Naruto of the Fallen

by OtakuWest

Broken, that is exactly how he felt, and yet he still managed to come back even stronger. It was at that moment when he was offered a choice. A True Leap of Faith. Become strong with the chance of dying in no-mans land? Or take a trial with chance with your very own existence being erased. The choice was obvious. When you hit rock bottom, the only place left to go is up.

NTF Key:
Speech = "Fallen"
Whisper = 'Fallen'
Thought = "Fallen"
Jutsu = Fallen
Biju/Demon/Summon Speech = "Fallen"
Biju/Demon/Summon Whisper = 'Fallen'
Biju/Demon/Summon Thought = "Fallen"

Prologue: A True Leap of Faith

Empty. That's exactly how he felt. His azure blue eyes that used to shine with an eternal sun, were now dull, and have completely lost their light. His body broken, his spirit smashed, his ideals smeared, and most of all his nindo shattered. The saddening bit, he was only thirteen years of age. Who was this young boy, soon to be man? None other than Naruto Uzumaki. Why was he like this in the first place? He was betrayed, by another boy his age who he considered a brother, Sasuke Uchiha. Though what finally drove the nail in his coffin was when his crush, Sakura Haruno, had been so sad and the look of betrayal he had seen when he had failed.

He broke his promise of a lifetime. One of the most important for a person like him could make. His friends were counting on him, relied on him, and even some begged him, to catch Sasuke. Then to add salt to the wound Jiraya had told him to not even bother to go and try to 'save' Sasuke. That he would not teach him if he wished to make a fool of himself. At the time he had been his usual self, and retorted back he would just get stronger here in the village. That had been enough to get Jiraya to train him, but in the end he kept slowly sinking into his own pity party.

It wasn't till far later in the day when an emotion had finally started to fill inside of him; Anger. He was angry at himself, his past, his tenant, his friends, and Sasuke. Unbridled anger filled within him. Why was his life like this? What did he do to earn such a painful existence? Why, why, why, why, why, why…

*SLAP*

Naruto shook his head to clear away the thoughts. He was not like that, he did not pity himself, he did not brood, he did not loathe other people around him. He was not Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto's eyes sparked, as color began to return to them. He brought his bandaged hands forward so he could look at them, and clenched them. His determination was flooding back into this veins, he was not finished! His promise was not broken it had merely been put off. He had never specified when he would, but when the time came he would return Sasuke home.

'I never go back on my word, for that is my nindo, my ninja way.' Naruto whispered to himself

It was then that a new voice broke the silence within his hospital room "Interesting."

Naruto's head snapped up, looking around with wide eyes, and called out "Who's there?!"

"Look to your left." The voice stated

Sure enough Naruto did, and he let out a gasp of surprise and a bit of fear. Within reason of course, the presence that was in front of him was quite imposing. It wore a dark black cloak, with a silver zipper running down the middle. It also wore black gloves, combat boots, and pants. Though the thing that caused fear was the fact he couldn't see its face. Inside of the cloak's hood was an endless black as far as he could see. The only thing that shown, and shown it did, were its eyes. Draconic wisping white eyes glowed within the darkness. Wisps of white wafted off of its eyes, as if they were cold as ice, and they stared into his very soul.

After taking a moment to calm himself Naruto managed out "W-who're you?"

It continued to look at him unflinchingly before it finally gave a response "Who am I?" Naruto nodded "Hmm well that is difficult question. I am me, but I am also someone else."

"What?" Naruto's face scrunched in confusion "How can you be two people?"

"I myself still haven't found an answer to that question." It replied

"That still doesn't tell me who you are." Naruto stated

It chuckled, "Indeed, how observant of you." Naruto's face twitched at the subtle jab "I guess you can call me West."

"That's a weird name." Naruto stated, "You're telling me that you're named after a direction? What dummy came up with that one?" Naruto scoffed

"This is said by the 'ramen' topping." Naruto swore, he saw what looked like a raised eyebrow from the wisps that came from his eyes

"Oi!" Naruto shouted "My name means 'Maelstrom'! Not the 'ramen' topping!"

"And mine states my will to continue forward, to keep moving along untraveled path." It explained to him

Naruto had the courtesy to be sheepish "Sorry….. Though why are you here? I don't see a village symbol on you."

"That would be because I happened upon you, and I find you interesting." Naruto rose an eyebrow at him "Your will was broken, and yet now it is stronger than ever before. I have seen what you have gone through, and I'm surprised you haven't stayed broken." West stopped talking for a moment, before he continued "So I have decided to offer you a choice."

"A choice?" Naruto reiterated

West nodded "A choice." West began walking forward to Naruto's bed "You seek strength to bring back your comrade, to finish your promise, and to protect your precious people do you not?" Naruto nodded the affirmative with determined eyes "Well here lies the choice." In West's hand a medallion appeared.

It was shaped as a triangle that split off into three different ones. The triangle on the right was completely white, the triangle on the left was pitch black, and the triangle on the bottom had both black and white swirling into the middle of it. All sectioned off by a silver metal, and at the tip was a chain for the medallion.

"You can train with your sensei, Jiraya, and no doubt become very powerful with his teachings." He then place the necklace in Naruto's lap "Or you can take a leap of faith, wear the medallion of the Fallen, and possibly become something far more." Naruto was getting ready to shout before he was cut off, when West rose his hand "Do not make the decision now. There are dangers with each choice. With Jiraya, you are on the road and could get trapped in hostile territory, and possibly never even make it back home." West then pointed at the necklace "Or when you put on that medallion. If you take the trial, and fail you will die. What is worse is you will not even be remembered. Your very existence will be erased from this world as if you never did anything. You will simply 'not' have been."

After a few silent moments West began walking away "You have until you fall asleep tonight. If you wish to become of the Fallen, just wear the necklace as you sleep and the trial will take place. If not merely throw it away, and you shall never see me again, and this meeting will have never happened." Naruto looked down at his hands at the medallion he was given "I look forward to your decision." His voice echoed throughout the room, and then the silence returned to the room.

…

Naruto stared out the window his thoughts running amuck in his mind. Thinking back to the conversation he just had hours ago. He was already feeling exhausted, his wounds had not fully healed and he knew the bastard fox was keeping him from healing normally. This was one of the few times in his short life where he did not truly know how to continue forward. He had no spontaneous plan on what to do. Even he knew better than to take this decision lightly. Either choice would affect his life drastically, as well as anyone close to him.

He looked at his backpack sitting at the foot of his bed with his few belongings. It was something that Jiraya, dropped off for him when he decided to take him on a training trip. At the time he hadn't really felt like going on the trip. He just wanted to ensure that Jiraya would train him to be stronger. Even now he was reluctant about going on said training trip. Then he looked down at the Medallion in his hand. A complete stranger by the name of West, offering him a separate path, but with dire consequences should he fail in the beginning.

Flashback

"If you don't have the will to continue forward knowing you might not comeback, then you're not even worthy of being ninja, let alone Chunin." Ibiki stated gruffly "It's a true Leap of Faith, to do what you need to do to complete the mission, and protect your home."

Flashback End

Naruto smiled to himself as he looked at the Medallion in his hand 'A Leap of Faith huh?' he whispered

With that said Naruto placed the Medallion chain around his neck, and laid down on his bed. His mind quickly fell into unconsciousness. Red eyes shot open in the dark and stared ahead as water quickly drained from unknown location. The owner of said eyes was known other than the mighty Kyuubi. A giant orange fox, with nine gigantic tales that swished behind him subconsciously. Normally full of malice, was now filled curiosity. The seal was gone as was proved by the gates having disappeared. But the most intriguing part was the familiar presence that was making its way into the space he occupied. The might Kyuubi, nearly cried when another fox made its way in. This fox was white as snow, with beautiful ruby red eyes, and nine graceful tales.

"My beloved, Yukihira." Kyuubi stated quietly, trying his best to retain his dignity

"Kurama." A warm melodic voice filled the area "My mate, it is good to see you once more."

The now newly named Kurama walked over to his vixen, and rubbed his head against hers "Since the sealing, when he took you away from me. I truly thought I had lost everything I had left."

Yukihira sat next to her mate, and smiled "Well now mourn no longer. I am here to stay." She gazed out into the area "It would seem your jailor chose a rather difficult path, a path of the Fallen."

Kurama's eyes narrowed "A difficult path indeed." He looked up into the endless black abyss "I have no personal qualms with the kit. Aside from forcing power from me, but he went up against my brother." Kurama shook his head "No, my qualm is with his father, but even now that has passed. I wonder if he'll pass?"

"Who knows?" a light chuckle came from Yukihira "I sure hope so, after finding you again, I would hate to lose you again."

A black and white pedestal rose from the ground, and upon it sat Naruto Uzumaki with his eyes closed seemingly asleep. A giant version of the Medallion appeared underneath all three of them. Kurama approached the black, Yukihira approached the white. Whereas the pedestal had risen from where the black and white mixed together.

After a moments silence both Kurama, and Yukihira spoke together, as Naruto's azure blues slowly opened "May the Trial of the Fallen Angel begin."

Well hello Everyone! How are we all doing today? I know many of you are asking why the hell am I doing another Naruto story when I have one already going. Well truth of the matter is, I have a bit of writers block, and this story hasn't been leaving me alone the entire damn time. I also know this isn't my regular chapter length, well I just wanted to give a teaser and see how it would take off first before I decide to give it my full attention. Keep in mind that Breaking the Habit will always be my first priority in getting uploaded, but I'm doing this in hopes of getting inspiration.

In any case I hope you enjoyed and look forward to what you think of it! Leave a Review or send me a PM. Like and Fav if you enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time!

As Always Everyone please support the Official Release

Later Days!