We were running, not that I remembered setting Haku down, but we were running to the battle. It took us almost a minute before we got to where the sounds of fighting could reach us, even though we were running all out. Maybe if we weren't running at such speeds the incident wouldn't have happened.
Right before we reached the fight, a tree in front of us exploded, sending large splinters, some the size of my forearm, flying, shredding all in the spray. One was going to hit Haku, so I jumped at her, grabbing her and putting her behind my body, calling on the iron in my body to make a shield on my back. The wooden spear tore through the iron as if it were paper, ripping into my body and tearing me away from Haku before exiting my body, throwing me to the side. I rolled to a stop, maybe 15 yards away from where I had been hit, wondering why I didn't feel any pain. I had closed my eyes at the impact and when I opened them I didn't see the forest.
Nothing. Blackness stretched out before me, beside me, under my body was more of the blackness; solid blackness. I stood hurriedly.
Where am I?
I spun around and spied a figure in the distance, slowly walking in my direction, a woman. Where she was walking from I couldn't tell as more of the blackness stretched out behind her. It took her an eternity to get closer, and yet it felt as though her travel was instantaneous. Slowly I could discern more of her garb. Blue. That was what I saw first. Blue armor covered her chest, accented with gold designs along the edges of the steel plates. Silver hair flowed down her back in a long braid that reached her feet, true silver, not that white-grey of Kakashi's. A white battle skirt swirled around her legs as she walked made of at least two pieces of cloth, but more likely four. One on each hip, divided in the front and back to allow full leg motion, with a drape hanging behind the meeting of those first two to hide her modesty, and one in the back to do the same. A sword hung at her left hip, sheathed in more of the blue metal of her armor.
She stopped right in front of me, and I started, wondering when she had approached so close.
"Have you seen anyone with a marking here?"
Her words invaded my mind as much as entered my ears. Soft but had a steal will that demanded obedience.
"What kind of mark?"
What possessed me to say that? I could tell that this woman was dangerous and until I figured out where I was and how to get back to my friends – and now family- I didn't want to do something as risky as fight.
"I don't know." I looked at her with a frown at this. "I was merely told I would know it when I saw it. Well, have a good day."
She walked past me, and I stood still, thinking how odd her task was to be searching for something you didn't have even the slightest idea what it looked like.
I turned around and called after her.
"Wait! Where am I?"
She looked back over her shoulder and answered.
"You are between the dimensions, at the door and meeting place of all worlds."
I sat down to think, watching her retreating back until it disappeared in the blackness that surrounded me. Just as I made up my mind that she was the only one who could help me get out of the place where I was, and that I would have to help her find this marked person I heard her voice behind me.
"You wouldn't happen to have a marking, would you?"
I started, whipping my head around to look at her, before looking back in the direction she had disappeared in. I slowly stood and faced her, noting that she stood there calmly, as if she had all the time in the world, or maybe, there was no time here, as that would explain her approach from behind.
I looked at her, our eyes met, locked in a silent contest. Not really a contest of wills, but a contest of… something… something I can't name. I brushed my left wrist, ending the flow of chakra to the seal that engulfs my arm in a genjutsu when activated, revealing the dragon summoning tattoo. Her eyes widened as she looked at it, before looking back at my eyes.
"Come," a simple demand, made while holding out her hand to me. "I must take you somewhere."
"But I must be somewhere and I highly doubt we are talking about the same place."
"If you ever wish to return to your previous life, you must first come with me."
A threat, maybe not intentional, but there; a condition that I didn't want to fulfill was being thrust upon me. I hesitantly took her hand.
Bright sunlight poured in though the balcony, almost as if showing the wind where it must take its balmy breezes. The beams of sunlight fell upon a bed, richly adorned with many time consuming carvings, and silks draped across it. A woman lay there, a light dress of white cotton covering her, her light brown hair spread out in a three foot halo around her head except for a few strands she was idly twirling around a finger. I had stood there a long moment before she sat up, and looked at me, judging me. She stood up and reached over her head as if stretching, when her dress dissolved, showing me her flawless body, before a long, flowing dress of emerald green covered her.
"So you are our new summoner." She walked around me, studying me as a potential buyer would a horse.
Wait 'our summoner?' She's a dragon?
She stopped in front of me and put her arms around my neck, noting, while she did so, my confusion.
"What, did you misunderstand me?"
"You can change your shape?"
What a lame question with such an obvious answer. Today my eloquence had left me.
She quirked up an eyebrow at this.
"Well at least he's somewhat intelligent."
I didn't know what to make of this. From my frame of reference, the only one that could say I was 'somewhat intelligent' was Shikamaru, so her use of that phrase in reference to me made me feel slighted.
She let go of me and walked over to the door, that exited to a hallway I presumed, as she said something that I couldn't make out, and upon receiving a, for me barely heard, response, she turned and walked out onto the balcony, motioning for me to accompany her.
The bright sunlight blinded me for a moment, but when they got used to the intense light the sight that lay before me took my breath away. Below us was a town, with enough wealth to cover the fronts of all the buildings lining the main thoroughfare with white marble, the main road, itself was paved with black granite. Seven white marble fountains were evenly placed down the road, from one right at the outer wall's gate to the gates that lead to the path up the mountain to the palace, as what I believed the structure I was now in to be. Beyond the city lay fertile fields, lush and green in the sunlight, with dark green forests stretching out through the valley on up the mountainsides. A single road, paved in a white rock I couldn't identify, ran straight as an arrow, down the valley and out of sight in the distance.
"We were once the dominate life here, shortly after we were exiled here, on this earth." She spoke calmly but I could hear a distant longing in her voice. "But man, little insignificant man, learned that he could create things with his hands. Fire; a recreation of our own power, was his first major achievement, followed by copper weapons and tools. And as time progressed, what he made became greater and more useful to a larger number of peoples, until they began creating cities, and creating more and wondrous things. It was then that some of our kind took upon themselves the vestige of man, to walk among men and learn of their ways. Ever sense then, we have lost ground to them. If they desired a land we had, they would send thousands to kill us, and take it. We were never a populous race, with our longevity, mating was never a necessity like it is with man, for the continuation of the species, and our incessant infighting for better hunting grounds. Eventually we were, for the most part, made to live among man, though a few of us, like my grandmother, were able to create kingdoms like this one, where dragons lived among man's rulers, as councilors or sometimes even lovers or rulers themselves. But most of the dragons of old are dead or hiding in the skin of man, and those few who don't live hard lives on the fringes of habitable lands."
She looked at me then, again examining me.
"You were chosen to prove that we can live with the other tribes and the men of our old home; given our summoning contract as a sign of faith in you, as you were the first one of our blood to be born there in more than millennia."
"What do you mean, 'our blood?'" my face scrunched up in confusion.
"Your mother was a human, a woman of skill and strength, but your father was a dragon, a fallen dragon to be sure, but a dragon nonetheless. I don't know the exact happenings that lead to your birth but of your heritage I am sure."
I looked at her, my heart longing for the information she claimed to have of my family.
"Who were they?" Three simply words, but they held so much meaning when put together in such a fashion. She must have felt my want, to know my family.
"Your mother was the offspring of a political marriage, the fourteenth such one, to ensure the lasting peace between two clans that once almost whiped each other off the face of the earth. The Scylding clan, born of ice and iron; and the Uzumaki clan, famed and feared for their impressive knowledge of the sealing arts. Kushina was her name.
The Uzumaki carried a bloodline that was powerful against dragons and as such they were sought after by the Hidden Leaf Village to be their jinchuriki, their 'demon containers.' She was the second such container for the fallen dragon they call the Kyuubi. Somehow, your father, the 'demon' that she held, impregnated her."
There was silence, broken only by the faint roar of the bustling city that lay below us. Eventually she left the balcony to go back inside, but I stayed there, my hands resting on the railing, holding myself up. So wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn't notice her leaving or her return until she placed her hand on my shoulder.
"Eric." I turned around, still half lost in thought, only taken out by the sight of another woman… a girl really. She looked no more than sixteen and stood about an inch shorter than the woman that had been talking to me. She spoke again.
"Because of the high energy cost of traveling between dimensions we are going to send one of our own with you, so that you will have someone to call on when times get hard; a teacher, comrade, and a friend preferably. My daughter was selected. Now, if you will, hold hands."
Her hands were small in my own, and were smooth and soft, so unlike my own, which were scared and roughed up with calluses or in the case of my right hand, a chunk of iron, made to do my will by my chakra. Suddenly a seal lit up on the ground around us and the girl's hair flew up, as if blown by a wind. She started becoming ethereal, and slow faded from sight. Neither acted like anything was wrong so I made no action despite the sense of unease I felt.
The seal disappeared and in my hand was a crystal, about the size of my index finger and a deep blue in color, set on a gold chain. The crystal emanated a power, and when I tried to contact it like I did for Amaterasu, I felt her response, not in words, but in an idea, a thought.
"Go now, and know that the dragon clan wishes you to greatness, and will be watching over you."
With that the world disappeared and the blackness was back. Before me stood the woman in blue armor with a faint smile on her face; she held out her hand, and after putting the crystal's chain around my neck I took her hand.
I lay on the forest floor, my body in pain, but not like what it should be in for the wound I had just received. A voice slipped into my mind, the girl spoke to me, and her voice had words this time.
I've done the best I could to heal your body but the injury is still sever, strenuous motion will completely undo what I have done.
Almost immediately another voice entered my head.
Master? You're alive! You fell and I couldn't reach your thoughts and then your heart stopped. But you're alive!
Amaterasu's voice suddenly stopped as she realized that there was another person in 'her' space. Almost immediately I felt hatred flare between the two of them.
"Girls this isn't the time for that, I need your help to save my friends. I'm sorry I'm about to undo your work girl."
The feeling of hatred died down and settled into a calm state that spoke of barely constrained tension. Weather they were going to attack each other or if they were merely preparing for the fight that lay before me I couldn't tell, not that I had time to question them. I stood, and gasped in pain, lancing into my back. Soothing coolness suddenly spread, taking away my pain.
My name is Lenneth.
I nodded, accepting the reprimand but my course was set.
"Let's go."
I sprang forward, noting with surprise my increased speed. Almost before I knew it I stood before the man who attacked Naruto. Surprise was etched into his face as he stepped back away from me before a smirk fell onto his lips.
"So the last of the Scylding clan stands before me, I think I'll take you too."
He lashed out with his sword, trying to take me out without damaging my body badly. His movements felt so slow, and almost lazily I deflected his attack, returning to the same poise as before I moved. My head down, so neither of us could see the other's eyes, my gaze rested on his chest, watching the muscles flex at his command, telling me where he would attack. He frowned as his attack went awry, and he swung again, and I again lazily deflected his attack. That continued for almost a minute as his face showed more and more confusion.
"Why the hell can't I hit you!"
His voice shook with anger, and spittle flew from his lips. His eyes flared wide as he swung again, trying to see what I was doing. It was then, that I realized that I had changed in body. I was faster, stronger, but my body didn't feel any different, there was no awkwardness that comes with sudden change. I decided that this had gone on long enough and I lashed out. He saw this movement and with a fearful face, brought up his sword to block. He was too slow, and I slashed off his fingers, breaking his hold on his sword, before lashing out at his face, striking his left cheek, and gashing him across the bridge of his nose and up onto the right side of his forehead. With a poof, he disappeared. I cast my mind out, reaching for his presence, and not finding it, let the tension leave my body, only to find myself face down in the dirt. Voices raced over me, and I recognized none of them, my head felt fuzzy and radiated pain every time my heart beat, my whole body felt like it was on fire. I closed my eyes and let the darkness consume me.
All too soon I awoke to voices calling my name, telling me I have to wake up and walk. I managed to do so, but immediately after the proctors left I collapsed, and Naruto and Haku caught me before I hit the floor and taking me to a room where I blacked out again. I woke multiple times the next few days, dizzy and disoriented. I couldn't get medical attention if I wanted to stay in the exam, so I lay in bed tended by Haku and Tenten, who in shifts sat by my bedside, attending to my fevered form. I slowly got better and by the end of the week I was well enough to walk around, even if they didn't want me to. But there was no choice; the contestants that were left were to appear in the assembly hall. I felt weak as I stood with the others before a large statue of two hands, together making the ram sign. The head proctor spoke to us, but I only hear splotches of his words, vaguely noticing that he coughed almost every sentence. I felt a hand drag me to the side and I followed it. I was told to watch the screens that were on the wall over the stone hands and I did, watching with dull eyes as names flickered by on the screens. They settled on my name and that of another, Susuki Uzumaki.
I'd like to thank lucyxnatsu-written for being a sounding board and Beta for my work.
I'd also like to thank you my readers for your continued interest in my writing, without which, I wouldn't have made it so far into this story.
Now in the interest in improving my writing, I ask all of you to review!