A/N: Yes I'm back, with yet another annoying thought that wouldn't go away (though it could be a good annoyance...)
Yes, I'm making a Naruto x Shakugan no Shana crossover.
Well... there's not much to say after that... so I guess I'll just get on with the story?
Updates Done on: March 5th, 2015
The Other Flame Haze
Chapter 1: It all Began with...
It was morning.
Tuesday to be exact. Tuesday morning. It seemed like any old day. The sun was up, burning brightly on the earth. The birds were singing in the trees and on house roofs, and Sakura peddles were drifting to the ground, and were displayed beautifully on their trees. But this day was not as normal as it seamed, because today, Sakai Yuji found out a horrible secret about himself, and the world.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself, excuse my rambling, but perhaps... I'll just tell you from the beginning...
.::Sakai Home – 8:00 AM::.
"I'm Leaving!" one Sakai Yuji yelled as he walked out the door, closing it to soon to hear his mother reply.
Yuji wasn't like most boys his age. Hell, if you told him that, he might laugh and say you were completely wrong. But, then again, he wouldn't know what you were talking about.
Yuji was normal in appearance. He stood at a height of 5'7", and was currently on his way to his first day of High School. Dressed in his Black suit, and holding his case in his right hand, you would almost mistake him for having a job at a bank or such. His hair was black, dark black. His eyes, a light blue (little hard to tell, correct me if I'm wrong please.) He didn't have a muscular build, but neither was he scrawny. Sort of an athletic build, but leaning more on a scrawny side. A little exercise could do him some good.
He was smart. Very smart. He was known for finding himself in tough situations and finding a way out that seemed to stupid to work. But that was pretty much where it ended. Even if he was smart, he was still denser than a damn brick. You literally had to walk up to the dude to tell him something so he would understand, that is, if it wasn't anything that wasn't written in any book. Example? Crushes. Only a few girls had a crush on him at school, hell maybe more, and the guy doesn't know it. To dense to even notice the blushes or the sputtering.
Back on to the story though.
For a few years, he had only had a few friends. When he moved to Maskai city, he made a lot more, some were still with him even now when he had first met them. He was on his way to meet two of them now. The first, being Ike Hayato, one of his best friends from middle school. The second...
"OI YUJI!" A loud voice yelled at the boy as he walked down the street. Yuji blinked, who could have been talking to him, and turned only to let out a light sigh.
Running up to him was his long time friend, Namikaze Naruto. This was his second friend. He had met him when he had just moved to Maskai city, they were both ten at the time. Yuji went to the playground, and had found no one to play with, seeing as he was shy when he first came. He didn't know anybody. Naruto was the one to see him and invite him to play a game they called 'Ninja'.
The object of the game was to hid and/or run without being caught and 'killed' by the enemy. It was kind of like a game of tag. Yuji proved to be good at the game, having caught Naruto himself 4 times out of the 8 they played. He could tell from the other kid's, and Naruto's, cheers that it must have been pretty good.
They had made fast friend, and he was introduced to the others he played with. Though they all had moved away sometime at the beginning of middle school, they didn't stay out of touch.
The first was Nara Shikamaru. A lazy, black haired, cloud loving boy that liked nothing better than to kick back all day and watch the clouds, if only to escape his mother's wrath.
The second was Akamichi Choji. A 'big boned', peaceful guy. He had met Shikamaru when they were 7, and had been the best of friends ever sense. Most of the time when Shikamaru would watch the clouds, Choji would join him and they'd both talk about what had happened, told jokes, and snacked on Choji's chips.
The third was Inuzuka Kiba. A hyperactive, energetic boy only surpassed by Naruto's own hyperactivity. He and Naruto had met when Naruto found Kiba's lost puppy, Akamaru, and they had both gotten into a fight over how Kiba thought Naruto was going to steal him. They'd somehow gotten some respect between them over the years and became friends.
For a wile, it had just been them five, causing havoc, getting in trouble, and doing kid like things. Then tragedy struck.
Naruto's parents, Namikaze Minato, and Uzumaki Kushina, had a horrible car accident and had died in the hospital. Naruto locked himself in his room for two days, never coming out except to use the bathroom or eat. It was only when his four friends had climbed up his house wall and got through his window could they talk him into leaving. He reluctantly agreed and was taken in by a friend of the family, Umino Iruka. After a few years, Naruto was himself again. No longer was he depressed over his parents death, but now wished them happiness up in heaven.
Soon, Naruto had grown to the point where he wanted to strike out on his own. Iruka had argued back greatly, but in the end, Naruto had won. He now lived by himself in an apartment not to far from Iruka's place, and relatively close to Yuji's.
As they reached middle school, They started to see less of their friends, only Naruto and Yuji actually keeping in touch the most. Then it came the day when their friends all started to move away from Maskai city. First it was Shikamaru and Choji, both their fathers had gotten transferred out of the city and they soon moved to the United States. Kiba left half a year after them, his dad having gotten a new job in France, where they now lived in.
So now, it was just Yuji and Naruto. Of course, the five friends e-mailed, called, or wrote whenever they could, but it just wasn't the same.
"Yuji" Naruto's voice snapped Yuji out of his thoughts as they started to walk down the street again.
Naruto was about 5'9. He had bright blond hair that hung down into his face and almost reached his shoulders. He wore the same outfit as Yuji, but opted to keep the jacket of the suit open, exposing the white undershirt. He held his case over his right shoulder with his right arm as he walked down the street. His Sapphire eyes caught the attention of almost everyone when they looked, but mostly the female population.
"H-hai?" Yuji asked, still startled by the sudden call of his name.
Naruto grinned. "How was yer summer? I'd have joined you, but Iruka wanted me to join him on a trip to the beach."
Iruka had suddenly come over to Naruto's place and knocked rather loudly on the door a few weeks after school had ended and dragged Naruto off on a two and a half month vacation to the beach. It was present, but he still wished he could have spent it in Maskai city.
Yuji shrugged his shoulders. "The same as ever. Sitting around, looking for a summer job, trying to cause trouble, the works."
Naruto chuckled lightly as they came to the school's gates..
"Oii!" Called a voice at the other end of the school gates. A boy with light brown hair, light blue, almost gray eyes with glasses fitted under them, and a school suit ran up to them.
Naruto grinned again, and waved. "Yo, Ike!" Yuji just decided to wave at him. He gave them a small smile. "Being with you two doesn't make me feel like I'm at high school, it lacks in freshness."
Naruto made a pout. "Ne, ne, don't make it my fault... blame it on Yuji." he gave a toothy smile and earned a light punch to the shoulder for it, he made a mock hurt face and rubbed it. "Damn Yuji, you look scrawny, but you sure do pack a punch."
Yuji made a face and turned to Ike to continue the conversation from before. "Don't blame it on us, you should have gone to a higher level school."
Ike looked ahead and stuck his chin in the air. "Well, closer schools are easier to commute to."
Yuji sighed. "What makes it worse is that you could chosen here for that reason."
Ike brought his chin down. "I barely made it in."
Yuji laughed. "Whatever you say, you're the type who gets what he wants." He retaliated as all three walked through the doors into the school.
"I might just be lucky. It can also be said that you're shrewd."
Yuji smiled lightly. "you think?" He asked as he replaced his shoes with his white ones. As he closed his locker, he looked over to see two boys with dark hair. The taller one closed his locker and smiled lightly. " 'ey" then turned and walked off with his partner.
Yuji stood for a second, before smiling. "Morning!"
The taller boy's partner turned to him with a bored look. "I can hear you." then walked around the corner. Yuji heard Naruto cough and say 'ass' between them. Yuji sent him a look and turned back to his locker.
"He's hard to talk to..." He made an obvious statement. As Ike talked about the one named Satou, Naruto quickly pulled a pendent from his shirt and looked at it.
He sighed quietly, and spoke just above a whisper. "Kurama. You awake?" he tapped the gem and it instantly lit up with crimson flames, and a voice rang out, but only loud enough for him to hear.
"Ya brat, I can never get any sleep with you around." Naruto gave a glare and flicked it, Kurama, and making it yelp from the jolt.
He smirked. "No need to be an ass, Mr. Crimson Lord."
Kurama grumbled something before speaking again. "Well, what do you want brat?"
He looked out the door and just spotted a mop of black hair belonging to a small girl before she vanished.
"That flame haze has been fallowing me for the last few days."
Kurama let out a quiet 'ahh' in understanding. "She's just curious. Its not every day you find another Flame Haze in the same city as you now is it?"
Naruto sighed, Kurama had a point. He told himself it would go away in a few days, but something told him that fate wasn't going to let it happen...
"I feel something Kurama, and it doesn't feel goo-"
"Naruto who are you talking to?"
Naruto jumped five feet in the air and quickly stuffed Kurama in his locker and shut it. Then turned to find Ike and Yuji ready to go.
"Uhhh... no one! No one at all! Hehehe!" He scratched the back of his head with a nervous laugh. His friends just shrugged it off as Naruto being... well Naruto.
.::One Week Later – Last Period::.
Yuji sighed as he watched Naruto sleep in class again. It was a wonder the boy was passing. But no matter how much he slept, he still got A's and B's on his tests. After the first three days of sleeping, the teacher had given up on waking him up, because he would just fall back asleep again. And Naruto got good grades anyway, so it didn't really matter...
"Sakai!"
Yuji looked away from his daydreaming, mostly it was about the girl next to him, and gulped. "Uh, ah, Hai!"
"Sakai Yuji" The teacher repeated. "Were you daydreaming again? Read from where I left off."
Yuji stood up and began to search, hearing the class snicker at him. He was revealed when the girl next to him wrote down where it was and he began to read.
He never noticed Naruto's eye open a bit. He had watched the exchange sense the eraser fell from Yuji's desk and was picked up by the girl next to him. Even if Naruto didn't know it, he had to agree with Yuji, the girls here were much cuter than the other schools. He smiled lightly when Yuji surprised the teacher and closed his eye again, turned his head, and opened the other one to look out the window.
He saw that Flame Haze again. She was sitting in a tree to get a better look at him. She seemed to notice him looking at her but didn't do anything.
He quietly smiled and waved at her, slightly as to not alert the teacher, who had eyes of a damn hawk. The Flame Haze turned slightly red, but waved back at him.
He turned from her and went back to his nap, dozing off until the end of class.
.::After School – 3:30 PM::.
"So, what are you doing today?" Yuji asked his friends as they walked out of the school, the bell ringing behind them.
Naruto shrugged. "No idea, what are you gonna do?" He asked, still half asleep. He yawned and sensed the Flame Haze again. Damn, this was getting a bit annoying.
Ike took his chance. "I'm taking a mock exam at cram school." Naruto and Yuji looked at him like he had grown a second head. "Your preparing for College already?" Yuji asked.
Naruto sighed. "That Ike for you, damn overachievers, the lot of ya." he scratched the back of the yellow mop on his head that he called hair.
Ike chose to ignore him and continued. "I have to keep my parents happy, or it affects my allowance. What about you?"
They stopped at the school's gates and Yuji made a thinking sound. "I got nothing to do, so I guess I'll walk around the station and check out CD's."
Ike nodded to them and waved as he walked away. "Hmm, Ja na."
Naruto placed a hand on his shoulder. "Mind if I join you Yuji?" Yuji smiled and nodded as he started to walk with Naruto in step beside him.
It wasn't long before they were in the denser part of the city and walking down the street in silence. As they entered the CD store, Yuji noticed the girl from his class. Naruto grinned and gave him a small shove in his back.
The girl turned her head and smiled. "oh, so your house is on this side, too, Sakai-kun?" She questioned him but Yuji shook his head. "No, I'm just here with Naruto to check out CD's" The girl tilted her head and looked around and spotted Naruto looking through the CD racks. He looked up, waved and turned back to the CD's.
"My house is in Ogawa-chou" She turned back to Yuji when he spoke again. The girl smiled at him. "Really? I'm in Aizawa-chou."
It was then that Naruto felt it. A slight pressure. 'SHIT SHIT SHIT!' He took a breath to calm himself and tried to act normal. No sense in going to find it, it would just run away from him before he could kill it.
He tuned in on Yuji's conversation and winced when the girl mentioned Ike. 'Damn, shot down. Sorry man.'
.::Later – Outside The Store::.
"Well I'm stopping by the station building, to, so..." He trialed off.
The girl nodded. "Gotcha, Ja na!" then turned and ran off.
Naruto sighed next to Yuji, still fighting off the feeling from before. He placed a hand on Yuji's shoulder. "Sorry man, I could tell you liked her.
Yuji sputtered and turned red but didn't defend himself.
They started to walk and Naruto suddenly felt the presence spike. 'Its here. Fuck!' He could hear the laughs of it as it as it got closer. He stretched his senses out and found it only to be a low class one.
It was then it struck. The ground glowed with a circular seal and suddenly, everything froze as it all gained a red hue.
Yuji turned around and stalled for a few minutes, then blinked. "Your kidding me... wait!" he took off in a run, Naruto fallowing behind him silently.
Yuji suddenly stopped and looked around at the frozen people. "W-what is this?" There was a crash and he turned to see a huge... thing. It looked like a human child, but it was two stories tall and was pale. It grinned and spoke in a morphed voice. "Yeah, Preparations complete."
A ball, of what seemed to be made of human faces all grinned. "Its not a lot of humans, but its enough. Lets have some fun."
The baby like thing suddenly grinned, exposing its sharp teeth. "Chow time, Chow time!" It opened its mouth and suddenly, every human, besides Yuji and Naruto, all burst into blue flames and started to come to the creatures mouth. It grinned more through its feast. "Its so delicious, so delicious."
The heads turned one of the faces toward it and scolded it... which looked slightly odd... oh hell, it was the most fucked up thing you might see! "Don't talk with your mouth full. Shame on you."
The creature actually listened to it was the weirder part. "Haiii..."
Naruto heard Yuji mumbling something but he was too busy trying to find out where Kurama was on his person. He couldn't remember for the life of him where he put it. 'damn it, where the hell are you!'
"Hirai-san!" Yuji did something completely stupid and yelled...
The baby like thing chocked on something then turned to Yuji and Naruto and gave a confused look. "Huh? What are those two?"
The ball of heads flew over. "I don't know, but their not Tomogara."
"But they're moving within the Fuzetsu."
"They must be Misteses." The ball said back, having a sick tone in its voice.
The thing looked at the ball of heads in more confusion. "Misteses? You mean a Torch with a treasure in it?"
"That's right and its a real special one. We haven't had a good souvenir like this in a while. Our master will be happy."
The baby suddenly threw its arms up and walked toward the both of them, actually acting like a baby... and it would work if it wasn't overgrown and hungry...
"Yatta! We've done a great job." It suddenly reached out and picked Yuji from the ground, inspecting him.
Naruto growled, and finally found Kurama. The second the Heads saw the gem, it started to panic. "WHAT, NO! You cant be a Flame Haze! I don't sense any power from you!"
Naruto grinned, and slipped the necklace on over his neck, falling into place neatly over his chest. "Look underneath the underneath, big guy." There was a flash and suddenly Naruto didn't look quite the same as he did a few seconds ago.
His school uniform was still on, but over top of that he had a red coat with black flames sewn into it's ends and cuffs. It was shifting in the breeze that was suddently blowing, but Yuji was sure that the coat was long enough to reach Naruto's calfs.
In his right hand, he held an entirely black Katana. It was about 102 cementers long from a quick observation. It had no tsuba, and it's edge appeared to be slightly serrated, though it also appeared to have some wear and tear in it, as the serrations looked to be made from chips of the metal making up the blade missing.
But the boy had a much more drastic phyisical change. Though Yuji couldn't see them, the boy's eyes were now red, a black ring on the outer edges of his irises. His hair was strange as well. It's usual blonde color was replaced with black threads of hair. The very edges of that black hair, turned a crimson red. His hair also seemed to be moving around, giving Yuji the impression of a black flame outlined in red.
Naruto grinned and raised up his blade. He seemed to be taking aim as he held it over his head. In a quick flash of movement, he called out a name, and suddenly, the creature was hit.
"Zantetsuken!"
However, Yuji was expecting only one cut. But there was in fact, two. Yuji found himself falling his standing position, the force of the attack(s) pushing him down and soon found himself looking up at Naruto and a girl with long red hair and a sword in her own hand, though she looked drastically different compared to the mostly black Naruto.. He looked over at the creature to find it had its arm chopped off, said arm was now in two pieces on the ground, writhing around as if it was still connected to the main body.
"The hell was that?" Naruto suddenly spoke, his voice low and his now blazing eyes not leaving the creature's body. The girl next to him clicked her tongue in annoyance. "I should be asking you that, dumbass."
Naruto made a face. "'Dumbass'?! Your the one that was just standing on a roof and watching, don't think I didn't see you! What the hell were you thinking?!" The girl next to him glanced at him with a whithering glare. "I was waiting..." She turned slightly red from embarrassment, as that was exactly what she wasn't doing...
"For what? The Fuzetsu to end and the Rinne to get away?!" Naruto retaliated, still watching the creature as it withered on the ground. The girl on his right suddenly exploded. "Urusai, Urusai, Urusai! Why are you only criticizing me, why didn't you help at first!? Huh!?"
Naruto grumbled. "I... lost my gem..." He said with a huff, finally looking away from the creature and out in the opposite direction of the girl. Said girl grinned darkly at him and turned back to the creatures. "Heh, well you should place it where you'd remember it."
Naruto's eye twitched as he looked back at her, his temper finally lost. "I did place it where I would find it!"
"Then why didn't you find it!" She countered back, with the same ferrocity.
Naruto was silent, his face frozen in anger and thought until Kurama spoke from his neck. "She has a point brat." Naruto grumbled and flicked Kurama's gem again, making him let out a small yelp of pain. "Shut it, damn fox."
The gem around the girls neck suddenly spoke. "Kurama? My my, fancy meeting you here." It said in a deep tone that matched Kurama's, if only a bit lighter.
If Kurama could show his confused face outside the gem, he would have. "Is that Alastor? Brat! Point me at him, I can't see shit from this cloak of yours." Naruto sighed and kept an eye on the creatures as they rested at the moment. He picked up Kurama's gem and pointed it at the girl. It turned a deep crimson and a red, animal like eye appeared, complete with a black slit as it looked around to get its bearings and finally settled on the girl's Gem, Alastor.
"Damn, how long has it been Alastor? 500 years?" Kurama said as if he was meeting up with a long time friend. If Alastor could grin, he would have shown his pointy teeth. "Why yes, I believe it has. I haven't seen you sense my last Flame Haze. Speaking of Flame Hazes, I see you went and got one yourself?"
Naruto and Kurama grunted at the same time. "Not like I had a choice in the matter. This kid wouldn't stop annoying me until I agreed to make the contract."
The girl finally spoke up, angered at both the Lords. "Can we just get back to the fight please?!"
Naruto sighed and nodded, placing his other hand on the Katana, his already bright red eyes flashed a brighter red before they dulled.
Yuji almost shivered when he did that. Naruto used to have an aura of warmth, happiness, and peace. But now, it was dark and cold, endless like a void. The girl next to him seemed to notice his eyes luminosity as well, but settled for just glancing sideways at him, then back at the monster.
'Is this... is this Naruto?' Yuji thought as he stared at the boy. 'He feels so different. And... and whats this pressure...? I feel as if... two long time foes have met and are about to crush each other...!'
The huge baby like thing gave a roar of anger and screamed. "You! How dare you cut off my arm!" It lifted its arm over its head and prepared to bring it down on the three of them.
The girl brought her sword back till its point was inches from Yuji's face. Naruto simply slid his left foot ahead of his right, turning his body sideways as he held the Katana tip toward the ground, hovering just a couple inches above it. Then both he and the girl seemed to phase out of sight and appear behind the huge pale baby, as two huge cuts appeared on its body on either its shoulder or chest and let out large amounts of... blue fire?
Naruto was the one to look back and let out a blood-thirsty grin. "Zantetsuken... An almost impossibly fast swing of a sword..." He stood back up, and gave the girl a glance. "Didn't know you knew it too..."
The girl ignored him, just to piss him off.
It worked.
The baby fell to the ground as Naruto and the girl argued, and then turned back to face the creature. As the baby pushed its self up, the girl walked up to it, her Katana held at her side.
When the huge ball of heads decided to finally act, it floated up and rushed the girl, only to be brutally kicked by Naruto higher in the air.
As the head crashed into a buildings 5th floor, the girl continued to walk toward the Baby Monster as it struggled to get up.
"What... What are they!?" it yelled in fear and pain. Then realization crossed its ugly face and it looked more scared. "I get it now..." the girl slowly raised her Katana up above her head. The creature had just enough time to yell, "DON'T!" before the girl severed its head from its body, causing it to explode into more of the blue fire.
"It was a shell..." Naruto spoke up from behind her. His eyes searching the area.
If Alastor could nod, he would. "Yes, it seems the main body left at the last moment."
Both Naruto and the girl looked over to Yuji and looked back at the girl's necklace. "Is this a Mistes?" the girl asked Alastor. "Yeah, and it seems like a unique one." Naruto suddenly rocketed from his place behind the girl, moving at speeds that rivaled only the best Flame Hazes, and swung at Yuji.
Yuji closed his eyes till he felt no pain and looked behind him to see a human like arm fall to the ground, blue flames coming from it as well. He looked back to find a older woman, about 20, holding her severed arm and screaming in pain.
The girl stepped forward and pointed her sword at the woman. "You wanted what was inside the Mistes didn't you?"
The woman had shaky eyes. "Flame hair and red-hot eyes... no... two...? that's not possible. Unless, you're Alastor, the Flame Haze of the Holy Flames, and you-" she looked at Naruto, "-are the Kurama, the Flame Haze of Cursed Flames... You're both tools of hunting." She seemed quite frightened.
The girl smirked. "So that's who I am, what of it?"
The woman snarled. "My Master won't stay quiet about this!." the girl continued to smirk. "You're right, he will be spouting his last words soon." the woman's face turned into a more angry snarl. "Why you..."
"But now..." The girl lifted her sword slowly once again, "let me hear yours first!" Just as she was about to bring the sword down, Yuji jumped in her way and protected the woman. "Wait!"
Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Move Yuji!" Yuji never listened, nor did he see the woman smirk behind him until he felt her plunge her arm into his back. He let out a gasp and coughed up drops of saliva. He could feel the woman reaching for something inside him. 'what is this... its going inside of me and... and... S-Stop...'
He saw a flash, and suddenly, Naruto had cut his arm and shoulder from the rest of his body. As he fell to the ground in shock, he heard the woman behind him scream in pain.
'He... He cut me... my best friend... cut me...' as he hit the ground, a doll flew out of the woman's body and flew up above Naruto and the girl's head. It turned in the air to look down at them and 'humphed' with a echoing voice.
The girl sprung into action and turned, her sword at the ready. "So that's the main body!" Alastor was keeping an eye behind her. "Behind you!" the girl turned and watched as the ball of heads recovered from Naruto's attack and flew at her. But she was saved as Naruto jumped on top of it and stabbed his sword, which was alight with red-and-black flames, into its top. It let out a scream before it exploded and mixes of blue and red-black flames came out of it.
The doll took the chance of their distraction and vanished back to wherever it came from. The girl sighed and placed her Katana back in its sheath, which doubled as her coat, where it vanished without a trace. "It got away." her hair and eyes lost their bright shine, but still were red.
"From the way it was talking, sounds like someone strong its behind all of this." she spoke to the pended around her neck. "We might be able to hunt the Kings of Guze in a while." the girl nodded and turned back to face Naruto and Yuji. The former having put away his own Katana in his black cloak. "Putting that aside. I'm surprised this could move." she said, looking at Yuji.
Said boy had a look of fear on his face as he stretched his moving hand out up to her. "H-Help me."
They ignored him and this time, it was Kurama that spoke. "Yeah, it reminds me of Tenmoku Ikko." Alastor grunted in agreement, the girl turned to look in another direction. "But that time, we knew we were going to fight and that it could move, too."
Yuji spoke again, having mustered up the courage. "Please, call an ambulance!"
The girl turned to him with an annoyed look. "Augh, Urusai, Urusai, Urusai! Stop crying about being cut now!"
Naruto turned to her with a bored look. "Well then, Ms. All-knowing-Flame-Haze, maybe you should get off of your high-horse and fix him, and maybe he'll stop." the girl glared at him hard. "You shut up, too!" Naruto sent a hard glare back. "You wanna make me!" They continued to glare at each other, and Yuji could almost see the lightning strike between their eyes, well if he wasn't in shock about dieing... or lack thereof.
"I've got to stop it from bleeding... The blood!" he whispered to himself. Then he blinked and looked at the wound. There was no blood at all.
"There isn't any!? Whats going on!?" he yelled at the both of them. The girl sighed before bending down, her face inches from his and fixing his arm. She blew on him lightly and he was suddenly lit up by the same blue flames from before. He jumped up and screamed about being on fire until it vanished.
Naruto let out a chuckle as Yuji looked at his, now uninjured, arm.
"Okay." the girl lifted her finger in the air and it lit up with a bright light, so bright that Yuji had to cover his eyes. He looked around and found everyone covered in blue flames. Then a thought crossed his mind. "Hirai-san!" he looked over to find her reappearing, but didn't notice her dull face. "She's back...thank god..."
The girl lowered her finger and spoke again. "That's it for the Torches. I'll use a few of them for fixing."
"Yeah, and they sure ate a lot." Alastor put in his two cents. "Her Master must be a real big eater." She lifted her finger once again, and it lit up with bright light again. Yuji looked around to find the battle scared area fixing itself. Craters were repaired, broken glass restored, telephone polls fixed. "finished." the girl said as she lowered her now non glowing hand.
In a flash, everything returned to normal for Yuji, there was no longer a red hue, and everyone was moving again. He looked around. 'no one noticed what happened?!' He turned around and found Hirai-san walking down the street slowly. He looked at her longer and found a blue flame burning in her chest. 'What... What is that?' "Hirai-san..."
He turned around and saw that, almost everyone had the same blue flame in their chests. "what is all this..." he turned around and found the girl and Naruto walking away, they looked to be arguing about something.
Naruto's hair, eyes and clothing were back to normal. The sword that was in his right hand was gone too. The girl had gone from a red-head to a brunette, but her coat remained on her shoulders, making her look somewhat out of place in the city.
Naruto sighed. "Did you really have to show him that? You could have just wiped his memories..."
The red-head, now having black hair, turned her head to him. "I wanted to see what he would do."
They walked for a few minutes before Naruto spoke again. "You forgot didn't you...?" There was another few moments of silence until the girl spoke. "Urusai..."
"Oi, wait!" They stopped and turned to find Yuji running up to them. "What was that all about? Inside Hirai-san and others there are-" He reached his hand out to her only to have her grab it and grip it tightly. "Shut up already...Alastor, should we dispose of this?"
Naruto let out an annoyed growl and poked her forehead firmly. "No you most certainly may not 'get rid of this'!" the girl's face turned slightly red as she slapped his hand away with her other free hand.
She was about to argue again, before Alastor spoke to agree. "He's right, we mustn't open Mistes so carelessly. Have you forgotten the chaos of Tenmoku Ikko's case?"
"I know, but this one is so noisy." the girl argued back. "Just tell it the truth. Then it should quiet down too." Alastor shot back calmly. Yuji pulled his hand free and took a jump back from her, rubbing his now sore hand. "Stop talking about me like I'm an 'it' or a 'this'. Like I'm an object."
The girl glared at him. "That's right, you're not human! Your an object." Yuji let out a surprised gasp at her seriousness. "You're not the only one." the girl continued. "All of those with light in them are the same. They're replacements for the humans that got their power of existence eaten by Guze no Tomogara. They're Torches."
Yuji gulped. "Replacements, what are you saying?" Every cell in his body screamed at him to not listen, but he knew it was true.
The girl spoke again. "If an existence disappears all of a sudden, the world's balance collapses, right? That's why we place a replacement as a shock absorber. Just temporarily."
Yuji tried not to show his fear, but it showed in his eyes. He glanced at Naruto, only to see him nod. "So.. in other words..."
"That's right." the girl interrupted him. "The 'real' you's existence was eaten a long time ago and has disappeared. The you right now is only the remainder." Yuji slowly looked down to his chest, and almost screamed when he saw the same blue flame there. "I'm... already..." the girl looked away, not out of emotion, but just to look around.
Naruto sighed and looked up at the clouds. 'Shikamaru... now I understand... why you watched the clouds all the time...' a small smile graced his lips as he closed his eyes...
.::End::.
A/N: Edited and just a bit different. I changed Naruto's flame color, to suit a more 'evil' theme that his title implies.