(Okay, so here's chapter two of Collecting PiecesI'm not to happy with or my computer right now, as both have been making getting this uploaded a living hell. Twice before I even finished writing the damn thing, my computer decided to shut down, losing me over an hour's work the first time, and the last third of the chapter the second time. After the second shut down, I basicly said 'Fuck it' and decided I'd round out what was left and upload that. I will be making the third chapter longer because of my current laziness.. also, chapters will be getting longer and longer, or so I say, as I get further into plot development and have more to write about in each period of time that my muse is present. Oh yeah, the reason FF pisses me off.. is because I had to reformat the story so damn many times(4), and then, when I finnaly did get the fucker to upload, I had to redo the occasional bolding and italicizing... here ya go. )
Chapter One
He would journey to the past, for the good of the future.
All Naruto knew when he woke up was pain, plain and simple. He could not remember anything past or present as he stared at the canopy above him. He had no clue as to who he was, nor did he care. He was also unsure as to why exactly he was laying on his back in a smoking crater in the middle of the woods. The only thing he could say for certain was that whoever was causing him such ungodly amounts of pain - pain that left him in a fetal position and drained him so completely that the gut wrenching screams he was trying to perform only came out as whimpers - was going to be very dead when he could move again.
His body remained curled tight for time out of his reckoning, but it was dark when he could at last slowly ease out of position. His senses were boggled up and distorted, every movement he made seemed to be going in the wrong direction, making it difficult to do any more than flop around on the ground at first. Eventually though, the burning, itching sensation that surrounded his every joint, muscle, tendon, and, as odd as it sounded - even to him, his internal organs entered remission. With the retreat of said burning and itching, he was able to rise to his feet, though it was at a necessarily cautious pace that he did so.
Naruto, though he still had no memory of anything prior to waking up in pain, was sure he'd never felt so pathetic in his life. A half hours struggle saw him leaning up against a tree not more than fifteen feet from his impact crater. Taking labored breaths, with eyes to his surroundings, Naruto began to contemplate his next move. "Okay." He said, finding comfort in the sound of his own voice - at least something was working right. "I seem to have amnesia." Well, that was one thing he knew for sure. Some part of his mind seemed to be telling him to figure out what else he knew for a fact, so he could go from there.
"I'm in a forest, where it is or how I got here is unknown… although I seem to have fallen from quite a height…" The last part seemed ridiculous, considering that such a fall should have killed him, but that was his theory for the moment. "Last but not least, in fact, at the moment it's rather important to me, I'm naked." His nudity rather disturbed Naruto, for he was sure that it was not voluntary. "Okay, so I'm in an unknown situation, nothing to defend myself with, nude as the day I was born, and completely and totally lost… Oh if Ero-Sennin could see me now, I'd never hear the end of it. This is just…" His brain finally kicked into gear, realizing he'd just said a name, Naruto tried desperately to figure out from where on earth he knew it. Much cogitating yielded nothing however, but he clung to that name like a drowning man to driftwood. It was frustrating to no end, for Naruto could remember nothing but a name. Beyond how much that bothered him on a personal level, he had a feeling that if he could not regain his memory, and do so quickly, then something terrible might occur.
With nothing else becoming apparent, Naruto simply started walking. Burrs and twigs made his trudging quite the weary affair, but he kept on without pause. His body, for whatever reason, seemed almost immune to the inconsequential pain of his feet, a fact he was very glad to discover. Despite the darkness, and his ongoing discomfort, he never stumbled - all the same though, something seemed almost silly about walking on the ground in such a forest. 'As if there's any other way,' he thought with a snort of amusement. Finally though, he did stumble; or rather, something cold and slimy had alighted on his foot causing him to jump and twist about in the air - one hand flying to his bare hip as if in search of something. When he looked down to try and discover the source of his panic, he was relieved to discover that it was only a frog, though it was hopping funny, dragging its back legs as if crippled…
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Running, so much running. Naruto's lungs burned, his eyes fogging over with red, but he would not stop. At seventeen, he'd spent almost his entire life in constant training, long distance runs were nothing to him - but he was weighted heavily, exhausted from a pitched battle, and bordering on ten hours of the most breakneck speed he could accomplish. Chakra was being burnt off at an alarming rate, and his own supply was nearly gone. Were it not for the demon fox's help, Naruto was sure one of three things would have failed by now: the chakra keeping that old pervert firmly anchored to his back, the copious amounts of chakra it took to keep the stress out of his legs as he pushed them beyond what his muscles would have normally allowed, or the almost painful amount he had to keep forcing into his lungs to ensure that they wouldn't collapse from his never ending panic breaths.
They had been on the hunt - Naruto, Jiraiya, Gendo, Makai, and Sakura. - On the hunt for an S-class Shinobi. Their target, Hukaido Masamoto, was a sinister man who specialized in forbidden techniques, something Naruto had known, but not fully appreciated. Less than a week outside of Konoha, they'd encountered Masamoto's trail and followed him doggedly. When they eventually cornered the man and attempted to subdue him, Masamoto had unleashed truly horrifying techniques upon them all. Gendo, a relatively unfamiliar tracker on loan from Konoha's hunters, was the first to go. Naruto had ordered him to attack from the side to distract him long enough for Naruto to work around to his rear. The whole plan, to avoid as much personal injury as possible, had been to keep the missing nin attacking shadows until Jiriaya could complete the complex seals necessary to bind Masamoto's chakra. Funny how things never seem to work out just right, isn't it?
The moment Gendo had unleashed his first senbon assault, the kinjutsu user had immediately oriented on him. Combining complex seals from both traditional Ninjitsu and some unknown discipline and finishing with the ram, Masamoto rent Gendo into several pieces by pure force of will. Despite the horrifying end of one of their own, each nin present knew their duty. Makai, a self titled comedian who had livened every campfire with ludicrous stories and believable imitations, attacked without hesitation; all mirth gone in the gory aftermath of Masamoto's assault. Makai had more luck than Gendo, but still not enough to save himself with. With speed reminiscent of a young Rock Lee, he had dodged through several powerful elemental techniques long enough to deliver a powerful physical assault. Masaqmoto, despite possessing an insane amount of disturbing execution jutsus, was simply not capable of following that speed. For a moment, as Makai continued to reign blow after blow down on their target, it seemed they would only have the loss of Gendo to mourn, but they would be proven wrong quite swiftly. A chakra barrier deflected a swift ax-kick aimed at either crushing the man's skull or simply rendering him unconscious, and Makai suddenly found himself locked into a genjutsu the likes of which he could not have imagined. Naruto had not seen what particular illusion forced him to do what he did, but he had seen the results. Makai had withdrawn from his one-on-one and dropped to the ground screaming and withdrawn a kunai for each hand. Naruto watched helplessly, to far away to stop his friend in time from disemboweling himself.
He'd lost it then, letting the rage he felt give the Kyuubi license to emerge and commence the slaughter. Over the years, through constant use of the Kyuubi's chakra, his seal had weakened to the point that he no longer had much control over the fox's actions when he emerged, and this time was no different. He experienced a gap in his memory from the moment the shroud overtook him, to the exact moment the pain of losing an arm shocked him back to the present. The shroud had retreated, and Masamoto still stood - a smug expression lining his now bruised and bloodied face. Ero-sennin, his beloved sensei, lay on the ground beside him, unconscious and bleeding from a large hole in his abdomen. Before his brain went into shock, he desperately called for Sakura, hoping to save the life of the man who'd taught him so much - She hadn't come.
Naruto smelt trace amounts of Sakura's blood, but after making sure he couldn't sense her life-bereft body, he did what he had to do. With his one remaining arm, he grabbed up Jiriaya and ran. Tears burned through his eyes, threatening to conceal the path ahead of him, but Naruto allowed hatred to drive them off. His gaping socket, the place where his left arm had once swung from, had long since stopped bleeding and was now scabbing over. Youkai healing having taken over that particular injury, Naruto now only had the dying man on his back to worry about. He didn't know where Sakura had gone too, and the pervert on his back remained unable to tell him.
So he ran, and kept on running. Eventually, even the Kyuubi's chakra had run out, and Naruto had immediately lapsed into a blissful coma. He had awoken some several weeks later in Konoha's hospital, discovering after much inquiry, that his grandfather figure lived, but would never walk again. Sakura had returned to Konoha in time to summon help, and Naruto had been picked up by a group of medic nins while an entire squad of ANBU had hunted down Masamoto and destroyed him. Sakura herself had not escaped unscathed. Though Tsunade was able to repair much, the face of Naruto's first love would forever bear the scars of having her cheek ripped away by hand.
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SICK! SICK! Naruto's mind was reeling from the sensual overload. Sending panic signals to his body as it tried to regain it's equilibrium, Naruto's stomach, already queasy from witnessing the horrifying scars on that beautiful girl's face, reacted to it's specific signal and turned over. Still disoriented from the sojourn through memory, Naruto could do nothing but collapse as the gruesome details filled him up and were vomited out. He lay there heaving, his esophagus aflame with the passage of bile. Some time after his stomach settled and his breathing returned to normalcy, Naruto remained on the ground by the pile of nauseated refuse, whimpering quietly as tears washed his face clean.
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He slept where he'd fallen; his only wayward movement during the night had been to turn away from the choking fumes that gathered around acid-scorched forest floor. When dawn came to him the next morning, Naruto was feeling marginally better. While he slept, his mind had been filled with strange visions: A man with a mischievous air around him had come to him in the darkness. Naruto, even in the dreams of his amnesia riddle mind, could feel the power emanating off of him. Respect for those of unimaginable power was inherent in the human mind, and it came to work now. Standing stock still, he waited until the man, whoever he was, delivered his message. Before the vision could disintegrate, Naruto quickly posed a question. "Who am I", was the query. "As corny as it sounds kid, you're one of them 'Last Hope's' everyone's always talking about," was the response.
"Fuck," was the first word out of Naruto's mouth as he awoke with a start. "I wanted to know what my name was!" There you have it, despite years of grueling warfare and living with the haunted faces and battle scars of friends, Naruto was still Naruto. He asked a simple question, and he wanted a simple answer. Though nameless he might have been, he was no longer purposeless. The.. Vision? had given him instructions on what to do next, as well as given him a little background information for some basic piece of mind. "Even if the bastard forgot to mention my name," came the grumble as he reached that point in his thoughts.
The Vision had mentioned something about paradox and such, but Naruto had largely tuned out what he didn't understand. He hadn't meant to, he had simply done it as if it were a habit, as if there was some part of his brain that would listen, that would understand. Regardless of what exactly he'd missed, Naruto was confident with his next objective at least. He would have to -
Naruto's senses were suddenly cutting in on full alert. Thought slipped to the wayside as pure instinct took the steering wheel. His head jerked to the side as the first kunai whizzed by, his body soon following in a tuck 'n roll. Six muted thuds followed in a line along his trajectory without connecting, with the seventh and final one driving itself forcefully into the thick bark wood of Naruto's new hiding spot. What the brain lacked, the experienced body more than made up for. Years of conditioning had his less than supple form hauling ass up the tree at his rear, preparing for an assault his brain no longer recognized. Briefly showing himself to attract more of the versatile throwing knives his way, and when the enemy Shinobi tried to hole him a moment later, Naruto equipped himself with the spoils of war. To Naruto, all this was occurring in a surreally fast paced frame of time; the twenty or so seconds it had taken him to get to this point gone in a blink of an eye.
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To the Shinobi, a proud Rock Nin born to the name of Hasen Pin and his mother's grace and speed rather than his fathers stocky shock trooper build, on the other end of this fight, things seemed to be moving along in quite a different fashion. He'd happened upon the nude man on the last leg of a long distance scouting trip and, figuring him to be the victim of some local shadiness, had been looking forward to interrogating him for answers that would otherwise cost him many miles and tense situations to unveil. His intuition had been proven wrong the moment he had launched his kunai. Somehow, the man had not only dodged the first, but succeeded in completely avoiding his attacks. A moment later, the naked guy had shown himself for the scantest of seconds, and so the Pin had tried again. Pin rather liked his hiding spot, set above the forest floor and hidden behind some low hanging branches, he figured he could exhaust the man with impunity, but he came to find that he'd thought wrong a few seconds later.
Pin almost missed the tiny shakings of leaves that were a dead give away to movement, but having caught it did him no good. The quiet rustling had only occurred just before a pale blur rocketed out of the foliage and flew in his direction. His target had curled himself into a ball to make a small target, but it made no difference to Pin. He had been selected in part due to his throwing accuracy, and there was no way the naked man could change direction in midair. As the human ball began to uncurl above Pin, his body easily shifted to accommodate his new angle and, without further hesitation, his arm shot forward and was about to launch his kunai when a most peculiar thing occurred. Just as his hand began to uncurl in release, a chakra shield of unimaginable power slammed into like a concussion wave sending his body flying back into the trunk of his 'tree fort.'
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Although Naruto's mind had begun to catch up with his body, it still had no problem giving over to Instinct when his eyes spotted the movement unique to throwing from the hip. Without thought, his body protected itself. However, such was the power of the adrenaline coursing through his veins that it's chakra barrier-defense became something not unlike an explosion. He did not pause, not even for a moment, but rushed immediately forward upon landing. The enemy Shinobi was just starting to recover when one of the Rock nin's own kunai shattered his teeth as it passed by to bury itself in the back of his throat - severing his spine near the base of his skull. After that, it was all over but the bloody gurgles.
Some time later, after removing everything of use from the slain body of the enemy Shinobi, Naruto was sitting by a small campfire, happily devouring his first meal since, well, he wasn't sure. Travel rations were typically poor fare, but hunger was indeed the best spice, and the dried beef disappeared quickly down Naruto's hatch. While eating, Naruto had begun to look over his new gear. Discarding such useless items as the 'House of Sake' membership card and various other personal effects, he was left with a tight-fitting suit in desperate need of tailoring, several projectile weapons, three smoke bombs, a small roll of explosive notes, a pack of senbon, a spool of garrote-wire, about 400 (American equivalent) in cash, enough rations for three more days, a map, a compass and, best of all, a pack of cigarettes.
Filling his lungs with stress releasing tar and nicotine, Naruto was at last able to find a rational state of mind to think things over with. He began to hike in a roughly west by northwest direction, following the map as closely as he was able without a clear sense of his starting location. As he walked, he let his mind drift where it willed, mulling over the little bits and pieces of memory that had come to him since waking the previous day. He had a few names to apply to a few faces, and a much clearer idea as to who and what he was than before; though his identity was still largely a mystery, as were his origins. What he did know for certain was that his body was a trained killing machine. He may have suffered revulsion at his first carnage filled memory of the prior day, but when it had come down to a direct threat against his life, he had acted towards the only acceptable outcome with ruthless efficiency; survival.
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His trek, initially long and exhaustive largely due to his amnesia addled brain, became mildly better on the third day. Each night he had received another spectral visit from his vision, and the following morning had been flooded with memories - many were painful for differing reasons. Sad and happy memories also returned, but he was afraid the process would take to long. With every dawn, Naruto knew more and more about his objective, and his sense of urgency increased. Each day he would pace himself on the tree-covered mountainous terrain, careful to strike a balance between pushing himself to hard, and not pushing hard enough, but on the third morning a memory of immeasurable import made itself known. Naruto had just relived several classes of chakra manipulation along with a few of Kakashi-sensei's skill-building sessions, which meant, in the short term anyway, that Naruto now sailed along the tree branches like a proper Shinobi.
Naruto's ETA on the ground to his first stop had called for another three days at the least, but in the treetops he moved much faster. A village marked on the map, which he hadn't expected to arrive at for several days yet, was looming on the horizon before his muscles even had a chance to tire properly. Cautiously entering the village, and guided by directions given to him by his dream/vision, Naruto made his way down the dirt street to a solitary set some distance apart from the others. After repeatedly knocking on the thin wooden door he'd come to, an old man finally answered and opened the door. "Oy, old man. I heard from a strange glowy-robed guy that you were the man to see about seals," Naruto said, as blunt as ever, but before he could say anything further, he received a smart rap atop the head from the old man's cane. "Y'ge' away frum'ere y'damn hooligan! You ain' gonna be stealin' a Kami damned thing!" By the time the old man had finished yelling, Naruto had been cracked close to ten times by the knobby cane the old man wielded with some skill and had been the victim of a stand-by spitting at least twice that many times. Finally, the old coot tired and leaned heavily on what had just been his weapon of choice, giving Naruto the time he needed to rub his sore, aching head. While he attended to what promised to be a bit of a knot above his left eye, Naruto tried a different approach. "Not ste-al-ing, sealing! I'm here to ask for your help in sealing," expecting to have this nonsense put aside now so he could get on with the rest of his plans, Naruto was sorely disappointed. "Eh? Y' are here t' see Lin? Firs' y' are wantin' to rob me blind, 'n now y' wan' t' ta'e away me only daughter? Why you just stan' th'ar and give me a moe' t' rest so's I cin gi' ya another whoo-" "Grandpa!"
At the sudden vocal interjection, Naruto and the old man both turned their attention back to the inside of the hut. Where, with a bright smile on her face, stood a rather pretty young woman. She hastily walked up to the door and stepped out, admonishing her grandfather with a wag of the finger, "You know what he was saying!" The old man began to look appropriately guilty as Naruto leveled a healthy glare at him. "We'll ta'k ebou' yer seals then, boy, bu' ge' in the house, quickly!" Naruto did as he was asked, and soon he was sitting cross legged on the floor, a piece of parchment between himself and the old man. On the parchment, while giving a rough explanation of his situation, Naruto traced the fine lines of demonic seals from memory. "So here I am, in a suit that's cutting off the blood flow to a few to many areas all at once, with very little idea as to why I sought you out, and in need of help with…" Naruto paused for a moment as he added in the last few seals on to the diagram before holding it up for all to see. "This!"
Both old man and daughter were staring at him as if he'd grown a third head. The story he had told them was preposterous: Waking up in the middle of nowhere inside a smoking crater, running through the woods naked until he'd single handedly taken down one of the invading Rock Nin and stolen his clothes, all this before a vision guided him to seek out an old warrior priest with help in creating one of the most complex seals the wizened eyes of said warrior priest had ever seen. Never the less, Naruto's unassuming manner and naïve expression lent him a credibility that was not to be denied. The old man agreed to help Naruto, although it had taken some of the traveling funds Naruto had appropriated, and then sent his daughter on her way to the market for dinner.
The next few days passed quickly for the three inside of the hut. Naruto busied himself with cleaning out the old man's cellar work shop, the old man himself was in near constant meditation to build up high enough levels for massive sealing, and the daughter, who Naruto now knew to be Lin-Yo, took care of getting the necessary ingredients for the ceremony. Eventually though, all was taken care of, and the three met in the cellar to do the deed.
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"Okay Noodle-" "You know," Naruto said, interrupting the old man before he could get any further. "Just because I like ramen doesn't mean you can call me Noodle all the time." To which the old man replied, "After you ate nearly a half month's supply of ramen in a single day? I believe I could call anyone with such an obsession 'Noodle,' besides which, you still haven't remembered your name!" This argument had already started getting familiar. Naruto may not have remembered his name yet, but the familiar scent of ramen wafting from the towns solitary restaurant had triggered a feeding frenzy in the blond, and he'd nearly been run out - had he not payed in full and left a sizable tip - after finishing off nearly ten family sized dinners before proclaiming, 'Ichiraku's is better.' "So," the argument continued on Naruto's side, "you still don't have to call me Noodle, why don't we just pick a name?" And so the argument would continue, with Naruto picking the kind of names more suitable to Action-Hero comics, and the old man leaning towards embarrassingly cute ones with both parties vehemently defending their selections.
Such arguments were always being played out during inappropriate times, and were almost always silenced quickly by the much less child-like Lin who, despite being the youngest, reasoned herself to be the only mature person in the hut. "Boys!" Her particular screeching interjection never failed to bring about a halt to such silliness as the men-folk tended to indulge in, at which point they would act like sullen children of the hand-in-the-cookie-jar variety. "Sorry," came the pouty reply from Naruto. "Yeah, we're sorry Lin," followed the old man in a tone more appropriate for a five year old. "Well then," said Lin, the argument already forgiven. "As long as you both are sorry, can we get back to what we were doing?" What they were doing was performing the seal that was the whole purpose of Naruto's visit. Now, gathered around the angrily burning candles, the morbid chickens'-blood kanji, and the eerily terrifying gurney that Naruto would soon be strapped down to - The three stood in a moments reflection.
Plans are an anomaly in life. They come in many shapes, sizes, extremes and disciplines. Back up plans; plans A through Z; escape plans; assault plans; but despite all the numerous names and titles, every plan has one thing in common - They all, to a certain point, end with an unknown. The plan for today was simple: Naruto would be strapped down into the gurney, his clothing removed so that the complex demonic kanji of the room could be properly tied into the complex demonic kanji that would soon be placed on Naruto's body, at which point the words of empowerment would be whispered over him. The unknown was what would come after - They knew that a demon would be called, and an extremely powerful one at that, but beyond that, the end result was a mystery. Summoning the Kyuubi no Kitsune could simply be beyond their mortal power and not happen, or it could completely drain their collective life force and still accomplish nothing. Another possibility was that the demon would appear and destroy the entire village, or not. It was simply an unknown.
Naruto had the confidence of someone who knew that he would succeed, which the other two didn't share. To them, Naruto was the unknown. He possessed very little memory, but what memory he did possess was terrifying. From the mumbles in his sleep, Lin and J' Uko - for that was the old man's name though Naruto had never bothered to learn it - were able to glimpse at terrible evils being performed. His cries for help and please for forgiveness seemed to each belong to a different face, a different memory. What life, they often wondered, were they helping? Were they helping the tired soul of a Hero who had simply seen to much and become lost, yet still driven to do good? Or were they simply enabling a warlord to reappear? When such doubts plagued them, they would rely on the faith that Naruto tended to inspire in those around him. Despite his clumsy nature, fumbling speech, and density of mind, a truer person you would never find. So it was with a heavy heart that Lin and J'Uko strapped the young man, who'd stumbled into their lives with a smile and a laugh, down onto the gurney and retreated to their perspective places on each side of the outer circle.
"Hey…" Naruto's voice was quiet and serious, which by itself was enough to stop the two in their places. He didn't wait for an answer or expect one, merely continued talking. "I don't know what this seal will do to me, and I don't know what'll happen afterwards… but I want you both to know that I will never hurt you… I give you my word." With that said, he fell silent and closed his eyes tightly. J'Uko and Lin looked at each other a long time, considering his statement. Naruto's word, they knew, was unbreakable in his mind, and the young man would suffer death gladly before breaking it. Despite how they wanted to back out of the ceremony, afraid of losing the innocent and single sided entity that the blonde was, each knew he would keep his word to them no matter what. How then, could they do any less for him?
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"We invoke thee, Demon, and call you to our aid."
There in the familiar dark hallways of Naruto's mind, a great evil began to awaken stir.
Naruto screamed, his body arcing violently against the restraints that held him to the table. The bloody kanji took on an unearthly glow, literally rising from the ground and flickering, as if aflame in midair.
"We invoke thee, Demon, and bid you to bring your wrath."
Eyes filled with a dark intelligence began to open, alternately seeking freedom and familiarity.
Frothing at the mouth, Naruto was now straining so hard against his bindings that the solid steel gurney had bent into a lazy U-shape to compensate. Fresh blood spilled at his wrists and ankles where manacle and shackle alike had cut deep into his skin at the behest of his struggles - Naruto was unaffected.
"We invoke thee, Demon, for great wrongs must be made right."
Nine terrible tails began to thrash in agitation as the great destroyer found himself unable to escape confinement.
Naruto's body, previously a rigid arch, now slumped against the ruined table, causing it crumple to the floor. The room in which the three had performed the ceremony now lay in shadow, the burning fire of demonic kanji had all been absorbed into Naruto's form at roughly the same moment a chill wind had swept through to extinguish every candle. There were no sounds other than the paniced breathing of Naruto, and in a moment, even those had ceased.
Nothing was said between old man and doting daughter for some time, both afraid to voice the fear of failure that enshrouded like a foul stench. When, eventually, the decision came to leave, both went about their business in a respectful silence. A gossamer blanket was draped across Naruto's still body once he'd been layed out straight, and he was left in peace. Several villagers came by in the passing of the day, each one curious as to the screams and subsequent dissapearance of the amusing man they had sheltered. Each and every one of them had been turned away by mournful faces and quiet words - a good life had been ended before it's time, and that was all anyone needed to know. But perhaps, had they not been expecting some grande occurance, they might have noted the subtle changes being wraught in their basement… instead of simply burying Naruto in an unmarked grave outside of town.
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The wall at his back gave way with a thunderous crunch on impact. Naruto, having just been the victim of a tsunami-force tail swing that sent him to the now collapsed wall, rose shakily to his feet. His mouth set into a determined line, Naruto brushed the dust and debris from his body as he stepped out of the rubble. His body ached in a thousand different ways and places, and Naruto was sure some of those places hadn't even existed before and only could now so as to convey his pain to him. The battle had been long, and Naruto was quite sure that he was on the losing side. His body, despite being powerful on it's own, was at a distinct disadvantage now that it was used against the very creature that generaly made it so insanely strong. So he teetered there, intent on stabilizing himself before rushing in again. The Kyuubi had other ideas however, as it's head jutted forward open mouthed in another attempt to spear the pathetic creature before it one long canine.
Instinct, ever the surviving part of Naruto, activated yet again to keep Naruto on the side of injured instead of dead, leaping him out of the way. The battle was both pivotal and pointless. he and the fox knew this - for their was no anger between them, only friendship. Naruto could not die here in his own mind, nor could the Kyuubi truly hurt him. Sadly, such things must still occur. Releasing the Kyuubi was a gamble of a life time: A gamble with both their lives. With the seal released, a rush of power that was simply beyond belief occurred and, just as it had in Naruto's own life time, the two had to burn off as much energy as possible. The environment was unstable, warped by the overwhelming Youkai that came from the fox, but gradually stabilizing. Rock that had yielded as easily as water now felt as real as it would in the corporal world when Naruto or the Kyuubi went crashing through it. Eventually though, the power drain had been accomplished as far as was needed, and the two were at rest. Naruto; currently reclined on the particular pile of detris he'd last created, sighed softly while looking across the face of one smug fox demon. "You know," he started to say before interrupting himself with a gasp of pain as he put an arm back in its socket. "You're a real asshole." The Kyuubi only laughed before a flicker of his tail sent Naruto crashing through the barrier between sleep and consciousness.
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At somewhere just past two in the morning, the world suddenly turning bright as day is rather an unusual affair, even during war time. So it must be said that people had some justification in wanting to follow EOTWEnd of the World procedure; bending over, tucking heads between legs, and kissing ass's goodbye. It was therefore understandable that J'Uko and Lin were found in a compromising position when Naruto entered their hut a moment later, dirty, bruised, and looking somewhat different than he had before.
His body, the host of conscious demon once again , had been unable to completely contain the emerging chakra and had simply vented, simply being a realative term. What had occurred, in the eyes of those people who hadn't had a long association with a demon infused Naruto, was the coming of the Appocolyspe. The ground had bucked hard underneath them a half second before a pillar of light had appeared in the sky, turning darkness into crimson hued day. To Naruto, such thigns were rather routine. After taking a moment to get his bearings, Naruto clamored out of the second smoking crater he found himself waking up in inside of a week. With an annoyed grumble about being naked, again, in such a situation, he began to brush himself off as he walked back towards the village. He saw many odd things in passing as he approached his destination such as people, young and old, gripping their ankles and praying to Kami. Naruto, worried about being left out of anything that looked as funny as this, walked up to someone and asked what it was all about.
The encounter was a bit odd and left Naruto vaguely discomforted. He went over it in his mind, intending on asking the old man and Lin what it was all about when he got there. "Oy, you there," He had said. "Yes, what is it," came the middle-aged woman's reply. "Uhm," Naruto continued, "why are you standing like that?" The woman had turned about then, an awkward motion that consisted of wobbling around in tiny little shuffle-steps to complete a half circle, to look at him before replying in an almost cheerful voice, "It's the end of the world! Are you here to take me to my Eiger?" A little put off by the woman's upside down smile, sunny disposition, and most particularly, the combination of these things while delivering her statement, Naruto could only shake his head while backing up. He asked no more questions, and the woman promptly ignored him in favor of kissing her posterior once more, so Naruto, thoroughly weird-ed out at this point, ran the rest of the way.
"Oh Kami, not you two too!" These were the first words that J'Uko and Lin had ever heard a dead man say - which, in retrospect, might have been a bit disappointing when you consider all the things a formerly dead person ought to be able to tell you. Regardless of any future disappointment, the sealing duo's reaction for the moment was to scream.
(AN: I was to pissed off to mention it above but, to all of those who reviewed, Thanks! I intend to send you a piece of the third chapter some time before I finish and post the rest... just cause you were nice enough to review in the first place. Obviously, I review each privately as they come, though I will answer reoccuring questions in the Author Notes as long as they do not pertain to plot that I haven't revealed yet.
Hope you enjoyed.
Kou. (The Dirtwater Fox)