What is oneself?
The very question rings throughout our very minds, who are we? Are we who we say we are or are we completely someone different on the inside?
What are these masks we wear every day? Is it just something to hide our true selves? Are these masks just a safe haven or a well of despair? Or is it the real darkness that we are?
Who am I?
That question resonates within me every day, I thought I knew who I am, who I was... but now? I'm lost on who I am now.
Wait... Is that... the ocean?
Opening azure eyes, greeted by the sight of one he's never seen before nor the room in which he was kept in currently. He looked around to see, inch upon inch was draped in the same shade of blue.
"I take it that you're lost and hungry for answers, young honored guest." Eyes snapped back to the one in the middle of the room behind a desk, bulging eyes staring back in amusement.
"Yes," the words left his lips before he could even think of a response. The resident smiled an eerie smile as he gestured to the seat before him, he took that it was meant for him.
He walked and took his seat, looking around the room. It looked like a cruiser's ship like the one that his family had the chance to take one year when he was small, only this one was in blue.
His eyes took in the form of a young woman who stood next to the eye bulging old man, holding a book, one that looked thick from the sheer size of it. He greeted her with a tilt of his head before turning his eyes back to meet the bulging ones of the man himself who held his smile still. The old man himself has a bizarre appearance, having a long nose and pointed ears. He has on a black suit with white gloves.
"Allow me to Welcome you to the Velvet Room young guest," he said in a soft and yet elderly voice, which took him back since he was expecting a high voice from how he looks.
Velvet Room? From the sound of it, it sounded important or mysterious. "Where is this... Velvet Room?" he had to ask since he was sure if these two are really friendly or just acting before turning hostile.
"Do not be alarmed, we mean you no harm. You are still in your bed, sleeping peacefully. We are merely speaking through your dreams, honored guest." He explained to him.
I'm still in my bed? Asleep? Is this some genjutsu? And if it is, then who is using it?
He stares at them, head tilted in a peculiar manner as he decided to listen to them.
Seeing that he was listening to him, the elderly man decided to continue talking. " As you see, this world exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. Which is why we are able to speak within your mind, in your dreams" Hearing this made him a bit surprised but he took it all in stride until he has all the information he needed.
"Ah, where are my manners. My name is Igor and this is my assistant Mary." He introduced himself and the woman now named Mary to him, as she gave him a bow. he nodded in return as he turned his attention back to Igor.
Eyebrow raised, seeing a deck of cards that he swore that wasn't there before, Igor merely chuckled softly before he spoke. "Tell me, young guest, do you believe in fortune-telling?" Igor asked as Mary took the deck and begins to shuffle the cards a few times then hand it back to Igor.
"I don't know, I've never my fortune told but I know of the concept" he responded. Igor smiled. Before his very eyes, the cards of the deck floated and placed themselves in a formation facing up.
"It just so happens to be a specialty of mine," Igor told the boy before he placed his hand in the middle of the glass table. The strange man then swung his arm out and several of the cards flipped over face down before him.
"Each of my fortune-telling is done using these same cards. And yet, the results are always different, always interesting." Igor explained. "Life works very much the same way, no? Now then young guest, pick out one of these cards to reveal," he asked of his guest.
He thoughtfully eyed each of one of the cards in front of him. With a cautious hesitant hand, he flipped over one of the cards to reveal a stylized picture of a tower being destroyed.
He stared at the card curious before placing it back on the table, Igor smiled seeing the card.
"Ah, the Tower Arcana, this card represents the immediate future and foretells of a great catastrophe," the fortune-teller explained. "Now, please select another card."
Just like he did before, hesitantly, he flipped over another card. This card was a golden moon with an emerald green background. This one made him blinked from just the artwork of the card, he listened to what Igor has to say.
"Hmmm… The Moon, this card represents both many crossroads and unsound mystery," Igor said sounding intrigued by the cards he's picked so far. "I see it now, in the near future you will encounter a disaster that will impose our mystery upon you, and the choices you make in trying to solve this mystery will greatly affect the lives of those around you, along with those around them as well. Very interesting." Igor closed his eyes to ponder for a moment of what all of this could mean, he could see a small smile forming. This left him feeling confused and yet nervous. "Well, there is only one more question we need answering as of tonight, honored guest, please choose another card," Igor asked once again of the young man.
His eyes turned back to the cards laid out in front of him and stayed in the thought of his choices in which cards he should choose, but before he knew it his hand was already on one of the said cards. He turned it over and revealed a picture of a strange and confused looking man with a small dog behind him and a bag over his shoulder. This image wasn't unlike the others as it didn't look like it would hold any form of symbolism or understanding, but the look Igor gave said otherwise.
"Interesting… truly interesting... So that is the form your power has taken…" Igor said it gently rubbing his chin.
"What exactly do you mean by that?" He could help but asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Your power, which currently lies dormant within you. Waiting for the chance, the moment to awaken has chosen to follow the path of the Fool. To draw power from the number 0," Igor explained.
"What indication does that mean?" He asked.
"It means that your power is like the number 0, empty, yet it holds infinite possibilities," Igor further explained to the confused looking young man.
"This power you have, honored guest, is one that not many have," Mary said, drawing his attention to her, for the first time he's been here, he's now fully taken in her appearance. Wavy silver hair that falls down past her shoulders, with half of it going over the side of her face hiding her right side. Golden eyes staring at his own blue ones, her soft unblemished alabaster skin under her clothes.
She wears a blue long sleeve dress that goes down past her waist, wearing what could be bloomers underneath. She has knee-length boots and black fingerless gloves. On her dress were six black-lined circles outside small yellow circles one big one on her chest area, along with ones on her black leggings. With both bicep areas having one each as well, and small ones encircling around the bottom (flaps) of her dress. To complete the look she had a stylish matching headband with white stars ornaments and a golden crescent moon.
He never really noticed her but now he really was.
The world around him has started to fade.
"It would seem that you are waking up. We will meet again once you have unlocked your power, but first, it would be nice if you sign our contract, honored guest." With that, Mary placed a parchment on the table, opening it to reveal a paper that it was holding inside.
He read it to confirm that it truly said what he had been told it did. It did indeed. All he had to was... take responsibility for his actions? He didn't know what it really meant by it, but if he must then he will. The girl handed him a blue pen, one that seemed so full of... life.
It felt strange for a foreign object to be filled with such a thing but he used it nonetheless
'Naruto
...
He pauses as he thinks it over.
Does he really want to be affiliated with them? Or her on that matter, since it's still part of his family's name... then again they don't abandon family... steeling himself and making his decision, he wrote:
'Naruto Uzumaki'
There, he wrote it. It may not be for real in his life, but at least in here, it is. He looked up to see Igor smiling as he handed the contract to him.
"Excellent, our contract is made. Do remember to follow what it says" he remarked, Naruto nodded to the bug eye man.
Igor nodded and everything disappeared.
Morning/?
Stifling a yawn, did the boy as he awakens from his sleep. From underneath his covers did he move, fixing his bed and opening his curtains to the flaring morning sun. Rubbing his eyes from the pain of the sun's harmful rays, did the boy turn away from the windows to begin his day.
Walking away from the window and the sight of a mountainside, with a marvelous sight of faces carved into it. Each one looking greater than the last with the last one looking similar like the boy.