Title: Highland Ninja

Author: Joshua

Disclaimer: Naruto, unfortunately, is the creation of Masashi Kishimoto, which means that I can't really make any money off this story, but thankfully he can't sue me either. 'Immortals', of the Highlander genre were originally credited to writer Gregory Widen, who wrote the original "Highlander" film. There are more and more writers that contributed to the Highlander genre and to the mythos of the Immortals, but let's just leave it at that, as for this first part there is no Macleod Clan (so to speak), no Methos, no Watchers, no Prize. Colin Macleod is drawn from the anime film "Highlander: The Search for Vengeance" and technically he's an honorary member of the Macleod Clan, not quite the same as Duncan and Conner.

Summary: At the Valley of the End, Naruto really did die. Now he is an Immortal and must learn very quickly what that means without revealing to the Village or anyone else what he is.

Prologue:

He was wet.

He was wet and the sun was shining in his face. Either one of these facts would have been enough on their own, but both together immediately drove him to consciousness. The sudden urge to gasp in new breath and expel the water, and blood, from his lungs just made it that much more urgent.

"Hyeeeehhhhh! *gasp* KOFF! *cough* *gag* *cough* Koff, koff, GAAAHHHH! Whu...? What happened...?" he found himself asking after arching his back and almost choking on his own puke until he could roll over onto his side. When he'd finally caught his breath and had enough sense to look around, he found himself on the shore next to two giant stone statues with a waterfall between them.

There was also evidence of a battle having taken place recently.

"Oh yeah, now I remember," he muttered, his voice sounding strange to his own ears, but he blamed it on how lousy he felt. "Damn Teme, you actually were trying to kill me..."

Slowly, feeling his body ache with every movement, he got to his feet, just focusing on standing for the time being until he'd regained enough of his balance to walk without stumbling. He still stumbled a couple times, but all things considered it was a miracle he was on his feet at all. He walked back and forth a couple times, working out the stiffness and soreness he still felt in his arms and legs until he was practically jogging. Taking a deep breath, he frowned when he felt his clothes stretch tight over his body, as though they'd shrunk or something.

Looking down at himself, he saw that wasn't far from the truth. His jacket was a goner, plain and simple. The dark blue shirt he wore beneath it was torn and stretched tight against his torso, though the chest area was little more than tatters with two giant holes through it. His pants on the other hand, were the oddity. He normally had to roll them up so they didn't catch on his feet, but now they felt super tight and actually only went as far as the upper third of his calves, already unrolled.

"What the...?" he trailed off, still hearing something... off with his voice, and he was no longer feeling like a drowned rat so he couldn't just fob it off as swallowing too much water or something like that.

Quickly, he raced over to the riverbank and looked down at his reflection in the water. Then he almost fell in from the shock of what he saw. It was definitely his face, tanned complexion, 'whisker' birthmarks on both his cheeks, vivid blue eyes and short, spiky yellow-blond hair. Except the face looking back at him was that of a young man, a teenager at the youngest, someone in his early 20's at the oldest.

For starters, he remembered he used to have a cherub like face with baby-fat around his fact and neck, also a short stubborn chin and a small forehead. Now, he saw the reflection staring back at him had a strong, angular profile. The same stubborn chin, but less rounded and more pointed and strong looking. His face had grown in comparable size to the rest of him, just little things, subtle signs of physical maturity that a 12-year-old lacks. Yet is all too present in a 16-18 year old body, which, judging by his new 5'9" height, longer limbs, and bigger hands... actually, (he quickly checked) just about everything was bigger now... that's roughly how old he looked now.

"How long was I out for?" he asked, examining every detail of his new body before looking at his surroundings. The battle damage was all still fresh, some of it not even an hour old! There was no way he could have been here the number of years his body seemed to have aged.

"What is going on here?"

"That's what I'd like to know," a cold voice spoke from right behind him.

He immediately spun around, his eyes widening in recognition and surprise.

"Kakashi-sensei?" he asked the thin silver-haired ninja standing there, kunai poised for attack.

Kakashi's only uncovered eye widened with it's own shock, the rest of his face covered with a mask and his Konoha headband tilted to cover his left eye. He numbly put away the kunai and stood straight, the words slipping from him before he could properly control his emotions.

"N-Na-Naruto?" Kakashi blurted out in a stunned stupor.

"What's happened to me?" the blond teenager asked the older ninja, holding out his hands for help.

"..." Kakashi took a long minute to properly compose himself and drag his emotions back under control.

"Where's Sasuke?" the jounin finally managed, once he'd taken in enough of the situation to extrapolate what he suspected.

Naruto wasn't sure whether to be disappointed, depressed, or simply understanding. He decided to go with all three, though he directed the disappointment more at himself than his sensei for choosing the traitor over the student he still had that was asking for help. He lowered his eyes in shame, his wet bangs shading his eyes and the rest of his posture spoke volumes. Kakashi sighed.

He stepped forward and put his hand comfortingly on Naruto's shoulder.

"It wasn't your fault," Kakashi told him. "And we will find out what has happened. But right now we have to focus on the mission at hand. Where's Sasuke? What happened?"

Naruto let out a sigh and nodded, quickly composing himself as a ninja of Konoha on a mission, because that's exactly what he was. He quickly, using as few words as possible, gave a full report to his Jounin Sensei, starting with when he and the others had left the Konoha Gate, leaving out the battle details and just mentioning when they encountered the enemy and when one of them had to stay behind. Finally he went on to say that he chased Sasuke, who had been released from that barrel they'd been keeping him in, here to this valley and they talked for a few minutes, Sasuke attacking him a number of times while Naruto just tried to get him to stand down. Finally, Sasuke transformed fully and Naruto channeled enough of the Kyuubi's chakra that it seemed to flow over him like a cloak of armor and they each threw one last Chidori/Rasengan, respectively, at each other. Naruto admitted to shifting his target at the last second from mid-torso to a swipe across Sasuke's headband. He also mentioned, after Kakashi prompting him for the full report, that Sasuke's aim did not shift and pierced him through the heart.

This took no longer than five minutes, not even that long as Naruto often shortened the terms for what actually happened, but Kakashi got the picture nevertheless. Meanwhile, Pakkun, Kakashi's dog-summons, had been checking all over the area, even up on the cliff-face and the forest on both sides of the river. Finally, the little brown dog came back to his summoner and told him the bad news.

"It's no good Kakashi," the small bulldog shook its head, "The rain washed away all the scents leading to and away from here. There's still some chakra lingering in the air, but even that's almost gone, and only around the waterfall itself. Everywhere else... He's gone, Kakashi. I'm sorry."

"..." Kakashi sighed, nodding his head once. "It's not your fault either, Pakkun. I... I was too late. Again. Come on, Naruto. There's nothing more we can do here."

"But Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto immediately protested. "I only need a few more minutes rest. With you and Pakkun here now... The mission's not over yet! We can still bring Sasuke back! I promised Sakura-chan!"

Kakashi looked his student in the eye, then shrugged.

"Fine, I'll look for him myself if I have to—!" he turned away and was suddenly cut off by a blow to the back of the head. Kakashi was already there underneath him, lifting the now much larger boy onto his back.

"I don't know if you'll ever forgive me for all the wrong I've done to you, Naruto," Kakashi whispered as he and Pakkun leapt into the trees, heading back towards Konoha, "Sasuke's gone. I had thought that I might be able to redeem myself if I trained him to be a strong ninja. I was wrong. I'm... sorry...."

A lone tear fell from beneath the jounin's headband, though his right eye was dry as bone.

Only ten miles away, right at that moment, a heavily injured and weakened, soaking wet Uchiha Sasuke, stumbled across the border between Fire and Rice Countries, following the call from the tingling mark on his neck, drawing him to the one that would give him power. The power to avenge his clan. The power to kill a certain man.

The thirteen-year-old boy paused, briefly looking back the way he'd come, where he'd just left the one he'd called his closest friend to die. He was still living when he'd climbed out of that valley in the rain, and then there was that flash of lightning just before he'd gotten out of sight and then the crimson flash and cries of death, but seeing as he did not suddenly gain the Magenkyo Sharingan, he knew that Naruto was still alive. He couldn't explain it, but he knew it just the same. It probably had something to do with the concussion he had.

He turned back forward and continued to stumble along, following the urges of the Cursed Seal to the lair of the one that had made it, Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin, and did not look back again.

TBC...

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– Joshua "The Evil Guy"