Dux Ducis Absentis

'When I go from hence, let this be my parting word,
that what I have seen is unsurpassable.'

- Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali

Part One

prologue
Brave New World

Nothing more, nothing less, were the words that came one late, wet spring, and brought the world crashing down on him. A demon, he was called. He was ten that year, due to turn eleven. When he heard those words, age lost meaning to him. He would've considered himself young and on the verge of securing lifelong success, but shock doesn't allow consideration. Then, he believed himself a demon. The Lord Demon, Kyuubi. The very monster that had ravaged his nation the day he was born, exactly ten years and five months ago. He almost had the excuse of rash youth to blame his outburst on but his intelligence disallowed it; yet, he could not yet claim logical reasoning with the intellect that was only just budding. In many ways, he was nothing. Especially to his own people.

"You could not possibly be harbouring hope of redeeming yourself." Mizuki looked at Naruto and down at his own hands, greasy with sweat and armed with a fuuma-shuriken. Naruto noticed the malicious intent in Mizuki's eyes.

"I want to live," Naruto whispered.

"Life isn't something you deserve. Not for the pain you caused."

Naruto shivered, staring at his own hands in disbelief. Disbelief that the entire time, he had been the Demon Lord. He couldn't remember ever holding a grudge against any in the village or ever desiring to hurt.

"I just wanted to belong," he said. Mizuki looked at Naruto in what was unmistakably a snarl, despite not showing his teeth. Mizuki had a way of snarling with his eyes. Naruto swallowed and took a step back. He looked at his hands again and still could not remember ever harbouring ill will against anyone in the village. Mizuki was lying. He was no demon, let alone the Demon Lord. "You lie," he whispered.

"That's enough!" Mizuki hurled his projectile at Naruto, intent on inflicting no less than death. Naruto wouldn't have the slightest chance of getting out of the way in time.

"No!" A blur intercepted the projectile's flight with a bloody squelch. A body was smashed into the tree next to him, collapsing bonelessly in a heap. It was Iruka. He had intervened and saved Naruto's life.

"Wha... no... why?" Naruto managed to croak out at the sight of the man that had become a father to him.

"Because you're no demon… Naruto… I'm sorry, for all it's worth." Iruka was gasping in pain as blood spilled out from the wound in his belly. "You're a warden, Naruto… the Warden of the Demon Lord. A hero," he said, gasping out his last words. There was desperation in the man's eyes, as if begging Naruto to forgive him.

Naruto looked back up at Mizuki, a man he had once called teacher. Mizuki appeared shocked that he had killed his own friend, but the shock only lasted a moment before his gaze returned to Naruto. Mizuki... Mizuki blamed him for the death of Iruka.

"You did this," Naruto snarled. He wanted to kill, to hurt, to tear Mizuki apart. Naruto didn't know what was happening; everything was turning into a blur as he felt his hand allow the blade end of his chain-knife slide out to hang from the silvery chain.

Then his world went red.

-o-

At the height of a long wet spring, Naruto came to.

"What happened?" the boy croaked, semi-aware that he was alone. He looked around, a headache ripping into him. Had it been a dream? The blood on his hands told him otherwise, even though not a single body lay in sight. He didn't remember his village ever having been this cold, not even during the cold season.

The ground around him was charred, blackened with what looked exactly like the chakra burns he had studied in the academy. But how? Nature only ever got burnt by chakra when the chakra had been evil itself.

Right, he was the Warden. Figures he'd do something. But if he was the Warden, then how had his prisoner's chakra been released without his permission? Had he let out his prisoner? That wouldn't explain why he was in an unknown place, even if he had let out his prisoner unknowingly. Surprisingly, he found he didn't care much. Iruka had died.

Iruka had been the one constant in his life, the one person he had ever dared to love. Not even the Hokage came close. His allegiance and ties to the village that had scorned him, a scorn he now realized unwarranted, had been severed when his only anchor had been lost. He didn't feel sorry. Not if he never had to return there again. At least he'd always carry the memory of Iruka with him.

Iruka. A man who, despite all odds, had dared to love him. Where everyone else had hated him for being the symbol of an attack, the man who more than anyone else, had the right to hate him. To hate him for a true personal loss. Iruka, who had lost his own parents as a child to the Kyuubi. He stumbled, grabbing his head and keeling over into foetal position before stopping himself. He couldn't lose control now, not in a place this unfamiliar to him. It was what the Academy had preached. Ignore loss, at least until you were safe.

But why should he heed the Academy's teachings now? The Academy that rose children to be killers? The Academy that, to him, represented the loss of a teacher he loved so much, they could've been family? The academy was a symbol of hate of a world that couldn't get over its petty grudges, pitting countless thousands of lives against each other; of the dozens of generations that were irreversibly lost and the dozens more that would be lost. No... no, he would still have to trust the things he had learnt for now. It was everything he knew, at least for now.

The game had changed now, though. He was in a place he didn't recognize and no supplies to speak of. Nothing from the extensive geography studies he had gone through explained where he now found himself and it frustrated him. He had once prided himself on having been a cadet of excellent standing and to be unable to use what he had learned when he needed it most was already putting a dampener on his excitement to start anew. Having only decided that the academy's teachings were indeed important, having their importance voided mere moments later wasn't doing much for his morale.

He gazed out once more over the wide spectacle of sky and expansive scenery. Despite its unfamiliarity, it was exhilaratingly breath-taking. Smoke rose over a couple trees several hundred metres away, something that piqued his curiosity. Smoke usually meant some sort of settlement. He forced himself to ignore the possible danger of entering an unknown settlement in favour of getting his bearings. He had no experience with this and none of the ninja techniques he had learnt thus far struck him as useful in his situation. Suddenly, an unknown wave of feeling passed over him and he promptly vomited.

He managed to get all the way to the next tree before he vomited again. The sickness wasn't letting up and was beginning to panic Naruto. He'd never been sick nor nauseous once in his life and could now almost feel the taunting of Mizuki again and Iruka's lifeless eyes staring right through him – then he vomited again.

It seemed to diminish when he heard the cry of some bird, a species he'd never before known to exist. High above him was a large, swan-sized bird of red and gold plumage. Its cries seemed musical, though why he couldn't understand. Taking relief from the diminishing nausea, he began stumbling towards the smoke again. Only a few hundred metres and he found himself in a cemetery. Then he vomited again, managing to direct himself away from the gravestones. It wouldn't do to disturb the dead.

"Sorry for the disrespect," he mumbled. Well, that and he was terrified of ghosts.

He looked forward again determinedly and started walking towards a building across the road from the cemetery, ignoring the building placed in the cemetery. The architecture of it was interesting to be sure, but it was deathly quiet whilst there was sound in the building across the road. An inn of some sort, he supposed. He'd have to hope for the best, though he would've preferred to find a person outside. Being in an inn with multiple people was far more risky.

Another call identical to the call he'd heard before made him look up again. The red bird was descending rapidly, quickly coming to a stop on the wooden fence separating the cemetery and the road. It shook its head at Naruto as if to discourage him and started staring at something behind him.

At that moment, he agreed with the bird but continued to walk towards the inn. He dared not stay in a foreign place without information much longer.

A crack sounded. "Truly, would you want to enter an inn in your state? You look positively ragged."

Naruto had no idea what the man had just said but the voice sounded like that of one who was amused. He whirled around to confront the voice.

The voice went on. "You're new here. To this world. I felt it."

Odd, it was just an old man with a rather long beard. A strange twinkle in his eyes told Naruto that the man was much more confident of himself than any man that age had a right to be. Even the Hokage seemed like an adolescent compared to this man. What was that language though? As far as he knew, all the nations of the Elemental Nations spoke in one language. If it was some archaic form of the language, then it would at least have similarities, but there were none. Everything was different.

Naruto spent a few moments watching the man standing before him. A twitch of the mouth told him the man was probably waiting for a reply. He decided he'd give a go with his own language.

"My name is Naruto," he ventured.

His eyebrows rose so high they threatened to detach themselves and levitate. "Really now? A quaint name," he concluded in kind. "I must say, I wasn't expecting this."

Naruto was surprised, but pleasantly so. The tone of the man's voice was strange and foreign, but at least now he could understand. But his name wasn't weird, was it? "Excuse me? My name? I uh… don't know where I am."

"My, I meant that your name is rather uncommon in these parts. You know, you look like everyone here. Blonde hair, blue eyes and even white skin. You not knowing where you are though... well, it's not surprising. I myself don't know what has happened, but you don't belong to this world."

The words shook Naruto's core. He wasn't wanted, yet again? He desperately held onto the little amount of control he had just gathered over himself not too long ago. "Oh… I'm sorry. I can't help it."

The man's features contorted curiously, as if surprised and unsure how to react. "Naruto, is it? I didn't mean to offend, of course. What I did mean, was that you weren't born here. Not this country, not even this universe. The significance of this rattling, to say the least. Your name appeared on the Hogwarts register but hours ago, recording that you were already nearly eleven. But that's not possible, because the register records names at the moment of birth."

Now it was Naruto's turn to be bewildered, as his momentary lapse in control was forgotten. "Register? Hogwarts? I don't get it, sorry."

The man chuckled good-naturedly. "My name is Albus Dumbledore. I'm the Headmaster of Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I doubt you understand the full implications of that just yet, but don't worry. It's not your fault."

It was only when his muscles relaxed that he realized how tense he had been. Naruto sank into a calm state and some of the frown eased from his face. The whirlwind in his thoughts calmed some. This Dumbledore was a calming presence for which he was glad. "Well… what now? I don't know what to do."

He raised his brows. "If I could make a suggestion, attend Hogwarts. From there, you can think on the path you will take through life. You'll be safe there, and there will be others your age to share your life with."

"Really? Your school, I can join it? Do I have to fight or do a test? If I do..." Naruto's last words were somewhat shaky. He needed a new lease on life, but would rather not have to go through something that symbolized hate as the Academy had.

He laughed, his voice deep as a booming wind, but kinder. "No, dear boy. You don't need to explain to me how it is where you come from yet, but it sounds quite violent. Our world is peaceful for the most part. If you'd like, you can attend the school and complete all seven years and enter into a future of your own choosing. You can have friends. And, if I'm not wrong about what you want most right now, revel in starting anew." The last word was uttered almost as a whisper, working its way into Naruto.

Dumbledore looked past Naruto for a brief second, in which time the bird flew over to perch on his shoulder. "This, by the way, is Fawkes. He is a phoenix."

"He was calling out to me before you came and made me feel better when I got sick. It'd be pretty cool you know, to have one. Since he's yours… can you thank him for me?"

"He understands, dear boy. He is a magical creature and a friend of mine. Even more significantly, he is my familiar. Most of the students at Hogwarts have a familiar, though they're usually owls or rats, maybe a few toads. A phoenix is going to be a little more difficult, you know." Dumbledore smiled knowingly, turning to look at Fawkes, reaching over with his other arm to scratch the bottom of the phoenix's neck.

Naruto eased into a more comfortable standing position. He supposed all good things came with a price, and a brilliant bird like Fawkes would have an equally high price. "I guess if they're expensive, I'll have to hold off…"

Dumbledore looked at Naruto, amused, then said, "Oh it's not price, Naruto. You have to befriend them yourself and let it choose you. And what's more, you can't buy them. You'll have to find them. But before we go on about that," he continued, eyes twinkling, "you need to learn how to speak the common language here."

Naruto looked Dumbledore in the eye, drawing himself up to his full height. "I was born to succeed."

"Wonderful."

A crack sounded and the Warden of the Demon Lord, the Headmaster of Hogwarts and a phoenix disappeared from the grounds of the cemetery.

Do your worst. Everything is worth starting over. Everything is worth happiness. Oh yes, dear boy, the world becomes much brighter when the means to the end is not only justifiable, but the end is part of the means. The euphoria is in both.

Post-Prologue; Preface
There will not be any authorial notes or analyses in following chapters unless necessary so any who desire some background information on the story and some basic explanations, read it here before you go on with the story, because you will not get anymore.

* Dux Ducis Absentis - a Latin title that is roughly 'Leader Lost' or 'Hero Absent'.

* Rabindranath quote is from a novel called Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

* Go read the stories by knuckz, Zeitgeist84 and MegaB. I promise you, you won't be disappointed. Me starting this story and getting back into writing is because of them, without whom I'd have lost all inspiration to write. They are the best authors I know on this site.

This story is written in limited third person, in the perspective of Naruto. This means that everytime a feeling or thought of a person other than Naruto is investigated, it is from Naruto's own conjecturing. Since Naruto is obviously not an omniscient character, there will be mistakes in his theories of what others are thinking, so always keep that in mind. Also remember that Naruto comes from a world that speaks Japanese, not English. He'll learn, but he'll occasionally make mistakes in his spoken English that, believe me, do not stem from an incompetency on my part. The mistakes are intentional.

The cemetery in this chapter is not the cemetery we see in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Not too many people will realize since there wasn't much description, but the cemetery mentioned is a real one located in Smarden, a village in the county of Kent. The inn is real, so is the clearing. I just thought I'd mention that because it was my inspiration on when I was thinking of where Naruto would land and how his surroundings would be.

This story is AU. The story will be written in British English. I make no promises on the time between updates, only that I'll try and write often. I welcome all reviews and will try my best to answer questions in PMs, so make sure you have that feature enabled! If you leave an anonymous review and want an answer to a question, please leave me a way of contacting you, otherwise my hands will be tied. Also feel free to point out any grammatical mistakes or other such errors and inconsistencies so that I can correct them if I miss them if they aren't obviously Naruto's language mistakes.

Thanks all for reading, and I hope you guys enjoy what's coming!

August 1st, 2011