Maelstrom in The First

Chapter 2

A Naruto x Final Fantasy XIV crossover

By SandewrPally

Conscious returned slowly to Naruto. He was laying on a small bedroll if the slight padding he could feel between him and whatever ground he was laying on was any indication. His recent memories were a blur as he tried to remember what had happened. There was confronting Nagato, Kakashi meeting him and then….

Then the masked Akatsuki member had somehow gotten the drop on them. Kakashi had fought the man to a standstill while Naruto tried to recover enough strength to help. Kakashi yelling for Naruto to move then the feeling of being squeezed through a hole as his vision swirled and he blacked out with a combination of exhaustion and whatever technique he had been hit by.

Bolting upright, or at least attempting to, Naruto looked around wildly as he tried to take in all that was around him. A cascade of pink to purple fauna surrounded him and what trees he could see were nothing like the trees that surrounded Konoha. Noticing the Lake and beach that connected it his mind was racing before he collapsed. Whatever had happened form his fights with Nagato's Paths and Tobi had left him far weaker than he had ever been.

"Whoa there! Clam down for a second. You shouldn't even be moving around."

Naruto saw a white-haired man with a tattoo on his neck kneel down next to him. The hands on his shoulders steadies him before he could collapse completely and held him in a firm brace as the man looked him over. The coat he had reminded him of Anko though the man wore significantly more armor than he had seen most shinobi wear. The hilt of a weapon peeked from the strangers back, though the design was much more complicated than most weaponry he had seen ( and having trained with TenTen had shown him numerous types). Before he could further scrutinize the man and his strange armaments another person kneeled next to him, this one a young woman who Naruto guesses was near his age or younger.

Though the hood she wore attempted to obscure her features Naruto was struck by the pupil-less blue eyes that seemed to glow. Blonde hair that was a shade brighter than Ino's covered her forehead. She looked at Naruto worryingly as if he shouldn't have just woken up. It reminded him of the times when Tsunade or Sakura and just shake their heads when he would mostly recover by the next day. Hopefully he had healed form whatever had happened after Kakashi had attempted to rescue him. What he assumed to be a traveling cloak covered most of her body, though she apparently had no trouble moving around even if it looked to be heavy for her.

"Whe-" Naruto coughed dryly as he attempted to speak. The young woman handed him a waterskin while the man held his back. He greedily drunk until his thirst was gone for the moment. "Where am I?"

It was the man that answered "Lakeland, In the First. Though I take you you don't recognize that name or your surroundings."

"I….what?" Naruto shook his head "What about Konoha? The Elemental Nations?" Both of the strangers shook their heads.

"You fell out of the sky. That and you had numerous injuries that were not form the fall." The young woman answered. "My names Minfilia." She added after a moment

"Oh, um Naruto Uzumaki. Wait I fell out of the sky?!" Naruto said wondering how he didn't have more injuries, even had even died if he had landed wrong. Dying from a broken neck while falling? That was no way for an awesome sage shinobi to go down! Missing the wary glance that Minfilia received form the man and the silent conversation going on the man sighed as he stood up. Holding a hand out for Naruto he pulled him up easily before introducing himself.

"Luckily you fell in the water. Names Thancred and it sounds like you we might be in similar situation."

"Uh what?" Naruto responded, earning a giggle from Minfilia. Thancred himself smirked before tackling both Naruto and Minfilia as a blade sailed through the air. Naruto and Thancred rolled to face the new threat, with Naruto putting himself between whatever had attacked them. Naruto could only think that whatever had attacked them had dunked itself in a vat of white paint. It wielded a blade that was probably as tall as Jiriaya and was held aloft by the wings. Armor that looked very sturdy to the Konoha shinobi and a shield that he would have to get by.

"Damn! Naruto! Can you protect her?" Thancred shouted out as he loaded something into the weapon, he had pulled from his back. Naruto didn't even hesitate.

"You got it!"

Crystal Tower

The Crystal Sage Could only shake his head as he prepared the rest of the ritual for bringing the Warrior of Light to the First. Whatever had occurred several hours ago would have to be looked into at a later date. He took solace in that the Aether that had been detected hadn't been Dark or Light, but just extremely potent.

He could only hope that whoever or whatever had arrived in the First would not be their enemy. Heavens know they would have plenty of those in the coming days. Going over the magic once again he started to recite the chant that hopefully would bring his friend from the Source and help them in this trying time.

?

Emet-Selch let out a frustrated huff as he processed what his ally had just told him. For the longest time he and the rest od the ascians had thought their troubles from Hagoromo's world would have ended with him but noooooo. Turns out that Elidibus has been keeping an eye on that particular world, something that irked the Former Garlean Emperor.

Plans would have to be more….adaptable now.