Concentric Rings
Chapter One - A Hole in the Clouds
OoOoO ? OoOoOo
The sky tore like cloth.
The man looked up, eyebrows raised, as a boy fell from the tear. With a blur of motion, the space around him bent. He disappeared and reappeared directly underneath the child, catching the falling body before it could hit the ground. His body was light - strangely light, considering his size. His hair looked like it had been dipped in blood, then rolled around a few times in a mud pit.
He must have pushed himself hard to make it this far, the man mused, idly staring at the kid. The hole, a bright spot amongst the infinite darkness of the sky, closed quickly. He pulled at the boy's eyelids. The pupils were bright, bright blue. No Rinnegan. How did he get here?
He shrugged, and carried the kid back to his tower. He'd find out more later.
oOoOoO Naruto OoOoOo
Naruto.
Naruto?
NARUTO!
He jerked awake, one hand reaching for a kunai, but to his surprise the pouch was missing. Along with the rest of his clothes. Freaking out a little, Naruto glanced around the room, his eyes taking in every facet of his surroundings.
It was a room he'd never seen before. The walls were a crystalline black. There were no obvious light sources, so he surmised that they glowed slightly. Other than the bed, the only piece of furniture was a large stand of some kind, upon which hung a set of clothes. His clothes. Except, his clothes had been burned, charred, and filled with kunai holes, and these were pristine. His holsters hung next to them.
Obviously I'm not a prisoner, he considered, eyes narrowing. Kurama?
Echoing silence answered him. He meditated for a moment, reaching his mindscape. When he got to the seal, however, there was a major difference - the room had no cage, like it had in the early years of his life, nor was Kurama inside.
"EHHH?" Naruto yelled in horror, snapping out of his trance. Forget not being a prisoner! I have to find him now! Tsunade's going to kill me!
He tossed on his clothes and holster, noting that his headband was still as scratched up as ever, and ran for the only door. He felt strangely - light. Gravity was still functioning, so it wasn't a space-time jutsu, but it took strangely little energy to move at his normal speeds. Not that he could feel the drain anyways, but he'd just gotten out of combat, and he'd expected to be tired.
The door had no visible handle. He considered it for a moment, strangely hesitant to touch the black crystal frame, but he did anyways. To his surprise, it opened at the slightest touch. And by opened, he meant disappeared entirely. Which would have been fine if he had used a delicate touch, but in reality he'd thrown his shoulder against it.
Cursing, Naruto fell through - and down a long, long flight of stairs.
If Sakura could see me now, Naruto thought, smiling. A flash of pain ripped its way through him - not physical, but emotional. He gasped, one hand twisting at his heart. What was that?
When nothing further happened, he opened his eyes and sat up. He'd expected to be sore, but he wasn't. He was quickly distracted from this fact, however, by his surroundings. Eyes wide, he stood and gazed at the world he found himself in.
Absolute darkness. It was the only descriptor. The building he came out of was a tower, seeming to stretch forever into the sky. Somewhere, farther than he could see, a reddish dome extended, holding back the inky blackness that was the sky. The ground was more of that black, strangely menacing crystal.
Instantly, he was on full battle alert. No more nice, clumsy Naruto. Time for future-Hokage Naruto. Obviously something serious had happened in the battle with - pain. He groaned, sinking to his knees as the world seemed to constrict.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice said calmly behind him. Naruto turned, a kunai flickering into his hand. A man was kneeling amongst a boxed in area of dirt. Naruto blinked. He was - he was - gardening?
"Who are you?" Naruto asked, kunai falling slightly. "Where am I?"
"The two are not mutually exclusive," the man said, standing with a scowl. "I can never get anything to grow here."
"Just answer me, dattebayo!" Naruto said, frustrated. "What's with all this weird crystal and the sky and the tower and - did you undress me?!"
"You came without clothes, actually," he replied, rubbing his hands together to get rid of the dirt. "You can call me Advocate. Also, welcome to the trash heap."
oOoOoO Naruto OoOoOo
Back in the tower, Naruto was surprised to find that his room had turned into a very familiar classroom. In the better lighting of his old academy, he was able to fully perceive what the man looked like. Or at least, he should have. Strangely, every time he tried to nail a detail down, like the color of his hair or the tone of his skin, it slipped his mind. When he looked at him, there was basically a giant blank spot where he perceived a person.
"Who are you?" he asked again. "Is this - genjutsu?" As if he hadn't tried to release it already.
"Not an illusion, if that's what you mean," he said calmly. "And I told you - call me Advocate."
"Where is this?"
"Interstitial space. It was quite impressive of you to come all the way here without some sort of reality-bending manifestation."
"I don't - I don't understand what you mean," Naruto said, his breath coming with another pang of agony.
"Don't think about it too hard. I've sealed off a portion of your memories for protection. Too much at once will overwhelm you. Suffice to say, you came here of your own free will and as a last resort."
"I still don't understand," Naruto said again, though it was less confused and heartbroken than his normal tone.
"It's fine," Advocate said, grinning. "Mister holier-than-thou Rikudo Sennin came from your world, and even he couldn't really understand without me explaining it all. Perhaps some pictures would go well with the lecture."
He tapped the blackboard. Instantly, a diagram appeared, an oval filled with rings. At the center was a golden dot, followed by a thick red ring, a thin green ring, a thinner white ring, and a blue ring of intermediate size.
"You came from here," he said, tapping the red ring. "Any guesses as to where we are now?"
Naruto thought for a minute. "Either the gold dot or the green ring?"
"Not a bad guess, but no. We're here." He tapped the black line between the gold and red. "And here." The one between red and green. "And here." The one between the green and white. "And the other lines, of course. We are also here." He tapped the outside area. "There are several rings, but only one interstitial space. This is, however, the best representation I can show you."
"Is there a point to this?"
"Point?" Advocate considered. "Well, I was just answering your question, but we can move on I suppose. What else did you want to know?"
"How do I get back?!" He asked, his voice rising. "They're all fighting without - " PAIN.
In an instant, Advocate was kneeling next to him. The pain receded. "I told you, that's a bad idea. Stop trying to remember. Here, seeming is being."
"Why?" He asked, his throat raw and painful as though he'd been screaming. "Why does it hurt so much?"
"Because you're not here in your body. Focus on my words. Don't bother verifying them, or it's going to hurt more." Advocate waited a moment to let Naruto process. "Naruto, you're dead."
"D-dead? No way! I was so young! I haven't even become Hokage yet!" He wailed, putting his hands to his ears.
Advocate grinned. "Yeah, yeah, too young to die, are you sure I'm dead, etcetera etcetera. Listen, the reason you're here is something hinky went on with your death. Something powerful ripped a hole in your world and sent you here. Something immortal, most likely, and something that belonged to the world in a key fashion. Do you know what it was?"
Naruto didn't stop to think. "Kurama. Or maybe, the shinigami. But probably Kurama. I haven't even met the shinigami since the third died. I wonder if - "
Advocate held up a hand to stop the flow of words. "The point is, this Kurama used himself like a lifeline in an attempt to pull your soul back. However, he wasn't quite powerful enough, and he only managed to put you here. From here on, you're going to need my help."
"To return - from the dead? Like Edo Tensei? Isn't that. . ." Naruto pondered. "Wrong?"
"Time doesn't flow here like it does elsewhere. In your world, you may have just died. It'll hardly be resurrecting, more like restarting a heart."
"Still. . . why wouldn't I just come back?"
"Someone must have sealed Kurama's access to your body. Or perhaps, the world changed too much for your soul to recognize in the time between his use of the technique and your return." Advocated considered. "Alright, I'm going to do you a favor. I'll return you to your world."
"Really?" Naruto asked, eyes sparkling. "That's so - well, I wasn't expecting you to be such a nice guy!"
"There's a catch."
"I knew it dattebayo," Naruto said, depressed. "You're going to ask me for my soul, or my firstborn, aren't you?"
"Nope, I just want you to carry a piece of me with you."
". . . You're still suspicious."
"Deal with it. It's do as I ask, or you won't be able to return."
Naruto sighed. "Fine, I'll do it."
Advocate grinned again. It was strangely terrifying. "Meet me outside."
With that, he was gone. Naruto glanced around the classroom. It was exactly as he remembered it, only, how had Advocate known what it looked like? He picked up an eraser. He chuckled, remembering dropping it on Kakashi's head. What happened to - no. He shouldn't think that way. That seal hurt.
When he got outside, the garden was gone. In its place was a long, long stairwell that pierced the sky. Advocate stood there, his arms raised, a small smile on his face. His eyes were closed. Naruto blinked, wondering how he knew what his face was doing when he couldn't see what he looked like, then shrugged it off.
"It's ready," Advocate said without moving. "The ball at the bottom - take it with you. I'll let you call on me three times. Call on me four times, and the deals off. I'll kill you, got it?"
"Why would I call such a jerk anyways?" Naruto shot back, scowling.
"You never know," Advocate said ambiguously. "Just don't drop the ball. Don't look down. And whatever you do, don't go back. I'm not sure how many times I can do this. Kurama's lifeline is shaky as it is. I'm not absolutely sure of the effects an unstable tether will have, but it's a chance you're willing to take, I'm sure."
Something about the way he said that irked Naruto to no end. "Listen, you - "
"No time." Advocate said, his form shivering. "Go! Hurry!"
Gritting his teeth, Naruto grabbed the ball - it reminded him of Advocate, all shadowy and hard to perceive - and stepped onto the first stair. Immediately, pain filled him.
"I'm sorry I couldn't go with you till the end," Hinata said, her eyes filled with sorrow and love. "I know you can do it."
Naruto gasped. The ball seemed to grow heavier. What was that?
He took another step.
"Wasn't that great a plan after all," Shikamaru was lying on the ground, a hole in his stomach the size of Naruto's fist.
"I can heal you, just stay still!" Even as he said that, he knew - Kurama didn't have enough Chakra.
"I could see through that lie a mile away," Shikamaru said, smiling. One bloody hand grasped his shoulder. "You bear my determination now. Think - like a Nara."
Naruto screamed. It hurt. The ball was weighing him down.
Don't drop the ball. Don't look down. Don't go back.
He took another step. Wounds gaped open as he remembered them.
Gaara. Kakashi. Tsunade. Neji. Rock Lee. His sensai, Gai. Ino. Chouji. Dead. Because he failed. The ten tails roared.
He took another step. His soul gained weight.
"You're weak," Obito. "You have neither the vision, nor the power to change what must be changed. You're friends died for your lack of power. But don't worry - they'll be resurrected in time. My Moons-Eye plan will continue. You have changed nothing - only made it a little harder to proceed."
"Don't give in, Naruto." Kurama. "I've stopped the bleeding, but you can't give in! If he wins, it's all over!"
Naruto howled, the tone eerily reminiscent of the Kyuubi's roar. Hate, pain, anger. He took another step.
It was dark. Water dripped quietly. The landscape was familiar - his mindscape, the jail of the Kyuubi.
"Kurama," Naruto said, quietly. "I'm sorry. I failed."
"What happened to that monolithic determination I remember?" Kurama asked. "You aren't just giving up, are you?"
Naruto chuckled. "I can be as determined as I want. It was all over once the ten tail was revived, even imperfectly. Once they got Killer B, the outcome was decided."
"To think I'd hear you talking about decided outcomes," the Kyuubi mused.
"I'm going to free you. At least you can escape before I die. You'll be free at last."
"Not free enough. His Sharingan hypnosis is powerful. I have no doubt I'll be overwritten by his impulses like last time." Kurama's eyes narrowed. "There might. . . be a way."
"Name it," Naruto said, sudden hope flaring.
"At this point in time, you are dead. What remains is merely that - a remnant. I'm an immortal. It's possible for us immortals to resurrect. The seal - it ties me to you. As a remnant of the Shinigami, it is outside of time. I can use the seal to push your soul out, resurrect, then pull you back in."
"Sounds. . . complicated. What if it goes wrong?"
"You could be stranded in Gehenna, to suffer for eternity."
"Oh, well as long as it isn't anything major," Naruto said, grinning at the fox tiredly. "Do it."
"Unseal me."
Naruto breathed in, then out. He was almost to the top. It was strange - he'd thought there were more stairs than that. He wanted to look down. The ball weighed as much as - as - well, more than anything he'd ever carried. It was no longer easy for him to move. He felt weighed down, far beyond what was normal for him.
Don't drop the ball. Don't look down. Don't turn back.
The last stair was a landing. He stepped onto it. The light shone from above, beckoning.
Once you're through, I'll do the rest.
He jumped, wondering how he could possibly move as heavy as he was.
Maybe it wasn't a matter of 'possible.'
Maybe it was because he had to.
oOoOoO Advocate OoOoOo
The sky tore, the space beyond inky and vast. Looking into it made Minato feel nauseous.
"What is this?" he asked, horrified, his hands in the process of forming the first suicidal seals. Kyuubi looked up as well, confused. Something white glimmered in the center.
Stairs?
They smashed into the Nine Tails with the force of a thousand wrecking balls. It flattened underneath them, pinned and angry. It thrashed, but was unable to move them nor reach its target.
A man walked down the stairs, carrying a bright blue ball. He was grinning, ear to ear, though Minato couldn't see his face.
"Who are you?" Minato asked.
"You may call me the Advocate of Destruction," he told him in a voice of such finality that Minato, hero of the Iwa war, flinched.
So much life in this world, Advocate thought, fascinated. If only I could bring some of that with me. Alas, the portals closing.
"What do you want?" The yellow haired man asked.
"To stop the Architect of Higher Thought," Advocate said cheerfully. "But you wouldn't know him."
With a flick of his wrist, power coalesced and formed into an illusory spear that stabbed through the man and his - wife? - pinning them to the ground. An uneasy rumble came from the sphere.
"Oh, pipe down," Advocate said, scowling at it. "They'll be fine. It's time to do something about you, though."
He neared the child, peering into its blue eyed, wailing depths. "This is the point of creation, huh. Well, who am I to decide." He tossed the sphere at the Kyuubi, who snapped at it and swallowed it like the greedy savage it was. It wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't - being a creature of pure life energy, it would have simply sunk in anyways.
"So you must be Kurama," Advocate said, looking into its red eyes. "It's a pleasure. I really owe you one. I wasn't looking forward to this world joining the blue belt. The Architect's stuck up as it is. However, I did promise to help that boy, so I'm afraid I'm going to seal you now."
The Kyuubi thrashed, its eyes maddened, but Advocate doubted it even understood what was going on. There was a subtle interweave of power that made up its thoughts, blending general malice with purpose. He put one hand on its head. The power that made him up flickered. Advocate frowned, concentrating. The world became light, became sound and energy. With that, he was inside the Kyuubi.
This creature was powerful. He wondered idly how the other seal had worked, then shrugged. If he was going to change things, he would change things his way. Besides, it had overloaded and been destroyed when Kurama had done his improvised gate to Gehenna, so it hadn't been that great anyways.
He stepped out, and walked over to the mother. Her eyes tracked him, glazed over with pain, somehow resisting his illusion. The other was the same way. The boys parents were too strong for their own good. If they'd gone unconscious, they could have saved themselves a bit of suffering. He reached down, and grasped the woman by the neck.
"This is going to hurt," he said, calmly. With that, his cells infiltrated and began their function - destroy, replace, repair. He let her go, the four marks on her neck standing out as she began to shriek. Mercifully, she moved into unconsciousness.
The blonde was beginning to fight his technique. He was stronger than the Advocate had thought. He needed to hurry.
The Kyuubi was fighting as well. The stairs lifted, then fell again. It growled.
Supremely powerful, Advocate thought, impressed. Sealing wasn't his forte - he'd have to do something else. He grasped the Kyuubi's essence, feeling Naruto's come with it, and pulled. The entire mess flowed shrieking into his hand, Kurama's body slowly fading as he absorbed it. It would not be enough to simply put them inside the child's body. Advocate was already beginning to fade - he didn't belong here, and he was cut off from his source of power. The world was already rejecting him. He needed a host, and he needed it now, before the hole into his domain closed.
An idea glimmered. He grinned, and with a whirl of power, added himself to the orb. It slowly sank into the child, forming a strange, chaotic looking seal between four different elements. The stairs disappeared, the tear mending itself immediately.
oOoOoO Minato OoOoOo
The spear disappeared. Minato, suddenly able to move, was torn between immediately rushing to his child's side and checking on his wife, who was unconscious. Since Naruto was crying as lustily as ever, he elected to check on his wife. To his surprise, she was breathing easier. Black lines had etched themselves into her skin, reminding him unpleasantly of a sealing technique. They faded slowly as he watched.
"Who - no, what was that?" Minato asked the night air, staring at his son and the visible seal. The shell of the man shaped hole in the air disappeared, leaving the faint echo of a laugh in its wake.
oOoOoO Naruto, Mindscape OoOoOo
"That's favor one, kid.
"I'm not a kid! And I never asked you to save them!"
Advocate chuckled. "You might not remember it, but the moment you saw them you were crying out 'save them! save them!' so pitifully I had to do something."
Kurama growled. "What are you? Where am I?"
Naruto sighed. "It's really crowded in here. Also, should he be outside of a cage?"
Advocate considered. "Probably not. He isn't quite tame, is he? Don't worry. I'll be the bars of the prison, and you can be the warden. Good luck, Naruto. To stop the Architect, you're going to need it."
Before Naruto could ask, he was banished into the oblivion of an infant's sleep.
oOoOoO Minato OoOoOo
The moment Minato saw him, Sarutobi actually hugged him. It was so surprising, Minato actually froze for a second, unsure of how to react. By the time he regained the ability to move, the moment was over.
"The Kyuubi?" The former Hokage asked.
"Sealed."
"How?"
"Damned if I know. We'll talk about it later. We should focus on healing, rebuilding, and locking down our territory now."
Sarutobi nodded, agreeing with his priorities. "We were watching, but the barrier went dark. We couldn't see a thing."
"Later, I said. The village needs its Hokage. We must restore order, and there are people under the rubble. If there's one left alive, we need to rescue them." Minato hesitated. "Also, Hiruzen. . . send for Jiraiya."
Sarutobi nodded, and gestured to one of the two ninja's that had followed him. He disappeared without a word, doubtless returning to Konoha. Minato made a quick seal, and disappeared as well with his wife and son.
With them gone, Sarutobi stared at the ground. It hadn't immediately been apparent when they'd first entered the clearing, but the grass inside of the barrier was turning yellow at alarming speed. He bent down and plucked one. It was dying, and fast - a remnant of the Kyuubi's chakra? He frowned, considering, then shrugged. One more mystery for later. Without Minato's Hiraishin, it would take him a good twenty minutes to return to the village.
oOoOoO Minato, Hokage's Office OoOoOo
"I've never seen anything like it," Jiraiya mused. "I mean, it looks like a seal, but it's so - chaotic. I don't understand the basic premise behind it, which worries me. Uzumaki seals all have the same basic design to disperse energy. This one runs on fundamentally different thought processes."
"Is it - dangerous?" Minato asked, unwilling to voice his true concerns.
Jiraiya heard them anyways. As expected of his sensei. "The interference between tailed beast and host should be minimal. I may not have heard of it, but the seal's damn strong. More worrisome is this enigmatic sealing master you just happened to meet in the forest. What village does he belong to? What are his motivations? There are too many questions."
"He didn't just happen to meet me," Minato said, shaking his head. "He was definitely there purposefully. Which means he knew what was going to happen. How or why I don't know, but I can't help but be grateful." He glanced down at his child, the smile pulling at his eyes.
Jiraiya nodded, though he was still suspicious. For a shinobi, miracles and coincidences became tricks and plots. Even so, he knew of no clan that could have done this, and no possible motivations outside of Konoha for the rescuing of the feared Yellow Flash.
He didn't like unanswered questions.
Just then, the door burst open. Minato had a kunai out in an instant, but it was only a Konoha chuunin. "Hokage-sama!"
"Yes?" Minato asked the woman calmly, his kunai still in hand if not held at the ready.
"Th-the hospital supervisor requests your presence," she said, gulping at the massive killing intent radiating from the man. "Sh-she wants to talk about Kushina-san."
"Jiraiya, can you watch Naruto for me?" Minato asked him.
"No masked enemy shall gain entry," Jiraiya boomed, taking a wide stance. "For I am Jiraiya, Sage of Toads, and I - hey! Don't just leave in the middle!"
Naruto giggled from his crib.
oOoOoO Minato, Kushina's Hospital Room OoOoOo
"What's wrong with her?" Minato asked, his tone set in what could only be called 'hospital voice.'
"We're not sure. Honestly, we're a bit out of our depth. She shouldn't have even survived the extraction. Since her status as a host is considered top secret, I can't even tell my assistants what to look for." Lazy. All of them. Minato gave the administrator of a doctor his best death glare, which was said to have Uchiha's running for their lives.
"Then look yourself. I don't care what you have to do, save her."
"Y-yes Hokage-sama." He cleared his throat. "Um - is there any chance we could get in touch with Tsunade?"
"There's more than a chance. If that child of a woman doesn't return immediately, I'm going to drag her back myself," Minato said grimly. After the man left, Minato lowered his head to the Kushina's side.
Kushina.
oOoOoO Authors Note OoOoOo
End chapter one. I must say, I'm having a ton of problems with the setting, more than I thought I'd have, so the AU is more of a precaution against continuity errors rather than a serious change-in-the-timeline notice.
Also, as you can probably notice, the Advocate isn't that great at either sealing or healing, but he does have some advantages. If you think he's going to be OP, well, wait till the Architect shows up. :-)
Also, last comment, I swear, I'm having severe format issues. Apologies for any errors that pop up. I blame format. -points fingers-