Disclaimer: See the prologue
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A/N: Yowza! It's been such a long time!
:deadpan: Half a year.
But it wasn't my fault! It's that dang Potter boy whispering in my ear at night, telling me to concentrate exclusively on his story, to the detriment of all else! Attention-seeking little-
You're starting to sound like Snape.
Funny you should mention that… I took a 'which HP character are you?' test recently, and it turned out I'm ninety-percent Snape. There was also that other one that-
:coughs pointedly:
:nervously: Ahahaha, but that is neither here nor then, is it?
Also, don't my HP-fic readers worry: I'll still be writing that. I just needed a break, because I realized that since I started the thing, I've been reading practically exclusively HP fanfics. I wanted to shift fandoms a little, is all. :shrugs:
Well, on with the fic!
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Code-o-rama:
Blah: narration
Blah: Japanese words explained in the lexicon at the bottom (either that or just onomatopoeia)
Blah: emphasis
"Blah": speaking
"Blah" 'Blah': Demon speech / mind speech
'Blah': thoughts / mental speech
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Darkness.
That's it. 'Darkness'. There was no other word to describe the Yami Sekai, for whatever there might have been, there was no light to see it by. It wasn't the deep shadows of a cloudy and moonless night, either; it was an absolute absence of light.
His companions didn't seem all that inconvenienced by it, though.
"It will take time for you to get used to your loss of sight," his grandmother was telling him from somewhere behind him and a little off to his right, "and you will have to rely on your other senses to get your bearings. It will be at least a week before the Darkness has sufficiently permeated your body for you to awaken your Ingan. In the meantime, we will camp here and try not to draw the attention of the more powerful bakemono."
The statement just begged the question. "What of the lesser ones?"
Although he couldn't see her face, he could definitely hear the sadistic glee in his cousin's answer, from right in front of him. "Those, you'll be fighting with the Taijutsu I taught you. It will keep you in shape and sharpen your other senses."
Why did he have to be related to a training-obsessed sadist?
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It had been three days already, and Naruto found himself rather loathe to regain his eyesight. It wasn't because he suddenly found his other senses that much more accurate, no. Rather, he'd had ample occasion to be in contact with the bodies of the bakemono while fighting them, and the mental images he'd been able to piece together as to their general appearance was at severe odds with Human aesthetics. I mean, what kind of demented god of creation would put a mouth there! And what was with the recurring slime theme, anyway? According to his trainers, these were mostly fish- and insect-based creatures, a parody of what existed within their own world. Well, whatever. They were still weird!
Also of note was the fact that, from the moment he had first laid foot in this world, he had the nagging feeling that something was watching him. He didn't know what, but it felt powerful. Very powerful. But most of all, it felt Malevolent; a concentration of malice and ill-will. And yet, it wasn't directed at him. It just didn't make any sense!
When he'd broached his concerns to his family, silence greeted his statement; before he was told to keep a metaphorical eye on the presence, but never go out of his way to pinpoint it. Therefore, he never went against their instructions, but that didn't prevent him from trying to catch a sense of where it was coming from.
That was when he caught the oddity. Most of the time, 'It' seemed to observe him from afar but, on the rare occasion, it felt like it came from within himself. And that scared him more than he was willing to admit.
Today—though the notion of day and night seemed ludicrous in this world, it was still a way to mark the passage of time—was another story altogether. He felt both the watcher without and the watcher within. At the same time.
And not only that, but they seemed to be conversing, for he could just make out a low murmur at the edge of his hearing. If he pushed just a little there, maybe-
His mind was suddenly overwhelmed by two overloud, growling voices, both steeped in malice and cunning. He cringed at the volume and his hands went to cover his ears, but it didn't help any. The voices sounded directly in his mind!
'-to have been sealed up like that… How the mighty have fallen, eh Kyuubi?' Kyuubi? As in, the nine-tailed demon fox that attacked Konoha over ten years ago? Just what the heck was going on? What was up with these voices? What-
'QUIET!' thundered the second voice, the one within, and Naruto's impending panic attack was halted just like that. 'It seems we have an eavesdropper, Nagatobimaru.(1)'
There suddenly came a pull from where he had previously pushed, and the blonde boy fell down into a darkness deeper than that of the Yami Sekai.
When he finally came to, it was to a drip-drip sound. The first thing he noticed was that he was lying in a shallow pool of water. Then came the realization that he could see said pool of water. He scrambled to his feet and looked around cautiously, senses alert for any disturbance. He appeared to be in some kind of man-made underground channel, if the brick walls and metal pipes were anything to go by.
Making his way forward, it soon became obvious that he was in a type of maze. He took random turns as he came to various intersections, left, straight, right, right, left, straight… He didn't know where he was going, nor could he retrace his steps due to the flooded state of the channel, yet he wasn't worried. Something told him he was nearing his destination, whatever that may be. As he went, he started to hear a low-pitched growl, which only grew louder and louder until it abruptly cut off as he stepped in a huge chamber. In front of him stood a gigantic barred gate, held closed by a mere strip of paper with the kanji for 'seal' calligraphed on it.
"So, this is your vessel? Gotta hand it to that Hokage, he had a certain flair for irony."
Naruto whirled to where the voice had sounded from, his time in the Yami Sekai having sharpened his senses enough that he could immediately pinpoint its origin, and gaped at what he saw there.
Floating a foot above the flooded ground was an orange-furred feline creature. Its entire body was framed by the wild mane of orange and black hair that grew from its head, and its hind legs resembled that of a large four-legged predator's. Its front legs, though, would be more accurately referred to as clawed hands. Stripes of black fur adorned its cheeks, three to each side, not unlike his own scars.
Then came its eyes. They were white. Pure white, without even a hint of an iris nor a pupil. And gazing lower, a grinning mouth filled only with pointed fangs could be seen. That settled it.
"Bakemono!" Naruto growled, subtly moving into a ready stance.
The creature laughed harshly.
"Very good, kid! But you can drop the battle stance. We both know that if I wanted to fight you, you'd be already dead, so spare yourself some grief."
It hurt to admit it, but the creature was right. He could barely hold his own against a centipede-monster, there was no way he had a chance against a… "Tiger?' he questioned.
The monster nodded. "Correct. But this is not why you were called here."
"'Called'?" he questioned, "You summoned me here?"
"Not I." the creature replied dismissively.
'I was the one to call you here,' came another voice from the direction of the gate, and he turned warily towards it, all the while keeping an eye on the tiger-monster. However, he completely forgot about the white-eyed creature when he beheld what resided beyond the gate.
A demented, fanged, giant cheshire grin was the first thing he saw. And as if that wasn't bad enough, a pair of slanted, red-tinged, slitted eyes was staring unblinkingly at him. Dimly, he could make out a tail waving lazily to the left of its head. 'No wait, it's further to the left… no, it's to the right of the hea- There's more than one!'
That's when it all fell into place.
"Kyuubi!" He cried out in surprise, awe, bewilderment, and not a little fear.
'Settle down, brat! We've got a lot to discuss with you…'
"Discuss? DISCUSS!" he was nearing hysteria, he knew it, but he didn't care, "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD, YOU OVERGROWN FURBALL!"
"Kid's got spunk, I'll give him that," idly commented the tiger-monster, leaning back in mid-air, as if in a lounge-chair.
'And tell me, brat, how is it I would have died?' the fox demanded.
"My father and the Yondaime performed a high-powered jutsu to destroy you, something they paid for with their life!" Naruto affirmed, proud to have regained some of his frayed self-control.
"True, and yet untrue at the same time." The tiger supplied.
"Are you calling me a liar, or something?" Naruto ground out through gritted teeth.
"Oh, no. What you just said is composed of true facts; yet put together the way you have, it is incorrect." The tiger purred, clearly enjoying himself.
"Then why don't you explain it to me, if you're so smart!" The blonde shot back, anger overcoming all previously-felt emotions.
'SILENCE!' roared the Kyuubi. 'Nagatobimaru, stop messing with his head. Brat, listen well: Your Yondaime could not defeat me, so he decided to Seal me instead. However, a normal Sealing method into an inanimate object would have been insufficient. Therefore, he sealed me into a newborn baby: You."
"Masaka…" Naruto whispered, before shaking himself, "You're a liar! The Yondaime would never do such a thing! My father wouldn't let him!"
'And what if the Yondaime was your father?' Kyuubi went on, relentlessly, 'What if he was ready to sacrifice his own son to save his village?'
Naruto fell to his knees with a splash, mumbling 'uso' over and over again.
"Get used to it, kid," the tiger said, in a somewhat less gruff voice than previously. "You're stuck with Kyuubi, and Kyuubi is stuck with you."
"But… How…?" the blonde stuttered, before finally crying out, "WHY!"
"Don't ask us to understand the workings of the minds of you ningen…" drawled the tiger.
Naruto took a few minutes to try to process all that, but finally decided it was all too much at once. So he put the conundrum on the back-burner for the time being, and focused on smaller details instead.
"What's all that got to do with you?" he asked the tiger.
'He's an old ally,' quietly said the Kyuubi.
The tiger snorted, "'Old ally' my furry ba-"
"Hang on, hang on!" The blonde said with upraised palms to halt the conversation. "You," he pointed to Kyuubi, " a demon from the Hikari Sekai, are allied with a Yami Sekai Bakemono? How did you two meet?"
'Easy enough: I originally come from the Yami Sekai. It was through a failed contract-less summoning that I came to be in your world. I went to seek the help of those from Hidden Root to return to my world, but the Hidden Leaf Nins took one look at me and immediately assumed I was there to attack them. That's when it all went pear-shaped…'
"Are you trying to tell me that some moron, unaffiliatedwith Hidden Root, tried to summon one of the most powerful creatures to inhabit this world?" Naruto growled angrily, though it was directed to whoever the unthinking, misdirected, suicidal fool was.
'In a nutshell: Yes.'
"Who? The madman must immediately be hunted down! If he did this once, he can do it again!"
'Never learned what his name was…' the Kyuubi replied with a dismissive shrug of its gigantic vulpine shoulders. 'Smelled a bit like a snake. I trashed his lab something good, though,' there was a definite smirk in the fox's voice now. 'I don't think he'll be ready to re-enact his experiment any time soon.'
"I'll still need to inform the village… Alright, next question: Where is 'here' and why can I see? Are we inside my mind or something?"
"Got it in one! Give the kid a cigar," cracked the tiger, Nagatobi-something-or-other."No wait, he's underage… Give him some Pocky!" he finished, laughing at his own joke.
'You are indded within your own mind' the kyuubi answered, ignoring Natoga… Tomi… —'Gaah! I'll just call him Tora!'(2)—Tora's sad attempts at humor, 'specifically, the portion that's been my abode for the past ten years.' Then, as if in an afterthought, 'Oh, and I love 'Tora'. It suits him.'
"Hey!" annoyedly growled the newly-dubbed tiger.
'You can hear me.' It was more a statement than a question.
'Being in this world has strengthened and enabled me to communicate with people outside of my cage, after a fashion. I should also be able to communicate with you when you are awake.'
'You mean I'm asleep?'
'A false sleep that enabled you to come down here. Incidentally, the Darkness will most probably have finished permeating your body, as this state speeds the process. It's time for you to wake up though. We shall speak again.'
"See ya 'round, kid!" cheerfully called Tora.
There was a burst of darkness, then he was awake. And he could see!
He surveyed his surroundings and cringed a little as he realized he had been quite right as far as the minor bakemonos' anatomy was concerned. Looking further away, he noticed he was in a rocky clearing devoid of plant-life. What struck him, though, was that the colors were all reversed: the sky was a deep red, the rocks were a light purple… even his normally orange jacket was affected, having turned a mild midnight-blue. 'Well, at least now I know why it's called the Ingan…' he mused.
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Lexicon:
Bakemono: Ghost/phantom/monster, according to my dictionary; I guess the best way to read it is as 'monster'. If you know the anime 'Ushio & Tora', that's what I'm talking about (also encompasses the monsters seen in 'Inu-Yasha').
Hikari Sekai: World of Light. Naruto's home world.
Ingan: contraction of 'inga', which stands for negative (in the photographic sense), and 'gan', which is how the kanji for 'eye' becomes pronounced—by itself, it is read as 'me'—when attached to other kanji, such as in the word 'ophtalmology'(ganka).
Masaka: Impossible! That can't be!
Ningen: human(s)
Uso: (a) lie
Yami Sekai: World of Darkness, a dimension that runs alongside Naruto's own world.
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Notes:
(1): From Ushio & Tora, this is Tora's—the tiger demon—true name. He will be making other appearances here, as I love that anime too much to just leave it completely out of the Naruto universe.
(2): The nickname Ushio came up with for his partner, litterally means 'tiger' (from the previously mentioned anime).
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Answers to reviews:
: I have a great liking for Irony… Thus I came up with this: Naruto, child of Light, but living in the Darkness; Sasuke, child of Darkness, but living in the Light. Kind of like the Tao: Light in the heart of Darkness, and Darkness in the heart of the Light. As to a blood-limit, here you go! Though, naturally, not all its uses have yet been revealed…
nonengel: Meh, I'd have gotten bored fast otherwise… That's why I'm probably gonna fast forward straight to the genin exam, as per the manga-continuity.
Keltosh: Hmm… I still don't think I'll be doing any pairings for this fic. And if he did, it would most certainly not be when the protagonists are still pre-teens. Oh, and would you be willing to work as a beta? I always have a need of one, since english isn't my native language, and so tend to make some culture-related mistakes.
UltraAnimeFanatic: Heheh, will do!
Akki no Tama: Ach! I haven't reviewed your own fic in such a long time! Shameful… Sorry, I'll try to get back into it, as you've been doing such a wonderful job with it. Concerning the Ocs, they're absolutely necessary, as each of them has a very precise role to play fro my plot. Otherwise, I self-edit and spell-check, but many inconsistencies still manage to slip through… :sighs:
Eve: Why, thank you! And here's your update. Better late than never, I suppose…
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A/N: Perhaps not the best place to leave off, but… :shrugs:
Next up is Harry Potter, and then I'll try to rotate between updating the three current fics.
Though in all honesty, it'll depend entirely on inspiration. Fickle mistress that it is…
Right-o! Anyway, please review!
How original…
Well, reviews really do make a difference to the author, y'know!
Also, don't hesitate to point out my mistakes, as there are probably many.
Till next time, folks!
Whenever that may be.