Wild Serenity

The Chthonic Professor

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Chapter Two - Roots (Imagine Dragons)

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Naruto grimaced as he looked at his reflection in the grubby mirror.

After telling his harrowing tale at the breakfast table, Kiran seemed to come to the decision that no matter where Naruto had come from or what he'd done in his life, he was a capable young man and that he should go upstairs, freshen up, and get outside to help him with his work.

So here Naruto found himself, still reeling from the day's events as blue eyes, confused and lost, stared back into his own. It seemed like the whole mission to retrieve Sasuke and the subsequent fight had happened months, or even years ago.

Yet, it had only been yesterday.

Naruto had died yesterday.

Oh, he knew he'd died. He wasn't about to disillusion himself. Sasuke arm had plunged all the way through his chest, coming right out the other side. His heart had been obliterated. He hadn't necessarily felt it, because his entire body had gone numb, but Naruto knew, for a fact, that he'd died.

His reflection staring back at him begged to differ.

Don't get him wrong, now, he was happy to be alive. He hadn't wanted to die, but it was a better option than killing Sasuke, at the time. Naruto just didn't know why he'd survived. He couldn't even disregard it as an odd, late-night ramen-induced nightmare.

The massive scar stretching across his chest like an angry red spider-web made sure of that.

Naruto touched the scar gingerly, watching as it seemed to pulse weakly with the beat of his heart. It was a disturbingly fascinating sight.

Most of the time the Kyuubi - locked up in his gut as it was - healed Naruto's wounds to the point that they didn't leave a scar - even wounds that were potentially fatal.

'This, this right here,' Naruto thought to himself as he traced the veiny lines splaying out along the edges of the scar, 'Is a testament to the fact that I died. Not even the Kyuubi was able to heal it. This wound killed me.'

Naruto was fascinated by the scar dominating the left side of his chest. While the veins protruding from the edges of the main scar were slightly raised from his skin, like most scars, the central circle of flesh itself was not. In fact, the mark cratered into his chest slightly, making it seem like a chunk of his chest had actually been blasted off of him.

As Naruto thought about the scar and its implications, his thoughts eventually turned to the person who'd given it to him in the first place.

'Sasuke…' Thought Naruto, 'I wonder… where are you now? Did you really manage to escape, betray your village and your friends? Betray Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei? Betray me?' Naruto clenched his fist, his knuckles digging into his scar as he pressed his hand against his chest. 'Or, did you return home? Did you even stay in the Elemental Nations, or were you sent to some other place like me?'

Naruto's head was almost spinning with the number of thoughts whirling about in his mind. This whole thing was a chaotic mess, that was for sure. He'd been killed by his best friend solely for the sake of power, and yet he continued to live. For some reason unknown to Naruto, he'd managed to find himself someplace where they'd never heard of the Elemental Nations before; and where technology seemed to be advanced beyond anything Naruto had ever dreamed before.

He took a deep breath and steadied himself. He smiled, and the blue-eyed blond-haired reflection in the mirror smiled back at him.

'Okay. Okay.' He smacked his cheeks, hard, and jumped up and down a little to get his blood flowing. 'This is nothing. This is nothing. You literally died and came back. Even if you're in a whole 'nother dimension, getting back home shouldn't be too bad.'

Naruto's resolve hardened.

'I'm going to get back home.' His fists clenched as he vowed to himself in front of that chipped, grubby mirror, 'I'm going to get back home, and then I'll knock some sense into that damn swirly-eyed bastard's stupid head and keep my promise to Sakura-chan.'

Naruto's grin was so wide his teeth were practically glinting off the surface of the mirror.

'Because my name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I always keep my promises!'

-.-

When Naruto left the washroom on the second floor of the rickety cottage, he came upon the scene of Kiran kneeling before Chandra and grasping her firmly by the shoulders.

"Father." Chandra's tone was slightly trembling, and despite the fact that she was taller than him, Naruto couldn't help but think that she looked incredibly small in that moment. "Us being out here. Is it because of me? Because of what I did at the Foundry?"

Naruto paused on the on the top step. The words were different, and Naruto had no idea what a Foundry was, but he'd heard that tone before. For a moment, his mind flashed back to a different moment, a different place, in time.

"Jiji," Naruto, only a couple of months younger than the present, yet looking just as small as Chandra, spoke. "Is it my fault? Did I really cause all those… am I really the Kyuubi?"

Naruto was broken from his thoughts of the past, and of his deceased grandfather, by Kiran's voice.

"Chandra, listen to me." He said, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "Your mother and I are very proud of the person you're becoming. You're the most important thing in the world to us. We want you to know that everything we do, we do to keep you safe, and to make the world a better place for our family. Nothing else matters."

Naruto's breath hitched in his throat. He wondered, briefly, if his own father would have told him similar words. If his own mother and father were proud of him, and loved him, and wanted to keep him safe.

His heart ached.

It hurt. Oh, it hurt so much, the knowledge that he would never experience something like this. There would always be those who loved him, Naruto knew that without a doubt. There was Iruka and the old man Hokage, and lately even Tsunade and maybe Jiraiya. This, though… this was something different.

Unconditional love. The absolute, unconditional love of a parent. For every person who loved him in this world, Naruto had to fight for that love. Had to grasp onto it tightly and refuse to let go until his stubbornness had payed off and his love was returned.

Naruto closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and took a moment to compose himself. Then, he dealt with his pain in the same way he always had.

With a smile.

Taking the steps two at a time, Naruto thundered his way into the kitchen with a mega-watt smile on his face, his too-blue eyes squinting with the force of his grin.

"Hey, old man, what're we doing today?" Naruto's loud voice instantly broke the atmosphere in the room and Kiran gave the boy a dry look.

"I am not old, Naruto." Kiran intoned tonelessly, but Naruto saw the slight upturn at the corners of the man's lips and his own smile became just a little more genuine. "That being said, the two of you are still young and full of energy, so why don't you go ahead and explore the forest for the day while us adults," He nodded his head in the direction of his wife, who was just descending the stairs, "take care of things over here?"

Chandra's expression brightened instantly, and she leaped up into her father's arms, kissing his stubble-ridden cheek. "Thank you, father!" She exclaimed, spinning around and grasping Naruto's hand in her own. As Chandra headed for the creaky wooden door sitting at the front of the shack, her mother called out to them.

"Be back before dinner, you two!"

"Alright, we'll be back on time!" Chandra hollered over her shoulder.

Just like that, with Naruto left blinking stupidly at the sudden change of pace, the two children were outside and making a bee-line straight for the mass of trees sitting just outside the city limits.

-.-

For the next couple of days, Naruto found himself falling into a pattern.

It wasn't long before Naruto realized that he had been unable to contact the Kyuubi within his mind, and that his wound, which normally would have vanished by now, was taking a far longer time to heal. Due to his slowly healing injury, Naruto found himself tiring rather easily, and on the first day with Chandra exploring the nearby forest, she'd had to carry him home.

That was another thing Naruto had noticed. He was already beginning to call this place home, and that scared him. Konoha would always be Naruto's home, of that he was certain. He loved the Hidden Leaf Village.

And yet… he still found himself falling into a wonderful pattern, one which made thoughts of this place becoming his new home easy. It was, it was easy to see this place becoming his home.

Chandra's mother and father were such incredible people. The two had taken him in without a second thought, and had never ignored him or pushed his needs aside. Chandra herself was such a fun person to be around. Naruto had bonded with her almost immediately, and in the few days they'd spent with each other Naruto could already claim the fiery red-head as his best friend.

It was almost scary how well they got along.

The first day they'd spent wandering the forest together, Naruto had been curious about the odd metal contraption on her back. It had been puffing steam at irregular intervals and, honestly, it looked very uncomfortable to Naruto.

After a bit of pestering, Chandra had finally caved and explained her odd fire powers to Naruto, and how the so-called 'Vent Pack' was supposed to help her control her power. She confided in him, telling him that her power terrified her because it made her different, but how uncomfortable it felt to have it suddenly caged away.

She described her flame as a butterfly, bright and free, and the Vent Pack as a prison, slammed around butterfly, suffocating it and binding it's wings.

She'd had tears in her eyes, and in one of his rare moments of insight, Naruto could see the fear, the real fear, in Chandra's eyes. The fear of liberation, of freedom, of the unknown.

Caught up in her glistening eyes and hitched breaths, Naruto made a decision that was the initial cement to their budding friendship.

-.- Flashback -.-

Sunlight streamed down upon their heads through the branches above. The trees stretched into the sky, ancient and gnarled. The forest floor was alight with a golden glow, dust motes in the air giving the scene a mystical, otherworldly feel.

Naruto tried not to snort. Technically, everything about this situation was otherworldly.

Despite the incredible mystical setting, Naruto couldn't exactly appreciate it at the moment. Not with his new friend in such a delicate state.

Chandra's dark orange eyes were misted over. She was worrying her lower lip between her teeth and clenching her fists tightly by her side as they stood face-to-face in the nameless forest.

Naruto mulled her words over in her mind. Even with the differences in their situations, or perhaps despite them, Naruto couldn't stop pointing out the similarities to himself.

He took a shaky breath.

Naruto had never really been good with people, or with emotions. He knew that, it was why he always leapt in with a smile on his face; he didn't really know how to deal with anything any other way.

This delicate situation, however, required something far more subtle than his typical 'smile at it with stubbornness until it sees your point of view' way of dealing with things.

Naruto would have to take a leap of faith, here. He'd open up, literally open himself to the possibility of pain, and for once, Naruto wasn't sure if he could take it. The other side of the metaphorical coin, however, was too much for Naruto to pass up. He could open himself up to the possibility of pain and rejection, but he could also open his heart to accept someone who would, hopefully, understand him. Someone who could, potentially, becoming the best friend Sasuke had never been and Gaara could never be.

"Chandra-chan," Naruto spoke, his voice soft. He reached out and put a hand on her arm, just below her shoulder. It was a delicate touch, his fingertips just barely brushing her bare skin, but it startled Chandra enough to she nearly jumped.

"It's pretty scary, isn't it? Having a power, a dangerous, strong power, that you have no control over. It's scary." Her orange eyes had gone wide, but she had yet to let her tears fall. For a moment it looked like she'd stopped breathing as he spoke. Naruto could almost see her thoughts churning like clockwork gears. Her eyes, orange as a blazing sunset, were like windows allowing Naruto to look into her mind.

His fingers trailed down her arm until he reached her hand, gently slipping her fingers into his own. For just a moment, Naruto marvelled at how soft and warm her hand felt in his own. Tugging her lightly, he dragged her over to the base of a large tree, one where the tree roots lifted up high out of the ground creating a small enclosed circle of space. Moss hung down on either side of them, draped over the thick winding roots, and the golden light filtering down from above truly gave everything an ethereal feeling.

He pulled her down in front of him, the both of them sitting cross-legged upon the soft grass nestled against the base of the tree. They were so close that their knees were touching, pressing roughly up against each other, but neither of them seemed to notice.

"Chandra-chan," Naruto spoke up, his blue eyes staring, piercingly, "Back home, where I'm from, there are these demons that roam the world called the Biju, Tailed-Beasts…"

-.- End Flashback -.-

And so, Naruto told her his story. Of his childhood, of the demon inside him, and of his struggles with accepting himself. Afterwards, he felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He hadn't realized just how much he'd needed to get that information off his chest, and now that it was out in the open, at least with Chandra, he felt so much lighter.

The days following their heart-to-heart Naruto could claim as some of the best of his life. They'd spent hours upon hours gallivanting about in the nameless forest, whirling and dancing through the golden underbrush with smiles on their faces and laughter in their throats. Running about without a care in the world, Chandra by his side, Naruto felt more at ease than ever before.

It was so easy to forget about the Elemental Nations with her at his side. Sasuke, Sakura, his sensei Kakashi, even the old pervert and Tsunade; none of them had clouded his thoughts during the days spent with Chandra in that enchanted forest. In only a couple of days Naruto was rapidly coming to see the passionate girl as the closest friend he'd ever had.

Naruto was jarred from his thoughts when a burst of flame careened past his face, nearly singeing his eyebrows. He blinked rapidly, eyes tearing up at the sudden dryness in the air. He shifted slightly as his eyes, blue as ever and bright with mirth, rolled sideways until he was staring, face completely deadpan, at a sheepish Chandra.

"Eh… whoops?" She shrugged, her vent pack jostling slightly with the movement.

Naruto laughed, a joyful, carefree sound, and raised his eyebrows at Chandra.

"You doin' alright over there, Chandra-chan?" He asked, a teasing lilt in his voice. She huffed at him, puffing up her cheeks, which were red with embarrassment.

"I'm getting the hang of it…" She grumbled and attempted to blow a stray strand of auburn hair away from her nose, only for it to fly up and settle back down in exactly the same spot. Ignoring Naruto's laughter, Chandra went back to lobbing tiny balls of fire at the slowly thinning herd of clones surrounding her.

Just the other day Naruto had prompted a change in their daily routine by returning to his shinobi training. He'd explained exactly what shinobi were and what their lifestyle was like to a wide-eyed Chandra before finding a clearing in the forest that would be useful for his training.

That day Chandra had spent solely watching Naruto train. Copies of him had run all about the clearing wielding spinning balls of destructive blue energy and tossing knives all over the place. It had been… impossibly exhilarating to watch something so inherently magical in nature be performed in such a seemingly simple manner.

The highlight of that day, for Chandra, had been witnessing the look in Naruto's eyes as he trained. Brilliant blue, hard with determination and drive, had been so much more inspiring than any words could ever be.

Chandra was reminded of a butterfly with wings of fire trapped behind prison bars.

The very next day, shy, but certain, Chandra had asked Naruto to help her train her own magical powers.

It was difficult at first. The Vent Pack would siphon away her fire before she could produce it. For nearly the entire first day of training Chandra was a frustrated mess, but she couldn't quit. Naruto was nothing but encouraging and helpful, and she refused to quit, couldn't quit, because he had her back and believed in her.

It took a lot of time, a healthy amount of sweat and a couple of frustrated tears, but by the end of the day Chandra was able to force a tiny flame to flicker lightly in the palm of her hand. The flame wouldn't have looked out of place sitting atop a tiny candle, but it had elicited a blindingly massive grin from both pre-teens. Chandra couldn't remember a time where she'd ever been so happy before.

Watching Naruto as he chuckled lightly, tips of his hair slightly singed, Chandra's heart was light as air as she returned to practicing her Pyromancy.

She couldn't have know that this day would become the darkest day in her life.

-.-

It was dark when it happened.

Chandra knew something was wrong the moment a Thopter passed with a low thrum overhead. Startled by the sudden whoosh of noise Chandra froze, her gaze locking with Naruto's from across the clearing. Simultaneously the two pre-teens took off into the forest at a dead sprint, rushing towards the outskirts of the latest village where they'd been staying.

Naruto burst through the foliage before she did, but Chandra was taller than Naruto and so could see the utter chaos over the top of his head.

There was fire everywhere. People, villagers, were running about screaming for their lives as guards marched through the village armed to the teeth. Thopters circled overhead, their pilots intimidating and their points glinting ominously in the light of the burning village.

They'd been surrounded the moment they reached the edge of the village. Baral, Captain of the Guard, had prepared an ambush for them as his men burned the village to the ground.

"There she is," the Captain pointed at Chandra and spoke in his low, gravelly voice. "Get her," He commanded, "and kill the boy. We have no need of him."

For just a moment the world seemed to freeze. Chandra felt her heart leap into her throat at the commander's words, and her orange eyes - bright with fright - locked onto Naruto's startled blue.

In that moment, frozen in time, as the Baral's men hesitated - just for a split second - at his cutthroat command, Chandra witnessed something truly breathtaking. Something that would stay close to her heart and help her push through each day to the next, always moving forwards.

Naruto's eyes, blue and shining, erupted in an inferno of pure guts and determination. His gaze was so intense Chandra would swear his eyes were glowing with a pulsating light in the darkness of the night.

"Run, Chandra-chan," Naruto's voice was a low growl. He was snarling, canines visible under the shine of the moon, his glare zeroing in on Baral. "Find your parents and get outta' here. I'll hold them off."

Even through the tears and the smoke that were beginning to blur her vision, the sight of Naruto in that moment would be burned into her memory for as long as she lived.

"Naruto…" She breathed out softly.

His blonde hair, spiky and unruly as ever, was blowing fiercely in the wind. His left hand was raised, grasping the large leather goggles strapped to his forehead, and his right hand was shoved deep into the pockets of his thick worker's pants. The brown leather jacket her father had given him was flapping harshly in time with his wildly blowing hair, revealing the plain white shirt her wore underneath. His eyes were practically twinkling in the flickering light of the burning village, and his grin was nothing but shit-eating and mischievous.

For just a fraction of an instant, he looked back at her.

"Don't worry. I'll be right behind you."

He winked at her over his shoulder and pulled down his goggles over his eyes. His right elbow twitched only the slightest bit, but it was enough to draw Chandra's eyes over to his right arm. Naruto pulled his hand from his pocket slightly, showing off a pair of identical black marbles to a wide-eyed Chandra who was standing far enough behind him to just barely be able to see them.

Chandra rushed to tug her own goggles down over her eyes and leapt to the side. In the exact same instant Naruto flicked his wrist, launching the two marbles forcefully into the charred dirt at his feet.

The world was cloaked in darkness, billowy clouds of smoke erupting all around them.

Chandra heard Naruto's battle-cry… and ran.

-.-

AN: Yeah… so this ended up being far longer than I intended it to be, so I'm splitting it into two different chapters. Thank you to everyone who followed, favourited, and reviewed, I love you all, you're the coolest people literally ever. And not the white-girl-who's-obsessed-with-starbucks literally, but literally literally, because apparently I'm the one who decides the coolness factor of everyone ever.

Also, just really wanted to make that pun.

Peace, my little Hellions!

The Chthonic Professor