"Ugh, where am I." Naruto muttered, waking up after a while. He looked around the area he was in and found himself at the bottom of a gorge with no way up, and only one trail leading away.
"Master?" He was startled at the sound. Looking to the left he found three small, brown gremlin-like things standing there.
"What the hell?"
"It's the Master, the Master!" One yelled, jumping up and down.
"Who, me?" Naruto asked, pointing to himself.
"You're the Master, Master." Another one said, nodding its head.
"Come Master, follow." The three ran off. Naruto shook his head, but followed them.
After a few minutes of the three brown creatures leading him down the path, Naruto came upon an obstacle in the form of a few tree trunks forming a barricade.
"The Master would use magic." One of the little gremlins said.
"Magic? But I don't…" But just as he was saying those words, Naruto felt a surge of energy well up inside him and shoot out of his arm, impacting the barricade and shattering it, much to the cheering of the gremlins. The energy lit up the surrounding area, revealing a body laid to the side. Naruto approached it, revealing an unconscious Shikamaru.
"Hey, Shika, c'mon, wake up man." The boy grunted, stirring.
"Troublesome blond bastard, let me sleep."
"You were unconscious and we're in a big-ass ditch. Wake the fuck up!" Naruto yelled, shaking Shikamaru.
"Alright, I'm up, I'm up." Shikamaru stood up, glaring at Naruto. "Thanks for being gentle."
"We don't have time for gentle." Naruto shrugged, grinning.
"What're those?" His friend motioned to the three being standing to the side, watching the two.
"No clue, but apparently I'm their master." The three jumped and rushed ahead, calling for Naruto to follow them. "See?"
"So at least they won't kill us. Should we follow?"
"Might as well."
After a mile or so of walking after the gremlins, they led Naruto and Shikamaru to a small rock that had a blue glow.
"Stand on the Gate, Master. Stand on the Gate." Shikamaru looked at Naruto who just shrugged and stood on the platform, disappearing in a moment. The Nara eyed the brown creatures that were looking at him expectantly before following.
The two friends appeared in a run-down throne room. Standing there waiting for them were two more of those things.
"Greetings Master, an, um… friend." The first one spoke, stepping into the light that was coming from the big open balcony behind Naruto. He looked much, much older than any of those the two had seen before, but still brown. He was dressed in a black robe, holding a cane in one hand and had a stick attached to his back with a glowing crystal on top of it. "My name is Gnarl, the Minion Master. And this is the Librarian, Lucien." The other creature took a step and bowed. This one was dressed in a brown robe with a monocle on the left eye. He was also blue. "And we welcome you to your Tower."
"What the hell are you two?" Naruto asked.
"We are your Minions, Sire."
"Yeah, but what are you?"
"That's our race, Sire. Minions." Naruto and Shikamaru exchanged a look. "Your first predecessor wasn't the most imaginative of Overlords, but the name stuck." Lucien, the blue one, shrugged. "Nevertheless, we are bred to serve your evil ways."
"Evil?"
"Of course, Sire. We Minions delight in all things wicked and carnage-y."
"I'm not necessarily evil. Am I?" Naruto turned to Shikamaru, who shrugged.
"That's not that big a deal, actually." Gnarl spoke up. "Your actions are what is important to us, Sire, not your overall goal. So if you, say, want to save the world by killing lots of people and burning down several villages, that's fine by us.
"Hm." Naruto scratched his chin in thought, looking at the two Minions. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?"
"No, Sire. We have a bit of a problem, you see." Lucien said. "We have grown… weary of out last Overlord."
"Where is he now?" Shikamaru asked.
"We don't know. He left a few days ago, said he was 'bored with us'.! Hmpf! Of all the…" Gnarl grumbled for a few moments. "Anyway, he gave us instructions to get the body of the Hero that's lying down in the dungeon, and use it as our next Master."
"Well that would explain the state of the place." Naruto muttered under his breath.
"And you can just disobey your Master like that?" Shikamaru asked, a little suspicious.
"Well, not normally, no. But the Tower Heart is concerned that our old Master might destroy the Balance."
"Tower Heart? Balance?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
"The Tower Heart is… well… the heart of the Tower. It controls all aspects of the Tower, as well as the magical force of the Overlord. It is currently missing."
"Then how..?"
"The stones of the Tower have long since absorbed some of the magical energies of the Heart. Not a whole lot, mind you, but just enough for a few basic functions."
"So is the Heart sentient?" Naruto asked.
"Well, no. Um, that is to say yes. Err, maybe?" Both the Minions looked flustered at this.
"You have no idea, do you?"
"No Sire."
"And the whole Balance thing?" Shikamaru added.
"Never mind that now." Naruto waved his hand dismissively, his brow furrowed. "I assume that the library is in relatively decent condition?" Lucien nodded. "Then Shikamaru and I will camp out in there for the time being and learn all that we can." He searched himself, finding the two scrolls Jiraiya and Tsunade had given him. "In the meantime, I want you Gnarl to make a detailed list of anything and everything we would need to do to get this Tower back in relative working condition, and note down all locations for items and people of interest. Oh, and send our meals up to us. Something decent." The old brown Minion bowed his head as Naruto and Shikamaru followed the blue one up the only staircase that was in working condition in the ruined building.
Also, I have a new Twitter acount, on which I will be posting updates and maybe even new ideas. Check it out, the name's Drakai07, the pic is the same as my profile for FanFiction.