DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto.
Hello people of the fanfiction community. If you are reading this then that means that you read the summary and decided that this story might be worth your time. I have no idea if it is but I hope it is. This idea was born from my slight obsession with my subconscious and déjà vu moments and I've been debating with myself on whether or not I ought to put it up. I decided that I would put up a test chapter and then depending on the feedback I might continue or take it off. Please read it to the end before you decide. Thank you.
The human brain. That wonderfully misunderstood device with the ability to define the world. It is, perhaps, the strongest weapon in a humans arsenal. But the ability to perfectly wield it is a skill beyond even the greatest humans to date. Even still, the tiny bit of it that mortals make use of is still enough to devastate the world we know. Dreams, many have looked at these strange phenomena and tried to classify them. To some, dreams are nothing but a series of random images compiled by the mind to keep us entertained while we sleep. To others, dreams are a portal to our subconscious: a set of messages compiled by our subconscious to give us an idea of our physical and mental well being, and perhaps help us to come up with solutions to our problems as we slumber. What about our subconscious? Our brain functions in mysterious ways which we are not aware of. That sudden tingling in our spines that warns of imminent dangers; the feeling that we are being watched that we can never really place, the constant escaping of ideas that we feel must be important. Even to date these functions of our brains are not fully understood. The riddles that we could solve, the ideas that we may explore and the possibilities that could be discover if only we could communicate with our subconscious. Yes there are ways that we use to try to better understand and help us better connect with the ever illusive subconscious mind but all in all we may never fully understand the wonderful powers that lies sleeping in our beautifully complex minds.
The night was calm: the black sky dotted with a countless number of stars and a gentle breeze was calmly blowing causing the leaves of the many trees in the area to rustle. The full moon was up ahead and clearly lighted the clearing, diminishing all need for artificial lighting. A small pond, sparkled in the moon light, the surface becoming disturbed every time one of the images shown in the water changed. In the middle of it all was a shelter. Not a shelter per say. The white slanted roof was supported by twelve white marble pillars- six on each side- equally spaced and designed identically with leafy patterns. On the floor in the shelter was a soft carpet that looked and felt like clouds and in the middle of it all sat a woman.
She wore a beautiful long light blue sleeveless dress that was lightly secured around the waist with a sash which was a darker blue than the rest of the dress. On her feet were set of beautiful golden ancient roman styled sandals and around her neck was a beautiful necklace set with precious stones as dark as the night sky. Her long black hair was straight and silky with two bangs framing her small beautiful pixie like face. Dark green eyes peered anxiously into the glass of a round, golden, body length mirror that was set before her and seemed to be displaying some images.
Though the looking glass you could see a small boy, no older than six, being chased by a large mob. He had bright yellow hair and large wonderfully blue eyes set into a small round face- he was adorable
As the ruler of the night realm, it was her job to ensure that all was peaceful in the night. Particularly rambunctious little brats always amused her, she was never angry at them like their parents were. Most of them had the wildest imaginations ever. A little sand, a little inconspicuous whispering of a lullaby by one of her dream- weavers and they were off to bed.
Six years ago her attention had been directed almost wholly on the ninja village of Konoha no Sato. The Kyuubi had attacked throwing the village into chaos. All the villagers had been petrified and become more susceptible to the sand of nightmare- weavers, it was horrible. She had been particularly occupied trying to smooth out the problems and amidst it all the cry of a small baby had caught her attention. The new container: Naruto Uzumaki. From a very young age the malicious chakra leaked by the fox had made him more open to nightmares, couple that with the way he was treated and you had one miserable little boy who from early on in life had nightmares that would chill the blood of highly seasoned ninjas.
He had started staying up later and later into the night, always afraid of the images he might receive if he fell asleep. Slowly he became more impervious to the sand, his mind rejecting the effects- putting him to sleep was extremely troublesome. About a year back, after he had begun at the ninja academy, the boy had discovered the joys of pranking people and he had taken to it like a fish to water. He had begun pulling more and more pranks- even in the night. Not only did he enjoy the attention he got from the villagers, he also loved the adrenalin rush that he had as he escaped from the villagers, it ensured that he did not fall asleep. The images from the nightmares plagued him even during the day so where other children opted to nap Naruto Uzumaki opted to remain awake. That was it simply.
She was worried. She loved his mischievousness, she could identify with it. Whenever he was not having nightmares it was fun to watch his dreams. She wanted to help him but her options were severely limited. As an angel there was a certain limit as to how much she could interfere in the lives of mortals. The method she wished to use was a method that was reserved for coma patients mostly.
When a person was hurt severely to the point that they were trapped in their own minds, they were given certain abilities: the ability to traverse their subconscious. Unfortunately humans were so weak. Some of them went so far into their subconscious, much further than they were allowed in, and they were trapped in their own minds; some went far in and it took them years to finally escape, sometimes they became traumatised and even if they remembered nothing of their coma induced adventure they became mad or paranoid; others got confused and became so sure that the worlds they had created in their mind was their reality and they refused to escape; the worst of these were the ones that learnt to project their subconscious reality into the minds of others, these people sometimes messed with the minds of others, or lived so long away from their bodies that when they finally wished to return they couldn't, some were caught by nightmare weavers and they were taken down by their blades. The blades of nightmare- weavers did not have the power to kill you, oh no, their blades instead eternally trapped your minds in a dark abyss, in that dark and empty void you were tormented by the deafening silence and your mind seemed forced to think about your worst mistakes and greatest fears. These people were better off dead but unfortunately for some of them they had families who believed they could be brought back and did anything they could to ensure that they were kept alive. Years passed and they were still trapped in that dark abyss.
After several thousand years of watching many humans make the same foolish mistakes despite her clear warnings she had chosen to stop granting them those abilities. But now, as she watched the small boy punished for saving the lives of his fellow villagers she was tempted to act. He was very much awake, but still…. She looked at the screen and her heart leapt to her throat. There was a leg sticking out from behind a building and Naruto, who was close to the brink of collapse from not sleeping for three days straight, did not notice it. He tripped and the villagers quickly closed in on his tiny trembling body.
"Elsa!" her voice was sharp and commanding.
A beautiful angel with pure white wings suddenly materialised in front of her now standing body.
"I leave you in charge while I am out."
"Yes of course commander." The angel named Elsa replied.
With that she turned into sand and disappeared giving her subordinate a clear view of the events unfolding in the mirror.
"Tch, they actually pushed her to action. Humans."
The vicious mob closed in around the trembling little body of Naruto Uzumaki and grinned cruelly. The man who had tripped him up emerged from behind the dilapidated old building and grinned maliciously at the little boy.
"So, what do we do to the little demon?" He asked the rest.
"I say we kill him. The memory of the fourth should not tarnished by the existence of such an abomination!" Another one shouted.
Someone in the back yawned before shouting out "Well whatever it is, we should hurry up, I'm tired and I don't want to miss such an opportunity."
"Now that you mention it, I'm kind of tired as well. Chasing him must have taken a lot out of me, damned brat!"
One by one the members of the mob began to yawn and then slump over one another as a deep slumber claimed them and tiny grains of sand rained down on them.
A spiral of sand appeared and a beautiful lady stepped out of it.
"Hey, who are you?" Naruto asked, his eyes also drooping.
"Shhh, don't worry about anything." With that she picked up the small slumbering body and disappeared into sand.
She lay down the small boy on his hard mattress and frowned. Sleeping on a bed like that was bad news for your back. She snapped her fingers and watched as he sunk a little deeper into the mattress.
"Much better."
She paced around the room a little, her mind buried in though. Then she stopped in front of him and sighed. The sound made at her intake of breath was very audible. She stretched out the middle and fore fingers on her right hand and as the tips began to glow a deep blue she placed them on the middle of his forehead.
She took a few steps backward and watched as the boy squirmed in his sleep. Then slowly, his eyes began to open and he let out a small yawn before sitting up. Blue eyes swept the room before they were fixed on the tall figure of a woman sitting in a chair.
"Uh, hello Naruto." The figure waved at him while flashing a lop sided grin.
"Hi and how do you know my name?" he asked a little uncertainly. He was generally suspicious of people who knew his name without being told.
"The name's Avatea, I'm the sand man or woman, because I have never ever been a man. But I don't mind the title."
The little boy nodded slowly, unsure of what to make of the strange woman.
"Okay. Why are you at my house Avatea- san?"
"I came to give you a gift." After saying this she nodded her head in a sagely manner. "The gift to access your subconscious at will."
Naruto looked at her. Saying he was confused would have been a large understatement.
"The power to use your mind to a greater degree than other humans."
Still no response.
"Tell me Naruto, you have been having rather bad nightmares right?" the boy nodded before looking down in a defeated manner, "Well, the gift I am awarding you with will give you the ability to avoid those."
"You're going to make the monsters go away?" he asked, eyes lighting up in desperate hope.
She smiled kindly at him as she replied "Not exactly. I am going to give you the ability to make the monsters go away."
"How?" his face squeezed in confusion.
"Tell me what you know of the brain."
"Well jiji says that the brain is in our heads and that it helps us to think and survive. But I'm not sure 'coz the big kids say I don't have a brain but I'm still alive so I must have a brain right nee- chan?"
The angel had to smile at the familiar term which the boy had already dubbed her with. "Of course you have a brain. Honestly, kids of nowadays need to learn how to apply logic and common sense to their insults." The very thought of that made her chuckle. Children were generally famous for defying and twisting logic. "You see Naruto, the brain is divided into many segments with many different functions to help you think and act. While humans have a vague idea of how the brain functions, they are still rather unsure of how it works. Explaining to you how the brain works would be a rather fruitless endeavour so I'm going to simplify this. You have your conscious and your subconscious. The conscious part of your brain works in a way that can be almost completely accounted for by humans. Your subconscious however… Tell me, have you ever disliked someone in an instant? Has someone ever been nice to you but for some reason you didn't like them."
Naruto nodded as he remembered an incident that had occurred a week earlier: a fat man had approached him with a smile which was meant to be kindly and had handed him a lollipop. Yes the smile the man had worn had seemed friendly but there was something off about the man that had caused Naruto to throw away the lollipop once he was out of the man's sight. Naruto reported this tale to the lady in front of him and she nodded.
"That lollipop was poisoned." She had to force herself not to wince at the boy's shocked expression. "The reason you threw away that lollipop was because some obscure part of your mind read the body signals being sent out by the man and warned you about. That part of your mind can be referred to as your subconscious. Your subconscious works on your deeply ingrained memories and your inborn instincts." She gave him some time to try and understand what she was trying to explain. When she saw he still didn't get it she shook her head. "Let's call it a mind within your mind and forget about it."
Naruto nodded happily very ready to comply.
"Now, your dreams are a set of images compiled by your subconscious. Sometimes these images are simply random but more often than not they reflect your fears, worries and desires in an entertaining way. Many people are unable to fully remember or comprehend these dreams and those that can more than often tend to misinterpret them. The ability I have given you tonight allows you to not only remember but also to manipulate your dreams. By giving you the ability to change and navigate your dreams I have made it so that you never have to be afraid of nightmares again." She gave a very triumphant smile after explaining that last bit, very conveniently forgetting that she was talking to a six year old who had only very recently reached that most esteemed age.
"So I won't have any more nightmares."
"Uh huh. Well after a bit of practice you won't." she nodded vigorously. "Of course there you get more privileges than all those humans who labour for years to get these ability and even still can't use it to its full potential." Naruto was now confused. "You see Naruto, I have given you the key to your subconscious. All those little things that you feel you are forgetting: those little instincts of danger or the feeling that something is off: you can now easily identify those things easily."
"Do you know, Naruto, that there are five different stages of sleep identified by the humans?"
The small boy shook his head- right now he was completely and utterly lost.
"Well, there are. These are, the first stage: is the beginning of the sleep cycle, and is a relatively light stage of sleep. Stage 1 can be considered a transition period between wakefulness and sleep. This period of sleep lasts only a brief time around 5-10 minutes. If you awaken someone during this stage, they might report that they weren't really asleep. Stage 2: is the second stage of sleep and lasts for approximately 20 minutes. Body temperature starts to decrease and heart rate begins to slow. Stage 3: is a transitional period between light sleep and a very deep sleep. Stage 4: is a deep sleep that lasts for approximately 30 minutes. Stage 5: Most dreaming occurs during the fifth stage of sleep, known as rapid eye movement sleep. REM sleep is characterized by eye movement, increased respiration rate and increased brain activity. REM sleep is also referred to as paradoxical sleep because while the brain and other body systems become more active muscles become more relaxed. Dreaming occurs due because of increased brain activity, but voluntary muscles become paralyzed. However, it is important to realize that sleep does not progress through these stages in sequence. Sleep begins in stage 1 and progresses into stages 2, 3 and 4then stage 3 and stage 2 are repeated before entering REM sleep. Once REM sleep is over, the body usually returns to stage 2. Sleep cycles through these stages approximately 4 or 5 times throughout the night. On average, humans enter the REM stage approximately 90 minutes after falling asleep. The first cycle of REM sleep might last only a short amount of time, but each cycle becomes longer, so REM sleep can last up to an hour as sleep progresses."
She looked up from her explanation and was happy to notice that Naruto seemed to be following her easy but complicated explanations of the stages of sleep.
"That is what humans have figured out and it is true excepting one. That one is you. Unlike other humans you can choose what stage of sleep you want to be in and you will have control of most of your muscle during REM sleep- your awareness is never dulled. You can also choose how long you want to remain in a certain stage. It is during the fifth stage of sleep that you enter your subconscious. The reason brain activity is more during this stage is because during that stage your brain is processing information, storing it away, doing a sort of physical on your body and mind, finding ways to present this information to you and trying to figure out solutions (via dreams of course.). That is why you sometimes wake up in the morning and feel like you know things.
Naruto silently nodded. He was six, not stupid and as she spoke his brain was struggling to simplify all that she said. It also helped that she was speaking slowly.
"Of course what humans don't know is that the fifth stage is also divided into several stages, each stage is a deeper part of your subconscious. Anything you learn in each of these stages you can remember. Your powers allow you to control what you think about in these particular stages. In other words, you can spend months in your subconscious trying to do your homework and when you wake up not only do you have a thorough understanding of it but you also find that only six hours have passed. You can also easily access memories of certain event that may have happened days or years back (some are easier to access than others) and replay them while you sleep. This will allow you to thoroughly analyse them. You can also practice your katas or strategies or targeting or anything really in your sleep. Then your brain stores away that information and can apply it when you do physical practice (instant cheat code). This power does not affect your physical stature so you still need to get a lot of practice while awake but this does make it a lot easier and faster to learn stuff."
The young blonds eyes had begun to shine at the possibilities of what he could do with the power.
"Next, let us talk about your déjà vu moments. Sometimes while humans sleep they see flashes of the future. These flashes happen while they are deep in stage five so many may not remember it till it actually happens and even then it seems like a distant memory, why this is, I am not allowed to explain to you; however now that you have these powers you will be able to understand and remember these dreams. In time you will be able to recognise when you have these dreams and you will clearly know when these events will take place. They won't happen often but they will happen. How you use this is clearly up to you… but" here she bent down and placed a hand on his head "please use this as best you can, without any malicious or evil intent. Okay?"
The small boy nodded eagerly to assure his new friend.
"That's my boy." Naruto smiled at the praise and Avatea smiled back.
"Another ability granted to you by this power is the ability to bring things to life. If you think about an object then you can cause it to come into creation."
She held out her arm and a small kunai appeared on it. "Just like that." She waved her hand and the object disappeared. "There are a few things you need to know about this aspect of your ability. The first is that you cannot create food with it."
Naruto opened his mouth to protest but she shook her head at him.
"Don't say anything. The second part is that anything you create takes a lot of focus and chakra so you can only create small things and only for a limited amount of time. The more you create a certain object, the easier and faster you can do it the next time. Also once an object leaves the range of your focus, it disappears and returns to you." She waited a while as this sunk in.
"Lastly, you should try your best to not create things with life when in a battle situation. Anything you create is something that you must first create in your dreamscape, to ensure that it does not run wild and absorb all your chakra. If you create anything with life, not only does it take more chakra than inanimate objects it also takes some of your life force. Creating living creatures weakens you, and at least part of the damage done to it is transmitted back to you. It will not be dispelled if it is released but will keep on fighting until it is dead then it returns to your dreamscape. If it is killed, you will be weakened and you will not be able to call it out until you have recuperated from the damages which its injuries transmitted to you."
She waited as the small boy tried to process all that he had been told. She could see from the expression on his face that he did not fully understand this but she understood that there were things he needed to experience before he would understand them.
"My last gift to you is this. A Tri- blade."
A gleaming sword appeared. It had a silver blade that gleamed wickedly in the light, and a transparent sapphire hilt that was wrought to look like tree branches with three precious stones in it- a ruby, a diamond and a black stone that he did not recognise.
"The Tri- blade has three functions and the three precious stones signify these functions. The diamond in the middle of the hilt signifies dreams: if you cut a person while focusing on the diamond, the blade will draw the person's sweetest memories and trap them in an illusion created from them. The ruby on top represents nightmares: then then blade will draw on the persons worst memories and allow your mind to work them into nightmares which you can trap them in. The third stone, obsidian, represents the black abyss: this world is out of your control- it is an eternal darkness meant to torment a person's mind. Each of these abilities takes a lot of focus and chakra and should be used sparingly."
Naruto nodded determinedly as she handed it to him before it disappeared in a blue flash of light.
"Naruto, these powers were given to you mostly so you could avoid nightmares. The extra abilities are bonuses so use them well. Your dreamscape is a world which you can now customise according to your desires. In there you are in charge. That can be a lot of fun so please have fun with it because that is what I want you to do with it, okay?"
He nodded and yawned. She smiled as she tucked him into bed. She retrieved a small bag of sand and sprinkled a few grains over his eyes. Once he was smuggled into his sheets she snapped her hands and a small frog appeared in Naruto's hands. She watched as the boy's grasp on the creature smiled and she smiled fondly at him. This was probably the last time she would get to interact with him like this.
"Child of the earth: with golden hair like the sun and blue eyes, endless and deep like the sky. With heart of pure gold and will of a mountain. You look forward to tomorrow, never knowing what it holds. You feel all alone in this world and they all shun you though from birth you were great. To me your smile speaks of pureness and a steadfast heart with a beautiful destiny. You are a beacon of hope in this dark world so please continue to shine brightly. With dreams so pure and future untold and hair bright yellow and heart of gold. Know that I love you, child of the earth. "
She smiled at him as she sang this song softly. It was a song she had often used to sing to him when he was young. It had been composed just for him and always put him to sleep. She bent down and kissed him once more before disappearing.
Elsa smiled at the picture presented by her boss. She frowned slightly as she remembered something.
"Commander?" she said as soon as the lady returned to the world.
"Yes Elsa?"
"You didn't tell him about the Kyuubi."
Avatea frowned slightly. "I didn't feel I should tell him that just before he slept so whoever is assigned to teach him how to use his abilities will deal with that."
Elsa nodded as an 'Oh I get it expression' crossed her face. To prevent Naruto from making the same mistake made by others, Avatea would give him a personal dream- weaver to babysit him.
"Who is going to get the job?"
Suddenly a young looking female walked in whistling a merry tune. She had a small face with pixie like proportions; dark skin; sharp, big dark purple eyes; white hair in a pixie cut with a single red line of red hair running through it; a purple, short sleeved t- shirt; a pair of baggy black pants; a long white jacket with a hood and two purple lines running down each side; a sword with a golden hilt was strapped diagonally across her back; and like Avatea, she had no wings.
"Ah just who I was looking for." Avatea smiled as she threw an arm round the girls shoulder and led her out of the enclosure.
Elsa had to force herself not to laugh at the bewildered expression on the girls face.
The next morning, a small Naruto stirred in his bed. Something in the back of his mind told him that this was going to be a good day. He opened his eyes and a bleary form with dark skin and a pixie cut materialised in front of his eyes.
He shot up in alarm before noticing that the thing seemed to be a very miniature version of an adult. It- whatever it was- could probably sit very comfortably on his small shoulder.
The thing opened its mouth and began to speak, "Relax kid. My name is Leah and starting today I'm your baby sitter."
Leah is in chibi form just so you know. I was just thinking what powers like this might do for Naruto. Note he will not be some kind of demi god. Powers like these have drawbacks and take time to properly develop. Not to mention the amount of mental control it takes too pull it off.
A dream scape is basically a world that is created in your subconscious- how your subconscious perceives things. Like an alternate universe in your mind. Bad things can happen if you tamper too much with a dreamscape that is not yours but you can mess with yours if you know how to reach it. It is different from you mind scape
So do you want to see more? Like I said this is a test chapter so I need your opinions on whether or not I should continue. If you are interested then please let me know. Thank you.
