This time the boys were faster but failed to claim the book, leaving Sakura to be the chosen reader.

-Chapter 3-

-Last time-

"… You're kidding right?" Eva asked with a dull look before blinking in surprise as Naruto shook his head and kept looking at her in confusion. "You seriously don't know what a Iop is?"

"Not a clue." Naruto said as everyone stared at him in shock, even Dally once he managed to get his head free of the rubble. "Why? Is it something I should?"

"When you take into account that there are 12 different races walking about the earth now, not knowing about one of them does raise a few eyebrows." Said the always serious Shino, the rest of the group agreeing with his comment.

"Well duh! They're like an entire freaking race of the World of Twelve! What next, you going to say you don't know what a Sadidan or a Cra is?" Amalia asked rhetorically.

"Nani? A what now?" Naruto asked, getting the greenette to drop her jaw.

"…"

"…"

"How long were you in that statue?" Ruel wondered aloud, getting a shrug from the whiskered blonde.

"Long enough to probably be your great-great-great-grandfather!" Kushina joked with a giggle, her husband sweat-dropping a little from the 'eloquent' comment, but nevertheless giving an exasperated smile at his dear wife.

"I don't know, a week or so probably since I'm so tired I'd guess. One moment I was being turned to stone, the next I was here feeling like I just got finished racing Gekimayu-sensei around Konoha again with boulders on my back… again." Naruto shivered slightly as he remembered being tricked by Kakashi to take that challenge for him. He had won by a hair, but his back, legs, and feet had been aching like hell for two days afterwards.

"Ah, those were good times." A nostalgic Kakashi sighed, happily remembering all the events that took place all those years ago. Sakura on the hand paled a little. Kakashi may be a lazy bastard most of the time, but he was one hell of a slave driver when it came to training.

Ruel didn't even bat an eye at the odd name, figuring it was just a nickname like how he called Eva Surudoi-san. Instead, he sighed as a very likely theory popped into his head. "I was afraid you'd say that. Yugo, looks like you're up for cooking tonight… seems we have a lot to explain to our new friend here."

"A lot is a freaking understatement, considering they have to explain an entirely new time period to poor Naruto." said Ino seeing how things were going.

"Troublesome, but this could also benefit us." The resident Nara said, seeing the situation from another angle.

"Got it, I think we still have all the ingredients for some gobbal stew," The youngest of the group said as Ruel moved out of his way and closer to Naruto.

"Now, to start a Iop is…"

-Three Hours Later-

"…They didn't explain a damn thing." Sakura deadpanned while reading the temporary jump repeatedly, looking for Ruel's explanation.

"Just keep reading woman!" Drako, who was currently floating in the air above everyone's head, snapped irritably.

"…And that's about it." Ruel said as he gulped down a mouthful of stew. He had just finished describing a few of the various races that inhabiting the World of Twelve such as the Iops, Cras, Osamodans, Enutrofs, Sadidans, and Pandarians. Amalia, Eva, and an unburied Dally helped by demonstrating a few of their own kinds unique traits, such as Eva's energy arrows and pointed ears of a Cra, Dally's unnatural strength and his lack of a nose of a Iop, and Amalia's partially plant-based biology and plant manipulation of a Sadidan which Naruto found the most intriguing.

"Well, that was kinda useful, but barely any information either." said Jiraiya. As a spymaster and pervert ("SUPER-PERVERT!") he always stressed over getting all the juicy details. Any lack of information was an absolute insult.

"Well considering we'd be here forever if they were to explain everything (not to mention someone is just too lazy to write it down) …" an annoyed Liok snapped his fingers, the reaction was instantaneous all those present clutched their heads in pain. It felt as if he had given them a severe case of brain freeze.

"Oooh, what was that?" Sakura asked in a daze, looking around to see that she wasn't the only one who suffered that massive headache. Before anyone could respond to images, names and even characteristics of people/creatures in different ways came to her head.

"Oooh, I really don't wanna repeat that dattebane." a dazed and confused Kushina moaned "Wait… Oooh, so that's a Iop... I think they look a lot like certain people I know." she commented, whispering the last part while watching the green-clad duo of Konoha.

"Mental transference, a much easier and faster way to get information through good and proper. Btw, this is more or less what Naruto feels with the information feedback when his clones dispel." Liok explained to the crowd. All of them could only give a prayer to the blond to feel something of what that the blonde felt when he used his clones.

Speaking of which…

"This is amazing, it's like Yamato-Sensei's Mokuton." Naruto muttered, his hand held out while Amalia made a small vine curl around it like a snake. However, after a few moments he pulled his hand away while his confused expression returned. "But still, what you're telling me is a little hard to believe Jiji. Me and Ero-sennin went all over the Yōso no Kuni during our training trip and I didn't see anything like what you've described."

"I can confirm that. I saw a lot of strange things before, during and after the war. By the time I started getting old, I'd ventured into almost all of the most hidden and secret places in the world. But I have never seen anything like what we've just seen." said Jiraiya in total seriousness. That was very rare for those who barely knew him, but those who did could only agree with that.

This time, Ruel did show a reaction in the form of a raised eyebrow as he mentally translated what the whiskered teen said. 'Perverted sage? I wonder why… no Ruel, not the time to get side-tracked.' The old man told himself with a shake of his head. "Yes, well that is the part you really aren't going to like. I'm pretty sure you were in that statue for longer than just a few weeks." He said making Naruto tilt his head while Eva's eyes widened in realization at where Ruel was going.

Kushina didn't like where the conversation was going, holding tightly onto her husband's hand and hoping that her bad feeling didn't prove to be well-warranted. The scene was eerily similar to when the council had told her that Uzugakure was destroyed. Minato, who felt the squeeze, could only caress his wife's shoulder and offer her at least some comfort.

"What, you mean like a year or two?" He asked as he suddenly started to feel uneasy for some reason.

"No…" Ruel said with a sigh, "…I think you were petrified for a few thousand years." As soon as the words left his mouth, Naruto froze up for a few seconds before laughing.

"Yup, there's the denial." Tsunade said watching the reaction of Naruto to know the truth, or who was also paying attention, he agreed with his teacher that was always the first symptom in people who suffered a very serious shock, examples were sudden deaths of friends or family, wake up years after a coma among others.

"Hahaha! Nice one Jiji, you almost had me with that." Naruto chuckled, a wide grin on his lips that slowly died down as he noticed the completely serious expression on Ruel's face. "You're kidding, aren't you? This is some kind of sick joke, isn't it? Well it isn't funny." Naruto stated angrily while trying to stand up again, only for his legs to give out again and cause him to tumble to the cave floor with a grunt.

"Look kiddo, I get that this isn't exactly an easy thing to have dropped on you, but I swear on my purse that I am not making this up." Ruel said, getting everyone but Naruto's eyes to widen. To Ruel, money meant more to him than anything even his life at times, just like with most Enutrofs. "It's the only conclusion makes any sense since the only way you would be lacking such common knowledge that even a Iop would know would be that it didn't exist before you were petrified."

"So that's how bad the situation is?" Asked Hinata, hoping that at least someone could calm the mood.

Or you guys are just another group of crazy Kekkei Genkai wielders. You guys are practically a ryo a dozen." Naruto said before closing his eyes and going unnaturally still, the reasoning for this becoming clear as a shiver went up Amalia's spine again while his eyes regained an orange hue around them. Eyes snapping open to reveal golden eyes with bar pupils, Naruto slowly stood up and limped off. "I'm done listening to your crazy tales, I'm going to… get back to my village and make… make sure everyone is… alright." Naruto huffed out, his breath already starting to become ragged from walking just ten feet while he leaned against the wall for support.

"Damn gaki, always too damn stubborn for his own good." Tsunade commented sadly, watching as her surrogate grandson tried desperately to find the village, mentally pleading for him to stop so that the blow wouldn't be any harder than it already was.

Rounding a corner, his annoyance grew when he saw the heavy rainfall that was soaking everything in sight. His teeth groaning under the pressure of his jaw clenching and his eyebrow twitching, Naruto barely even registered his fingers sinking straight through the solid granite wall as his hands balled into fists.

"You have to let it out son." Said Minato quietly, seeing how much piled up anger his son had.

The whole "new" generation of Konoha wanted to say something but no matter how much Naruto had helped them, they themselves did not know how to help. It was a dark and cruel truth that everyone had realized as much as they wanted to deny it. They were most definitely friends of Naruto and of course they knew things about him but only the basics; towards something other than pulling pranks and eating ramen they didn't know much about him, even Sakura (despite being the only one that was on his team for years) didn't know him beyond the sad team 7.

Knowing that there was no way he could make it through that mess in his current condition, he reluctantly turned around and limped back into the cavern. However, instead of stopping at the group, he went right past them and headed deeper into the cave. "Well… that went about as well as I expected." Ruel said before yelping in pain as Eva smacked the back of his head. "Hey!? What was that for?!"

"Oh please, like you don't know!" Spat a spiteful Kurenai. Only an absolute idiot or a senile old fool wouldn't know the reason for that blow.

"For being a complete idiot. You don't just drop something like that on a person." Eva said scathingly, sure she didn't trust the boy herself, but she wouldn't just up and tell him 'Hey guess what? Everyone you know and love are most likely dead and the world as you know it is completely different'.

"Sure as heck doesn't sound like a nice way to wake up." Chouji said, shuddering at the thought of something like this happening to him.

Before she could chew Ruel out further though, the Cra was interrupted as Yugo's voice reached her ears. "Hey Amalia, are you alright? You're shaking." Hearing this, she snapped her head towards the pair and saw that the greenette was indeed shaking as she stared at the direction that Naruto had left.

"Oh right, I almost forgot about that." Jiraiya chuckled. It absolutely tickled him to see the reaction of the Sadida to sage mode.

"Y-yeah… I'm fine," Amalia muttered, struggling, and by the looks of it rapidly failing, to resist going after Naruto. "It's just… he feels so… so…" Just as she gave in and started to walk in his direction, the plant girl was roughly pulled off her feet and into Eva's lap and held firmly in place by the archer. "…thanks." She said even as she desperately tried to squirm away.

"Something tells me that when someone or something so sensitive to nature chakra comes close to someone like Naruto, who usually exploits his techniques to the absolute maximum, it will be very difficult to resist." Drawled Shikamaru, remembering how many variations of the same technique the blonde could make.

"Ooh, you have no idea gaki." said Jiraiya with a laugh followed by Tsunade, along with all of the jounin of the village who were familiar with how the blonde fought.

"No problem," Eva grunted as she struggled to hold Amalia in place.

"Should one of us go talk to him?" Yugo asked as Az, his pet tofu bird, floated around his head chirping quietly in agreement.

"Not right now Yugo, right now it would be best to let him simmer down for a bit." Ruel said, "He just got a lot dropped on him and needs some time to process."

"What he needs is a way to release all that retained anger, or the consequences could be very… severe." said Kakashi watching everything closely.

"Well he better hurry, or at least stop using that stupid Sennin Modo thing of his soon. This isn't exactly easy." Eva said after finally managing to get Amalia in a hold that prevented her from moving anything but her head.

"How much strength does that girl have?" Asked Tsunade, slightly interested in the Cra.

"Enough to kick the ass of anyone who dares to think she's nothing but a pretty face." said Liok to the group. The funny thing is that he was wearing a mask that you use when you go to sleep. Drako was coming up from behind towards his face with a marker in hand, only for Liok to whip out a flyswatter and whipped it against the face of his associate, strong enough to knock him to the ground. The poor guy (unfortunately) broke the ground with the amount of force with which he collided with it.

"Don't start with me, you annoying animal!" said an annoyed Liok, everyone present sweat dropping a little at the scene.

-With Naruto-

'Their lying, it couldn't have been that long. It couldn't have.' The blonde thought as he stumbled through the naturally illuminated cave until he reached a nice secluded area with a soft moss-covered floor, ironically the area he had been petrified. Briefly glancing at the scorched remnants of the seals that had once been embedded into the ground, he stepped past them and towards the middle where the plaque still sat.

"It's a little creepy if you think about." Ino shivered, seeing how it was the place of confinement of her fellow blond.

Sakura turned away from the book for a second to give her 'rival' a skewed look. "You think?" She asked sarcastically.

Sitting down in lotus position in front of it, he gazed down at the words carved into the stone, gently running his fingers over the stone with a look of contemplation. 'They can't be right. There is no way it's been that long. It's impossible.' He thought, not even caring as several small critters such as a glowing lizard and a small black ball of fluff with eyes and eight scraggly legs settled onto various parts of his body. 'And I know just how to prove it.'

"What strange creatures." Shino said in his usual monotonous tone, but if you looked closely you'd notice the intrigue and curiosity of the Aburame, particularly towards the eight-legged fluffball.

"Only you would be interested in those weirdass things." Kiba snarked to his teammate. Hinata could only give a nervous giggle at the peculiarities of her teammates.

Closing his eyes, Naruto put his hands into a ram hand-sign as his body gained an almost imperceptible blueish-green aura around it. Eyes closing, Naruto took in a single long deep breath before exhaling just as the aura pulsed outwards. Within his mind, Naruto's already impressive senses were boosted even further. Within seconds, he was picking up every living creature within a thirty-mile radius, right down to the smallest of ant-like creatures.

"That's actually a pretty useful skill, I think it's a lot like or similar to what the sensor-nin are capable of." The Nara observed.

"It's an incredible experience no doubt about that, but at the same time it's terrifying." Jiraiya spoke up in a serious tone, gaining a look from all those present. Seeing the group's doubt, he decided to elaborate. "See to be one with nature, you feel life itself the terrifying comes later because as well as the you feel you can also see it disappear and believe me when I say it is a sensation ... uuuf ... I do not know how to put it into words… empty." The white-haired man said while Minato nodded in agreement, both having felt such a sensation.

"Frankly, I'm a little worried about what Naruto must've felt during Nagato's attack, because he saw the same number of countless lives lost from the fastest to the slowest." said Jiraiya gravely, remembering what he was told about that attack.

The sheer number of them was almost staggering, but Naruto was quickly able to sort through them by focusing for the specific signatures that beings of a human being gave off. Since this was definitely the place he had originally been sealed, he should have been able to easily pick up Konoha and its residents.

…but he didn't.

"Naruto, please stop, before it gets any worse!" said a tearful Kushina who knew that his son was just throwing more salt to the wound.

'Come on, where are they? They should be around here somewhere.' He thought, his brow furrowing in concentration as he desperately tried to find any sign of them or the crater that used to be Konoha. He scoured every inch of the surrounding area with his senses, only to come up with nothing. 'Any second now, I'll find them at any moment and then I can go home, make sure everyone's alright then enjoy a nice bowl of ramen.'

All present could only bow their heads in sorrow. Even now the blond struggled only for just a small glimmer of hope that Konoha was still around only to find nothing, because the village he called home was completely erased in the sands of time.

Despite his attempts at optimism, Naruto couldn't stop the feeling of dread reforming back in his stomach as each second passed with no results. Soon, the pulse died down and his senses died back down to only to normal fifty yards around him. Not willing to give up that easily, he focused more power and released another wave.

-Back with the Others-

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT IOP BRAIN DOING!?" Eva yelled as she, Yugo, Ruel, AND Dally all struggled to hold a practically rabid Amalia down as the barely noticeable wave of energy washed over them for a third time.

"Huh, must be a lot of chakra being gathered if it's starting to become visible." Shikamaru said in a poor attempt to change the mood.

"The amount to of chakra you'd need to make it visible is huge in itself, but to give it off in waves is..." Tsunade trailed off with a low whistle, once again surprised by her godson's power.

"How should we know?! Just focus on keeping Amalia do-OOF!" Ruel started to say only to get cut off as all four of them were flung off by large green vines covered in small thorns that suddenly emerged from the ground. Quickly scrambling to her feet, the greenette darted off after the source, with Eva, who recovered the fastest, chasing after her. Rounding a corner, the Cra reacted just fast enough to catch the plain looking doll that Amalia had tossed at her blindly.

"A little word of advice kids: Never put yourself between a woman and her target." An amused Kushina chuckled as she recovered a little from her fit of tears.

"EEEAAHAHA!" The doll screamed, throwing punches and kicks that Eva barely felt before she tossed it away and continued to pursue. Skidding around a corner, she made it just in time to see Amalia tackle Naruto's side and hug him tightly, startling off the various other critters that had perched on him.

"… Okay, that doll is definitely not normal." Kiba said, only for the others to look him as if he were an idiot (Wasn't that obvious?).

"In the few chapters we have read since the beginning, it's been blatantly obvious that nothing in that world is normal." A deadpanned Sakura lectured the Inuzuka, who could only laugh sheepishly at that statement.

Seriously annoyed, she marched towards the duo with the intent of giving her fellow blonde a thorough tongue lashing. However, once she got close she noticed a key detail that caused her to stop.

'…He's crying,' Sure enough, tears were slowly streaming down Naruto's whiskered cheeks even as his face was set in a look of complete determination and his eyes darted around under his eyelids, apparently completely oblivious to the girl snuggling her head into the crook of his neck. As another pulse washed over her, Eva quickly figured out what he was doing and looked down at the boy with pity. 'He's trying to find his home.'

For Jiraiya, Tsunade, Minato and Kushina, it was almost too painful to watch as their son/godson cried for finding dead people a long time ago and it hurt more because for him they were only petrified weeks, but for the rest of the world it was millennia.

Standing there quietly, she was soon joined by Yugo as he hopped out of one of his portals, Dally who smacked Rubilax against the ground causing the small sword to grow and gain a swirling green pattern over it, and Ruel who held his shovel at the ready. They relaxed however when Eva waved them down and pointed to the two in the center of the room.

Naruto continued his endeavor for almost an hour, with each pulse getting steadily weaker as his Sennin Modo took longer and became harder to charge up and maintain. Near the end it was so weak that Amalia finally managed to come back to her senses and quickly clambered off the blonde with a deep blush on her face.

"Honestly, I think I would have gone crazy at this point." Neji admitted to the rest of the group.

"You're not the only one; we all would have collapsed from the sheer weight of it all in a matter of minutes." Shikamaru said. No matter how intelligent he was, he knew there was a fine difference between intelligence and strength. Naruto had a lot of strength in both mind and body, but he had just come out of a fight that was both physically and mentally exhausting, with a person who literally wiped Konoha off the map. Out of all the Konoha 12, Naruto was sometimes considered as the weakest but honestly, he was the strongest in so many ways that it wasn't even funny. If someone fell, Naruto would be there for them in an instant helping in their 100% even if you did not want their help from the beginning.

As the orange pigment faded away, his once again cerulean eyes slowly cracked open to reveal the despair within them as he cried full force. "…no… …no... this can't be true… please Kami no…" He muttered, his body sagging to the floor as reality hit him. Clenching his fists, he smashed one into the ground with enough force to spiderweb it with cracks. "…no… No… No, No, No! NOOOOO!" Naruto screamed, each word punctuated with a stronger punch than before, causing the ground to crater beneath him from the force.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

- Finish Chapter -

"Well, that's all for now. -sigh- I know this one's been a little rough on everyone, so feel free to go take a break and recharge before we continue. I'm sure the next chapter will be a little better for everyone's mood." Said Liok, who was now holding a cup of coffee with a plate with what appeared to be a kind of circular dough stuffed with what seems to be an egg scrawl in his lap (that's called Arepa, the best thing in the world!). Drako appeared right behind him and tried to make a grab for the plate, only for Liok to grab him by the face launch him right into the big screen "You try that again and I will turn you into a woman in the painful way possible, CAPISCE?!" Liok declared, curiously sounding Italian.

The ninjas of Konoha left after seeing that action, the two sannin went along with the couple home to try to calm a tearful Kushina, while the rookie 12 went to talk to their respective teachers to clarify their doubts.

"Tch, stingy bastard." Drako growled to his counterpart, who was now eating without a care in the world.