Fighting the Shadows of Isolation

Alright all you cool cats and kittens out there. This is Zinmaster24 here with my first story. I'm not that great at this, and I'm really not up to par with a lot of other writers out there. But hopefully this will be something fun to read if you're into more serious types of fanfictions. Be prepared for the unknown as I make things happen with one chapter at a time in this.

Summary: What happens when a young Naruto finds his self all alone in a new world filled with monstrous creatures that wish death upon him and a dark god that wants to be free of his imprisonment. Will Naruto be able to overcome his newest challenge that life has thrown his way? Well there's only one way to find out.

Disclaimer: Yeah. I don't own anything related to Naruto or Shadow of the Colossus. I'm just a simple guy doing this as a hobby in my spare time, so I don't need anyone trying to sue a broke man like myself. Ya dig?

Fighting the Shadows of Isolation

Chapter 1: I Shouldn't Be Here

The entire day had been a complete disaster for the Konoha Retrieval Team comprised of Kiba Inuzuka, Choji Akamichi, Neji Hyῡga, Rock Lee, Naruto Uzumaki, and Shikamaru Nara. The backup team comprised of the Hidden Sand's own Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara no Subaku had come in much later during the mission to help, but in the end Sasuke Uchiha had escaped and the mission was a complete failure. At the very least no one had died all except for one. Naruto Uzumaki, who, had been the one to confront the fleeing nuke-nin in the final stretch of the mission at the Valley of the End.

The battle between Naruto and Sasuke had been vicious and the only two that had been the nearest to feel it were Rock Lee and Gaara, though neither of the boys were able to provide any support to Naruto because they were dealing with a powerful foe themselves. It wasn't until after the battle with Kimimaru where his heart stopped on him just short of killing Gaara that they were able to move on to the Valley of the End to find that neither Sasuke or Naruto were there. The signs of a fierce battle were obvious with the aftermath destruction between the two of them, but no sides of the bodies that caused the change in the landscape. But even after searching for a manner of thirty minutes to an hour, the pair still couldn't find them and assumed that Naruto had either been killed or was missing.

The group had made their way back Tsunade Senju's office and had given their report that Naruto had been killed in the line of duty and Sasuke Uchiha had escaped to the border to Otogakure no Sato. Suffice to say the blonde haired, brown eyed Hokage was not happy with the turnout of the mission results and had went on a rampage that nearly destroyed half of Konoha in her fury till she finally broke down and cried herself to sleep after her rage induced rampage of destruction.

"Why?"

The first word she had said to her aide and personal student Shizune in nearly a week after the news had been broken to her about her godson's death. That caused the black haired young woman to turn to her master and leader in surprise now.

"Why did he have to die, Shizune? The brat said that he was going to become the Hokage after me. I came back to this village because of him, and only him, and now he's gone too. Konoha has taken yet another of the few people that I've cared about now." Her voice seemed hollow and her eyes looked just as much.

Shizune for her part was torn up about the whole incident as well, having come to see the blonde haired boy as something of a younger brother. To her, the young boy was sweet and kind even if a little cold and reserved at times. But, she had seen that he could get just as loud as Jiraiya or Tsunade when pushed to a certain extent which really brought him to life. She had to do her best to restrain Tsunade as much as she could but it didn't help much considering how strong her master was. But, that was neither here nor there at the present time. She let out a sigh and shook her head solemnly.

"I'm not sure Tsunade-sama. He had strength and skill on his side, and he was a little rough around the edges when we first met, but he was strong willed even when you refused to come back to the village at first. He didn't quit even when you punched him into the side of the building out of anger for having lost your bet to him. If I had to say personally, I believe he is alive out there somewhere." She resonated with a bit of optimism in her voice, which caused the blonde haired Hokage to look at her in a bit of misplaced grief and anger.

"Shizune! He's dead! Naruto is dead! We have to face the facts of life. He died and we couldn't even recover the body and now we have to worry about the Kyuubi being revived in a few years!" There were tears in her eyes as she slammed her fist on the desk causing it to cry out in pain by creaking and nearly shattering into pieces from the sheer amount of force she put into the punch, but the black haired, black eyed girl didn't back down from her mentor this time as she shook her head and her gaze hardened in turn.

"Tsunade-sama… I know you're angry and sad, but I truly believe he's still alive and fighting to return. I'm not sure how or why, but I just know that he'll return to us one day. But, until that day comes what would you tell him about the way you're acting as of right now? You can't simply leave this time like you did with Dan and Nawaki when they died. You have a responsibility to both Konoha and Naruto to stay and lead this place, if for no other reason than to honor their memories and dreams. You owe it to all three of them." Her voice was resolute as Tsunade could do nothing but stare at her apprentice in a bit of shock for her words. It was a bit of a low blow but Tsunade realized that Shizune was right. She couldn't just leave again now that she was the Hokage, because she had a responsibility to all those that came before her and to those that were under her command.

"Fine." Tsunade started to speak in a tone of defeat, but it was quickly replaced with an ironclad resolve. "I'll stay and run this place. That brat better come back soon. Shizune get the word out in the bingo books that Sasuke Uchiha is officially a missing ninja from Konohagure no Sato as of today. We've got to get this place back into fighting shape before we're forced to go to war due to one of the other villages possibly seeing us as too weak to defend ourselves." With that she got back to work with a renewed vigor and to get herself back into more of a fighting and leading shape.

XxXx

The mood between the Konoha Ten had been extremely down as they all had gathered to mourn the death of a friend at the hands of a traitor. The rookies could be seen in the training ground seven as the only remaining member of Team Seven, Sakura Haruno, had cried her eyes out while blaming herself for being too weak to let this happen. Ino Yamanaka had stayed near Sakura trying to console her in her hour of weakness and despair by telling her it wasn't her fault to begin with and there was only so much any one person could actually do.

Off to the side sat Shikamaru, Choji, and Rock Lee just staring at the two girls in silence. They knew what happened and that they could have prevented it if they had only been stronger, and in Rock Lee's case, healthier. Shikamaru finally let out a sigh amongst their little group and looked at the other two boys with a slightly perturbed look on his face. "It was my fault." He started in a somber tone. "I should have been smarter, more prepared for this. I'm supposed to be looked upon as a leader now during missions. Yet, I let him go on ahead. I should have been stronger with my new position, but I shirked off my training and now Naruto is dead because of my decision." The pineapple haired boy started gritting his teeth in frustration and a bit of self-loathing now.

His best friend, Choji Akamichi, placed a hand on his shoulder and gave a bit of a soft squeeze and a shake at seeing his friend beat himself up over this. "Shika, I know how you feel, but you did the best you could, given the options. You made the best call you could and no one is blaming you for what happened. I bet if Naruto was here right now though, he would tell you to get up and start training." A small smile came over his face at the thought of Naruto standing over Shikamaru and just slapping him right then and there. "Yeah, he would slap you and tell you to just get stronger and better to never let it happen again. He was serious about being a ninja, you know? But he wasn't like Sasuke. He was driven, determined, and skilled, but he could still be friendly towards anyone that didn't outright turn him away."

That caused Shikamaru to look over to his large friend in a bit of shock as he thought about Naruto now. "You're … Your right Choji. Naruto would do that and he would probably kick my ass if he had to, just to make sure it never happened again. That's just the kind of guy he is and I don't think he's dead." That caused a bit of a saddened smile to spread over his face as he started to slowly stand to his feet now as his smile turned into one of determination.

That caused the green clad, bowl cut boy to look over after silently listening to the entire conversation. "What do you mean? Naruto is not dead?" Rock Lee said in confusion now. "Gaara and I searched the entire valley from top to bottom and we could not find any trace of Naruto or Sasuke. I know that protocol states that if there is no body found that we assume that they are M.I.A. rather than K.I.A., but the battle between them showed far too much destruction for either of us to dismiss the possibility that he wasn't killed or both of them for that matter. Even Hokage-sama sent in teams to confirm what we could not, and they turned up the same results. No body."

That got the other two to turn to him as they others had overheard him speaking as well now. Soon they all came over towards Rock Lee, Choji and Shikamaru to listen in for the moment until Kiba voiced his own opinion on the matter.

"The kid ain't dead if you ask me. He may be down but he's not out. Naruto's made of tougher stuff than you give him credit for, Rock Lee. I should know because I fought the bastard and he put a beat down on me pretty good at the time. Though, when he gets back, I'm going to be far stronger than him and pay him back for my loss from the last fight." That put a smirk on the Inuzuka heirs' face at that as the ever stoic Neji nodded his head in agreement to Kiba's opinion on the matter.

"I agree. Naruto is not dead. He will return to Konoha one day and he will do the things he said he would. He promised us after all. But, until that day comes, I will get stronger and stronger still so that I too can have my rematch against him, and this time I won't underestimate him. Never again will I make that mistake."

The rest of the rookies shared similar thoughts and opinions on the matter of their fallen comrade after that and they broke up to do their own training afterward. It seemed that even with Naruto gone, he had somehow inspired them to push forward past their own slump and get on with their lives till he returned to them. Or so they believed.

XxXx

There was nothing but pain all over his body. That was all he could feel as he tried to move his arms and legs. His pain receptors were the first to return to him as he roused himself to awaken from his slumber. Soon his eyesight was the next of his senses to return to him followed by every other sense he had. When he slowly opened his eyes, he had been expecting to see the bright white walls of a hospital room, only to find that he was looking up at the open clear blue sky instead.

Wait.

That shouldn't be right.

He should have woken up in Konoha's hospital complaining that he didn't need to be there to Tsunade, instead of on the ground in pain looking up at the sky with an annoyed look on his face.

With a sigh, he calmed himself and closed his eyes to extend his senses outward as far as he could, in an attempt to find anyone around near him with a pulse. After a few attempts, he could find nothing but some lizards and birds roaming around for the moment. Opening his eyes again, this time in more annoyance, he let out a growl as he tried to move his body to get up off the cold stone he felt himself on.

The problem with that was that he couldn't move his arms or legs in the slightest at the moment. So with nothing more to do than look up at the sky and be in complete pain from his fight with Sasuke, who he had to pay back for the hole in his shoulder by the way, he decided to turn inward to his partner for any insight into the situation at hand.

'Hey…'

There was a grumble of annoyance at the call, but there was a voice that responded after a moment or so of silence.

"What could you possibly want now, you blond haired idiot?"

Well that was a great way to start off a conversation that affected the both of them. But nevertheless Naruto Uzumaki never backed down in the face of opposition. He only made tactical retreats if necessary.

"Do you know where we are, or what happened? The last thing I remember was clashing with Sasuke, and getting my chest ran through with that Chidori, and now we're here… Wherever, here, is." He added as an afterthought to his previous statement, which only caused the great beast within him to roll his eyes in annoyance in response to Naruto's statement.

"Why would I know what happened to us anymore than you do, when I only see the exact same things as you, moron? I can only see what you see because of being trapped inside of you, boy. For being slightly more intelligent than the average ningen I've seen, you're pretty stupid."

That caused Naruto to roll his own eyes, as he decided to not even let that barb rattle his cage for the moment. There were other pressing matters at hand to deal with, such as figuring out what the hell happened to him after his near death experience at the hands of his former best friend. So with a grunt of exertion, he sat up to get a better view of his surroundings. After a quick survey of the land, Naruto found that he wasn't anywhere in Konoha, or any place he had ever seen before.

"Well…. Shit."

At a time like this any other person, shinobi or civilian, would be freaking out or at least far more worried than Naruto's expression showed. As a matter of fact as he tried to stand, his attention was brought back to the almost crippling pain he was in at the moment. "Damn it!" He shouted out in frustration before sighing and resigning himself to rest for the moment to recover his strength to move again. So he decided to look out at the land once more to give it a better view again.

He could see nothing but open fields in either direction that led into what looked like a desert coming from the position he was in. Speaking of which, he cast his gaze towards what was in front of him to find that he was sitting on some sort of all white stone bridge that was long, really long. On the other end of the bridge was a very large building of some sort. It looked like it was temple. It extended from the top towards the sky, for how long though he couldn't be sure, but he hoped that he wouldn't have to go through that thing to find out where he was.

But looking slightly behind him, he could see that it looked like this was the entrance to this place. Maybe he could leave through there? Only one way to find out and that was to actually get up and try to leave. Naruto didn't like the looks of this place he was in, despite it looking so very tranquil and peaceful. Forcing himself to his feet now, he willed his body to move towards the narrow valley that leads to the entrance of this strange and quiet land. Only to find that once he got there, there was an incredibly strong gust of wind that was constantly pushing him back to block his leaving.

"What the hell is this?!" Naruto yelled out in actual surprise this time as he used his arms to shield his face as he started using chakra to keep his feet planted to the stone beneath him, lest he tumble back and possibly fall off the side of the plateau that jutted out from the entrance of the valley. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fucking hell! Aaahhh!"

That was the yell of a teenage killer that couldn't win against the wind and was promptly thrown back towards the bridge. Naruto landed on his back hard and slightly thrashed around in pain from his aching body. "Well…. It doesn't look like I'm going to be leaving from here any time soon. I shouldn't be here though. I need to get back home and see what the situation is on the mission from the others." He finally said after settling down after a moment or two he was healed enough by Kurama to let the pain subside.

"Hey Kurama, you've been all over the world before, right? Have you seen any place like this before?"

"No. I haven't, but I can say that this place is quiet. Extremely quiet, but not completely abandoned either. There is something here… I can't put my paw on it, but there's something about this place that just doesn't sit right with me."

Naruto nodded at the input from his vulpine partner and let his body recover what strength he could for the moment. So that left Naruto with nothing but his thoughts, the all-powerful chakra construct that was the nine tailed beast of destruction, Kurama, and time on his hands because there was nothing else there but them, that temple and the expansive landscape that they couldn't escape from for the moment.

XxXx

It had been hours later and Naruto was aggravated with how long of a walk it had been to cross that bridge. He normally wouldn't have cared about it in the slightest, but the dead silence other than his own footsteps was a little more than unnerving to the blonde bomber. He had to wonder how long it had really been as well, because the land he was in exhibited nothing more than perpetual daylight as well, so the sense of time could easily be lost on him as he made his way through this desolate land that he found himself in.

"This sucks. No… This really sucks. I'm not one to normally complain, but this shit just ain't right man. Who the fuck builds a temple that possibly reaches to the sky, with a bridge that extends possibly three times the size of Tazuna's bridge at least, and then just abandons it like this?" He asked out loud only to get a snort for his troubles in return from his tenet as he made his way closer to the temple only to find that getting within a certain distance of it, a door slide up to reveal a way inside of the only building around for miles.

Without complaining anymore or asking any questions, Naruto made his way inside only to find that it was dark on the inside with something of a spiral staircase leading downward and bottomed out with a pool of dark but clear water over an open skylight of sorts. Without a word he made his way downward towards the pool a few minutes later. Looking into the pool, he could see his reflection in the water and decided that now would be a good time to do a bit of a maintenance check on himself.

Looking over his clothing he noticed that most of it was torn to shreds from the entire day of fighting to retrieve Sasuke from leaving Konoha. With a frown on his face as he pulled off his tattered remains of clothing, Naruto pulled out a sealing scroll to unseal a fresh spare outfit for himself and looked over his remaining equipment that he had on his person.

Naruto looked over the attire that he now wore. His traditional ninja footwear were still viable so were left as is. His pants were of a slightly reddish hue but still had a few holes, like along his left knee. He wore a loose red belt and brown sash around his waist and a brownish muscle shirt, along with a brown belt like a bandoleer that held his remaining ninja tools and held the scabbard for his sword along his left waist. A crimson red cape hung around his neck and bandages with a leather strap on either arm, a metal guard on his left wrist, bandages on his right wrist and gloves.

As he checked his remaining equipment for shuriken and kunai, he held up his only sword. It hadn't been anything special really. Just a straight sword without a guard to it, but it had been something he found while foraging dead bodies of shinobi in the Forest of Death when he was younger. The whiskered face boy had broken the sword in his fight against Kimimaru Kaguya against his bone sword in a dual of sorts, but kept the broken blade because he felt naked without one.

"Damn it. I spent years learning how to properly wield this sword, and now it's broken. I'll need to get it replaced once I get back to the village." He stopped himself there and grimaced at the thought for a moment and then spat on the stone floor beneath him as a bitter tone etched its way into Naruto's next words. "Yeah, more like scavenge the Forest of Death again. Damn those villagers and their petty fears of me. There's no way any of them outside of the shinobi district would ever sell me anything, and even then the blacksmith wasn't particularly fond of me either. Maybe I can go by Tenten's shop and she can help me out? Oh well. I'll know when I get back… assuming I make it back from wherever this place is."

Putting that out of his mind now to get back to the matter at hand, Naruto found himself looking at what appeared to be the center of the temple on the bottom floor. Walking in a small corridor that led into the massive sized hall, he could see that there were sixteen statues lining the sides of the walls, eight on each side, and seemed to have varied in the design of the faces. Looking down to the end of the hall, he could make out what appeared to be an alter with two figures sitting on and near the structure. There was light shining down from the ceiling and from directly behind them as well as it appeared to be leading out into the land he found himself in.

Well at least he wasn't alone here anymore. That was his first thought until he got close enough to notice that the figures weren't moving, or breathing for that matter.

"Well…. Shit."

It figured his luck wouldn't be that good. The only two other people he happened to find since waking up were dead. He noticed that one was a male and the other female, and from the looks of it, they had probably been a couple at some point before their deaths, but the blonde couldn't be sure of that since he couldn't question them on it. But putting that thought out of his mind, he noticed that the male had a sheath on him and a sword tucked nicely into it. Naruto didn't have a problem with grave robbing in the slightest because he was a shinobi, and he couldn't remember the last time he had heard of a shinobi being honorable. Being honorable got you killed in his line of work, and he wasn't into that scene at all.

So with that in mind, he picked up the sword and sheath and looked it over for a moment. Looking at the sheath, he didn't particularly care for it because it was made of leather and had a plain design on it, but he kept it anyway just in case he felt he needed it. Taking the sword out from its resting place, Naruto looked it over in scrutiny with his piercing gaze. The hilt of the sword looked incredibly short, but unlike the swords the ANBU used, this one had a guard just above the hilt, with two small protrusions on either side. The blade was long at the shaft but in the middle came together and then formed a reverse teardrop until tapering to a very narrow double-edged tip. From his analysis, this sword was meant for piercing and stabbing rather than slashing and cutting.

"This will have to do for now till I can get a better one that's suited to my style." Naruto said to himself as he placed the sheath over his old one and sheathing the sword back now. He was about to continue looking through the mans' personal effects next to him for anything else useful until he heard the loud booming voice of the great chakra beast in the back of his mind, sounding quite alarmed about something.

"Be on your guard, Kit! I feel something dark coming right now!"

And sure enough from the floor rose what looked like shadowy silhouetted figures that twitched every other second. There were several of them as they seemed to look around the area searching for… something. Until they focused in on Naruto who took on a hardened gaze, and set himself in a ready stance for combat. "This is some bullshit! Kurama! Do you have any ideas on how to take these assholes out before they kill me?!" Naruto shouted as the shadow figures all charged him at once from their position a ways back from the alter.

"Sorry, Kit, I don't have any ideas other than keep moving and force them to line up to take them down one at a time. Don't let yourself get trapped between any of them." The great beast supplied as helpfully as he could to Naruto's current situation. Over the years the fox had gotten used to being partnered with Naruto after their initial meeting and smoothing out a deal. He had watched the boy grow stronger over the years and was pleased enough for the time being that he didn't outright hate his jailer anymore after the initial effect had worn off of being trapped inside of his prison.

"That would be good advice if these guys were human like me. But, they aren't so I need something better." He growled out as he tried to slice one of the attackers in half only to find his new blade sail right through its form completely without any resistance whatsoever. This only caused the blue eyed shinobi to slightly panic and backpedal to gain space and think of a new plan of attack. As he neared the two bodies behind him, the blonde couldn't help but become frustrated at his seemingly futile attempts to kill these creatures.

As Naruto took more swings at the creatures with his new blade, he continued to backpedal until he was near the steps of the alter that the dead girl was placed upon. "Fuck!" He shouted as he took one more downward swing towards the closet shadow creature only for it to pass through its body once again harmlessly. "This is pointless! What the hell does it take to put these bastards down?!" Naruto shouted to himself as he raised his sword high into the air which caused the light from outside of the temple to hit his blade and send beams of light outward towards the nearest lunging creature. The light was faint but the one that was the closest was hit by the beam and let out what, Naruto could identify, as a scream of pain before fading away into the ground.

Naruto noticed this and a smirk came to his face. "So you don't like the light huh? Well you all will hate this!" He shouted as he moved from the alter to the stairs for a better position near the biggest light source leading out of the temple, and pointed his blade towards the shadow creatures which the blade took in most of the sunlight and let out in a forward beam of light that hit all of the shadows and caused them all to howl out in pain before fading away into the ground like the previous one.

Once the fighting had died down, Naruto walked back over to the bodies and let out a sigh before falling over to sit on the steps. "That was fun, now lets' never do it again." He muttered to himself as he could hear the chiding laughter of the fox within his mind, which caused him to growl and began to speak to the great beast. "Shut up Kurama, let's see you take on something you can't k-…"

"Hmm? Thou possesses the Ancient Sword? So thou art mortal…"

AN: Hey all you cool cats and kittens out there. So this ends chapter 1 of my new story. If you have questions, comments feel free to leave a comment for me to read. I'll get to it and answer anything you want. If you want to flame me for this, then feel free to do so, but make it at least halfway decent please. I'm doing this as a hobby which I don't get a lot of time for.

So read, review, and favorite it! More will surely be coming!

Also, I want to thank my great friend XemnasO01X for helping me with this and pushing me forward to create this. Also, be sure to check out our other story that's on his profile. The Rogue Two. Yes this was a shameless plug for our other story. Don't like it? Sue me.. Wait don't do that. I'm already poor enough as it is.

So to everyone out there this is Zinmaster24 and I want to say, Ciao For Now!