This story was written because the idea wouldn't leave me alone. To be entirely honest, parts of it aren't up to par, but for some reason, I just didn't feel like writing anything else. So, I've mostly decided to use this as an experiment in planning several chapters out entirely in advance. It seems to have worked, since I've written about 32k words for it 7 days.

I'm unsure how long my motivation for this fic will last. I might not get any more chapters out after the first three, which are already written, for some time, if I just plain don't feel like writing. With that in mind, without further ado, here's the story.

After a short disclaimer, anyway.

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mahsima. I do not claim in any way shape or form that I have any ownership over the aforementioned series.

Chapter 1

January 12, X782

The snow fell lightly to the ground, as he and his Guild Master traversed the path through the forest. It was dark, and the trees were tall, but the path was still visible. They were lucky it had only just begun to snow. Though it was cold and wet, he was not bothered by such small things, even with his lack of suitable clothing. Not since he had gained this body anyway.

Mentally, he grimaced, as he looked at his arms. They covered fur almost as white as the snow that was currently falling. He cursed his arrogance and stupidity, he should've known that once he inhabited it, he would not be able to leave it. Now, his true body was lost to him and he was human no more. Still, at least this boy came with some benefits.

Behind his sunglasses, his eyes idly flicked towards his Master, wondering how he was dealing with the weather. Though the man was dressed much more warmly than himself, under all of that armor, he should still be feeling the cold. Yet not a hint of discomfort was shown.

Of course, knowing Master Hades, he's probably using a bit of fire magic to warm himself.

His Master was a very powerful Mage, who had probably forgotten more about magic than 10 mages put together ever even learned of. In fact, he was the one who had taught the furred man the magic that had gotten him this body in the first place. Still, even knowing this, he couldn't keep some the doubt he had at what they were about to do to himself.

"Master Hades, are you sure this will work? I know we've been working on this project for months, but still…"

The other mans long beard twitched as he spoke, his one eye not covered by an eye patch swerving to him. "Zoldeo, are you so unsure of the work we've put into this? Quite a bit of the work done on this ritual was done by yourself, afterall. I merely looked it over and nudged you in the right directions. And, if it does work, there is no end to the possibilities it has.

If you are still unsure, I will assure you that, at the very least, neither of us will die."

That was something, he guessed. Giving out a grunt confirming he had heard the man, Zoldeo's thoughts turned towards the ritual. It was something he had thought of while reading in the vast library held within their Guild's Airship. He had come across mentions of a place called Edolas, which turned out to be a parallel universe to their own. It had gotten him curious as to whether or not there may be any warriors of that dimension he could use for his magic, Human Subordination. However, Further reading revealed, that there were no real mages in that universe, the residents having to rely on magic items. There could still be some fierce warriors there, he supposed, but it was not worth the effort. Besides, his mind had gone in a different direction, towards an idea.

He had brought this idea to Master Hades, who would most likely have the best knowledge on whether or not it was possible and how to achieve it. Apparently, his idea had gotten his Master's interest and had quickly gone about helping in bringing it about. After months of work, they had finally done enough for their first attempt.

A Ritual to summon a warrior from a different universe, which would then be put under his Human Subordination Magic. That was their goal, for the night.

Which is what led him to now, he and Master Hades on their way to one of the safehouses for their guild had. They had been set up in the unlikely case they ever had to hide. Not that they ever expected to use them, but their Guild Master was thorough. Since they were all out of the way, they had decided to use one, just in case the ritual went wrong. It would not to, to destroy their main headquarters, which was currently hovering about, up in the clouds.

Speaking of our destination…

Indeed, it seemed they were finally coming upon the chosen site for the ritual. He could see the safehouse now. It wasn't much, nothing but large cabin set at the base of the mountain, but it would do. There was supposed to be a secret basement, much larger than the actual cabin itself, built underneath. That would be the place for the ritual.

Mentally, Zoldeo grinned in anticipation of getting a new servant.

Elemental Countries, Konoha

Can't say I was doing anything particularly noteworthy, when it happened. In fact, all I was doing was playing poker. Sure, maybe someone else would find the fact that there were three other me's also playing peculiar, but for me, this wasn't all that out of the norm. Actually, this was my weekly poker night.

Though I was never able to figure out who won these games...except for the times when my buddy Kurama took over one of my clones and even then, there was some confusion.

Anyway, there I was, playing poker in my apartment with my clones. The apartment was clean, for once, and the window was open, letting in the summer breeze and the smell of the market down below. It also let me see the mountain, with five big, imposing heads carved into it. I could also see the setting sun.

Man, that real-estate agent was right, it was nice view. Made me glad I'd bought this place when the village was rebuilt after that incident with Pein a couple years ago.

Now, one may ask, why was I playing poker with myself? Well, the answer to that question was a simple one. I wasn't allowed at the unofficially-official Jonin poker game held every Saturday, after my first three games. Apparently, if you win too much at poker your friends start to hate you. Especially after you clean them out of all their money three weeks in a row.

Back to matters at hand, I looked at my...well, hand. Hrmm, a pair of Red 6's, a 7 of Clubs, a 2 of Clubs and an Ace of Spades. I got rid of the 2 and the Ace and got an 8 of Spades and a 6 of Clubs in return.

Looking up from my hand, I squinted at my clones, trying to discern whatever I could. The one directly in front of me was squinting too, while the one to my left was staring at me coolly. With only one left, I looked at the clone to my right. Right away, I could tell he was shifty, his eyes glancing one way and then another. It seemed he noticed me as he turned his gaze towards me as I squinted at him harder. From the corner of my eyes, I could see the other clones take notice and start staring at him as well.

The shifty-eyed clone was sweating now, but he didn't let it deter him as he laid down his bet. My other clones were not be outdone, as they both raised until it was my turn. Of course, I wasn't gonna let my own clones show me up, so I raised as well. Finally, it was time to show our hands.

By some unspoken signal, we all laid down our cards on the small table we were sitting at. Immediately, we all crouched over to see who had won. Squinty Clone had a pair of 3's, Shifty had three 4's and the last clone had...a bunch of Old Maid cards?! I didn't even own Old Maid cards!

Still, it dawned on me that I was the winner and I reacted as befitting a Jonin of Konoha and a Hero of the Fourth Shinobi World War. By Jumping up and gloating.

"Hah! I win suckers! None of you can match my magnificent glory!" This was said while I was pointing at them with a gloating smirk. I preened under their glares and angry mutterings as I strutted around the room.

Naturally, it was at this moment that I started to feel it. It started as a kind of tingling in between my shoulderblades, but slowly spread and intensified. Soon, it was over my whole back, and instead of tingling it was more of an itch and it was only getting worse. I'd started rubbing at the itch, but it wasn't helping.

From where I was standing, I saw my clones staring at me, when one of them spoke up, "Boss, what's going on? You look like there's something wrong."

The itch had turned into more of a burn now and it was making me sweat a bit. I'd stopped trying to itch it, because it just wasn't working, It had also started to spread to my chest and neck. Looking down, I was surprised. Over my green Jonin vest, there were a bunch glowing purple lines, inching across my body. For a second, I thought it was some kind of fuuinjutsu, but quickly realized there were none of the signs one would see in a Seal. On the other side of room, my clones had realized there was something seriously wrong and had gotten up to come over.

I tried to move myself, but found that I couldn't. Muscles tense and strained, I tried my all to break out of whatever this was. My teeth clenched, both in effort and pain as the burning crept to an all time high. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was being roasted by one of Sasuke's fireballs. Still, if I couldn't break out of this on my own, maybe a bit of help was required. With that in mind, I turned my attention inward, to contact the one friend who was always with me.

Kurama! Do you have any idea what the fuck this is? And do you think I could get some help here!

From the recesses of my mind, I heard a low growl and felt a rush of pleasant coolness spread through my body, a sharp contrast with the heat, as lessened the burning and strengthening my body. I could even feel the familiar flame-like chakra wrap around me. But the glowing lines were still there. My attention was still focused within, however, even as my efforts doubled, waiting for the dark, growling voice of Kurama.

I do not know what this is. It is not something I have encountered before. However...from what I can tell, it has the sense of something akin Time and Space Technique. I'd be careful, brat.

Time and Space? Damnit, I knew I should've looked into those more. Everyone knows they were a pain in the ass to deal with when fighting Obito. Of course, I was lucky Kurama was sensitive to chakra and energy in general, or I wouldn't even know as much about what these lines were as I did. Still, it just made it that much more prudent to break out of this as quickly as I could

I let out a sound akin to a growl, from where I had managed to crouch near the floor, the sound deeper than normal thanks to Kurama's chakra. My clones had reached me at this point as well, and all three were straining to help me move, but it was like moving through molasses. Well, if this was something like Hiraishin or Kamui, I'd probably find myself somewhere unpleasant if I couldn't get out of this, so at this point, the best I could do was prepare.

Turning my head, I barked out an order to one of my clones. "You! Go and get my kunai pouch and sealing kit!"

The clone quickly scurried off to fulfill its order and quickly returned with the requested items. I had to have the clone strap them to my leg, because I couldn't do it myself. At least now I had something defend myself with, wherever I ended up. Looking at one of the other clones, I told it to go write down what was happening and then bring it to the first person he recognized out in the village. There was no telling how long this thing had until it was complete.

Though from the look of the lines, it seemed like it may be soon. They had finally reached my hands, legs and face and the burning was getting through even Kurama's chakra. And did I also mention they were starting to spark? Yep, the lines were letting out small sparks of what looked like purple lightning. Felt like lightning too, from the numbing, current like sensation I was feeling. Combined with the burning, it was highly unpleasant.

Vaguely, I noticed that a circular ring had formed over the center of my chest and was filling in quickly. Once the ring had become a full circle, the dark, glowing purple color seemed to darken and...sink. That was the only way to describe it, it sunk into my chest and changed into a pure black, instead of purple. The sinking continued and it was like looking down a dark hole, or into a pitch black cave that just kept going and going going. I felt like I could probably stick my whole arm in there and not even come close to reaching the end.

This sinking sensation went on for what felt like forever, but what was probably only a few seconds. Hell, this whole ordeal had probably only taken a minute or two at most. Finally, however, the feeling...stopped. Like it had reached it's destination, as if it had simply been digging a hole through a wall and had gotten to the other side, it stopped.

And then, from the center of what I now knew to be a hole, not a circle, my chest started to disappear. As in, I could see through myself, as if I wasn't even there. And it was spreading. It also hurt like a bitch. Despite myself, I couldn't help but let out a sharp grunt of pain, as my body slowly faded away.

First my chest, then my shoulders and thighs and then my feet, arms and neck. And finally, it reached my face.

Dimly, I heard the front door of my apartment slam open as feet ran into my living room. Glancing in that direction, the last sight I saw before my eyes started to fade away was the horrified faces of my old teammates, all of them carrying bowls of ramen in their arms. For some reason, I couldn't help the feeling this would be the last time I saw them. Well, he supposed he should say something suitably awesome, just in case.

With half of my face now faded away, I opened what was left of my mouth in a large grin and said "Save me some ramen for when I get back, will ya?"

And then all I saw was darkness. For one, inexplicable, agonizing moment that felt like an infinity that it just may have been, there was nothing but darkness...and pain. It was as if every part of my body was being ripped in every possible direction simultaneously. In that moment, I thought I'd just dissolve into a vaguely Naruto-shaped cloud of particles and then disperse out into the void. The pain was immense. Worse than anything I'd ever felt before -and I'd felt a lot of pain, in my career as a Shinobi- and probably worse than any pain I'd feel in the future. If I even had a future.

Then, finally, it stopped and it felt like my body 'snapped!' back into place, like a rubber band contracting back from being stretched. Even though there was some leftover fog of disorientation from the pain, I could still notice a curious falling feeling. Compared to to the torture of before, the difference was startlingly peaceful.

It also gave me a moment to talk to Kurama.

Damnit Kurama, do you have any idea what this is? This doesn't feel like any Space/Time technique I've ever been hit with! Not even the Kamui felt like this!

The Kyuubi's response was quick, and I heard the growling voice once more.

As I said before, it still has the sense of Space and Time….but it is much more powerful than I imagined. Whatever this is, it is a technique like no other we have seen. I can only imagine where we might end up.

Naruto! I'll warn you now, it is quite likely we won't end up on a plane of existence we are familiar with. You must be ready anything.

I couldn't help letting out a mental grunt of annoyance and frustration. Though I wasn't normally all that focused or tended to pay any mind to a lot of things, over the past few years I had calmed down a lot from compared to when I was younger. I wasn't an idiot anymore, especially after I had started to learn the Art of Sealing. It didn't escape me as to what Kurama was alluding to.

Dimensional Travel. Alternate Universes. Divergent Timelines. Call it what you want, but the premise was the same. Of course, despite being what almost all Space/Time techniques strived to be, it was supposed to be impossible. Most Space/Time techniques created a pocket dimension or otherwise worked within our own universe. As far as I knew, no one had been able to breach the wall to a whole new dimension.

Which said a lot about the guy on the other side of this technique.

There was nothing I could do about it right now, however, so I simply did my best to relax and prepare myself.

Earthland

The large, intricate magical circle on the floor was glowing a bright dark-purple color and sparking wildly. It was also giving off a bit of a gust that made Zoldeo -or Caprico as he preferred in this body- glad for his sunglasses. As always, Master Hades didn't seem at all ruffled from the chaos their ritual had brought about to their surroundings.

Caprico's eyes took in the five knocked over braziers, the ashes spilled onto the floor. There were deep gouges in the beige walls of the room, some of them letting out tufts of wispish smoke. To his displeasure, a gust of wind sent some smoke and ashes towards his face. Though he didn't need to protect his eyes, the smoke made his nose itch unpleasantly and it almost made him want to sneeze.

Still, at least the ritual seemed to have been a success. There had been a bit of resistance, at first, but they had kept going and it had paid off. Whoever they had snatched should be on their way now. Though he was aware of the fact that there was very little chance that who they summoned was a warrior of skill, he couldn't help but hope to add a powerful new minion to his magic. This was simply a test run, though, to see if the concept would even work. It was not yet refined enough to be able narrow down the kind of people summoned.

There's always next time, I suppose…

The furred man was taken from his musing as the circle glowed even more brightly, a sign that it was almost complete. He couldn't keep himself from leaning forward slightly in anticipation. Who would arrive from their summons? A Man? A Woman? His mind was full of possibilities.

From where the circle lay on the ground, the glow reached a peak and...rose. It started to solidify, taking on a more plasma like quality and the sparks of purple electricity rose with it. Slowly, the light started to take the shape of an average sized man. As the seconds ticked by, the mass of lightly slowly gained more and more definition, the face becoming more distinct and muscle becoming noticeable.

Finally, the glowing started to die down, along with the wind and crackles of electricity. In its place, stood a man, of average height and who seemed to have a lean, muscular build. If he had to guess, he'd say the man focused on keeping his body agile and flexible, but that did not mean he lacked strength. And if that wasn't clue enough that this man was used to fighting, then the pouches full of knives haphazardly strapped to his black pant legs on either side, were. As far as clothing went, there was the aforementioned black pants and pouches, with bandages wrapped around the shins. He was wearing a black shirt with an orange spiral on the front, that was partially covered by an open green flak jacket.

His blonde hair was shaggy and spiked, some of it falling down over the headband that had a metal plate with a symbol engraved upon it. From what he could tell, some the hair may have been tied in a small tal in the back. On his face were six curious whisker-like marks. Blue eyes were flicking around the room, taking in the surrounding, but never keeping Caprico and Master Hades out of his line of sight.

This man was definitely a warrior. Caprico couldn't help the grin that formed on his face, as he raised his hand in preparation to use his magic. As he gathered the energy needed to subordinate this man, he came across a surprise. His arm wavered for second as he registered it.

Whoever this person they summoned was, his existence registered as both Human and Not at the same time.

His grin widened, as he raised his arm once more. He had been getting tired of this body anyway.

With Naruto

Ow! Fuck that hurts! Going from pure darkness to a bright ass light was killer on the eyes. I had to blink some spots out of my vision, in order to see. Still, even though I was temporarily blind, I was not deprived of all my senses. There were two other people here with me, wherever here was. At least I wasn't being immediately attacked.

That didn't mean I was going to let my guard down, of course, as I mentally nudged Kurama. The smallest flicker of his chakra had just barely hit my coils, before my eyes were quickly clearing up. With that, I could finally get a good look at where I had ended up and who had caused it.

I'm a tad sad that it took me a moment to fully realize exactly what I was seeing. I mean, the room was normal enough, if you ignored the weird, intricate circle on the floor (Which I mentally noted bore a kind of resemblance to the lines that had appeared on my body) and the gouges all over the place. Even the knocked over braziers added a bit of definition to the place. It really gave a kind of crazed, cultish ritual vibe to the place.

No, the thing that took me a moment to comprehend were the people. The one to my right wasn't too weird, considering the kind of people I've met before. Not that there was much worse than green spandex. He was tall and elderly and built like a brickhouse from what I could discern. In that regard, he kind of reminded me of Jiraiya, though he was obviously older than that old perverted hermit had been. There was also an eyepatch and a horned helmet and I could see the man's long beard. And I mean long. I don't think I've ever met a person with a beard that long. Most of his form was covered in a dark cape and and a mantle, but I could see gauntlets covering his crossed arms, as well as a dark shirt. His pants were a shade of white with dark red flames at the bottom. Lastly, he was wearing boots.

The other one...The other one was a goat. There was no other way to say it. I couldn't help but stare at him a bit, from the corners of my eyes, as I took in every detail I could of the surroundings. Goat-man was wearing something that looked like a modified tux for a male-stripper. That was probably the best way to describe it. It reminded me of Sai, in a bad way.

He got points for the cool shades, though.

There was a moment of tension, neither side doing anything but observing the other. And then the Goat-man raised an arm. The action made me tense in preparation, ready for a fight. However, for a second, the Goat paused as if something had surprised him, before a grin formed upon his face and the arm raised once more.

Now, I was ready for a lot of things, but I did not expect a burst of some weird purple energy that was most definitely not chakra to blast from Goat-man's hands and envelop me.

This was where things got weird. There was a curious, yet familiar sensation, like someone pouring cold water directly on my brain. It was very, very similar to Yamanaka mind-techniques. Specifically, their Shintenshin.

That was both good and bad. On the bad side, that meant this guy was probably an interrogator, much like many of the Yamanaka of Konoha were. On the good side, I had experience with Yamanaka techniques. Over the years, me and Kurama had gotten quite good at keeping others out of our heads.

Mentally, I grimaced and got ready for a sinking sensation of a different kind. There was always a difference when it came to techniques like this, a result of different people having different ways of doing things. Some were like sledgehammers, slamming into the mind with no subtlety or style. Others were more like a poison, slithering it's way through the mind without notice until it was too late. Still, there was always a single thing they had in common and that was how they ended. As a person adept at giving things names, I had personally termed it as "The Sink." Like the name implies, it was sensation akin to sinking, but not as if you were in water. No, it was more like how one would imagine water going down a drain, slowly spiralling downwards.

That's what I was prepared for, anyway. It seemed this place was full of surprises, as instead of getting flash of pain, or an unpleasant slithering sensation the surroundings around me disappeared. The gouged walls were replaced by a foggy expanse that had zero visibility beyond a few feet. As far as I could tell, the fog went on forever.

Despite myself, I took a step back at the change. My first thought was that it was an illusion and I quickly attempted to dispel it. Unfortunately, that did not work, whether because it was formed from a different type of energy or if it was simply not an illusion, I didn't know. (Though if it wasn't an illusion, I had no idea what it was) I could hear an echoing voice now, though the words weren't anything I recognized. Sounded like the voice was gloating though. The prick.

"Che. Damnit, what the hell is this?"

The surroundings were a bit different now, as the voice continued talking. There were blurred outlines of what looked like ruins, with toppled over pillars here and there, some of them still standing. As I looked around, tense and waiting, the shadows cast by the pillars all flickered and then moved until they were all pointing towards me. It would've reminded me Shikamaru's techniques, if not for the fact they were rising off of the ground!

Slightly taken aback once more, the shadows were able to fully form in a circle around me, each in the outline of the Goat-man. Or they were, until the shadows changed once more, into the outline of a more normal looking man.

And then they attacked. It wasn't a physical attack, they didn't come charging at me to fight or anything. No, they attacked my will, symbolized by the Shadow-figures own even darker shadows slowly getting closer to me. And I finally understood.

Unlike the Yamanaka who utilized and attacked the mind -Conscious and Subconscious- by projecting their own towards their target via creating a link with Yin-chakra, this crazy fucker had just thrown his whole damn soul at me. Yamanaka techniques were not, precisely, a battle of wills. Not always, at least. It was more like them attacking a castle, finding a way inside to occupy it. In comparison, this was like throwing a castle at his own castle, but not, at the same time. Because this guy was no longer a "Castle," but a "Cage." If a regular person had been able or willing to do what he just did, it would a straight up fight of wills, with the winner taking the body and the loser getting their ejected soul torn to shreds. But because this guy was a cage, instead of going head to head, my will was being subverted and restrained.

That didn't mean I didn't give the guy a fight. If there was one thing I'd never lack in, it was willpower. Though I'd found I couldn't move from my place, I could still push the shadows back by imagining it. Obviously, It was much harder than it sounded. This guy was no pushover, either. I could tell the guy was surprised, but after what sounded like an echoing angry curse, his own efforts doubled.

The fight went on for a while, both of us straining our wills. I hated to say it, but I was losing. In addition to the nature of this guy's attacks, I had to spread myself out against several different directions. The Shadows were most likely some kind focus for his will, enhancing it. And they surrounded me on all sides. Not to mention, sometimes I'd have to focus on one specific shadow as the strength behind it's push increased, allowing my attention to waver and letting one or more of the others close in.

By the time I was completely covered by the shadows, and I felt myself slipping while… something slithered in and tried to restrain me, I was angry. At this guy and at myself, for not acting quicker. I should've attacked this guy and the other one the first chance I got, and asked questions later. Once this was over, that was going to be rectified. But before that, I had to beat this guy back.

Heh, if this guy wants to cage us so bad, maybe he should meet the occupants first! The thought made me grin, as I let go of the battle. I'd been stupid, fighting this on my own, when I could've called in backup, but I hadn't expected the guy to have such a strong will, despite my own being slowly sapped. That made me kick myself, because hadn't I already thought that this place was becoming more and more surprising by the second? And it made sense this guy would have a strong will, if his techniques relied on it so heavily.

As I seemed to give up, more and more shadows appeared and swarmed me, but I didn't let it bother me as I took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and concentrated even as I felt the glee of the other guy at 'winning.' When I opened my eyes, I was in a familiar place.

The water that had always been here was clearer than it had been just a couple years ago, not as murky. That wasn't what I was here to see, however, so I turned around, towards utterly the massive chamber behind me. Gates that had once been strong, unyielding metal were now a soothing, carved, red wood. Oh, and they were open.

I gave the giant beast in front of me a glare, as I huffed in annoyance. "You could have helped at any time, you know!'

The damned furry bastard had the audacity to chuckle. Stupid smug fox. Looking at Kurama, I could tell he was taking a bit of pleasure in my predicament. He had calmed down significantly in the last few years as well, but my friend still had to tendency to be extremely frustrating. I'm fairly sure it was how he entertained himself.

Currently, he was lying down on his stomach, one of his large floppy ears crooked forward and the other out to the side. His large red eyes held a glimmer of humor. Again, I assumed the humor was at my expense. Kurama's large chasm of a mouth, filled with teeth the size of stalactites, were easily visible as he responded to my accusation, "It wasn't as if you were ever in any real danger. This man's technique may be dangerous to any one person, but even if he gained full control, it would not be out of our reach to eject him at any time, if we worked together."

The fox used one of his hind legs to scratch behind his ear, his head tilted to the side. When he was done, he looked at me once more.

"Besides, I thought it was funny."

My glare intensified, as I pouted a little. Sure, now that he mentioned it, that was about right, but it was still mean. I even told him so.

"Deal with it, brat."

I let out a sigh and relaxed my stance, giving Kurama a cool look. The worry I hadn't realized I'd been feeling had slipped away with the knowledge the Goat-man wasn't a threat. It didn't mean I wasn't still pissed at the attempted hostile takeover of my body, though. It was mine after all.

And occasionally Kurama's, but that was besides the point.

"Kurama. Let's make this guy regret it."

There was a rumbling chuckle from the massive fox, the light hearted humor that had been there before now replaced with something darker. "I knew there was a reason I put up with you."

Vengeance was never really my thing. I wasn't usually the kind of guy to take pleasure in the suffering of others, at least, not serious suffering. But the years after the fight with Obito and Madara had been hard and maybe I'd grown just a tad bit more jaded. Despite the fact that the five major Shinobi Villages had kept the alliance going, there had still been voices of dissension. They were the minority in their respective villages, but they had still been pockets of unrest. Several groups had splintered from their own villages and had tried to rekindle the war that had just ended.

Each and every group had been labeled as terrorists, much like the Akatsuki had been. The last two years had been almost entirely devoted to hunting them down. Even now, however, there were still some groups that were active and eluded the grasp of the Shinobi Alliance. Which said something to their ability, because not only were they fighting off their own villages, as well as the others, but also the other terrorist groups.

All of them had caused some kind chaos and pain, in some way. Some more than others. I'd seen the aftermath of many of the attempts of their fruitless efforts to spark a war. It had been why I'd personally helped take down seven of the different groups, each of various sizes and threat.

So if I was just a tad bit more cruel, just a tad bit more vicious, it was because maybe I had bought in to Pein's methods, if just a little. I'd never go as far as he had, but sometimes people just didn't learn.

Madara certainly hadn't.

I didn't particularly know this guy, or the things he'd done. But I could make some assumptions. The way those shadows had changed to a more human form suggested that the Goat-man body I had first seen him in wasn't his original. Which means this guy had used the technique to take it over, like he was attempting to do to me. There was no telling how many people this guy had possessed.

Not right now, at least.

It was time for my counter-attack, however, so I put that aside for the time being. I closed my eyes once more, but this time, I pulled. When I opened my eyes this time, I was in a completely black space. Despite the lack of light, my form was perfectly visible. And so was the guy I had yanked from his gloating.

He didn't look like much. Scrawny build, average face, and long puffy black hair, held up by a red and white head-band in something that slightly resembled a hair-style from Kumo I'd seen. A long purple tunic covered his chest and most of his legs, but under it he wore a white shirt and purple pants. Perhaps the most interesting feature was was the stitches along his face that reminded me unpleasantly of Kakuzu.

"So, this what you really look like huh? Heh, I can see why you'd take even a goat over this."

The man barely seemed to have heard him, looking around frantically with surprise and a hint of fear. That was probably gonna get worse in a second.

"I doubt you even know what I'm saying, but you really shouldn't have tried to take over my body. It's mine, you see and I already have to share with an annoying ass fox. And you know what they say, two's company, but three's a crowd."

My face was utterly impassive as the man finally decided to take notice of me, but by then it was too late. I watched as the terror entered his eyes, as what I knew to be giant, malevolent, red eyes opened behind me. The guy's terror grew even more when a mouth full of large, sharp, white teeth appeared in a hungry grin.

Idly, I could feel my own consciousness and will connect to Kurama's, as our goal synchronized. I could Kurama's mouth widen as if it was my own, the muscles in the jaw tightening, while shoulders tensed in preparation for a lunge. When Kurama darted forward, it was not just him directing the actions, but myself as well. And though I grimaced when the jaws of Kurama's muzzle clamped down on the man, I forced myself to keep the connection. The snapping of bones as they were crunched was as unpleasant as nails on a chalkboard and I could taste the copper tang of blood in my mouth.

Probably the worst part was knowing that since this was all mental and symbolic, the man could still feel everything, even as we took part of his very essence in the act of destroying him. Already, I could feel his memories flowing into me.

Though I found it distasteful, -because this man would most likely disappear before his memory returned- it was necessary and a consequence of the nature of this man's attack. I couldn't perform the Shintenshin or any of the techniques created by the Yamanaka, but I knew how to defend my mind. It was a mandatory training for anyone of Special Jonin Rank or Above, as well as for the ANBU. Though I'd never be able to do any Yamanaka Techniques, I could turn an attack like this to my advantage.

Normally, even if I did something like this, the person I was counter-attacking wouldn't lose their memory. But this guy had thrown his soul at me and that was quite a bit more dangerous, to both the victim and user. The memories still would've returned...eventually, but this guy would most likely have no body once he was ejected. They'd still erode within my own mind though and much quicker than they would have returned to this guy.

Part of what made the Yamanaka Clan so prominent, was the fact that they were the only ones who could use their techniques to full effect. It was why none of their techniques were secret and could be taught to most anybody. Their minds were naturally structured in such a way that they could retain any information they stole from the minds of others. For a non-Yamanaka, they'd disappear in a couple hours, if done right, which was usually enough time to write down whatever information they needed from their captive. For that reason, it never really came up much, because even if you missed something, the target was usually already a captive and the technique could be used again.

Now, sometimes, there were exceptions to the rule. People who were exceptionally proficient in the techniques and could retain the memories just as well as a Yamanaka. Those people were usually snatched up by the clan, made into apprentices and subtly manipulated into marrying into the family, either through themselves, or their children.

I was not one of those people. However, I had experience with the Kage Bunshin, which worked in a slightly similar way, except that I what I was getting were essentially my own memories when they dispelled. They were already mine, so there was no problem retaining them, beyond the normal forgetfulness of people. Plus, there was Kurama, who was ancient as fuck and though he was an asshole for most of his life (And still kind of was now) he was able to retain almost all of the memories that long life. This enabled us to be able to retain some information, if we could get them when someone was stupid enough to try and invade our heads.

Not that there were many people that stupid, who would try.

The point was, I had just ripped most of what made this person who he was from him and he would die before he ever got it back. And I did it, despite knowing how horrible it probably was. Though I was angry, that wasn't the main reason I did what I just did. It was because I was now in an unfamiliar place, with what were most likely unfamiliar techniques and an unfamiliar language. I needed information and even the littlest bit would help.

Turning to the now visible form of Kurama, I already knew he was done. He had apparently been staring at me, as I thought. Looking him in the eye, I gave him a nod.

"Thanks."

There was a grunt in return, as he spoke, "The information is already eroding. I doubt we even have half an hour. Any thoughts as to what we should focus on keeping?"

I consulted our new memories and saw that, yes, they were already eroding. A lot of the information there was interesting and it gave me a good perspective on what had happened. But I wouldn't be able to keep it for long.

"Our first priority is the language. We won't get anywhere here if we can't talk to the locals. After that, keep the memories of our current surroundings. If we can get to a town with a library, we can shore up on anything else we'll need to know about this place. Finally, try to keep as much about this 'Magic' stuff as you can."

Kurama gave me a nod of confirmation as he faded away. It left me alone, in this blank expanse.

I turned and and looked out into the blank darkness and let out a sigh. What I wouldn't give to just go back to my poker game.

Outside of Naruto's Soul/Mind

When I came to again, in the physical world, I could see the man I now knew to be Zoldeo's spirit being ejected from my body. It looked like a violent affair, a black, shadowy fog-like substance shooting out of me, until formed into the original body of Zoldeo. The whole time, he was screaming in agony. He hovered in the air for a couple seconds, shaking and struggling against nothing. When he hit the ground, he finally stopped his screaming, but he was still shaking, with the occasional twitch. If I didn't know better, I'd think he'd have a chance to recover.

But I could already see his body being eaten away, unable to sustain itself. Zoldeo met my eyes and I could see confusion and pain there.

"W-where am I? Who am I? Why don't I have any memories...They feel so close, like they're on the tip of my tongue, but they're just not there!" There was a crazed look to him now, as he looked straight at me, "Where are they? You know where they are don't you! Give them to me! I want them back! I want them back!" By the end, his voice was shrill and I was sure he would have attacked me if he could. However, half of his body was already gone and the rest was quickly fading away.

In the end, his death was kind of pitiful. Unable to move and not even knowing who he was. I didn't regret it though. Much as I had expected, Zoldeo had used his magic on many people and had gone through a number of bodies before finally getting stuck in Capricorn.

That reminded me to send a mental nudge to Kurama. From my new and temporary memories, I knew Capricorn didn't deserve what had happened to him and had probably been appalled at the things Zoldeo had done while in his body. If I could, I'd try and help him out. He seemed to be a decent sort.

There were more important things to deal with right now though, like the other man. From the information afforded me by Zoldeo's memories, I now knew this man as Hades. I also knew I only had moments, if I wanted to get him by surprise. The man was powerful, and I was sure if we were in my world, he would've been listed as an S-rank threati. But while he was dangerous, I was also sure I could take him.

There was one problem however. Already the information was kind of fuzzy, but there was something there. Grimoire Law. It was mainly a deterrent, but Hades would use it if he felt he needed to. Even if I went all out, and used Sage Mode and Bijuu Mode, an attack like that would still hurt, at the very least. It would also draw more attention than I really wanted. But the biggest reason was the simple fact was there a town nearby. It was barely in the radius of the spell, but I wouldn't risk it. So I had to take him out before he could use it.

To that end, I buried a fist in his gut, sending him through the ceiling of the basement. From the moment I had appeared here, he hadn't said a thing and had just watched on with curiosity as his comrade was ejected and then faded away. There had been no concern for his guild mate, not that I had expected him to show any from the memories I had of the man. And he hadn't looked at me as a threat. either, sure of his own power.

From this side of my fist, I was fairly sure he hadn't been expecting me to be as fast as I was. He hadn't been expecting an attack, per se, but he had been ready for one, if the fist in my face was any indication. I chalked that up to paranoia on his part.

Still, the old man packed a punch. The floor of the basement was cracked from where my body hit it and my cheek stung almost as badly as that time Sakura had caught me peeking. Still, I'd created some distance so it gave me a moment to prepare.

Bringing my hands into a Ram seal, I reached for my chakra and tried to perform the Kage Bunshin. At first, it seemed like it would work as I could feel the energy in my body flowing, but as I tried to form it into the technique...nothing happened. Confused, I tried again, only to get the same result. With a frown, I closed my eyes and focused my attention on what was supposed to be the flow of my chakra.

Once again, I was met with a surprise. I hadn't noticed at first, because I now had the memories of it always being this way, but where once there had been nothing, there was now what I knew to be a Magical Container within my body. It had been integrated into the chakra network and where there had once been chakra flowing through my body, there was now a different type of energy. Magical Energy.

It seemed the Mages of this world had some kind of mutated Chakra Network. Or at least, that was my theory. There were a couple other differences, but I ignored them. I wondered how this had happened, but as soon as I asked the question, I answered myself. The Magic Zoldeo had tried to use on me, Huma Raise, fused the soul of the user to a new host body. Some things were carried over to the new body, however, like a Magical System. Well, I said carried over, but it was more like the magic formed a new one if there wasn't one already there, and fused with one already in existence. There were a bunch of other variables and tidbits that went into all the intricate details, but they weren't important right now either.

What was important was that I could no longer use chakra. Which meant I couldn't use any of the abilities and techniques I had come to rely on over the years. Which also meant I was in a worse situation than I thought.

All of a sudden, my prospects for this fight didn't look so good.

Man, I'd really rather be playing poker right now.

Rubbing my face with my hand, I came to terms with the situation, at least as much as I could. I'd hoped to take Hades out, with what that guy was planning he deserved it, but I wasn't sure I could do it anymore. I had no idea how Kurama's chakra would react to this new Magical System and I had this feeling that if Kurama wasn't perfectly content (Okay, that may have been an exaggeration) in the seal, it probably would've failed. The only option I had was to use Zoldeo's magic and there were dangers to that too -like forgetting how to do a certain spell when I was right in the middle of casting it.- Nor could I use it to its full extent, as I could not call on any of the people he had 'subordinated.' Not that I would do so, even if I could.

Whatever I was going to do, I had to do it quick. Hades would probably go on the offensive in mere moments.

A glint near a pile of rubble that had fallen from the ceiling caught my eye. When I looked over there, I saw a golden key. A Golden Celestial Spirit Gate Key.

Huh, maybe I wasn't entirely screwed after all. Capricorn had been possessed by Zoldeo, and might be willing to help me out. Especially if I made him a promise to make sure I got his key to that girl Zoldeo was supposed to hold onto it for. Plus, according to Zoldeo's memories, the power of a Celestial Spirit was dependant on the power of their summoner and from what I could tell, I had even more magic than Zoldeo. (Most likely a consequence of the system forming in a body that already had an abundance of energy.) There was probably more to it than that, but it had to count for something.

Grinning, I picked up the key.

Which was when two lines of what seemed to be a kind of magical chain, a claw like grappling hook at the end of each one, came flying through the hole of the ceiling and grabbed on to me. The chains looked like a series of unconnected shards of diamond shaped magic. When the claws grabbed on to the back of my shoulder, they turned into a sharp, glowing light. I noticed all this, as the chains heaved and I was pulled into the ceiling, making another hole in the process, and out into the snow-covered forest.

Momentum carried me up into the air outside the cabin, but that was short lived as I was sent careening into the base of a large solid-looking pine tree. Unlike you'd think, this made grin. As a Ninja of Konoha, whose entire village was surrounded by trees of all types, we were taught how to use the terrain to our advantage. How to scale them without the aid of chakra, the best way to get from one branch to another and how to tell if a branch would be able to carry your weight. Things like that.

We were also taught how to handle being knocked into a tree, as being attacked in a mid-air was quite likely while fighting amongst the branches. As long as you had the presence of mind, as well as the necessary reflexes to maneuver yourself in the time between then and impact, it was fairly simple. As simple as turning my body so as to hit the tree with my feet first.

I landed like that, crouching horizontally on the trees bark, held there momentarily by the pressure momentum that I redirected to the tree so as to not be crushed. And it was a lot of momentum, as my feet splintered the tree. But I didn't let it distract me as I took hold of the magical chains and used the momentum to my advantage to pull even as I pushed at the tree with my feet.

The look on that old man's face as we went flying past each other was priceless. For my part, I just gave him a cheeky grin.

Through some more aerial maneuvering, I was able to land on my feet once more and facing the direction I'd sent Hades off into. My feet skidded along the snow covered ground, the snow pluming as the momentum attempted to carry me further. At the same time, I heard a crash and saw a large cloud of dust, off into the forest and the chains that had still been connected to my back had disappeared. It seems I had bought myself a little more time.

Not that my last reprieve had bought me as much as I had first expected or would've liked. Still, I took the moment to check if I had any injuries. My back was sore and probably bruised, but I could tell it was already healing, if a tad slower than usual. There was also a discomforting crick in my neck now and I just knew that wasn't gonna go away until after I had fell asleep. Neck pains were just a bitch like that. Other than that, there weren't any more injuries.

Which was surprising. Even with my natural durability as a Jinchuuriki and Shinobi, I'd expected there to be a bit more. Not even my cheek was bruised from that first punch. I took a small moment to contemplate it and was able to answer myself again.

It seemed Magical Energy was better for enhancing one's durability and strength than chakra. All Shinobi were able to augment their muscles to some degree through use of chakra, but it was a subconscious thing. Only Tsunade and Sakura were able to truly take that to the max and control it. The same thing seemed to be happening here, a subconscious augmentation of the body, but it was apparently also a basic technique to enhance it to a further degree using magic. Though not everyone had the same talent for it, most every Mage was able to do it to some degree beyond the subconscious reinforcement of musculature and bones.

Still, I shook myself and zoned into to the present. While it was useful to know, I needed to focus. The memories were distracting, which was another reason the technique was primarily used for interrogation. This was the moment I needed to try and up my odds of survival.

I reached into the pocket of my vest where I had stored the key and took it out. According to that one memory, I should be able to communicate with the spirit, by using the key.

Drawing my eyebrows together, I stared at the key and shouted. In my head.

Oy, Goatface! Can you hear me?

!

Somehow, I was able to get the impression the key -or more correctly, the spirit on the other side of the gate this key opened- was surprised someone was talking to him. Which was good, because it means I wasn't shouting at myself. Well, Kurama could probably hear me too, but that didn't count.

Look, I know you just got possession of your body back, but do you think you could help me out? That Zoldeo guy is gone, but his Master is still here.

…

If you help, I'll promise to do my best to get your key to that girl! That's what you promised to that Layla chick, right?

This was the iffy part of my haphazard, thrown together plan-that-wasn't-much-of-a-plan. If Capricorn refused to help, I wasn't gonna force him. I wasn't that kind of guy. And If I survived, I'd still try and get this key to its rightful owner anyway, but he didn't need to know that.

...Very well.

Grinning, I held out my arm with key in hand, as if putting it in a lock. As I turned my arm, I let my magic flow in a certain way that was so familiar and yet not at the same time. It didn't feel like I had done this dozens or hundreds of times, but I still knew what to do. With magic taking effect, I called out, "Gate of The Goat, Open! Capricorn, come forth!"

The recitation of words caused the key to start glowing with a golden light, and in a flash, I was no longer standing alone. Looking to my right, was Capricorn, still fading in from the Spirit World in a shower of golden motes. He was dressed differently than when he was possessed by Zoldeo and I recognized it as his usual state of dress. Where Zoldeo had dressed as something akin to a male stripper, Capricorn was dressed in something befitting a butler, in a twin-tailed suit. Despite how constricting it looked, I knew he had full range of movement. He was also still wearing those awesome shades.

Cracking him a grin as I pocketed the key once more, I said, "Thanks for being willing to help. I could really use it against this guy."

Capricorn simply gave me a nod, as he responded, "It is the duty of a Celestial Spirit to aid their summoner when needed. Though you have created no contract, you have done me a boon in freeing me, even if inadvertently. It is only right that I aid you now."

He tilted his head, as he added, as if in an afterthought, "Of course, if you want to summon me again before I am able to reach Miss Lucy, we must make a contract."

Any conversation after that was interrupted as several purple rings appeared around us. Out of reflex, I motioned to Capricorn move and though it was a signal we used in Konoha, he seemed to get the idea. We both sped from where we had previously been standing in opposite directions, him to the right and myself to the left. The moment we were in the clear was the same moment the circle activated and a large spherical ball of purple light exploded into being. It threw me further than I intended in my dash from from the circle.

Landing in a roll, I was barely able to avoid a barrage of purple orbs of light. The orbs kept coming and I'd taken out a kunai to try and deflect a few. It seemed to be working, but it didn't look like the kunai would be able to take it for long. Still, I kept it up and tried to regroup with Capricorn, who seemed to be having an easier time dodging than myself.

That was to be expected, I suppose, as Celestial Spirits were immensely powerful and only really limited by their summoners. I guess that meant I hadn't screwed up with the summoning.

Finally though, my kunai broke under the strain I was putting it through and some of the blasts of light made it through. Each one felt like I was getting slugged by a blunt kunai. In other words, they stung like a bitch.

I didn't bother pulling out another kunai, as it would have been a waste. Instead I just kept dodging to the best of my ability, while Capricorn and I tried our best to move forward. It took a bit of doing, but soon we had hit a stride and started working together, each of us moving in a zigzagging path that crossed each other. We had to time it just right so as to not get hit, but we finally made it past line of trees that led into the forest.

When we passed, the barrage stopped and we came face to face with Hades once more. He had started to chuckling as we came to a stop, an unspoken pause to the battle.

"I'm impressed. Not only did you resist Zoldeo's Huma Raise, but you have secured the Spirit as an Ally. Though I find it curious that you were able to use Celestial Spirit Magic. Did they have similar magic in your world? Are you even able to understand me?"

Well, we did have summoning techniques in my world, but they were quite a bit different to Celestial Spirit Magic. And that reminded me that I needed to figure out what had happened to my connection to the Toads, now that I had no chakra. Anyway, there was no reason to give this guy any more information than necessary. Which was just about no information at all.

That was the idea, anyway, but my mouth apparently had an idea of its own.

"Your buddy bit off a bit more than he could chew. And of course I can understand you; unlike your wrinkly old ass, my hearing isn't giving out."

Mentally, I grimaced at not being able to keep my mouth shut, but I also couldn't help the small grin that appeared on my face. The look that had appeared on Hades' face was worth it.

I wasn't just being a smart-ass though, as I was gathering magic in preparation. As with summoning Capricorn, the sensation was both familiar and not, as I subtly used the very same Human Subordination Magic Hades had taught to Zoldeo. He'd probably figure out what was going on at some point, and that might tip him off on what exactly had happened when Zoldeo had attempted to possess me...But I couldn't afford to not go all out.

At this point, my goal was to simply get away. Hades was powerful and if I didn't have a big enough head start, he'd catch up in no time. Luckily for me, all I really needed to do was reach the nearby town. Grimoire heart's biggest protection at the moment was no one knowing where they were and the fact that despite being one of the most dangerous Dark Guilds, they stayed relatively below radar. Most of the time anyways.

The point was, if the town nearby was destroyed, Grimoire Heart would need to stay as low key as possible for awhile. Not many Dark guilds were able to destroy a town, especially one that was home to a Rune Knight Outpost.

And in all honesty, I wasn't much of a threat to his plans or his guild. The fight was more because I'd attacked him, than it was about the potential of me telling someone Grimoire Heart had been near here. That would be an annoyance at most, much less than the manhunt that would ensue if he destroyed that town like he had so many others. They'd avoid it of course, like they had all the other ones, but it would cause them to halt any other plans they had going on at the moment.

Hades spoke once more, a frown on his face. "So, that's how we're going to go about this then? I was hoping we might be able to talk peacefully, but you seem disinclined. Such a waste of potential." At that, the man shook his head and started gathering magic at the point of his finger.

It was close. I had an instant to move as a sharp white line blasted towards me. As I started to dodge to my left, the magic shot passed my shoulder, where my head had been less than half a second before. And that was with Human Subordination magic weakening the guy. If I hadn't started using it, I'd most likely be dead right now.

But I wasn't and the fight was still on. While I had dodged, Capricorn had shot forth and engaged in hand to hand. The old man was decent, but the Spirit obviously had the advantage. With a grin, I joined in.

A leaping stride brought me close, just as Hades blocked a punch to his chest and I took the opportunity to land a kick to his his ribs. To his credit, the Dark Mage only gave out a grunt and a slight widening of his eyes. Using the momentum from my kick, I flipped myself into the air to try and land a heel drop on his shoulder, but my leg was caught by his hand.

Not missing a beat, Capricorn tried to swiftly knee the man in his other ribs, but that, too, was caught. With one hand, he pushed the Goat away, but when he tried to throw me like a ragdoll, I twisted to face the ground, hit the ground with the palms of my hands and used the momentum to turn my body into a spring as I used my free leg to mule kick him in the stomach. As he was forced from the ground due to the power of my kick, he released my leg and I flipped myself upright with a grimace. Twisting around like that had caused my right leg to ache fiercely and it hurt to even stand on.

Looking back to the fight, apparently Hades had used his Chain Magic to bring him back down to the ground with one hand. his other occupied with a chain that had hooked on to Capricorn who...was being thrown at me liking a wrecking ball.

My eyes widened as I braced myself to catch the Goat-man as he impacted me. The force he had been thrown with threw us both into the side of another tree. This time, I was in no state to maneuver myself and while we survived, the tree did not. There was a large 'creeeaaak,' as the tree tumbled, luckily in the other direction.

"Ugh, Goat-Face, your heavy. Get off."

From the rubble of the now destroyed tree's base, I pushed Capricorn off of me. I was fairly sure he was just dazed. As I started to stand up, my body screamed at me in protest. Not only was my back throbbing even worse than before, I'm fairly sure I had just cracked a couple ribs. I wasn't sure I could move my left shoulder fully either.

My eye for the injuries of others wasn't all that good unless the person in question was bleeding, but as far as I could tell, Capricorn was a lot better off than me.

Still, to think Hades was that strong, even under the influence of Human Subordination. I couldn't help but think that maybe I just wasn't experienced enough with it. Even though I had the memories of it, this was still only my first time actually using it. Just because I had the memories, it didn't mean I had the experience. It wasn't like the Kage Bunshin in that regard.

Speaking of, less than half of Zoldeo's memories remained at this point. I'd check to see how Kurama was doing, but I didn't want to interrupt him in the middle of his work.

A cold breeze swept through the forest, and I shuddered. I really wasn't dressed for this climate. My vest was covered in various seals that I'd added to it as I was learning Fuuinjutsu, several of them all aimed towards keeping it dry and at a comfortable temperature. But that was just one piece of clothing, it would help, but not enough. Not to mention, without being able to refresh the seals with chakra, they'd probably give out halfway through the night.

Still, that gave me an idea.

Turning to Capricorn, who looked like he had finally come to his senses, I asked, "Goat-Face, do you think you can keep tall, dark and wrinkly busy for a few moments? I have an idea."

The Spirit gave me a nod, and I noticed that one of the lenses of his sunglasses were cracked. That made me frown. Those were some awesome shades and it was sad that they'd been broken.

There was some crunching of snow from the direction we had been flung from, and I didn't need to look to know that it was Hades. Capricorn just gave me a look as he stood and then focused on the enemy.

Hades looked a little banged up, but nothing major. We had definitely come out the worse in that exchange. His wrinkled face was set in a smirk, as his one eye looked upon us.

"You survived, I see. I didn't expect any less, of course. It would be pitiful if you died to such a small love-tap. This has been amusing so far, I'd hate for it to end so shortly."

That smirk was infuriating, but I was able to hold myself back. Capricorn said nothing, but shot forwards once more. As Chain magic was shot towards him, he was able to dodge them this time and the magic faded away. It was replaced with another barrage of purple orbs, but Capricorn didn't show any panic as he made a of avoiding them, using his impressive leg power to leap from one place to another.

Inwardly, I smirked. The moment Hades had appeared, I'd started up with the Human Subordination magic again to weaken him, but this time I did my best to mimic what my memories of Zoldeo's own use of it were like. It seemed to have worked better than last time, as the Chain Magic had been just a tad off aim. They would have missed even if Capricorn hadn't dodged. And the barrage of purple orbs were slower than the first time, making them not much of a threat.

Still, there was something else I needed to do.

Reaching into my other pouch, I pulled out three rectangular slips of paper, an inkwell and a calligraphy brush.

Seals were, at their most basic, simply another way to direct energy to a certain cause. Not necessarily chakra, as I knew there existed seals that could convert regular, ordinary fire or electricity into chakra, rather than the other way around. However, as primarily a shinobi art and due to the fact chakra was so abundant, every sealing language was based on it. Every seal was meant to deal with chakra in some way.

But that didn't mean it wouldn't react to a different type of energy.

Fuuinjutsu was dangerous. Even a lot of the most basic seals touched upon Time and Space in some capacity, if only lightly. And messing around with either was asking for trouble, if you didn't know exactly what you were doing. If you messed up a Seal, there was a good chance it would literally blow up in your face. The more intricate a Seal, the bigger a chance you'd mess up and the bigger the consequences.

So, if I used a Seal meant to be used with chakra, with a different type of energy, there was a good chance it'd blow up in my face. If it was simple enough, it might even do part of what it was meant for.

Now, if that said 'simple Seal' was meant to cause explosions in the first place…

It was a gamble, I'd admit. But as far as I could tell, the worst that could happen in this situation was that they didn't work. At that point, we'd have to continue on as before and hope we got lucky, or I'd die. So I continued to start on my Seals, using my right hand to paint curving brushstrokes onto the first slip of paper, creating the symbols that would turn it into an exploding tag.

As I finished the first one, a large crash brought my attention to the fight. I was able to see a wall of purple light, that got bigger the further away it got from Hades,head for Capricorn, who was able to dodge once again and close in. As they went hand to hand once more, Capricorn got more and more hits in and I could see Hade's expression turn perplexed.

He looked at the scar in the ground, that was already being covered with snow, and then looked back to the Celestial Spirit. The puzzled expression on his face slowly melted away and turned into a frown. A glance was thrown at me and then to the Goat, and then back and forth again.

It seemed he had figured out he was being weakened, but not which one of us was doing it. That made me give an inward sigh of relief, as I finished the second tag. I immediately started on the last, as I kept some awareness of the fight.

Several orbs of light were sent at me, but I didn't move. There was no need to dodge, I could tell, and before the man could focus past the impeding influence of my magic, Capricorn had forced him into hand-to-hand once more. That gave me the time to finish, and I grinned, stashing the brush and ink back into my pouch.

Perfect timing too, as Hades had managed to push Capricorn back. He was most likely starting to counter the Human Subordination magic that was weakening him, so this fight was just gonna get harder from here on out if I didn't finish it now.

In the back of my mind, I found it fitting that this had all started when I'd been gambling for fun and now it ended on a gamble for my life.

As I arrived In front of him, I threw a punch with my bad arm, aiming at the face. When I was blocked by a forearm, I slipped under it and slapped a tag to his side, willing my magic into the Seal.

"That's for being a general dick."

I didn't stop as I stepped around to his back, slapping him with another Tag.

"That's for your minion trying to fuck with me."

Continuing on, I veritably slammed the last Seal onto his chest. Each Exploding Tag had been injected with magic and the fact they hadn't blown up yet was both good and bad. Bad, because that meant they might not work, and good because they were supposed to have a delay between being primed and the actual explosion. As I jumped away, I let out a last remark.

"And that is for interrupting my poker game!"

My feet had barely left the ground when the first tag went off. One moment, there had been nothing, and then there was a 'hiss,' 'sizzle,' 'BOOM!' as an explosion twice as big as I had expected from the tag was let out. The force of the explosion propelled me away from Hades, careening once more through the air, but also giving me some nasty burns along the way.

I was able to to turn myself so that when I landed, I was able to shoot off into the trees. There had been nothing but a moment to be able to give Capricorn a nod of thanks, that signalled I no longer needed his help. From the corner of my eye as I sped past, I saw him disappear into sparkling, golden motes.

As I fled the battle, I didn't wait to see the results of the last two explosions. Either they'd work and give me the time I needed, or they wouldn't in which case this was still probably my best chance of escape. Though fleeing left a bad taste in my mouth, I knew it was the smart thing to do.

Still, as I hopped from tree branch to tree branch, I couldn't help complaining.

"Man, and today had started out looking so good, too."

Several Minutes Later.

I had to lean against the wall of a building, to catch my breath and steady myself. Luckily, I'd managed to make it to the village. Of course, I had no idea what had happened to the guy in the weird, evil-overlord getup whose name was escaping me at the moment. It seemed the memory of the man had eroded, although there were still a few flashes of memory about him that I knew weren't mine.

At this point, all I knew was that he had pulled me from my world to this new one and that he was strong. That entire fight had taken less than 5 minutes and the guy barely had a scratch on him, right up until the end.

That thought made me grimace, as I was reminded of my own injuries. The snow and cold air were irritating my burns, which were thankfully already healing. My back still ached something fierce and as I predicted, that crick in my neck was still there. Of course, the worst injuries were my cracked ribs and I had apparently not noticed during the fight that I may have fractured my pelvis. All that hopping through the trees had only made that last one worse and by the time I arrived in the village, I had a slight limp.

Letting out a sigh, I looked up at the sky, the clouds obscuring the stars.

This wasn't my world. I needed to figure out my plan of action and my long and short term goals.

Obviously, I wanted to get home, but I doubted that would happen anytime soon. If I'd had chakra, I probably would of just spent a whole lot of time experimenting with Fuuinjutsu, completely ignoring the fact that no one before me had actually achieved traveling to a different universe. I didn't have chakra, however. Instead, I now had magic and apparently that's what a lot of this world ran on.

If I wanted to get anywhere, I needed to know how to use magic. Not just to get home, but without my chakra I was almost powerless, beyond my own physical fitness. From what little basics of the stuff I knew, it should be theoretically possible to recreate some of them, or at least find an analogue to them through magic. In my experience, you didn't have goals like mine without having to get into a few fights.

So then, I needed to know magic and how to get around in this place. It'd help to know as much as I could about this world, so as to not draw unwanted attention.

I'd also promised that Goat-face that I'd help him. The memories of exactly how were already kind of fuzzy, as if just out of reach. I was fairly sure they were there, but I'd probably need a reminder.

And at some point, I'd need to deal with Grimoire Heart. They were the ones who brought me here, from what I could remember. There was something wiggling around in my memories, something Zoldeo had studied which led to me being here, but it just wouldn't come to mind.

Another sigh escaped me, as I pushed off of the wall of the building. First things first, I needed shelter for the night.

Uzumaki Naruto was not gonna die to something as lame as hypothermia.

A/N: So, the next two chapters are already written. They just need some editing. This chapter may be liable to further edits as well down the road, but probably nothing major.

Preempting any assumptions about Naruto's magic, I'll say that his use of Human Subordination Magic and Celestial Spirit magic were a one time thing. As the story progresses, Naruto will start to recreate his techniques and gain some new ones on the way.