Place to Try

by SpinLord

To forget is to let go of one's past. When Uzumaki Naruto makes up his mind, the path he chooses leads him to the Afterlife; a purgatorial realm created to appease those with regrets in their lives. Sounds nice, doesn't it? It would've, if only there isn't a group of people waging a rebellion against God. [New Chapter] series, 'Amnesia route' {Currently being rewritten}

3. Chapter 2: A Cease of Fire

/AN/: For people who like Angel Beats! crossovers, I suggest this one particular story that's unbelievably good.

The Second Angel: Okazaki Chapter by Benien Kurono Sora

It's a Clannad-Angel Beats crossover; a very well-written one at that. I just started reading it several days back when I was getting bored with the monotone Naruto fanfics and crossovers. And damn, does this guy/girl writes a story! He/She practically linked the two series together using Okazaki Tomoya's (Clannad's main protagonist) cause as a reason for him to get stuck in the Afterlife! Though, I have to admit, you'll have to watch Clannad first if you want to read it, it is still undoubtedly a well-written story.

Now, after saying all that, it's DISCLAIMER TIIIIIME! Who's on the hit list this time, I wonder…? (reads list) AHA! For once, it's someone good! Now, Neji! I chooooose you!

Neji: (comes in through the door) Oh, the entrance door is this way, huh?

Me: GAH! Neji, you're supposed to go in WITH the smoke bombs, not BEFORE it!

Neji: What smoke bombs?

*BOOOM* *POOF*

Me: Those ones…

Neji: Hmph…it's fated that I precede your special effects.

Me: Uh huh. Like it's fated that you died in the Naruto series? Still, I'm sorry for what happened, man. Kishimoto-sensei was probably high when he killed you off. Don't know what he smoked, but I better keep it away from him later on.

Neji: My canon death is fated.

Me: Oh, not that crap again! Anyway, you're up next for the disclaimer. So, if you please?

Neji: Yes. It is fated that I read this disclaimer.

Disclaimer: SpinLord does not own me or characters from both the Naruto and Angel Beats franchises alike. It is not his fate to own such rights over us all.

Me: Urgh, thanks Neji, you've officially made this AN emoistical.

Neji: You're welcome.

-xo-

-Chapter 2-

A Cease of Fire

Naruto stared down at his supposed enemies, grouping up like a bunch of hoodlums with multiple weapons targeted at him. With his shadow clones at his side, he was sure he could manage them easily, but…
To stay on the safe side, he sent a mental command to his clones to pull out their kunai knives.

Still, does he really have to fight them? There was that kind of question in the blonde's mind. Sadly enough, the answer to that question was "yes, you do, retard", even though he didn't want to fight them. Except, of course, that halberd-wielding bastard who kicked him in the nuts.

'It still stings even now…' Naruto thought, wincing as the pain came back to him slightly, 'What does he put inside his shoes, anyway?'

At the other corner of the fighting grounds, the Afterlife Battlefront members were all staring at Naruto with disbelief written all over their faces. Specifically, they were actually staring at the clones he conjured, but considering the fact that they're practically the same guy it's not that far off the reality. At least they knew that he wasn't normal with this, which of course further concreted Yuri's suspicion.

Speaking of Yuri, the girl was currently pointing the edge of her gun at the orange-wearing blonde among the other orange-wearing blondes. The one standing in the center of their formation caught her attention. 'Standing among his clones to shield himself? Heh…I couldn't have planned it better than that.' She thought with a slight smirk. She quickly schooled her expression, replacing with a serious look.

"I don't know what's happening here, but I'll have to ask you to drop your weapons!" She said, before quickly adding as an afterthought, "All of you."

Naruto gave the purple-haired girl a weird look, "Drop my weapons? Drop yours first, then we can talk about mine!" he retorted. According to him, his reaction is justified. After all, these strange people had more people and weapons, so it's only fair! Whoever would want to argue, their arguments are invalid! Or so the child in him reacted to it.

Although…a few moments later, he was too preoccupied with observing the people that had gathered to think about it further. They were all wearing the same kind of clothes, so he surmised that those were uniforms. The girl that called out to him caught his attention first, of course; her tone and voice was painfully similar to a pink-haired friend of his. Her eyes were sea-foam green in color, which if coupled with her striking purple hair, stood out in the crowd.

The crowd itself looked a little awkward, if Naruto had anything to say about it. Scratch that; they looked so misplaced that even he could tell that they weren't supposed to be here at all. Standing behind the bandana-wearing girl with weapons drawn like that made him believe that they were her subordinates of some kind. How could he tell? Unlike the fearless, unwavering look that she had, some in that crowd looked nervous while some others looked a little too ready for a fight. It's as if she was the sole equalizer in this group.

Like the others (who he didn't bother to depict for too long), she had in her hands that strange angular weapon. It looked like a boomerang—with a bit of semblance to a banana—but the way she was holding it told him she wasn't planning to throw it.

Yuri was silent as she kept staring at him with cautious eyes. Using her tactically advanced mind, she began to note down her target's appearance; and more importantly, his weapon. She had considered him as an oddity from the very start she saw him, and she has a very good reason to do so. His clothing themselves weren't normal, since no average person would wear black and orange jumpsuit as his normal clothing. Not only that, but he looked like a delinquent with that possibly-dyed blonde hair (no normal person should have that shiny yellow hair color naturally!) and the three whisker-mark tattoo on both cheeks.

Personally, this only served to make Yuri believe that he is not an NPC.

Not to mention no NPC could spawn perfect replicas like that.

"…I asked you to drop your weapons because we don't have to fight each other. I think we're probably on the same side." Yuri explained, hoping to reason herself through the blonde's suspicion.

Naruto refused to be calmed down just like that. Even if they were on the same side, it didn't change the fact that they were the one who attacked first. "I couldn't care less about that! You guys attacked me first. I woke in the infirmary with two of you people acting as 'guards', and I'm smart enough to know that I was being guarded." His eyes narrowed at the SSS members, "That means you were holding me captive."

"No, it's nothing like that!" Hideki suddenly piped up, "We were just protecting in case Angel comes to get you!"

"Ha? Angel?" One of Naruto's clones let out in disbelief with squinted eyes, "There's something like that here? I thought angels only exist in heaven."

Another one suddenly exclaimed, "AH, I get it! This one is an angel-cosplayer!"

"No shit!"

Ignoring his clones' multiple reactions, Naruto looked at Hideki with a face that made him look like he had just swallowed something strange. He dismissed the expression and looked seriously at the blue-haired boy, "What are you getting at? What angel? Moreover, what does an angel want to do with someone like me?"

This time, it was the SSS members' turn to be confused. For his part, Otonashi looked baffled by the statement that the blonde gave. It was clear and obvious that this stranger didn't have a clue who Angel is. If that's the case, then Yuri's suspicion was right; this super-powered blonde was someone who died and was sent here just like the rest of them. Rationally, he wouldn't know who Angel actually is if they didn't tell him or if he didn't find out himself. That, however, left him wondering about another part of the puzzle.

'If he really is someone who died and got stuck here just like the rest of us…' Otonashi thought, 'Why did he save Angel?'

The thought made the reddish-haired teen frown in confusion. He noticed that his battlefront leader felt the same way, and probably thought the same thing, because she too made a reaction of her own. "You…don't know who Angel is?" She asked, "That can't be right, you just saved her several hours ago!"

"What?" The purple-haired girl's words instantly brought Naruto's train of thought back to that time in that huge cave. His memories of a silver-haired girl, a cannon and one overpowered Oodama Rasengan came back rushing like a broken dam. That girl was an angel? That was the worst load of bull he had ever heard. Sure, the girl was behaving strangely, but she looked too human to be an angel. Anyway… How did these guys even know about what happened? "H-How do you know about that?! There weren't any people around other than that girl and-!" His speech halted midway when a sudden realization came over him, "Wait...were you the ones who did that?"

"Technically, we were fighting against her, but the ones who fired the cannon were the Guild guys." Yuri said, shrugging her shoulders, "It was entirely our plan, though."

"You mean…that cannon…" Naruto started haltingly as more images from his memories resurfaced. He remembered how that one girl stood ahead of the giant red cannon, being targeted by its grand barrel. She looked vulnerable…and yet, these people…they'd fire a cannon at her?

"…so that's how it is." He muttered. His words confused Yuri even further, prompting her to quickly ask another question that might very well clear up all the doubts she had, "Then, let me ask you this…" she started, her piercing stare became so apparent that Naruto's shoulder tensed under her gaze, "Are you Angel's ally?"

The way she said it, the way that her tone sounded…like she was gauging his standing in this little battle of theirs, made Naruto glare at her. He didn't like it. As a matter of fact, while he thought that this bossy-looking girl was pretty, he didn't like her. Growling under his breath, he answered the question fiercely, "I'm nobody's ally! I don't care what kind of fight you have, or who you're fighting! All I came here for was to find away to pass on and start a new life, and I'm through fighting against anyone!"

The leader of the Afterlife Battlefront didn't expect that kind of answer, and neither did the rest of the Battlefront. 'So he's not Angel's ally… That's a relief. Then again, I should've expected that since he doesn't know about her.' Yuri thought, 'But…what's this about him that wants to just pass on? Is he another amnesiac like Otonashi-kun?' As she thought it, she cast Otonashi a curious glance, wondering if what she suspected is right.

Finally giving in to the confusion, she sighed and turned back to the mysterious whisker-marked blonde. "Look, I think we got off at the wrong foot here. I know you're confused just as much as I am, but we don't have to fight each other. This world might be confusing for you, but trust me, we can help you. We can be allies, even." She smirked when Naruto and his clones lowered their guard, knowing that was a sign of interest. She proceeded, "Therefore, do you want to join us? We can protect each other from Angel, who might I add is far more dangerous than you think."

Judging by the way she was talking, Naruto presumed that these people knew about this world. He himself was low on information; being sent to this world by the Saint of Time and Space herself without any basic knowledge other than it was supposed to be technologically advanced. The weapons that these people held proved that, but that is as far as it gets. He didn't even have the slightest idea of how the world actually works; though Frederica had told him that it worked like a stage of purgatory. At that time, this leader-girl's offer was tempting as she promised to help him get a better understanding of this world.

But when he was reminded that they were fighting against a single girl with weapons that could kill, the temptation was gone.

He exhaled and closed his eyes. With a cross-fingered hand seal, he dismissed his clones as they disappeared via minor bursts of bright light. At the dismissal of the clones, Yuri had to make a double take when she saw that the one she was pointing her gun at disappeared as the other clones did, leaving the real one standing at the front of the previous formation.

'He actually stood in front of his clones?' Yuri thought, bewildered by the blonde's choice of action. 'This guy must be either stupid or daring enough to do it.' The possibility of him being both didn't escape her mind, though.

The blonde suddenly began chuckling, despite nothing funny happening at the current time. "I admit that this world had me thinking that it's a crazy place to be in. If there's somebody that can tell me about this world, then I'll ask them right away." He said light-heartedly. The slight smile he had on his face dissolved into a frown as he narrowed his eyes at the Battlefront's members, just moments after he seemed relaxed. "However, I don't have any intentions of joining a group of people who fire cannonballs at a girl you lightly refer to as an 'angel'."

Naruto reached back into his utility pouch and withdrew his last smoke bomb. "I'm not her ally, but I won't let you hurt her as long as I have anything to say about it." As he said this, Naruto threw the smoke bomb at his feet. White smoke exploded under him, spreading outwards and concealing his appearance. Shocked by the unexpected turn of events the Afterlife Battlefront all but scrambled into the smoke. So desperate were they in search of the fleeing blonde, they failed to notice a speeding flicker of a body that ran towards the school building.

"What the…where the hell did he go?!" One exasperated Noda yelled aloud.

Truthfully, no one actually saw that speeding black and orange blur. The blonde was just that fast, despite his looks. Having experienced the strangely-clothed blonde's speed firsthand, Noda had an idea of how fast he could move; an idea, of course, which was still far from the actual truth.

At loss of words and thought, Yuri could only stare at the spot that was left vacant by the runaway blonde. His words—his threats—were still ringing in her head as clear as clarinet. She couldn't believe that this boy that she and Otonashi saved was this adamant about protecting Angel. He looked to be so protective that the thought of fighting against him made her shudder.

And this was coming from the leader of the Afterlife Battlefront; the only group to rebel against God.

All because of some idiot who decided to help Angel without knowing who she is.

Yuri gritted her teeth in both frustration and anger. She suddenly had the urge to empty her ammunition in one of her subordinates' body (Hideki is preferred), but she calmed herself down with a drawn-out sigh.

"…darn it."

---

Naruto had just arrived at the school's lobby when he halted his shadow-blur; his sandaled feet skidded along the surprisingly smooth floor, creating a distinctive screeching noise as he slid on it. He looked around; blue eyes peering and searching for any presence in the vicinity. When he didn't find any, he didn't know whether to be relieved or disturbed. Opting to be positive about it, he chose the former.

"At least they're not chasing me. I'm tired of running around a place I don't even know about." He grumbled, puffing his cheeks up in a sulking manner. "Who were those people, anyway? I don't remember Rika-chan saying that I'd have to fight against people like that…" he trailed off. Actually, he didn't remember her telling him that he would have to fight anyone, for that matter. Whatever happened back there, it might be some kind of one-and-only glitch thing.

Strange world.

"…meh, people fight me all the time. I better get used to it, else I'd come here for nothing." Naruto said, shrugging his shoulders as if his statement was the answer to all of his problems. Once again, he looked around him intently. This time, he had this confused expression as if he had just noticed the vacancy of his surroundings. "Aren't there any other people around here? Someone who can talk civilly and not point guns at little girls?"

He looked in front of him, finding a wide staircase which looked like it was begging to be stepped on. Though that may be the case (as the purpose of stairs are to be stepped on), Naruto found the tempting aura odd enough for him to sweat-drop. "That's one big staircase…" he said to himself as he began ascending through it. On other occasions, he might find what he was doing as pure idiocy. What kind of ninja is he supposed to be if he uses stairs? Real ninjas walk on walls, for Kami-sama's sake! For this particular occasion, however, he couldn't find any other way around this…mysterious building (might it be pointed out that the only academic-related building Naruto has ever been to was his Ninja Academy, which wasn't really a school). It didn't look familiar, but the layout of the whole place is somewhat relatable to a hidden village like the ones his world used to have.

Therefore, the leader of the whole place should be at the highest floor.

*Pfft* who am I kidding? It's basic RPG logic for all kinds of non-logical circumstances.

Either way, Naruto found himself stepping at the end of the staircases—he seemed to have walked through a crisscrossing stairway leading upstairs—and, through some unbidden auto-pilot, was suddenly standing in a hallway. He looked around him. The hallway is kind of wide, with several doors lined up along the left side of the wall. They were closed, and Naruto wasn't exactly keen on investigating the rooms either. Walking pass those closed rooms to continue his search for some people, he was shocked when one door—coincidentally the one he was passing by—opened with a slide as a person appeared beyond it.

This person had thinning brown hair with equally brown mustache and a pair of circle spectacles, something that eerily reminded him of Kabuto. He wore on him a simple grass-green button-up shirt and a pair of brown trousers. This plain, unassuming man…had some kind of "teacher's aura" about him, making Naruto assume that he was one.

"Hm?" the droopy-eyed elder let out, appearing to be surprised by Naruto's presence. Now, Naruto was silent up until that moment; though frozen like a statue is another way to put it. He hadn't expected his stealth mode to be dropped so quickly, and by pure accident no less. Truth to be told, it made him as unmoving as Shikamaru's shadow bind could do to him.

"A-Aaah…" Naruto started. He was so nervous you could easily see sweat raining around his body. "Um, I, uh…I'm…looking for the bathroom?" He tried, hoping for some miracle that would enable him to leave without further scrutiny by this maybe-teacher. When the teacher showed none, Naruto began devising another plan that might have several downsides to it.

For one, he could Rasengan the guy with hopes that it'd knock him out, but the man looked so frail a simple punch might stop his heart.

A Sennen Goroshi (Thousand Years of Death)-version of a kancho might also knock him out, but Naruto didn't want to be charged with a man's inability to shit for the rest of his life.

And yet, when he decided that a simple Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu) would definitely knock this teacher out—all men are perverts, and that is true—the teacher finally exclaimed with a big smile, "Ara, ara…now I remember. You're that new transfer student that the principal spoke about."

"Transfer…student?" Naruto let out, dumbfounded. "Sir, I don't wanna be rude, but I think you got the wrong guy. I ain't transferring from anywhere!"

The man laughed, "Ohoho, what nonsense. Sure you are! There's no one else transferring in the current time, and that means it's only you."

"But I didn't! I don't know where I am right now, even. And if you think that I actually transferred to this…" Naruto's mouth tilted upwards in an upside-down V, trying to determine what this place is called. He failed to do so, of course, "…institute," Yeah, that sounded about right, "then you're probably wrong in the head."

"Aaah, the joy of youth. Able to spout nonsense freely without a care in the world." The man spoke like he already got everything right in his mind. Of course, it was a one-sided thought, as Naruto looked like he could very well give the older man a smack upside the head for his complete misunderstanding. He nearly did so, before the man continued while raising his right hand in front of him, "Regardless, you should come in now. Class is in session. And judging by the time you got here, it is safe to say…"

He gave a warm smile. His next words, however, made Naruto's blood run cold. "You're late, Uzumaki-san."

---

Class 3-C

He lost track of what happened next.

To be honest, he was too caught up by the fact that this old man knew his name—and he hadn't even told him about it—to actually apply what his ninja training had taught him: awareness of the surrounding area.

What Naruto could perceive, though, was that he ended up entering the room—which turns out to be a classroom—and stood at the front, bearing the curious stares of many of indistinguishable people (possibly students). When he came to, it was to the sound of the teacher that brought him into the class, urging him to introduce himself. After a quiet banter which involved him telling the teacher that he wasn't supposed to be here while the teacher said otherwise, Naruto begrudgingly complied.

"Ano…where should I start…?" Naruto muttered. Usually, he didn't act like this. Somehow it just made him wonder how his usual carelessness went off to. Cursing under his breath, he then pointed at himself with a thumb-jab to the chest, "Uzumaki Naruto. Don't bother to remember the name, 'cuz I'm not supposed to be here anyway."

Cue sweat-drop by the whole class, who thought that his statement defeated the purpose of his introduction. Why bother entering the class if that's the case, then? Yet, ironically, the blonde Jinchûriki found himself wondering about the same thing.

"Right, right, I guess that will do." The previous teacher nodded as if the introduction was satisfactory. "Now, class will end in a moment, but I suggest that you take a seat first to familiarize yourself with the class."

'Spend a moment sitting in a class under the watchful eyes of its entire occupants? Sure, no biggie, I'll just have to-OH WHO AM I KIDDING?! This is both a gigantic waste of time and a pain in the ass!'

"Now…" the teacher continued, blissfully unaware of Naruto's offensive thoughts, "There's an empty seat there beside Rock-san. Now, go and have a seat, Uzumaki-san."

If there is one thing that Naruto picked up from the teacher's tone and voice, it was that it sounded empty. No, it wasn't like the one that Ibiki-ojisan's interrogation victims used to have after a torture session. It sounded human, thankfully, but the lack of independent will behind it made the voice sound more…bland than usual.

Chucking it up to the stress of being a teacher, Naruto grunted and walked towards the empty seat; the seat itself was the second one in row next to the windows. Personally, he enjoyed the way that most of the students were risking their necks to keep staring at him, though the ones that the female population of the class sent to him were enough to make him quiver (not to mention those heart-shaped eyes made his mind scream "fangirls" at the first sight). Shaking all the attentions off, he then proceeded to sit himself on the chair behind the table.

Hmm…part metallic and part wooden with a plushy seat, the chair is somewhat comfortable.

"Ano…Uzumaki-san…correct?" the person next to him, the one whose seat was directly next to the windows, asked. Naruto didn't pay him that much of an attention since he was actually trying to doze off. He offhandedly responded, "Yeah, what do you want?" He knew he was being rude, but it was only due to lack of rest.

This guy…whoever he is, he was actually loud enough for Naruto to not doze off. Though, honestly, it was hard to fall asleep when that certain someone just outright stand up and yelled, "I'M VERY PLEASED TO MEET YOU! I HOPE THAT YOUR CONTINUAL PRESENCE IN THIS CLASS WILL KEEP OUR YOUTHFUL SPIRIT BURNING!"

Naruto winced; both because the volume of the sound this student greeted him with was outrageous and the way he spoke eerily reminded him of a friend in his dead, forgotten world that died earlier than him. 'Let's hope this is not how he usually greets someone…' he thought. His eardrums were still ringing due to the sudden noise that permeated it. Sighing loudly, the blonde then turned to face the loud person with an annoyed look on his face, "Look, pal, I appreciate the good-natured greeting, but I would prefer if you don't…yell…so…loudly…"

That…that face…! That…that ugly bowl-cut hair…and…those eyebrows!

It can't be…

"B-B-B-Bushy Brows!?"

You know, it takes a very steep fall from normal to abnormal to reduce Naruto's speech level to Hinata's. Him seeing Rock Lee in the flesh (well, not quite. They're practically in soul particles) classifies as a 'holy-shit' level in the 'WTF' section, so it was pretty much mind-blowing.

Lee looked perplexed for a moment. That is, of course, until he regained his usual exuberance and grinned at Naruto; albeit a little awkwardly. "Well, you can call me that as well. Almost half of the school does, anyway. But! I'm very glad that you've quickly overcame the family name boundaries and even called me by nickname! UWOOOH! This occasion is the true essence of the youth!"

Dead or alive, Lee's youth-do seemed as eccentric as always. Good thing Naruto kept with the nindo, then.

"Hai, hai… Rock-san, if you would, please calm down while class is in session. It's also not a very good idea to make the new student uncomfortable." The teacher called from the front of the class, looking visibly tired but seemed to have expected this to happen, oddly enough.

"RIGHT, sensei! I am in the wrong! I see to it that Uzumaki-san feels as comfortable as possible, and if I can't I will walk around the school with my bare hands for the rest of this day!" Lee exclaimed, fiery flames igniting in his eyes. When the old teacher sighed and gave him a nod (whether that's a go-ahead sign for Lee's oath or not) before turning back to the blackboard and resumed his teaching.

Meanwhile, Naruto could only manually close his gaping mouth with both hands. After successfully doing so, he turned to face Lee with a literal question mark hanging over his head. "Oi, Bushy Brows, what the hell are you doing here?" he whispered harshly.

"Why, I'm attending my class, of course." Lee whispered back, slightly ducking under the desk to communicate with Naruto.

"No, I mean not in this classroom, but here in-" he promptly stopped when the bell rung, its noisy ringing being carried throughout the class and possibly even the whole building.

*RIIIING*

Instinctively, Naruto covered his ears with both hands, his face churning in visible pain as his honed hearing senses picked up the vibration much more than the other people did, "GAH! What the hell?!"

"Uzumaki-san…is something wrong? It's just the school bell." Lee stated with a confused face, which remained otherwise innocent. Surely, he wasn't to blame for the surprise attack on Naruto's hearing senses. "Which reminds me! School's over! If you want, I can now show you how youthful our dining hall is!"

"D-Dining hall?" Naruto asked. He didn't have time to ask more as Lee pulled on Naruto's arm with strength that shouldn't be available for dead people and dashed outside of the classroom with him in tow.

---

Not a moment later…

---

Academy Main Dining Hall

And it seemed that Lee didn't lose his speed, either. If anything, the dust cloud that picked up as they dashed along the hallway was a sign to how fast he actually was, and still is. Naruto wondered just how much ninja abilities Lee had recovered, because it was strange enough for him to see Lee jumping over a railing from the second floor, completely forgoing the wide staircases he passed through, and landed with no injuries.

Even when they were literally at the dining hall's door, Lee bulled through the door like a madman on steroids.

'Huh…' Naruto thought, 'Ninja training dies hard, I guess.'

They finally stopped running like a madman when they approached a…strange machine, as Naruto could depict. It looked strangely reminiscent to a television, though on closer inspection it looked more like an arcade game console. "What…exactly is this?"

"You don't know? This is where they sell the food coupons. You don't get to really eat the food until you exchange them at the cafeteria, though." Lee explained, looking perplexed by Naruto's lack of knowledge before continuing with excitement, "The food here is so youthful my mouth waters in desire!"

"Uh huh… Right, then, mind telling me how it works? I…guess I'm kinda hungry, now that I think about it." Naruto admitted. Well, his stomach grumbled precisely after he finished saying that. The thought of being hungry while being dead at the same time perplexed him, though it only added up to the list of things that confused him in this strange world; dubbed the 'things-that-confuses-me-in-this-fucked-up-world' list.

"Well, simple. You insert your money, then you choose the food from the list here…" Lee pressed the screen, particularly the part where a blue-colored box had the writing of "Curry of Life" on it. A coupon then came out from the slit hole under the screen, which Lee quickly took. "And, ta-da, you have your youthful food coupon!"

"That sounds…complicated." Naruto commented, his face scrunched up in puzzlement, "Why don't they serve food like they do at Ichiraku Ramen? It'd be easier that way."

"Ichiraku…Ramen?"

"Never mind, maybe it's this world's custom." Naruto quickly said, waving off Lee's inquiry. He reached out into his utility pouch, rummaging through what little weapons he had left. His originally eager face suddenly dropped into a sour look when he failed to find his wallet.

"G…Gama-chan…" he muttered.

"What?" Lee inquired curiously.

"I didn't…bring my wallet."

It's not that it was even there to begin with. He doubted that he had brought it along with him when he was still in his own world. Obviously, no one would've cared enough to bring a wallet in their utility pouch—him included—into a Great Ninja War. But…that also means that he had left his froggy-wallet back in his deceased world! No force of the supernatural or the like (preferably Frederica's) could ever hope to go there and take it back for him!

May we all pray for Gama-chan, Naruto's trustworthy wallet that had gotten through a lot.

"Ah, I see. Well, if that's the case, I'll pay your food for now." Lee suggested.

"Eh? Really? Is…is that alright?" Naruto asked as the light of hope reentered his face.

"Of course!" Lee said, grinning so wide that his teeth glistened under the light. "If it is to help a friend, money is simple matter!"

"Lee…"

"Uzumaki-sa-"

"OH, NO YOU DON'T!" Naruto suddenly erupted when logic came back to him, throwing his hands up so suddenly that it socked Lee at the chin, "THERE'S NO WAY I'M DOING YOUR TWIN BROWS SUNSET GENJUTSU!"

"Gyuuuh!" Lee flew back for quite the distance. For all the wrong reasons, he ended up skidding along the floor using his face, creating a screeching noise that sounded more fitting for the soles of basketball shoes. When he flipped up to his feet again, it was shown that Lee's face held no injury (or whatever scars that should be there when your face skids along the floor).

'Wow, his eyebrows are more formidable than I thought.' Naruto thought in slight amazement.

"Hmph…I expect nothing less from the infamous transfer student."

"Am I already that well-known?" Naruto asked, letting a sweat drop at the back of his head. "This place should be crawling with ninjas if that's the case."

Lee laughed at the mental image. He looked like he didn't even have that kind of thought at the first place, thus why he found it humorous. "Having a great imagination is youthful, Uzumaki-san! I admire you for finding the essence of youth so quickly!"

Eventually, Lee put in his money and smirked a little apologetically at the blonde, all the while chuckling to himself. "However, if you may, please keep this bit a secret. The student council president doesn't really looks up to us students buying foods for our friends."

"Eh? Why's that?" Naruto inquired, sounding slightly irritated and childishly angry.

"It's part of the school rule. The rule stated that 'none of the students shall buy food more than a portion for themselves'. I forgot which section that was from, but it was clearly stated by the principal in the opening ceremony. That being said, it's also forbidden to even buy food for another student."

"That's a pretty dumb rule. What's so wrong about buying food for your friends?" Not that Naruto could talk, though. He himself didn't really know about how this 'school cafeteria' works. Back at the Academy, the students always brought bento along with them, not exchanging them with coupons like how it is done here. Shikamaru would've endlessly complained about how 'troublesome' that would've been.

"I know it might sound weird, but it's the school rule. We have to follow it; otherwise the student council president would scold us for it."

"Tch, and scolding is the only thing the guy can do? How lame. I'd put my money on him being one of those 'teacher's pet' kind of student that tell the teachers on you or something like that."

"Actually…the student council president is a girl."

"…come again?"

Lee turned to Naruto, regarding his dumbfounded look with one of his own. "What, you don't know?" he asked, startled, "Our student council president is a female student from class 3-A. I didn't get her name, though, and I never actually got to meet her before."

"Huh…a girl who can keep all of you guys in line huh?" Naruto wondered aloud, trying to make an image of this student council president who was, apparently, scary enough for all the students to follow the rules despite it being tedious and pointless. All he could picture was a mini-Tsunade with iron gauntlets, hitting many students upside the head for breaking the rules.

The image made him shudder.

"Well, anyway, let's go to the cafeteria! My stomach is hungry for youthful nutrients!" Lee exclaimed, punching the air with such excitement (or perhaps hunger) that Naruto couldn't help but grin at the thick-browed teen. He couldn't quite put it, but…truth to be told, he was glad that he could meet Lee again. Even though the boy was eccentric as hell, he was still one of his friends. To be able to see him after his death was a miracle in its own way.

"What are you doing spacing out like that, Uzumaki-san?" Lee called, having walked away quite farther than Naruto realized, "Come on, let's get to the cafeteria!"

"Hai, hai, heard you loud and clear, Bushy Brows." Naruto replied with a closed-eyed grin before adding, "And by the way, it's kinda weird hearing you call me like that. Just use my given name like you usually do; it sounds better like that." While it's true that Naruto wasn't even that close with Lee (there was the issue of Lee being more or less his senpai, since he graduated earlier than him in the Academy), he had been called "Naruto-kun" by Lee so frequently that it sounded…odd for him not to call him as such.

"What are you talking about, Uzumaki-san?" Confused, Lee asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Eh?" Naruto let out, "What do you mean?"

"I mean... Like I usually do? I don't recall calling you by any other name…assuming that I've met you before."

Naruto stopped walking up the staircase. Suddenly, it was as if gravity's pull became much stronger on him when he heard Lee's words. "H-Huh? Wait…you don't remember me?"

"Ano…I don't know if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, this is the first time I met you." Lee, meanwhile, kept walking up the staircase, eventually reaching the end of the long set of stairs which ended on the upper floors. The cafeteria was dead ahead, and he didn't show any sign of stopping. It seemed that he was unaware of Naruto's state of shell-shock that left him freezing in his steps. When the blonde finally snapped out of his trance, he shook his head and ran up to Lee with an exasperated look on his face.

"Hey, hold on a second! You mean, you don't remember the Fourth Great Ninja War? You don't remember fighting against Madara and Obito back in the Elemental Nations?!" Naruto said, half-yelling out his confused statements as he stopped in front of Lee and stopped him from walking. Desperation was evident in his face, and his eyes were wide with bewilderment.

Meanwhile, Lee could only look strangely at Naruto, furrowing his eyebrows and frowning, "I…don't. Uzumaki-san, is something wrong? Did you hit your head on a rock or something similar to it? Because, what you're saying, it really makes no sense to me."

'Quit with the "head-hitting-rock" theory!' the blonde meant to say that, but he was rendered totally speechless by Lee's apparent loss memory. How come he couldn't remember it? The war was very life-changing for all of them; so much that forgetting about it was very much impossible! And yet, right here and now, speaking to Lee felt like…like speaking to someone he barely knew.

What the hell happened?

"Hm? Ah, it seems my friends have gotten here earlier." Lee pointed out as he turned away from Naruto, looking towards a group of people who were seated together. Unbidden, Naruto found himself looking at the same direction. In turn, he would find out that it was the worst decision he could've made in his 16 years of living.

And frankly, he did.

There, sitting around the square tables that were deliberately connected for a group get-together, was the last bunch of people he would've expected to meet. It was strange how he could think like that; having meeting Lee previously in the 3-C classroom, he should've known he'd stumble upon these people sooner or later. So, there they were, sitting on their respective seats garbed in their strange uniform…

The Konoha Eleven.

"W-What…" With trembling lips and a shaken heart, Naruto let out weakly, "Y-You guys…"

"Oi, Lee! Over here!" That voice…unmistakably, it was Tenten's. Naruto had heard her voice more than enough to become familiar enough with it. As his shocked blue eyes scanned the group of people, he picked up more and more people that he was familiar with. Neji, Kiba, Shino, Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino…along with Hinata and Sakura. 'How… What the hell is this shit?!'

"Huh? Who's that guy you're bringing, Lee?" Ino asked with a curious tone, standing up from her seat. As she did, Naruto noticed that she (along with the others) wore different set of clothes compared to the people who brought weapons along with them, but it was the same as the ones worn by the students in his classroom. The girls wore a set of clothing that looked similar to the one that the girl he had saved (dubbed with the name "Angel"), while the boys wore clothing in the same manner that Lee did; black jacket-like over-clothing with white shirt underneath, and a pair of non-descript black trousers.

With the exception of Chouji, of course, whose uniform looked to be easily three times the size of the normal ones. The boy himself was currently sticking food faster than ever (though the action was just as predictable as ever). The others were behaving just like Naruto remembered them to; even Sai was painting something on his handheld canvas like he used to.

"Ah, this is Uzumaki Naruto-san. He's a new transfer student and he's currently in the same class as me. Ugh…WOOOH! And I can already feel youth burning in his soul!" Lee explained, introducing the blonde to the rest of the group while being overexcited about it.

"Eeeh? A new transfer student? That's pretty cool…" Ino said, trailing off as her eyes hovered towards Naruto. For a moment, it seemed that she was challenging him to a staring contest, but that didn't seem like the case when she gave him a sultry smirk, "He is pretty cool…not to mention that he's quite the looker."

"Oi, Ino!" Sakura exclaimed, sounding a genuinely annoyed by no apparent reason, "Stop hogging the new kid! You're scaring him!" Ah, so there was a reason. And, yeah, Naruto looked somewhat scared—more like frightened, in that regard—of something. Curiously, that expression of fear was directed at the assembled Konoha Eleven. It was a strange feeling for him; to actually fear the existence of his friends was pretty much alien to him.

And yet, he did. The way they talk to him scared him as they sounded like they barely knew him, the way they look at him scared as him as they looked at him with eyes of a stranger, and the way they act towards him scared him as they acted like some people he didn't even know! When he thought it couldn't get worse, Kiba abruptly stepped forward and proved him wrong with an outstretched hand and a smirk, "New kid, huh? Well, since Lee's okay with it, I guess I'll cut you some slack. The name's Inuzuka Kiba, Blondie, and you'll remember it no matter what!"

Naruto recalled seeing Shino moving in to reprimand Kiba's abrupt introduction (in his complicated, cause-result method), but his ears were deaf to all noises. Well, not deaf in the literal meaning, but he was too busy chugging all these new information into his mind. 'They don't look like they're playing around…' was his first thought, 'But that's impossible! How come they're acting strange like this? It's as if they lost their memories or something…' His follow-up thought wasn't as comforting as he would've expected, but nevertheless there was logic in his thoughts. 'Not to mention that it'd take Ino a decade to admit that I'm cool.'

Frederica did tell him that this world has something to do with memory-removal; though, if his memory serves him correctly, the memory-removal is supposed to happen after someone transcends from this world to the other. The Konoha Eleven looked like they've lost their memories before they got here, and that in itself poses a mystery.

"A-Ano…Uzumaki-san, i-is there something wrong?" Bringing him out of his thoughts was Hinata and her voice laced with concern, which was so palpable that it nearly made Naruto believe that she is the real deal. Of course, he had to admit, whether or not this 'Hinata' is a fake, she really looks like the real Hinata.

"Nah, it's nothing. I…kinda got lost in thought for a bit." He then hastily turned to Lee—or 'Lee' (the quotes made huge difference in his mind)—and gave him a nervous smile, "Ah, sorry Bushy-Brows, but I think I'm gonna have to go now. I got something I gotta do now…alone."

"Eh? So early? We haven't even eaten anything yet."

"Yeeaaah…sorry about that, but I think you're going to eat my ramen, too. Unless this place gives take-away, of course."

"Sadly, I'm afraid they don't have something as youthful as that." Lee said, looking downcast and so…unlike Lee. The depressive look was so out of place that Naruto couldn't help but chuckle nervously. However, his need to do this 'something' that he had to do is bigger than his concern for the thick-browed teen, and he left shortly with a curt apology. His trudge was a simple walk down the stairs, but when he finally went through the doors he immediately changed gears and began sprinting away to the back of the school building.

To his pure embarrassment, he didn't expect the ground there to be so slippery, thus leading him to slip just when he was taking a left turn. No one was nearby to see the accident, though, fortunately for him. Unfortunately, that meant that no one was there to point out that his left cheek was covered in mud. With a sigh, he picked himself up and trotted towards the walls of the school building. For no reason at all, he found himself leaning towards it, when not a moment later he completely slid down along it and sat on the ground.

The cool, hard ground of the back park immediately brought him out of his silent trance. Noticing the same cool feeling on his cheek, he wiped it off with his hand, finally realizing that mud had vandalized his face. "…well, that went a little unexpectedly." He said to himself with a tone that couldn't be determined whether he was amused or saddened. Sighing again (he swore that would make him older soon), he began shaking his head to clear out the confused voices his mind was conjuring up.

Why is he this confused, anyway?

"Hey, Kurama, you there?" he called out; looking like calling no one in particular, but his intention was clearly to call out the fox demon inside him. After a disgruntled growl, Kurama voice was heard in his mind, "That's a stupid question, knowing that I am always here. It's not that I could go anywhere else, anyway."

"Yeah, yeah, spare me your sarcasm, baka-kitsune." Naruto said aloud, rolling his eyes in mild annoyance. He dropped his goofing demeanor and looked down at the ground around his feet, head still leaning on the brick wall of the school building. In his mind, though, he was standing up while looking at the great fox's face. Kurama was still behind bars, though he looked quite comfortable in there; he must've been sleeping before he called him. "You saw what I saw before, didn't you?"

"Yet another stupid question. But just to satisfy your curiosity, then yeah, I saw it." Kurama answered stingily, though he stopped scowling at the blonde like no tomorrow. "It was…mildly disconcerting, to say the least."

"You and me both. I didn't know that their memories are supposed to be gone like that. They didn't even recognize me…" Naruto said.

"Well…there's something more confusing than even that."

"Which is?"

"First off, I don't recall Frederica saying anything about sending your friends along with us to the same world." Kurama pointed out with a frown on his face, "Frankly, I don't think she was even in charge of governing their souls either, since the only one she was trying to help is you."

Now that it was said, Naruto seemed a bit more enlightened by the problem Kurama came up with. "Well…yeah, when you put it that way. Not to mention that, throughout all the other worlds parallel to ours, she never said anything about meeting the alter-selves of Sakura-chan, Lee or any other people from our world."

Kurama nodded, faintly glad that Naruto was keeping up with him. It would be annoying to have him as an idiot at this kind of times. "I suspect that your friends' souls are sent to heaven after their death, so they are not supposed to be here at all." All of the sudden, Kurama's frown deepened considerably, "But, if we just say that they are supposed to be here, then that would make more sense. However, Frederica also said the memory deletion should be done after souls are transferred from this world, not before."

"That's right! I've thought about that, too!" Naruto exclaimed enthusiastically. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, closing his eyes in thought, "While I don't quite remember it, I remember Rika-chan saying something like that. Still, it doesn't add up…"

"It doesn't." Kurama conceded. He let out an uncharacteristic sigh, sounding more tired than he showed, "Actually, I doubt that they're even your real friends. Their existence here is nonsensical by itself, and unless Frederica decided to pull some strange trick from her sleeve, this wouldn't happen at all."

"So…basically, you're saying that they're not real? Figment of my imaginations and the like?"

"Oh, they're physically real. What I mean is that you can't treat them as you do your old friends back in Konoha, since I doubt that they really are the same people."

"That…makes sense." Naruto let out. He still didn't know how to react to the pseudo-presence of his friends, but one thing's for sure is that he did not forget that they've already died. Meaning, whatever reason there is that lead him to meet his friends here—or possibly just some frighteningly accurate clone of them—he should not be acquainted to them by any chance. They are dead; both to him, and also in the literal sense.

"I guess I'll just have to get used to seeing nostalgic faces around here, then." Naruto said; making a sighing smile that was laced with sarcasm, "What a wonderful world Rika-chan ended up sending us to."

It was…rare that the Uzumaki boy showed sarcasm. As such, it caught Kurama's attention immediately, converting his intent of taking another nap to a need to ask the blonde about it. "Are you going to be okay about this?"

"…" For once, Naruto didn't have the urge to reply with a smartass comment; and the unusual chance of having Kurama concerned about him was usually enough for him to tease the fox. Still, he had to get used to this…melancholic feeling he has. "I'll manage, I guess… Things have been crazy lately, and I think I'm beginning to adapt to it, but I'm not sure if I can handle having my past life being slammed into my face like that for more than one time."

Kurama understood what Naruto was trying to say. Frankly, he didn't expect it either, but fortunately for him the Konoha Eleven don't have such a big impact on him. He could only imagine how Naruto was feeling after this scenario.

Just when he finally decided to turn back and leave Naruto alone for the while, a sudden tingling behind his skull warned him off an incoming foreign presence. He closed his eyes, trying to get a better grip on this presence to identify who it was. Not a moment later, he opened them with a look of surprise painted on his face.

"It seems she really does want to help you." Kurama stated, his awed expression dissolving into a satisfied smirk.

"Eh? Who does?" Looking up to Kurama, Naruto was more confused about what the fox said rather than the strangely happy smirk he had (let's face it, Kurama was never really the "Mr. Sunshine" kind of malevolent being). Thanks to him looking up, Naruto failed to recognize that another person was already there with them. Only when the person spoke with a familiar tone of condescending amusement, surprising him, did he screamed like a little girl while almost leaping out of his very skin.

And let me state it to you, Uzumaki Naruto is not a little girl. He's just kind of…sort of…scared of ghosts. Approaching from that angle, if an apparition suddenly appeared behind him and spooked him like it did, don't expect him to have a flat expression.

"Can you be any more clueless?" the person asked rhetorically; the voice proved that the person was female.

"GYAAAAH!" And there came the girlish, banshee-like scream.

In the middle of the heart-tugging shock, Naruto had instinctively made a twirling jump and put up his arms in a karate stance (despite not knowing karate), though his face was still pouring sweat like a waterfall. As he did, though, he was also able to catch a glimpse of who the person really was. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he finally noticed the familiar look.

"What the hell…so it's just you, Rika-chan? Darn it, don't scare me like that!"

To his irritation, the girl merely chuckled mirthfully rather than acknowledging his plea. A saint she was, but scaring humans like that was a good thing to do once in a while. "My apologies, I didn't know that you haven't sensed me coming. Though, it is quite amusing to see your reaction."

Naruto groaned aloud, "Look, I know I owe it to you for giving me a chance to start over, but that doesn't mean I agree to be your personal nutcase."

"You're already a nutcase regardless, brat." Kurama piped in.

"Shut up!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing a finger at the snout of the gigantic fox demon, "Right now, you're inside that nutcase's stomach, so behave or this nutcase is gonna shave your hair off!" There was no denial of him being a nutcase though, much to Kurama's amusement. The fox grunted aloofly before settling back to the ground, seeming contently resting as his tails wafted around him serving as a makeshift blanket.

The prospect of a humongous Bijuu needing a blanket to rest is highly imaginative, but that was what happened.

"I see that you still get along." Frederica commented.

"And I see you're still a sarcastic little girl." Naruto said back, still feeling peeved. "By the way, what brings you here, Rika-chan? Not that I don't like it, but I didn't expect you coming here of all places. I thought you're busy watching over other worlds."

The girl giggled slightly. The sound was…familiar, perhaps; though it still is unusual for Naruto to hear the girl/saint giggle like she did. Nevertheless, he found it refreshing to hear that expression.

"Did you forget about our deal already?" she asked, "I told you that I will help you to go through the world you choose. And so, here I am." She waved her hands around her, as if giving the blonde a gesture of presentation. "Sadly, though, I am only helpful in the subconscious part of you. I can't materialize in this world more than I already do since this is practically the world of the dead."

"Nah, you being here is already helpful. Still, I can imagine that it'd be cool to have you walk around here." Naruto grinned at the girl, gaining him a smiling scoff from her. "If I do walk around here, then I would have to be dead first." She said to him.

"Right…I knew that."

"Sure you did." Frederica replied with such sarcasm that Naruto found himself scowling childishly at her. Seeing the look, the blue-haired girl could only shake her head, wondering how she was still amused by the blonde's reaction despite having seen similar reactions from his alter-selves. Then, breaking her out of her musings was Kurama's voice booming throughout Naruto mindscape, "I guess I'll chastise myself for getting curious as well, but what exactly is your intention of coming here, Bernkastel?"

Frederica looked up to Kurama's giant fox face with a smile, "Well, hello there, Kurama. To answer your inquiry, my intention of being here is merely to make clear of some matters that I found out about in this world. I believe you both are still confused about a thing or two?"

"Actually, we are. What do you have for us?" Kurama asked as he shifted a bit from his position, sitting up from his previously lying position.

"First things first…" Frederica started, her purple eyes hovering towards Naruto, "I take it you two have met several…complications when you arrived?"

"Well, several." Naruto answered truthfully. "I mean, giant-ass cannons, halberd-wielding bastards and a group with strange weapons count as well, don't they?"

Frederica nodded, "That is true." Seeing Naruto let out an 'ah' of understanding, she continued, "I've gathered some information about this world. Supposedly, the people you met before are the souls that transcended from the other world parallel to this one. That, and they've come to have different means of weapons compared to yours, which is normal to them since those weapons are likely to be the ones they have in this universe."

"Ah, so they DO have strange weapons!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Not necessarily. Background check on this universe states that this universe might very well have the same means of weaponry to most other universes in existence. If anything, your universe is likely the one which has 'strange weapons', as you put it. Your world, along with some others, is technologically behind most other, more advanced worlds." Frederica stopped when she saw Naruto's dumbfounded look. She chuckled softly before adding, "In other words, you are retarded."

"Hey! I am not!"

"I'm speaking in terms of technological advancements." Frederica said, waving Naruto's angry look aside. "But that's not all I found out. When you encountered the other people, diverging from the earlier group, I figured that I would need to keep an eye should the same occurrence that happened with the group you fought happen again. Yet, I found out then that they are not souls, even if they have physical presence in this world."

"Not souls?" Naruto wondered aloud. "What, so they're not real people?"

"I doubt that possibility. However, I have yet to come to a conclusion about their origins. Perhaps I will, in the future, but not now." Frederica said, apologetically shaking her head.

"W-Wait, hold on! Back in the school, I saw Lee and the others from my world!" Naruto hesitated when he mentioned them, but continued without stopping, "I've been meaning to ask you this… You see, Kurama and I had speculations, but we don't actually know how they suddenly appeared in the same world as we do. You didn't send them here did you?"

"…no." Frederica said after a pause. "Your group of eleven is not under my watch. In fact, it's safe to say that I have no hand in making them appear here. For all I know, their souls are already carried over to heaven like all the normal people." She looked away for a moment at the moment Naruto deepened his gaze at her, even though he didn't realize it himself. "However, I can say this. As I've put my attention to their presence, I noticed that they have the same kind of existence as the soulless figurines in this world. Rest assured; they're not your real friends. It's only coincidence that the figurines happen to have the same outlook as your friends."

At that, Naruto released a breath he didn't know he had held in. He tilted his head back, grinning widely and happily at Kurama who smirked back to him. The giant fox also gave the same expression to Frederica, only out of gratefulness. "I suppose I should thank you for clearing that up. The brat here has been restless with the thought of them being his real friends from our world. We…no, he needed to hear that."

"I see." Frederica said, smiling at the both of them. Widening her smile as she remembered another thing, she then said, "Anyway, I've seen what you've done ever since you arrived in this world. Personally, I feel I have to congratulate you for saving that 'Angel' girl, despite not having to do so and without knowing anything about her."

Naruto grinned widely at the girl, "You saw that, didn't you? I was super-cool back there! Almost felt like a knight in shining armor after blasting that cannonball away with Rasengan." He blinked consequently for a while, looking like he just remembered a small detail. "Speaking of which, I think there's something wrong with my body. When I first tried to draw out my chakra—which Kurama said is nonexistent—all I got instead was a weird light-like energy. It kind of works like chakra, so I didn't have a problem using it, but I was kinda curious about it."

Frederica closed her eyes, folding her arms in front of her chest. She exhaled and spoke up, "That power you used is a power from another universe."

"Come again?"

"It's from another universe."

"O…kay. I thought hearing it twice would make me believe it, but I guess not…" Naruto grumbled, "What do you mean? I admit, this power feels weird, but for it to come from a whole different universe? That's kind of stretching it too far, isn't it?"

"…frankly, no." Frederica answered, looking strangely solemn all of the sudden. "It is very possible, given the circumstances. Even this power's properties are considerably compatible to your current soul state. Also known to the universe it comes from as 'reiryoku', it is actually useable by dead people since it is basically a spiritual power. Of course, the enigmatic question that remains is how the power transcended from its former universe to this one, befalling to you in process."

Hearing the summary from Frederica made Naruto think about it. Sure, while he was not a supernatural world-watcher, at the very least he had an idea of how the universe works. Power transfer from one universe to another is very well beyond what he would call normal; despite having gone through a set of experience that was the farthest point from normal. "Maybe something went off the moment you sent me here? Some kind of error, or something… After all, things like that can happen, right?"

"If it was something like that, then I would've noticed right away." Frederica replied.

"…you sure you didn't give it to him yourself?" Kurama asked suddenly, gaining the attention of the two people in front of his cage. "You did say that you were going to help him, after all."

"Why, Kurama, I didn't think that you would distrust me so much." The blue-haired girl said in a sweet tone—one that set off Naruto's warning signs—while smirking slightly at the giant fox. She chuckled, "If I were capable of being that helpful, I would've told you before. Unfortunately, I can't just mess around, transferring random matters from one universe to another; it would disrupt the balance."

"Well, then who did? Obviously it wouldn't just move around on its own." While sounding both bored and uncaring, the fact that Kurama kept on with his inquiry was enough proof that even he was troubled.

A sigh escaped Frederica's lips as she closed her eyes, "In this case, that is exactly what it did. Apparently, just by being here Naruto had opened up some kind of wormhole that is perhaps the passage which the power went through. To add to that, his very soul more likely than not attracted that power, even though I've never seen such a method done by a human before."

Kurama looked skeptical; he obviously didn't believe it. Either that or he just simple couldn't. On the other hand, Naruto looked ecstatic at the revelation, looking like a sugar-toothed kid that was just being told that he could never get diabetes. "For real?! Wow, this is cooler than I thought! I guess I AM talented!" he said as he jumped up and down. "Ne, ne, does that mean I can pull out other powers too?"

"I don't think so. But even if you can, I advise not to try and experiment on that." The stern look returned to Frederica's face, telling just how serious she was. "Just by wielding one power from a different universe, you have already tipped the balance of this world to the edge. Trying to do more could very well put it into an unbalanced state where the worst thing that could happen is for it to disintegrate completely."

Naruto winced at the thought, "Ouch…didn't thought that it'd be that bad." He sighed. "I guess this 'balance of the worlds' is really important?"

"Well, to put it simply, it is my sole duty as a Saint of Space to keep it balanced. My other duty as the Saint of Time is to guard the time line connecting the past, present and future to not be dwindled so much, but it has rarely been disrupted." The blue-haired saint explained. "As of the moment, I have no idea of how the power that came to you appeared as it did. However, I'll be on the lookout for more abnormality. I just need you to watch how you use that power on your own; it'll probably affect you differently, one way or another."

"Thanks, I guess. Though I don't really get what's happening, I guess I can leave my back for you to cover then." Naruto said cheerily, obviously still childishly excited of his newfound powers. While it's true, it wasn't chakra, but this substitution of it is pretty cool on its own! He never thought that a light-filled Rasengan could've looked that cool; ever! Then again, if Frederica wants him to use it with caution, he might need to keep his desire in check.

Kurama raised his head a little from its comfortable place on his arms—front legs in biped term—to cast a glance at Frederica. He still didn't believe that this 'Reiryoku' as she put it could just come to Naruto's lap as easily as that, but as a being bound to one world only he couldn't complain. It's not like he knew how the whole universal mumbo-jumbo works, anyway. So, throwing his suspicion out the window, he made a smirking sigh and turned away from the two human beings. "Whatever. As long as the brat's not turning into a frog or anything, it's fine with me."

"Why does your concern sounds like an insult, baka-kitsune?" An irate Naruto asked.

"I have no intention on answering that, gaki."

"Grr…"

Amidst the heated conversation (which, by the way, already seemed habitual), Frederica let out a smiling sigh good-naturedly. She couldn't help but marvel how her two subjects of miracle could talk to each other like every word has daggers pointed at each other. Yet, she found herself being amused by the exchange, more than anything she'd seen in this period of time. "I'd love to see you two bite each other's hide more, but I'm afraid I'll have to take my leave now. Multiple worlds are demanding my attention even as we speak."

"Heheh, no need to be a busy-bee, Rika-chan!" Naruto teased, "Thanks for stopping by. I guess I'll watch how I use my powers like you told me to. But…you gotta admit, this thing is worth trying on something every now and then, so…"

"Yes, yes, as long as you keep it to minimum I suppose you won't be affected by it." Frederica said, rolling her eyes and trying to sound annoyed, "Much." She added with a smirk. Her gaze lingered for more than a little while as a speck of guilt flickered in her eyes. Before Naruto could get a better look on that sudden rise of emotion, her form was already flickering in the air for a bit; going static like an old television before vanishing completely in a stream of light.

Talk about a stage exit.

"Well, that pretty much clears everything up for us, didn't it?" Kurama suddenly said. "Looks like you won't have to be so concerned about those fake versions of your friends."

"…I guess so. Still, that means I have to find my own way to deal with them." Naruto sighed. He turned away from Kurama's cage, closing his eyes in preparation to leave his mindscape. "Ah well, I'll find a way. In the meantime, I leave this place to you, Kurama. I don't think I have to say this, but we better keep an eye on this 'Reiryoku' in my body; see if it's affecting my body or anything."

Kurama grunted in approval. "Good plan. But I deserve some nap time, all things considered." Kurama went back to his sleeping position, "Wake me up in a couple more decades or something…" he said as he dozed off. Naruto stared incredulously at the giant fox, muttering to himself about how much he wished that Kurama was just joking around.

The next time Naruto opened his eyes, it was to see his surroundings in the real world. He noted that he hadn't moved; which is a good thing, of course, since that meant no one has found him when he was…for a lack of a better word, 'meditating'. He'd sure be in trouble if someone saw him doing that.

Straightening up, he wasn't surprised to hear some cracks along with his muscles lining up after being relieved from his long period of sitting. He was surprised, though, to hear what he could only describe as music coming from somewhere. His head spun left and right in search of its source, but as he began to listen more into the music, he realized that he would need to trust his ears more for this matter.

His ears proved to be trustworthy, actually. He pinpointed the source's location coming from inside the school building. From his current vantage point, he couldn't see it clearly, but as he followed the sound he found out that there was a balcony on the third floor. He remembered its current position when he went through the hallway before; perhaps somewhere around the classroom he was forced into.

To go there, he would need to go through the main lobby's entrance once again, but that also means risking to meet the fake Konoha Eleven again. That would be too much for him at the moment, so he opted to use another route more suited for ninjas of his caliber: the wall. Of course, doing so would usually require chakra, but since Frederica said that reiryoku would be a sufficient substitute he might as well give it a try. Summoning his reiryoku as he would usually do his chakra, he channeled it to his feet before putting his right foot to the wall.

Surprisingly, he slipped.

"What the-" And with the weight he formerly put onto his right foot for support, Naruto couldn't stop himself from crashing his face to the fine and hard brick wall. Pulling his face away from the wall, he wasn't surprised to feel the unpleasant feeling of blood gathering in his nostrils. "Guh…maybe I need to build up some speed first." A sufficient replacement it may be, but he could feel that the reiryoku was more volatile than his usual chakra. Or, at least, that's how he was feeling; maybe it's also because his body was more accustomed in using chakra.

Casting the problem off of his mind for now, Naruto took a couple of steps back. He broke into a run towards the wall not a moment later, planting his foot to the wall once again and followed it up with his other foot. He grinned when he managed to walk up halfway up the wall, but the excitement didn't last long. After two or three more steps, he lost his momentum and hung in midair, just in the process of falling.

"Holy shit!" he swore as his arms flapped around in attempt of finding something to grab on. Finding none, he closed his eyes and cursed loudly, "SHIIIIIIII-" Without realizing it, his feet were already under him and he felt himself stop, "-IIIT!" For some reason, Naruto continued to close his eyes until the obvious fact that he no longer felt the winds blowing upwards on his body came about him. He opened his eyes to see…possibly the second floor balcony.

He glanced down and saw that he was currently suspended in the air.

He blinked.

Then it hit him; he was still channeling reiryoku to his feet. Whatever's happening to him now, it must be because of that. "…woah." He let out, completely awed, "So there's tree-walking and water-walking, but Kakashi-sensei never told me anything about air-walking! This is so COOL!"

Yes, when you think about it, walking on thin air is perhaps the coolest thing next to flying with no wings. Uzumaki Naruto might have very well made a breakthrough in ninja science. That is, of course, if ninjas could use reiryoku as he did.

The blonde shinobi jumped around, testing his footing in the air. It felt completely like normal ground, honestly. And with the current pile of reiryoku he had in him right now, he could keep this up forever! He couldn't keep his grin down no matter what; the feeling was just that exciting!

However, he was reminded about his real intentions when the curious sound of music blared through his ears once again. He cocked his head to the side; whatever the sound is, it was getting louder than before. "Well…it wouldn't hurt to check it out for real, this time." That being said, he air-walked up to the third floor's balcony, vaulted over the railings and looked left and right along the hallway.

"Okay, I've officially missed out, big time." Naruto said to himself, "I didn't notice that I walked beside a balcony before; not to mention one with this kind of scenery. *sigh*, I really got to watch my surroundings more."

He walked closer towards the source of the music, hearing it getting louder and louder the closer he got to the 3-A classroom. He frowned a bit, wondering what's causing this loud, yet rhythmic music. He got even closer and began to hear someone's singing. Peeking over the room's door, he found himself staring at…

Okay, what the hell? There were a bunch of girls wearing those strange sailor uniforms—four of them, to be exact—each placed in what seemed to be a kind of formation. There were three girls standing at the front; a magenta-haired girl whose bangs trailed down the sides of her face, a ponytailed brunette, and also a long-haired blonde. The magenta-haired girl and the brunette looked more mature than the blonde and the girl with the long purplish-blue hair who was at the back, sitting behind a set of…what looked similar to a taiko, but with smaller versions of it suspended above a larger one and several plate-like…things that were held up on a thin pole; its height just reaching the sitting girl's face.

It is a strange kind of equipment.

Come to think of it, the trio of standing girls in the front was also holding some strange equipment. Naruto couldn't quite put it, but those things that they were holding looked like a blunt axe which is held in a reversed manner, with strings tied to one end to the larger part of the equipment (which really looked like an axe for him, except that it looked more like an ornament than an axe's blade). The strange instruments looked like it packed some mass, which probably explained why those three girls had a single long fabric—the fabric was tied to the instruments—slung across their left shoulders. Those girls were rubbing their right hand fingers on the strings, but only around the area of the large part, whilst their left hand held the thinner part. He suspected that it was the handle of those strange things, though he still couldn't figure out what they're doing with it.

Meanwhile, the girl behind was hitting her miniature taiko set with as much vigor as he had only seen in Lee when he was doing his inhuman training.

'I don't…really get what they're doing…but I guess this is what caused those sounds earlier.' Naruto thought, 'Can it be that they're playing music?' His thoughts were proven when he heard the magenta-haired girl went through some lyrics. To say that he was frozen solid when her voice permeated through the air was an understatement; a big one, at that. As the girl sung, her strong, solid voice shook Naruto's very core, rendering him gaping like an idiot. The voice was that heart-rending that the blonde didn't even words themselves that the girl was literally crying out.

He did hear something about crows, though.

He kept listening to this band of girls, playing that "crow" song with teamwork involving well-placed hits of those mini-taikos, the enchanting sounds of those stringed instruments and lastly the vocalist's own voice that completed it all. Naruto didn't realize that he had been watching it all until the group finished playing. And he was lucky that they finished when they did, because he then heard a series of footsteps coming up from a nearby stairway. Out of instinct (and pure reflex of a frightened cat), he immediately took cover; vaulting over the balcony once again, activating his air-walking ability and pressed himself to the balcony's wall. It was a perfect hiding spot since no one would suspect him being suspended in midair by supernatural powers.

'No one but me, of course.' He remarked mentally with a grin.

The footsteps halted just in front of the classroom he had been spying on. Then, he heard whoever made those footsteps talk, "Iwasawa-san, are you busy?" He remembered that voice, and he frowned when a certain face came to his mind. It was unmistakably that bandana-wearing aggression group leader. She must be talking to the girls in the classroom.

"Yuri? No, we just finished a song rehearsal. What's the matter? You sound…troubled." The fact that the girl—judging from the voice, it was the female vocalist's—replied meant that they both know each other. Naruto wanted to take a peek, but he won't risk himself getting found out by those people again. So he settled by eavesdropping on them, which was proceeding quite successfully.

"It's nothing. The important thing is that you're all safe." The leader girl sighed, "We just found a boy that could possibly be Angel's ally, though he himself denies that. I thought he'd be here somewhere, but it's a good thing I'm wrong."

"Really? I haven't seen anyone other than the usual NPCs." The vocalist—Iwasawa, as this 'Yuri' called her—answered. "How does he look like?"

"Hrm…" Naruto could picture Yuri having a thoughtful look, complete with puffed cheeks. And although the image was quite amusing, he held himself from peeking over the balcony's railing. "Blonde, almost yellow spiky hair, black and orange jumpsuit and a headband with a metal plate…oh, and a whisker-mark tattoo on both cheeks."

"…okay, that's definitely too abnormal to be an NPC." Iwasawa said. "Girls, have you seen someone like that?" There were several inaudible negative replies. Yuri sighed again, "Well, whatever. If you're done here, then come along. We're having a meeting to discuss how to counteract our new guy."

After that, everyone slowly filed out and left the area. Naruto waited for an extra minute to make sure that the coast was clear; nothing's wrong with being cautious. He peeked over the railing and sighed gratefully at seeing the absence of any person there. "Damn, that nearly gave me a heart attack. Don't these guys knock doors or something when they come around?"

Naruto being Naruto, he didn't take notice that his sentence was invalid since Yuri came through stairs, not doors.

"Hm…so they're already seeing my as an enemy now, huh?" Naruto wondered aloud. He groaned loudly and palmed his covered forehead, "Freaking great. A whole new world and I already got a replacement for Akatsuki chasing after my ass." He sighed, running his hand through his hair with the intent of massaging the stress away from his scalp. "I guess it can't be helped, though. I did sound hostile towards them the first time we met."

Grumbling about his bad luck, Naruto's eyes eventually landed to the musical instruments that the band girls left behind. Deciding that he would walk inside and take a look, Naruto then felt a strange feeling compelling him to try those instruments. He started with the mini-taiko set; he took the dual sticks that the purplish-blue haired girl used to hit it with and started hitting. It was…quite easy, for him to say the least. Though beginning with a random, awkward start, the blonde begun to get a hang of it after a few hits on different taiko drums set in front of him. The plate-like compartment, which reminded him of a tambourine, didn't make a sound anything like when the girl played it. He figured that it was because the little 'tambourine' was far too close to its twin under it, preventing it from vibrating.

"…strange taiko set. Oh well, on to the next one!"

The next one would be the stringed, axe-like instruments. He got confused when he found out that there was an odd one in the trio of stringed instruments. One of it had a longer thin part (he'll call that part the 'neck' for now), but with only four strings in comparison to the other two's six strings. He didn't know why it was made different, but he shrugged his shoulders and blew his confusion away. The weight was not all that much, proven by the total tension his left shoulder felt when he slung the fabric across it. He then held the neck of it, before rubbing his fingers on the strings. It was then that he made a startling realization.

Breathtaking musical sounds; this instrument has none.

He frowned in confusion. The music was definitely there when the girls played it, so why is it refusing to make the same kind of sound now? Is this…favoritism?! "Maybe the ones with six strings have a better opinion about me. Screw you, four-stringed instrument!" Naruto said, raising a middle finger to the equipment he just held in an offending manner. However, he made a startling realization yet again when he tried the two other instruments.

Breathtaking musical sounds; these instruments have none.

"N-No…" Naruto whimpered pathetically, falling to his knees. "Stringy…" (yes, he has probably gone nuts, naming a stringed instrument "stringy"), "Why? WHYYYYYY?! Am I not blessed with the ability to make good music using strange equipments?!" Naruto continued groveling. Then suddenly, he snapped his head up with a gasp, "I get it! You're testing me to see if I'm good enough to make good music! Well, if that's the case, then prepared to be played, Stringy!" Naruto jumped up to his feet and grasped the neck of one of the six-stringed instruments, "UZUMAKI NARUTO IS GONNA ROCK AND ROLL!"

---

Several hours later…

---

Eventually, Naruto DID roll.

On the ground, with tears streaming down his face.

"...I'm hopeless..." he let out a muffled muttering, face-down to the ground. "This thing isn't making any sound, good or bad! This is worse than turning into a half-frog in Senjutsu training!" He was exaggerating, of course. Turning into a human-frog hybrid is still, by far, the scariest experience.

"I don't always fail in learning something…" Naruto grumbled to himself, "But when I do, it's to play a stringed musical instrument. And it's either me, or these shitty instruments really aren't worth the effort." He sighed and took the sling of fabric off of his shoulder before leaning the stringed instrument to the wall. He scratched his head, deciding that he'd wasted enough time as it was and walked towards the door.

Exiting the classroom became his plan up until the magenta-haired girl from before appeared.

And he realized that someone up there must've hated his guts or something.

Caught utterly off-guard by the sudden appearance of the vocalist, Naruto could only stare at her whilst having to bear the same kind of stare from her. And damn right; even though she was his probable enemy, she didn't do anything except staring at him without as much as blinking in interruption. It went like that for seconds…minutes…until eventually, the girl broke the awkward silence, "Um…this is kind of…awkward."

Naruto blinked owlishly after hearing the statement, "Hoh?"

"It's just that, Yuri told us to watch out for you in case you attack us. She definitely didn't explain how we should act if any of us find you out rather than the other way around."

At this point, Naruto had to actually tilt his head in confusion. Well…he certainly didn't have an opinion for that. "Er…aren't you supposed to…I don't know, bring me in dead or alive, collect the bounty or something?"

"Do I look like a Jango Fett to you?" the girl asked as a sweat-drop formed on her head.

"What's a mango fat?"

"…never mind." The girl shook her head, sighing. She jabbed a thumb to her person, "Iwasawa."

"Eh?" Naruto let out confusedly.

"That's my name." she simply said. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, trying to make the perfect image of the facial form of a silent 'So?' question. When Iwasawa didn't continue her introduction, it finally occurred to Naruto that she was waiting for him to make an introduction himself. "Oh! Uh, ano…Naruto." He started with a stutter, "Uzumaki Naruto."

"Oh? Straight on with the given name, too?" Iwasawa asked in surprise, "Huh. I didn't expect that. Yuri kind of pictured you as a hard-ass bastard from her description of you."

"Nah, that position is already taken by a friend of mine." Naruto waved off her comment, his mind wandering to a certain raven-haired, emo-istical Uchiha.

Iwasawa hummed in response, sound like she was trying to test something on Naruto. "Well, you look kind of friendly, despite what she said. By the way, what are you doing here?" She was talking to him as if the fact that they were from two different sides didn't matter to her. Naruto eyed her left sleeve… No doubt, there was that same symbol as the others from the weapon-wielding group; the 'SSS', as the symbol stated. Yet, despite that, Naruto felt like he could make a normal conversation with Iwasawa.

"I guess I was just curious about the instruments you guys were using when you played." Naruto said, shrugging his shoulders, "I overheard you and your friends playing a song, and I can't help but listen to it as well as watch you guys play."

"You were watching us?" Iwasawa asked.

"Yeah, while hiding." Naruto answered with a nod.

"…okay, I guess." Iwasawa quirked an eyebrow, getting a bit more curious about this enigmatic blonde. He must be very skilled in hiding if he escaped everyone's notice under their noses like he said he did.

"Yeah, and then I tried to play these things. That mini-taiko set back there is pretty easy, but these guys over here," Naruto pointed a finger to the stringed instruments, "refused to be played for some reason. I tried rubbing my fingers on the strings, and flicking it, but it just won't make any sound!"

"Eh? You mean the electric guitars?"

"Electric...yeah, whatever they're called!" Naruto said, throwing his arms up helplessly.

"..." Iwasawa continued to stare at Naruto; this time her stare was laced with faint incredulity. She surmised that he was playing dumb, but he looked to be seriously confused and there wasn't any trace of mischief in his eyes. That alone meant that he really knew nothing. She then spoke up again, giving Naruto a strange look, "I see you like that guitar… I don't know if you already realize it, but the fact that it's named 'electric' guitars meant that they need electricity to be played. Here, like this…" the girl walked towards one of the "guitars", as she said they're called, before taking a cable with a pointed steel edge and stabbed it clear through the hole at the bottom side of the guitar.

"Oh, so THAT'S what you gotta do first. So are these boxes power batteries or something?" Naruto asked again.

"Huh? No, they're not batteries. They're called amplifiers."

"Uh huh…could've fooled me. I don't see how this little guy here," Naruto placed his foot on top of the so-called amplifiers, "can amplify anything."

Iwasawa chuckled, "You'd be surprised to know. If you really wanna know, than why don't you place your face in front of it? It'll show you exactly what it amplifies." Surprisingly, Naruto trusted her enough to do exactly the thing; placing his face right in front of the amplifier with a curious look. "Like this?"

"Closer."

"Okay…how 'bout now?"

"Better. Oh, flip that switch under the red bulb over there, please? It's the turn on button."

"Hrm…" Naruto found the button in no time, turning on whatever the devil the machine was supposed to be. "Oh, and there's a switch under a smaller light bulb next to it. Press it." He heard Iwasawa said, and he begrudgingly complied although he was beginning to suspect what Iwasawa was actually planning to do. 'Oh well, it can't be anything bad, right? I mean, sure they're some guys with a sick fetish with weird weapons, but Iwasawa here doesn't seem half bad.' He thought optimistically.

Unfortunately for Naruto, he always had a horrifically bad luck with women. I mean, she got a girl who always hit him upside the head for being an insensible idiot (Sakura), a girl whose love for him went unnoticed until she actually confessed it to him (Hinata, and she died once after that confession), another woman who probably would've punched him upside the head for being an insensible idiot if she had been alive (his own mom), and finally a Saint of Time and Space whose sense of amusement was an animosity towards him (Frederica).

Iwasawa will be added to that list, though he remained oblivious to it.

Back to them, the machine emitted a strange, low-volume humming noise that only served to make Naruto even more curious. He was now literally pressing up his ear to the amplifier. Iwasawa nearly felt sorry for him; nearly did. The excitement of what her plan was about to bring washed that feeling away, though, and she smirked slightly before settling her left fingers to hold the strings in the D chord before strumming all the strings with all her might.

The result was devastating.

As the vibration of the strings was carried out to the amplifier, it changed the voice it was making from the blank hum to a high-pitched cry of…something evil, right to Naruto's eardrums. And at that moment, the blonde quickly revised the finding he made before.

Mind-blowing musical sounds; 'Stringy' and its stringed pals have it.

Scientifically, the sounds that the amplifier emitted were just that; sounds. However, it seemed that the sound wave was powerful enough to fling Naruto away. Either that, or Naruto had quickly scrambled away in sudden fright. He was sure he suffered a mini-heart attack and the loss of hearing for a short period of time.

"-maki. Uzumaki!" Oh look! Now he was even hearing things in static!

"Ugh…I don't know what you did, but that's one hell of a prank." Naruto muttered. He shook his head wildly to clear the cobwebs forming in his head, "But never mind that! What the HELL was that for?!"

"I wanted to see if you're just messing around with me. It seems…you're really serious." Iwasawa told him calmly.

"What part of me made me look like I'm joking?!" Naruto remarked with a pissed off expression. When he realized that—with his vein popping on his temples, teeth grinding against each other, and eyes comically turned into saucers—his expression was at the very far end of seriousness, he sighed and waved his right hand in front of him. "Never mind, forget I said that." He said, pinching the bridge of his nose, "What I'm trying to say is, was it really necessary to blast my ears off?"

"Nah, not really." The magenta-haired vocalist gave him a sheepish grin that told him that the girl was at leastthe tiniest bit sorry, "It's just that I was curious about how you would react to it. And…you don't really seem like a bad person."

"Gee, thanks for the compliment." Naruto said, rolling his eyes in annoyance, pouting as he did, "You could've used some other ways, though."

"Hai, hai, sorry about that." She smiled innocently at him with closed eyes, prompting him to look away with a slight blush. Iwasawa settled the guitar down on a stand, next to the other instruments, and turned back to face Naruto. "So, what are you planning to do next?"

"Well, obviously I won't be telling that to you." Naruto stated.

"Why?"

Naruto raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Iwasawa's question; he thought it was stupid that she even asked that. "Why are you even asking me that? I mean, you're one of them! You're supposed to be…well, not that I want us to be, but you guys don't really like me all that much. That and I've been through this kind of scenario many times before to know that I have my face on your hit list."

"Actually, we don't have something like that to begin with." Iwasawa said with a sweat-drop on her head. She sighed, raking her left hand through her bangs, "We have no intention of fighting you, Uzumaki. At least, not after Yuri figured out that you're a normal human rather than the God that we're searching for."

"She thought I'm God?" Naruto crinkled his face in confusion, "I don't know where that idea came from, but I'm definitely not." The highest kind of being he had met that was even remotely close to omnipotence is Frederica, and even then she is just a saint. And while he wasn't a normal person either, thinking him as a god…well, that's blasphemy in a nutshell. Of course, he wasn't one to speak; Konoha itself didn't have a religious doctrine, so every villager had their own perception of God.

"Anyway, what makes you think I'll tell you what I'll be doing?" Naruto asked once again, bringing them back to the previous topic.

"Two things, Uzumaki. One is that you have no idea about this place, two is that you don't really have anything planned." It was either the direct hit that Iwasawa's statement had made, or it was her all-knowing smirk; either way, Naruto visibly flinched. This girl…is more perceptive than he thought.

"I'm right, aren't I?"

"Geh…" Being pushed even further into a corner wasn't working in Naruto's advantage. He growled lightly and shook his head, "So I don't have anything in plan. So what? That doesn't mean I have to come with you."

"Maybe not, but I'm also right about the first one." Iwasawa said knowingly, "It's normal not to know anything about this world. But if you join us, then you'll-"

"Hey, I know some things about this world." Naruto interjected, annoyed by how the girl was making him sound like a total oblivious dweeb, "I know that this world is some kind of purgatory and I'll go back to the real world if I pass this one. I'm also dead, I get that too. But other than that…well, yeah, I don't really know much." Well, all those information was acquired from Frederica, of course. He came to terms about all those facts a while ago, so he utilized them with utter ease.

"Wow, you know a lot for someone who just got here." And Iwasawa wasn't just saying that, either. Not all people would make random assumptions of this world being an afterlife, and just happen to get lucky guesses like that. "…but still, you don't know anything about Angel, do you?"

"I know that she's a girl that you're all ganging up on, that's for sure." The blonde said, scowling.

"It's really not like how you made it sound to be…" For all the wrong reason, Naruto's scowl deepened as Iwasawa tried to explain the Battlefront's course of action. The reasoning that the Battlefront have is quite logical by human standards. By herself, though, she wouldn't be able to say much. She wasn't the leader; Yuri is. If there was anyone that can explain these things thoroughly and perhaps make this whisker-marked teen understand them, it was her and her alone.

"Look, I don't want to say anything on the Battlefront's behalf, just in case I would say something wrong. So if you just give us a chance to explain ourselves; if you just hear us out, then you'll understand why we're doing what we do." She hoped her pleading tone was sufficient; she didn't become a vocalist for nothing.

It seemed that her words got through to Naruto (and his stubbornly thick skull) if his contemplating look was anything to say about it. His frown was slowly dissolving into a neutral straight line. 'I don't like the sound of this, but…' he started to think, eyeing Iwasawa with a critical eye. 'But then again, how I've thought about them all this time is based on my own assumptions. I never really did give them time to explain themselves.' As his mind formed that line of thought, he sighed, 'I guess it's worth a shot.'

"So, what, you're expecting me to go with you to your little group?" Naruto inquired.

Iwasawa gave him a friendly grin, "That's what I had in plan."

Troublesome. Yeah, that's probably what Shikamaru would've said in this kind of situations.

---

At that time…

---

Anti-Angel Headquarters (Principal's Room)

At the meantime, the Battlefront members were indulged in a serious discussion; once again having the enigmatic blonde as the main topic. Noda had pitched in that the blonde called himself "Uzumaki…something-that-sounded-like-a-ramen-topping". Well, they could learn about his name later on, if they have the chance or misfortune to meet him again. For now, however, they were back discussing how they should deal with the blonde. To be frank, now that they had seen what he was capable of doing, all of the members had no idea what to do to counteract him.

Fight him? They could only keep up for so long against Angel, and they didn't want to add another super-powered being in that list; not to mention they had limited ammunitions. Shiina could probably fight him since she probably was the most talented fighter in the group, but one girl could only do so much.

Recruit him? Probably a workable idea if they didn't let him off with such a bad impression. With what he had seen, Uzumaki had concluded that they were trying to destroy Angel; and he stated defiantly that he would fight them if it comes to that. He probably didn't know that they couldn't die no matter what in this world. However, his obliviousness was a problem to be solved later; as it was, the fact that he believed that he should protect Angel (whether as an act of heroism or not) is a problem.

Leave him be? That…was actually what they were doing.

Despite how Yuri felt that they were supposed do something, the lack of idea was discouraging. Even with various minds pitched in to form an idea (and Hideki's, purely for humor relief), they had no choice but to leave things as it is for the meantime.

"I can't believe we're stuck without anything to do." Hideki suddenly piped up, breaking the silence, "With all the things that happened, you'd think that we should do something about him."

'No argument there.' Otonashi thought to himself. He looked towards Yuri, who for once looked to be more silent than usual. 'I can't believe I'm saying this, but Hinata's right. Usually, Yuri would've figured something out already; executing weird operations and all.' The girl herself then sighed as she sunk further into the moving chair she was sitting on. She looked annoyed, if anything, though it wasn't clear if the cause was Hideki or the situation they were in.

Mostly it's Hideki though. He pisses her off the most, usually. This time…meh, not so much.

"It's not like I want us to do nothing, either! With things going as it is, this 'Uzumaki' is getting just as troublesome as Angel. And as much as I want to deal with him, we would have our hands full and our backs turned to do anything else." It was the truth. Focusing on Uzumaki alone will take their eyes off of Angel; that was something they could not afford. At the same time, multitasking on them both would prove to be more of a handful for them.

This…was exactly why she disliked not doing anything. It made her—it made all of them—feel helpless and restless.

"You know what, here's an idea." A sudden voice called out. All members' attention converged on the voice, and stared at an agitatedly twitching Noda. "How about we stop thinking about it, go out there, and just act on it?! I mean, come on! That little pipsqueak won't be much of a fight if all of us fight him!"

"You were barely holding him off alone; the strength of Shiina-san, Hinata and you combined wasn't enough to dam his own; and even with all our members present, he was still able to escape." Matsushita pointed out; his solid voice boomed too sudden for any of the others to say anything otherwise. But it wasn't just his voice; the logic in his words was sound. And as much as Noda was annoyed of being reminded of it, he was silenced effectively.

Before they can enter another prolonged silence, though, they heard a mumbled voice beyond the office door. "No God, no Buddha, no Angels." Was what the closest to the door (that being Shiina) could audibly perceive. The next thing that happened, the door opened up on one side, giving way for someone to enter. The process seemed to go in slow-mo (in the spectator perspective) as the door seemed like something out of a fairy tale; with the usually inaudible screech in the doors hinges suddenly being loud enough to resound throughout the room, and the person who went through it trudging in slow-mo.

Well, correction: Persons. As in, people. As in, plural sense of the same thing.

"That password…disturbs me. A lot." A male voice said, sounding annoyed, "Seriously, of all the things you could've said…"

"It's what we all agreed on." Another sound—recognizable as Iwasawa's—replied, "And to tell you the truth, I think it's befitting; given the name of our base of operations."

"I swear…" the other voice muttered. As they both entered, Iwasawa's presence wasn't all that surprising since they heard her voice when she was coming in. It was the other person that she brought along that literally shocked them frozen. It was…kind of ironic, when you think how they all had wished for something to happen, and for them to give themselves migraine just thinking about it.

At the time, the arrival of the enigmatic blond, Uzumaki Naruto, was something that none of them had seen through.

Naruto looked around, slightly shocked to see the faces of the group he had stood up against before. Unlike what he thought he would do, he grinned at them all, "Huh. So is it the 'assembly of crazies' time, or I'm actually raining on someone's parade?"

"T-Teme!" Noda let out. He tried to put up a brave front, but anyone could see that sweat had gathered on his forehead.

"Woah, woah, what the hell…?" Hideki said; eyes wide in disbelief.

"Keh…now this is unexpected." Fujimaki grumbled, tightening his grip on his shirasaya.

"Ah…awawawa…" Well, Ooyama didn't literally say anything, but let's just take his nervous stutter as a reaction.

"How shallow-minded…" No, Shiina, this is pretty deep, actually.

The other members were silent; their narrowed eyes were enough of a reaction to his sudden appearance. Meanwhile, Yuri had straightened up from her seat and interlaced her hands in front of her face. 'And just when things should not get worse…' She let out a long, drawn-out sigh that fortunately loosened up the stress building up at the back of her head. She then talked, "Iwasawa…pardon my Japanese…but what the fuck?"

"Well, he agreed to talk on friendly terms with us, and he said that he would let us explain ourselves. And also, to note, he's actually not that bad of a person." Iwasawa reasoned. She smiled and winked at the Battlefront leader, "You have my guarantee on this."

Otonashi, who was silently watching with a disbelieving face the whole time, sweat-dropped, 'You're saying it like that'll settle everything.'

"Your guarantee?" Yuri repeated, still not believing. She hummed in thought, placing a hand under her chin; before closing her eyes after a while and saying, "Well, alright, let's hear him out."

'Eh?! That's pretty easy.' Shock, Otonashi, is something that you'll have to prepare for in the near future, and all the other futures following it.

As the attention shifted back to Naruto, the blond suddenly looked strangely flustered. That loosened them up a bit; at least he was a normal person, or at least behaving like one. The spiky-haired ninja then started to speak, "Um…I've thought about what you said before; about…this group of yours and how we can protect each other, and explain things that we don't know."

"I did say that." Yuri complied with a nod. Her face was serious; like a face etched to granite stone, set with an unmoving frown. "Why? You've finally agree to join our Battlefront?"

Most of the room's occupants didn't like the way that sounded. Noda looked back to Yuri, as if silently asking her 'Are you fucking serious?' as did most of the other people that had encountered Naruto firsthand. Even Otonashi, who usually stayed neutral, looked like he was questioning his leader's idea. Naruto, hearing the inquiry, frowned a bit before deciding to give her a piece of his mind, "Look, before I even consider joining you guys, I demand some answers. This world; I know why I'm here, and I have an idea of what is it for. But like I said, if anyone can explain to me what this world actually is, then I'll ask them right away."

Swallowing his pride, Naruto then asked with a pointed look, "So…mind telling me what this world actually is?"

---

Frederica's realm…

As always, the orbs of crystallized memories hovered around the endless space. Although the realm lacked the ends to define its center, it seemed that Frederica was the center of it all; like the orbs were revolving around her presence. The saint knew this, of course—she already has for a long time—but even presented with that knowledge she never felt ecstatic about it.

For sure, she never was a person who can show much of her emotions through her expression. Most of the times, her face was set in one grim expression.

However, the face she now wore ever since her return from the world Naruto is in was perhaps the most depressed look she ever had on. Her own feelings were currently in a mess, so to speak. That was not as surprising as she thought it would be; even if she had thought that it would be outrageous for her to feel like this. This unsettling feeling that lodged itself in her chest was akin to guilt, for she had done something she knew she shouldn't have.

She lied to Naruto. To be exact, she didn't tell him the exact truth. And what is the truth?

"…what have I done?" she wondered aloud. No one answered her; not that she expected anyone to.

In regards of the figurines that just "happened" to have the same looks and appearances as his eleven friends from Konoha; she lied about it being a coincidence. Granted, they're really just figurines, but what caused them to appear as so wasn't by mere coincidence and she knew what caused it. In fact, the cause of the mysterious power he gained—a power that wasn't supposed to be his by any natural means—was one and the same.

"Why are you doing this? And of all people…why him?" Questions began flying out of Frederica's mouth. Like before, there was no one around to answer her, but the accusative tone she used proved that she was directing them to a particular someone. There was more anger than disbelief welling inside her throat, resulting in a low growl when her eyes focused on one occupied spot.

"What reasons do you have to disturb his passing, Lambdadelta?!"

A childish, yet disturbingly manic giggle answered her question. The person who let out the laugh was a little blonde girl who was not so different from Frederica, except for her brighter choice of clothing and shorter hair. Her irises were colored hazel red. Clad in a pink dress, wearing a pink hat and black gloves as well as white-pink striped stockings, while red bows decorated her every article of clothing (plus a curious piece of pumpkin-like piece on her left abdomen), it was glaringly obvious that she differed to Frederica in many ways. Her presence was imposing; it was safe to say that it was equal even to Frederica's own.

"Aww~ come on, Bern. You don't have to be so angry about it!" the blonde girl said sweetly. "When was the last time I had the chance to do something fun? Eons ago, that's the answer~."

"This is no joking matter! You're interfering with the passing of a very important person!" Even with the friendly tone that Lambdadelta used, Frederica wasn't relaxing in the slightest. On the contrary, she looked even fiercer as she tried to contradict the blonde's action. "Explain to me why you would disrupt the balance in this world by not only recreating visages of Uzumaki Naruto's comrades, but also giving him access to an amount of reiryoku equal to that of a captain-level Shinigami!"

"Ahahaha! My, my, aren't you the accusative one?" Lambdadelta hovered towards Frederica, stopping just behind her. She smiled darkly as she continued, "What makes you think that it was all my doing? There is no absolute proof that points all this towards me."

"You cannot fool me, Lambdadelta." Frederica stated as her anger was reaching its peak, "Who else would be able to create this false reality, other than Witch of Certainty herself?"

The Witch of Certainty, Lambdadelta. A witch so powerful, so in-tune with the supernatural that her powers can shift and change the very foundation of reality itself as long as the end result of that change is not a hundred-percent impossible. This was the persona hidden underneath her childish features, which succeeded in deceiving most mortals she appeared in front of. Legend says that she was so powerful that there was only one other mage capable of defeating her.

"Ah, ah, ah, so you're using my status to push me into a corner? Well, not a bad move, but-"

"[Blue] Lambdadelta is the one who opened the portal from «universal code: Bleach» to transfer «energy matter: Reiryoku», and the one to also create visages of Uzumaki Naruto's comrades! [Blue]" Frederica bellowed with all her breath, her eyes finally turning into the demonic purple orbs as her anger reached its peak. There was a strange energy backing up her words, as if she put her own strength into them. Blue light flared behind her like blue infernal flames as the result of the energy behind it. The blue-haired girl calmed down after releasing her pent up anger in her statement, and the full-purple red-dotted orbs her eyes were returned to its calmer shade of purple. "Well, Lambda? Try to deny that with your red truth, if you are sure that is not what happened."

As Frederica had expected beforehand, the blonde girl remained silent. That is, until she broke out in a mirthful chuckle. "I see you still remember our game rule from 'that' game. I'm amazed. That's the one rule we agreed on following even as the boundless beings we are. Hmph…well, you had me there. Yes, I admit, it was my doing. Honestly, to think that you would point out 'general location' and 'specific matter' in such a detailed manner…"

"I've grown more powerful than I was for a long time, my friend." Frederica said proudly. "And, to remind you, you haven't answered my question."

"I was bored, Bern~. And you know how antsy I get when boredom gets to me!" Lambdadelta whined, suddenly hugging Frederica from behind and completely forgoing the fact that she was touching at all the…wrong places. The close contact meant nothing to the blue-haired saint, so she remained silent. The blonde witch continued despite the lack of response, "So I thought, since you got yourself a cute little piece, I might as well play with him a bit. Of course, I'm well-aware of the rules. With the mental pressure put to him by the presence of people similar to his dead friends as the handicap, I gave him another power as payment. It is well in my range of certainty."

"Naruto is not my piece." Frederica denied. The thought of him being one of her…pieces made her tense. She hadn't thought about using people like that since a very long time, and she wasn't going to start again. "He is his own person; a human under the care of God! Knowing that, what are your intentions?"

"Isn't it obvious? Play a game, of course!" The girl laughed oddly cheerfully, even though her next sentence dropped the psychotic hammer, "In which driving Uzumaki Naruto insane is the main goal! I've already made my first move of tormenting his soul, Bern, and I'm waiting for your counterattack!"

"A…game?" A small gasp escaped Frederica's lips, while her eyes widened a fraction. "You…you're trying to make this a game like last time?"

"I thought I made that fact clear." The blonde girl then tightened her hug on Frederica's small frame, "Ne, Bern~, why don't we play again like last time? It'll be fun to see how this human being can outlast our torture. And who knows, maybe you can win against me again!"

The invitation, in of itself, was revolting for Frederica. Acting on that feeling, she twisted under the blonde witch's hug, eventually escaping from her hold. She turned around to face Lambdadelta; face set emotionlessly rigid. Not a second later, light enveloped her body—leaving out her head unlit—as her clothing began to change in turn. The once plain, pale green sundress was then magically replaced with a set of clothing more fitting to be called as 'gothic lolita'. A white, frilly long-sleeved dress worn under a short-sleeved black fabric-jacket (I don't know what the hell those are called. Reference, please?), with a blue bow decorating her collar. There was a material similar to a cat's tail with a smaller blue bow tied to its end, possibly stitched to the back of her dress. And her feet, once bare, was now covered with a pair of white socks and black shoes.

"My, my…so you decide to play?" Lambdadelta curiously inquired. She missed the sight of her beloved Bern in that dress; it was almost nostalgic when she remembered the last time she saw her wearing that.

"Play? On the contrary, Lambda. I have no intention of following you in this game you create in the world that is under my watch, nor do I encourage you to disturb Naruto's passing anymore than it is." Frederica balled her hands into fists, her eyes glaring daggers at her friend/adversary. "He is a special individual who is rightfully granted a second chance. And as long as he is under my watch, I will not let his second chance be ruined!"

"Hm?" Lambdadelta hummed questioningly as she eyed the saint strangely. "Wow, Bern, you're acting veeery strangely. You were never this caring towards a human before." She giggled and twirled in her place, unconsciously hovering upwards as she did. Her giggle grew into a full-blown laugh when she finally stopped spinning, then she regarded Frederica with amused eyes. "Or…has your ascension to a saint softened you so?"

"That is none of your business." Cold was her tone, but Frederica's eyes was literally burning with a torrent of masterfully-veiled emotions. "Go away, Lambdadelta. I will not stay idle while you turn this world and his inhabitants as your plaything."

"AHAHAHAHA! Oh, well then, I guess you'll have to work hard to prevent me from doing exactly that. If you think you can, then fight me with all you got! Prove to me that I cannot lay a hand on Uzumaki Naruto!" Once, a cute childish face that seemed rather innocent, Lambdadelta's face then turned to that of a manic psychopath with no intention of being nice. A demonic grin spread across her face, and her red pupils were dilated as her eyes widened considerably. Arms spread wide beside her, she looked nothing like the child her small body suggested her to be.

"Prove my certainty wrong; Witch of Miracles, BERNKASTEL!"

-End of Chapter 2-

-xo-

And that's all folks…
Sorry, can't hold myself. Kinda ruins the mood, I know. I myself can't imagine being a pig in the center of a multi-color circle saying that.

Well, chapter 2 is done. Not as well as I'd planned before, since putting imagination to reality needs the power of either a witch, an esper, or an alchemist. Of course, since real life is not a Toaru Majutsu no Index anime, that's not bound to happen. Oh well…

And, surprise, surprise! The appearance of another witch, Lambdadelta! And turns out that the whole disruption that's happening on Naruto is all her doing! Wonder what other craziness she'll make :D Also, my thanks to Oroboro2. I'm using his construction of the 'colored truths' writing; the same one he used in his crossover story The Counterattack of Haruhi Suzumiya, which is an Umineko-Haruhi Suzumiya series crossover. Pretty darn good one, too! You should read it.

Trivia Time!

»The Konoha gang in the Afterlife? Not necessarily. As explained by Frederica, they're not actually the real gang. Mere figurines, that's all. However, Naruto will not cope with them as easy, and classifying them as 'fakes' will be tough as hell.

»Indecisive Yuri? Yes, she is. I admit, in the series she is shown to be more brash and decisive than she is in my story. There's me to blame for that, actually. I didn't quite get a good grasp on Yuri's personality like most authors do, even when I've watched the series countless times.

»Reiryoku-wielding Naruto is epic? Assuming this is what you think, of course; then yeah he's EPIC! I gave him the air-walking ability of the standard Shinigami early on since I can't find a good time for it in the later chapters. Hope that's logical enough for you.

»Naruto, the Music Retard? He won't always be one. The fact that electric guitars doesn't exist in Konoha nor the Elemental Countries contributes to his lack of knowledge in today's Rock 'n Roll.

»Umineko reference? Yeah…I DID pull some out from Umineko. A reviewer of mine told me that Frederica is also a character in Umineko (though I was purely using the reference from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Minagoroshi-hen), and I found that she is a witch named Frederica Bernkastel. From there on, I was like "Wow, I am really disrespecting Ryukishi07 for turning Frederica (Bernkastel) into something she isn't". So, pulling a late card out of my ass, I decide to make her an ex-Witch of Miracles that ascended to a Saint of Time and Space.
And of course, I also inserted Lambdadelta from the same series. Hope I pictured her as well as she really is.
However, this doesn't mean it'll turn into a horror mystery fanfic just by simply me adding Umineko into the mix. After all, I suck at writing those kind of stories.

Well, that's the end of today's trivia! Any other questions shall be sent to me through PMs since I'm such a lazy douche :D

Coming up next: A temperamental battlefront leader, a ninja being kept away from ramen (oh, the TORTURE!), and Shikamaru running a lap!

-Next Chapter-

"Fight against God?"

"Just wiiild heaven, dude."

"You're on our side whether you like it or not."

"It doesn't matter…"

'Can I really do this?'

"Operation…START!"