*(I do not own Naruto or Avatar or any of the related characters to either cannon fantasy universe, I am, however, the writer of this story)*
*I've done some updates and edits to this fic, a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed and/or favorited, you've inspired me to keep writing, special thanks to Storm Warning and Auroraglass for tenacious reviews and feedback*
Chapter 1: "The Boy in the Void"
It's quiet here, cold but not painful... empty, space or something like it... no stars, no sun, no earth, no love, no pain... an overwhelming nothing, the kind of peace you only find when you have moved beyond the point of feeling, breathing, living...
And then it's not, it's harsh and bright and warm and fast. The heart is pumping and you're aware for the first time, how blood feels when it flows through your body. You feel it now because it had never been unfelt. You are screaming... no that's just breathing, lungs and now your mind reels as light hits you, each photon smashing into your skull, so bright you think your eyes are burning… and you know you have eyes. Slowly or quickly, time feels like not the passing of seconds but the number of experiences, only your mind can't tell which came first or if it was all at once. Thinking, aware. There is the feeling of something, nettles... no that's just hair. Your fingers your hands, your tongue, saliva has a taste. Then like a gong, it's so loud, there's so much of it, so many voices, screaming noises... no, birds, wind...
That's what it was like for the boy lying face up in the grass. His first moments, or his second first moments. Moments which none but those who have died, and lived again, experience.
He looked around at the trees... so many beautiful trees, his thoughts found focus, his second first thought was that everything was beautiful, everything. Flowers, a slug, a spider, some bark discarded like a second skin, strewn across the forest floor with branches and hair... no, nettles... pine needles, and leaves... large star shaped leaves.
He picked up a leaf from beneath the bark to be looked at. He wanted to speak to it as he was almost sure it was trying to speak to him...
"You we're hidden... and now you're free..." he said.
The boy let go of the leaf which drifted on a passing breeze back up into the trees... beyond... above the canopy, disappearing in the bright globe of pure life which hung above.
Everything was beautiful... even pain, like the pain of that sharp metal object in the boys stomach. He looked down and saw it sticking there, shining and brilliant in the sunlight, something flowed out of him like a water fall...
... Beautiful...
Then time crashed forward.
Everything didn't seem beautiful and he cried out in pain.
A man stood over him smiling and holding a long sword in his hands, one swift movement and the sword slashed across the boys face drawing more of the crimson liquid.
The man licked the edge of the sword clean, savoring the hot wet taste, he leered, he smiled, this was his favorite part, the fear and blood.
The boy pulled the small metal blade from his stomach and more water flowed from the crimson fall...
"Who... why did you?... " The boy tried to comprehend how the world could change so quickly.
The man reached down and grabbed the boy's chin in his hand, lifting him off the ground.
"Oh you shouldn't worry about that, you won't have to worry about anything soon, I'm just a weary traveler whose a little hungry."
The man looked into the boys eyes and saw something there, something flavorful and potent, something delicious, something... glowing...
Naruto, a blond Genin of Konoho, jumped quickly through the trees followed by three companions; a young woman with pink hair, a young man with a melancholy demeanor in a kimono, and an older man with white, spiky hair and a wrapped-blue-cloth-mask covering his mouth and one eye.
The masked man spoke quietly. "I think we are close, his trail leads this way."
"We will get him for sure this time." Naruto nearly growled.
Tsunade-Sama, the leader and Hokage of their Ninja Village had taken special care with this mission, she only gave it to the masked man's team because of their prior relationship with their melancholy companion, Sasuke.
After all the time he had spent seeking out the dark-haired rogue ninja in the kimono, it seemed incomprehensible to Naruto that his old friend was moving swiftly along-side him once more. It was as if they were still team mates and the last two years had never occurred.
Their quarry was of mutual interest. Sasuke had only agreed to come accompany Naruto's team because they had the intelligence he needed. In the end, they didn't have to find Sasuke, he found them, and had since deflected all attempts from Naruto at conversation regarding anything but their quarry.
Sakura let the wind brush her pink hair out of her face as she jumped deftly from tree-branch to tree-branch. She was trying not to think about Sasuke, and failing, but she needed to keep her head on their rather dangerous mission... her inner self was screaming profanities but on the surface, she kept her cool. It was her incredible discipline that tipped her off to the change in Sasuke's energy as he activated his Sharingan eyes, a unique gift of his clan which gave him an often frightening advantage.
Sasuke didn't say a word but jumped ahead of Naruto and Sakura with ease, arching left toward the center of the forest.
"Sasuke's found him." said the masked Kakashi, the elder and official leader of the small Ninja team.
The three sped up to keep pace but stopped short when they saw Sasuke crouching upside-down on a branch concealing himself in leaves, they did the same when they noticed the glow coming from the clearing in the forest.
The man flew backward smashing through a tree before crashing into rock face.
He landed on the ground deftly, still clutching a bleeding gash in his arm, his black and silver hair hung disheveled around his face as he gripped his sword.
He saw the figure of the boy walking slowly toward him across the forest floor, the energy flying off of the child was like a star of pure chakra, yet somehow not chakra.
He had thought the boy a quick snack, now he was beginning to think he had been lucky enough to find a meal. The silver haired man either lacked the ability to fear, or was simply too arrogant to be afraid.
"That's right boy, come here, come to Tsatsua and show me how deliciously powerful you are."
The boy did not answer but simply walked forward until he stood ten feet from the man.
"What's the matter, are you frightened? I will show you fear, I will show you your true self..."
The glowing figure cut him off, and it spoke not with the voice of a child but with the voice of a thousand choirs.
"YOU COULD NOT BEGIN to COMPREHEND our TRUE SELF*
*YOU COULD NOT begin TO COMPREHEND OUR true SELF*
*YOU could NOT BEGIN TO comprehend OUR TRUE self."
The man Tsatsua laughed outrageously at this... "Oh oh, I have found quite a wonderful toy to play with! And I will play, yes we will play for hours and hours, maybe days, but first I am famished, I should have a little something to eat."
Tsatsua stuck his sword into the ground and the blade began to split at its point into dark roots which grew outward into the earth... within a second the form of a large gaping mouth appeared below the child, inside it's gaping maw, a void of nothing, it gnashed with teeth of sharp silver.
"This is my Silthfell technique... it doesn't matter how powerful you are, my stomach is never full!"
The bright blue glow around the boy seemed to waver and flow downward toward the horror beneath.
"Don't try to move my lovely entre! You can't really. No one who faces the void can hope to overcome its..."
But no one got to hear what they could not overcome as a kunai flew through the air and stuck into Tsatsua's neck.
He landed with a thud as the mouth began to close around the boy, reaching up to drag him in.
Sasuke and team Kakashi landed lightly in the clearing.
"We have to help that boy!" Sakura yelled.
Kakashi held her back.
"We can't, we can't even get near it, once it's fed it can be dispelled, but not before. There is nothing in this world that can stop it."
"We can't just let him get eaten Kakashi! That is so wrong!" cried Naruto.
Sasuke moved to examine the limp body of Tsatsua.
"Paralyzing poison." said Kakashi dismissively.
"Sakura made it." said Naruto numbly as he watched the great silver mouth close over the top of the figure and the last of the glow began to disappear.
Naruto felt horrible, their plan was to use his secret chakra as bate, and because they were too late some boy was now the victim of this madman. There was nothing he could do about it, he'd read the file on Tsatsua and the Silthfell technique, there was nothing...
But then just as the light was about to disappear entirely a sliver of it maintained, and then the glow spread over the surface of the mouth, until it was bright blue.
"Kakashi-San, what is happening?" asked Sakura, afraid she was watching the boy die.
Kakashi just shook his head, and even Sasuke looked up from examining his quarry.
Sakura tilted her head slightly, as she heard a feint echo of music in her mind, not a sound but a memory of a sound, it was an odd music, melancholy yet powerful. It grew in strength and cadence until she found it difficult to think of anything else.
Cracks broke through the bright shining globe of the Silthfell mouth in an unfamiliar yet clear pattern. Then a voice spoke from within it.
"We do not fear the void, we have come from the void and we are a part of it*
*WE do not fear the void, we HAVE come from the void and we are a part of it*
*We do not fear the VOID, we have come from the void AND we are a part of it.
Finally the cracks shattered the Silthfell into a thousand pieces of bright blue glowing energy. Rather than falling, the pieces danced and fluttered through the air outward and away into the forest, Sakura examined one as it passed her by and she saw the unmistakable form of a butterfly, a thousand bright blue and silver butterflies. And as they dissipated into the forest she saw the form of the boy, still glowing still standing.
Finally the glow lessened, then vanished completely. The boy fell, leaving four figures standing, staring blankly at one another, and two limp-bodies on the forest floor in the center of the clearing, hidden in the leaves.