So...second chapter's up. Took long enough, but couldn't decide how to proceed with the story.

Please R&R,

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me

The Stranger

Naruto felt Hinata stiffen next to him and turned look at her staring at the stranger with a confused look; she had her byakugan activated, he noticed. She felt his gaze upon her and turned to look at him, shaking her head, indicating that whatever it was, she would talk to him about it later. The stranger on the other hand seemed oblivious to this subtle exchange as he merrily wolfed down the food. The kids watched the man with a fascination, as if seeing a circus wonder.

"Ne, ne…." the stranger began. "What is this island called?" he asked, never taking his eyes of the food.

Island? Naruto thought, what the hell is he talking about? He certainly isn't from around here if he doesn't even know a hidden village.

"Don't you know where you are?" he said out loud. "This is the hidden village Konohagakure of the Hi no Kuni."

"Nani? Hi No Kuni? Never heard of it" He declared with a confused look in his eyes and piece of chicken leg waving in his hand. He certainly isn't the most refined guest I've had at the table Naruto thought. But then again, Naruto wasn't the most refined shinobi himself, so he let the thought slide.

What confused him greatly was the fact that, even if this man was not from the Fire Country and from some remote village on the borders of the great nations, he simply must have knowledge of the powerful countries of the world; they had just fought a bloody world war for Kami's sake!

His train of thoughts led him to two conclusions: either the man was mad or he was lying exceptionally well.

All of sudden there was loud thunderclap, it echoed across for quite a few seconds before fading away into the night, and at that instant Naruto remembered seeing the man's eyes when he first opened his doors to the stranger, those eyes which shone with authority and power. Looking at the man's face and remembering that instant, he decided that this man was no fool and the way he spoke, with a slight hint of innocence in his voice, he couldn't have lied a single day in his life.

This led him to the third and final conclusion: he was telling the truth and that he really was from far away, too far away so as to not having heard of the great nations. But that led to another question: Where was he from if not from the great nations, Naruto had never heard of anything lying beyond the great ocean that surrounded their continent.

His thoughts were interrupted as the man spoke again.

"Ne ne, are we still in the New World?" he inquired with an inquisitive look.

"New World? Where is that? Is that where you are from?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm…not as much as where I amfrom but where I was¸ they are two different places see? And then all of a sudden I was not there and here…does that make any sense?…." He trailed on.

Naruto was seriously reconsidering about the man not being a fool.

"Eh? Wait a minute…..you don't know the new world? " The man asked him with an incredulous look on his face. "Don't you read books and stuff?"

"Oi! It's you who needs reading if…..wait…..what do u mean you were there and then not there?" Naruto enquired.

"Well….i was on my ship one evening, everything seemed fine when all of a sudden there was this violent storm; now violent storms are common place in the new world but this one was really strange." He gobbled some more chicken then continued. "I wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for my navigator" Here a wistful look came over his eyes as he continued "My navigator is the smartest one out there in the new world."He declared proudly, staring pointedly at Naruto then went back to eating. "Anyways, she pointed out that the storm appeared to be centred on an island".

Naruto noticed Hinata, Boruto and Himawari listening intently to the man's story and he couldn't help but feel a bit enthralled himself, his childhood fascination with adventure flaring up at the man's narrative.

"Well that's when I decided that I simply had to check it out. A violent storm on a strange unexplored island? That's my stuff right there. I had us make course for the island" The man continued with a grin.

"So you were the captain of your ship?" Naruto enquired.

"Hmm? Oh yeah". The man answered.

Naruto wondered as to how such an erratic person would be capable of being a captain of a ship. He stopped the thought when he remembered that he became Hokage of all the people and decided to take the man for his word.

"Still am by the way….." Naruto's thoughts were interrupted as the man spoke again.

"What?"

"Still am the captain of my ship" said the man said looking at him over the candle light with a slight smile.

"Sure Sure" Naruto replied with a smile."What happened next?"

"Well, me, my first mate and my cook decided to check out the island and the rest stayed behind to look after the ship, not that anyone would dare attack our ship but just in case."

"You just decided to venture on an unknown island in the middle of the sea?" Hinata spoke suddenly. "That's dangerous isn't it? It could have been anything in the world"

"We three… we three are capable of handling 'anything in the world' " the man spoke with a low, definitive tone and Naruto felt it all of a sudden, a great pressure upon his mind. It lasted for an extremely small amount of time but in that instant he felt his mental faculties being overwhelmed; Kurama growled from within, sensing the disturbance but went back to his slumber once he was assured that there as on danger. Naruto looked around and saw that he was not the only one who felt it. Hinata had a guarded look on her face, her byakugan activated again and her face sweating a little. Boruto and Himawari had confused looks on their faces. Lastly, Naruto looked over at the man, he was sporting sheepish grin as if apologizing for something.

A few seconds passed before he spoke again,

"Well I couldn't sense any danger for that matter. So we walked around the place and it was really windy, the entire disturbance seemed to be coming from the middle of the island so we made our way there and…its strange…I remember everything up to that point very clearly but that moment when we entered the clearing I can't seem to recall events with much detail."

Boruto and Himawari were leaning towards the man as he spoke, their faces rapt with attention.

"At the centre of the island the storm wasn't blowing with much ferocity. It was eerily quiet and misty. I remember hearing a long unnatural keening, the kind of sound that raises hairs on your arm. Then I saw it, at the centre of the clearing…..there was this ethereal space floating just above the ground in the middle of the clearing. It looked like a rift in the air and was pulsating with different colours of light, vividly mesmerising. I remember walking towards it, my comrades warning me not to get too close but I kept going. I could see flashes of different images in the surreal apparition, the keening had gotten really loud and there was a strong deafening wind blowing close to the tear. I heard strange noises coming from rift, as if a thousand different people speaking at once…all the while the keening grew louder and louder. Then, all of a sudden the voices stopped….infact I couldn't hear anything or see or feel. There was just…..darkness. Next thing I knew I was in the middle of a forest and everything looked different, the trees, the sky, everything and it wasn't just the environment, It felt abnormal, unnatural….out of place, like I wasn't supposed to be here. I looked around and realized that i was alone, my comrades were nowhere in sight."

"Uhmm…can I have some water please?" The man said all of a sudden.

The Uzumaki family started, all of them were completely focused on the man's story up to this point and the abrupt end to his narration jolted them back to their senses.

"Hai…I'll be right back" Hinata nodded and turned towards the kitchen. "Naruto-kun? Will you come in here and help me with something?"

Naruto, who was still staring at the man, turned towards his wife who was watching him intently. He nodded and got up, "I'll be right back, please help yourself with the food." To his children he said, "Boruto, Himawari keep our guest company" They looked at him and nodded.

Inside the kitchen, Hinata took a glass from the shelves and started filling it with water as Naruto followed her inside.

"You saw something dint you? With the byakugan"

Hinata turned towards him, her eyes on the floor and a pensive look in them.

"I first sensed it when he walked in the door. There was something different about him…..just like he said….unnatural. I thought I should look him up to see what was different about him…." Hinata trailed.

"Hmm…I could feel it to…well? What was it?"

"It's his chakra system Naruto-kun…it…isn't there….."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. The man exuded the personality of a powerful shinobi, an extremely powerful shinobi; as a matter of fact he could recall only three to four instances in his life when he felt thus. All of this, he inferred on the basis of pure instinct. He had been toying with the idea of entering into sage mode to sense the man better. Also, there was that moment on the dinner table, that strange pressure he felt. Was it the man's doing? If it was, there was no way that he could pull of a psychic jutsu of that magnitude on him without having huge reserves of chakra, and yet…..

"Eh? No chakra? How the hell is that possible" He asked incredulously

"I dint say that he had no chakra….it's just that he doesn't have a chakra regulatory system like a normal person…and I don't know if it even was chakra…."

"Hinataaaa…..you are being all vague again….tell me what you saw exactly…."

"When I activated my byakugan…..i saw a huge mass of something swirling chaotically in him, like a massive pool of unchecked energy. It was unlike anything I've ever seen…..the volume of it….the only thing that resembles it even remotely was the chakra pool of the Shinju…"

Naruto frowned at her analysis. The comparison she made dint bode well.

"Naruto-kun….what should we do?" Hinata asked, worry etched in her face.

"Nothing the man has done or said shows that he means harm. On the contrary he appears to be completely harmless the way he acts….a bit soft in the head if u ask me." Naruto concluded.

"Let's just watch him for now. At the moment he just looks like a man in need of food and rest."

"What about his story….ships, islands, this New World place he mentioned….and that rift he talked about." Hinata asked. "None of it sounds real".

"Hmmm, the way he described it, it sounds to me like a crude version of some sort of space-time jutsu…." Naruto sighed, "I don't know whether to believe him or not…as is said...let's just watch him for now and listen to what he has to say."

With that they walked back towards the dining room.