A/N: What's up, guys! So I'm proud to say that this is my first FanFiction story and I hope that you guys enjoy it. This is, in fact, an adventure and romance fic with the main pairing being NaruSaku. It'll be a multi-book story that centers on the lives of those in the Leaf Village and some from others, mainly focusing on Naruto of course. Please review and give me your thoughts on the chapter. Anyway, I do not own Naruto!

So without further ado, Chapter 1 of Chronicles of the Leaf: Darkness Falls.

Chapter 1: Discovery

The sun rays beat down heavily on Naruto's bare back as he slowly climbed the craggy face of the mountain. His hands were cut and his face was wind beaten as he pressed on, reaching each way to grasp positions on the rocky terrain. Although it was hard work, Naruto was definitely in his happy place. Training had become his favorite thing ever since the war ended, he would go out of his way to get a good session in everyday, striving to get just that much closer to the Hokage seat.

Naruto's hand suddenly slipped on the rock to his right and he slid down, his feet dangling over the dizzying drop below. He quickly shot his right arm back up and grasped another hold and swung his legs back up.

That was close, Naruto thought with a sigh as a look of relief was etched onto his face. Better pay more attention or I may never see another ramen bowl.

Naruto could easily use chakra to climb the mountain, but what sort of training would that be? He knew there was no better exercise than raw, physical labor.

After many more minutes of exertion, sweat, and will power, he reached the top of the mountain. He arrived at the last ledge and hauled himself over the edge, collapsing on the first solid ground he'd been on in over 9,000 feet.

The mountain was named Collosus and that wasn't for no reason either. It was the tallest mountain in the Fire Country and the most dangerous as well. The heat became unbearable at times around this area and the mountain was impossibly steep. Few men have ever reached its peak, even when using chakra. But Naruto was no ordinary man, he housed a tailed beast named Kurama who he is in complete sync with. He also single handedly defeated Madara after nearly dying and losing Kurama. Not to mention his various other achievements he's gotten over his lifetime. In simple terms, this act pales in comparison to his others.

It's been 2 years since that fateful war ended. Many innocent lives were lost in that conflict and almost the entire shinobi world. The Sage of the Six Paths Madara was almost too much to handle, he wiped out armies all by himself. But at the last moment, when all hope was seemingly lost, Naruto, accompanied by Sakura, returned to the field from the dimension housed by Kamui and dealt the final blows to him with the aid of Sasuke Uchiha and his gang. Evil was vanquished and the good guys prevailed. An age of peace, prosperity, and rebuilding followed it. People were happy again, nobody was fighting, countries got along. It was bliss.

Naruto returned from that war as a hero. He was world renown for his heroics and he even became somewhat of a celebrity. For a while, he signed at least a handful of autographs a day. He also got the attention from women that he had never received before, which was sort of jarring for him in a way. He, also, got promoted to the rank of Jonin. It would probably be a slap to the face of Naruto and Konoha if they kept Naruto at Genin level even after all he's done. Many viewed him as the heir to the Hokage throne for crying out loud.

Naruto took in air in gasps as he lay on his back and stared at the slowly moving clouds in the beautiful, blue sky. After a few minutes of rest, he sat up and took a water bottle out of his backpack, drinking it down in swigs.

It's getting late, Naruto thought as he finished off his water bottle, I better get going, I've got a long walk back to Konoha.

So on that thought, Naruto stood up once again and stretched his arms and legs in preparation for the downward journey. He walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down at the sprawling expanse of mountain that stretched out seemingly endlessly in all directions.

As Naruto was about to jump down and begin his descent, something caught his eye about 300 yards down from his current position. There, a small opening could be seen that he had yet to notice. It looked almost.. Man-made?

Naruto quickly hopped out and slid down the face of the mountain, this time using chakra to reach the newfound spot quicker and easier. There was a small landing that a small carriage could fit on situated in front of an uncharacteristically flat wall with a strange logo imprinted on the center.

What is this logo? I've literally never seen this before in my life. It almost looks like its meant for a clan but it doesn't belong to any that I've seen around here. Naruto thought to himself as he stroked his chin in thought.

He reached out and grazed the image with his fingertips, then after a moment he pressed his palm against it. Suddenly, the wall began to shake and Naruto hopped back, his battle senses on full blast. The rubble around the area shook and Naruto thought that a rockslide could very well start from this. Just as he was about to leap away and continue down the mountain, the wall broke away from the surrounding mountain and fell with a great crash and a final shake to the ground. Naruto sighed in relief as he returned to stand in front of the now open entryway.

The collapsed wall revealed an opening that about three people, standing shoulder to shoulder, could fit through. It was dark inside and Naruto could tell that the passageway was about to the same size as the entrance and went on for quite a while. Under normal circumstances, Naruto wouldn't have even cared enough to explore this place but there was something.. strange.. about it that Naruto couldn't quite place his finger on. So Naruto stepped up and on to the collapsed wall and entered the cave.

Naruto quickly realized that a torch or light source of some sort was needed if he ever wanted to see anything. The light from outside lit up the dank hallway just enough for Naruto to notice an unlit torch hanging on the adjacent wall. He quickly took it down from the wall, went through a few hand signs, and a small flame danced across his fingertip and onto the top of the torch, lighting it instantly.

The torch illuminated the hallway enough to see quite a few feet in front of him and Naruto almost jumped out of his sandals when it did. On the walls were pictures illustrating horrendous acts of violence, graphic depictions of torture and murder. They lined the walls on either side, seemingly filling the entire area. Naruto now knew that this was no ordinary cave. These drawings looked ancient, but they seemed to be alive, like they were staring holes into Naruto's head. It sent a shiver down his spine.

"Alright this is just downright creepy," Naruto said to himself as he shook his head.

Naruto continued walking, even though every sense in his body was telling him to turn around and high tail it out of there. But there was an air of mystery surrounding this place as well, as if maybe something important was resting deep inside of it and Naruto had to know what it was.

The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly, there were no other paths but to follow the one, single, winding hallway before him. There were no signs of booby traps either, which seemed strange considering the type of place this was. The place seemed very much so solidly made, like the people were highly intelligent who designed it. The designs on the wall persisted as well, but the farther Naruto got, the more evil they seemed to be.

After quite a few minutes of walking, Naruto thought that he would never reach the end to the hallway. He knew he should probably just turn around, but once again, he felt drawn to keep walking. Finally, he reached a wall, or what he thought was a wall. It looked almost the exact same as the entrance to this place did, logo at the center and all, but this time there was a strange language encircling the logo. Seeing this, Naruto tried to do the same process he tried at the beginning but this time nothing happened. No shaking, no moving, nothing. Naruto tried pushing harder, he tried running his hand across all points of the wall, but none of it worked. If he could avoid it, he was going to try and avoid using force, but he was running out of options.

"Bingo."

Finally, he found a crook in the center of the logo. He grabbed it and twisted, thinking that would be the logical thing to do if anything was going to work. The room shook and the wall slowly started to creak open. Through the opening cracks, he could see that the area on the other side was considerably larger than the hallway he's been in up until now.

After a few moments, the wall opened completely and Naruto stepped through to the other side. The room was large, larger than his torch could illuminate. All he could notice was that there was a bridge cutting across the center of the room that led straight ahead. Water lay on either side and shot off in both directions. Naruto walked forward, and after just a few feet, torches that Naruto could not see prior to walking into the room blazed to life. They lined all of the walls in the room and lit the entire area completely. Naruto could now clearly see the area.

There were pillars and statues of strange creatures lining the walls. Each one looked vicious and curved with sharp eyes that seemed to follow Naruto as he walked. There was absolutely no friendliness to be felt in the room, he felt as if he was an intruder in their base. And he wasn't exactly sure who "their" was.

At the end of the bridge was an immaculate and ornate altar. Naruto knew that if anything in this place had any meaning, the answer was at the end of the bridge. He carefully jogged to the end of the bridge and came to a stop in front of the altar.

On top of the altar was something that Naruto hadn't seen until he was standing right in front of it.

"Woah.." Naruto said to himself as a look of surprise and wonder flashed across his face.

There, sitting neatly on top of a wooden holster, was a curved, wicked dagger with designs running all across it. That same language that Naruto saw earlier was etched onto the hilt and was wrapped around it.

But a sense of dread washed over Naruto. He knew that all of the evil in this place that he was feeling, was spawned from this very item.

Suddenly, there was a mighty crash coming from behind Naruto. He whipped around to see that one of the huge statues had fallen. Then, one after another, the statues continued to fall, shaking the entire cave, shooting water everywhere, and causing the area to crumble.

Thinking on his feet, Naruto shoved the dagger into his backpack and sprinted back the way he had come. Debris was falling all around him, crashing down onto the bridge he was running on. He leapt and dodged as he ran at full speed for the open door- or the door he thought was open.

Naruto saw ahead of him that, somehow, the door had closed itself once again. Knowing that he had no time to stop and figure out how to open it again, Naruto quickly flooded chakra to his hand and created a rasengan. He rammed the door with all of the energy in his left hand but nothing happened. The door seemed to absorb the chakra. Not stopping to think, Naruto punched the door with all he had and the door crashed inward, sending shards of stone flying down the corridor.

Not losing a single step, Naruto dove through the opening of the door and rolled up and onto his feet on the other side. He had dropped his torch somewhere along the way so he was now running blind.

Kurama! I need your help to see here! Chakra apparently doesn't work on these rocks, so if we get trapped, we're done stuck! Naruto said inwardly.

Just keep running! I'll take care of it! Kurama quickly responded from inside Naruto.

After a few more strides, light burst forth from Naruto as his nine-tails cloak emerged. Light and sheer chakra resounded from Naruto.

Naruto! Switch with me and I'll get us out of here right now, we don't have time to run. This place is coming down! Kurama said.

Alright, that's fine with me. Let's go, Kurama!

As Naruto's eyes changed shape, Kurama quickly took over and rocketed, with blinding speed, forward, covering the distance down the hallway in seconds. Rubble and debris continued to fall. The cave was filling up quickly, causing Kurama to dodge in each direction at blinding speeds.

Finally, light poured from the exit as Kurama rounded the corner and looked ahead. Rock had almost completely covered the exit, just a few more rocks and there would be no escape. With a mighty roar and all the strength he could muster, Kurama pressed forward with all of his strength. Just as the hole was about to close, Kurama shot through the small opening with arms covering his face, and crashed down on the other side. The orange, setting sun looked so peaceful as well as everything else around the mountains. It was ironic.

We made it, Naruto, but just barely. Kurama said.

Yeah that was close, Naruto said back, laughing and scratching his head.

You really should be a little more careful about where you go. Kurama replied.

Ah come on, Kurama, we've gotten this far. Besides, you have to admit that was at least a little fun! Naruto said back, snickering.

Kurama just sighed in reply and shook his head, slightly laughing.

Here, you can have control again. I'm gonna go take a nap, don't get into any more trouble while I'm gone because I won't help you!

Alright, whatever you say, man. We'll just see about that! Naruto replied while laughing.

After Naruto regained control, he noticed how late it had gotten.

"Oh, crap! I'm gonna be late and Sakura is gonna kill me!" Naruto said, panicking to himself.

But before he could worry too much, he stiffened. He reached into his backpack and pulled out the dagger once again.

"This thing.. Is strange. I need to get this back to Tsunade, she'll know what to do." Naruto said to himself, reaching and placing it, carefully, back inside his backpack.

The air was getting colder so Naruto pulled his shirt and jacket back out of his backpack and threw them on. He then stood up and raced back down the mountain, heading back home, to the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

End of Chapter 1

A/N: So what did you think? Please review and let me know!