Chapter 3 - Split Roads
A few days after a certain blonde haired pranksters sudden disappearance was the day of days for a whole new generation of Konoha Kunoichi and Shinobi.
It was a foggy Monday morning on one of the first days of fall in the land of fire.
It was the first day of academy, finally.
The students were rummaging amongst their seats having little conversations as they have been waiting for a while now. All the seats in class were taken except for one.
"Where could Naruto-kun be?" thought a little girl with soft blue hair and lavender eyes.
When the door opened and their sensei stepped in the room the atmosphere turned calm as everyone sat silent in their seats.
Umino Iruka, a young man with a spiky brown ponytail and a scar all across his faces. Going over the class list he noticed a few things, for once he had young members of most of Konoha notable clans amongst his ranks for this year. And also there was a name that had been canceled out on his list, and it made him wonder too.
"What about the Uzumaki kid?" he thought before addressing the class and starting to introduce himself.
"Welcome to Konohas Shinobi Academy class, as of today you are starting on your career as Konoha's finest future Shinobi, I expect everyone to do their best and work their hardest at all times."
He gave a small pause and continued.
"My name is Umino Iruka and I am gonna be your sensei from today on. You are my responsibility from now on until you graduate, everyevery hour of everyday and I will be sure to hold anyone acting up responsible for that..."
After that they did some introductions on eveyone and began to have class at a slow pace.
A few days earlier - unknown location
The very moment Naruto and Arai-te materialized the young boy immediatly fealt a strange weight on his body, as if he suddenly gained a lot of weight, when trying to move his limbs, he realized his movements were very sluggish and out of synch. Other than that it was very hot and humid.
"Where are we, whats happening to me?" he asked.
"This is the realm of the Dragonfolk Naruto, things are very different here from what you know. That weight gain you might experienced is caused by a higher measure of gravity around here. It is normal to us though and you will get used to it too."
It immediatly dawned on Naruto what it could be like returning home after spending years in this kind of environment...
Taking a look around the young blonde took in the surroundings, they appeared in a big meadow surrounded by what looked to be aequatorial woods. The sky had a strange color to it and the air was thick and moist. He could make out some impressive mountainside in the far distance, but what wondered him was that there were no signs of any civilization whatsoever all around him and as far as he could see. He started to move around a bit whilst his guardian was just standing there giving him time to adjust.
"So, what´s going on here? Where is everyone?" asked one baffled blond boy.
"We all live at the foot of the great mountain. But that is not were we are going." Arai-te stated. "The younglings like you are, are kept separeted from the village until they come of a certain age, they live in a small kind of town with some guardians, it will be a week of marching through the forrest until we get there."
Naruto stared at him.
"What the hell? Why wouldn´t you take us there directly instead of the middle of nowhere?!"
"It is simple, by the time we get there, you will be used to the extra weight on you... now go, try to keep up..." The Dragonkin simply turned around and started to walk in a leisurly pace, well a leisurly pace for him, because of his height he made huge steps so Naruto really had to struggle keeping up right of the bat.
For a while they just walked, homing in onto the edge of the woods, slowly. After some time Naruto noticed something, since meeting him he had never see Arai-te from behind, and now that he did...
"Hey Arai-te-san, what´s that weird looking stump on your butt?" ,the young boy asked curiously.
"That´s were my tail used to be, Gaki." He sounded annoyed his rough voice sounded strained at that notion, and if he could have seen his face, Naruto would have noticed a vein bulging on his scaly temples.
After they entered the woods the had to go even slower, the young Uzumaki had to give it his all for every single meter of the dense jungle, whilst even though he was so huge, Arai-te seemed to be able to move through the thick bush without even breaking a sweat... that is if he could even sweat. Arai-te didn´t try to usher the boy to move any faster, nor did he make any comments on his progress, he simply waited in silent patience.
The moved through the whole day, taking a break when Naruto felt like he needed it, until long shadows started to dip the thick of the forrest into darkness. Saying that the made camp on the first evening would be an overexaggeration, at some point Arai-te simply decided it was time to stop, and sat down, leaning against a treetrunk, realising that it was over for the day, Naruto momentarily collapsed onto his back.
Catching his breath, he stared into the jungle canopy, he couldn´t tell for how long. He noticed what he had definitely missed throughout the day when he had to use all focus and willpower just to keep moving. The forrest was stunningly beautiful, with the last light falling sparsely through the treetops, long shadows and everything colored in the light of the dark orange evening sky. All the plants seemed to be big strong and healthy, the trees had huge leaves to catch the sunlight and there was colour everywhere.
As the light gave away to darkness a cool breeze flowed along forrest flow, and young Naruto endulged in it, the scene was serene... until a loud rummaging stirred through the deep forrest, causing an outcry from various birds and other animals, when silence fell, Naruto spoke to the Dragonkin.
"Do you have any Ramen here my stomach is acting up already?!"
After steadily going thorugh some handsigns Arai-te simply touched the floor for a moment and than stood up.
"I will hunt for us, i have put up a ward around this area, don´t move to far, the wildlife can be very dangerous here, best will be you stay like that and rest..." With that he disappeared into the jungle, without a sound or a hint of his presence left.
Naruto fell long unconscious before Arai-te could return with something that could be described as a small wood deer on his shoulders, whatever they boy could eat in the morning too...
Four days later on the late afternoon, and after what felt like hours of beeing able to hear it, Naruto and Arai-te had made their way to the top of a very deep waterfall, thousands of gallons of water crashing down bold rock, forming a deep ravine in the middle of the jungle, around the waterfall the terrain would drop very steep, bold rock walls going straight down in some places even.
From the ravine sprung a mighty river, having eaten it´s way through the landscapes since the beginning of time.
Taking in the stunning sight in the late aftertnoon sun, Naruto felt much better now after his fourth day in the strange environment, he could almost move normal now, and they had made some progress on their journey up until now. Staring in the distance Arai-te pointed along the stream.
"The town we are going to is just beyond the horizon along the river, have you been told how to swim, young one?" he almost had to scream at Naruto over the deafening thunder of the waterfall.
Naruto simply nodded, feeling that he would not have been able to scream an answer over the sound of the water. Arai-te simply got on a knee and gestured Naruto to come closer, and as he did the huge warrior just pulled him tight to his chest. "Hold on tight." he spoke into the boys ear. Naruto was baffled at first, he noticed a radiant warmth coming from the scaled beast that was his chosen guardian for the time beeing, but that was instantaniously unimportant as soon as he realised what was going to happen.
And on that, Arai-te got up, holding Naruto tight to his chest, and jumped down the waterfall.
End of the third day of academy - Konohagakure no Sato
There were was a sudden commotion outside of Sarutobi Hiruzen´s office, rumbling and bluster could be heard and suddenly the door to the Hokage´s office burst open. Without a suprised look upon his face the Hokage gestured everyone to stop moving, as two ANBU guards, driven back in to a corner by a young Hyuuga Hinata fell backwards into the room, and the hidden ANBU in the room moved to drop the perpetrator.
Releasing her Byakugan and dropping to her stance, Hinata immediatly started to cry. "Hokage-sama, Hokage-sama, my friend, he is missing, he must have been taken, or worse..." she managed to croak through her tears...
AN: I am overwhelmed by the number of follows and favourites i got before i released this chapter. Thank you everyone, i appreciate it very much and i feel encouraged to not let anyone day, just as is the spirit of the whole Naruto franchise.
So with this chapter i think it start´s to become at least somewhat clear what the idea might be or where this might be going, to be honest im working from a rough idead here, making details up along the way.
please enjoy and give me your constructive critisicsm as you see fit.