A/N: So chapter number two is out! This one is unfortunately short as well, but I hope that's fine. I have planned the 7 first chapters, and if I would make this longer I would've had to mash it together with the next one, and that wouldn't have felt right... Anyhow, on with the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, One Piece nor any of their characters. Ryouichi is a character of mine though.
Chapter 2; Unexpected company
Naruto woke up with a rather different feeling in his chest. This was weird. Was this how the afterlife felt? He decided that the feeling came from being deprived of oxygen and tried to open his eyes. It was tough, but after some struggling he managed to pry them open and the sight that met him was rather shocking. He was under water.
Far up he could se the surface. How far was it? Maybe thirty meters, he was not sure. He took a few strokes, testing his limbs abilities. Then he made for the surface, shooting upwards. When he broke the surface he grabbed it and heaved himself up on top of it. Sitting on it he realized that he still felt rather strange. It was like the air around him was different. It was like nothing he had ever felt before, not even like the world of the summons. As far as he could see in each direction was nothing but water, water and more water. No land at all.
Was this hell? Just a large open sea? No, that could not be. He changed his sitting position to one better for meditation and started gathering nature chakra. With it he could feel everything. But what he felt was what he expected, and even though he did expect it, it confused and surprised him. He was in a whole new world. From the information the nature chakra brought him, it was a big world, slightly larger than his own.
That was when he realized it. He felt presences he recognized! He could feel nine of them! This meant that he was not alone in this new world. He let out a whelp of joy, before he thought that he might not want to stay in the same place for so much longer. He had to get going if he wanted to get to land before he ran out of chakra.
Speaking of chakra, he remembered that he had one more thing to do before he could set of towards the closest familiar presence. He put his hands together, and suddenly he stood in a bright void. He moved his eyes upwards, to meet Kurama's. "So you're still with me. That's a relief! How do you feel?"
"I have the worst fucking headache ever and I do believe I am missing at least one tail's worth of chakra", the large fox grunted, sounding utterly tired and slightly lightheaded. That was not a good combination, and Naruto found it safer to let the fox sleep for the moment. He said his goodbyes and left the mindscape, fully intent on finding the people behind the presences.
—
After three hours of running Naruto decided to take a break on a small islet he found in the middle of nowhere. He had never had to run on top of water for such a long time before, and truth to be told; it was tiering. He would have to work on his chakra control. That had never been his strong side.
While he took his breather he noticed something. As he ran before, there had been different birds, mostly seagulls, following him, and every here and there a dolphin had tried playing with him, but now it was quiet. Too quiet. The only thing that could be heard was the small waves crashing against the islets rocky edges.
He looked out over the sea, turning around once or twice. Then he saw it. He was moving. The movement was slow, barely noticeable, but it was there. He turned his sight down, towards the ground he was sitting on. Something was weird about it. It was not rocky at all, even though it had seemed like before.
Naruto lifted his fist and punched the so called ground, hard. The result was that his small islet grew larger, lifting him up high in the sky. This was no islet, this was a huge, serpent-like creature!
"Holy shit, Kurama, can you see this? It is almost as big as you are!" Naruto gasped, looking surprised. In his world there had, after all, only been a total of ten creatures as big as Kurama, the fox included. This was new. But what could you expect in a new world? "I like him. What do you say buddy, should we beat his ass?"
He could feel the fox shifting in his mind as he got the answer, "Well, he, or rather it, feels rather powerful, but not dangerously much. Not compared to me, or even compared to your shitty ass."
"Bastard! You're just still hung up on the fact that I beat you!" the man grinned. Not wanting to hurt the creature too much, he simply took a deep breath, pounded on his chest and shouted; "Fūton: Renkūdan!"
A bullet of wind ripped through the air, hitting the poor creature with a big impact which sent him flying a good fifty meters. Not that fifty meters is anything at all in the beasts eyes, but considering how heavy it should be, it is a rather impressive feat.
After feeling the force of the bullet, the creature felt the difference between itself and the man before it, so it yielded by sinking it's head to the water surface.
Now that it had finally calmed down, Naruto could se just how big it actually was. While not entirely as large as the kyuubi, it did have a size to rival Gamabunta himself. It looked like a green moray eel with the head of a leopard shark. It was an interesting combination at least.
The eel gave out a sound similar to that of a dolphin's while nodding it's head. It seemed like it was trying to say something.
"You should be happy that I somehow understand this shit, brat", Kurama said. "He is telling you that he will follow you wherever you go, and to point out a direction and accept his help. As long as you need it, that is. It appears he is rather intelligent, despite his looks. He understands human language, somehow, so don't bother me anymore. I'm going back to sleep."
Naruto smiled inwardly and asked the creature if he had a name. When it shook it's head as a no, he told it that from this day on, he would be called Ryouichi, "good one". It looked very happy, and together they set of towards the sunset. No, not really. Their destination was the opposite way from the sunset, but you get the picture.
A/N: Do be kind and leave a review with your opinions, so that I can change the story if there is a major fault in it! :)
Love, ArtlieST
