AN: Hello.
The walk through the lightly misted forest was a new, somewhat surreal experience for the young Naruto. It was oddly calming, the silence of the forest, except of course the soothing sounds of the wilderness' inhabitants. Ever since the downpour had stopped, he could hear crickets chirping, and birds flying, rustling the branches above him in their hasty movements. The shrubbery had also grown thicker as he continued his trek through the unknown lands. He could even hear the bushes around him shake every now and then, signaling small animals traveling through the brush.
Naruto had done his share of survival training back at the academy but he felt uncomfortable not knowing where he was at all. One thing he did know was that he was no where near Konoha, he could tell by the coolness of the air and the perpetual presence of the mist. 'I wish I paid more attention in that stupid Geo... whatever-class, then maybe I could figure out where I am.' He thought to himself hoplessly.
He stopped walking suddenly. He took the sword off his shoulder and stuck it deep into the ground and... Plopped down into the mud.
"Maa, maa, this sword sure does get heavy after awhile!" Naruto complained to himself, as he leaned on said Zanbato. It certainly was easier to carry, only a short while ago... He brought a hand up to his head and scratched it, obviously a sign of him thinking of a way to resolve his problem. He looked down onto his lap and noticed something he could improvise with.
"Aha! That's it, It'll look so cool too!" Naruto stood up holding his fist in excitement at his proclamation.
After a couple of minutes of adjusting to his person and we can find Naruto admiring himself inside the reflection of a puddle between the brush. Naruto had had the shrewd idea of taking both his shinobi pouches, which were filled with mostly academy gear and junk that had to be emptied, and extended the straps to fit around his torso and hold his blade. One strap went around his torso normally while the other went under his right shoulder and over the left to allow him to draw the Zanbatou with his right hand adequately... Which he still felt he could do if he had to!
With his right hand he lifted the sword with more than a bit of effort, and slid it onto his back underneath the straps. He had to readjust the straps a few more times before he was completely comfortable. Thankfully the blade wasn't wider than Naruto's torso, or there would have been a problem with carrying it.
'Hmmm... Now what to do?' Naruto stood alone underneath a tree, with his hand on his chin, eyes squinted heavily in thought. He was surrounded on all sides by bushes, there was barely an opening in the thicket where he had decided to view himself in the puddle. The place was actually quite peaceful, but Naruto was getting a little to frustrated to appreciate the fruits of his spelunking.
'I have to find an objective! Without one then I'll just be some aimless wanderer!' Naruto's brow furrowed at that thought, 'But what can I do? If I don't even know where I am, then how can I think of something to do!?'
Naruto sat on the ground where there was room in exasperation, underneath the darkly colored tree that was native to the lands that Naruto found himself in. He placed his hands on the back of his head and leaned back against the rough bark of the tree and tried to look up through the many overlapping leaves above him. For him it was impossible to tell what time of day it was but from the looks of the bright grey sky, he didn't think it would be night anytime soon. That's when he figured out something to do with himself.
"Yosh! I'll find out where I am first!" He stood up holding his fists high in excitement, his regular smirk on his face, eyes squinted shut. He stood like that for a moment. Then his features drooped considerably. He plopped back down in his seat, leaning back once again with his eyes closed, he placed his hand haphazardly against his stomach as it growled furiously.
"Nevermind... First objective is food." Naruto said with total conviction. As if right on cue the bushes rustled to his left and out came a rabbit, hastily dashing into the thicket that was readily available to it on the opposite side. Naruto's eyes cracked open and his smirk came back full force, he knew whatever critter he had heard was edible. Now he had to go get it! He could feel his energy rise once again, a feeling that was definitely growing familiar.
He rose to his feet quickly and his instincts told him to immediately go on all-fours. So he listened, facing towards his right he dashed in the general direction of the rabbit through the bushes, stirring up dust in his exit. A civilian would have thought he had disappeared, had they witnessed his sudden burst of speed. It only took him moments to zero in on the rabbit, moving way faster than it could ever hope to move.
Naruto caught the rabbit in his mouth, while it was mid-hop and he managed to stop his momentum after diving through another bush. As the rabbit hung loosely by its fur from Naruto's mouth, said boy went back on all-fours and darted back to his starting point.
He arrived at the insignificant opening in all the wilderness with two more rabbits. One in each hand, he sat all three of them down in a pile, then rubbed his hands together in delight.
"Ahaa! That was way easier than I thought it was gonna be!" Now he only needed to skin them, luckily he had kept a spare practice kunai from his emptied pouch.
A few moments later and he had himself a fire going with a makeshift roast made from sticks above it, holding up his cooking meal. He sat and began waiting patiently for the meal After a couple minutes went by, he decided he couldn't wait any longer. Hungrily grabbing the one that looked the most cooked, he feasted on the well done chicken.
"Burppp!"
After exhaling the built up bodily gas, he leaned back on the base of the tree's trunk that he had chosen as his temporary camping spot. He brought a hand up subconsciously and placed it on his stomach, as his eyes seemed to zone out a bit. Finally with his hunger satisfied, there wasn't much left to occupy the young vagabond's thoughts... He had been able to keep himself rather busy. And so his thoughts drifted onto darker things.
He could picture the small wooden gateway of that courtyard so vividly... Bathed in the fall afternoon's light, for some reason it looked untouchable. His hand, he could see it reach out towards the exit! Then that sharp, sudden pain ripped down the length of his back.
Naruto gasped loudly, sitting upright from his position suddenly with his eyes wide open. His hand rose to his bare left shoulder and he clutched at it as if the wound had just appeared again. The boy bent lower to the ground, panting heavily, spittle flying out with each quick breath.
Lowering his shaking hand, he leaned back once again and clenched his eyes shut in an attempt to calm himself. To try and think of anything else... 'Don't think! Don't think about it! Don't think about anything!' He began to grit his teeth due to his mental efforts. But his inner mantra was all in vain, it was as if he couldn't escape these thoughts.
"You killed her..."
"STAY BACK! You killed him!"
Naruto threw his hands over his ears furiously, trying with everything he had to block out the voices.
" ... DEMON!"
"GRAAAGH!"
All he could picture anymore was screaming, angry faces, the eyes filled with nothing but hatred. He wanted to escape, disappear, anything... But when he looked towards the exit to his suffering, it was blocked off. The obstacle, only the turned backs of two nondescript Leaf ninja. Yet, the more Naruto hopelessly gazed upon them, the more they looked like tall, dark, impassable mountains.
'Somebody... Help me.'
"Naruto,"
"Naruto...You shouldn't watch them cook the noodles, it'll only seem like it's taking longer."
"But old man, I can't wait! Ramen is the best food there is!" He could feel his feet dangling from the stool he was seated on. The afternoon sun beaming on his back only increased the warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. Naruto truly enjoyed eating ramen the few times he had the chance to with the strange Old Man. "How else could we wait besides watching it cook!"
"Hmmm, that's a good point. You're a smart kid aren't you, haha." The Old Man smiled down from underneath his conical hat. Naruto couldn't help but smile more underneath his gaze, he tried to hide his smile by sipping some of the sweet tea he had ordered earlier.
"Have you given any thought into what you might want to be when you get older?" The Old Man queried. Naruto looked up at him and nearly shouted his answer into his cup accidentally. He placed it down and started again.
"I want to be Ninja!" Naruto finished by slamming down his small hand on the counter of the ramen booth, ignoring the elderly ramen chef's annoyed glance.
"Heh heh, a fine goal..." He had a small smile and began to sip his own brand of tea. "But is that all?" The Old Man truly seemed curious.
Naruto was surprised for a moment but he took the question as somewhat of a challenge, and replied back just as enthusiastically as his first answer. Turning in the stool to face the Old Man, and balling his fists up towards his chest, he stared directly into the Old Man's smiling face with pure determination.
"I don't want to just be any old ninja, I want to be a really strong and brave one!"
The Old Man's smile grew as he stared down at the bright youth. Even the Ramen Chef couldn't help but cracking a smirk while preparing the large meal ordered by his two customers.
"Now that's a goal you will have to work at, but you have the potential... I can see it in you." The Old Man almost whispered that last part. Naruto looked up oddly at him and then wondered something.
"Hey Old Man were you once a ninja or something?"
The Old Man and the Ramen Chef both laughed at the same time, and Naruto looked a bit confused.
"My boy, I am the most powerful ninja in the village, I am the Hokage." Naruto felt an intense feeling as the words were spoken, like his body was vibrating in his cushioned seat. Everything around him went blank except for himself and the Old Man. But the feeling was gone instantly.
"Whoah... What was that?"
"Hahaha, I was just flexing my chakra a bit. I didn't want you to go disbelieving my claim because I'm a few years past my prime." The old ninja smiled down at the stunned boy.
"Oh, I think the Ramen is finished." The Hokage said excitedly.
Naruto couldn't help but closing his eyes and letting his nose take in the scent of his favorite flavor of Ramen...
His nose was assaulted with the harsh smell of burnt meat, as he awoke from his childhood memories. He jolted out of his daze.
"My food!"
Jumping up, he immediately began stomping out the fire. Picking the burnt meat off of its pikes, he stared at the food in hunger but at the same time abit of disgust. 'Heh, thanks Old Man I guess you helped me this one last time. I have to try and be strong and brave from now on.' He took his first bite of one of cooked rabbits, and his mouth showed is displeasure. 'Although maybe this time, I should have watched it cook.' Naruto couldn't help but crack a chuckle at that.
After grumpily eating his burnt meal, Naruto believed it was time to continue his travels further into the forest. It was just as he started to move he began to hear something odd. It seemed to be a bit far off in the distance but he stopped moving so he could hear it better. Slowly but surely it seemed to be growing slightly louder.
Naruto started to get a bit nervous, expecting another conflict at any moment. He stood stock still, for a few more moments thinking of what to do. He could just continue forward, to avoid a meeting with whoever was making the sound... No! He had to find out who it was! It may be his only chance for awhile at finding out where exactly he was. Making up his mind, he began sprinting toward the noise.
The closer he got to it, the more the sound started to sound like a tune. He began to slow down, as the tune was becoming more and more distinct. Naruto began silently moving in a crouching form that he had learned from Academy classes, trying to avoid stepping on anything that would make noise. Before he even realized it, he had depicted the tune to be someone humming.
He ignored the realization and kept moving steadily, his mind slowly moving into a mode created from what little, yet traumatizing experience he had. Moving under the brush for added cover, he came to a slight slope in the ground and began to move even slower. Grasping at branches and leaves to stop them from moving as he passed them by, making his approach even quieter.
Stealth was something he always thought he excelled at, but right now the nerves of how real this felt were starting to get to him and he could feel a hotness build up in his stomach. But he didn't let that halt his momentum. Finally he had reached a vantage point around twenty meters away where he could see his target from, an opening in the brush that would keep him hidden even as he scoped out the possible enemy.
It was just a lone man walking, Naruto was thankful for finding him because with him he had found a pathway within the deep forest. The man appeared to be quite young and fare looking in his loosely fit dark blue kimono. He had black flowing hair tied into a ponytail at his upper back. Overall he didn't look to be too threatening but there were a few things unsettling about his person. Naruto spotted them one by one.
The first being the pouch located on his left thigh that looked an awful lot like a weapons pouch. The next were his sandals, they were alot more fashionable than Naruto's but there was no doubting that they were shinobi sandals. And the final thing was that he had stopped humming, slowing down his pace almost to a stop. He appeared to be looking around the surrounding forest oddly, it looked almost as if he was excited. Despite the man's bare forehead, it seemed like he was a ninja.
Every swivel of the young man's head made Naruto grow more and more anxious. 'Could he be looking for me?' As Naruto thought that, his hand began to slowly reach up for his zanbatou's hilt. He was starting to sweat a bit, just thinking about what could happen in the moments to come. He had never fought a ninja before... Could he win now? 'I'm stronger than before! I'll find out right now!' As he gripped his sword's hilt resolutely the young man looked up in his direction and it was almost as if they locked eyes. Naruto could see the man's white iris and matching pupils, but he really didn't care about how weird they looked.
He was giving in to his instincts wholeheartedly and bared his teeth at the man's face in the distance, not in rage but more like self defense. At the moment, he didn't have enough self control to realize his chakra was flaring. Taking his blade into his right hand and placing his left onto the ground as he hunched over preparing for an all out assault. The ninja's grin grew even wider.
"Looks like someone skilled within the mist came running towards my tune. Let us do battle, until one of us is dead to see who is stronger."
Naruto took off in a truly violent burst of speed towards his new enemy...
AN: I will bend Naruto lore, rules and Chakra rules to my will... because this is fanfiction. Don't worry it will be logical and very Naruto-ey.
BTW this is an adventure into the Mist! Don't worry, Naruto's location will be revealed soon. I'm sure the few of you that have read figured out how he got there lol. No missed leg days here.