So I couldn't leave the story alone, so I decided to update.
Tatamae
2010-05-17 . chapter 1
The introduction was strong and as it progressed to the end it became weaker. To clarify, everything became rushed and shallow at the end. Just Naruto smirking at everything while there was little deviation to anything.
Bear in mind that certain things have to happen for important events that do take place in the book(s). Plus deviations is good, but I don't want to change too much, I love the book setting myself, so I wouldn't change it too much. Also keep in mind that even though it's third person, this is from Naruto's PoV, if that makes sense. He doesn't view conversation and time relevant, unless it affects him, which it hasn't for a long time. At the smirking, well, he is amused. He has been so alone for so long he has almost forgotten how to have fun, how to laugh. So he smirks because he finds all mortal drama amusing.
Here's the story, enjoy:
Naruto pretended to sleep, as he played a game with the Child of Light.
'Go fish'
'Liar, you have a 6.'
'Go fish'
Naruto could feel the Child of Light pick up the imaginary card from the imaginary deck. They shared a plane of existence in Naruto's head. Naruto smirked at the Child.
Naruto stopped in thought, he had been more cynical then usual since they started this silly quest. He decided he didn't care. He could act all sweet and dumb, but that wasn't him.
That wasn't the all powerful god that spent incalculable eons in darkness. His spirit and good cheer decaying slowly.
Naruto walked down Memory Lane.
Yes, an actual place inside his head.
He saw the many happy times he had with his….. friends.
It took a lot of courage and endurance to say friends anymore.
He saw the time at a festival in Konoha where he had taken a picture with all the females he had known around him. The blush on his face had caused all of them to giggle. There was a barely perceived sadness in their eyes, at the fact he was shy at the festival that celebrated the Konoha Nin. That was the first time they had truly seen a Shy Naruto.
There was another where he had sparred with the guys and emerged Victorious.
He stood on a tall pile of them. His hands on his hips and striking a heroic pose, his face looking up with his blond hair flowing behind him.
His smile had struck everyone there. It was the first time they had seen a happy Naruto. Not giddy, not mischievous, not cheeky, but happy.
That had also been the first time they truly believed he would be Hokage. The nin that could utilise the Yondaime Hokage's techniques like that deserved it.
There were also some not so happy times he had with his enemies.
Flashback
"You will never control all the Bijuu you fool." Hacked Naruto from a tether of chakra leading towards a monstrous statue.
Madara glared insanely at Naruto, "I will take the combined might of the Bijuu and make my dream of the Gedo Maze a reality. There is nothing you can do about it."
Naruto sensed the Nin that were closing into his position. He was the leader of the United Hidden Villages. The Hokage, Tsuchikage, Mizukage, Kazekage, and the Raikage were leading over a thousand strong nin to rescue the last Jinchuuriki.
Naruto sighed as he lost consciousness as a single tear slid its way past his closed eyelids.
Naruto looked up as he entered his Mindscape to the malicious eyes of his tenant.
The vermillion eyes of the nine tailed demon bore down onto Naruto's soul.
"Help me."
The demon grinned in sadistic pleasure.
"Nothing can help you, all will die this day. The amount of power that will be fused and then unleashed will destroy this world. Especially those you hold dear. Eventually it will destroy this universe."
The eyes of the demon lit up in evil joy.
"I have won, Yondaime."
Its booming laughter shook Naruto to his soul.
"I think not demon."
The strong voice echoed in the mind of a broken man.
Naruto turned around to see a figure shrouded in a white robe. His curly blond hair was beautiful as it fell down his shoulders. His warm blue eyes glinted as he stared at the demon kept at bay by a single tag of paper.
Did I forget to mention the glowing aura that emanated from the figure?
The glow lit the blackness of the cage.
"The universe is too important to be destroyed by a Demonic God's power. I will intervene, and there is nothing you can do."
The demon's eyes went flat with rage. It raged, but there was no sound. As if… as if he had been silenced by the presence of the figure.
"Who are you? What are you doing?" Naruto asked fearfully. To be able to deny Kyuubi something it wanted required power beyond his comprehension.
"I am infusing the power of the Juubi into you instead of allowing it to be contained in that statue. As for who I am…" here he smiled, "I'm a friend, a friend through time. I am sorry, but this world will end, it has to for the universe to survive."
The figured disappeared with a flash of light before he could hear the agonized scream of a lonely man.
Naruto noticed that the figure had a slightly small blue stone around his neck in the shape of a tear, mounted on a golden chain.
Flashback end
That day, his world had ended. His fr…. His friends had died, his loved ones lost, his dreams and hopes shattered.
That was the day his soul had blackened.
That was the day he descended into insanity and started to hate everything, especially the so called friend who sacrificed his world for the rest of the insignificant planets.
He shook himself as he saw the absence of the Child of Light.
Even though the screams of his family still sounded in his mind, it gave him peace to know that this time, it will be prevented.
Provided he got close enough to anyone to count them as family.
He sighed at disappearance the Child of Light, no doubt to meddle in someone else's life.
"I pity the fool who crosses him or the Child of Dark. Though if I wonder who would win between the three of us, if it were to come to a fight."
Naruto pondered that thought, before a particularly hard bump from the real world jolted him to awareness.
Trees faded into view as Naruto opened his eyes.
He shook off the ghost of his past, and started to yawn, deciding to return to 'sleep'.
Not that he needed sleep, or food or drink at that. He just didn't want to deal with anything for awhile.
As he drifted he thought about the few friends he had made at Faldor's farm, he felt a brief melancholy pang in his heart, but decided to visit sometime. He closed his eyes as he ran through technique after technique of combat expertise he had witness in the multiverse. He could manage to do them all, though when and how to use them were harder, as there was never a situation to demand him to perform the attack or technique.
'Ah well, we will see when the time comes, if I can pull off the moves I need.'
His last thought was the screams of his dead family, and how he wouldn't let that happen to the family he may have in the future.
It was the change in sound that awoke him.
The soft thud of horse hooves changed into clacking. Telling Naruto that they had entered a town or village with a stone road. The alleys and roads were tight; the wagons barely fitting through the nameless villages, the walls of the houses so close Naruto could reach out and touch them. It wasn't long before they exited the village.
Naruto looked ahead discreetly to see the giant – whose name is Barak talking politely to Durnik. The rat-faced man – Silk is his name – taking the lead, watching out for danger.
Naruto decided to listen in on Polgara and Belgarath. He needed to know where they were going in case he had to act on their behalf.
"What if it hasn't passed through Darine?" Pol asked Belgarath.
"Don't start with the 'what ifs'" Belgarath said, irritated. "If we sit around talking and discussing about it, we'll never catch him."
"I was merely asking." Pol said.
"If he hasn't gone through Darine, we'll turn south – to Murgos. He may have joined a caravan there to take the the Great North Road to Boktor."
"And if he hasn't gone through Muros?"
"Then we go to Camaar."
"And then?"
"We'll see at Camaar." His tone final and sharp, closing the subject.
Polgara seemed to draw herself up, while inhaling a lungful no doubt to deliver some rebuttal, but appeared to think better of it and fell silent.
To the east, ahead of them, the faint colour of the dawning light brushed against the low and murky clouds, and they moved on through the tattered, windswept end of the long night in their quest for the Orb of a God.
Naruto sighed, Gods and their silly inventions, nothing is ever easy. As an, old wizard once said a long time ago.
Naruto went back to sleep.
Four Days Later:
Four days, it had taken them four long days to get to Darine. Naruto slept most of the time, leaving the cleaning and chores to the other men. Polgara's sharp eyes eyed his sleeping form on the wagon. Belgarath – or Old Wolf, as she called him, said to leave him alone.
"I'd be tired too, if I was his age. It's a natural process that all boys go through on their way to manhood."
Of course Naruto's ridiculous size somewhat nullified this statement.
The first day was good, even though it was windy and cold; the roads were good for travelling.
They passed various farms and villagers, the farmers stopping in their work to observe them pass, some waved and some did not.
The villagers they passed through observed in dull interest, but when they saw that they were not stopping, they merely turned back to their business. The children of the villages run up in excitement wanting to climb aboard, luckily they were pulled away by their parents before they could get on.
As afternoon of that first day lowered towards evening, Silk lead them into a small grove of trees at the roadside, and they made preparations for the night. They ate the last of the food Belgarath had filched from Faldor's pantry. After the inadequate dinner, they spread their blankets on the ground to sleep.
Naruto had climbed back into the wagon and slept on the bags of turnips that filled it to the rim, it acted as a semi soft mattress.
His mind soon wandered and teetered between waking and dreaming. Memories passing before his eyes.
He blushed as Iruka held the camera, he was in his finest clothes, a dark orange kimono with blue and black whirlpool motifs on the back and around the waist. His black shinobi pants had been traded in for blue fitting pants that had black and orange wind motifs on the left leg pant. His normally messy hair had been combed and oiled into a flowing hair style down his back, though it retained its spiky-ness. His face had become more angular and hard with the passing years, so he was quiet a sight to see. The girls had to repress their own blush with a firm hand, though the thought lingered. The girls around him giggled at his blush. It was almost strange to hear some of the more hardened kunoichi giggle, like Anko and Tsunade. It seemed a bit more natural for Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Ayame, Temari and Kurenai to giggle. It suited their sometimes open personality. The camera flashed just as the fireworks went off in the background, giving the picture a very surreal look. Naruto had glanced up from his blushing at the flash and it had given him a shy and happy look that rarely showed on his handsome face. The surrounding nin didn't miss the significance of that.
He shook with sadness at the memory.
Dodge, parry, riptose, dodge, dodge, parry, counter attack.
An endless pattern had formed from the all on all fight with his male friends, while the girls stood on the side as the Medic Nin in case it got out of hand.
Though to be fair, they all thought to gang up on Naruto. Not out of any negative feelings, but out of self preservation.
They were right.
Naruto was a monster, having truly trained under Jiraiya and having changed in both smarts and skill. This put him as the strongest nin in the village.
His speed caught them off guard, with Chouji and Lee being taken out before they could react.
His strength forced Shikamaru to retract his shadow, because if he used it any longer, it would be him that danced to Naruto's musings. Because his shadow was a two way street, but usually his chakra overpowered anyone else.
Neji came in with Jyuken, weaving complex and lethal combinations of attacks. Naruto danced out of reach and started to fire off weak ninjutsu.
Of course he doesn't realize that B-rank ninjutsu wasn't weak.
As the dust settled, Chouji, Lee, Shikamaru, Neji, Shino and Kiba were down for the count.
Only Sasuke remained.
Fin:
Sasuke is back?
Wtf?
Anyway, til next time.
PN out.