a ship going to the Sea Country Archipelago.
"Nay lad. These days the waters round that place a rife with danger. A few years ago a Kaiju came to those waters and the Daimyo of the Archipelago has done nothing about it. I've heard so many stories of shipwrecks there that I've lost count. Very few people would go there now."
"But I need to go there. The life of a friend of mine depends on it!"
"Well." The fisherman began gravely. "There is one boat here that nobody owns." He pointed to a small dory with the name "Beelzebub" written on her prow in blood red. "When that boat came into this harbour what sailed it I could only describe as a demon. It wore a red cape and in it's centre was a black circle with a triangle inside the circle in black. It wore a beak like plague mask. It walked out of the boat and off into the distance. Because of this many of our village believe it to be cursed. And well I'm not the most superstitious of people, the trade of a fisherman is dangerous, and the last thing I'd want to do is to tempt fate. In fact, nobody in the town likes it here. They'd be grateful if you took it away."
"I will take this cursed boat out of your town then." Said Naruto calmly. "But first do you know where I can find water?"
"There is a river yonder." Said the man.
Naruto gave the man his thanks and went to the river to refill his plastic bottles which he'd drank empty. When he came back to the boat he found that it was still in good shape. The skies were grey and there was a wind about the place but despite as Naruto set out rowing gallantly for a whole day and night. He found his travels much easier on this boat than on the bamboo raft he had fashioned for himself.
The riptides helped him out of the Eastern Cape and once he got onto open waters the wind blew his way and he travelled swiftly. He came to rest upon the easternmost isle of Water Country just as the winds began to turn to the North. Water country was like Fire Country from which Naruto hailed, one of the Five Great Elemental Nations, a giant Archipelago of twelve great islands, each bigger than Wave Country was. The largest of these Islands was the home of one of the five great ninja villages, Kirigakure.
The coastline of this island was low, and Naruto could see stretching for miles a great marshland and in the background lingered a snow peaked mountain range. He landed here but did not linger and the following morning he went swiftly to the next island which he could see in the distance. For the next two days he hugged the coastline of this second island which was very much like the first, only here and there he spotted farmland and woods. He landed every now and then to forage for food. He munched on reed grass shoots, and ate the seeds of wild rice. Neither tasted very good but they grew in abundance and Naruto did not have to work hard to find them. He also managed to ambush a rabbit and kill it with a rock. Its fatty meat gave him much needed protein.
The Beelzebub sailed sailed on south for a third day and entered the Kanashi Ocean. Using the compass Naruto rowed south, but the winds were against him so he hugged the coastline of Nagi Island. Like before whenever his supply of water ran thin Naruto returned to land to refill his supplies. All in all it took him ten days to reach the southernmost cape of the Island. Here Naruto spent two days resting and preparing for a treacherous journey across the Kanashi Ocean. For soon he would be travelling nothing but a thousand miles of water, with no place to filled his boat as much as he could with bottles of water to last him for the journey, he also found a sheet of plastic which he could use as a cover for when the rain.
On the third day he set off cleaving southwards to his last stop before the great Kanashi Ocean. An island south of Nagi Island that had no official name. Many simply knew it as as Southern island, it remained ungoverned and barely a soul lived there for the land was harsh and rugged and poor. The coast of this island was giant and jagged. It took Naruto a day to find a place to put his boat, a small beach on an inlet.
Naruto saw with his own eyes that this land was indeed as bare and sparse as he'd heard. However he knew from his own background that such a place as this could be used for weapons testing or training. He began to sense that nefarious things were at work on this island. He stared back at Beelzebub and the small boat glinted in the sunlight in such a manner that Naruto was reminded of the glint in a maniac's eyes. Shaking his head he left the place as soon as he was rested. It would not be for sometime later that Naruto would find out what truly was at work in this place. And it was more horrible than he could have imagined.
Naruto heaved his boat out of the beach and sailed out of the place, the winds pushed him along as if air itself wanted to get away from that dreadful place. The first three days of sailing were easy. Naruto realised that he hadn't spoken a word in days and had been silent, he tried clearing his throat and speaking. His voice was feeble. Even if he had spoken loudly it would still amount to nothing in the vast emptiness of the ocean.
Naruto felt truly tiny. He was in awe of his own weakness. Every once in a while he would strip naked, tie a rope to his leg and to the boat and dive down with his kunai in hand in the hopes of finding something to eat. Only once every couple of hours would he come by a shoal of fish and he did not get near them.
However, Naruto would not get such an opportunity because the weather took a turn for the worse. A great dark advanced in the skies on his fourth day and like a tide of shadows engulfing everything behind it. In the depths of the cloud lightning flashed erratically. With the cloud came great swells so large that Beelzebub had to climb them as though they were hills. Naruto could only brace himself, there was no controlling the path of his boat. All he could do was have faith that he would not be thrown off course. The rain soaked him to the bone and the wind hit him so hard that the boy felt as though he was being slapped in the face. He tried to shout, but his voice was drowned out in the torrent. He just waited and sat out the storm which seemed endless.
Eventually the storm passed in what Naruto thought was three days, maybe. He could not tell day from night because the sky was so dark all the time. The weather was gloomy for the next five days but calm and Naruto rowed on. He was so cold and stiff that he'd forgotten what it was like to be warm. His stomach pained him so much that he didn't even realise that he was cold. Indeed, he'd grown noticeably thinner and more ragged. When he looked at his arms his bones seemed to protrude from his skin a little more than before.
Over the next few days the sun returned, it beat down harshly on Naruto's back and worse he began to run low on water. As fortune would have it though he saw a gannet and knew that land must not be far, although he could not see it. He tried to cover himself to shield himself from the sun and to prevent his sweat from evaporating. However, after two days of relentless drought Naruto's supply of water was gone. He spent the third day trying to hunt for fish, but was unsuccessful. He splashed himself with saltwater so he would not need to sweat as much but despite his efforts by the end of the day he was parched. His throat ran dry.
Night fell and it was in the dusk that he got the first sight of land. He rejoiced meekly, for he was saved. Taking hold of his oars he felt his second wind come and he rowed daringly towards the land. But all of a sun Beelzebub toppled over. She'd managed to make her way through the storm and had proven to be most seaworthy so Naruto was shocked to see what happened. He wondered if it was the Kaiju that the fisherman spoke of. He looked around and all he could see was a white hand attached to an un naturally long arm dragging him into the abyss. He soon lost his breath and fell unconscious.
The next thing Naruto saw was a raging fire. Or rather the reflection of one in water. But when he looked above the surface he saw no fire, only empty blackness. And Naruto found himself knee deep in this water. He trudged forward along a dark tunnel, on it's walls were strange spirals and patterns that he did not understand. There seemed to be something ancient and primeval about them. Eventually he came to a huge spectacular chamber as vast as the cavern of a mighty underground cave that stretches hundreds of metres below the ground. At the end of the cavern was a towering gate at it's centre was a circular seal with intricate patterns etched into it. At first all Naruto could see beyond the gate was blackness. But as he drew nearer it soon turned to shifting shadows and he could hear a great and deep breath. Then, in a mere instant, two great red eyes with black snakelike pupils opened.
It was then that Naruto awoke once more.
He found himself underneath a warm duvet and lying atop a fresh mattress. He no longer felt parched and was warmed by a crackling fire. Too tired stiff and feverish to care where he was or who he was with he fell back to sleep.
