The Legend of Zelda is owned by Nintendo.

Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto.

Evil's Bane

Chapter Two: Reaction

By I.K.A. Valian

The ninja of Konohagakure converged on the epicenter of the explosion. The Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, arrived in short order and quickly began to assess the situation. The Chief of Konoha Military Police, Uchiha Fugaku, arrived shortly after that.

With a nod to Fugaku, the Third Hokage turned and began to walk around the wreckage, inspecting the damage. Fugaku took the nod as a sign to take charge. It grated on the Uchiha's nerves that the Hokage would stay here to do what was really the job of the MP, but upon further thought, the Hokage had survived three Shinobi Wars. Any insight the old leader could grant from personally inspecting would certainly not hurt the investigation at all.

And he did give Fugaku the green light to lead the investigation instead of one of his own ANBU or the Jounin Commander. It was enough to make barking orders at that forsaken hour of the night (or was it morning) worth it. He quickly set his MP onto the scene. They cordoned off the area, collected evidence, and interviewed everyone who might have been a first person witness.

Sometimes he hated this village for what it did to his clan. Attempting to appease the Uchiha by giving them the fake 'responsibility' to protect the village was a badly veiled insult. Separating the clan from the rest of the village like they were in some kind of quarantine was a blatant insult. Despite these things, Fugaku was not above giving the Nidaime Hokage credit for recognizing that Uchiha would be the best investigative force Konoha would ever muster. Better than those damn Hyuuga, at any rate.

Every member of the MP investigating the scene had their Sharingan activated. To even become a field investigator you had to have achieved a full three tomoe in each eye. No detail escaped the eyes of an Uchiha, and before long, they would have the answers to what happened this night.

The investigation continued long into the afternoon of the next day.

The Third Hokage took a puff from his pipe as he stood in his office. The windows had already been replaced and they were much cleaner than the old ones. He was taking advantage of the newfound clarity by staring out over the damage that had been caused the night before. The damage hadn't appeared so bad until the sun had come up. Now the extent of it was laid bare. Behind him stood one ninja, wearing a mask with the facial markings of a dog's snout, and the standard black and grey uniform of the ANBU.

"He's not in the village anymore," the Hokage said. "If he were, I'd be able to find him in my crystal ball. Its range is limited, unfortunately, and the only thing I can do to help you is point you to the south. I'm sure your Ninken can find his scent and pick up his trail. Go quickly, before anyone is the wiser. I would be relieved if this was just some sick prank." Immediately the Hokage's mind cast to the explosion.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the masked ninja said. He bowed at the waist and vanished in a small puff of smoke.

"Where are you Naruto?" The Hokage asked as he surveyed the village.

The Hokage had decided that until the Military Police finished their investigation, the Village would go into high alert. It was possible, all things considered, that the person who had attacked the village would come back to take another whack. It was also possible that they were still in the village. In either case, the increased security level meant constant rotating wall patrols of teams of three Chunin to Jounin. Whoever had set off the explosion would not be getting back in or out of the village unnoticed.

The only folks capable of getting in or out would be someone with the proper papers to allow travel. At this point in time no one had those. When 'Dog' followed Uzumaki Naruto's most fresh scent trail straight into the epicenter of the explosion, he found himself in need of getting out.

It was logical to assume that if Naruto really was present for the explosion, then he was thrown clear of the area by the blast. Due to how large that explosion was, it was unlikely that he survived. However, the blast zone was completely free of a large spread of Naruto's scent. This meant the boy likely left the area in one piece, instead of pieces.

Even Pakkun couldn't find any pieces of him, though he did find a mangle corpse blackened to well done by the explosion. After flagging the find for the MP to look into later, Dog left the area. He ran all the way to the top of the Hokage Mountain and looked out over the village.

From this vantage point, Dog could see the entirety of the damage. Judging from where he found Naruto's scent ended, where the blast originated, and calculating the force and resulting trajectory of any object (roughly equal to Naruto in weight) propelled away from the blast zone, Dog traced his finger up and away from the epicenter of the explosion, up into the air, over the wall, and deep into the forest.

"No wonder Hokage-sama couldn't find him," Dog muttered to himself. Seconds later, the only trace that Dog had even been standing there was a small swirl of dust and leaves.

Naruto awoke with a start and a deep gasp of fresh air. He bolted upright and onto his feet. His heart was pounding in his ears and a cold sweat breaking out over his whole body. He quickly looked about the small clearing he was in, looked for the perceived threats, and found only trees, grass, shrubbery, and bugs.

The wind gently rustled the leaves overhead. The insects filled in the background with small chirps, pops, and snaps. The sun, directly overhead, cast no shadows in the clearing except for at the edges where the tree canopy started.

Slowly calming back to normal, Naruto felt the desperate fear to run leave him and slumped to the ground. "What the heck was that?" he wearily asked himself. "Someone blew up that building and killed a ninja. Well, I didn't kill the ninja or blow up the building, but I wonder if the building was set to explode when I started my prank." Naruto's lips curled into a snarl and his eyes reflected a depth of pain no eight year old should bear. "That old hag tried to kill me!"

His voice echoed for several seconds before the forest quiet encroached on the clearing once more. Naruto rubbed his face in his hands and groaned. "I can't believe that she actually tried to blow me up with her own building. Stupid hag. Now she's got no building and I'm still not dead. Heh, serves her right for trying to kill me. Stupid old hag. Should have brought more paint."

Naruto grunted as he got back to his feet and took a deep breath. "I wonder where I am. I've never been to this part of the forest before. Heck, I've never been allowed outside the walls before. How did I even get here, anyway?" Naruto mumbled out the last part as he slowly turned around on the spot and surveyed the clearing.

Eventually, Naruto spotted the small crater that he'd woken up next to. What caught his eyes wasn't the gouge in the earth, but the object that was now stuck into slightly upraised portion of dirt at the center of the crater. Almost as if the earth had given it a pedestal to be stuck into, a sword now stuck vertically out of the ground.

"Woah!" Naruto shouted as he ran up to the crater's edge. He hopped off of the edge and into the deeper area and moved closer to the blade. "This is so cool! I've never seen a sword like this!"

The blade was white, or it appears so in the noon sunlight. It had a double edge blade, unlike any other sword Naruto had seen, all of which only had one edge. This sword looked more like a kunai in that respect than a sword. But he had no doubt it was a sword, because of how long it was. Near the hilt, the sharp edge of the blade tapered off into a thinner, but no less thick, span of metal that reached up to the hilt. Engraved upon the blade was a small symbol of three triangles.

The hilt was blue with a yellow jewel situated like an eye at the center of the hilt where the blade met the hilt. The cross-guard lifted up and away from the blade and then back down and out, like a pair of blue wings spread out, ready to take flight. The grip was smooth, and a lighter shade of blue, with a series of criss-crossing green, ribbon like markings stretching across its length.

The sword as a whole veritably thrummed with power. Even standing in its presence filled Naruto with a sense of awe and wonder. And like any other child, Naruto was drawn to such a thing like a ninja to a forbidden secret.

At the exact moment Naruto's hand grasped the grip, Dog burst from the tree canopy. Dog's arms wrapped around Naruto's waist, just as Naruto lifted up. Both vanished into a column of blue light that became thinner and thinner until it vanished.

A/N: Here be Chapter 2 of the Naruto/Legend of Zelda crossover. Seems on the surface to be turning out like Naruto is the next Hero. Well, we all know ninja are exactly what they appear on the surface, aren't they?

Have thoughts/idea/questions? Let me know in a review!

~I.K.A. Valian