Title: New Future of the Legends
Author: Nakora-chan
Email: nakora(dot)chan(at)gmail(dot)com
Series: Naruto
Rating: T (may end up M later on)
Pairings: None (If I have time later on, I will create an alternate version with pairings)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: Three years have passed since Naruto has left Konoha. It is about time that he returns, but when he does, he reveals things about himself and Konoha that has never been known to the public. Despite what he has become, he strives to break free from all bonds.
Warnings: AU, OC, OOC, blood, abuse, mutilation (last three will occur later on)
Intermission: Resurrection
For him, time did not exist. He didn't know where he was, nor did he care. Nothing mattered. He had stopped feeling anything some time ago, and the pain before that. He knew that he was still conscious, or was he unconscious? It didn't matter. Nothing did.
He wondered when his story started. Stories never started from the beginning, and when they did, they were always about the main character. He knew that he wasn't a main character; he was a character in a story. He just never saw himself as the star in his own story. His story was only a part of some larger one, some greater scheme of things. He had only been aware of his story when he looked up at the blue sky and the sky looked back understandingly.
He wondered when his story ended. Stories always have a beginning, and they always have an end.
To Be Continued…
Author's Notes: This is the single shortest thing I have ever written. It's not supposed to be a long intermission, and I was surprised that I couldn't follow the plotline's monologue. For those that didn't read my author's note and probably won't read this author's note, this POV is Gaara's, and I almost desperately wanted to make it longer, but when I got the third paragraph, I just had to end it with something short and abrupt but something with a sense of closure. It's funny; the name of the intermission is "Resurrection". One would expect that this would be something about returns, but I wrote something not relating to the title at all and I am not going to change it.
Just as a note for those that didn't notice, the word "sky" will be repeating throughout the rest of the fanfiction; sometimes it'll be coupled as "blue sky" but please take note and a lot more things will become clearer in the way that I write. Note… metaphor. YAY, I used things I learned in English in my everyday life!
STATS:
Chapters – 8
Word Count - 55887
Reviews - 183
Hits - 37711
C2 - 94
Favs - 214
Alerts - 336
I said last chapter that I would be posting reviewers' responses and so here they are (sorry if it's so long):
Fooboo27 – I'm sorry that I'm using so much of the Japanese language in my writing, but I think that sometimes having the Japanese adds effect. There are things in Japanese that can't be explained by using the English language, such as the suffixes –san, -sama, etc. If anyone requires a translation of the Japanese, please email me and I'll write one up and post it on my LJ.
Saetan – I'm so glad that you've refound my story, and as you can tell, I've been rewriting. I'm glad that one of my original readers is still supporting me. Thanks!
Really Frozen Phoenix - I've never had anyone say that I can maintain a feeling of paranoia and wrongness. I was aiming for that, and I had doubts for that chapter that I didn't do a good enough job, but I'm glad that you thought that I had it right. Thanks for the note on feminism/femininity!
enthor – You mentioned in your review things about Naruto's seemingly effortless grace back in Chapter 1, and I'm glad that you pointed it out. So what happens is that I am going to be referring back to Chapter 1 later on in the story, but right now, Chapter 1 is the only part of the story so far that Naruto has showed a part of who he really is. Thanks for pointing it out and thanks for reviewing.
ninofchaos – I actually hadn't examined everything in detail even though I thought I did. I was going by a general timeline in years, but you pointed out things that I had never really given thought to like how close the birthdays of the characters are to the events in the story. I'm glad that you pointed it out, and the only thing with the timeline now is that we don't know exactly when the series started in relation to the Kyuubi attack.
EroEro-Kitsune – I'm sorry, but I wasn't actively trying to make the clan heirs in Chapter 5 like bad people. I was just trying to reinforce the fact that they would only submit to the contract if there were benefits and if they could gain something from the situation. I honestly wasn't trying to make them seem like "useless b-stards", and if I have the willpower to and the time, I would go back and change it so that it would feel better. Now that I think about it, I can twist it to my plot, but still, I'm sorry if I made them seem superficial.
Darkwill0w – I think it's just you. This plot is 100 made by me; I could even scan the plot outlines I have for each chapter. If there is another fic out there that is the same as this one, then they're copying this fic and I would appreciate it if you tell me.
Edengrave – Thanks for your review; I really appreciate all the things that you commented on, and I'm glad that you enjoyed the rewrite.
kiki – I'm glad that you like the "Ohayo, Itachi-kun" part. I really like that part, too; when I put that at the end of chapter 7, I nearly squealed at my genius because I rarely read fanfiction that have an unexpected ending that leaves the reader in excitement rather than disappointed eagerness.
Fall out of grace – When I put Chiyo dubbing Gai as the green freak, I purposely left out the quotation marks because to Chiyo, Gai's name is green freak.
Zetnnik - I never noticed that there were a lot of mysteries in this fic; I was more concerned that I would get everything jumbled out or would leave something out. You asked who this HE that Tsurugi would be going to for 3 months. That'll be revealed in probably… not next chapter, but maybe in next 2 or 3 chapters. The 1st week after Naruto left Konoha will be revealed also later on, and your last question I can't answer because it'll all be revealed in the next 2 or 3 chapters.
ViperineVampire – I LOVE YOU! You wrote the longest review I've ever had! I had it printed out and showed it to all my friends and told them that I was inspired by your great review! When you reviewed, I immediately started coming up with more of chapter 8, and I still love how you just point out things that I never notice. Thank you for the GREAT review!!
Raptor2001 – Tsurugi/Naruto gives not everyone a cold feeling; so far only Sakura, Kankurou, Neji, and Jiraiya can feel the cold.
someone179 – As much as that would help out with the reading of the story itself, it would screw up the layout/look of the story which I don't want to do. Anyway, it's half the fun to figure out exactly who is thinking, even though I do give a heads up in the author's note of the previous chapter.
Mandara – Naruto will show himself soon; that's all I can say before people start flaming me about spoiling. Why is Sakura so against Tsurugi? I can't say anything about that but when Naruto reveals himself, some things will come to light.
snowecat – I never realized that Tenkou resembles Sai with that odd smile, but I do have to say that Tenkou has a gentler smile and is more honest about smiling than Sai. Sai has never felt emotions before, while Tenkou has so it's only natural that Tenkou's smiles are more heartfelt. When I started writing this fanfiction, Naruto didn't have a disguise but he did have an eerie smile just like Tenkou has right now, and I started writing this fanfiction before Kishimoto had even introduced Sai so I ask that you try not to draw parallels but it's fine that you do. Maybe, I'll do that myself… Has Sasuke met Tenkou before? That I can't answer because that'll reveal things about the plot… oops…
DONE!
Thank you to all my reviewers for their support and their feedback. Your feedback makes me feel all the better about getting back to this story since I'm so distracted by other things in life. I want to repeat this: NO PAIRINGS! I don't do pairings; I can't do pairings, thus no YAOI OR YURI OR WHATEVER! Romance isn't my thing to write, so I don't think I can write it to save my life.
I've been saying that the chapters haven't beta'd and I've been getting offers for betas but I decided that I'm not going to have people beta my work. It'll get too troublesome, and I'm sure that everyone wants these chapters as soon as I finish them, so I'm going to have to ask that people stop offering. I'm only writing that the chapters haven't been beta'd to tell you that grammar and spelling aren't all perfect.
I mentioned earlier in a response that I usually put up a preview of POVs in the author's note; well, I haven't planned out POVs yet, so you're going to have to speculate and wait for the next chapter!
If you have any questions or concerns that you need me to address immediately, just email me or send a review (which I really want by the way) and I'll try to respond as quick as I can. Just to let you know, I'll probably address all questions in my author's notes or in the story itself, so don't worry too much about some things. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!
REVIEW!