Banished

His head was throbbing. It felt like his whole world was shaking and spinning all around him. He made to open his eyes but the even the dim lights of where ever this was, were enough to make his throbbing hurt that much worse. He could hear creaking noises and his sense of smell was assaulted by the ever potent smell of salt. This left our blonde cast away with a sudden realization: He was on boat at sea.

Naruto moved his hand to rub his forehead, it was only then that he realized that his hitai-ate was missing. This caused him to immediately sit straight up. Not the best of ideas considering this caused an even more painful throb to burst through his head sending right back down to the ground "You shouldn't act so hyper, you know?"

Said a voice coming from his left. Naruto slowly turned his head and forced his eyes open just a tiny bit to see where the voice came from. He saw a young teen girl, probably about his age carrying a bucket of water and a loaf of bread. From what he could see through his squinted eyes told him she had either dark brown or black hair, but surprisingly vibrantly blue eyes. She was wearing what looked like a dark brown tunic about two sizes too big for her. The length of it fell to her mid calf, almost like a dress "You look like hell. I got something from the galley for you. It's not much, but beggars can't be choosers, right?"

Naruto rolled all the way over to his side "Where is my hitai-ate?"

He asked in the loudest voice he could muster, which was not much louder than a normal speaking voice. Well, normal volume for a normal person. It was still rather quiet by Naruto standards.

The girl looked at him a bit confused for a moment until a look of recognition snapped over her face "Oh, you mean this thing." She said as she pulled out his hitai-ate out of seemingly nowhere "This is one of those things that ninja wear, right?"

Naruto lightly nodded his head "That's right! It's mine! Give it back!"

Again, Naruto said this in the loudest voice he could muster and once again trying to sit up, though much more slowly this time. The girl, however, shook her head at him "No can do. Listen, ninja may be accepted in the Continent of Elements, but the place we're headed to his much less accepting. They catch you with this and they'll break out the militia to catch and kill you."

The look on Narutos' face was one of both shock and confusion. What did she mean by 'the place we're headed to'?! And what about this business with ninjas!? This was all happening to fast for him to even grab hold of the idea. Couple that with his still throbbing head and all this information served to do was upset him. The girl kneeled down next to him "Hey, I told you to stay calm! Those guys who dumped you down here weren't exactly gentle with you. They said you'd been out for two days before that, so you're gonna wanna take this slowly."

Hearing that made sense to Naruto. All his muscles were tight and ached real bad and his vision was still slightly blurred. But this didn't make any sense. The last memory he had was heading back to his apartment after a superb dinner courtesy of Ichiraku ramen. He was standing outside his door still fumbling with his keys so he could let himself in and then….

Damn it! It all kinda goes black after of that.

What the hell had happened after that? His mind was bouncing all over the place now and he had no idea what he should do next. Which he then verbalized to this strange girl with him "Who the hell brought me here?! Where the hell am I?! Who are you?! What did you mean-"

He was cut short when the girl slapped both her hands over his mouth with a rather frustrated look on her face "Geez, are you always this annoying?" The girl let out an obviously irritated sigh "First off, I don't' know who it was that brought you here. All I know is that they were three guys with these goofy looking white masks."

White masks? Were they ANBU?

"Next, you're on a trade ship heading for the western continent where, like I said, they don't like ninja, so I wouldn't go around broadcasting that you are, or were, one."

The west? It was times like these that made Naruto wish he had actually paid attention when they had covered geography in the academy. He didn't even know of any other continents beyond the elemental lands.

"And as for who I am, my name is Terra. I'm from the place were headed to. The guys who left you gave the captain just enough money for him to agree to take you one way, so once we hit land fall your gonna have to figure out the rest on your own."

He was dumped on foreign ship headed home. He had no memory of how he got there. He had apparently been left by the ANBU. He had been stripped of all his gear, leaving him with nothing more than the clothes on his back. As he patted himself down he felt something in his right pant pocket. He reached in and pulled out a single piece of neatly folded paper. On the outside the words 'read me' were written. Naruto carefully unfolded the piece of paper and began to read.

Dear Uzumaki-san,

I leave the message to you only as a courtesy. This a notice that your service to Konohagakure, Hi no Kuni and the Continent of Elements is no longer needed or accepted as of this date. When you find this you will already be far, far away from your home land. If you should return, be aware that this will result in your name being added to bingo books all across the lands. The only reason you still live is because of your valorous service in the past. Do not mistake this as a show of weakness or even mercy. If you return I will see to it personally you are hunted down and exterminated like a rabid animal.

I sincerely hope that you take this threat seriously and simply allow yourself to forget all about this place and I wish nothing but the best for you in your new life.

A friend.

Naruto felt as if the whole world had just stopped. All noises, smells, even movements of the ship seem to stop for the briefest of moments. It was only now that Naruto realized what it was that happened to him. He had only heard it mentioned in the academy once, but now it came screaming back to him like some kind of nightmare. It all came back in one word: Banished.

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~Contrary to popular belief a ninja who gets banished is not privy to the same treatment as, let's say, a samurai, or a merchant, or even a civilian. These people pulled before an audience of their peers, the order is read aloud for all to hear and then they are lead down the "Walk of Shame" through the main street of the village leading all the way to the gate where they are then left to carry on all alone.

It's a bit different for ninja.

When a ninja gets banished there is one of two different ways in which this happens. The most common is when said ninja is on a mission. Usually when the ninja is returning from his objective and is headed back home. He is usually intercepted by a three man cell, typically consisting of either ANBU or exceptional Jonin. The ninja in question is in formed of their position and is told that if that take another step toward their village they will be attacked.

The second kind is in fact very rare, usually only used when the removal of this ninja is considered a high priority. The target is ambushed, usually in their own home or some other familiar place, somewhere where the target is more likely to let down their guard. Once they are unconscious they are then stripped of all the gear and money they have on them. They are then transported, again usually by ANBU or elite Jonin, as far away from the village as they can get them in about a three day period, during which the target it either drugged or placed under a powerful genjutsu to make sure they don't resist, or try to figure out where it is they are being taken. The target is usually left in a hotel or some other temporary housing until they wake up and can carry on. In this case, a note is left for the target so they are aware of their situation and from then on they become walking targets.

In the case of ninjas with any reputation, banishment is not just the loss of a home; it is the loss of protection as well. Ninja that are banished can't just retreat to another village for protection like one would think. First off, for a foreign village to take in a ninja that had been banished from another village can be viewed as a declaration of war or at the very least can cause severe strain between the two villages. Add that to the fact that this punishment is usually only dealt out to ninja the leaders of their village deem 'Valorous', this usually means the banished ninja has built up a rather large number of enemies in their career.

Even the most powerful ninja rarely live more than 2 to 3 years after being banished. Some consider it a worse fate then death and it is considered the ultimate shame of a ninja. To be banished from ones village makes you a walking target with no hope for a future. ~

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Naruto picked at the obviously stale bread set before him. He had been quiet for what felt like hours at this point. He was still trying to wrap his head around the idea of what had just happened to him. It seemed like only yesterday he was a proud ninja of his village with a bright future and a real chance to see all his dreams come true. Now he was a marked man heading toward a land that may as well be on another planet for as well as he knew it. That girl, Terra, was still sitting next him. She hadn't said a word in all this time either; though it was obvious the awkward silence was starting to get to her. She kept it up until she just couldn't stand it anymore "Are you gonna stop moping or what? Seriously, all this silence is gonna drive me nuts. If you don't say something soon I'm gonna go back above deck even though all those clods do is stare at me chest and grab my ass, you hear me?!"

"Shut up."

His voice was almost too quiet to hear of the sounds of the sea, but Terra could still make it out. Her face became flush with anger and then broke into a wicked looking smirk "Oh, so you can still talk, eh?" she said with a strange accent in her voice ringing through "Here I thought that damn letter had turned you into a mute there for a second. Gotta admit it was kinda nice not having you yell, but now it's just creepy, so knock it off."

Naruto turned his blood shot eyes toward her. He had obviously been crying but neither of them could remember when he had started or when he had stopped "This is none of your business, okay! I just got thrown out of the only home I've ever known with a letter letting me know that if I ever come back I'll be killed! Excuse me for being a real downer for you here, but I'm having a pretty shitty day, so back off bitch!"

This was the loudest he had been since waking up on this ship and the girls eyes were shot wide open. Then her face was returned to a smirk, though this one was much softer than the one before "Is that all? Then you've got nothing to complain about. It's not like you're the only one who got booted out of their home with nothing and no one, ya know."

Narutos' expression quickly melted from its frosty glare to a softer look of curiosity. Terra turned an eye to him "Got your attention, did I? I'll tell you my story if you tell me yours."

The way she said it just so flatly kinda took Naruto aback. He'd never really talked about himself before, but for some reason he felt as if talking about it might make him feel better right now. He cocked his head to the side in thought for a moment before he nodded to her "Alright. My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm 16. I'm a--- I mean I used to be a ninja and now I don't know what I'm going to do."

Terra nodded her head in response "Like I said, my name is Terra and I just turned 17 two weeks ago. I was born in the place we're headed to but my family and I left when I was 10 to start a farm in the elemental lands. We had heard that the soil was real fertile there so we decided it was our best choice. It was all good until about a year ago. That's when things started to go wrong…."

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AN: This is my first attempt at a multi chapter fan-fic. This is just a case of getting an idea that refused to leave me alone until I finally went out there and did it. I have every intention of seeing this through to the end, which will probably be around 40 or 50 chapters, depending on the response the story gets.

I would like to mention that between my school and work schedules my updates may not always be regular, but I promise I will try my best to keep up with it.