Hammerfall

"So, you're me," said Naruto again. It was really hard to get this all inside his head, but he was trying. It helped that his alternate image looked almost exactly like him, save for a bit of the hair and the clothing. "You're me from another dimension here to warn us about bad things."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," agreed Nathan. The alternate blonde was also feeling rather strange about this entire thing, and it helped that there was somebody else with the same problem. Nevermind that technically, they were the same person. Or maybe not. Whatever, this debate on existence going on inside his head was definitely not helping with the realization that he was speaking to himself. Or somebody who acted and looked exactly like himself.

Shit, they were confusing themselves.

They had been going about like this for thirty minutes now, and the idea hadn't really sunk in yet. It was hard to believe, but it was true. Every time Naruto almost convinced himself that what he was seeing was a hallucination, he looked back upwards and saw his carbon copy slurping up ramen exactly the way that he would. Then the realization hit him again and he had to try and tell himself that it wasn't real.

Soon both of them became tired of the routine.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that you're not using Genjutsu or Henge or anything like that since you don't seem to have enough Chakra," Naruto said, trying to swallow the words. "But I'm still gonna need some proof that you're not trying to trick me."

They were sitting cross-legged on the floor as they spoke. Naruto had made the ramen after all and both of them were eating it with gusto. It seemed like ramen was practically the same thing as Nathan's waternoodles, and it looked like the alternate he was used to eating expired food just like him.

"Yeah, I can see that you might need something like that," Nathan agreed. He knew that the guy in front of him was real, since he was the one that had crossed worlds after all, but if he was in his alternate's position he would definitely want some proof of identity. "Um, what do you want me to do?"

Naruto thought about this for a few seconds.

"Well, since you're from another world and stuff, you've got to be able to show me something that we can't do," said Naruto. "That should be easy! Since you're my alternate, you've got to have some awesome jutsu!"

Nathan adopted a strange facial expression at this. "Um, jits? What's a jits?"

"You don't know?" asked Naruto, waving his arms wildly and getting up from his position on the floor. "They're like... techniques! You use Chakra from your body and make explosions and stuff! For instance, I can make solid clones of myself. Watch."

With this, Naruto flipped through a series of hand seals and released some chakra. In an instant, two solid clones poofed into existence at his side. Nathan watched in realization as Naruto delivered a few quick punches towards the clones, making them poof out of existence again.

"Oh! That's almost exactly like Arts!" exclained Nathan with excitement, also getting up from his position on the floor. He suddenly took the hammer from the ground and raised it to eye level with a flourish. "I can do that too! Though... I probably shouldn't do them inside."

"Why's that?" Naruto asked.

"You'll see," said Nathan with a grin. "As soon as I get outside."

---

They were standing on one of the shinobi training grounds now, more specifically the one that Team 7 had adopted in their search for a good trianing area. Naruto gazed around fondly at the familiar grounds before turning to his doppelganger. Nathan had taken the giant hammer that he had come with.

"Alright," Nathan said. "From what I could tell, your jits... juts... jutsu seems to use a different kind of energy than what my people tend to use. Your energy is drawn from within you, and only one type of energy is used for all of your techniques. It's different from my energy, which I'll explain in a second."

"Yeah, that's basically what Chakra is," agreed Naruto, but he was slightly confused by something. "But how did you figure that out just from watching me?"

"You can't?" asked the alternate blonde. "It's a technique that all Craftsoldiers are taught. It's called Read. It determines the flow and power of energy of any kind by charging your eyes. Don't you have that?"

Naruto thought about this for a second. "Well, the only thing that's like that in our world is the Byakugan..." Suddenly, the full weight of what his counterpart had just uttered hit him where it counted, the noggin. "Wait, hold up! Does that mean you can teach anybody this?"

Nathan nodded.

"Providing they're able to use Anima and can control it properly, anybody can learn it," Nathan explained. "It's the first technique that any Craftsoldier apprentice learns, and the most basic. Why?"

Naruto instantly grew excited yet also a little nervous. What the alternate him had just said could possibly revolutionize the shinobi world. A Byakugan that anybody was able to learn? It could possibly change the entire face of shinobi warfare. There'd be no more hiding or sneaking around when you knew your enemies all had the Byakugan.

Nathan seemed to pick up on his emotions.

"What's wrong?"

Naruto quickly fell into an explanation about the use of the Byakugan in their world, and what it did as well as the advantage that it provided for the wielder. He also talked about the Hyuuga clan and several other bloodline limits that he knew of, including the Sharingan and Kimimaro's bone manipulation. Nathan fell into a thoughtful silence for a few seconds before he spoke again.

"No, Read isn't quite as powerful as this Byakugan," said Nathan, adopting a thoughtful pose. Naruto had realized since a little while ago that this counterpart of his was actually a little different from him, though not by much. From what he could tell the only difference was that his alternate was a little more intelligent, though a little less powerful.

"How come?" Naruto asked. "It's the same basic thing, isn't it? I mean..."

"Not exactly," said Nathan. "Read can't see through walls."

Naruto suddenly realized the difference.

"Oh," uttered the blonde genin.

"Exactly. From what you told me," said Nathan. "The Byakugan is a whole lot more than just being able to read energy. Though it seems to only be able to read Chakra, it can also see almost three sixty degrees and through objects. That makes it a lot different from a simple Read."

"Ah," said Naruto. He didn't know whether to be happy or to be depressed. The thought of a learnable Byakugan had rather excited him, since he had always wanted to see the way that Hinata and Neji did, but the idea of every single enemy he came across having the same ability wasn't something he wanted.

"Alright, now that I've finished explaining Read to you, do you want to hear a basic explanation of Anima?" asked Nathan. Naruto paid more attention, interested. "Whereas your Chakra is drawn from within, my energy is a little different... Well, maybe you'd be able to see it better if I actually show you."

At this point Nathan raised his hammer, holding it in his hands with ease ignoring its large size. Holding it up to the sky, he closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Naruto watched, amazed, as specks of blue light suddenly started appearing out of thin air and began congregating onto the hammer, like moths attracted to a flame.

What happened next was something that Naruto had never seen before. Nathan started chanting, as though reciting a poem. As he uttered each word, however, the energy gathered on the hammer started to dance and flicker, as though being manipulated by something.

"Phantoms in the mist, gather upon my hammer. Shadows of change, come together! Appear seventeen spirits of darkness, arrive comrades who bear arms! Shadow Clone!"

Raising his arms for the last time, he slammed the hammer into the ground. Naruto knew suddenly why his alternate had wanted to do this outside. The earth cracked and split, and the blonde ninja could feel small tremors running through the dirt.

Suddenly, from under the hammer seventeen shadows appeared, moving by themselves. Arranging themselves beside Nathan, the shadows rose and became figures, exact clones of the alternate blonde except almost completely black in colour and bearing glowing yellow eyes. Each of them held a different weapon.

Nathan grinned.

"This is my doppelganger skill."

There was only one thing that Naruto had to say.

"Holy shit."

The seventeen black clones quickly melted away at Nathan's command, and both blondes sat down.

"Alright," said Naruto, scratching his forehead. "After seeing that I'm going to have to believe you. So, what was it that you were going to talk to me about again? The trouble that's coming to this world?"

Nathan crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Yeah, that's pretty important, but... I'd rather talk about this in front of your leader first. Repeating it might get kind of annoying. You don't mind, do you? I know I'm kind of impatient, don't know about you though."

Naruto scratched his head. Well, he really did want to hear what his doppelganger had to say, but then again he didn't like it when he was ordered to do something, and there was no reason that his counterpart was going to be any different. He'd be able to bear with it for a while longer.

"No problem," said Naruto, getting up. "I might as well take you to the old hag already... But trying to get a meeting with her is going to be hell. You don't mind if we go around town first, do you?"

"Yeah, chill. I kind of want to see what your place is like anyway," said Nathan, brushing dust off his black and orange cloak. "...Wait, did you just say old hag?"

"Yeah, Tsunade-baachan, why?"

Nathan's jaw dropped. "No way! Your village is ruled over by an old woman too? Does she use an Illusion Art to hide her real age and have a black-haired assistant with a pig?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto laughed, and started running away from the field and towards the restaurant district of Konoha. Nathan quickly followed, reslinging the hammer that he had been holding onto his back. "This is great! C'mon, I'll treat you to ramen at Ichiraku's!"

Nathan grinned, and picked up his pace, trying to catch up to his alternate self. "If it's anything like old man Ivan Rack's waternoodles, then you're going to have to empty your wallet! 'Cause I can eat at least ten bowls in one sitting!"

"Oh yeah! Well I can eat twelve!"

"I can do fifteen!"

"Twenty!"

One could only wonder about the intelligence of trying to beat yourself at an eating contest. It was obviously a bad idea, as both of the contestants would probably just stuff themselves to death and lose a whole lot of change in the process.

But did intelligence matter? Well, it usually did. Just not to the number one surprising ninja of Konoha and the number one surprising Craftsoldier of the Lotus. One thing was sure however. Today, old man Ichiraku was going to make a lot of money.

---

"...So then Sasuke tossed the Shuriken that I Henge'd into towards no-brows, and then he dodged the first one that wasn't fake. Then, when the second one, this one was actually me, right. When the second one came zooming across, he totally blew his bowels and got pissed and that's when Kakashi-sensei got free!" said Naruto above the bowl of steaming ramen as Nathan listened attentively.

Old man Ichiraku hadn't given them a second glance since they came in, as Nathan had once again put the hood over his face. Ayame seemed slightly confused when she noticed the similarities in their voices, but had otherwise given no heed whatsoever to the second customer except that he was Naruto-kun's friend, and that was a plus in her books. Ichiraku was just glad that somebody else shared the same ramen-loving tendencies of his favourite customer, as it meant more money for him and more people for the poor demon vessel to connect to.

Both of them had come in and ordered the same thing, and the bowls had started piling up since. Halfway through their fourth bowl they seemed to lose interest in the eating contest, and Naruto had started recounting his adventures to his attentive double who, although had lived through most of these adventures himself, was still interested by the differences in their life stories.

Though he hadn't given away much of his life story, Naruto had come to pick up on a few details about his alternate. He was a Craftsoldier, something much like a shinobi in his world, though one that seemed to have skills in an area beyond fighting. Naruto had been bugging the other blonde about it, though everytime he asked Nathan would just grin and say it was a secret.

"Well... from what I've seen so far my world's just like yours with a few differences," said the alternate blonde. "For instance, I live in the Lotus, it's not called the Leaf, and the leader of the village is the Firesmith, not the Hokage. There're a lot of small differences, but everything's basically the same. I mean, I know the same people, but some of them act a little differently from what you describe..."

"Then c'mon!" pried Naruto. "Tell me about them!"

Nathan grinned. "See, you're not gonna have to worry about that. Hopefully in a few days, all of the Newcomer Nine as well as Cell Laolong is going to be crossing over themselves. Man, it's going to be awesome!"

Both of them slipped off into daydreams. Naruto about the possibility of two Sakura-chans, and Nathan about the possiblity of two Sherry's. Suddenly, Naruto came to a realization.

"Crap!" cursed the blonde. "I haven't seen Sakura-chan since I got back from my training trip! Actually, I haven't seen anybody since I got back from my training trip yet! And I've got a present for Kakashi-sensei too..."

"What's wrong?" asked Nathan. "Can't you just go see them now?"

"Well, yeah... But..." Naruto mumbled to himself. "I can't just leave you here, and they'll definitely be weirded out by an alternate dimension thingy... I just want to see them again and see what's been happening since I left."

Nathan thought about this for a second.

"Wait! I've got an idea!"

---

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Well, why not?" asked Nathan. "Trust me, there's no way they'll be able to tell."

"Hey, Sakura-chan's right over there!" Naruto perked up. Raising his hand, he started waving at the pink-haired girl of his dreams. It was noontime, and even though today was a relatively cool day it was starting to heat up slightly. "SAAAAKUUUURAAAA-CHAAAAAN!"

Sakura turned her head slightly, and caught sight of her blonde teammate.

"Naruto!" said the pink-haired girl happily. "You're back!"

"Of course, Sakura-chan!" grinned the blonde. "And I want you to know that I've been dreaming of you since I was gone! I've got a lot of new jutsu, do you wanna see some? I'll have you know that I wouldn't do this for anybody else!"

"Dumbass!" laughed Sakura as she ran up to the blonde boy. "What kind of shinobi shows off his jutsu? It's so good to see you! I've been training under Tsunade-shisho since you've left, and I've learnt a lot of things."

"Oh?" grinned the foxy Genin. "Did you realize your love for me over the course of three years?"

"Idiot!" said the pink-haired kunoichi as she slapped Naruto up the head. "So, what are you doing wandering around with a Kage Bunshin?"

Nathan had dressed himself up in a spare set of Naruto's clothing, and he had to admit, they fit him rather well. The large black and orange cloak that he had on had really been making him sweat, and the simple attire that Naruto was so fond of was rather cool both literally and the other way. Side by side the two looked identical, and only if you looked closely could any difference be made between them.

"Well, uh... It's a new training that ero-sennin's making me go through!" grinned Naruto happily. "He says that if I'm able to keep up a Kage Bunshin for the entire day then he'll teach me a new jutsu!"

"Well, if that's what Jiraiya-sama says... I guess..." Sakura crinkled her nose. "But is it just me, or is the skin tone of this Kage Bunshin a little bit darker than your own? I've never heard of that before, is it something that Jiraiya-sama taught you?"

Naruto spun around. It was true. Nathan's skin tone was a bit darker than him, and they hadn't noticed it. Quickly, Naruto tried to find a way to bluff out of this. There had to be some way... But then he realized that Sakura herself had given him a way out of this.

"Yeah, of course!" Naruto grinned. "I'm using Henge on the Kage Bunshin, so, you know, you can disguise them and stuff. I'm just switching his skin colour right now because... it's, uh, easy! And I really don't want to start with the harder things!"

"Didn't you already do that trick in the Forest of Death?" Sakura asked. Naruto cursed, his Sakura-chan really had a good memory. "I mean, I'm not questioning you or anything but..."

"Well, it's a lot harder when you have to keep it up for a long time!" grinned Naruto. "There's like... double the load of Chakra... and stuff, you know... Yeah, it's an exercise to help with my Chakra control. That's why if I manage it for a full day Jiraiya's going to teach me the new technique!"

"Well, you seem to be working hard..." smiled Sakura wistfully. Naruto sighed in relief, he had passed that hurdle. "Oh, by the way. Kakashi-sensei's around here somewhere, would you like to see him again?"

"Oh yeah," Naruto nodded. "I've got something for him, signed by the ero-sennin himself."

Almost on cue, there was a poof of smoke and there stood their jounin-sensei. He looked the same as ever, still sporting that tilted headband as well as the jounin uniform. He took a look at his blonde charge.

"Looks like you're doing fine, Naruto," said the gray-haired jounin absent-mindedly. "How was your training trip?"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto laughed. "You haven't changed at all!"

"Well, maybe it looks that way," smiled the jounin. "But I'll have you know that since you've been gone I've learnt a few tricks myself. I'm still young after all, and there's still a lot of things for me to learn. Now, what was it that you were going to give me again?"

Naruto rummaged around in his kunai pouch before pulling out a familiar orange book, though a little different than the one Kakashi himself used to read all the time. Kakashi's eye widened at the sight of it, as he recognized the name from an Icha Icha insider magazine that he had subscribed to since a while ago.

"Icha Icha Tactics!" Kakashi cried out in surprise. "But... how... It's not even out yet!"

"Well, ero-sennin said that he wanted you to see it first since you're a dedicated fan or something," said Naruto. "I dunno why you like it though. From what I read it seems pretty boring..."

"You read this trash, Naruto!"

"Not by choice! Sakura-chan!" yelled Naruto as Sakura proceeded to smack him up the head a few more times. "I only read it 'cause ero-sennin said it would make me stronger! There's no other reason other than that, I swear!"

Kakashi grabbed the book as it flipped out of Naruto's hands and turned the page, beginning to read. Sakura pulled Naruto down to the floor and prepared to give him the beating of his life as Nathan wondered whether at all they remembered he was there.

---

A/N: Here are the name list of the alternates. Most of the important characters are included, and the order is completely mixed up. Good luck trying to match them up with one of the official characters!

The names of all the Rookie Nine are included, as well as Team Gai and Team Suna. All the jounin-sensei are included except for Baki, and the Sannin are included as well.

Nathan Graves

Jackie Wong

Sherry Springfield

Sean Abram

Nails Solfleur

Lina Flowerfall

Fei

Kamella of the Sands

Fang Tracker

Ruby Eve

Katie Solfleur

Siegfried

Laolong Chen

Brunhild

Syka Mideel

Asol Leafire

Crash Cocone

Zack Defender

Gunther

Morgue the Sandman

Karsh Hatchet

Karkaro of the Sands

Siegfried

Brunhild