SevenKings with the next chapter of The Empire's Assassin. To be honest, I would never expect one of my favorite authors Xenter to make a review on one of my stories so I'm really in a good mood right now. Don't ruin it for any reason whatsoever!

Fic Recommendation: In honor of Xenter, may I recommend the "Exchange of Fate" fic made by Xenter him/her(self). It's a Naruto X Fairy Tail Crossover Story with Nine Chapters with 33K word length.

The Basic Summary is that Naruto after the Fourth Shinobi World War was trapped in a void where he meets Zeref. Zeref offers a deal where Naruto and Zeref basically switch places with Naruto accepting to have Zeref's Body and Magic where Zeref can finally die. My words doesn't do the fic justice since Xenter is a better writer than I am.

I'm in no way whatsoever being paid for this advertisement. This is to honor a great author and one who I respect for quite some time now.

Now my dear readers...

On With The Show


Chapter 2: Lost and Found

'I am so lost.' Naruto thought as he saw nothing but trees, animals, rivers, fruits and even more trees. Sure he lived in Konoha but that didn't mean he was an expert at how to travel through the forest. The best he can do was navigate to the tower where Old Man Saru worked because it was the largest building in Konoha or to the Ichiraku Ramen due to smell of ramen although he hadn't been there for a long time thanks to Kaa-San.

Something about vengeance against someone by not letting him eat ramen. His mother was strange like that.

Speaking of his mother, Naruto was actually sad at what had transpired. Due to his mother assuming control like that would cost her to sleep for about a week. That meant he was alone for the time being. He hated being alone, it reminded of the time before Kaa-San came into his life. All the lonely afternoons,watching the other children being with their parents. The hugs, the kisses, the hand holding; he wanted it so badly that he could feel his heart as it beats. The tears that threatened to come out of his eyes as he stared back at the adults who look back at him in fear and disgust.

Despite being only four, he could hear the adults as they murmured to each other.

'Stay clear of the demon child, kids.'

'Why is it still alive?'

'Shouldn't it be locked up and watched? I heard that's what the Raikage does with his demons?'

Despite all the hate and anger that was being directed at him, he still continued to smile, continued the act of the fool because bad attention was better than no attention at all. Until Kaa-San had arrived, she was his one constant light in a world of twilight. Her smiles as she praised him made him feel as if they were only ones left in the world.

Suddenly, Naruto looked behind him. While he couldn't see anything, he felt them closing in on him. It was a skill Kaa-San had taught him;the ability to feel the negative emotions around him. But it was strange, while he felt negativity from them, it was as if they were just dolls. It scared him, he didn't want to be like that if that was the reason why he was kidnapped.

And so, Naruto ran quickly away from the sources closing in on him. A few minutes later, he reached a cliff with the ocean down far below. Naruto could see it was a dead end and so had turned around to run a different direction but just as he was about to run again; three blank mask people with tantos on their backs.

"Kyuubi Jinchuriki Naruto Uzumaki, you are hereby to surrender and follow us to our master. Resist and we shall use force to bring you with us anyways." One of the blank mask men ordered in a monotone voice.

If Naruto scared before, he was truly terrified now. He could feel that the blank masks had no life to them. They just simply existed;for what purpose he didn't know nor did he cared. He want to escape but they blocked the only safe way. So like a cage animal, Naruto decided in a split second to do something extreme. He turn around to face the cliff and ran to the edge before jumping into the ocean below, praying to any and all deities including the Log to let him live long enough to at least talk to his mother one last time.

The blank masks had tried to stop Naruto including using chakra to augment their speed but the distance between the two was a bit too far. As they looked over the edge, the left side mask asked the one in the middle, "Should we follow, taicho?"

The mask's taicho responded,"We are Root and Root does not fail. Follow the target."

The now known Root agents then jumped over the cliff with absolutely no fear of the possibility of death.


SS Hikari

Tatsuya Tsuchibana was a old man in his forties. His black hair had started to whiten with his eyesight growing dimmer each day. To be honest, his now married son had asked him kindly to retire from sailing. Bah, sailing was in his blood and he'll do it until the end of his days. Unfortunately however, most of the sailing ships wouldn't take an old man like him. They prefer younger men in their prime to an old coot like him, except Tora Kurochi.

The twenty-six year old captain of the SS Hikari intended to sail beyond the Kiri Mugen(Infinite Mist). It was called that due to how long the mist had been there; it was actually said to have been there since the days of the fabled Rikodou Sennin, the first ninja. Every single ship who sailed into it had never came back. Soon, it was discouraged to even try but every now and then, a hot blooded adventurer and crew would try and be the first to come back.

Tatsuya wouldn't say he was that hotblooded anymore but Tora was the only one who would hire him so his choices were rather limited to the point of either stay on the land and live off his son or sail into the Kiri Mugen. Of course he would the choice to sail, he wasn't the type to live off charity even if it was from his son. At least he could take some comfort in the fact that his wife was already dead due to difficulties in childbirth of his son and would be waiting for him in the afterlife if and when he died from this adventure.

The old man was in the crow's nest, looking around the ship for any obstacles that would impede the ship. When his sight was over at the port side, he spotted three adult bodies and one child. Now while dead bodies were nothing new and Tatsuya wouldn't have called them out if it wasn't the fact that he could see the child was alive and fighting hard to keep his head above the water.

"We got a live one on the port side." Tatsuya screamed down to the other sailors who dropped everything to see who was in the water. Seeing the child, the sailors got the emergency boat out and a select few rowed over to the child. When they had come back, everyone could see the child's legs and one arm was broken with a large bruise on his face that was over one of the eyes.

"What could have happen?" One of the sailors asked.

"Could it have anything to do with the other bodies we found." Another sailor proposed a theory.

"Why are you just standing around for? We won't get to the Kiri Mugen if you keep slacking." A voice yelled out.

Every sailor in the crowd turned around to see the Captain Tora in a pissed off mood due to him working the night shift. All the noise wasn't helping the headache that he was having right sailors opened up the crowd to show the child on a make shift bed. When Tora saw the child with all the bruises, he knew what had gotten his sailors into a frenzy.

"One of you, explain, now." Captain Tora ordered.

Tatsuya took a step forward and explained, "Captain, while I was up on the Crow's Nest. I saw four bodies, three adults and one child far to the port side. While it was nothing new, I saw the child was fighting hard to keep his head up. As sailors, we couldn't a child die when it's in our ability to save them."

"Get to the point."

"Of course, Captain. So I yelled out to the crew about the child and we got the kid out of the water."

"When we got him out, he fainted. Running on fumes, I supposed." One of the other sailors who was on the boat inputted in.

Captain Tora rubbed his forehead, "It's a good thing that we stock up on food and water but whose going to be responsible for the boy?"

Tatsuya raised his hand, "I was the one who found him and I have experience raising a child."

"Fine, you're in charge of him. I'm going back to sleep."


Two Days Later

Cerulean eyes slowly opened up, staring at the ceiling. Naruto looked around to see himself in a small room, it was bare with just a small bed and a desk. He slowly got out the bed and tip toe his way to the door.

"And why do you think you're going, lad?" A voice asked.

Naruto turned around to see an old man was sleeping on the floor with a blanket. The old man looked as if he was uncomfortable sleeping on the ground due to all the stretching he did. "Name's Tatsuya, lad, and you've been sleeping on my bed."

Naruto had the decency to look sheepish as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry for that old man."

Tatsuya bopped Naruto in the head, "I'm not that old and my name is Tatsuya."

As Naruto rubbed the area where he was bopped, Tatsuya took a look at the kid. All the major injuries seemed to be healed even the broken bones. It was strange, broken bones took months to heal unless one was went to a medic nin and even then it took a minimum if five days to be fully healed. Maybe, the kid was from one of those shinobi clans?

"Now that you seemed to be doing fine, why don't you explain how you got into such a mess?" Tatsuya asked.

Naruto was having difficulties deciding what to do. On one hand, Tatsuya seemed like a nice man but on the other hand, he was weary of in case of betrayal. With a deep breathe, he began his tale, of how he was from Konoha and how he was kidnapped. Of course, he left the part on how he escaped and his mother out of the tale.

Tatsuya closed his eyes and thought back everything that was told to him. He then opened his eyes and look at Naruto, "Listen Naruto, is it," Seeing Naruto nod;He continued,"I got some good news and some bad news for ya. The good news is that the people after ya are dead. Found their dead bodies close to you in the sea." Hearing that Naruto let out a sigh of relief.

"Now the bad news is that the Captain won't head back to the mainland. He planed to head into the Kiri Mugen and it's possible that you may die."

"I heard about the Kiri Mugen. I always wanted to see it." Naruto's eyes seem to sparkle. The Kiri Mugen was one of the Nine mysteries of the Elemental Nations. Naruto, being the child he was always wanted to get close but the Old Man Saru wouldn't let him leave the village. Maybe his kidnapping would do some good here.

Tatsuya chuckled, "Aye, it'll be some time before we reached so how about we go topside for some fresh air now?"


Four Days Later

Naruto would never say he was happy in Konoha but he loved being with the crew of the SS Hikari. In Konoha, there were so few people that accepted him that he could named them all on his fingers. The crew unanimously accepted him into the fold including Captain Tora after he had sleep. He had to wonder if being angry if woken up was what all adults do but he would never do that his friends.

He also learned how to sail a ship and the sailing language as well including the swearing. He had managed to out curse several sailors in a speaking contest usually held after dinner. Old Man Tatsu even hugged him while saying he was the son that he never had.

So here he was now, up in the Crow's Nest with Tatsu looking out for the Kiri Mugen. They should have reached it by now.

The silence between the two was staggering so Naruto decided to break, "Hey, Tatsu."

"What?" Tatsuya replied back.

"You never did talk about your family."

"I supposed so, make yourself comfortable. The story will take some time." When both Tatsuya and Naruto were comfortable, Tatsuya began his tale, "Twenty years ago, I had a loving wife and she gave me a son. Unfortunately, the cost was her life and I found myself with my newborn son. I'm a sailor, Naruto, through and through. I didn't know a single thing about raising a child so I asked my neighbors to help raise him. They were merchants who didn't have a child of their own so they agreed to help raise mine.

When he was old enough, I asked him to join me sailing but he didn't want to. Rather he would take my neighbors merchant business. I was devastated that my own child didn't want to join me but I was happy for him. He found his own path in this world and that's all a father can ask for. It was when he asked to retire from sailing did I didn't want anything to do with him."

Naruto stared at the night sky, "I think he only wanted you to be safe and near. He probably wanted you to never leave him alone."

Tatsuya smiled, "Yeah, if I survive; I'll go back to him and say I'm sorry."

Naruto smiled back before his eye's spotted something in the horizon, "Tatsu, look over there. Is that what I think it is?"

Tatsuya got out a spyglass and took a look at the direction. While his sight had worsened over the days, he could still make out the sight of the fog. "I think so, Naruto. Good Job." Tatsuya ranged the bell alerting the crew and Captain that something of interest had appeared.

"The Kiri Mugen is in sight!" Tatsuya and Narto repeatly yelled over and over.

Tora was already at the ship's wheel and ordered the crew, "This is the moment we have been for, lads. Let's sail through it and lived to tell the tale." With a cheer from the crew, the SS Hikari had then plunged fearlessly into the white fog.


Naruto had watched carefully for anything that might have a chance to even scratch the ship. As he looked, he heard a moan from his mind. He had to smile, that meant that his Kaa-San had finally woken up.

'Kaa-San, are you up now?' Naruto mentally asked.

'I'm up,Sochi. What's been going on since I've been asleep?" Kurama replied as she rubbed her eyes.

'I'll talk to you later, Kaa-San. I have to make sure the ship is okay as we travel through the Kiri Mugen." Naruto told his mother while keeping his ever constant vigilance up in the crow's nest.

'Wait... The Kiri Mugen. Naruto, Get away from it right now!" Kurama screamed into his mind loud enough to cause a headache.

"You alright, Naruto?" Tatsuya asked his young friend.

"I'm fine, Tatsu, just a headache." Naruto assured while having a mental conversation with his mother, 'Why Kaa-San?'

'I didn't tell you yet because I didn't think you would ever go near it. But the Kiri Mugen was created when my Old Man sealed the Juubi into the moon he created. But what you didn't know was that the moon was a really a focal point to create a mist area to isolate the Elemental Nations.'

'Why did Riku-jiji do it then?'

'The outside world is far more dangerous than the Elemental Nations. Do you remember the animals in that Forest?'

'How could I forget.' Naruto shuddered at the memory. He later learned it was called the Forest of Death due to how many people died due to being unprepared.

'Up it by twenty and then you have the small fries of the outside world.'

'If that's the case, I have to stop the Captain.'

'There's also another thing, it's also possible that I may be ripped out of you.'

'Wait what!' Naruto would have screamed out loud if he didn't have experience of bad news being given to him by his mother.

'I'm being serious, Naruto. The Old Man said something about a "fail safe" if we were ever caught by the "Outsiders" as he called them.'

"Who knew the man that's supposed to be all about peace and understanding would be a fucking hater." Naruto said without thinking.

Kurama narrowed her eyes,'Naruto, who taught you that kind of language.'

Naruto began to sweat, knowing that his mother was staring at him with one of her gaze even if he couldn't see it. 'No one.' He said quickly.

Kurama snarled as she shook her fist in front of her in the mindscape. 'When this is over, I'm going to give you the biggest punishment I can think of that would make even those green wearing idiots flinch in fear. I'm going to ...' She would have continued her tirade if it wasn't for the fact that the Shikki Fuin Seal which was marked at the bars at the front of her room begin to unravel.

Outside into reality, Naruto started to convulse as the red chakra of the Kyubi begin to seep out of his body and disspiates into the air. Tatsuya tried to touch his friend but he flinched back as his hand was burnt and he then fell out of the crow's nest unto the top deck and broke his neck.

The surface crew gather Tatsuya's dead body as Captain Tora yelled, "What happened?"

One of the sailors responded, "Tatsuya's dead, fell right out of the Crow's Nest."

"Large object in the water, Brace for Impact." Another sailor who was watching the starboard side as he saw large ripples in the sea coming straight for them.

"We'll worry about what happened later. Men, to your battle stations. Unfurl the sails!" Captain Tora ordered as he maneverur the ship away from the ripples in the water. However despite the best efforts of the crew, the object managed to crash into the ship and many of the sailors fell into the sea, including Captain Tora.

The ripples opened to reveal that the object was in fact some kind of serpent beast that was similar to snakes. It had slits in it's green eyes and it's body was of similar color. Tora could see in it's eyes that the creature was hungry as it stared at him.'This is the end ain't it' Tora thought as the serpent's large form overshadow him.


Sometime Later

Three large wagons with multiple men either riding in the front of the wagons or were riding alongside on horses. Each men had armor along with weapons ranging from swords to guns. Inside the wagons were orphan children who were sold or stolen from different villages outside of the capital. Private Wilkins, Booth and Johnson were riding together side by side on their own horses allowing them to gossip together without fear.

"What do you think the Empire wants with these kids?" Johnson asked his two compatriots.

"Who knows, I hear the capitol is full of sick assholes. Maybe they want them as sex slaves." Wilkins stated simply, almost as if they were talking about the weather.

"Then shouldn't we do something about it? I hear some of the generals are rebelling against the Minister." Booth questioned with concern. He had signed up for the pay but he couldn't handle the dirty work that was being given to him like now.

"I don't know about you but I heard that any who tried to desert will be handed over to Esdeath." Wilkins said,"The kid is only about fourteen yet torturers twice her age are bowing down to her like she's some sort of goddess sent down to the mortal plane. I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley even with a teigu in my hands."

"Plus, they kidnap your family, sell the girls to brothels and the dudes to the mines. They say that's what happened to Leeroy." Johnson whispered.

"Wait, what happened to Leeroy." Wilkins was curious at what could have happen to the incredibly brave but stupid private.

Johnson started the tale, "They say that Leeroy entered the throne room of the emperor, shouted his own name while pointing his gun at the minister before being dog piled by the Guard. Afterwards, the entire Jenkins Family disappeared. I got a buddy that swears he saw Leeroy's sister Jessica in one of the red light districts all drugged up in one of the houses."

Both Wilkins and Booth shivered at the thought. "I think we can all agree to never do anything that'll bring the empire down on our heads." Booth Proposed with the other two agreeing to the idea.

Wilkins turned his head to the beach and a saw a blonde haired child laying face down into the sand. "Hey look," he pointed, "You think they'll give us a pay raise if we get him as well?"

Booth looked scandalized, "You want to damn another child to what the Empire is going to do?"

"Better them than my family." Wilkins countered before riding up to the front to inform his officers.


Unknown Location: Unknown Time

Red slitted eyes opened slowly before they opened in surprise. She could herself being chained spread-eagled with her tails also chained up. She could feel the heat on her back as she turned her head to see it was a ball of lava that she was chained to.

"No, NO NO!.

"Well Well Well, if it isn't Kyuubi. Miss your old jail cell." A taunting voice called out.

Kurama narrowed her eyes,"Have I ever told you how much I hate you?"


Konoha

Back in Konoha, Sarutobi and Danzo were in the Hokage's office as both were yelling back and forth. The Sandaime Hokage looked worse for wear as if he hadn't eaten or sleep in the past twenty four hours.

"I know you had something to do with it, Danzo. This has your handiwork all over it." Sarutobi yelled.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Hokage-Sama. But maybe if you trained the Kyuubi Jinchuriki like you promised if I backed off from claiming him, this wouldn't have happen." Danzo reply.

"I thought I already told you, everyone deserves to have a childhood and that includes Naruto. Your Root Program would destroy the innocence that Naruto had."

Danzo growled in anger, "For the last time Danzo, I don't have my Root Anbu murdered their own brothers and sisters without due cause since it would only weaken Root. The only time that happen without the offense being treason was when Shin was dying of an unknown disease and Tsunade couldn't heal him. He wanted to die at the hands of his brother Sai and I simply let him have his dying wish."

An Anbu agent knock on the door before coming in. He then went over to Sarutobi and whispered into his ears causing Sarutobi to bang his head on the desk and leaving it there. "Danzo, you may leave but don't think I'm not done with you."

"It never is with you," Danzo sneered, "You've changed my old friend and have lost the fire of youth." A scream of "YOUUUUUUTH!" caused to Danzo to nearly stumbled in shock. After shaking his head a little, Danzo left himself a mental note before he left,'Note to self: Never say the Y word while anywhere near Maito Gai."

A few minutes after Danzo left, the door once again opened. Sarutobi lifted his head to see a woman had enter. "What do you want, Kushina?"


Finally done with the second chapter. I really don't know what to say so...

Good Bye Good Night Good Luck