This is an edit. It's been improved from the original chapter. Comments and criticism remain welcome and encouraged!
'It should have been a simple mission. Deliver an illegible scroll to a scholar in a city barely an hour away. The kids had even complained about another boring mission…' Kakashi forced his questions from his mind as he quickened his pace.
He'd glimpsed blue in the middle of Konoha forest.
'Just a little faster… Maybe I can cut him off. What could he want that scroll for?'
Blonde flashed ahead, but only for a moment.
'Doesn't matter. I've got to get Naruto! Pakun should get Gai… I'm sure he's off training again. And Sasuke and Sakura should be out of reach if they go back to Konoha…'
Ahead of him, Kisame stopped in a clearing, shifting Naruto casually over his shoulder as he toyed with the scroll.
Naruto growled, blue eyes darkened in anger as he struggled, glowering at Kisame.
The missing nin snickered. With a swift movement, he tossed the scroll to the ground and watched it unfurl, strange markings on aged paper.
But, Kisame moved away, leaping out of Kakashi's way as the Jounin burst onto the scene, a kunai aimed for the blue man's neck.
Forcing him back, Kakashi kept barely half an eye on the valuable scroll and most of his focus on the chakra-drained, still struggling blonde.
Facing the Sharingan, Kisame dropped Naruto to the ground behind him, pinning him to the dirt with a foot while he kept Kakashi at bay with a bared Samehade.
The two attacked and blocked, dashing and clashing, struggling to fight over the Genin on the ground without harming him; Kakashi out of concern for his student; Kisame out of concern for his mission. After all, Itachi would be highly annoyed to need to find a healer for the boy before they took him to Leader, a fate increasingly inevitable as the Akatsuki's prescribed mission end time neared.
Recognizing the killing intent, Kakashi stiffened at Itachi's approach, moments before the young man entered the clearing, red eyes assessing the situation from Kakashi's presence and Kisame's position, and Naruto's prone form beside the unrolled scroll.
Then, he returned his gaze to the older ninja. As Itachi's Sharingan fixed on Kakashi, fear finally paled the masked face, the man all too aware of his isolation from allies and the fragility of his charge.
Meanwhile, Naruto dazedly stared at the scroll in front of him, somehow managing to ignore the fighting men, while examining the columns of apparently meaningless markings.
Something inside him stirred.
If the boy could have thought clearly, he might have panicked. However, he instead reached a hand bloodied from struggling with Kisame- and brushing against Samehade- towards the paper.
A drop of his blood fell unnoticed to an empty space in the last column.
And something, something far different from a Bijou, decided to make the forest explode.
When Naruto woke, he lay in a Konoha hospital bed, Kakashi unconscious on the one beside him. Besides them, the room lay empty and quiet.
The blond blinked several times before sliding to his feet, surprisingly without difficulty.
"Hey!" He grinned hesitantly, "I guess Kakashi is a great ninja-"
Laughter interrupted him. "Ninja? Is that what all of you are?"
Startled, indignant blue eyes darted around the room to still see no one but his motionless sensei.
"Don't be offended, little human." A decidedly female voice continued, "It wasn't an insult. I have nothing against your kind or you, even though… I suppose you summoned me. So maybe I shouldn't be too pleased with you."
"Summoned?" Naruto hesitated, "I… can't do that. I don't even have a summoning contract."
"Silly human! What did you think those men were fighting over? And it's got your blood on it, your signature, as much as it needs to be."
"So… it was a contract?"
"Yes, a summoning contract," A sigh. "The only one between my world and yours."
By now, Naruto looked confused and very uneasy.
The voice continued, "Summons aren't summoned from your current world, I think you know that. I'm from a world with magic and magic users, I suppose, equivalent to your powers and your ninja?"
Curiosity spiked, Naruto answered, "…Chakra. It's called chakra… But, what do you mean by magic?"
"Similar to your chakra in that it's a physically impossible power, but not quite the same beyond that. It basically works the same, but I'd imagine you can only do one or the other well."
Another sigh, a breathy sound without a pitch like the wind through hole-ridden cave, "Regardless, the contract was for one like me to come here. I'm here. What do you need so I can leave?"
Naruto searched the room again in vain. "What do you mean, 'one like you?' Who are you?"
"Me?" Laughter again. "I could be your rescuer or your executioner. After all, my contract has two signatures, connecting me with two ninja, like I was connected to two magic users in my world. Perhaps that was why it was me that came here…"
Her voice trailed away for a moment, then she spoke again, somewhat harsher, "And I believe that the other ninja was your enemy with blue skin."
"Kisame…"
"Kisame? Well, would you rather I help him or you, little human? I've already helped you by saving you and your ally from him and his ally. I could've left you there after I drove them away. I could have dropped you anywhere, but I made sure to take you back to your village and to leave you both where you'd be found quickly."
Her voice gained an almost malevolent tone, mocking and cold, "Aren't you grateful?"
From his bad history with angry villagers, Naruto went on high alert, alarmed, "Yeh, but I'm not going to fall for whatever-"
A third sigh interrupted him. "I'm here to help you. Would it help if you saw me?"
At Naruto's instinctive nod, one his training obviously hadn't quite gotten rid of, the voice laughed, "Alright, little human."
From the shadows emerged a small white figure, her slender form unearthly and unnerving to Naruto as bones clacked against the floor tiles. Dark eye sockets sat in a perfect bleached skull, the entire skeleton intact and clean.
A casual stretch elicited a pop from the delicate spine as her tail twitched in the air. Claws gleamed clear beneath the white paw bones, searing pinpricks in the linoleum.
Sharp teeth glistened in amusement as the dead cat spoke in a purr, "My name is Muria."
NOTE: Muria is a character from my original fiction. She's a supporting character in a novel that I've yet to finish… Anyway, my screen name's namesake is the character, not the other way around… Which would be bizarre, because I don't look at myself and think of animated cat skeletons…
Naruto is not mine. The fact that I can't draw speaks quite clearly.