AN: This "fic" is going to have chapters from different fic ideas each chapter, just like the various "Story Ideas" fics out there.
Summary: Naruto disappears after the fight at the Valley of End. Everyone thinks that he died, even Sasuke. In reality Naruto is taken to a group of people far more skilled than any shinobi. He is trained by that group before he returns to Konoha three years later.
ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ
"RASENGAN!"
"CHIDORI!"
The two voices shouted out the names of their various attacks before the purple sphere and a black lightning bolt slammed into each other. The one holding the sphere was covered in a bubbly red energy that formed a single fox tail as well as a pair of long ears. The one holding onto the bolt of lightning had purple-black skin, gray hair, a pair of hand shaped wings, and a white cross on his nose.
As the two attacks connected, the one holding the lightning bolt reached into a pouch on his leg and pulled out a knife before stabbing it into the other one's shoulder. Specifically the shoulder that was attached to the arm that held his own attack. With a jerk the shoulder was popped out of its socket and the black lightning went into the boy's chest.
Upon that happening, the boy lost the red energy surrounding him and fell into the water. The other boy smirked before turning around and running off. The boy who was stabbed in the chest started to flow downstream as it started to rain.
Unknown to either boy, another had been watching their fight. Granted, it was hard to tell that they were there when the one watching was watching from underneath the water and the one watching was a watersoul genasi…in relation to the current point, that person could breathe underwater.
This particular genasi was a female named Nari. She also had a soft spot for children, leading to her taking the boy and taking him to the camp that she and her companions had further downstream.
A few minutes after Nari left with the boy, another man and a pug arrived and the pug said, "The scent's gone, but there is the lingering smell of a lot of blood. Naruto's blood. The amount is more than anyone could survive losing."
"So Naruto's…" the man asked in horror.
"There is no way that the smell of Naruto's blood could be this strong and he be alive Kakashi. I'm sorry."
ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ
The pug however was wrong, Naruto (the boy who got stabbed in the chest) did in fact survive. Nari didn't have any powers in healing, but she did know first aid, added to the fact that Naruto was the human container for a being that did not want to die, and Naruto was stabilized long enough for them to reach the camp.
"Erik! Get your butt over here and bring your holy symbol!" Nari shouted as she came out of the river onto the bank with her charge.
A human in metal armor shaped like scales ran over to the two and with wide eyes swiftly started to place his hands on the boy's wounds. When he hands started to glow with a soothing light, there was a hissing sound as the wounds started to seal. Four others came over to the three as Naruto started to breathe easier.
"Always picking up strays eh Nari?" a man with sweeping horns and a six foot tail in armor made from animal hides asked with a grin.
"Shut it Skamos, if you saw what this boy could do you would beg that we keep him with us. I think that he's one of the ninja of the region," Nari responded.
One that looked like a humanoid hyena gave a short snarl(1) before asking, "So we keepin' him or ditchin' him?"
"I say that we keep him at least for a little while. This boy was stabbed through the chest by a handheld bolt of lightning. He should be watched to make sure that he is okay."
"Besides, I've been curious how these ninja do what they do. Who knows it could be another kind of magic," a short woman with pointed ears said with a smile.
"Either way the boy needs to be watched for a few days to make sure that he recovers properly. Plus there was something that I felt while healing him, almost like there was another entity inside him trying to keep his body alive," Erik said with a slight frown.
"You think that the boy's possessed?" Skamos asked.
"No it wasn't like that, but still it should be a thing that we keep an eye out for."
ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ
Naruto awoke with a groan as he sat up.
"Damn Kyuubi, using your chakra that much hurts like Hell," Naruto groaned as he held his hand to his chest where his "teammate" Uchiha Sasuke stabbed him.
"Kyuubi?" a male voice asked to the side.
Naruto turned and saw a man in armor unlike any he had ever seen before resting against a tree. The armor looked like it was composed of metal rings all linked together. On his hip was a sheathed sword and a metal and wooden shield was on one of his arms.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked while inching his hand towards his kunai pouch.
"First off we didn't want you to attack us when you awoke so we took your knives and shuriken, and second my name is Quinn," The man responded while holding up Naruto's kunai pouch.
"'We'?"
"The rest of the party's asleep now, when my watch is over you'll have someone else to talk to. You were lucky there kiddo. If that whacko had stabbed you on the other side of your body he would have gotten your heart, and as good as Erik is even he can't replace a missing heart."
Naruto looked down at his chest and saw a hole in his jumpsuit where Sasuke had shoved his chidori into his chest. The problem was, it was on his left side.
"But the heart is on the left side of the body, even I know that!" Naruto shouted.
"In most cases that is true, but there are a few humans that have the heart on the right side of their body. Even so if Nari hadn't gotten you when she did then you would have died," Quinn calmly responded.
"Nari?"
"She's a genasi. A watersoul genasi to be exact."
"What's a genasi?"
"Think of genasi as humans with a natural gift with a single element. Some say that genasi were created as a compromise between the primordials of the Elemental Chaos and the gods after their war. Others think that they are the result of people who entered the Elemental Chaos and returned changed. I don't know how they came about but then again I don't really care."
"What is the Elemental Chaos?"
"Erik would better be able to explain that than me, and it's his turn for watch anyway."
Quinn stood up and walked over to one of the six sleeping forms, that Naruto hadn't seen before, and kicked one while saying, "Wake up lazy ass, it's you watch."
Naruto chuckled at the scene, being one familiar to him. Though he was always the one kicked and not the other way around.
"Alright Quinn, alright," the one kicked said as he got up and bent his back, causing it to pop repeatedly.
Naruto blinked at seeing the man in armor just as strange as Quinn's. His almost looked like it was taken from some kind of reptile made out of metal. A really big reptile by the size of the scales. The man picked up a large club with a fancy head at the end before holding a metal pendent shaped like the sun and kneeling. The man closed his eyes and pressed the pendent to his forehead and started whispering under his breath. Naruto saw Quinn roll his eyes as he got back into the still warm bedroll on the ground.
After a few minutes, Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the man that Quinn awoke glow a pale, warming light. Then he felt the Kyuubi start to thrash in this cage, trying to get out. Naruto winced as a brief flash of pain lanced through his head from the Kyuubi's thrashing.
"KILL HIM, KILL THAT…" the Kyuubi started to shout before Naruto shoved the Kyuubi back further into its cage.
"You okay kid?" the man asked having seen Naruto's wince.
"I'm fine, just a headache," Naruto responded.
The man looked like he didn't believe Naruto, but didn't press the matter any and instead asked, "You got a name kid?"
"Uzumaki Naruto, the next Hokage!"
"First off keep your voice down, we don't know what's in these woods and second what's with the whisker marks?"
"Huh?"
"The whisker marks on your cheeks, those aren't tattoos or birthmarks so what are they?"
Naruto paused to think about that before answering, "You know, I'm not sure. I've had them for as long as I could remember so I never really thought about them."
"Hmm, name's Erik by the way. You've been out for two weeks now so I imagine that you're a little out of whack."
"Two weeks?! I've got to get back to Konoha, they'll brand me as a missing nin for sure!"
"Calm down kid, Konoha most likely thinks that you're dead. You had a hole in your chest all the way through and if your heart hadn't been on your right side then you would have died. Besides, there are some things that we need to clear up once morning hits."
"Al-alright."
Erick shook his head before reaching over to a backpack and taking out an extra bedroll and tossing it to Naruto and saying, "Get some sleep kid, we've got a lot of ground to cover when daylight hits."
Naruto unfurled the bedroll and climbed in while thinking about what to do now. Konoha thought he was dead, Sasuke thought he was dead, he was with a group of strangers that had his weapons, and he had been unconscious for two weeks. His life sucked.
ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ
Naruto awoke to hear the sounds of people moving about and the crackling of a fire. Throwing the cover of the bedroll off, Naruto sat up to see all of the people moving around and paused upon seeing one of them in particular.
The man had his back turned and Naruto could clearly see the long tail coming out of his behind. In addition to that there seemed to be some horns on his head if Naruto saw right. Probably some kind of Kekkei Genkai. The man was kneeling and from what Naruto could see was skinning a deer.
There was a snarl behind him and a feral sounding voice said, "Get up kid, we need to get packing."
Naruto turned around and fell back in shock since the one who spoke to him looked like something halfway between Kiba in his feral state and some kind of canine-like animal. Obviously the half-animal noticed and asked, "What, never seen a gnoll before?"
"Lhyr you know that there aren't gnolls where this kid is from so stop picking on him," a female voice said in an amused manner.
Naruto turned and blinked at seeing a bald woman with sea foam green skin with bright blue lines all over her skin. He was going to take a guess and say that she was a genasi.
The woman smiled and said, "I'm Nari. The fur ball there is Lhyr, the one skinning the deer is Skamos, you've met Erik and Quinn, and the one meditating on the other side of the camp is Adrie-lana. We're from the lands to the west of what you would call Wind Country."
"So are you shinobi?" Naruto couldn't help but ask.
"Shinobi only exist in the Elemental Countries kiddo, not to the west," Skamos spoke up as he started to load the deer into a bag that it shouldn't possibly fit in.
Seeing his look, Nari calmly explained, "It's a Bag of Holding, you can fit nearly anything into those without the weight changing at all. I've heard tales of how people sometimes fell into them but in reality anything living won't go into them any more than a hand to grab something."
Naruto nodded at the explanation, glad that he wouldn't have to worry about getting stuck in one of those. Quinn walked over to Naruto and tossed him his kunai pouch while saying, "We don't know what we'll be encountering so it's best that you're armed. We'll leave once we've eaten."
A few minutes later Naruto was surprised by how much he enjoyed his piece of some kind of meat, even if he wasn't able to use chopsticks. He was also surprised when Skamos tossed Lhyr a bone with pieces of meat.
"Gnolls are rather famous for having powerful jaws and stomachs, they can eat and digest even bone," Erik explained, accentuated when Lhyr bit the bone in half and started slurping down the marrow.
Naruto shuddered before going back to his piece of meat, eating with manners that he didn't know that he had. For some reason he just couldn't bring himself to put up the idiotic mask that he used in Konoha. While he naturally was a pretty happy guy, he wasn't an idiot. He just found that acting as one made the pain of rejection lessen. Skamos seemed to notice that Naruto's thoughts were elsewhere and once everyone had all of their gear packed away he walked over to Naruto and asked, "What's on your mind kiddo?"
Naruto glanced up at the taller man and just said, "Well, all my life I've been ignored and told that I wouldn't ever amount to anything, and now that I failed to bring my teammate back…"
"You feel like they were right. From the sounds of it your life has been similar to what most teiflings go through. Several thousand years ago there was a human empire called Bael Turath that was quite frankly, evil. The nobles of the empire made a deal with a group of devils in exchange for power. A few of the noble families didn't want to but the ones that did had all of the few that disagreed killed. The devils changed them into new empowered forms. But they did more than that, they made it so that any children they had would be just the same as them. Thus the tiefling race was born.
"Bael Turath has mostly been forgotten, but we are still frequently hated. I myself was sold into slavery when I was born and was dumped into a gladiator ring. But there was more that was on your mind wasn't there kid?"
"Yes, did you ever put up a mask to disguise or hide what you were feeling?"
"Me personally no, but I later met my sister who did. I'm guessing that you had one back there."
"Yeah, it was an idiotic mask. Acting like an idiot made the pain not so bad. What kind of mask did your sister have?"
"She acted like she was never in pain, but she was. I was used to satisfy bloodlust, she was used to satisfy a lust of another kind."
Naruto's eyes widened as the others continued, letting Skamos tell his tale though they were surprised that he was opening up so much.
"She became pregnant when she was thirteen. Nine months later she had her son who was later killed just because of a choice that his ancestors made. After that she ran away into the wilds. I don't know for sure what happened to her in her years away from civilization, but I do know that when she returned to civilization, she was…broken I guess is the best word for it. She didn't really care for anything. The only time that she would care about something is if a child was around. Children were the only thing that she cared for anymore. A few years ago she died helping us when we were trying to kill a necromancer that was using children for experiments."
"I'm sorry," Naruto softly apologized.
Skamos looked down at Naruto and smiled slightly before ruffling his hair.
"That's okay, you didn't know and she died happy that the children got to live. It is a better death than many in the profession that we are a part of get."
"By the way what exactly are you? I mean like most people in Konoha are shinobi what are you guys? I can't seem to think of anything that you all are."
"Well, collectively we would be called adventurers because that's basically we do. We go out on adventures doing things for the places that we stop by for varying amounts of time. Individually, I doubt that you have heard of any of our classes as they're called."
"I'm what is called a rouge, basically I do the sneaky things like shinobi only without all of the flashy techniques of yours," Nari called back from up front.
"Erik is a cleric, a person who has powers granted from whatever god they worship, Adrie-lana is a wizard, they are the ones that can influence a huge number of enemies, Lhyr is what is called a swordmage, he combines sword skills with magical powers, Quinn is a warlord, basically he is in charge during battles and he is good at it, as for me, I'm what most 'civilized' people would call a barbarian. I channel the primal powers of the natural world and focus on dealing heavy amounts of damage," Skamos explained.
"So you don't use chakra?" Naruto asked confused. He didn't want to say it but he didn't understand how much someone could do without chakra unless they focused on taijutsu and from what was said no one here did.
"No and in my personal opinion using chakra is a foolish and stupid decision," Lhyr shouted back
"Why?"
"What happens when you use too much chakra?"
"You die."
"There you go. None of what we use will do that. If you 'run out' you simply wait a day for everything to recharge and your good to go."
Naruto blinked at hearing that. There had to be a catch, "How long does it take for you to learn to use whatever it is that you use?"
"Years, why?"
"I think I know why shinobi use chakra instead, it only takes a year maximum to teach how to move chakra and after that just a few chakra control exercises that take a few days to learn each and that's about it."
"The whole 'quantity over quality' deal huh," Skamos said with a slight chuckle.
The group was silent after that, and covered a good distance before stopping for lunch (more venison). Skamos surprised the other members of the group by being the one who interacted with Naruto the most, telling him some of the more humorous of their adventures. One that Naruto was laughing at right now involved a time when they teamed up with another party and one of those members seemed to be there for nothing more than cannon fodder. That same group also heavily invested in special staves that held numerous charges of a spell to bring the dead back to life.
Upon starting back on their traveling after lunch, Nari asked Naruto about his life back in Konoha. He admitted that he didn't have the best of lives growing up, and played it off to his whisker marks linking him to the Kyuubi attack. He did not tell them about the Kyuubi being sealed inside him. When he described the Wave mission, Adrie-lana became angered at what Gatoh had done to Wave. She was obviously pleased when she heard that Zabuza killed Gatoh.
"One thing I want to ask, is it common for the dead to speak to the living?" Naruto asked after he finished telling about Zabuza and Haku's burial.
"You'd be surprised how often we've seen it happen. From dreams to actually returning to the world of the living as ghosts to rising as corporeal undead," Erik responded with a tone that didn't speak highly of his opinion of the undead.
"Well before we left Wave I think that Zabuza talked to me in a dream. He told me that when I was ready he wanted me to take his sword."
Skamos looked back over at Naruto and spoke up, "Tell you what, how about we teach you for a few years and when you return to Konoha we'll make a stop by Wave for that sword."
The other members looked at Skamos in surprise before Naruto declared, "Deal."
Later that night after Naruto went to bed, the others rounded on Skamos and Erik demanded, "Why did you make that offer Skamos? You know that the places we go we can't have a kid along!"
"Is he really a kid though? From what he told us I'm only four years older than he is. He's been through just about as much as I have and you have to admit some of his abilities will be helpful. Besides, there's something about him that…calls to me for lack of a better phrase. I can't explain it. Don't give me those looks, it isn't like that."
Skamos knew that the others had jumped to the conclusion that Naruto was doing something to gain his trust, but it wasn't a mental call. It was more like…something about him spoke to his infernal blood. But nothing about Naruto stood out that would do such.
Later that night, Skamos was taking his watch when he noticed that Naruto, though still lying down, was awake. With a sigh, Skamos walked over to his backpack and pulled out a few herbs and a mortar and pedestal. Quickly crushing the herbs up, Skamos then walked over to Naruto's bedroll and placed the crushed herbs so that the fumes would be directly inhaled by the blonde and said, "This will help clear your head. I've been through enough to recognize a thought disturbed sleep."
Naruto breathed deeply the smell of the various herbs before sitting up and asking, "How is it that you can read me so easily? Not one person in Konoha could see through the mask that I had and yet you've only known me a day and you can practically read my every though."
Skamos chuckled before answering, "A big part of it is that I've already been through a lot of what you're going through now. And in addition to that, when I grew up reading body language became incredibly important. Most of the other gladiators simply became good at reading body language during combat, but I wanted to see how far I could go with it. I can also tell that you've been hiding something big from us because you fear how we'll react. Look at me, look at Lhyr, we've seen a lot freakier stuff than whatever you could possibly come up with.
"You don't have to tell the others, but I would still like to help you carry whatever burden it is that you hold."
Naruto sighed before looking down at the mortar in his lap and slowly asking, "You promise that what I tell you won't change anything?"
"I'm practically descended from devils, what could be worse than that?"
"How about being the container for a demon?"
"Huh?"
"Thirteen years ago the demon fox Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the village of Konoha. The village shinobi fought to stop it, which none of them were able to do until the Yondiame Hokage arrived. He killed it at the cost of his own life…that is what my generation was told. The truth is that he couldn't kill the demon so he sealed it away into a newborn infant, me."
"I'm not going to pretend that I understand how that Hokage of yours did that, but I've seen worse stuff. I'm guessing that the people of your village saw you as the demon itself and not a container."
"Yes, you mean you don't?"
Skamos frowned at that before pointing at his horns and smacking the back of Naruto's head with his tail. Naruto chuckled upon remembering the fact that Skamos had just as much if not more in common with demons than Naruto himself did.
ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ
AN: Well that's one idea that I had to get down. I don't know when or if I'll get anymore chapters of this particular fic out but knowing me I'll have more fic ideas out fairly soon.