"So this is the village then?" Naruto asked to no one in particular as he took a few steps through the gateway. The village wasn't very big with only a couple small huts made of wood and canvas running along the outer wall. While at the far end stood a single stone building, a temple that towered above the village and looked out over the island.

"Hey. Naruto, over here."

The blonde turned towards the voice and came face to face with Lee. Before he could ask him what he wanted though, Lee grabbed a hold of his wrist and pulled him back outside of the village and behind its large log fence.

"I forgot to ask you." He said letting Naruto go. "Do you remember the prayer?"

The prayer? What kind of prayer was he expected to remember? He'd never been religious, never believed in a god so he didn't know any. He was about to tell Lee that when suddenly a thought occurred to him. There was one prayer that he did know.

"Yea I think so." He replied before clapping his hands together and bowing his head. "Itadakimasu."

"Itadakimasu?" Lee asked looking perplexed.

"It's what you say before you eat." Naruto explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And that's when he realised he wasn't in his world anymore. "You, have to imagine me holding chopsticks." He continued on, feeling more and more stupid with every word that left his mouth.

"That's not what I meant." Lee said as he covered his face with his hand and shook his head in disbelief. "The toxin really has affected you hasn't it. Now watch me, this is the prayer." Suddenly he stood straight, his head bowed and his right hand held up vertically with two fingers pointing upwards. He held the pose of a few seconds as Naruto looked him over before relaxing and letting his hand fall to his side. "Now you have a try."

The blonde stood there looking off into space, sure that he recognised the prayer, sure that he'd done it in the past, before he finally looked at his right hand and slowly moved his fingers into the right position. Once he was happy he brought his hand up to his face and bowed his head.

"Not bad." Lee commented as he circled the blonde to inspect him, before stopping to straighten his posture. "But I'd practice it a few more times if I were you. Kids are taught this as soon as they can walk, if someone sees you taking so long to do it they'll think something's wrong with you." He laughed.

Naruto just looked at him. He'd seen his home attacked by a giant creature and then been transported to another place and time, so there were plenty of things wrong as far as he was concerned, but it wasn't him.

"Right!" Lee yelled as he rested his arm across his shoulders and led him back through the gates into the centre of the village were people were going about their business. "Head for the ANBU lodge and get something to eat, just tell them I sent you and you'll be alright. When you're done there head for the temple, I'm sure you'll feel better there." He explained as he pointed first to the large tent to the left of them, and then to the lone stone building. "Right I've got jobs I need to do so I'll see you later." And before he could answer Lee was off running again, out of the village gate and back towards the beach.

Shaking his head in disbelief Naruto made his way to the tent Lee had pointed out to him as the people around him cautiously watched the new arrival to their village. Reaching the lodge he pushed the curtain that covered the doorway aside and stepped inside. Once inside he found himself stood in a large room filled with tables and benches, some clean while others were covered with dirty bowls and glasses. Small lanterns hung from the ceiling bathing the room in a warm glow while making the animal masks that hung on the walls look dark and scary. Across the back wall next to the only other doorway in the lodge stood a bar, attended by a woman with long brown hair who was stocking shelves, while two men sat on the opposite side from her silently drinking.

Realising that no one had noticed him yet he slowly approached the bar. "Hi, erm... Lee sent me." He said hoping to get the barmaids attention, however she wasn't the one that responded to him.

"Ah, the one from the sea." Looking towards the voice Naruto found that he'd gotten the attention of the two drinkers instead and recognised them as the people he'd met earlier on the road to the village.

"I'm Naruto."

"Shikaku." The scarred man said then motioned to the person next to him. "And this is Shikamaru, my son. So how..." His question however was interrupted as the barmaid cleared her throat, gaining everyone's attention.

Shikaku let out a long sigh. "And this is my wife, Yoshino."

The woman turned around, facing the three men. "Good afternoon." She said, greeting the blonde with a smile before spinning on her heels and continued her work stacking shelves.

"Hi." He replied giving her a small feeble wave, when she'd spoken to him she seemed so nice and calm, yet the two beside him had reacted as though she was someone to be feared. Why?

After a few moments of the sound of glass bottles clinking against each other being the only noise in the room Shikaku finally spoke. "So... how'd you wind up on our shores, you fall overboard and nobody saw you?"

"Sort of, I was washed overboard when we were attacked by the Jubi." He explained, heeding Hanabi and Lee's advice about mentioning Konoha. They'd thought he was crazy, but at least they understood. There was no guarantee that anyone else would be.

"You were attacked by sin nearby?" Shikamaru asked, speaking for the first time as he started to fiddle with his fingers, his eyes closed as if in deep thought. "But it hasn't attacked yet? I wonder why? This is troublesome." He mumbled, but before he had time to think about his own question a towel was thrown in his face, catching him by surprise and sent him falling backwards off his stool. As he used the bar to help pull himself back up he came face to face with his mother, glaring at him from the other side.

"I don't care if it's troublesome, we have a guest and he's injured." She shouted, bringing everyone's attention, including Naruto's to the bloodstained bandage on his arm. It'd stopped hurting him a long time ago, in fact it'd started to go numb but that was normal, or should he be worried he thought, as he slowly started to panic. Meanwhile Shikamaru ran to the back and returned a few moments later with a first aid kit in hand, promptly handing it over to Yoshino who started work cleaning and disinfecting his wound.

"So the Jubi could still be around, we're going to have to step up patrols on the island. That's all the ANBU need." Shikaku mumbled as he filled his glass up from the bottle besides him. He drunk the contents in one go before quickly filling his glass again.

"What's ANBU?"

"You don't know about the ANBU?" Yoshino asked as she grabbed the bottle of alcohol from the bar before her husband could fill his glass once more and splashed some on Naruto's arm as she started to disinfect the wound before she started to stitch it up.

He ground his teeth together till the stinging sensation of the alcohol subsided. "No I don't remember much before the attack. Someone said it was because of some sort of toxin?"

"Yea the toxin has a habit of making people forget those closest to them." The scarred man replied as he looked into his still empty glass. "Thankfully it's only temporary. Still till it's worn off, Shikamaru, tell him about the ANBU."

"The ANBU are sworn to protect the people of Spira. We patrol routes and villages, protecting people from fiends and others who wish to do them harm, and provide assistance evacuating people when the Jubi attacks and help them to recover from the damage afterwards." Shikamaru explained in a bored tone as he sat back on his stool and laid his head on the bar top and closed his eyes, as if he was going to fall asleep.

"So what, you don't fight the Jubi?"

"No." Shikaku said, shaking his head as he reached out to grab a hold of the bottle of sake, only for Yoshino to move it further out of his reach. "All we can do is help with damage control. Fighting the Jubi is the responsibility of a summoner."

"A what?"

"You have to be kidding me, you don't know what a summoner is? Is that normal?" Shikamaru asked his father.

"It's not unusual to forget but this does seem like a rather severe case." He replied before turning to the blonde and giving him a pat on the back. "I could explain it to you, but I think it's a question best answered at the temple."

"But first you'll eat" Yoshino said before ordering her family to quit being lazy and start cooking for their guest.

Staring up at the great doors before him, Naruto debated whether or not to enter the temple. He'd spent the last few hours sat in the ANBU lodge eating while Yoshino told him various stories about the island, stopping only to refill his bowl or to order her husband and son to do more work. He'd remained silent for most of the time, only asking her to go into more detail when she talked about the blitzball team, figuring that the more he knew about the team the better he could help them and Lee win the tournament. Yoshino was eager to help and went into great detail of just how bad they played, with the only time she could remember them ever winning a match was when she was younger. When he'd asked her to explain to him about Jashin and summoners though she just shook her head and told him that he'd find those answers at the temple.

So there he was, standing outside the temple under the large stone canopy as the sun slowly began to set. Finally ready to go in, he reached for the door when it suddenly opened and two small children came running out. Caught by surprise, Naruto stumbled backwards, before tripping and falling to the ground as the children ran past him, weaving in and out of the stone support columns before disappearing into one of the village's small tents. A few seconds later a woman came running out the temple, asking where the children had gone. Still in shock after believing that there wouldn't have been any more surprises for him while he was in the village, just pointed in the direction they'd ran off in. The woman thanked him for his help and apologised for whatever her children may have done before running of after them, leaving him to wonder what had just happened, before he finally started to laugh. With all the surprises that had happened in the last few days, this one he didn't mind. Seeing the two children playing reminded him that despite all of the horrible things he'd seen, there was still some good in the world, so with a smile on his face he got back to his feet and walked through the temple entrance.

Inside he found himself inside a large circular room filled with people and the soothing sound of singing. As he slowly walked to the centre of the room he looked around he found that while a few people were watching him, everyone else was facing the outer walls, laying flowers and lighting candles next to the small statues that decorated the walls, before kneeling down sand praying. Assuming that they were praying to friends and family that had passed away, he tried looking away to give them some privacy, but no matter where he looked he only found more of the same. People praying, people crying, but no one singing he realised. He'd expected to see a choir performing on a stage, singing the calming song that filled the temple, but there was nothing. He started staring at the walls, trying to see if there was any speaker's playing the music that he was staring to get the feeling that he'd heard before when he suddenly bumped into something. Looking before him he found he'd walked into a large stone statue that stood just off to the right of the room alongside a second. The y stood beside a large stone stairway at the head of the room while a second pair of statues stood in the same place to the left of them, giving the room a sense of symmetry. As he looked over the statue of a man dressed in regal robes that looked over the room with a stern expression on his face he noticed that it looked a lot newer than the other three statues, depicting more people also dressed in elaborate robes.

"It's taken ten years but we were finally able to get ourselves a statue of high summoner Hiashi." A bald man dressed in colourful robes said with a smile to Naruto as he stood next to him to inspect the statue.

"What's a high summoner?"

Hearing people gasp Naruto looked around to see that everyone in the temple seemed to have heard what he'd said, and were now all staring at him in shock and disbelief. The scene was eerily similar to that when he told the blitzball team he came from Konoha after he washed up on the island.

"I... I got too close to the Jubi, so the toxin... Erm, I don't remember much." He said quickly, hoping that they'd accept his story. It was funny he thought, using the same excuse again and again. Funny, and a little sad.

Thankfully the surrounding crowd seemed to buy the story as they all bowed, praying for his well being before continuing what they had previously been doing, leaving him alone with the man that had first spoke to him.

"The summoners are practioners of a sacred art, sworn to protect the people of Jashin." The man explained as he pointed to the four statues. "Only a chosen few are able to call upon entities of great power. The Aeons. They hear our prayers and come to protect us in our times of need. They are a blessing from Jashin."

As the man talked, Naruto just nodded his head. Simply coming to the conclusion that the summoners were just great and powerful men that should be respected.

Naruto tossed and turned as he tried to find a comfortable position and get some sleep. The mattress was hard, the blankets itchy and the village lacked the sounds of the Konoha nightlife, remaining calm and silent rather than the loud music and flashing lights that he was accustomed to. But he supposed that he should be grateful though since the last few places he'd slept had been the deck of a ship and in the sea itself. Figuring that he wasn't going to get any sleep though he finally gave up, throwing his pillow across the room and hitting another sleeping man in the face. Panicking Naruto hid, pulling the covers over his head hoping that he hadn't been seen. But when he poked his head out he breathed a sigh of relief as the man remained asleep, only moving so that he could claim the makeshift weapon and rest his head on it. Confident that he was now safe, he sat himself up in his bed and thought about what he'd learnt throughout the day.

The priest went into great detail about how belief in Jashin brought hope to the people of Spira and spoke with great pride, as he told stories of the powerful summoners and their Aeons in the hopes that it would help jog his memory. But it didn't.

Eventually after spending over an hour with the blonde, the priest finally gave up, instead suggesting that he prayed to Jashin, adamant that doing so would help. Feeling like an uninvited guest at a party he'd found himself a quiet spot away from the other temple goers and closed his eyes and tried to digest what he'd been told. After all praying to a god he didn't understand or believe in would just be weird he though. Eventually Lee finally reappeared and led him back to the ANBU tent where a bed had been made for him to stay in, which he was more than happy to accept.

Yawning he finally felt relaxed enough to sleep so he reached over to the empty bed besides his and grabbed the pillow. Smiling to himself he laid back down finding his new pillow a lot comfier when he heard a voice coming from the bar at the other side of the doorway.

"You could at least go and see how they're doing?" the voice said. It sounded like the priest that had talked to him earlier and he sounded worried.

"I can't, you know that." A second voice he recognised as Lee replied. Even late at night with people sleeping in the next room he still spoke loudly and full of energy.

"But it's been over a day now."

"They'll be fine, besides..." but Naruto never heard what else was said as sleep finally claimed him.