I'm a new author in FF and this is the first story I placed here. Just telling that to you guys.

You may or may not like the way I portray some of the characters, and I'm positive that some of you will get annoyed because of that. But, I'm afraid that I'll have to proceed with how I have portrayed the characters in my mind, regardless of how inauthentic they are. So please, forgive me.

However, I'm not unreasonable. If I made mistakes, please do point them out for me. Settings, names, even normal behaviors… just so that I could improve on them.

I know that this type of story is already in the archive and some of you may accuse me of copying. But I'm just basing my inspiration from those stories. Who are you to correct me at where I get my inspirations from? If you don't like this story, or me in general, don't read.

Phew, that was quite an opening.

Now, please enjoy this short chapter.

'So you're ready to move out?'

He had been asked that questions many times from the same person who resided in his mind but he could never really answer the person, simply because the person was using the wrong term. Instead of 'move out', the correct term would be 'forget'. More like 'leave behind' actually, but it meant the same thing.

Uzumaki Naruto, an immortal, deathless, whatever you want to call him, was not having a good day.

He'd just left for Tokyo, Japan and was about to rent a room in one of the finest hotel that the city could offer, but that all changed. The old but youthful looking man had changed so much compared to how he was in his younger days. Years of living will do that to somebody. His face retained its natural round and charming appearance, but there was no hiding how mature he looked. His jawline was perfect, so smooth and defined. His cheekbones were noticeable, though slightly. His whiskers were still as present as the day he was born, if not, they have become more refined. The man's hair was still as golden as ever, he kept it tame and manageable, in contrary to his long deceased father who was famous for having a mess of spiky hair. And his eyes were as blue as the sky itself, so bright but were clouded in a certain shade that no one could identify.

He ignored the voice in his head, hefting the briefcase on his shoulder. His lips curved into a frown, an obvious one.

He was supposed to be in Tokyo, but it seemed that someone or something decided to change that.

Ten minutes ago, he was in an airplane filled with passengers from the States with Tokyo being their destination. But then, everything went disoriented. A shift in time and space happened and everyone was gone, literally. Currently, he's still in the plane and with a simple act of looking out from the viewing window, he could still say that the plane was still above cloud level. He detected no human life signature from the cockpit or anywhere else in the storage cabin, everyone was not present. Whoever or whatever transported him here must have made them disappear without him knowing.

Interesting.

After the long moment of self-thinking, he finally made up his mind.

He's going to get out from this plane.

'Are you really sure that's wise?'

Again, he ignored the voice. He, with silence, walked over to the emergency door of the plane. Upon release, the door will open and a rubber slide would inflate to act as a safe way out from the plane in an emergency water landing situation. But since the plane was still flying, that won't happen.

With a kick, the door was flung open from its hinges and wind shifted. The man's blue eyes squinted due to the breeze hitting him, but he was not really troubled by it. Obviously, the only way off from the plane was to jump down. For normal humans, it was a downright crazy idea. But since he was anything but normal, he did it anyways.

He jumped out.

The way down, of course, was rushed. It took longer, but it was definitely rushed. He could feel the tie of his suite flailing wildly due to the fall. Despite the situation, the man was calm. It's not like falling from great heights will kill him, anyway. He shifted his body, becoming as straight as he could. This change in position increased the speed of his fall due to the less amount of resistance given by his body. Even so, there's really no telling when he'll crash down the gro-

BAM

-und.

'And you're the Second Wise Toad Sage…'

Again, ignored.

Regardless of the fact that he'd just landed after falling from a very great height, he could still move. In fact, he was not even hurt! The only damage done was to his suit, something that he will definitely have to fix, but nothing too important. He managed to save his personal belongings in his briefcase and he still got spare suits and many other items stored in his pocket dimension. He'll admit that he was feeling rather shaky, but nothing a good shake of head wouldn't fix.

He regained his bearings, making sure that his tie was straight and the collar of his shirt was not crooked. Once that was done, he observed his surroundings.

Trees. That was all he's seeing. To be honest, no surprise there.

He expected to be in a much more… secluded place, but this was just about right. The sun was up, and it's still the brightest time of the day. Weather's clear and the birds were singing, over all, a nice day.

Wrong.

He sensed something that he had not sensed in years. Nature. While he did sensed nature in his life, but that feeling was not as strong as the one he's feeling in this place. The feeling, the sheer presence of nature itself was almost comparable to the ones back at ; but less potent. He noticed how easy it was for him to synchronize easily with nature. Activating Sage Mode, he was already under the attention of several of the forest's docile creatures. Clearly, Sage Mode was even more effective here since he was able to sense things better than before. The stronger the presence of nature is, the more effective Sage Mode is. Oh and he really needed to meditate more often.

He raised a hand, and a small magpie flew towards him; perching itself on his finger. He eyed the bird closely, looking at it intently. Unknowingly, they were communicating. Seconds became minutes, minutes became an hour worth of time. And after that one hour, the magpie flew away with an objective. Clearly, the avian creature flew because it was given an order by the blonde man.

The man, Naruto, made a thoughtful look.

"Gensokyo… huh?"

It was a bad day for one Hakurei Reimu. No, scratch that. It was another bad day for one Hakurei Reimu.

The young shrine maiden had been pondering ways on how to escape her daily dilemma of not doing anything besides the usual; sitting, drinking tea and sweeping the front yard of the shrine clear of leaves and dust. But still, nothing struck her mind. Things had been peaceful in Gensokyo for more than a year now, and that's saying something. No more pesky yokais to deal with, no troubles that needed solving and definitely no need for her to hand several trigger happy wenches their asses back to them.

It's peaceful, but boring at the same time.

Reimu wished that boredom was short lived, but the shrine maiden knew that it was far from the truth. No one visited her, aside from the occasional visits she received from a certain ordinary magician. No one visited her shrine, for some unknown reasons and most importantly, nothing happened. Not. A. Damn. Thing. Maybe she should try going out there and look for incidents, other than the usual way of waiting until something actually happens…

Nah… she's too much of a person to do that.

Her resident Oni was absent for the day. Said Oni needed to visit her fellow Oni's; something about a party, she said. It's sad that they didn't invite her but Reimu was also very glad they didn't. Perhaps the one thing that she couldn't complain was not having visited by a certain noisy paparazzi crow, god knows that she won't miss that person, ever. The Human Village was still guarded by its loyal guardian and there's no need for her to think about the Bamboo Forest of The Lost for obvious reasons. No one visited the damn place again, not even her.

But, all of this time given to her was spent wasted since she had no ways on how to kill it. She tried practicing her shooting skills, but she remembered that she was the best goddamn shooter in Gensokyo, so, sucks for that. One thing that she'll appreciate, more than free food, was people coming into her shrine bringing monetary donations. Money. Dough. Paper. Cash. Yen. Dollar. Moolah. Whatever. But knowing her reputation, that's probably the most unlikely thing to happen.

Clank

Was she hearing things?

Thunk

Was she hearing things, again?

BAM

…okay, maybe not.

Not once, twice but thrice, she heard random loud noises coming from the front of the shrine, right where the offering box was at. She could not make do with the sound alone, since it was pretty vague. The only way she could describe them was that they were similar to sound of gradually heavy objects being dropped starting from an ascending order.

"Oi! What are youuuuuu…" Reimu could not finish her questioning of the mysterious stranger, she couldn't. The normally composed shrine maiden nearly dropped her jaw when she saw said stranger dropping gold bars into her offering box. GOLD BARS.

"OH MY GOD STOP!"

She managed to jump and intervene before the man could pull out another gold bar and throw it into her offering box. She held the man's arm, giving him an incredulous look. "What are you doing man!?" the situation was so absurd that she couldn't ask anything else.

"Donating?"

Reimu's jaw nearly dropped. "Donating…" her voice was small. "YOU CALL THAT DONATING?!" her finger was pointed at the chunks of gold bars that were already dropped inside of the box, there were also gems and coins dropped there, but Reimu did not know this. "Are you trying to brag or something? Huh?!"

Naruto, admittedly, was having a lot of fun in this. He smirked, but managed to deliver as an uncanny one. "No, I'm not bragging. It's just that…" his blue eyes trailed over to his opened briefcase. "My bag was a little tad too heavy so I needed a place where I could drop all of those gold bars, and your box was just the perfect place."

"I – wha – why?!" At this point, her voice was louder.

"Meh."

"WHY?!"

As fun as this could get, it was starting to get a little annoying for him. "Alright, I'll admit. Maybe I was a little bored, but my bag was getting a little bit heavy, no lie there." He turned his head, looking around the shrine's complex as if he's inspecting something. "Aaand… this place looked like it could need the donation I just gave."

Despite her shock at being encountered by such a… different individual, Reimu managed to take it all in easily. This was Gensokyo after all, weird people aren't weird. She sighed loudly. "Aaah… I know that I'm bored but it's not like I'm asking for a headache either…" she moaned in mental pain.

The man raised a single eyebrow. "Bad day?"

"More like bad year…" the girl replied bitterly. She suppressed the feeling of her growing headache and chose to deal with the situation on hand. "So… those gold bars…" her eyes trailed at the normally empty and dusty offering box. "They're real right?"

"They were a kilo each, and I dropped like ten of them."

Reimu gaped.

"Maa, it's not like I'm a good person or anything." He waved his hand as if to show an uncaring nature. "I just saw what was needed to be done, and I did it."

'That's the ideology you follow now?'

Naruto adjusted his suit's coat, straightening them. "But maybe you could do a little something for me in exchange for those."

"What…?"

"Where am I?" he blurted out.

Reimu blinked not once, twice, but thrice. Ah, he's an outsider. A freaking outsider right at this time and season. The first thing Reimu did was to pinch the bridge of her nose real hard; as if it's her own way of suppressing the overwhelming sensation of wanting to scream out 'YUKARIIIII'. But for the man, she looked stressed. Was she on her period? If so, then he apologized.

"That useless… lazy… hag…" he heard her mutter in an ominous manner. He saw her sigh again, this time, longer. "Aaaah…" she settled down, giving him a far more relaxed expression. "So you never heard of Gensokyo?"

"Nope."

"Yokais?"

Both of the man's eyebrow were raised. "…Yes. Let's just say that I'm familiar with them." He nodded.

Reimu nodded in what seemed to be relief. "Then this will make it easier. This place is Gensokyo, basically, it's a place unaffected by the outside world, the world you lived in. This place is also home to yokais and humans, but mostly on the former. How you get here… you might ask… no, I do not know for sure." She suddenly frowned, marring her face. "But I know that it had something to do with a certain hag…"

That got the man thinking. It's been a long time ever since he heard of someone confirming the existence of yokais. He'd encountered them before, yes, but that was a long time ago. Before the unification of Japan and probably longer than that. He couldn't remember much because he spent most of his days, as an immortal, travelling the globe. He'd visited the British Empire, Kingdom of France, and wandered around Germany during the time of the Teutonic Knight's Order. That was a loooong time ago and he could only vaguely remember anything.

"Anyway, now that you're here, what are you going to do?" Reimu knew what he was going to say, because she'd dealt with several outsiders who found their way here-

"Get a job, probably."

…okay, maybe she did not expect that.

It took Reimu several seconds to register what he had just said. "A job…" she repeated the word. "Why a job?"

"Because I need one to stay here?" he tried giving her a reason.

"Ah." When he said it like that, it made sense. But at the same time, not. "Look, I was expecting you to start asking me for a way back home or anything like that here… don't kill my expectations." She mumbled.

"I'm sorry, you're not the first person I've disappointed before." When he said that, he said it in a manner that so that Reimu knew that he was being honest.

Reimu didn't know how to respond to that. "You know, for someone's new to this… you're surprisingly calm."

The blonde stretched his arms after settling his briefcase down on the gravel. "When you're as old as I am, you're not as sensitive as when you're younger. Being calm is just one of the many perks of being old."

"But you don't look old, though."

He smirked, winking. "That's exactly it. I don't look old."

The red-white shrine maiden shook her head at the man's cryptic reply. She looked at the sky, shielding her eyes with her opened palm. The sun was still up high, not even evening yet. But most importantly, it's time for tea. And being a polite person she was, she invited him.

Of course, the man accepted.

"Thank you for the tea, I enjoyed it."

"Yeah, yeah."

Naruto smiled at how easy going the shrine maiden can be. He got to know Reimu a little bit from their conversation over some tea, and he's surprised. She was a shrine maiden and if that wasn't obvious enough, she was definitely wearing the red-white uniform but not in the same manner as other shrine maidens. Reimu's fashion sense aside, she was also the acting peacekeeper of Gensokyo. If there was ever a threat that could potentially harm the safety of Gensokyo's residents, she would be the first to react. But it seemed that she was not very satisfied with her job, because, well, she didn't get paid for anything. The way their conversation turned, also allowed him to learn of something even more interesting.

The duel system.

The duel system, as the name suggests, was a system set up in Gensokyo as a way to settle conflicts. Basically, people would have to duel and the victors win. As simple as that, but he got the feeling that it's actually even more complicated. But that's what Reimu told him, maybe she wasn't in the mood to explain things in detail. Anyway, the system was an effective little thing, as it does what it was supposed to do. Reimu mentioned that she'd received the help of her friends in solving these 'incidents' in the past years and that everything turned out peacefully in the end… ignoring the annoying little aftermaths that could potentially happen.

As an example, Reimu told him that after a particular incident, one dubbed as the Scarlet Mist Incident; people had trouble travelling outside of settlements due to how the incident had affected several creatures. But that was easily dealt with, easier than the incident itself. Reimu shared interesting bits to him, and telling him more about Gensokyo itself. Then, she recommended him to visit the Human Village.

"You can know more about this place's history there."

That's what she said, but he knew that she didn't like to be bothered. But he planned on going there anyway.

"Again, thanks for the tea Reimu."

The girl showed him the way out, now they're outside of the shrine's main building. The shorter girl shrugged, her detached attitude becoming more obvious. "Just make sure to get there in one piece, I don't want to solve another case of a corpse polluting the forest… then again, the animals will do the cleaning."

Even after hearing this, he smiled. "Thanks for worrying."

"I'm not."

Naruto ignored her. He hefted his briefcase back on his shoulder, adjusting his coat and tie and bowed. "I'll take my leave."

"Hm."

She saw him leave, walking down the steps, his form disappearing from her field of vision. Something was wrong… Reimu didn't know what, but something felt wrong. The way he's so calm, the way he's asking for only the things related to her and Gensokyo… it's wrong. Normal people who were transported here would start questioning her ways on how to get back, but he didn't.

Did he come here on purpose? No, he said he didn't know. Maybe he's lying?

Reimu could only wonder.

Her wondering was short lived, after remembering the gold bars that the blonde man had donated to her. An unusual smile crept itself up to her face, making form.

"Hehehe… now I'm stocked for the year, and the year after." Reimu, despite having disturbed, was very happy that day.

"Ohohoho?"

He was not expecting this, really.

When Reimu said of a Human Village, he expected for it to be a small settlement of fifty to eighty people, but he was wrong. So wrong. Gensokyo's Human Village was bigger than what he'd expect it to be, much bigger. The place was at least a quarter of Konoha, and considering that Konoha was pretty huge, this place could easily be mistaken for a small town. Now that got him wondering, why didn't they name this place the Human Town anyway? Maybe that didn't have same ring to it. Who knows?

He knew that the place was a quarter the size of Konoha due to several… methods. Yeah, methods. Ways. He was staring at the front gate at awe. Though it's not as big or iconic as Konoha's ridiculous massive gates, it's still pretty big. About four time his height, making it tall. But in terms of design, it's fairly simple. Just a very tall and sturdy lumber gate with large metal hinges, currently, it's closed and no doubt that the only way to enter was to pull the string of the bell that was fixed on the side of the gate.

The blonde eyed the bell narrowly. Was this the only way that they could open the gate? If so, why so… simple? Well, since no one was posted outside of the gates, the people who built it probably thought that this was the most effective way to deal with visitors.

No, it clearly wasn't.

But regardless, if he had to ring it to get in, he'll do it.

Naruto pulled the bell's string once, letting the bell jingle and ring. He did once and twice. That made it three times. Not long later, the ground underneath him shook and the gates moved backwards, as if they were pulled by some force. Naruto watched in amazement to see that no one pulled the gate, it had magically opened on its own. That's pretty interesting, looks like he'll be in here for a while. The first thing he saw was the front of the village and comparing it back to Konoha, it was quite close. Nothing really major was ever posted in the location near the gates back in Konoha, and it seemed that it's the same here.

It's obviously because of business reasons that they made it that way. In order to attract travelers or visitors, they placed the more interesting parts of Konoha deep inside the districts, so that visitors could actually travel and sightsee what the village had to offer.

Naruto walked into the village and once he's inside, the gates behind him closed by themselves again. He walked, beginning his sightseeing activity. His main job here was to find out more about Gensokyo itself, since Reimu did tell him that he'll able to do so here. But his secondary objectives were to sightsee and look around for anything interesting.

The blonde noticed that the more he venture deeper into the village, the more crowded it got. He slipped past the crowd of people, slithering away from the public as he chose to venture through the quieter route. The alley ways were narrow but they lacked the horrible stench that most cities in the outside world had, so that's a plus in his books. As he walked, he relaxed himself.

"Kage Bunshin."

When his clones spawned into existence, they disappeared immediately, with a task at hand. Naruto had instructed them to learn more about the village's layout, get food and find out more about the village specifically. In the meantime, he'll be walking around for a while. After a walk in the alley, he exited and entered another street. But this one was not as crowded as the previous one. He deactivated Sage Mode long before he met Reimu, but he still could feel everything clearer than ever. Just how was this possible?

Looking around him, he could not help but notice that everyone was wearing kimonos and yukatas. It reminded him of Feudal Japan, right before the time of Japan's industrial revolution, when Westernization was still not accepted by most Japanese. To be honest, it made him feel a little nostalgic. The buildings in this place were designed to look so Edo period-y, being made out of straws and wood and all. Almost no glass. But he could still see a couple buildings looking a little bit more western. He saw someone with a radio, chilling on the front of a shop. Looks like this place had technology too, interesting.

After what seemed to be thirty minutes of aimless walking, he noticed that he'd brought himself into a rather busy part of the village. But unlike the roads, this place was crowded with youths. Children from the age of six to their early teens were around, running, playing, studying under trees, reading their books under trees and doing whatever the hell it was that kids their age do. He came to a conclusion immediately; he's near a school.

"Waaai~!"

"Kyaaah~!"

Yup, school alright.

Naruto, being tall, sharply dressed and foreign looking from your typical Japanese person, easily drew attention to himself. Especially, when he's hefting that briefcase of his. Some kids were looking over to his way. The older ones were wise enough to know that he's a stranger, some of the younger ones do, but some younger ones also got curious.

"Hey mister! You're dressed weird!" one snotty nosed little boy said to him without an ounce of shame.

'Ah, being young… can't say you missed that, right?'

Ignored.

Naruto smiled warmly, his eyes closed. He kneed down to the little boy's level, patting his head. "If I dress weird, then you're weirder." The boy, being young and naïve, didn't get what he meant. This only amused the blonde even more. "Say, can you and your friends help me?"

"Help? Help with what, mister?"

A smile. "I need to know more about the village and Gensokyo. Do you know of a library around here? Or is there even a library in the first place?"

At the mention of 'library', the little boy and his friend's face turned sour. "Why would you want to go to a place as boring as a library, mister? You should go and play in the park, not read books!" his friends agreed with their own respective nods.

Naruto nodded too, his face expressing honest agreement. "I agree, but unfortunately kid, I need to know more about this place. So, can you tell me where the library is?"

The boy looked at his friends, and they shrugged. "Sure. You can use the school's library, everyone's allowed to use it anyway. But we don't, cuz it's boring! Right?"

"Right!"

Naruto chuckled openly at the sight. He patted the boy's head once more, pulling his briefcase. "Tell you what, since you've done me a great favor, I'll give you something in return. What do you want?"

The kids wasted no time in shouting out their innermost desire.

"Candy!"

"Money!"

"Toys!"

"Uh… better grades?"

All the other kids glared at whoever said the last one.

"I – I mean, toys!, yeah! Toys!"

Their eyes sparkled so much that Naruto could easily mistake them as stars. "Alright, alright, candies." Some were dissatisfied at not getting what they wanted, but at least they're going to get candies. Naruto opened his briefcase to show a case full of lollipops. The kids cheered, as if they'd just discovered a treasure chest. "Well, take 'em!"

And they dived, greedily taking the candies and placing them as many as they could inside their pockets. When Naruto's left with no more candies, he waved the kids goodbye and left towards the school.

The school, he assumed, was the large wooden building placed right in front of the small playground where several other kids were playing at. They didn't notice him; because they were too busy playing. After getting information, he entered the school's ground, making the library his first objective. He made his way through the school's hallway and he noticed that there were also several adults present. Perhaps they were parents of the kids who go to school here? Or maybe they're like him, here on their own accord? Either way, he didn't care.

He somehow managed to make his way to the library and thankfully, the place was near to the entrance. There were people inside, but not that much. It's not like this room could accommodate that many people in the first place, but it was still pretty darn spacious. With all the rows, shelves or books displayed, Naruto's thirst of knowledge was beginning to turn visible. Quietly, he made some clones and had the disguised as people that looked like locals. He had them read the books that were available here. Thank god that the genres here were marked, so that he could divide his clones equally.

His clones read books that were specifically written about Gensokyo. Believe it or not, such books were quite easy to find due to the fact that they were organized to be that way. He didn't need to ask the librarian, which was also a plus in his… books. Get it, because he's in a library? Books?

Anyway,

He'll be spending time here for at least an hour or so. With all the reading that he'll do, he will surely get to know more about the entirety of Gensokyo itself. And maybe, stumble upon something interesting.

Four hours later…

"Boy that was a long read…" the man muttered tiredly. He massaged his forehead which had just been supplied knowledge from five different clones who were reading several books until finish; of course he'd need time to rest. His clones, the ones he sent out before arriving at the library, hadn't dispelled yet; maybe in a couple of minutes. He lifted himself from an armchair that was placed inside the library for readers. He planned on leaving, of course and seeing the change of color in the sky from the window, it's already evening. Time to head out.

Just as he'd exit the school's building, his clone dispelled.

"Ah. I have food now." In his storage seal, of course, since his clone obviously sealed them there before. Well, he didn't have to worry about food. Now, the one thing he'll have to worry was finding a place to sleep. Hmm…

He set out to the streets once again, determined to find an inn for a resting place. He asked around the locals, asking them if they knew a good inn or two. Surprisingly, they do. And he found one instantly.

Sakuragawa

That's the name of the inn. Sakura as in '桜' and Gawa as in '川', singularly read as Kawa instead of Gawa. A pretty simple name, yet its meaning was as beautiful as it sounds. It's not a really big building, but calling it small would be wrong too. It's a medium sized building, and it's open. He entered the inn and was greeted by a receptionist girl.

"Ah, welcome, are you here to rent a room?"

He gave the girl one of his charming smiles. "Yes."

"O – Oh… for how long?"

"Umm… until when… I do not know."

"Ah, is that so? Well, since there's no duration for your stay here, we will be charging you fifty yen each day. Is that okay with you?"

Hm, Yen? It seemed that this place was aware of outsiders like him, or maybe outsiders like him were normal? "It's fine, I'll be paying for ten days in advanced."

"Of course."

Naruto made the transaction and he was lead to his room by the receptionist girl. "This will be your room and please do enjoy your stay." She bowed and left.

Naruto eyed the room. Over all, it's comfy and traditional. He didn't mind it a little bit. Looking at the sky, it seemed that night's approaching rather fast. He loosened his tie, took it off, his coat and switched to his sleepwear which was a pair of shorts and a plain orange t-shirt. The futon was kept inside of the wardrobes with the sliding door, he took them out and spread them on the floor.

There's nothing to do, so he might as well sleep and let his mind relax.

'Nighty night, man.'

"Don't say that, that's disgusting."

'Well, at least you're not ignoring me, Naruto.'

"I'll ignore you if you keep on pestering me, Sasuke."

With that, he drifted to sleep.