Prompt: Wizard

The Wizard of Odd

A gentle breeze swept across a rocky meadow, teasing multi-hued flower and lush blade of grace into a slow, synchronized dance. Vibrant sunlight stretched across a sea of endless blue over head, billowing clouds drifted lazily along languid air currents. Peace lay heavy atop the serene depiction of nature, flowing tranquil and undisturbed…

At least until…

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Naruto screamed, booking it across the grass plane.

Weaving between the giant rocks littering his path, the panicked blond pumped his arms for all he was worth, cursing himself for loosing his goddamn wand at a time like this! Glancing over his shoulder, he was just in time to see the leathery, giant, angry dragon who's lair he'd accidentally shouted into was still hot on his tail.

It was a really stupid thing to do.

While they were few and far between, dragons weren't extinct and the most likely place to find them was inside deep, dank caves like the one he'd been planning to search for cave mushrooms.

Just his luck that his childish fascination with echoes would give rise to this!

A thunderous roar rent the air, followed by a hellish stream of fire right far too close to the seat of his pants.

"Hot!" he yelled, covering his singed bottom with both hands, "Hot!"

One moment he was speeding across an open field, tramping over flowers, the next moment, he was falling through a vibrant void of space, time and reality.

WNWNWNWN

"Stop it Naruto-kun!" Hinata trilled, giggling for what had to be the thousandth time in the last four minutes.

Though every single shinobi within hearing range was happy to see the two together, more than half had had it with the lovey dovey kissy face sessions. Naruto couldn't keep his hands or lips off the poor woman, besotted and happy in his very first relationship, Konoha's golden boy ignored any and every single attempt to reign in his touchy feely, adorably affectionate, insufferably loving, behavior.

Separating them didn't work, like two super magnets cranked to the max, the two found their way back, weaving through teammates and friends, eyes connected across the expanse of land like they were two characters in a cheesy romance movie.

This picnic was supposed to be a way for everybody to catch up with each other, and yet the two lovebirds barely spent time apart no matter how many times other's carted them off.

That hadn't deterred Hinata's fed up teammates.

They were determined to reclaim their third.

Ever since she started dating the dashing Hero, he monopolized every second of her attention.

Kiba had been over it day one, Shino had taken a minute to heart up, but now he was ready to play dirty if he had to.

"Quit hogging Hinata, Naruto!" Kiba growled, standing over the two lovers hugged up under a tree, "let her spend time with her teammates sometime!"

Arms wrapped around the blushing woman huddled between his spread legs, his embrace tighter than industrial super glue, Naruto glared at the two men.

"You see her plenty, dattebayo!" Naruto countered, "besides, you got to have her most of her life when we were younger, it's my turn now!"

"You're the one that ignored her all that time! You can't use that as an excuse!"

Pout deepening, puppy dog eyes at full blast, Naruto turned repentant orbs to Hinata.

"There, there, Naruto-kun," she soothed, stroking his whiskered cheeks, "we already talked about this, remember? No more regrets. The past is the past, what matters is the future."

"You're so sweet and good and nice," Naruto cooed, going back to what he'd been doing when the pair arrived, raining kisses on his girlfriend's face and neck, "I love you, dattebayo."

"N-Naruto-kun," she chortled jerking her neck and shoulder as his lips brushed a sensitive spot, "that tickles."

Kiba opened his mouth and drew in a huge breath, ready to blister both of their ears, only for a ungodly roar to piece the air, shaking the trees and very earth below, blowing a harsh wind across the group of young shinobi.

Every gaze turned to the sky, staring at the overgrown lizard hurtingly towards them.

"W-What the hell?!" Kiba shouted.

"I-Is that a dragon?!" Ino screeched.

Fire streaked from the sky, hurtling towards the party goers, and every ninja in attendance launched themselves into action.

WNWNWNWN

"Holy shit, we just killed a dragon!" Kiba shouted an hour later.

The group of friends consisting of Naruto, Hinata, Shino, Ino, Sakura, Choji, Shikamaru, Lee, Tenten and Sai stood around the fallen creature.

A massive swath of forestland had been snapped clean in half beneath its gigantic form, easily twice the height of the Hokage Tower and wide enough to partially eclipse the sun above. It's scaly body glinted like polished emeralds, his wings a darker shade of jade, his big head made up of sharp edges and harsh lines, maw full of pointed teeth.

"Where in the world did it come from?" Tenten questioned, bending down to look it in it's dead face.

"Seems like it just popped out of the sky," Choji remarked.

"Hey Naruto, I thought you dispersed your clones," Ino pipped up pointing off in the distance, "think you missed one, and what the heck is it wearing?"

They turned as one to stare at the odd clone staring back at them.

The was no doubt it was Naruto, and yet, the clothing was strange. It's torso was encased in a bright orange tunic with weird orange symbols on the black trim that circled the collar and ran straight down the middle to the the hem tucked into a pair of what looked to be buckskin pants.

Naruto found this more confusing than the dragon attack.

Unwrapping his arms from around his girlfriend, Naruto raised his hands to dispel the rogue clone, only for it to ignore his command.

What the hell?

"What's going on?" Sakura asked him, "why didn't it work?

"Naruto-kun?"

Brows crinkled, he tried eight more times to dispel the other him, and not only did it not work, it started heading towards them.

Unease slid down his spine.

He didn't like this.

At all.

Maybe he could punch it away, all clones, no matter how stubborn, popped under the right amount of force.

He took off, bounding across the forest, cocking back his fist as he neared.

WNWNWNWN

Creepy…

This other him was fucking creepy!

For a guy that used Shadow Clone Jutsu like it was the only jutsu he knew, Naruto shouldn't be so disturbed to have another him walking around, and yet, looking at this mirror image of himself made his skin crawl, his hair stand on end and his stomach to tighten with some emotion that was so beyond dread he didn't know what to call it anymore.

He'd never told anybody except Hinata, but, he'd had a nightmare about this very situation once when he was a teenager, and it still haunted him as a twenty-one-year old man.

The blow to the face hadn't popped it.

In fact, the other him had gotten up cursing and screaming exactly the way he would have if someone decked him in the face and from there, the two had begun a bickering match that his friends eventually had to step in and break up.

Now, they sat across from each other on a picnic blanket, Konoha shinobi on one side, self proclaimed wizard on the other.

"Sooooo, you think somehow you and that dragon got transported to our world but you're not sure how." Tenten sounded just as disbelieving as Naruto felt.

"Yeah," the odd wizard nodded cheerily, albeit somewhat ruefully, "not sure how since I didn't cast any spells, dattebayo. I uh, kinda lost my wand running from that thing."

"That is definitely you from another reality," Shikamaru concluded.

The group at large, minus one, nodded, irritating the creeped out blond.

Soft hands ran across his thigh, soothing a small amount of his agitation. Giving his girlfriend a grateful smile, the minus one he could always count on, Naruto tightened his arm around her, then kissed her temple before turning his gaze back.

He was staring at them, hard.

Baby blues so piercing and intense, so all consuming and fierce, Naruto sort of understood what Hinata told him about how his eyes made her feel like she was pinned to the spot, her every secret laid bare.

Did he really look at people this way?

A bit flustered, he growled, "what? Quit starring, it's rude, 'ttebayo!"

Rather than shout back, the other him merely scratched his head, his gaze focusing on Hinata.

"Sorry it's just…kinda crazy to see me with Hinata."

"Eh? You two aren't together in your world?" Sakura gasped.

He shook his head, though his cheeks pinked, "we're just good friends, ya know."

"Hmmmm," Ino hummed, leaning forward, sly cat face in place, "you're blushing like you're more than good friends."

"I-I am not!"

"That's exactly how this idiot looked right before him and Hinata became a thing," Sakura snorted, cocking a thumb at the idiot in question.

"Hey!" Naruto pouted.

"Hey!" the odd wizard pouted.

They locked eyes, and blinked. Konoha's hero reacted first.

"What are you offended for? She was talking about me!" Naruto argued.

"We're the same person, so technically she talking about me too!" the wizard argued back.

"Guys!" the pinkette snapped, then sighed, turning to Ino, "you'd think they'd get along with each other."

"Are we in your world too?" Tenten asked.

"Yeah."

Naruto found himself reluctantly drawn in by the tales of a world writhe with magic, and elves, goblins and ghouls, trolls and yes, dragons. Their group was the equivalent to this universe, professional casters sent out on missions assigned by their Hokage. It sounded like temperaments and personalities were much the same, what was really starting to get on his nerves were the glances he kept shooting Hinata whenever the topic of her alternate self came up and Naruto was sick of it.

Pulling her deeper into his embrace, he glared at his other self, "get your own Hinata, creep!"

"W-what the hell are you talking about?!"

"You keep staring at her! Go back to your world if you want a Hinata!" Naruto growled, "this one's mine!"

"I-I-I wasn't staring at her because secretly like her or anything!" red faced wizard Naruto shouted.

He clammed up abruptly, realizing how much of a confession it truly sounded.

"I-I should really be trying to find a way back home!" he flustered, standing and turning, "so uh, yeah, uh, see-"

"N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata called out, stopping him in place, "I think I found your wand!"

WNWNWNWN

He was an idiot.

A really, really big idiot.

Not just because he'd stuck his wand in the back of his pants waistband while he was climbing up to the cave and forgot about it, not because he hadn't realized that the dragons's fire had acted as a catalyst and sent them both to another world.

He was an idiot because all this time he'd been overlooking the kind, childhood friend that always had a gentle smile for him.

The girl that made his heart flutter strangely when she was nearby.

It was really weird to see himself wrapped around Hinata, but…maybe, in his world too, Hinata was the answer to all his problems.

—

Short scene here, really nothing too deep, lol. Been working on Secrets and Prey lately, those two stories are neck and neck in the polls! At this point, can't predict which is going to pull ahead!

These votes have been really insightful!

Laters

Sessakag!