The Orange Spark
Prologue
"In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can." Nikos Kazantzakis
Naruto is owned by Kishimoto. Just thought you guys should know. The shit that I'm about to make is my own stuff.
It was strange what he was going through, finding his body floating, no, flying through a vortex that was a myriad of colours. Images and voices from the past (or was it the future) shifting, changing and disappearing. He could scarcely hear it; the deep voice that tried to reach him. What was disconcerting was when he felt something tugging at his navel, something sharp and painful. It ripped its way from him and was absorbed by the vortex. The voice was louder this time, but the words garbled, like hearing it underwater. This sharp pull happened again and again before he found himself falling, falling….falling. The voice became silent.
He woke up with a start, sweat dripping down his face as he tried to regain his breath; the oxygen rapidly entering and leaving his body. He waited for the rise and fall of chest to steady before he swept his feet over to the cold floor. He walked shakily, trying to make his way to the bathroom, like a malnourished dog to the next trashcan to find food.
He was barely able to reach the sink, splashing refreshing water onto his face and staring at the person in the mirror. Blonde hair was the first thing that he noticed, and the tanned skin that defined him. Wide cerulean eyes and baby fat cheeks with whisker marks adorned his face. He splashed some more water. His energy returning to him as he made his way outside of the apartment complex, not bothering with the sandals as he wanted to be close to the calm energy that he was familiar with.
He jumped from roof to roof, heading to training ground 7 where nostalgia filled him as he sat down in a lotus position. His being stilled as took in the world. The natural energy intermixed with his own as he steadied himself, falling into darkness yet again. But this time it was a darkness that he was familiar with.
Drip! Drip! Drip!
He saw it all, the pipes that hung from the ceiling constantly dripping. The muddy waters that made the sewers that was his mind. The decrepit walls that he was accustomed to for so many years. He walked through them.
Drip! Drip! Drip!
He made his way to the giant bars that kept a great beast trapped behind them. This entity was a large red-orange fox. The fox's ears were rabbit-like; his head was resting on his arms. His upper torso was similar to that of a human's and in the visible light sharp claws protruding from his paws gleamed.
What made this fox stand out were the nine-tails that lay on the sewer floors.
Naruto stood there watching him, this familiar being, the one that was motionless before him.
Drip! Drip! Drip!
'Can you hear me?' No movement from the fox before him signified that he did. He continued hoping after countless times that he would answer.
'Are you still listening?' Again, he was met with only silence. The only thing that answered him was the constant dripping.
Drip! Drip! Drip!
'I don't want to be alone anymore…' A lone tear dripped down his face. He was in a familiar world, but a new world. A world where his friends, his family, his loved ones are present, but at the same time not. He stepped into this new world because of his failure. He came here so different from who he was before. Like pieces of him were missing, the fragments that made him were displaced and his identity distorted, broken like shards of glass. Naruto decided to leave his sewer mindscape, his form disappearing as he missed the first words Kurama spoke since arriving.
'Na...na..ru…to…'
He re-entered the physical world. He walked around in frustration ever since he got here he should have been happy but he felt that something was missing. He punched a tree in anger, not caring about his bleeding knuckles. He sat down by the wooden posts, contemplating on his situation. He reminisced on the last meeting by what he could say was ironically the first and last shinobi he spoke to: Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki.
"Is that your answer?" He nodded, firm in his resolve.
"Then your path will begin anew. The world you will travel to is where you will ascend, where you will succeed in your failures."
"What do you mean by ascend?" Naruto asked. Hagoromo just smiled mysteriously.
"Into a higher being, higher than me to what purpose only the real Kami knows, but I sense that you will have more triumphs in your next journey. The way you are now has been – how I should say –holding the wrong end of the sword and only managing to chop down half of the forest, which is impressive for one who has such resolve in him. But if you learn how to correctly wield this metaphorical sword, I'd say that every tree in the world would be firewood by now."
"What are you getting at old man?"
"I am saying if you learn how to use the powers that you have correctly, you would be able to reach and bond with more people than the ones you know now. You have a power like Asura's. He may have been no-good in the past, but he trained hard. Asura made friends and found people that supported him. Yes, Naruto, if used right that power in return will manifest itself into my son's belief, his belief of the power of love, of the 'Will of Fire'."
Naruto's face morphed into one of surprise. The old sage believed in him to succeed."Will I really be able to do so?"
"I don't need to be able to travel through time and space to see the 'transmigrants' to do so. I know you will succeed your belief, in Jiraiya's dream and in Asura's." He lifted the staff in hand.
"And so I bestow unto you my power." And pushed Naruto in a swirling vortex.
Here he was, for three weeks, at the age of four. Emotional when he saw the people that he had lost. He broke down and cried when he saw the old man as he came to visit, probably scaring a few years off him. He thought that he would never see him again, alive and breathing, after he sacrificed himself. Teuchi, Ayame, even his teacher Iruka. Now he was back again to when the village still hated him, all his efforts and hard work gone but he was given a second chance and he was going to work harder than ever to save his friends.
He was once again alone in this world, with a strange goal as he found himself empty, emotionless for the bright and happy person that he was. He couldn't explain but after remembering that conversation with the Sage something burned in him for the first time in three weeks. A fire that he held within him. A resolve.
This is the story that is the first in my multi-story of Naruto where adventures of badassery are about to ensue. I want to say thank you to my beta-reader who is helping me improve as a writer and making this story kickass.
Sage is signing out.