A/N: Sup guys, I'm back from my family vacation so I'm uploading a bit late this week, hope you don't mind. I mention this chapter might seem a little strange, but it's… I don't have an excuse, sorry.
Quantum Physics Ehh
Naruto rose silently from the leaf covered ground, looking around as he couldn't see anything. Rolling over, he pushed himself up, dusting off the foliage that clung to him. Seeing a slight glint on the ground, he bent down, grasping a small silver ring with a small dent which he slid into his pocket as he looked around for a familiar sight to tell him where he was. Not seeing anything, he started walking in a random direction, his sheathed sword setting the pace as he wandered sedately through the creepy woods.
Thirty minutes later, he came upon a cobblestone road leading into the distance in either direction. The road vanished into gloom in the distance so Naruto couldn't see anything in the distance. Before he thought about it, he found himself walking down the road, no sound coming from his shoes on the stone.
He had no idea how much time passed as he walked down the road, the trees overhead blocking out the sun and moon, and yet somehow he could see through the murky light. He stopped counting after 20 hours, and yet he didn't feel tired nor hungry nor even thirsty. It was as if the hours passed only in his head as the light never changed.
Something in him knew something was wrong with this place as he took the ring from his pocket, tossing it ahead of him into the darkness as it bounced along on its side. However, minutes later he felt something hit his foot as he looked down to see the same silver ring resting on the road. It even had the same dent as he felt a growing chill begin to climb up his spine as he replaced the ring in his pocket, before racing forwards, closing his eyes as he pushed himself, pouring as much speed as possible into the mad dash towards whatever.
Hours bled into days, and days into weeks, and weeks into a month as he traveled down the road, never seeming to get anywhere. It was Day 42 when he saw the first sign of life, a spire climbing into the sky. It had no visible roof, probably above the clouds, no windows, but Naruto didn't care as he headed for the spire, yet he refused to diverge from the road. He'd made that mistake already walking a short distance back into the woods to look for something, anything that stood out. When he'd turned back to the road it was gone, and he was forced to spend several hours randomly searching until he found it again.
Three days later, Naruto noticed the trees starting to thin out as he could see a bit more of the spire, other spire's roofs gathered around it. Five days after that, the trees stopped as he came to a small field that only looked 100 feet across, but took him nearly three hours to cross as he came to a open gate with a man sitting by it. Inside he could see people walking around happily, kids chasing each other, adults conversing and a few even sitting together with held hands and joined lips.
"Hello; welcome to our wonderful kingdom!" The man by the door said cheerily as Naruto smiled, feeling a sense of peace wash over him. "Would you like to come in and stay a while, the King is supposed to appear soon, and then his court will be open. I'd recommend you start there, the lines are usually very long and the King's a busy man." The man said as Naruto looked at him clearly.
He was maybe 5' 11", although it was hard to tell while he was sitting down on that wooden chair. He had messy black hair that seemed blue in the light, with freckles that gave him a child-like appearance. His lips were upturned cheerfully as he smiled at Naruto, and the blonde felt like the man was trustworthy. He wore simple clothes, a long leather coat with an off-white shirt, a pale yellow belt looped through a pair of dark cloth pants which hung over the man's bare feet.
"There are a lot of people going to see the King today, but I think I can get you right up at the front if you hurry." The man said; extending his hand behind him as Naruto looked longingly into the courtyard filled with people, all happily talking, playing, and enjoying each other's company.
"O-okay." Naruto said hesitantly. He wanted to ask who the King was, and what this place was, but stifled the questions so he didn't seem rude or ungrateful.
"Great, now I'll just need a small fee to enter the kingdom and you'll be all set." The man said, producing a clipboard from nowhere, although Naruto was more worried about the payment.
"I-I don't have anything to pay with, sorry." Naruto said, taking an unconscious step back as he saw the happy man's face turn dark for a second before he smiled at the blonde once more.
"Nothing made of gold or maybe silver?" he asked imploringly as Naruto almost took the ring out, but he paused.
"No." He lied as the man 'tskk'd.
"What about that ring?" He asked, as Naruto looked at him suspiciously.
"What ring?" he asked, using his life skills to be as convincing as possible.
"The one on your finger." He gestured towards Naruto's left hand. The blonde looked down confusedly, seeing the silver ring on his finger just as the man said.
"N-NO, you can't have it." Naruto said warily, even though he was wondering what was going on mentally. Why was he getting defensive over a ring?
"Come on, it doesn't look that important. It doesn't have anything set in it; it even has a dent in it." He asked forcefully, looking at Naruto with eyes that seemed to leak charisma as Naruto reached up, twisting the ring before grabbing the hilt of his blade which hung at his side, pulling it out.
"You'd kill a defenseless man just to keep a dingy ring?" The guardian asked disappointedly, only for Naruto to flip the grip on the sword.
"No, take my sword instead." Naruto said, shoving the sword into the man's hands only for him to chuckle.
"Sorry, violence is strictly prohibited here, so we have no need for weapons, you sword is worth even less than that dinged up ring. So how about it, your worthless ring to see the King?" The gate guardian asked imploringly as Naruto took his sword back, sheathing it.
"I-I don't know." Naruto said, holding his head as he felt a crushing weight on his head.
"Well, you better decide soon because the court could be in any minute, and you don't want to miss that." He said as Naruto took another step back, looking towards the woods. Looking back towards the man in the chair, he was shocked as he started to stand, and just kept standing as his body seemed to soar into the sky, towering over Naruto.
"Give me the ring now, or you'll be too late!" The giant ordered as Naruto felt for the first time certainty in his choice.
"NO, I don't care what happens to me, you aren't getting this ring!" He shouted as the man growled, and Naruto did the only thing he could think to do, he turned tail and started to run away.
Only to come face-to-face with an elderly man.
"I was really surprised that you were willing to give up your sword over that ring." The man said as he chuckled light-heartedly and this time Naruto didn't feel the creeping chill he did before.
"It would seem that the prediction was correct after all." He said as Naruto looked confused as the man walked towards him.
"What prediction?" Naruto asked as the elderly man pointed passed him.
"I think he should be the one to tell you." The blonde turned to look, expecting the giant to be towering over him still, only to find that somehow the light had changed as a golden yellow-orange spread over the plain as Naruto saw that not only was the guardian gone, but the gate was shut and no sound could be heard within the city.
But standing in front of the shut gate was a man close to Naruto's age, in fact that seemed to share a similar taste in clothing as he approached the stationary blonde, his long black cloak fluttering behind him. His dark grey muscle shirt revealed that while the man wasn't ripped, he had enough muscle that, when combined with the look in his eyes and his gait, he could easily handle himself in a fight. His midnight blue pants were tucked crisply into a pair of inky, pristine combat boots. At his side, a black blade hung loosely, which set off Naruto's danger senses as the blue-eyed man smirked, brushing his wild blonde hair back.
"Who are you?" Naruto asked warily as the man smiled, as if he had pulled a prank on the man in front of him.
"The King of the Afterlife, the Judge of Souls, the Inescapable Thief, but you can call me Death." Death answered and Naruto jumped as his own voice answered him.
"W-Why do you look like that?" Naruto asked as the man shrugged his shoulders, which had an interesting effect as he seemed to change as a bottomless mist washed over Death's body, leaving him in a long, tight midnight blue dress that emphasized his, now her, desirable curves, a long mane of black hair fell down her neck as she smirked at the awestruck Naruto.
"It was either this or that." Death responded with Regina's voice as Naruto gulped. It had been a long time since he was actually afraid for his life, which made him laugh moments later as Death and the elderly men looked at him.
"I saw what you did and the only thing I could think was, 'I'm going to die.' I'm already dead!" Naruto cackled with laughter as Death smiled softly at him.
"Not totally, actually, that's why we're here." Death retorted as Naruto's laughter died instantly.
"Huh?" He said stupidly.
"You're a Wraith, still attached to the world by some tether. Judging from your reaction, I'd say your love for this body's soul since it did just keep you from entering my realm." Death responded; walking away as Naruto watched her sashay away. He brutally murdered the mental voice that tried reminding him that he was actually ogling a supernatural being, and not his fiancée.
"This is where all the problems originate from." The elderly man said as Naruto looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked.
"You truly believe that Regina loved you, and that's simply not possible." The man said and Naruto didn't think before he punched the man across his cheek, which would've worked had the blonde not tumbled through his noncorporeal body.
"She did love me, you old geezer!" Naruto snarled.
"No, she's a villain, and therefore incapable of loving anybody. You were duped into sacrificing yourself for her." The man said as Naruto gritted his teeth tightly.
"You imbecilic old coot! The Dark Curse requires her to sacrifice her most precious' heart to enact it, the fact that I'm dead proves that the curse worked, and therefore she loved me!" Naruto shouted as Death smirked, watching the pair as he shifted back to Naruto's form, using his blade to clean under his nails.
"If that were true, than why are you here. If she truly loved you, then why did she need to enact the Dark Curse, huh?" The elderly man snarked back as Naruto growled.
"Because my father had an alternative reason for wanting to jump through that portal. Besides, we did it together, I could've stopped her at any point and told her it was my heart in that chest." Naruto said simply and the older man snorted.
"Then why didn't you, unless you wanted to die, maybe you did love her at one point but not anymore, but you knew if you went through the portal, you'd be forever bound to her with no way to escape. Maybe this was your great escape." Naruto actually drew his blade at this point.
"Why can't you get it in your thick skull, for her happily-ever-after, I would die one, ten, a thousand times if necessary, because I love her and that is more than enough payment for my life!" Naruto shouted as the elderly man groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Except she didn't love you, it was just the effects of one of your father's potions." He revealed, but Naruto didn't miss a beat, "No, that's a lie. She loved me without any magic involved!" Naruto responded.
"We'll just keep arguing in circles for the rest of eternity, so I'm going to be the bigger man and just drop it. Now I'm here because you've screwed up all sorts of things. Destiny had a plan all lain out, and you were never a part of it." The man said as Naruto growled, but relented, resheathing his blade.
"What do you mean; I was never a part of Destiny's plan?" Naruto asked confusedly as Death sniggered behind him.
"Rumplestiltskin was never supposed to have had you. In Destiny's original plan, he only had one son, Baelfire, but somehow he ended up with you as well. Thankfully you didn't damage things too much; however, now that you've died I've fixed the story you so carelessly interfered in." He continued; a large thickly bound book in his hands as he scribbled in it.
"What do you mean you fixed it, what did you do?!" Naruto demanded as the man looked at him with emotionless eyes.
"You never existed in this story, which creates the issue that if that history never happened; certain things had to have happened such as Regina sacrificing somebody to cast the Dark Curse." He said, and Naruto gasped.
"Henry?" He asked, before his mind flew back to earlier when he was looking into the courtyard where he saw a younger version of Henry sitting by a fountain.
"Dead, also because you were never there Belle never adventured out of your father's castle, and instead she did try to run away from him, she still was captured by Regina, but she kept her to hurt Rumplestiltskin. All the people you executed were spared because Regina didn't have the manpower to capture them. She also was never given the coronation crown, and therefore…" The man paused as Naruto fell to his knees.
"Emma, I never saved her." He mumbled.
"Yes, she lived a long miserable life because you never saved her before she finally slit her wrists with a pair of shears and killed herself. Because you weren't around after Baelfire left, Rumplestiltskin went crazy, killing many people; the same could be said of Regina since she couldn't fill the hole in her heart after Daniel. Also, Snow White was never captured and therefore people didn't resent her, leading to a much more one-sided rebellion when they overthrew Regina. Need I go on?" He asked rhetorically as Naruto stared at the ground before jumping to his feet.
"So why are you telling me all this?" Naruto demanded as the man sighed.
"In the words of your father, I'll make a deal with you. You can be restored to the living world, not the Enchanted Forest, to the realm where all the people in the Enchanted Forest dwell which has no magic. If you're so positive that Regina loved you without any magical influence, do it again. True love's kiss will break the changes I've made, and restore them to the way you knew them." The man said as Naruto didn't have to think as he nodded furiously.
"Don't feel like you have to accept so easily, Naruto." Death said as he came up, slowly changing into a figureless shadow. "I can't keep you here; you're a Wraith which means you'd wander the world until you were able to sever the tether keeping you to the mortal coil, in this case your love for Regina. This is why I'm here, to offer you a gift." Death said with a smile that reveal perfect white teeth which stood out against his nearly pitch black skin.
"You aren't the first or the last Wraith; most spirits don't even notice the Forest of Sin. I'm offering you this gift because you endured it, which means that you feel no guilt over the sins you've committed in your living life. Considering the way you clung to that ring, you do feel emotions, especially where that one girl, Emma was it?" Death questioned, interrupting his own monologue. Naruto nodded hesitantly, wondering where he was going with this speech.
"So instead I believe you committed those dark acts, killing, thieving, lying, assorted other sordid details…" Death trailed off. "Where was I? Oh yes. I believe you would make a wonderful Reaper for me." Death said with what was probably meant to be a soft smile, but it came out like a murderous demon.
"A Reaper?" Naruto asked as Death nodded.
"Yes, I've imbued your blade with the power of my scythe which will allow you to speak to lingering spirits, as well as reviving the dead provided their spirits linger; once they enter my kingdom, I'm not giving them back. Also, I'll need a payment to release souls that would be mine, so you'll have to sacrifice a soul in their place." Death said as Naruto nodded, his head spinning from all the information in the past hour.
"Oh yes, Naruto, although magic is extremely rare in this realm you're heading to, that blade will function similarly to your father's dagger. So long as you have it by your side, you should be able to use basic magic such as glamour and summoning things, and maybe other spells provided you rest afterwards, but…" The still unnamed man said as Naruto nodded understandingly.
"Okay, but I have a question, how will I find Regina once I'm in this new world?" The blonde Reaper asked.
"You will come across a guide that will, well, guide you to her. You will know in your heart when you find this guide. Until you are able to find her and break the curse, I would recommend settling in and living a life in the meanwhile. As I'm sure you remember, the magic between your soul and Regina's still exists, allowing you to age at the same pace as your 'beloved'." The wizened man said, slowly walking passed Naruto, who nodded obediently at the information.
"Yeah, the Dark Curse will preserve them at there current age until the Savior breaks the curse. My father explained it to me." Naruto said, tightly gripping his blade.
"Yes, but think of this little challenge as a separate, but intertwined part of the Dark Curse. Even if the Savior breaks the Curse, no one will remember you until you fix the so called damage to your story. Just as equally, if you somehow miraculously defy fate and Regina falls in love with you before the Curse is broken, she, nor anyone else, will remember you as Naruto Gold, the… what was it you were called towards the end of your life again? Ah yes, the Mad King, a fitting title if I do say so myself." The as-of-yet unnamed man exclaimed with a knowing smirk as Naruto closed his eyes, sighing at the reminder of his title among the denizens of the Enchanted Forest.
"Well, I think that's all the information we can give you, so if you'll just wait a moment you'll be sent on your way." Death said confidently as Naruto breathed, slightly scared. But he chose this path, and he didn't regret it one bit. He was being given the chance to be with his Regina again, and there was no price he wouldn't pay for this chance, his new job as a Reaper was just icing on the cake in his opinion.
A/N: Sup guys, I just got back from a week-long vacation up to Pennsylvania to visit the town of Hershey, which was AWESOME! *Cue fan-girl squeal.* Anyways, I got back around 3:30 in the morning from my flight, and slept all morning yesterday. I hope you enjoy the chapter as next chapter will be in the real world at the start of canon, which will follow a similar thread of thought to this chapter in that I'll once again have to properly explain a 'large' amount of information so the story is understandable. Oh well, I'm enjoying your guys reviews, so keep them up and let me know what you think.
P.S. -Fun Trivia Fact: The title of this chapter had absolutely nothing to do with the chapter in general, and mostly to do with my feelings in trying to explain everything in a plausible manner without it becoming boring, so yeah.