Don't own 'em, 'mkay?

Words Best Heeded

It was a normal day for this boy...or at least as normal a day could be in a world of arcane powers, godlike demons, and deadly martial arts. The child, at the young age of 9, was running toward his favorite place in the world; a small food stand that served noodles and broth. He was rather close, and as he approached, he began to smell the smells and see the lights shining forth from the flaps of the small store. He smiled wide, and increased his pace toward the shop, passerby's blinking at the small blur and, if they recognized it, glancing contemptuously in it's direction or ignoring it and going on with their days.

The boy closed in, blonde hair swaying from the breeze from running and breathing a little faster as he cleared the flaps and slid to a halt just behind his 'personal' seat. He leapt up, calling out the names of two of his favorite people in the whole wide world, ready to splurge today on a treat. Today was a special day, for not only had he managed to pass a really hard test, but he got his allowance in the mail(and a small bonus) today as well! The owner of the stall's daughter arrived, smiling and congratulating the child on his accomplishments, and teasing him about girls and the like as well, making him blush and stammer denials out at the preteen.

Observing this all was a pale man sitting in the corner, golden eyes watching the happenings with a small amount of contentment as he ate from his own bowl of delicious noodles with silent grace. The small blonde child noticed this, and shied away from his gaze slightly, before ignoring him and going back to his conversation, just as a large bowl was deposited in front of him by the actual owner of the stall; an aging man with a jolly look upon him. The pale one finished his meal, and left, a sizable tip underneath the bowl.

-the next day-

The same young boy as before was playing in the park with some friends he had made in the orphanage he had once resided in, as well as two others. One was a bright eyed boy with a mullet and loose clothes, the other was a cheery girl with her hair tied up in a pair of buns, all of them smiling and playing with a ball they had found.

" Hey, Naruto, look out!" The girl called to the blonde as the ball came soaring toward him, the boy's eyes widening before catching it with a flinch and a shout of victory shortly thereafter.

"Thanks, Tenten, that woulda hurt!" Which is true; the ball was a hard, industrial rubber with a leather and cloth covering, made for games like dodgeball and ringball(1), and tended to cause bruises on impact with skin. "Lee, watch how you throw that thing!" "Sorry!" This was to and from the awsome, mullet-ified one(2).

The kids played for some time, until the same scene repeated, but with Naruto as the culprit, but rather than heading directly toward the target, Lee, it was an overshoot, heading toward one of the benches occupied by a pale man with messy hair. Naruto's eyes widened as he watched the ball head toward the individual, who was seemingly oblivious to the world, being lost in a small book he was writing in and humming some unknown tune. Then, in a flash, the ball was caught, the pale one not even sparing a glance to it, but looking at the children previously at play and now scared of reprimand, a small smile upon his face.

"You kids should be more careful" He said quietly, before tossing the ball into the sand pit and going back to his writing. The trio nodded hastily before looking around. Realizing they weren't in trouble, they decided to go back to what they were doing, before one of them recognized him.

" Hey! You're that pale guy from Ichiraku's yesterday! Waddya doin' there?" said Naruto, not quite loud but definitely noticeable. The man looked up from his book, shrugged, then went back to writing, before pausing. He looked up, and said, " I don't know, loud boy, what are YOU doing here?" said he, a small amount of sarcasm in the question, making Naruto glare.

"Playing, duh! You didn't say what you were doing though!" shouted the boy.

" Writing." He said, continuing on his task. Realizing the kids were still staring at him after some time, he sighed, and put the book to the side.

" You all obviously aren't going to leave me alone, so let me tell you a story to sate your minds and get you to leave me be." The man clapped his hands, a rather loud sound that sounded suspiciously like rocks clashing. The kids gathered 'round, and sat, looking at him as he began to speak, the quiet tones calming the children as he began to spin his tale.

" It begins with an aspiring young gentleman by the name of Negi Springfield, and his sojourns across a land by the name of Mundus Vetus..."(of course, the kids weren't able to understand many of his words)...

So he told them a story...

-5 hours later-

"...and that is the tale of the genius Negi Springfield, and his dashing companion, Fate Averruncus." The man finished with a tone of finality. Then he noticed the darkness of the sky, and brought it to the attention of the children on the ground below.

The previously enraptured Youths, having soaked in every word of the story, suddenly jumped up, eyes wide in panic.

"Crap, we gotta get home! Sorry pale guy! I gotta help these two get back to where they need!" Exclaimed Naruto, being the senior member(3) of the trio.

The pale man left the village some two weeks later, with encounters with the kids each one of them. His parting words were, " Before I leave, you must remember this... I know what you three wish to be, and you need to know. Not every story has a happy ending. Try and remember that." The trio, being as young as they were, wouldn't realize the gravity of the statement until nearly a decade later.

-8 years later-

Naruto sighed as he left the Hokage tower, having much to think about from the previous mission, and yet another encounter with one missing-nin and once-brother Sasuke Uchiha. So, as he often did for times of deep thought or meditation, Naruto headed for the bench in the park where the white haired, pale skinned stranger once sat, telling Lee, Tenten, and he stories all those years ago. As he entered the park, he noticed the bench was taken, and instead began to turn toward the bridge Team Seven once held meetings at. Until he noticed the one who had taken it.

It was as if he had been sent back to the past, with the pale man sitting near the edge of the bench, laying an elbow on the railing next to him and writing in the small book on his lap, humming some tune known only to him. Naruto blinked, to make sure the sight was real, before heading to the bench and slowly sitting down on the other side, looking inquisitively to the pale individual next to him.

" You're back." Said the blond messiah.

" That I am, Naruto. It's been some time. You're taller." Replied the white haired man, still writing in his book. " And troubled, it seems. Don't be surprised, I know that expression very well." Said the man to Naruto, who gave a morose grin at that and laced his fingers underneath his chin, closing his eyes. After some silence, he spoke.

" You were right, you know." The alabaster skinned being next to him raised an eyebrow, looking away from his journal to gaze at the blonde.

" About the happy endings, I mean. It's finally hitting me, after all this time. No matter how hard I try, the one I want to save just rejects my offer to help again and again, set only on his little quest to kill his brother... it's hard, but I think I see what you meant on the bench all those years ago." Naruto had steadily grown angrier as his monologue progressed, then deflated at the end, opening his eyes and looking sadly at the person next to him.

Said person shook his head in negative, saying " No, you haven't. You're on your way, though, and the one you speak of is well on his way to causing the sad ending. Trust me, Naruto, there was no good ending for this particular story in the first place. The best you can do is try and lighten it a bit." By the end of this, Naruto had been gazing at the ground between his feet, nodding slightly and sighing, face flat.

"I'm going to have to kill him myself, aren't I? To end his madness." He asked, boring a hole in the ground with his gaze.

"You probably will, yes." Naruto's jaw clenched tightly, and they stayed silent for a time.

He looked at his mentor (for that is what he was, as he had shaped Naruto, as well as Lee and Tenten, with his tales and morals during the time they knew him), and began to think a bit on the old stories, eager for a change in subject.

" You know, you never did tell us what you were writing in that booklet of yours," he said after a moment. The man he spoke toward nodded at this, before replying,

"Indeed, I haven't. It's a biography of sorts, I guess. Detailing the life and experiences of one of my closest friends."

" Negi Springfield? Or the one you modeled him after?" The man stilled at this, giving a glance at Naruto, smiling at the deduction.

" How did you guess that? Didn't think you would notice. Yes, it's Negi Springfield" Replied he. Naruto smiled, rather proud of himself for being right.

" I've always been pretty good at reading people, and when you would tell your stories, you looked like you were reliving a memory, rather than making up a story. I guess that would make you Fate Averruncus, huh?" The newly dubbed Fate nodded, smiling. Curious, Naruto asked, " Fate...tell me, what was Negi to you? You were close, I know that much, but..." He trailed off, leaving it open to interpretation. Fate had a look in his eye, a nostalgic one, and a very much sad one.

" Negi was to me as Sasuke was to you. We were brothers to the highest degree, as well as me being his second after the events on Mundus Magicus. But... I was jealous of him, to some degree," Naruto raised an eyebrow at this. " Be silent. You remember my telling of the triumph over the Lifemaker?" A nod. " The Lifemaker was, as I had told you before, just that. The creator of all life on Mundus Vetus and Magicus... a god. Negi was able to, with help I admit, defeat him... and consume him. Negi was overwhelmingly powerful after that, and I envied him for it. Not only his power, but his restraint, managing to keep it from overtaking him, and his compassion for his enemies, the ones he could so easily destroy. But... everyone has a breaking point..." Naruto was about to ask just what Fate meant, when the man turned toward him fully.

"I never did tell you the entire story... do you have time?" Seeing that Fate thought this important, from his tone of voice, Naruto nodded hastily, leaning in.

And so, just as he had learned of the rise of Negi Springfield 8 years past, he learned about the fall of Negi Springfield.

After all, not every story has a happy ending.

(1)- look up Aztec sports. It's a reference to a game where 2 teams must get a ball into a stone hoop before the other, kinda like basketball. The winners get sacrificed to the gods. This particular rendition doesn't have that bit, thankfully.

(2)- I'm a huge fan of Lee, and think he would've been better off in his Pre-Gai outfit.

(3)- I'm basing this off of the fact that in canon, Naruto fails the tests 3 times. Despite what the canon age is, I think it's reasonable to make him a bit older, with each Genin test being at the end of the school year. Team 7 is his third go, so Team Gai would be his second go, making him 1-2 years older than tenten and lee, by my estimates.