The Journey of Naruto Pt. 2

"I can't believe this," says Kiba. "The exact same person I captured for execution earlier, is now my commander and 'The Chosen One'. How much weirder can this day get?"

"A lot Kiba, a lot," I strap my boots and go to work on my gauntlets. I manage to strap them into place and stand up trying to look as heroic as possible while wearing boots and gauntlets. "There," I say. "I think I'm good."

"What about your Cuirass?" asks Lee. "Your leggings? A helmet?" He looks annoyed that I hadn't even bothered to put them on. Almost as though me not putting them on would end the world, well this is Lee, uniform must be important to him in this world too.

*Cuirass- A piece of armor consisting of breastplate and backplate fastened together.

I shake my head. "Don't need any of those things," I say. "I've fought a lot worse than Orochimaru. I don't need any more than these boots in the mountainous terrain and these gauntlets…" I show his my gauntlets for added effect. "… to hold the sword and shield you're making me take that I don't need." I hold up a large broadsword embedded with jewels and a large round shield that is the size of Choji's plate at an all-you-can-eat-buffet.

(Or if you are familiar with ancient Greece the size of a Spartan Shield.)

"Well at least wear this," says Kakashi as he throws a chainmail shirt at me. "Just in case, if I let you go that unarmored Tsunade will kill me." Kakashi goes back to reading his perverted little ook book.

I frown, annoyed. "Geez, Kakashi is just a big of a perv in this universe!" I put on the chainmail and it's heavier than I thought. Ten pounds at least, this is really gonna weigh me down. "I'll just wear it on the way out then put it in one of the saddlebags or something," I think. "I just hope Kakashi doesn't force me to keep it on…"

Kiba finished his own armor then affixes a strange looking armor to Akamaru. I raise an eyebrow that he's giving his dog armor, but he explains himself quickly. "Akamaru may look like a normal dog, but he is actually very special," says Kiba. "He is descended from a line of heroic dogs from ancient times, said to have the strength of Hercules and the endurance of a rock.

"Sure," I say shrugging my shoulders. "Whatever floats your boat."

The vein in Kiba's forehead starts surging. "You think I'm lying?" he asks.

"No, no," I say. "I have people coming up to me saying their dog is a god all the time! I completely believe you."

Kiba twitches, but a quick glance from Kakashi and he quickly holds his tongue to keep from more fighting. He finishes strapping on the armor and Tsunade walks in nodding approvingly.

"Good," she says. "You're all ready, is there anything else?"

"Ya," I say, getting off the crate I had been sitting on. "I'm still not totally clear on why you think I'm 'The Chosen One'."

"Well," she says. "It is said the chosen one will be able to fight a dragon by himself and succeed. So when we saw you use your 'Rasenshuriken' as you call it, we knew it was you."

I nod; the story makes sense to me. "Alright," I say lifting up my pack. "Let's get going!"

I walk out of the room and Kakashi grins beneath his mask. "He sure is confident isn't he?" Kakashi finally puts his book away and picks up his pack.

Everyone grins at me and I turn around and scratch me chin awkwardly. "Uh… which way is it?" I ask and everyone falls over. (Anime fall style)

We ride on our horses northeast with the castle toward the back of us. "So does this prophecy say anything else?" I ask. "Like how I beat him?"

Kakashi shakes his head. "No, the original prophecy was lost to time; all we have now is the general outline."

"Great," I say. "I have to save everyone and I don't even know how." We continue to ride for a few minutes in silence.

I hear shouting from the castle that shakes the entire town again. "That's probably the one who wants your head," says Kakashi. "He probably heard you were spared and is outraged. We had better get going before he comes here to kill you himself."

"Good Idea," I say and we ride on our horses toward Orochimaru's Castle.

I take off my heavy chainmail shirt with a disapproving look from Kakashi. Then we ride for a few hours without a word between us, I decide to break the silence with a nagging question. "So has Orochimaru attacked you before?" I ask. "You didn't seem to be too surprised at his attack. It looked like you were almost expecting it."

They nod their heads. "Yes," says Kakashi. "Only once, and that was years ago. Recently, the only signs of his activity was the occasional stolen steer, or the random missing person who wandered too far into the forest. He has never tried a full attack before, especially with that many dragons."

"I see," I say. "There must be a reason why."

"There is," he says. "The first time he attacked he was repelled by our Champion, Sasuke, but shortly afterward he disappeared and the prophecy was spoken. Most thought it was describing his return, but now we know different. So I'm guessing that he was afraid that Sasuke would repel him again, but he must have learned otherwise recently. That would have been too bold an attack if he didn't know."

"I see…" Kakashi watches me waiting for me to come up with some super-natural philosophical way for him to find out that Sasuke was gone. "So how far away are we?"

Kakashi sweatdrops. "We're about five days away," he says. "And we should pass villages until the fourth day when we hit the pass The Plains of Death."

"Why are they called the plains of death?" I ask timidly.

"There was once a battle fought there," he says. "Both sides were reduced to under half their original numbers during a bloody stale-mate. The men wanted to sign a temporary truce, but the generals were stubborn. They sent their men out anyway to die. Less than ten men on each side lived… that was during the last great war…"

"Freaky," I say. I want to stay off the subject, but curiosity gets the better of me. "Those men did not deserve to lead men. How did they get to be generals?"

"Easy, money," he says. "Their fathers paid for their appointment as head generals, even though they had no experience leading men." His face looks grim, as though he saw this appointment happen. "Both sides were desperate to gain whatever income they could so they accepted it… It lead to the biggest slaughter ever. Don't misunderstand us though, not all of our generals were horrible. We had one of the greatest Generals ever, and he was also our king for a short time. His name… was Minato Namikaze."

Lee and Kiba listen in intently on the conversation. They obviously had much curiosity in what happened at that time. "He led many battles during that time and led us to victory against our enemies."

"Sounds like a good guy," I say. "What happened to him?"

"He was killed," says Kakashi. "Fighting one of the legendary demons. He was said to have sealed all the power in that demon into a young child, but he or she was never found."

"Really?" I ask. I look down at my gut where the seal for the nine-tails lay. "Is it still the same Nine-Tails in this world?" I ask myself. I decide not to question anything more. Things will be as they are from now on, there's no changing anything.

At that point I realize something. I may never see any of my friends again if I don't find a way back. I think about telling Kakashi and the others about my predicament, but decide against it. Telling them I'm not even from this world would only make them think I'm crazy.

We ride on for a few hours in silence. There isn't much to talk about out here. It's somewhat of a bore. We ride until sunset and in the distance we see a small town. The town seems quiet enough, until we get close. The townsfolk seem to have set up a barricade around their little town. It is made of old carts, furniture, and planks thrown together, seemingly in a hurry. The gates are two still-standing carts pulled by oxen. It wouldn't withstand a real attack, but it would be a good defense against any raiding.

We walk forward until two poorly armed civilians confront us with makeshift weapons such as pitchforks, clubs, and a cart wheel as a shield. "Halt!" says one of them. He's obviously not the fighter type. He holds even his pitchfork strangely for a weapon. If I wanted to, I could disarm him and his even weaker looking partner within seconds. "State your business!" he tries to sound braver than he really feels. He sees we are trained and armed men who he wouldn't stand any chance against, but he must look strong for his partner and anyone else who may be watching him.

I expect Kakashi to answer him, being the highest ranking officer here, but he gestures to me to talk to the man. I have no idea how to confront a frightened civilian. I've never been the best with words, but I see that I need to take a leadership role, since they see me as the chosen one. "We seek food and shelter," I say. "We mean you no harm, but may I ask why you've set up this wall?"

He raises an eyebrow, probably trying to see any sign of deception form us. "We have been attacked a by a group of bandits and we no longer let travelers in!" he says. "The last time we did they burned down the stables!"

"Well as you can see we are clearly not bandits," I say trying to be somewhat friendly. "So could we please stay here for the night? We need appropriate rest if we are going to complete our mission."

"And what would that be?" he asks.

"We're off to destroy the evil sorcerer Orochimaru that has been plaguing this land," I say it so matter-of-factly that it frightens him.

The look of his face is a combination of respect, fear, and pity. He looks back towards the inside where his friends are watching him. "Open the gates!" They mush the oxen and the carts pull apart with enough space for us to let our horses through.

Either my words scared him or he thought that we may need as much rest as possible before fighting him; or he kills us. We walk inside and see that many of the men are staring us down holding makeshift weapons that would do little in a real fight. The women and children are staying inside the houses staring at us through the windows. I get the feeling that these people may be letting us have somewhere to sleep for the night, but they aren't happy about it.

We dismount our horses and walk them over to the inn. We tether our horses and walk inside to maybe rent a room for the night. From first impressions, the inn doesn't look that impressive, but inside is another matter altogether. Inside the atmosphere is a bit more inviting with a warm fire in the corner and the smell of a delicious broth coming from the back room.

The innkeeper walks out and smiles at us. "Well hello, would you men like to rent a room?" he asks. The man talks so fast it's hard to actually understand what he's saying. "I don't get that many costumers since the others closed up the town. You must of either really convinced them or really scare them to let you in, or both. Doesn't matter to me, would you like a room?"

I have trouble keeping up with his speedy speaking, but manage to make out something about a room. "Yes," I say. "We would like to rent two rooms for the night."

"You gotta pay upfront," he says. I look toward Kakashi and empty my pockets showing that I don't have any money. I grin and he rolls his eyes-or the one I can see at least-most likely expecting this.

Kakashi takes out his own wallet, pulls out eight gold coins, and places them on the table. The innkeeper takes them and bites them to make sure they're real. "Thank you," he says. "You're rooms are upstairs and the first two doors." He holds out two old keys. "Here are the keys, have a nice day."

I take the keys and motion for the others to come upstairs. They follow me and we stop at the top of the stairs. "I guess Kakashi and I will stay in one room and you two in another?" I suggest.

"Sounds good," says Kiba. He takes one of the keys and goes to unlock the door. He turns the key, but the door doesn't open. "What's wrong?" he asks annoyed. "Why won't it open?"

"Uh… Kiba…" I jingle the other key behind his head. "Wrong key." He twitches once or twice then swaps out the keys. He walks into his room with Lee, mumbling about 'the stupid key'. I walk into the other room with Kakashi; I sit down on the bed, but he stays up and vigilant, as though someone could attack us any minute.?

"Hey, why are you so edgy?" I ask. "Relax, it's not like a dragon's gonna pop up right here, right now."

"I know that Naruto," he says agitated. "Those people outside are afraid for a reason. The guard out front said that they've been attacked by bandits. I think it would be the right thing to do, if we helped them, but it's not my choice, you are in charge here, the decision falls to you."

"Me?" I ask. "I'm not used to being in charge… all the same, we should help these people. It's not my style to leave people in need to fend for themselves." I lay back down on the bed and relax. "But we've been traveling all day and also need a break. We'll rest for an hour or so, then we'll ask them how we can help," I say. "I mean, it's not like a day or so will make much of a difference."

Tsunade sifts through the charred rubble around the castle trying to find anything that could be recovered from the attack. She lifts a large rock and tosses it next to a pillar. Underneath she finds a sword that has emerald engravings on the hilt. She lifts it out and whistles to the guard across the hall, "Iruka!" she shouts. "Take this to the rest of the precious pieces that we've recovered!"

"Yes, My Lady!" Iruka grabs the sword and carries it toward a stone archway, most likely containing other recovered items.

"Well at least we found the Leaf Sword," she says. "Now if we find the Shield, we will have the entire armor set of my grandfather, Hashirama." She continues to sift through the rubble until the same guard comes back with the ax.

"What are you doing here?" she asks. "I told you to take that sword to the rest of the collection!" She stares at him disapprovingly, but he shakes his head gravely.

"I'm sorry, My Lady, but I think you should take a look at this," he gestures toward the window and they walk over together. As they approach she sees something isn't right. The birds aren't flying past the castle, there is no wind going about the fields, and all the people in the square are pointing toward the sky.

When she reaches the window Tsunade looks up and her anger heat up the air around her hot enough to roast a marshmallow. "What is this…"

"We don't know My Lady," he says. "According to guards on duty, it just appeared a few minutes ago." Iruka grips his spear tightly. "We are attempting to send a guard through it as we speak," he points toward the square where a group of guards are carrying a large log toward the barrier. "We are sending a log through first, and then if it makes it through we will send one of our guards."

"Good idea," she says. They watch as the guards walk through the square and civilians continue to gawk at the imposing dome surrounding the city. They reach the dome just inside the gates and start to heave the log back and forth, getting ready to throw it into the force field. With one last heave the log flies away toward the force field, instead of flying right through, or even disintegrating it just stops and falls down to the ground as though it had hits solid stone.

Tsunade looks to her right at a large stone from the castle and in pure rage crushes it into pebbles. "Orochimaru, that bastard!" she shouts. "This is his doing! I know it is!"

The room turns dark and cold and the sound of screaming crying children comes from the square. "How right you are lady Tsunade!" says an unseen voice. "I have put this little force field around your city." His voice sounds like that of the serpent, slithery and deceitful. "Now, before one fortnight is up you shall all bend before my will…" he pauses and it sounds like he licks his lips with anticipation. "Or I will destroy you all!" he laughs sadistically, but Tsunade isn't fazed.

"Well your plan is doomed to fail!" shouts Tsunade. "The Chosen One is on his way to stop you!" Tsunade looks triumphant and expects Orochimaru to curse and leave to try and figure out where he is, but Orochimaru just laughs once again.

"I know of your 'hero'," he says. "I have plans for him, oh yesssssss I have plans…" he laughs again. "Remember, you have one fortnight!" His voice disappears and the room returns to normal.

"Dammit!" shouts Tsunade. "Let's hope Naruto can do this before it's too late…"

I get up, off the mattress and stretch. "Well, I think it's been about ten minutes," I say. "Time to tell Kiba and Bushy Brow the good news!" I walk out of the room with my arms behind my head, looking carefree.

Kakashi walks behind me and taps my shoulder. "Bushy Brow?" he asks. "I'm not questioning the nickname, I gave his master the same one myself, but why did you think of that?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I say. I knock on their door and I hear shuffling and chairs flipping over as one of them tries to reach the door. After some loud shouts and a fair amount of cursing, Kiba opens the door half-dressed in his armor.

"What is it?" he asks. "I was just about to get some sleep, after I get this stupid armor off!" he tries to kick off his boots, but this attempt is doomed to fail as the boots stay on and Kiba gets even more agitated.

"We want to see what's happened to these people," I say. "They wouldn't close up their town for nothing and I think we should help them." I hope Kiba will understand, but he shakes his head.

"We can't, Naruto," he says. "We have to get to Orochimaru's Castle before anything." He looks out the window pitifully. "I would like to help these people, but we have direct orders."

I sneer at him. "Well Kiba," I say. "Situations change, as do the rules along with them. So now that we have this situation I think the rules should change accordingly."

Kiba rolls his eye and walks back into his room. "Sure," he says. "Whatever you want, just call me when you need some muscle!" Kiba throws his glove at the door and slams it shut. Inside I hear Lee yelling at Kiba for him being selfish and too hyped up on protocol.

I look behind me at Kakashi and shrug my shoulders. "I guess it's time to talk to their 'commander'," I say. We walk down the stairs and into the main room of the inn; luckily the same men who lets us in are at a table having a drink.

Kakashi and I walk up to them trying to seem friendly. "Hello," I say. "We want to know why you've closed up your town instead of calling The Leaf Town Guard?"

The room tenses up, this is apparently a very sensitive subject, but seeing us at the gates and knowing that we are going to fight off Orochimaru, he must be more inclined to tell us this than he would so otherwise.

He sits up and sighs deeply, "We did," he says. "But our messenger was killed and a legless corpse was sent back to us. The only other option was to protect ourselves. They come demanding a payment every week; last time we didn't give them the exact payment and they burned down the stables, like we said. This time we plan to fight them off. They'll be coming tomorrow and we'll be ready!"

"Well," I say. "Would you like some help? We've decided that if you accept our offer, we will stay here and help you."

"Really?" he asks. "Why would you offer to help us, don't you have to be off toward the Plains of Death then Orochimaru's Castle?" The whispers go around the room as he says 'Plains of Death' and 'Orochimaru's Castle' They obviously haven't heard about our mission to take him out

"Yes," I say. "But we have enough time to help you if they come soon enough, and if we don't I can still leave you with help. Anyway, leaving people to fend for themselves isn't my style." The man stares at me, searching for any signs of trickery, he doesn't seem to be a cruel men, but is isn't a fool either. We could easily be lying to him, trying to get him to let his guard down, then as soon as he turns his back we'll turn on him.

"Well," he says. "They're coming tomorrow, if you want to help us, spend the night and be up at dawn." He looks at us challengingly, expecting us to back out, but he doesn't know Naruto Uzumaki!

"You got it," I say. "We'll spend the night and tomorrow we'll help you deal with those bandits." I hold out my hand and the man shakes it willingly. I don't know why these people are being attacked by bandits, but I intend to stop it.