Chapter 2: Unfortunate Coincidence

Naruto stood alone on the shore of the huge island that he would call home for the next 3 months. He had been left with a large, sheathed machete with a thin rope to secure it overshoulder, a couple matchbooks, and enough water for a few days. Piccolo had also conjured a purple gi similar to his own with matching pants directly on to Naruto's body, saying they were far more durable than his simple shorts and t-shirt. The boy had asked him, "What do I do for food?"

"You find an animal and eat it. Or you could pick fruit and coconuts off the trees, a bit of both. Try fishing. Anyway, it's none of my concern. If you wish to become strong and receive my teaching you must make a living for yourself." Piccolo turned to leave.

"But, I don't even know if I want to be Guardian! And now you're going to leave me alone here for 3 months? I just want to go home!" Naruto shouted.

"This is where my involvement stops." He looked over his shoulder at the desperate child and said, "If you can survive this, I will make you more powerful than you can imagine. If not... Well, you were unlucky to have caught my interest." The alien blasted off into the sky leaving only a billowing cloud of sand to mark his place.

And now he was alone.

The boy tried hard not to let panic overtake him, despite how dark and wide the jungle before him looked, he had survived in Konoha with no one to look after him for years now. This was just the same, and perhaps easier, as no one would be trying to keep the food away from him – money wasn't even an issue anymore. He looked dubiously at the machete Piccolo had tossed at his feet. Was this weapon provided to make sure that he did not become food himself?

He went through the few lessons on survival they had begun to cover in the Academy. Naruto suddenly wished he had payed more attention during class on those days and that he had actually attended more often. He had never wished for a text book so hard in his life... Well, he had never wished for a textbook.

Despite how much he thought on it, Naruto could only recall a few things. One was the fire making lesson, fortunately enough. He had thought it quite amusing being able to light fires if needed and it turned out his interest would come in handy. His second bit of remembered knowledge was that sea water was undrinkable because of the salt. This meant that he would need to find water before his own ran out, if he wanted to live.

'You are much safer among the treetops when moving stealthily.. People and animals have a tendency to not look up.' He could see his teacher at the Academy droning on about this particular lecture clearly in his mind. It had been after a particularly nasty prank involving Naruto dropping a bucket of thumbtacks on a chuunin who had bullied him the day before. The unkind teacher had pointedly said that some ninja would take advantage of this in order to ambush much more skilled opponents, while glaring at Naruto.

"If it worked in Konoha it could work here..."

Popo stood near the Scrying Pool, watching the object of his interest as he nimbly scaled a large tree. It figured that Naruto would be talented at climbing trees considering he came from a village that was named for the surrounding massive forest. The boy reached the highest branch that would support his weight and peered around at the shoreline, blue eyes searching for any sign of opportunity.

The genie distantly felt Piccolo's ki drawing closer and turned from the pool to greet the Namekian as he would no doubt be arriving soon. He walked in measured steps towards the exterior of the Lookout, his gaze downward and his hands folded behind him. "Piccolo has changed over his long rest..." Popo mused aloud, his voice accompanied the sound of his footsteps as they echoed within the silence of the Lookout.

Piccolo arrived shortly, a grimace on his face. "I'd say you're going to have to rescue that kid. I don't think he's going to make it longer than a week."

"I will do as is necessary."

"Feh, and unless you want that kid's death on your hands, I would keep a very close eye on him. It wouldn't surprise me if he were eaten by some large animal."

"You underestimate him. I cannot fathom why, but you seem to harbor some resentment for this boy."

Piccolo contemplated the statement. Perhaps he had been tough on the kid, but it would be far crueler to set this boy up for the role of guardian if he had no potential. Although if he were honest with himself there was something slightly unsettling about Naruto. He could almost detect some sort of hidden malice or just a general sense of wrongness in the air around him. The Namekian chose to remain silent.

"But you are right. I will need to watch him, carefully. He may be resourceful, but he is still just a child. It is not so necessary for the Guardian to be a skilled fighter."

"In case you don't remember, the role of the Guardian is to protect the Earth. Though the world was peaceful enough for a long while of Kami's rule, it was still his duty to enter the fray if need be. We all surpassed Kami rather quickly and so this aspect of his job was never really exersized. At least not since my dear old Father wreaked havoc on the planet." Piccolo spoke with conviction. "Dende was ill prepared to defend it because we felt that the Z-fighters were enough. His lack of preparetion caused this world to decay. The first responsibility of the Guardian is to protect against any hazard that may appear – either through direct intervention or by proxy."

Popo responded tersely, "This world is stable enough. He is also still very young and so I don't think combat will be in his schedule any time soon. First I must educate him in all things, he must have wisdom."

"I can agree with that, but wisdom will only take you so far during a fight. If this world is as bad as you say then I could see war breaking out at any time. He needs to be ready to fight, and from what I can see the humans on this planet are far stronger than in our time. I can also feel a few big powers around the world, which is concerning, considering that this boy will have to put up with all of it."

"Do you intend to abandon the Earth for a second time?"

Some distant part of Piccolo did feel the need to visit New Namek and to check that his Homeworld was not in any sort of peril. Most likely it was Nail's influence showing itself. "No, but I do not intend to fight every battle. If you are going to mold this boy into the Guardian than you must not just educate him but make him powerful enough to put up with those Shinobi that you loathe so much." Popo glared at this statement, knowing he had been beaten. "Unless of course you wish him to die young?" Piccolo said in order to drive his point home harder.

"Fine. Train him if you must."

"You're the one who volunteered me."

"I would rather not force Naruto into the position. Its better for him to feel some incentive to do it himself."

"I agree."

Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke lightly to the envoy from Iwagakure, gesturing here and there and generally trying to be as charismatic as possible. The man was a civilian, who were generally more swayed by such meaningless gestures. His shinobi guard was poised around the large well-furnished office, and the Hokage himself was flanked by two masked ANBU, who stood alert and motionless.

There had been the small matter of the representative's shinobi guard containing two extra Iwa-Nins, but the man was a minor noble and they generally did not not like to be underprotected. The situation was resolved with minor dispute and so the meeting had gone well from then on, with the caveat that the two extra shinobi wait by the village gates.

It was quite rare that there was any interaction between Iwa and Konoha and so Sarutobi was trying his hardest to ensure that everything went smoothly. He continued to charm the Noble, who had a greater sway in the Land of Earth than the nobles in his own country. The Daimyo of the Land of Fire was a skilled politician internally but he preferred to leave more serious matters concerning diplomacy to the aged Hokage who had managed to keep the peace for years.

Suddenly, one of his ANBU Operatives leaned down to whisper something in his ear. Another ANBU was waiting outside the door with urgent information and was requesting permission to enter. Sarutobi weighed his options before turning to the noble and saying, "Pardon the interruption, but it appears that something serious has come up. Just a moment please."

"Oh, take your time. Ho hoho..." The man laughed behind his hand as he courteously responded.

The newly arrived ANBU, Dog, approached the desk quickly and immediately leaned down to the Hokage's ear, he began to whisper furiously – his single coal gray eye darted to the representative from Iwa during the telling.

Sarutobi's mood grew cold and he wearily stood from his desk. "It appears as though this meeting is over."

The noble remained seated but asked indignantly, "What exactly do you mean, Hokage-dono?"

"One of the shinobi from your guard is missing, the mud clone the man had switched himself with was noticed by a passing Hyuuga. It also seems that one of our citizens – a major asset to Konoha, is missing." Sarutobi began to walk away from the shocked man, "You are no longer welcome in this village and trust you me, we will investigate this matter fully. Pray that our search is inconclusive."

"I have never experienced this level of disrespect Hokage-dono! This will not go unaccounted for in Iwagakure's future dealings towards your village."

"The feeling is mutual." Sarutobi said as he paused in his walk, "We open our village to you as a sign of faith and you rob us of a very precious resource. Tell your superiors that the Will of Fire illuminates the darkness of deception and burns those that would seek to smother it. Do not expect your missing shinobi to return to your village. We will find him." And the Hokage left, his two ANBU guards following behind.

"Curse that old man!" The noble said bitterly. While it was true that the missing shinobi was off performing a mission it was certainly nothing serious! It was a simple reconnaissance mission to inspect the perimeters of the Wall of Konoha for any exploitable weaknesses. There must have been some concurrent mission being conducted within the village from an outside power – and Iwa was taking the fall!

The ANBU with the dog mask said in an easy, yet threatening tone, "I suggest you leave the country, sir. Best to get a head start and all before we expose your treachery."

"Shut it, you – you damned ninja! I'll leave when I wish!" The Noble said huffily to his guards, "Come, we are leaving." He puttered out the door as swiftly as his weak legs could allow. For all he knew Iwa had been framed and some damning evidence would cause his life to be forfeit. It would be best to return home immediately.

ANBU Operative Dog of 1st Platoon continued to glare at the office door after the Noble had departed, still as a statue, but for the gentle trembling of his fists. He took a deep breath before steeling himself and springing into motion. The trail was still fresh and Dog was a great tracker. If anyone could find Naruto, it was him.

Night had settled over the Island that Naruto was inhabiting and he was scared. Flat-out scared. He had managed to pick some berries that he was pretty sure weren't poisonous but that had barely satisfied him. Judging from the slight twinge of pain in his stomach, maybe those berries had been poisonous. He was just lucky that he never got sick.

And so he lay on a low branch of a massive tree, a branch big enough that he would not roll off in the middle of the night and meet the ground with force. It was uncomfortable as all hell, but it would serve his purposes for the night. He realized dimly that he would need to find a better shelter or perhaps even create one for himself. Once more he felt his own lack of knowledge biting him in the ass.

His eyes were transfixed to the moon where it hung in the sky – full and bright.

Just then he heard far off sounds of movement. Naruto bolted upright, his head snapping towards the direction of the noise. It was coming closer. The footsteps weren't very heavy, but they did have some weight as they crunched through dried foliage and snapped twigs. Naruto strained his eyes to try and peer through the darkness – the footsteps had stopped. There was silence until he began to hear a slight rustle in the trees near him.

The blond boy scrambled to his feet, edging closer to the wider part of the branch closer to it's trunk. He would have more room to defend himself there, if need be. Naruto's watched closely as a figure came into sight. It had a hunched over form and walked on all fours along a thin branch. It skillfully navigated between branches and trees hopping and swinging this way and that. Then with a swift leap landed on Naruto's own branch.

"A monkey? Hey there, buddy!" To Naruto's knowledge, monkeys did not eat people and were supposed to be pretty smart. He let out a sigh of relief and took his hand away from the hilt of his machete.

The monkey, who was nearly as large as the boy in front of him, looked at him – seemingly in curiosity. It bounced it's fists against the branch and pushed down with it's feet, just barely swaying the thick limb. "Ooh Ooh Ooaah!" it grunted at him.

Naruto could honestly not tell whether the monkey was pleased to see him or just pissed off. He extended his hand nervously, palm showing and fingers pointed outwards. "I'm a friend, monkey-san."

"Ooh." It now bore it's teeth at him and bounced forward on the branch. It almost looked like it was smiling. "OAH OHH!" A fist at the end of a long and powerful arm slammed into the side of Naruto's head, throwing him off the branch entirely. It was perhaps a lucky thing that as Naruto was falling he crashed through a few thick branches, otherwise he would have hit the ground much harder.

He stood immediately, breathing heavy and in a lot of pain. The monkey had not had enough of him, apparently, it jumped down a few branches before landing only a few feet from him. "OWAH!" It lashed out at him again, striking him in the face twice and once in the stomach. The boy rolled over from the blows and scrambled away as fast as he could. But the monkey had already closed the distance and whacked him again. Naruto backed up so far he hit against a tree.

Naruto unsheathed the machete and held it out with shaking hands. "Don't come closer!" he shouted.

The animal raised it's fists and dashed at the blond boy.

"NO!" Naruto shouted as he swung the machete around like a baseball bat towards the animal.

Popo grimaced as he watched Naruto kill for the first time. This was far too cruel to do to a boy like Naruto, who craved the comfort of other people. Loneliness was the child's biggest fear and so to strand him on an island with no one was almost the worst thing imaginable.

The genie turned away from the scrying pool just as Naruto ran away from the fresh corpse, tears in his eyes. Piccolo grunted from where he stood over Popo's shoulder and away. His footsteps echoed through the hallway and continued outside.

"Bastard." Mr. Popo muttered, knowing full well that Piccolo would hear him, with his Namekian ears. He snapped his fingers and suddenly his flying carpet was beneath him. Another moment later and he was floating above Naruto, who had sat down with his arms curled around his knees at the base of a tree. "Naruto."

The boy's eyes shot up towards him and then went back to the ground. He spoke quietly, "Can I just go home?"

All of Popo's designs for Naruto's life fell away in an instant and he realized that his candidate was merely a child and perhaps did not want this responsibility. Piccolo's need to push the boy to his limits was not helping either. "If you truly wish to return to your old life, you may. But, I want you to understand just what you are abandoning before you do."

"Ok."

"What do you know of the world's history?"

Naruto looked sheepish, "I didn't pay much attention in class, I thought it was stupid... Guess I'm the stupid one now." He silently made a resolution to focus on his classes more when he returned to Konoha. There was nothing this genie could say that would make him want to stay here on the island.

"It's alright, as far as I can tell, no one in this world has an inkling as to the true origins of their civilization." Popo floated down towards Naruto and sat cross legged on his carpet, in front of the him. "In truth, the world only around 1000 years ago (1), looked like this." He conjured a globe, with the former geography of Earth on it's surface. "You've seen a map of the world, I assume?"

Naruto spun the globe a few times and examined to the land, it did not resemble the Elemental Nations or those few foreign places that been mapped. "Yeah, I have. It doesn't really look like this, but 1000 years is a long time."

"Indeed it is, Naruto." Popo spoke gravely, "But, in truth these kind of drastic changes would take far longer than 1000 years to happen naturally. Most of the planet," The genie snapped his fingers and the globe began to shake, "was blasted away." chunks of the globe shot off and crumbled away one after the other and soon only the landscape that Naruto was familiar with remained. "It was hell on earth."

"What could have done something like that?!"

"A war." He continued, "between people so powerful that if they had tried to, they could have blown away the entire planet. We are lucky that no one succeeded. These people were altered by science to become what they were. But they are irrelevant, they were merely aimless pointless killing machines once they became drunk on power. Your Sage of the Six Paths was of this number, the only one that had the decency to use his power for good, granted, he did come along later on in the picture."

Naruto gulped. The Sage was the most revered and ancient of Shinobi legends, if there was anything closest to god, it would be the Sage.

"The true story lies before the great destruction that undid everything. It was a time of peace and technology; there were heroes beyond imagination and eventually villains to match. They were chaotic times, but looking back on them, those were golden days." Popo seemed overly wistful here. "It's all quite tragic, the very hero who had saved the Earth from constant threat was the man who's existence forever altered the nature of his planet."

"Who was he?"

Popo chuckled before answering, "He was an alien too!"

"Aww, all green like Pickle-man?" Naruto asked.

"No, he looked just like a human, except for the tail that had a nasty habit of growing back for a while." Naruto seemed puzzled, but Popo merely snapped his fingers and a full scale model of Goku when he was Naruto's age, a mere 7, popped into existence. "That was him."

"Hey, he was a shrimp!"

"Hahah, he grew into himself very well. But, the thing about Goku, was that he had roots in outer space, dangerous roots." Another snap and the model of Goku morphed into a man with hair that stuck straight up who was wearing a strange form of armor with jutting shoulder blades. "He belonged to a warrior race known as the Saiyans. They had the ability of having naturally stronger bodies and ki than humans as well as the ability to turn into a giant ape on the night of the full moon." Popo let that statement sink in, before continuing. "The most powerful ability of the Saiyans was the ability the come back from the brink of death stronger than ever – if of course they managed to survive."

Naruto nodded. "They sound strong."

"They were, and just as you so easily made that realization, many others did. There was a powerful space tyrant, named Frieza. He enslaved the entire race of the Saiyan's and turned them into planetary pirates. They would wage war on entire worlds and slaughter the natives without mercy in order to sell the planet. Eventually he realized that the Saiyans could potentially become more powerful than him and so he wiped out their entire planet in one moment.

"But that is also irrelevant. I just want to make sure that you realize that as Guardian of Earth you won't just need to defend your village in order to gain their acknowledgment, Naruto. You would watch over the entire world and become it's representative in the Universe. It is an enormous task – you should know."

Naruto absorbed this information mutely. It was all very interesting but it did not make him want to stay on this island. The idea of defending the entire world, as a kind of super Hokage did appeal to him, but it was much better just to stay in Konoha, despite the loathing of the general populace. There were still the Ichiraku's and the Hokage to think about, after all.

"There were very few survivors, one being Goku, another being Vegeta, this man here." He gestured to the current model, "Vegeta and Goku came to see each other as allies in the end, but they were poised against each other from the very start. Together with Piccolo, a man named Krillin, and Goku's son, they overthrew Frieza and Goku attained a new form known as Super Saiyan. The strength of the Super Saiyan is incalculable, the Saiyans always did have limitless potential."

"Ok... Why tell me all of this?"

Popo snapped his fingers and there was a model of Naruto himself this time. "Those of shinobi blood with their chakra coils and bloodlines are all just the mutated remains of the original Saiyan gene. The ones who destroyed the world were the only ones left to repopulate it. It's a sad kind of justice, I suppose."

Naruto froze. That took a lot of getting used to. "I'm related to this Goku person?"

"Yes, distantly related, but so is everyone with the ability to use chakra. The Saiyan's possessed a coil system very similar to your chakra coils, however the difference in efficiency between the two is insurmountable." Seeing Naruto's confused look, he simplified, "The Saiyan's were much better at creating energy than you." Blank stare from Naruto. "Chakra."

"Ohhhhh..." Naruto said as he dropped his fist into his other hand, "Oh... So Goku was stronger than I can ever be?"

Popo did not answer for a moment, looking carefully at the boy, "In truth, Naruto, training as a Shinobi, you will never even come close to an 10th of Goku's power at the height of his strength."

Naruto looked shocked. "No way!"

"Yes, it's true. The nature of your chakra is to blame. Humans never had chakra coils before Saiyan DNA was mixed in - it was therefore impossible for them to mix the two energies of mind and body required to create chakra. However, humans have always been able to use the energies of mind and body separately."

"That means Goku had chakra?!" Naruto was agast, this Goku seemed awesome, whoever he was. He briefly formed an image in his mind of the young Goku he had seen throwing around a Katon jutsu. Popo did say he was stronger than him after all.

"No,. Perhaps if the Saiyans were a more intellectual people this capability to create Chakra would have been discovered, but there is no way of knowing if a pure-blooded Saiyan could have created it. Bulma theorized that the Saiyan physiology naturally used mental energy to stoke the Ki in ones body. Like adding air to a fire." Naruto understood that. He had been taught that when creating a fire, it was sometimes necessary to blow on it in order to get the ember to ignite or just to burn faster.

"Chakra is a useful energy, but it loses some of the power of the two energies when used separately. Your Sage of Six Paths understood this. The reason he was so powerful was because he could use all three energies at once. I understand he had also been heavily mutated from being birthed of two artificial Saiyans and possessed some unique abilities.

"You see, the pure physicality of Ki cannot be matched by chakra. It allowed users to move faster than you ever only using chakra. They could even fly." The boy's mouth dropped open and then remembered that he had actually seen Piccolo burst upwards from the ground and disappear into the sky earlier that day. Popo laughed and said, "It's true! You could fly if you allowed Piccolo to teach you. Judging from your impressive power level for someone of your age it wouldn't take you too long to use this ability.

"Chakra creates interesting effect, from using Ki and Chi together, certain effects would be unmatched by either alone. Ki is more than 10 times as effective as using chakra alone when it comes to any sort of physical work, including the force necessary to suspend oneself in the air by pushing away air particles beneath the foot to create thrust. Using ki, one can shoot beams of pure physical energy out of the body. It was one of Goku's signature techniques." Popo put his hands together at the side of his waist and narrowed his eyes at Naruto. He flexed his muscles, "Ka," He twisted his hands, "Me," he brought his glowing hands forward, "HA ME," Naruto flinched and put his hands up to shield his face. "HAAAAA!"

He was met with a wave of cool air. "What the heck, Mr. Popo?!"

"Hahaha! As a genie I possess no physical energy of my own. I have more than enough mental energy to make up for it though. It is what allows me to use magic and to conjure food and other items." Naruto frowned at the genie for pranking him, there would be hell to pay for that.

Naruto glared the the genie for a moment and mulled over some of the information he had learned. A question formed in his mind, "Who is stronger, Goku or the Hokage?"

Popo winced, "Well, your Hokage is certainly powerful for a human but even the few humans that fought with Goku were probably more powerful than him, while using only Ki. If certain individuals in this world were to switch over to using all three energies than I have no doubt that they would likely force even Goku to at least become Super Saiyan, which is no small feat, I assure you."

That sealed the deal. "Ok, fine, Popo, you win. I'll train to be this Guardian or whatever," he held up a finger while grinning, "But, if I ever feel that I need to go to Konoha, than I can, alright?"

The genie smiled and nodded, "Yes, that is fine. In dire situations you may return to your home."

"And for ramen and visits." Naruto pressed forward.

Popo said, "What?"

"Yeah, someones gotta go eat with the Ichiraku's! Plus I bet the old man is going crazy right now wondering where I am... They kinda keep a tight watch on me," Naruto chuckled as he continued, "I remember this one time I got lost in the woods and by the time I wandered back to Konoha the next day they had organized like 10 search parties in front of the gates who were about to go looking for me!"

"R-really?" Popo wondered, a little concerned. That was not the average response when an orphan went missing. Perhaps he should have done a little research before abducting Naruto... "Anyway, I don't know if you will be allowed to go for ramen and visits, perhaps on rare occasions. We'll discuss it later."

"Fine," Naruto sighed, "But first, I need one favor, Popo."

"What's that?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "I need you to find my Academy textbooks from my apartment. It would be great if I could use them to help me survive and learn out here. It's not like I'll have anything better to do."

"Ok, just wait here, I'll be back shortly."

"Alright," Naruto responded reluctantly, he was not eager to be all alone again.

The ANBU codenamed Dog was currently rushing his way into the village. He had spent the entire day desperately searching the outskirts of Konoha in order to find any trace of a shinobi having departed from anywhere but the main gate. Every member of Konoha's military was only allowed to leave the village from the designated area in order to keep track of their forces. That meant that it was far more likely that the trail would start in the middle of nowhere, away from the main road, since they would have had to dove off the side of the wall in order to leave undetected.

Today had been a day of disappointment for him and now, desperately, he was returning to the scene of the crime so that he could study for any clues that may have been overlooked. Entire streets were crossed in moments as he poured on as much speed as he could muster. Time was such an important factor when it came to this kind of situation.

Naruto's apartment building came into sight. He jumped down to the street level and startled a nearby civilian. You would think that they 'd get used to such things.

He rushed up the 4 flights of steps and through the cruddy hallway and finally came to Naruto's door, which had been taped off. He lifted the orange tape and opened the door, and was hit with an unfamiliar scent.

He stepped as lightly as possible, with as much speed as he could. His eyes darted around the room, things had been disturbed, someone had rummaged through Naruto's belongings and no one investigating the crime scene in an official sense would have been so sloppy.

Naruto's bedroom door was open.

Popo had found the first textbook easily, it had been jammed into a corner underneath Naruto's bed, with a sock draped over it and a couple of stains that could have been soy sauce marring the cover, which Popo did not want to examine further.

The second book had proven more elusive. He had started searching in the bedroom and soon had to expand his search to the entire apartment. Popo had gone through Naruto's closet, his kitchen, any drawer in the place, and even the bathroom. It was all useless.

He went into the bedroom and rummaged around in the closet, finding nothing.

Popo went back to reach for the doorknob and even opened the door, before something caught his eye. "What the..."

Why would Naruto rest a house plant on top of his school book?

He sighed and went over to grab the plant and discovered the reason. A large clump of dirt fell out of the bottom of the pot and onto the already dirty book. Popo looked at the book in distaste. "I suppose he did not want his table to get dirty."

Shaking his head, he went back to his magic carpet, books in hand and potted plant on the table. The door opened quickly and a masked ninja stared at him. Instantly the man was upon him, he had barely managed to get onto his carpet. A knife was against his throat and Popo was panicking. If this man killed him here, he would reform at the Lookout - his carpet would be captured by these brutes. And Naruto was waiting for his books!

"Damnit." His carpet flashed away while both him and the shinobi on it. He reformed high above the air in front of Naruto. "Catch!" the books landed on Naruto's head and he looked up to see an ANBU on Popo's carpet!

Dog saw Naruto looking shocked, dirty and a little bruised, sitting in front of a tree holding books. He pressed the kunai against Popo's throat harder and before he could continue to slit the black creature's throat everything slipped away once more. Suddenly he was in the sky, nothing but dark blue on any side of him and tiles leading up to a busted up palace in the corner of his eye. He hesitated from killing the thing. He had no idea where he was and some information gathering would be necessary. "You teleport us again and you die, do you understand?"

The jet-black thing finally spoke, "You may pierce me with your knife as many times as you please. Each time I will return to you with a smile on my face through that door." He gestured to the ruined structure. "A more powerful force than you would be required to undo my existence." He laughed, "This place survived the end of an age, it can handle a lowly murderer such as yourself with no effort."

"Perhaps I should I test this?"

"Test away." Popo said with no fear in his voice.

The ANBU studied him for a moment and then asked, "Where are we?"

"At the Lookout." A deep voice said from behind him. "If you put up a fight against me I will kill you and throw your body off of the side of this place."

He peered over his shoulder and immediately leapt away from both of the figures. This was far too strange. One black and one green, two unearthly beings, both seemingly responsible for Naruto's disappearance, or at least connected to it. He had jumped farther than he thought and landed near the edge of the platform, that he now realized was suspended very, VERY, high above the Earth - so much so that he could see the curvature of the planet. No escape. It was now important to bide some time while he thought his way out of this. "Did you two abduct that boy that we teleported away from?"

The green one said, "I am not going to answer that. I am going to knock you out so my associate here can bring you back to your village."

"I am no slouch. I do not doubt that you may have some strange abilities but I am a jounin of the Leaf Village and you will not find me to be such an easy victory."

"Haha, if I possessed any real sense of battle-lust I would probably toy around with you for a while. It always irritated me when a comrade would take his time beating somebody just for the fun of it. It even bit us in the ass a few times."

The black thing asked him curiously, "Vegeta?"

Green guy nodded, "Gogeta too." (2)

"Listen, you have abducted a citizen of Konoha and the entire force of the village will come down on you if he is not-" Dog was now flying backwards faster than he ever had before, and now he was flying upwards. He looked down at the hand that was choking him and followed it up towards the green monster that was before his eyes.

He struck out at the thing with the kunai still in his hand, but the thing's other hand came up and knocked his arm away so hard it broke. The shinobi felt his mind darkening and heard the green blur say, "Naruto will return to your village some day, perhaps. The boy has a higher calling than just being one of you mercenaries. Hey don't pass out, I'm trying to-"

The ANBU slipped into oblivion.

There's chapter 2. I'm really pleased with the response to this story and as a result this chapter is coming out earlier than I had anticipated. If you liked it, didn't like it, let me know so I can make it better. Admittedly, reviews do help me write faster, so keep'em coming.

(1): 1000 Years is a rough estimate on the amount of that that has passed since Piccolo went into hibernation. I don't want to get too exact but it happened maybe 20 years after the Majin Buu Saga ended. I would explain just exactly how Piccolo survived this long, but it will be explained in story at some point in the near future.

(2): Gogeta - I want to clarify something, in this story GT does not exist. GT wasn't that great, so I'm not going to include it. Don't be surprised to see some elements from GT make an appearance, but you should basically disregard it. All DBZ movie villains are being treated as Canon, including the God of Destruction Beerus from the new DBZ movie. That does mean that Goku became a Super Saiyan God and all that.