GAH! This chapter was a nightmare to write. Too much descriptive writing.

...oh well. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: I Get Into a Fight Over Shoes

I was stuck in darkness.

Now, I'm not sure what I can really tell you about limbo; I'm not sure how to describe it besides it being constantly too hot and too cold at the same time. I'm sure that in normal circumstances, that would make me feel 'just right'. Then again, I've never been through much 'normal' stuff in my life.

Now that I think about it, there is another thing I can tell you about my stay in limbo. A lot of people think that limbo is like some kind of empty space that fills the void between dimensions. They're pretty much right…but also wrong. Limbo is probably empty when people aren't there, but it's the whole opposite thing.

Once you enter limbo, it's like you aren't in limbo, but you also fill limbo.

All of the information I'd ever learned was there, constantly replaying over and over again. It's like my mind was bored, and had nothing better too do, and decided to torture me by replaying every moment I'd ever lived. There were even memories that I didn't realize that I knew.

In fact, the first memories that were brought up were mostly sounds. At first they were muffled; two particular voices could be heard a lot. I listened, feeling relaxed by their voices for a while before I made the connection. The voices I was hearing were my parents. As time went on, their voices became more distinct.

My mom sounded like me; impulsive, headstrong, and occassionally shouting something that sounded like when I yelled 'believe it'. My father on the other hand usually sounded focused, soldier-like I guess. Yet, at times when he was with my mother -and Pervy Sage when he was around- he sounded kind, and loving. He spoke of mein such a way that I knew he wanted, and loved me.

Then, I saw my parents death. I watched a masked man take my mother, only to later see her crying face as my father left. Then, I watched with my small, barely seeing eyes as my parents fought and sealed the Kyuubi. I even got to hear the decree that the Third Hokage made; the one where my father asked me to be seen as a hero, as well as keep the Kyuubi a secret from the kids my age. I can tell you that didn't work as well as he thought it would.

I watched myself growing up, remembering things from books I didn't remember reading. I remembered my time in Konoha as a Genin; the good and the bad. I relived my moments with Haku, the promise to protect my precious people and follow my own ninja path. I felt the battles with Kiba, Neji, and Gaara; reliving the pressure of proving myself to them, and everyone else. I watched myself lose Sasuke and swear to bring him back. And then I watched the final part of my life - the Kyuubi taking over and sticking us into limbo. I watched the memories over and over again, thinking that would be pretty much all I'd ever see while I was stuck there.

I guess it never occurred to me that there could be other people stuck in limbo.

For the longest time, there was nothing. It was just me and my thoughts; not even the Kyuubi to keep me company. Then, my mind seemed to 'bump into' and object of some sorts in limbo. Curious, I reached out to it.

As I touched the 'object' in limbo, I jumped in shock as the object suddenly reached back. After a moment of confusion, I realized what had happened; there was someone else stuck in limbo, and whoever it was, was just as curious about me as I was of them. Now, I had been stuck in limbo for who knows how long; I was excited to know that someone else was out there.

However, as time went on, my thoughts turned from excitement to confusion. The other person seemed alright, not really dangerous with any intent to harm me or anything like that. But there was just something…off about their presence. There was just something familiar about them. Like a long lost friend you couldn't remember the name of or something. The only problem was that we couldn't exactly talk to one another. Limbo doesn't really carry sound. In other words, we knew that the other person was there, but talking was pretty much out of the question. That was almost a worse than having no one there.

Luckily, I'm not the sort of person to give up. With a bit of time and a bit of experimenting, I found that we could send images. Well, it was more like I could send memories. And since I had remembered more of my life, I was more able to send them to the other mind easier than they could to me.

During our 'conversations', I sent memories of the Leaf Village, my friends, trying to keep it as positive as possible. In return I was shown strange images of places that couldn't have been possible, but were. There were strange words on some of the buildings I didn't understand. The other person tried to explain a little bit, but wasn't really able to bring up any good images to help explain, so I just let it go. I was shown the faces of some people, the other person's friends I suppose. They seemed happy, although I could tell the other person felt really sad as they remembered them.

I was shown a camp, where some people known as Halflings, the children of some people called Olympians, could go to train. I wasn't sure what an Olympian was, but it kinda reminded me of the ninja academy, and I told them so, showing them an image of the academy. I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think they might have been laughing at me. Why, I'm not sure. I never even got a chance to ask, because their presence suddenly disappeared with a cry.

And once again, I was alone; lost in my thoughts again.

I knew that if I was stuck here alone again, that I would more than likely go crazy. I had been alone for too long, and wanted out. Now.

Almost like an answer to my plea, I felt the tug at my mind.

I'm not sure what how I was pulled out, but it felt like my mind was physically yanked out of my memories. My mind, which had felt loose and free as it had wandered about, was violently reconnected with my body. And then I fell.

It was disorienting, suddenly falling after being suspended in limbo for so long. The suddenly lurch made me feel suddenly sick, until after a moment of falling, I felt myself connect with the ground beneath me. The landing wasn't too bad, just a bit painful.

I groaned softly, feeling sore all over. There was a pain shooting through my head; a revolting smell not helping in the least. While painful, wasn't as bad as some of the pains I remembered suffering through. Trust me when I say I remember only too well

After groaning a bit, I tried to open my eyes. Tried being the key word. Just the small amount of light that I could see blinded me, renewing the intense pain, though now more focused into my eyes. From what I could tell, it wasn't actually that bright out. Plus, if my nose wasn't lying to me, it was probably going to rain soon. Grimacing, I pushed myself up.

I was quickly reminded that just before I had gone into limbo, I had gone through a rigorous training session with Pervy Sage. Pushing through the pain, I took a slow step forwards. Unable to see, I didn't notice the bottle until I stepped on it and was backpedaling fast. After a few steps though, my backside slammed into something; a metallic wall of some sorts. It only made my headache hurt even more, as a hollow ring resounded through the area. I silently questioned whether or not Kami hated me as I tried to take a couple deep breaths.

Keeping my back against the metal wall, I tried to open my eyes again. The pain was excruciating, but I bore it as my sight slowly came back to me. I took a look around, unsure of what whether or not I was hallucinating. It was some of the images I'd seen from limbo.

There were buildings covered in glass that reached into the sky; some probably taller than the Hokage Monument. I watched the crowds of people walking the sides of the streets, while metal beasts rolled through the middle of the streets as though they were oblivious to the people. Groaning, I noticed that the metal 'wall' I was leaning against was actually a box of some sort with a multitude of trash. I grimaced. Well now, that explains the smell.

With a small sigh I pushed my self upright again. I was standing in some of alleyway, isolated from the crowd and beasts. On either side, the crowds and beasts filled the street, which meant that it would probably be a bit more difficult to blend in if anyone decided to question me. In the alley, a few other people sat around, not really paying much attention to me. Except for this one guy who was probably a few years older than me who was looking at me with almost a hungry expression. Creepy.

I glanced around again, trying to find something to give me some help. As I looked around, I noticed a piece of paper that was lying on the ground next to my surprisingly bare foot. I quickly picked it up, hoping to find something of value.

Looking over the paper, I quickly became frustrated. The symbols on the paper were meaningless to me. I went over a few basic training methods that I knew of that Pervy Sage had taught me about code decrypting, but nothing worked. The code was simply too difficult to decipher.

Then something strange happened. The letters began to move. Now, this had never happened to me before, so I was reasonably shocked as I dropped the paper and let out a small shout. Realizing that I had attracting some attention, I grinned nervously at them.

One of the older men sitting in the alley grinned. From where I stood, I could tell he was missing some teeth, and that those teeth were in serious need of brushing. "First time user?"

"What?" I asked, shaking my head in confusion. My ears were still ringing from the box, so I wasn't sure if I'd heard the man correctly.

The man just chuckled as though he knew something that I didn't. "Drugs man. Is this your first time?"

I tried to smile. What the heck is that? After a second, I just shrugged.

"Don't worry, it'll get easier to handle as you use it more." The man said, a throaty laugh escaping his lips.

The younger man in the alley gave me such a curious look that I couldn't help but stare back. There was something strange about him, like his face was shimmering or…under an illusionary jutsu. With a small amount of surprise, I took a step backwards. Hearing a small crumpling noise, I looked down.

Noticing the paper under my foot again, I stared down at it. For a moment, nothing happened. The symbols remained as they were. Then, they began to move again. This time, I stood still, watching in amazement as the words began to reassemble themselves. Grinning in triumph, I picked up the paper again. The symbols had rearranged themselves into understandable kanji.

Reading through some of the things on it, I quickly found that the kanji were written in a left to right fashion rather than the usual up and down fashion I was used to. Adapting to the new reading fashion, I skimmed through what was written. It didn't really have much that I could use, but there was something that I realized was helpful. In the top left corner, was two words; two words that were probably the most helpful and disturbing of all the words that could possibly be written on paper.

Manhattan Times.

I felt my gut clench. Manhattan. It was one of the cities that the other mind in limbo had shown me. They had even shown me signs on some of the buildings in the area that had the shared the city's name. I had already figured that I wasn't anywhere near any area that I knew of, but this…this was a whole new area.

Hearing a small growl from behind me, I glanced back towards the noise. The young man was standing there, growling as his face seemed to shimmer in an almost violently. Realizing that the alley was not a safe place to stay, I turned towards the nearest crowd of people, and began to follow the crowd.

Now just in case anyone ever decided to follow my example, come out of limbo, and then take a walk in Manhattan; don't forget your shoes. I'm really not joking; whether it was the explosion or just being stuck in limbo, I had somehow lost my jacket and my shoes before arriving in Manhattan. My white shirt wasn't too bad, although my short time in the alley had soiled it a bit, while my pants were another matter altogether. Unlike my shirt, my pants were ripped in several parts near my knees and the bottom part was completely frayed and falling apart. To make matters worse, my pouch and kunai holster were missing as well. I groaned; this was definitely not the most the best I'd ever looked, and was far from the most comfortable way to travel. Not that I really had any choice in the matter.

As I ran away from the young man in the alley and joined the crowd, I was immediately swept away by the crowd.

It was hot. And I'm not saying it was Fire Country hot, but it was still hot nothing the less. And since I was barefoot, I had the lovely sensation of my feet being scalded as I walked down the road. And yet, there I was, casually strolling with the crowd in no direction in particular, ignoring the pain as much as I could.

The only problem was that my feet didn't seem to share the same sentiment as the rest of my body. The hot, rock-like ground seemed to release the heat into my feet far too quickly for my liking. I was practically walking on hot coals, without any end in sight. Added to the fact that I was almost a hundred percent sure that I was being followed, I was not a happy ninja.

Growling in annoyance, I began to glance around. I don't really know what I was looking for, any place I could duck into to give me some time to think up a plan. After a moment of just looking around, I saw a place that a big shoe on the front. Figuring that I could get some shoes while I was hiding, I quickly ducked inside.

As I entered the store, I couldn't help but look around in amazement. The place had all sorts of things I had never seen, or even thought of before. The ground was covered in some kind of pelt flooring, rather than normal wooden floors. The entire store was filled with shoes, which I'm guessing was the only product that they sold. And then there was the lighting. No candles or anything like that, no. They had some kind of lightning jutsu above our heads, illuminating the entire store. I couldn't feel any chakra being used by anyone around me, which made me wonder where the chakra was coming from.

There was a desk to my left as I walked in. The woman behind the desk seemed nice enough, if not confused by my lack of footwear. I just tried to grin as innocently as possible as I asked where the sandals were. She pointed me in the direction of the footwear I was looking for, though she advised me to try out some of the other footwear in the building. Since I didn't really have much else to do, I told her that I'd look at them.

There was a lot of footwear in the store. And not all of it was ninja sandals either. There were all kinds of footwear, sandals with toe covers, sandals without straps over the upper part of the foot or heel, and even boots. Grinning like a fool, I walked over to some of the different displayed shoes. There were a lot of them that were made of a material that I had never felt before, stuff that felt too soft to be useful in combat.

I heard the young man from the alley enter before I saw him. He looked around the shop like he was looking for someone; probably me. I tried to pretend I was just a normal customer, looking for shoes like everyone else. There were a couple of other people who noticed the young man, but they seemed to ignore him only looking at him for a moment. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes, noticing that as the shimmering faded out, only one eye remained.

I blinked in confusion. Okay, I'll admit, I have seen some weird stuff as a ninja. There was man who had six arms and another who could manipulate his bones into weapons being some of the stranger people that I've met. So I wasn't really worried about that. What I was confused about was that no one else seemed to pay any attention to it; when for everyone else, it was clearly something that was not normal.

Then I remembered the illusion the guy had put over his face, and put two and two together. "Damn, not good." I whispered to myself as I moved away towards the back door. If this guy could create illusions, he was going to be a real problem for me, even with my knowledge of how to dispel illusions.

I heard a low throaty growl, and made the mistake of looking up. Noticing the movement, the man shoved people out of his path as he forced his way towards me. Cursing under my breath, I ran through the back door.

The back door, as it turned out, didn't lead back outside. Instead, it led to a larger room filled with lots of shelves, with even more boxes. Lots of boxes. I grimaced as one of the employees yelled that I wasn't supposed to be back there. I ignored him and moved swiftly through the aisles. I could hear him continue to yell at me as I heard the door I'd just entered slam violently against the wall.

"What is wrong with you kids?" The employee yelled, turning his attention on the one-eyed man. "You are not supposed to come back – "

He didn't get a chance to finish what he was saying as One-Eye shoved him into one of the metal shelves. I figured calling him One-Eye would probably help me remember him better. "Halfling! Why are you hiding?"

Halfling? Is he talking to me? I thought as I hid behind another one of the shelves.

"Hero!" One-Eye yelled, his thunderous voice still pretty far from my own position. "Come out. I just want to speak with you!"

"Sure you do." I muttered, not really able to shut my stupid mouth.

There was a slamming noise behind me. I looked over my shoulder, trying to see what was going on, when I realized what One-Eye was doing. He was shoving over the shelves in an attempt to flush me out. And to my horrific luck, it was working.

"Come out hero! Your parent has abandoned you to my hands!" he shouted, shoving over another couple of shelves.

I ducked down. What did he think he knew about my parents? I'd seen them both in my memories, and I distinctly remember watching their deaths…repeatedly. So why was One-Eye talking about them like at least one was alive?

"Chronos knows your anguish; he can help you survive the coming clash of powers. Come out, and let me take you too him. We can work together, and conquer your foolish parents, who abandoned you!"

That was the last straw for me. My parents may have been dead, and I may have already known that they both loved and cared about me. But when anyone thinks they can just talk about my parents like they knew them, and like they had just abandoned me for no reason, I couldn't help myself.

With a loud roar, I rushed out from behind the shelf. I could see One-Eye's grin as he saw me come out change in less than a second as I rushed him. Now, One-Eye was a big man, but I had lots strength training and surprise on my side. I slammed into him going as fast as I could considering the short distance, and knocked him over.

Apparently he hadn't expected this, because he didn't fight back for a moment. Unfortunately for him, that gave me the opportune time to pull myself up and punch him across the face. I continued hitting him, muttering curses about him and insulting his intelligence. One-Eye apparently didn't like that, as he swatted me off him, slamming me into a large pile of boxes.

"Why do you fight me hero? Do you not understand what Chronos is offering you? He offers you a chance to get back at your Olympian parent, and prove your worth!" One-Eye said as he picked himself up.

I shook my head. What did One-Eye just say? Olympian? I remember hearing that word from somewhere, but my head was ringing for me to think clearly. Growling, I pushed myself back up, feeling surprisingly stronger than when I had gotten knocked down. I suppose the blood pumping through my veins was finally getting the adrenaline to my brain.

"Don't insult me, or my family!" I yelled, rushing him yet again. This time though, he was ready. Instead of taking the hit, he took a swing with his left arm, grazing me and sending me into another set of shelves. I growled, picking myself up once again.

"You're strong Halfling, I'll give you that." Okay, I was definitely certain I'd heard that word before. "That's why we need you. That's why we need your strength, your skills, to help us win this war."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said, spitting out a small amount of blood that had gathered in my mouth.

One-Eye gave me a surprised, but also slightly pleased look. "You mean you don't know? You don't know that there are others out there like you? That there are others with your…gifts? Others out there, who are being plagued by monsters like me, none the wiser to the truth. And then there are the ones who are blinded by their foolish brethren who tell them that they will be safe at a despicable place such as Camp Half Blood!"

I blinked. This guy was a monster? If he was a monster, I was very curious as to what other people were called 'monsters'. "So you're a monster?"

One-Eye grinned. "Yeah, a Cyclops, if you want to get into the names of things."

I nodded. "Okay, I get that. But I'm not going with you."

One-Eye growled. "Why? Do you not understand what I'm telling you?"

"No I get it. You're telling people that their lives could be better, by telling them to join the people who hunted them down." I said as I felt my glare hardening as I stared him down.

One-Eye laughed. It was not a pleasant laugh. "Then you will die!"

One-Eye rushed forward. Scowling, I leapt over him, watching as he fell over the shelves that he had previously knocked me into. As I landed, I shoved myself back towards him, leaping with my elbow leading. As One-Eye tried to push himself up; I slammed into him, knocking him back into the shelves. Moving as fast as I could, I wrapped my arm around his neck, squeezing for all I was worth.

One-Eye apparently realize what I was doing, because he tried to stand up. However, I just squeezed harder, stopping him from being able to move so freely. He tried to swat me off of his back, but I just pressed myself closer to his back. I even felt him try and roll over; I shoved my foot against the ground to stabilize myself and stop him from moving at the same time. Finally, after a couple more seconds, he was finally out.

I stood up slowly, uncertain of whether or not he would stay down. I've had plenty of bad experience with people not staying down the first time me or anyone else knocked them out. I knew that if I didn't make sure he was down, he would get back up, stronger than before. Luckily, it didn't look like One-Eye was getting up anytime soon.

I looked down at One-Eye, thinking over some of the things he had said. He'd definitely called me a Halfling, said something about me having an Olympian parent, and talked about a place called Camp Half Blood. All things that I had already heard of.

From limbo.

Growling in frustration, I took a deep breath. I scrunched up my face, trying to remember where what I'd learned about Camp Half Blood. After a couple of moments, a specific memory came to mind; one that gave me directions on where to find the camp.

A grin crossed my face as I turned around. I almost lost it as I nearly tripped over a box that had slid right behind my feet. Glaring down, I just about kicked the box away when I noticed something. They were some kind of heavy duty boots. Bending over, I pulled them out.

Not bad. I thought. They looked like they could take some heavy use, and dish out some painful hits should I need them too. I pulled them on, my glare returning to a grin which widened as I wiggled my toes in the base of the shoe. Just my size. As I tied the string that was laced through, which helped tighten the boots on my feet, I couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, my luck was getting better. Maybe Kami had decided to give me a break.

As I walked out of the store, and back into the rain, I swore I hear the faint sound of a girlish laughter.

AN: Just out of curiousity, how many people think they know what time in the books this is starting at? who thinks they know who Naruto was 'talking too'? and who thinks they know what is going on?

Only a few people may get the first two, the only the third will take much time for you all to understand. Why? Because I'm the master of cliffhangers, that's why.

Edit: I changed a few things in the beginning to try and better explain the story. I hope people can better understand the limbo scene now.