Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (that's a given) nor am I making any profit from this (it's on fanfiction).

Chapter 1: Into the Portal, Out of the Fire

I was going through the Portal. The Portal was similar to a tunnel in a way. It was a straight path, without any other paths branching off the main way. For this, I was relieved. If I had to pick the ways to go while in the Portal, I would probably get lost and never find my way to my proper destination. At least, I hoped I was going to my proper destination…well, as long as it was not leading me to back Makai, I would be happy.

Strange purplish lights floated around me. I hoped that was normal. The scroll did not detail what happened in the Portal. I could only hope I was doing it right. If not, well…it was already a dangerous situation, and I knew what I was getting to. If I was doing something wrong…I would not be able to do anything about it. I resolved not to think of the scenario of me messing up in some way. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. So I put my mind to other matters. What was I to do when I was out of the Portal and into a different world? I had already resolved to explore that new world, but what if I ran into a dangerous situation? If that happened, I would just have to deal with it, I guessed. I could take care of myself, so I was confident that I could defend myself against any unexpected foes, if it was necessary.

I had done a little research on the world that I was going to. Unfortunately, there wasn't really much information on that world, but what little information there was I knew. Humans were the most advanced creatures that inhabited that world, and it was not exactly a peaceful world. I had a scroll that had a drawing of a human, so at least I knew what they looked like. I knew that much. There were nations controlled by various humans. I knew that too. I also knew words for the things in that world that we did not have in Makai, but other than that, I did not know much else. On top of that, my information sources were old…and that world could have changed. So all my information could possibly be useless.

That was fine. I wanted to learn about that world anyway, not hear about it or read about it, but see it for myself. Now that I thought about it…I did not even know that world's name. Or at least the humans' name for it. I would have to find that out. I resolved to do so.

While I had been thinking, I had also been flying through the Portal. I could now see the end of it. I could see the bright light at the end of the tunnel-like Portal. I steeled myself. No turning back now, I thought to myself. And I flew through to the world beyond.

I was here. Out of the Portal. And into a new world. The Portal closed behind me. I barely noticed in my excitement. I let out an ear-splitting shriek, also in my excitement, before I thought to check myself for any injuries. I could have lost something in the Portal. I stretched out my wings. Two fiery-looking feathered wings extended from my body. They were fine, I noted, giving two powerful flaps. Then I checked my feet. Two red-colored talon feet were supporting my similarly red and but also gold colored body, so that was fine. My eyesight was fine, and so was my beak. I twisted my head around in the way that only birds could manage and noted that my tail was fine. It would not have done to be a tailless phoenix. That would be quite…humiliating. I had not lost any important parts of myself because of crossing the Portal.

I looked at the world. I was in a place full of tall brown and green…things. What were they suppose to be? I wracked my brain for the name of those…things. Then I remembered. Trees. So if I am in a place with a lot of those things…trees, this place must be a forest I deduced. It was a very beautiful place. Better the seemingly endless but colorful monotony of green and brown trees than the boring monotony of Makai, I thought. Besides, I was sure that there were more than just forests in this world.

After comparing myself to one of the trees, I could see I was about the same height. I was not a particularly large bird, I was actually quite…small for my kind. That was due to my young age. I hoped that when I was older, I would grow. I always felt…too small…when compared to others in my family. At least in this world, I was as big as the tallest thing that I could see.

In the forest, I could hear the scuttling of the many creatures that inhabit this world. They were all running away from me. That made sense, I was a large creature, at least in their world, and I had made quite a disturbance with the shriek that I could not have helped but let out when I made it here. That shriek probably had also drawn the attention of the people who lived here, humans, I am sure they were called.

I decided to explore the forest around me before flying off to see the rest of the place. First things first, and since I was already in the forest, why not? It was a dense forest and I was too large to maneuver correctly. I would have to shrink myself. I hated to shrink myself because in Makai, I was already the smallest, so why bother? But I did have the ability to do so. When you are a bird of my race, shrinking yourself is useful because not all places have the ability, or rather, the capacity, to fit you.

I shrunk myself. Comparing myself to the trees again, I was now only an eighth of their size. Since the trees were around 40 feet (around12 meters), I was now only 5 feet, (close to 1.5 meters) tall. I felt really small. I felt tiny. I was definitely not suppose to be this small. I have not been this small since…a really long time. As in since I was an egg. At least now I could maneuver myself around the trees.

I started to do so. I went, walking around the trees, exploring. I noticed that not all the….vegetation were trees, there were some really short ones too. They did not have any brown color on them, but were only colored green. I continued to search around. I noticed the birds here are really small. I already felt small, but I was huge compared to them. The creatures, the ones that I saw at least, here were all small really. In comparison to Makai, all the creatures here, compared to their look-a-likes in Makai, were only a fraction of the size.

I had also yet to meet any humans. I guessed that they did not live in forests though, so that might be the answer. I really wanted to meet one, at least. According to my information, they were sentient, and could think for themselves and talk. I wanted to talk to one. But now that I thought about it…did we even speak the same language? I did not know. Probably…or probably not. There were a lot of languages spoken in Makai, taken from or based on different worlds and their people here and there. Maybe one of the languages used in Makai came from here? I hoped so. I would not be able to speak to these humans otherwise. Or at least, I would have to learn their language. Now how would I do that? I would though, if I needed to. I had all the time in the world.

As I continued my little trek through the green, green, and more green of the forest, I decided to get off the ground and see what was on the trees. Once I decided that, I flew up and alighted on one of the branches of a nearby tree. From there, I had a better view of the place. There were really a lot of trees here. It looked endless from up here on my perch, more so then it had looked like from the ground.

From here, I could also hear the sounds of metal striking metal. Did those sounds belong naturally in the forest? I did not know, so I set to find out. I headed in the direction of the noisy disturbance, gliding from branch to branch, closer and closer. Soon, I could see what was happening. And I saw my first humans.

Author's Note: Chapter 1 is finished! Nest chapter is where the Phoenix will meet the characters of Naruto.