:: Summary - Freedom. Ever so rarely did he ever have the chance to be free from it all. He was not blind to it. He knew deep down the struggles, the loss, the death of everything he held dear brought him to this place. To forever know freedom and dwell in peace from the horrible cycles that encompassed his destiny the day he was born. But not alone. Never alone. Now he understood more than anything what his friends meant, what his Nī-san meant. Freedom was an oddity. And now that he had it, he honestly did not know what to do with it. ::

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:: Prologue Chapter - The Path to Elseworld ::

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[Los Angeles, California. February 3rd, 2007.]

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...

It happened at a random convenience store in the middle of the night.

*Bang! Bang!*

Taken out of his thoughts suddenly, Uzumaki Naruto looked down at what hit him and saw two small holes in his shirt. He looked up and saw a no-named man armed with a simple handgun and a black ski-mask covering his face. Idly, the Uzumaki reached into one of the holes in his shirt and pulled out a small, flattened bullet. It had not pierced obviously, only scratched the surface of his skin because he lowered his guard the way he did.

"You shot me?" Naruto said flatly. He looked at the masked man again, seeing the man's arm shake and eyes widen in fear.

*Bang! Bang!*

The armed man shot twice again, almost trying as though he was double-checking that he did in fact shoot the blonde-haired teen.

It did little harm; Naruto knew he was every bit superhuman when compared to these people. Now that he was aware, the bullets did not even leave a scratch (save for ruining his shirt again).

"This is my favorite shirt!" Naruto said miffed, tugging the orange shirt and seeing the now four holes littering it.

"Shit!" Naruto heard the man curse, "you're one of them!?" he accused. Already it seemed like the man was about to have a panic attack from whatever thought he made Naruto out to be.

"Nīsan?"

How could he be so forgetful! Naruto's heart plummeted when he heard that small voice squeaked out to him. He looked to his side and saw that young girl, so very confused about what had just happened. The noise from the gun made her cover her ears. Wincing painfully from the ringing in her ears she cracked one eye open and saw them.

"Asami!" Naruto whispered.

That armed man in his stupor and panic raised his gun again, this time taking aim at the young girl.

That shift in movement in the corner of his eye, Naruto's brief shock quickly became one with rage. A brief flash of red flared from his eyes before Naruto reached forward and grabbed onto the armed man's arm before he even had a chance to realize what happened.

"You think you can try and kill my little sister!?" Naruto raged with a roar.

*Crunch!*

It only took a second for the pain to come, the masked man's whole wrist did not snap in two, instead everything from the man's whole wrist crushed into paste and powder under the Uzumaki's grip. He would have screamed loud for everyone to hear, had it not been for the blonde teen to use his free hand and latch onto the man's mouth - muffling his cries of agony.

Naruto moved forward, lugging the man into a wall in the corner of the store they were in. Naruto lifted the near three-hundred-pound man and slammed him back first into the nearby wall with his feet dangling off the floor.

"You scum" Naruto hissed. "Shooting at me was fine, but the moment you tried to shoot my little sister..." Naruto dug his newly sharpened nails into the man's mask, gripping tighter by the second. The man flailed, screams still muffled but one arm trying desperately to pry the blonde's grip.

No one could see it, not unless they saw it from a different angle. These strangle glistening flakes radiated from the yellow-haired teen. And the next thing that happened was the man's whole head suddenly froze, encased not in ice but a transparent red sheet of glistening crystal. The man's body went limp.

Naruto sneered, letting go.

The man's body was stiff, muscles locking into place that he still stood even when his feet touched the floor when Naruto let go.

The scowl on his face only lessened when he set his sights on his little sister, Koizumi Asami. Around the corner of the shelves and unable to see what happened, Naruto only crouched and met the young girl with mismatched colored eyes.

"Are you okay, Asami?" Naruto asked worryingly, hands brushing her small face and patting down to make sure there were no bumps or scuffles along her clothing.

"H-hai" the small six-year-old little girl with green and brown colored eyes said weakly. She stared at her older brother figure, her hero.

"Don't worry, I promised I'll never let anything bad happen to you" Naruto promised, giving a toothy grin. It was a smile that always comforted her, a smile Asami trusted. Gently, Naruto picked her up and soon began to leave the store. He made sure she avoided seeing the standing body of the no-name. Just before Naruto came to the door, he looked and saw the store clerk shaking from what he saw. A porty sized man with a plain appearance.

Naruto stared flatly at him. "You should probably call the police, and make sure to clean that up, it stinks." Naruto pressed the door forward with the chime ringing. Naruto and the young girl named Asami seamlessly blended into the dark of night. The door closed loudly. And that exact moment the body slowly tilted and fell forward.

*Crack! Crash!*

The crystal that encased the man's head shattered like glass, exploding in a glitter of glistening red crystal dust and the body smashing into the hard floor with a wet thump.

The store clerk saw it. And it would haunt him for the rest of his days.

And as for the crude cameras that saw everything, the repercussions on this specific day would change everything.

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This chapter was to give you an insight into my style of writing and how I am presenting Naruto. A bit of bait for you to bite and review. And please understand my version of Naruto is OC and AU and comes from an entirely different background than his Canon-Counterpart. I know it will be a long road for me, and I know updates will be a tough subject in the future. My idea may or may not be original, but I hope you read it with an open mind.

I made this first chapter as a prototype to test the waters and maybe I will try again with a brand-new chapter. So, I guess you can call this a one-shot chapter.

If you want me to follow through with just this chapter alone, please review and tell me what you think.

If any of you have any guesses about what I just did in this scene, do not hesitate to say it because you may turn out right. And for anyone who is guessing a pairing, I DO NOT DO HAREMS because it is pointless in this type of story unless it involves an actual harem story. My choice is between Artemis (how unoriginal) and Zatanna.

Please review and tell me what you think.