Title: Recalled To Service

Summary: Final Fantasy VII characters reincarnate in the Naruto world, but is there a deeper meaning behind their re-awakening?

A/N: Plot idea borrowed with permission from Youko Rayah, which appeared as the story Help Thyself. This work is a collaboration between Honor and Zero-metallix.

Now being re-written. Cloud will be reintroduced later, Aerith now has a larger role. We freely admit- We messed up, we wrote ourselves into a corner. The best fix is to redo now, instead of trying to continue and having even more to rewrite.

/italics/ indicates thoughts. Final Fantasy names are in the Western format, Naruto names in the Japanese format.

360 years before.

Hyuuga Hitomi gazed across the valley she was supposed to be scouting in preparation for the arrival of the rest of the nomadic clan. The sky brightened before her, and as she turned in the direction of the light, a tremendous sound shook the air, and the ground trembled. Hitomi's sharp stare caught the smouldering trees around a newly formed clearing.

/A falling star,/ she rationalised /Nothing to worry about./ But something drew her closer.

Within the crater, something stirred. Piggybacked on the meteor came a gestalt entity, a hive mind, a body comprised of countless viral cells, enabling adaptation, absorption, infection, transformation. A swirling mass of an alien entity. Sensing an approaching presence, the entity expressed a cloud of its own cells, intent on infecting and analysing.

By the time Hitomi arrived, unaware that she had inhaled anything other than smoke, the entity had read her, and acted upon the information. As she entered the clearing, a man turned towards her, dark of hair and eye. She took a defensive stance, and demanded harshly,

"Identify yourself!"

The entity reached out, and soothed the suspicion in her mind. Entranced, she never noticed the cold glint to his eyes, or the hint of a cruel smirk lingering around his mouth.

"I... am Venat."

Present day

It was a peaceful day in the village of Konohagakure. In an alternate Konoha, the peace would have been disturbed by the resident prankster, but in this Konoha, he was actually paying attention in didn't stop him from being bored, however.

/Mah, Iruka-sensei is so boring! How can he turn the story of the Valley of the End into something so dull. You explained it so much better, 'nee-san./ Naruto whined mentally, even as he took notes, notes that he was doodling on.

/Now, now,/ Aerith gave him a reproachful look, even as she repressed a smile. /Even the best SOLDIERs need to study, you know. And you really shouldn't be chatting with me in class./ Before Naruto could object, the apparation gave off a tickling laugh and disappeared. Not that anyone else could, as far as Naruto knew, see Aerith, or hear her, though Naruto had seen her most of his life. Sometimes, he even dreamed of her. They weren't happy 's smiling face, a dropping shadow, a sword piercing, and the memory of smiling green eyes, pink and spreading red. He always awoke sweating, full of dread and determination, to never see this, beyond his own nightmares.

Iruka had finished lecturing during Naruto's reminiscing.

"- And remember, you must reference at least one historic battle during your written Genin exams, so be sure to choose one you know well. Shall we move on to practical review?"

Naruto had been dreading this. Sure, his taijutsu wasn't too bad, and his aim was pretty good, even if his throwing technique needed practice. His kawarimi was as good as that of any genin, and his henge was good enough if he concentrated, but frankly, his bunshin sucked.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but... You fail." Iruka looked sympathetic as Naruto's face fell.

"Surely, Iruka we could give him a pass. He did produce five clones, even if only one of them was able to stand (said clone was leaning against the original, barely conscious) and he is only a few marks away from a pass." Mizuki said suavely.

Naruto's hopes rose and he quickly offered to perform the henge or kawarimi, but they were dashed when Iruka-sensei shook his head.

"Everyone else produced three viable clones. I can't let him pass."

Naruto psyched himself up, and tried hard to ignore Cloud.

/Naruto, this is a really bad idea. Every time I've broken into a building, things have gone wrong.Seriously, you haven't even got a plan./ Aerith remembered the many conversations with Tifa about Cloud and Barret's plans, or lack thereof.

Naruto gritted his teeth and climbed up and in through the window. He was making his way across the darkened room when the lights turned on.

"Naruto, what are you doing in my house at this hour?" Naruto turned to face the Hokage.

/No choice, better use it./ Naruto's hands flew into the henge seal.

/Naruto, not that!/ Aerith cringed. Even though it had been her fault in the first place,since she should never have told Naruto about Cloud, Wall Market and rescuing Tifa, the Oiroke no jutsu made her feel guilty every time Naruto used it.

"...I found you...Hey!" Iruka caught his breath. "You're all beaten up, what were you doing?"

"Never mind that, hey hey?" Naruto had an odd sense of deja vu, and resolved never to use that particular phrasing again. It felt...oily. "I'm going to try an incredible skill. If I do it, let me graduate! He said that if I showed you this skill, I'd definitely graduate!"

Naruto didn't notice the shock on Iruka-sensei's face.

/Damn it, a trap! I should have known...No!/ Naruto felt himself be pushed aside as Iruka-sensei took the kunai meant for him.

Following Iruka's orders, Naruto took the forbidden scroll and ran through the forest, as Iruka distracted Mizuki with a clever use of henge.

The chase ended, with a wounded Iruka propping himself up against a tree while Mizuki laughed, balanced on a branch, sneering down at him.

"Come out Naruto, you really ought to hear the truth before you die." Mizuki called.

Naruto shivered in his hiding place behind a nearby tree, in his panicked state he was ignoring Aerith's attempts to contact him.

"Haven't you ever wondered, why does everyone hate you?" Mizuki sneered "You know about the Kyuubi no Youko, that attacked the village 12 years ago."

"Ever since that day, there has been a rule that no one may tell you, or speak of." Mizuki grinned maniacally, dropping to the ground. "The truth is, Naruto, that you are the Kyuubi!"

"You are responsible for the death and destruction that almost wiped out our village. The Fourth Hokage gave his life to seal you away, and now, I'm going to finish the job!" Mizuki laughed arrogantly.

"No I'm not. Fuzzy is like, 1000 times bigger than me, and he has terrible bad breath." Naruto's simple statement threw Mizuki and shattered the tension that had filled the clearing. Naruto grinned, he'd caught Mizuki off guard, as intended. Later though, this was going to take a ton of ramen to fix.

Iruka burst out laughing, mostly in sheer disbelief, while Mizuki became enraged. He flung a brace of kunai at Iruka.

"Iruka, I said I would take care of you later, but now I'm changing my mind. Hurry up and die!"

Mizuki charged towards Iruka, but was interrupted when Naruto's knee collided with his face, knocking Mizuki backwards.

"If you touch Iruka-sensei again, I'll KILL YOU!" Naruto stood in front of Iruka, glaring at Mizuki.

"No Naruto! Run away!" Iruka shouted at his student.

"Pathetic, I'll kill you in one shot!"

"Try it!" Naruto brought his hands together in a cross seal and with a shout filled the clearing with solid clones.

Mizuki looked around in horror, Iruka in awe and Aerith...She was trying not to look at all the orange. /You have got to get a new outfit. Maybe leather./

"Well? I thought you were going to kill me?" the Naruto clones taunted the older shinobi before jumping on him in a large one sided free-for-all that left the traitor in a broken heap on the forest floor.

Naruto stood over the beaten man scratching the back of his head. "I think I went a little too far..." Catching Iruka's eye, Naruto looked away, his expression darkening.

"Ne..Iruka-sensei...do you hate me?" It was a simple question, but one to which he dreaded the answer.

Iruka sighed before beckoning Naruto over "Come here, there's something I want to give you and that you need to hear. Close your eyes."

He paused for a moment "Naruto you are not the demon fox, you are a member of the hidden leave and I'm proud that you are one of my students" As Iruka spoke, Naruto felt a tugging on his head.

"OK, open your eyes. Congratulations on graduating"

After a lot of explaining to the Hokage, and confirmation of Naruto's graduation, Iruka treated Naruto to breakfast, which was not ramen, much to Naruto's dismay. Seriously, after dropping a explosive like the Kyuubi on a guy, they might at least let him have comfort food!.

TBC