And here's the second installment of my first true work.

Stones of the Past Chapter 2 - Who the Hell are you?


Naruto watched in fascination as his table was incinerated, but nothing else caught fire, or even appeared to be burned.

'This thing just burned my table... but nothing else. What the hell caused that to happen?'

Naruto pondered about this mysterious orb, but decided against testing anything, lest he burn down his own apartment. So he pocketed the orb and left, locking the door behind him.

As the young almost ninja walked through Konoha, he would occasionally withdraw the orb from his pocket, stare at as he walked, and replace it. Many villagers would watch him do so, curiosity evident on their faces, as he would do so. All that watched had the same though process active as well, most along the lines of, 'The little demon is distracted by shiny objects' or, 'What child did the demon steal from today?'

Strangely enough, as Naruto passed by they would attempt to voice their thought and demoralize him, but none could do so. They all would feel a peculiar sensation, as if their mother would chastise them if they spoke, and after the boy passed, a malicious intent directed at them, daring them to try and cause the boy harm.

Naruto was unaware of the people's inner turmoil, but was silently thanking whatever deity that was out there for the silence of the villagers.

After a few more minutes of walking Naruto had finally arrived at his destination, an unused training ground that had few signs of active use. Withdrawing the orb from his pocket once more, he tossed it in the air and caught it between his index finger and thumb. He brought it close to his face and examined it in greater light of the sun.

The orb appeared to be nothing special at a glance, and that was something he was puzzled by. If such an unassuming little sphere could burn down anything with such precision, then why did it appear so plain? Through his continuous staring he began to notice something else, the orb appeared to shimmer on the inside, and something, it looked like fire, would flicker every few seconds.

After a few minutes of intense observation, Naruto channeled his split chakra through the orb, and was mildly surprised when a small flame erupted forth, shot across the clearing, and began to burn a training log faster than any fire jutsu he had ever seen.

And so began an intense testing of how the orb would react to his chakra.

Many hours later Naruto laid exausted at the base of a tree at the edge of the clearing, contemplating his gathered knowledge.

'It holds four levels of power... I think. But there is no gradual transition... it just jumps from one to the next. The first is pretty small and fast. Number two makes a small pillar of fire when it impacts anything. I didn't see exactly what happened with the third one, but it looked like a super powered explosive tag... and I couldn't see anything after that last one... and it was WAY more powerful than the third one... that one needs a name...'

'It was super bright, and burned through everything, all of the ground was glowing orange... what was that thing Iruka-sensei said you use to signal something?'

'A Flare! That's it! I'll call it Flare.'

As soon as the would be ninja had named his new fire attack he chanced a glance at a flash of silver. Before he knew what happened he was on his side staring up at the very sharp edge of what he thought to be a katana. His eyes widened as he traced up the blade, for what seemed like forever, to stare into the eyes of a silver haired man.

From what he could tell, the man was definitely strong, stronger than anyone he had ever seen. His attire was strange, especially for the Land of Fire. He wore a long black trenchcoat buckled at his midsection, showing his muscular chest to any who would look. His shoulders were adorned with a pair of dull steel epaulets, and

"You are quite perceptive there boy. Any second later and I would have beheaded you. Any second sooner and I would be able to shift the slash to bisect you from your waist down."

Naruto began to sweat more profusely than he had after exausting his chakra reserves, that man almost killed him! And he had every advantage Naruto did not. He appeared a combat veteran, and wielded his ridiculously long sword with both ease and grace. He had no doubt in his mind that the man could kill him any moment he wanted.

So why was he still alive?

"Ah, I see you have caught on boy.", the man spoke with all the elegance he wielded his weapon with as well, "But, alas, I am not here to remove your entrails from you to hang you by them. No, as much as I wish I could, I simply cannot. You see-"

"What the hell do you mean you can't? You appeared out of nowhere and almost stabbed me! What stopping you now?" Naruto almost got up to strike the man, but remembered his reason at the last second. The man said that he could not, meaning that he did NOT, in fact, have the power to gut him like a fish as he was.

"Boy. You need to learn how to pay better attention to your surroundings. And respect to your betters. Just because I cannot kill you does not mean that I will refrain from beating you within an inch of your life. Now, as I was sayin-"

A resounding CRACK! Echoed around the clearing. The man paid it no heed, although from Naruto's perspective, a hand was floating over the strangers head, and seemed to be the cause of the sound. He could barely make out the details of the hand before a voice was heard, "Sephiroth! You will NOT and I repeat, will NOT threaten little Naruto anymore! He is the only one who can use materia at all! Would you have your precious legacy destroyed by your own hand?"

It was then, when the man, whose name was finally revealed, stepped to the side to glare at the young woman behind him. He mumbled a response that the blond could not hear, and the woman turned and smiled at him.

"Hello Naruto! I'm Aerith, and this crazy alcoholic,", a small 'hey!' was muttered by the man, "is Sephiroth."

It was then, Naruto realized, that his life would not be in jeopardy, as long as this woman was here. She seemed like a caring big sister that would help any child, no matter where they came from or what their problem was. He also regarded her last statement with a quizical look on his face, before the woman, Aerith he reminded himself, giggled at his expression, causing him to adopt a smile in place of his frown.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! The greatest prankster this village has ever seen! I like ramen, the color orange, old man Hokage, training, and the Ichirakus! I don't like the time it takes for cup ramen to heat up, stuck up jerks like Sasuke-teme, and people who underestimate me!"

His exclamation raised similar expressions from the adults. Sephiroth looked mildly amused at the boy. If he would tone it down, perhaps he would be tolerable to be around for extended periods of time. Aerith smile widened with his enthusiasm. Perhaps this boy would be able to learn everything they had to teach him after all...

"Boy," Sephiroth said, the amusement present in his voice, "Come here tomorrow, and I will begin your training. Not another word!" He exclaimed, seeing Naruto inhale rapidly, as if he would begin shouting, "You are not to tell anyone about my training boy. Also, you are not permitted to speak of our meeting at all either." His part finally complete, Sephiroth disappeared in a flurry of black feathers.

Naruto turned to Aerith, only to see a small frown on her face. "I'm sorry, but he is right Naruto. Noone can know that we contacted you. I know you want to, but please," her expression changed into a small pout, "please don't tell anyone Naruto. I have faith in you, and know you can do this. If you tell someone, we will have to go away, and if we do, you are going to come with us. It may seem complicated, but you need to be quiet about us. We don't want, well, I don't want to take you away from your friends. But you need to learn what we have to tell you. There's a lot of things that nobody on the planet remembers about that you can learn. The materia, for example, is something that nobody in over five thousand years has used. But you were able to use one today. So, if you want to learn more come back tomorrow okay?"

With that Aerith gave him a quick hug and vanished almost as fast as Sephiroth did, but with a green shimmer instead of feathers.

"What the hell just happened?" Naruto promptly fell back, his eyes closed, and within a few seconds, a large snore escaped his mouth.

And so ends the first day of the rest of the boy's new life.

Although its not like he would know that yet.


And theres chapter 2. With all that college registration stuff that I had to do I'm surprised I was able to eke out this chapter. Along the lines of the story, I'm surprised to see that I received positive response from a small group. In fact, I'm surprised that I received a response at all! Go internet eh? Anywho, I have the story roughly planned up to the chunin exams. I'm also thinking of which summon he should get first, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a FF VII summon. Any input would be appreciated.

Take it easy... and enjoy yourselves.