In the Land of Demons, there is a special well that was rumored to grant any wish. When Naruto finds it, he makes a wish that will bring him to a place where danger hides behind every corner and where he will find love and acceptance.
Disclaimer; I don't own Naruto or Inuyasha.
I adopted this story from StormFox02, along with their other 7 stories.. I am rewriting this story into my own, so it's not just a continuation, although some of their other stories will be.
I am going to be revamping this one, so it will be different from StormFox02's original post. I decided I wanted to keep Kagome in the story.
I own only the continued story idea and any OC's that appear.
All rights and credit goes to the rightful owners.
All my stories will be cross posted on Wattpad, , and Archive of Our Own, under the same user name!
Warning; not beta read, yaoi, harem, character bashing, slight Kagome bashing, slight angst, pining, rivalry, morally gray Orochimaru, he's still a bad guy; just not as bad towards Naruto, morally gray Kabuto
Paring; Naruto x Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, Hiten
"Sweet" - Speech
'Yo' - Thought
[Sup] - Author Note/Me rambling
"Gaki.." - Bijuu in Naru's head
"Lala" - Singing
"Iron Reaper, Soul Stealer" - Demonic Attacks/Jutsu
What happened! - Dreams/Flashbacks
[So I feel like I need to clear up the Qi vs Chakra that I mentioned in the "end chapter note" in the last chapter. I do actually know the difference between Qi (or Ki), reitsu, and chakra. I made that note when I first started writing the chapter and didn't yet take the time to research the differences and similarities.
What the note should have said was that I know the difference between the energies, I know at least the basics of how they function and interact with each other, that they will be explained with the aid of other animes (Bleach, Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Hunter X Hunter, just to name a few), and that they will not be explained correctly in this story.
Simply put, if I were to use correct interpretations of the energies (which, yes Naruto will be learning full control of all the energies within his being.. I think you all guessed that), Naruto would be way too overpowered, and I actually want to produce decent content with a little angst and a power struggle.
In other words, think of the Qi in this story as reitsu/spiritual energy and Chakra sort of as nen or purely just physical energy.
I apologize for the frustration, I know it's weird, but this is fiction. It doesn't have to be completely accurate so I'm gonna take full advantage of the wiggle room I've been given. I actually like the way the story is turning out so far, I might write something way more accurate way way down the line, but this is definitely not that story.
Thank you for reading my ramble, and please enjoy the story!]
Chapter 2 ~ Ma! That Damn Centipede's Back!
~Last Time~
Surprised, Kaede then saw a spark of... something. Naruto watched as she approached him. She extended her hands and grabbed his face.
"Let me have a good look at ye... It's there, though I know not why, nor how." Naruto's face contorted in confusion.
"Huh?" Just before Naruto could question her about what she meant, he and Kaede both startled at some yelling that was coming from a distance. Some of the villager men had gone to check on the boy in the forest and had returned with an angry girl in a.. strange outfit..
"Another one?" Kaede questioned, both she and Naruto looked at each other in confusion.
That Night in Kaede's Hut
Naruto rubbed out his wrists, trying to return the circulation in them. The villagers had given him back his weapons, scrolls, and bag upon Kaede's request, he'd already checked to make sure those were untampered with.
'Just my luck, something like this would happen..' After heaving a heavy sigh, he turned to watch as the strangely dressed girl, Kagome, made some tea to go with the stew Kaede was preparing for them. 'If that's how they greet all newcomers, they should really work on their hospitality..'
Non-partial to the thoughts of her blond guest, Kaeda poured a hefty serving of stew into a bowl, holding it out towards the only boy in the room.
"Stew?" she asked, watching as the boy smiled and accepted the bowl.
"Thank you. It's been an entire day since I've had any food." she found his tone strangely cheerful, despite his rather bleak words. He gave the bowls continents a sniff. "This smells absolutely delicious!"
Kaede's lips upturned in a small smile at his compliment, before they were tugged back down. She glanced between the two foreigners in her hut, settling her thoughts before speaking.
"Bare us no ill will, child. For though I now see ye mean us no harm, in these times of war, no stranger may be welcomed among us without deep distrust." Both Naruto and the girl looked at Kaede in confusion.
'War? There is no war going on as far as I know. That would mean that I'm either on another continent.. Or is it possible that I… No, no that can't be right! There's no way that's even possible..'
"War?" the girl, Kagome, asked while passing out the hot tea. Her facial expression showed skepticism, and her thoughts weren't far off either, 'Okay, so first I get attacked by some centipede woman, then I find some cute dude attached to a tree, which gets arrows and salt thrown at me, and now apparently there's a war going on! Seriously!?'
"Yes, war. Although we've been lucky in that it hasn't spread this far and, from what we've been told by passing travelers, it seems that the battles are beginning to wane.. It is something to still be cautious of." Kaede passes a steaming bowl of stew to Kagome, receiving a quiet 'thanks' in return.
"I see.." Naruto's gaze drops to his empty bowl, trying to iron out his thoughts on his current predicament. 'There's no way I somehow ended up all the way in Water Country.. Kirigakure is the only place I know that is actively in the midst of a near constant war.. Well, only one way to find out.' Naruto raised his head and watched silently until Kaede was finished eating. In the back of his mind, he noticed that Kagome also seemed to be deep in thought. 'She seems just as confused as I am.. Interesting..'
Once Kaede took her last bite, Naruto sat up a little straighter. When Orochimaru had found out about Kabuto training Naruto, because of course he would, he had insisted that Naruto learn some form of manners.. Not because he wanted the blond to use them religiously, but because it would be a useful skill to have when dealing with certain types of clients.
Although Naruto was certain Orochimaru was using it as a subtle form of torture, the only type Kabuto would allow him to get away with, it did come in handy for his secret jobs.
"Excuse me, Kaede-sama, do you know of a place called Kirigakure." He had a feeling that if he mentioned the name Oni no Kuni she would think he came from a country inhabited by demons. However, her reaction to the hidden mist village could be very telling of his current location.
Both the old priestess and young girl turned to look at him with a quizzical look in their eyes.
"Kirigakure? Never heard of it. Is that where your people are from?" Now it was Naruto's turn to be confused.
"My people?"
"Ye have such bright, golden hair and strange clothing. I can only assume you are not of this area." This time, Naruto nodded in understanding.
"You are correct that I am not from here, but I'm not from Kirigakure either."
"Then why would you ask about that place?" Kagome asked, confusion written clear across her face.
"Simple. Kaede-sama mentioned a war. And the way she spoke made it sound like it was far enough away to not pose a threat, but close enough to still be a concern if something were to happen?" Naruto said, posing his answer as a question he redirected at Kaede. She nodded her head at his words, impressed with his ability to assess the situation. "From what I remember, Kirigakure is the only village in the midst of a war, a civil war to be exact.. Although they've tried to keep it under wraps for some time, it wasn't long before the other villages found out. Everyone's been keeping an eye on its progress since. Even civilians know of the war.. The fact that you, Kaede-sama, don't know about Kirigakure and are possibly speaking of a different war entirely, doesn't bode well for me.."
"That… that makes sense.." Kagome said in surprised alarm. After a few moments she turned to face Kaede. It was easy to tell she was both hopeful and frightened by her next question. "Kaede, do you know anything about Tokyo, by chance?"
Kaede seemed to turn the question over in her head for a moment. Then she turned to the school girl with a resigned shrug and shake of her head.
"To-ky-oh.. Never heard of it." Kagome sagged at the response as Kaede began tending to the fire. After a few moments passed, Kaede turned to pose a question of her own. "Is that where ye come from?"
"Yes! I was born and raised in Tokyo. There's a shrine that's been in my family for generations.. That's where I live." The worry and sadness was easily heard in her voice. Unfortunately, It would seem that neither Kaede nor Naruto knew what to do when it came to comforting an emotional girl. Kaede turned her attention to Naruto, hoping that Kagome would be able to pull herself together.
"And ye, Naruto? If not Kirigakure then where do ye people hail from?" Luckily for Kaede and Naruto, this question seemed to catch the young girls attention.
"Oh! Right, my people are from Konohagakure, or Konoha, for short." He responded, rubbing the back of his head a little awkwardly. He never was comfortable with talking about his village, both because of his employment and his childhood.
"Hmm.. and do they all have the same coloring as you?"
".. Um, I'm sorry? Coloring?" Naruto tilted his head in question, "Do you mean my hair again?"
"Yes, it's certainly not something I'd expect to see form this area."
"Oh yes, you are right! However, I'm a bit of an oddity in my village as well. Not many people have the same hair color or.. clothing as me... If anything, I can say we are a diverse populous."
Kaede looked thoughtful. "Hmm, ye must be from a very cultured village. Ye talk like a scholar and ye come from a village with many different people." She also turned to look at Kagome. "Ye speak in much the same way, too?" Kagome smiled at the complement.
"Yes, I'm a ninth grader at Kagome no Chugakko (2)! It's a school located in Tokyo Japan.. And while we don't have a lot of diverse students, we do have a foreign exchange program!" Kaede and Naruto shared confused looks with each other.
"Foreign exchange Program?"
"Oh, um, it's a.. a learning program where some of our students go to study abroad-erm at a school in another country. And, in exchange, students from the same school in the other county are sent to learn in our school.." Naruto and Kaede shared another look, this time choosing not to comment on the strange form of customs the girl seemed proud of.
All Naruto could think of was the breach of security that could mean for the village. While Kaede just found it strange.
Naruto offered up a slightly strained smile. "I should really be heading back soon. I'm sure the others are wondering where I went.." His thoughts drifted back to the well he'd crawled out of just that evening. 'Maybe I should take a look at the well... I'm sure that thing's my ticket back to Uni no Kuni.' He thought, quickly finishing off the last of his tea. This reminder of not being where they were supposed to seemed to jump start Kagome as well. The girl quickly began eating the remainder of her food and gulping down the cooled tea at an alarming, and kinda gross, rate.
Kaede looked from one to the other in thought before turning back to her still simmering pot of stew. 'I'm sure I felt it. Despite the Jewel having been burned more than fifty years ago along with my sister, this child seems to have it in his body.. And yet, so does the girl. Such a thing should not be possible.. How strange.'
Both of their musings, and Kagome's rushed eating, were interrupted by the sound of crashes outside the hut. All three occupants sprang to their feet to rush outside.
"What is going on here?" Kaede called to her clansmen.
They all stared in shock as the giant centipede woman both Naruto and Kagome had described as having attacked them before crashed through some buildings. She had a horse in her mouth, which she threw their way.
Reacting quickly, Naruto grabbed onto Kaede and Kagome before jumping out of the way of the terrified projectile. Kagome cried out as she and Kaede were deposited onto the ground a safer distance away. Both females were amazed at how far he'd managed to jump.
"That's the centipede-woman from earlier! But how? I could have sworn she had disintegrated.." Kagome shouted over the screams and battle cries of the villagers.
"She can regenerate.. But I have her arm I ripped, so she couldn't have regenerated from just that." Naruto called back, doing his best to assess the situation and find the best way to handle it.
Kaede looked at him in surprise. 'This boy can jump at such distances and took the arm of a demon? Just who are ye, Naruto?'
"Wait, she lost an arm when I encountered her too! I.. didn't think to pick it up, so she might have-uh regenerated from that.." Kagome told the others, feeling a little guilty that the appearance of the giant centipede lady might be her fault.
Before anything else could be said the centipede-woman noticed them. She started screeching at them, a strange sort of excitement permeating her voice.
"You have it, you have it!" She charged towards them at impressive speed. "Give me the Sacred Jewel!"
Once again, Naruto quickly grabbed onto Kaede and Kagome, jumping out of her way. Once he'd gotten a good distance away, he sat them down again with a half cocked plan in mind.
When the centipede turned for another strike, he pulled several kunai from his pouch with exploding tags attached to them. He quickly started running towards the overgrown bug woman.
Before he took off, Kaede caught a glimpse of the tag and thought 'A sutra! Could this boy be a monk?''
She and Kagome watched in shock as Naruto ran up the side of the bug woman. Every few feet he'd stab a kunai into her thick flesh.
'Impossible! Mistress Centipede's skin is too thick for our spears and arrows to pierce, how can he do it with the force of his hands alone?' Kaede and several others of her clan's men thought, watching the strange phenomenon before them. Once Naruto had made it to the human-esk part of the demon he managed to stab one last kunai into her throat before using her head as a kick board to propel himself away from the angrily screeching demon.
As soon as he was back on the ground, Naruto activated the tags, causing everyone else to gawk in awe while Mistress Centipede screamed in pain filled fury.
'A demon hunter.. He has to be some kind of demon hunter!' was the general thought that passed through the villagers mind.
"ARGGH!" The monster screamed as she felt the brunt of the explosion. The kunais had managed to give each tag an opening to explode off chunks of the demons flesh. Fortunately for them, the demon's regenerative properties were a little on the slow side, unfortunately she was still fast and huge.. And now extremely pissed off.
"Give it to me! Give me the Sacred Jewel!" She screeched again, diving head-on for Kagome who barely managed to move out of it's way. Kaede's eyes widened in surprise as she registered what it said.
"It said Sacred Jewel... Are ye its till!?" Kaede questioned, she didn't know which child to ask, but she got her answer very quickly.
"Uh, I have no idea!" / "Not a clue!" was shouted back at her from both other worlders. Kaede looked on in surprise as fear and dread slowly grew in her heart.
'There can not be… Dear heaven, there can not be!' After a few unsuccessful tries at killing Naruto and capturing Kagome, the centipede seemed to be distracted by a few rambunctious hunters that had managed to catch their second wind. Naruto quickly grabbed Kagome, bringing her back to Kaede's side.
"She mentioned the Sacred Jewel before, but I have no idea what that is." Naruto said, watching as Mistress Centipede's wounds slowly healed. 'The longer this fight drags on the slower her healing factor becomes.. She's running out of energy, but at this rate at least half the village will be wiped out before we manage to take her down..'
"And I've heard of the jewel, but I-" Before she could finish, Mistress Centipede seemed to take notice that her prey seemed distracted and decided to act.
"I must have it! I must!" She yelled as she started rotating at rapid speed and threw her spinning tail at them.
Naruto once again picked up Kaede and Kagome, jumping out of harm's way.
'That thing seems to believe that both Kagome and I have the Sacred Jewel.. We can use that to our advantage, but there's too many civilians in the way! We need to move..' Before he could voice his thoughts, two men frantically ran up to Kaede.
"Arrows, spears, nothing works!"
"We must lure it to the dry well." Kaede replied solemnly. Seeing an opportunity, Naruto turned to Kaede.
"The well in the Forest of Inuyasha?" Kaede nodded.
"Iny.. Yasha?" Kagome questioned, momentarily distracted by the strange name.
"Dude with dog ears!" Naruto quickly replied as he pulled six senbon out of a seal on his wrist. Kaede, Kagome, and the two men were extremely surprised by the unusual action.
"How did ye-"
"Not now!" Naruto said, taking aim and throwing three of the sendon at the still spinning demon. He knew the senbon alone wouldn't do much damage. Which was exactly why he chose such a weapon.
Those senbons had been a specially made gift from Orochimaru, of all people.
They were hollow with a pressurized needle in one end and three spaced holes at the other. Their hollow center made them capable of holding two small canisters of liquid. Each senbon was sensitive, almost hairline trigger sensitive. As soon as the needle point hit something it would inject it with its canister contents, while at the same time triggering the other canister to spray it's continents through the three aforementioned holes.
Naruto had to carefully use his chakra to safely jam and reset the trigger system, otherwise he'd be sprayed with the painfully deadly fluids every time he attempted to touch the damn things..
He loved his gift, just not the way he received them! (3)
The toxic liquid stored in the canisters oozed out and easily spread around the demon thanks to her rotation. The demon, once again, screeched as her skin sizzled and started to melt. The villagers watched in triumphant shock as whatever the boy threw seemed to work. Naruto frowned.
"Those senbon were fragile weapons that contained a special acid that melts through flesh... I have never tried it on a demon, but if what I believe is true, then this won't last long." The villagers turned to him in horror, fearing the demon would still come after them. "But at least I have a plan.. Kagome!"
"Y-yeah!?" she yelled back, having an idea as to the blonds plan.
"It's after us, we can lead it away to protect the villagers!"
"O-okay, right!" With a nod of agreement, Naruto picked up Kagome and swung her around to be on his back.
"Wait." Kaede yelled as Naruto quickly jumped out of the way of Centipede's next attack, throwing his last three sendon at her, and started running towards the forest at incredible speeds. The villagers watched as their strange guests easily took advantage of the head start the blond had given them..
"We must follow them! They're in great danger!" Kaede called to her clansmen, her tone frantic.
"Kaede-sama!" Yelled a villager as they brought her horse and bow to her. Some of the villagers then mounted their own steeds and proceeded to follow the duo and demon.
For the most part, Naruto was able to stay ahead of the centipede but it was quickly catching up. Then he realized a critical error he had made.
".. Shit.. Hey Kagome?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you... remember where the well is?" He asked, feeling a little upset with himself at forgetting its location in such a dire situation. She looked down at the back of his head in surprise before glancing around their location.
"Um, no I-I don't..!" Naruto grunted in response. That lack of knowledge did not bode well for them.
Just as he had breached the forest borders, the centipede charged at him with a sudden burst of speed.
He managed to jump out of the way of a head on collision, but could not dodge her tail midair and was sent crashing to the ground, Kagome yelping in pain as she landed not far from himself..
"DAMN IT. ISN'T THERE ANYBODY WHO CAN STOP THIS THING?" Kagome yelled in pain filled frustration.
Then they felt it, somewhere in the forest an energy signature pulsed.
"What.. is that?"
"It's that boy from earlier, he's still alive!" Naruto quickly grabbed Kagome in a princess carry and started running straight for the boy's energy signature.
Deep in the forest, still stuck to the tree, the body of the silver haired boy with dog ears was pulsing with reawakened, restless energy. After several moments, his body stopped pulsing and the boy seemed to wake from his forced slumber.
"I smell it, the blood of the woman who killed me.. and it's coming closer." With a malicious grin, he reached for the arrow in his chest only to wince in pain as it released a bit of sacred energy, repelling his attempt at freedom.
"Guess I'll just have to wait then.." He settled back against the tree, knowing it wouldn't be long.
'I wonder if she'll be there..'
1: Yes, the chapter title was inspired by the Michael Rapaport crazy lookin' cat video!
2: This is literally what .com told me her school's name was..
3: You know Orochimaru attacked him!
[And our dear puppy has awakened!
For those wondering about the harem, that is "under maintenance". I'm gonna stick to StormFox02's original harem set, as well as a couple more that I feel fit with the story line.
I'll update any tags/warning as the story progresses.
Thank you for reading! Please, comment, like/kudo, and follow/subscribe!]