A/N: I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed with this chapter but anyway... I'll get on with it now.
The sounds of the city bombarded his hearing and the smell of a nearby sewer filtered into his senses. He was standing in a narrow alleyway that seemed oddly familiar as though he had been this way once before. Silhouetted against the lights of the city at the end of the alley was a retreating figure. Naruto stepped forward in a trance, instinctively following the man who's long coat flared in his wake. He walked a little way behind the man, tempted to call out but unable to speak. The mysterious figure walked briskly along the city streets as cars streaked by with their headlights glaring unsympathetically at Naruto. He was insanely curious as to the identity of this mysterious stranger but all he could do was hurry along behind him blending into the crowd to avoid discovery.
They turned down a small road that may have been a wide alley. At the end the man stopped, Naruto instinctively threw himself behind a dustbin so he wouldn't be seen. He wasn't quite sure why he was hiding but he knew he'd be in trouble if he was caught. After a moment though Naruto's curiosity got the better of him and he chanced a glance around the edge of the bin. He was sure the man had been checking for followers but he wasn't anymore. He was leaning against the wall with his eyes trained on the night sky stained by light pollution. His pale face was lit by the harsh lights of the city which glittered in his black eyes. Naruto wondered what he was looking at but it didn't seem to be anything in particular. As Naruto watched the young man took a deep breath and pushed away from the wall.
Naruto followed him out of the sheltered alley and onto the street. Across the road was a nightclub with a number of extremely dressed club goers outside. The neon sign read 'Gin no Daiyamondo' which for some strange reason made Naruto want to smile; the name 'Silver's Diamond' had secret connotations. He looked around for the man he had been following and felt his heart give an unhealthy jolt when he saw the man standing next to him.
The stranger sneered, "Naruto..."
Naruto backed away suddenly remembering why he didn't want to be seen; he was going to get shocked again!
"Naruto!"
But how did he know Naruto's name?
"Naruto! Get the hell up!"
Naruto sat bolt upright. "Eh? What?!" he shouted in confusion.
"Hn, you're such a heavy sleeper," muttered Sasuke, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, mornin' bastard."
"It's night time," said Sasuke snidely.
"Shut up, Suigetsu said you people call it morning anyway."
"Whatever. Get up, get dressed, Tsunade wants to see you down in the arena."
Naruto jumped out of bed. "What? Why?" he asked, fearing he'd done something wrong.
"I had to tell her your power had come out. I did tell her last night but she was a bit drunk and it appears she's only just remembered."
"Right..." Sasuke was about to leave again when Naruto's dream came back to him. "Hey, Sas?"
Sasuke huffed at his name being shortened again. "What?"
"That night we met... You know how I followed you back here."
"Yes," said Sasuke tersely.
"Why didn't you sense me? I mean with your sixth sense, you should've known I was there..."
"Hn." Sasuke crossed his arms in an unconsciously protective gesture. "I wasn't really myself that night," he said cryptically.
"What does that mean?" pushed Naruto.
Sasuke shifted his weight to his other foot. "I was... considering running away again."
Naruto thought about the Sasuke in his dream, the thoughtful look he'd had as he gazed almost longingly at the night sky. "Why would you run away?"
Sasuke glared this time. It was clear his patience was wearing thin but he decided to answer anyway. "It was the anniversary of my clan's death and Tsunade refused to let me visit their graves again."
"Oh... but why wouldn't she let you?"
"She used to let me visit, never alone mind. But a few years ago the demons realised what we were doing and staged an ambush. We all escaped alright but Tsunade deemed that it would be too dangerous to continue."
"They'd even attack you at your parent graves?" asked Naruto, appalled.
"You need to realise, Naruto, that they aren't human. They don't care for human emotions or rather they see them as our weakness and enjoy exploiting them. It's how they work and until you understand that you'll find it impossible to take their lives. Get ready quickly and meet me at the arena. No breakfast."
"Bastard," muttered Naruto as the bedroom door closed behind Sasuke.
Ten minutes later Naruto arrived to find Sasuke, Tsunade and Neji waiting for him. Sasuke seemed to have been explaining exactly what he had witnessed last night.
"Ah Naruto, glad you could finally join us," said Tsunade. "I hear your power emerged last night. It's a shame I couldn't see it immediately but I was a little busy and I'm sure Sasuke took good care of you. Anyway I want you to show me what you can do so far. Neji's going to observe the movement of your magick, you might find his input useful."
Naruto gulped. "Well I don't really know how to use it yet, it sort of just happened by accident."
"Of course, it's always an accident at first. You need to remember how you were feeling at the time and simulate that. The first time you use magick it will be unconscious what comes next is finding a conscious trigger that will allow you to control it."
Naruto nodded and thought back to the moment when he had split bodies. He had wanted to go both left and right at the same time so maybe if he tried that now... Naruto concentrated hard on looking both left and right but nothing happened. He was acutely aware of Neji's pale eyes looking right through him.
"It's okay, just relax," said Tsunade as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
"What are you visualising?" asked Neji.
"Erm... looking both left and right at the same time."
"Hmm, when you were concentrating your magick was swirling quite rapidly at the centre of your body. Maybe if you try separating it, in one great rush so that it goes in opposite directions?"
"Right..." said Naruto nodding slowing.
He didn't know how he was supposed to do that if he couldn't feel his own magick but he closed his eyes and began to concentrate anyway. He wasn't sure how long he stood there but as he pulled his attention from the room to the inside of his own body he became less aware of his spectators. It was a similar feeling to that he got when he meditated as Sasuke had taught him. He thought about separating his magick as Neji had said and though he wasn't exactly aware of his magick he thought he felt something shift in the pattern of his body.
Naruto tried again to emulate that feeling but on a greater scale and gradually he felt a pull as though he was being stretched in two directions. But every time he reached the limit of his elasticity he was pulled back into one big swirling mass. He pulled harder and this time when he reached his limit he imagined that a sword cut him in half. A great relief hit him and Naruto opened his eyes to find himself looking at another Naruto.
"Brilliant!" exclaimed Tsunade.
"Which of you is consciously Naruto?" asked Sasuke.
"Me," replied the right hand Naruto.
"At least I think so..." said the left hand Naruto.
"Look in opposite directions," said Sasuke.
Once the two Naruto's had turned to face opposite walls Sasuke walked in front of the left Naruto.
"Naruto, do you see me?" he asked.
"No," answered the right hand Naruto.
"Oh, hang on a sec, yeah I do! I can see you now, Sasuke," said the left one.
"Thought so, you switched bodies because you were trying to see me. Now try not to switch again."
Naruto nodded and concentrated on looking at Sasuke.
"So when you think about seeing what the second you sees, you switch," said Tsunade's voice from behind him.
"Yea-" As soon as Naruto opened his mouth to answer he found himself looking at Tsunade. "Oops I switched again." Naruto concentrated on the thought of Sasuke and found himself looking at Sasuke again. "Back again! I think I'm getting the hang of this!" he said excitedly.
"How did you reattach last time?" asked Neji and Naruto switched again without thinking.
"I don't know I just remember a sort of tugging feeling and then I was stumbling backwards..."
"But your conscious mind was with me in one body so you couldn't have known what the other you was doing," pointed out Sasuke and Naruto's conscious switched to look at him.
"But I remember it," protested Naruto.
"What if," Naruto switched again to see Neji. "When you reconnected, your memories from both versions of you merged?" suggested Neji.
"That could be right."
Suddenly Naruto was looking at Sasuke again.
"Did you have any control over the reattachment?" asked Tsunade. Naruto switched again.
"Nope. But I'm starting to get a headache again," said Naruto raising a hand to his temple his vision was beginning to blur.
"Are you switching?" asked Sasuke and Naruto could see his blurred features.
"Yeah."
"Try and stop," suggested Sasuke, his voice sounding distant and echoing
"I don't think I can." Naruto found himself looking at Tsunade and Neji for no particular reason. "It was like this last time," He switched again. "I couldn't," Switch, "Control it!"
Both Naruto's cursed at almost the same time and clutched at their heads, the pain was getting more and more persistent and Naruto's vision was swimming dangerously.
"Calm down," said Sasuke stepping up to one of the Naruto's and gripping his shoulders, whilst Neji supported the other one. "Concentrate on staying here, with me."
Naruto managed to nod. He took a few calming breaths and Sasuke's face began to come back into focus.
"Can you reconnect with you other body?"
Naruto didn't feel capable of speech so he just shook his head.
"Imagine it's connected to you by a string and try tugging on the thread," suggested Neji.
Naruto took a shuddering breath and drew strength from Sasuke's steady grip on his shoulders. He tried imagining what Neji had said and found he could almost see a thin silver thread in his minds eye connecting his two bodies. He concentrated on dragging his other body towards himself by that thread and the next second his headache seemed to double.
Sasuke supported him as Naruto's legs gave way. The Uchiha lowered him to the ground and Naruto knelt with his head spinning. After a moment it lessened and he looked up to see Neji looking bewildered and rubbing his hand.
"You were intangible," he muttered. "The other you reached out and as soon as his hand touched your back my hand went right through him."
"Interesting... that could be useful," said Tsunade. "How are you feeling?"
"Okay, at least I didn't pass out this time," said Naruto feeling heartily glad he had managed to avoid the embarrassment.
"Hmm... So it's exhausting, but you may be able to build an immunity to that effect. The first time you did it you were dragged back together after a certain amount of time, you can probably extend that time by practicing. But your main problem is controlling the switching between bodies, I think that is also going to be a case of practice makes perfect. Overall though, a good start. This power looks to have a lot of potential," summarised Tsunade. "I suggest you go and get some breakfast in you. I need to be getting back to work, Kakashi should be here soon with some information from his partner on police activities. That is providing he's not late again."
Tsunade left and Neji said he was going to find Shikamaru and see if he fancied going hunting leaving Naruto and Sasuke in the empty arena. Naruto stood up properly and stretched his tired muscles.
"Lovely start to the day," he said sarcastically.
"Plenty more of that to come. I did advise you to enjoy the time you had without your powers."
"Ouch!" cried Naruto clutching at his heart in mock agony. "You hit me with the fatal 'I told you so' blow, how will I ever recover?"
"I'm sure you'll survive," replied Sasuke, rolling his eyes.
Naruto laughed happily and glanced around the cavernous room. "Ne, Sasuke, I've been wondering... how the hell do you all live down here?"
"What are you getting at?"
"I mean, water and electricity bills I suppose can be sent to the club up there but what about oxygen? Does it get pumped in from somewhere 'cause I never see any vents," said Naruto gesturing to the solid brick walls.
Sasuke stared at him for a moment. "I must say I didn't ever expect to hear such sensible questions coming from you, Naruto."
"Bastard, I'm going to take that as a compliment."
"It wasn't one. But your answer is hanging directly above us."
Naruto looked up and the pale flames above them. "Er Sasuke, I was never very good at science in high school but even I know fire burns oxygen."
"Does that look like normal fire to you? Look closely and you'll see a branch burning within it."
Naruto squinted at the flames and sure enough there was a branch but it wasn't brown anymore, it was white.
"We call it witchfire. It's a pretty simple spell and probably the most commonly used one today in a time when many of the old spells have been lost. Witchfire uses carbon dioxide and produces oxygen, like a tree."
Naruto looked from the 'witchfire' to Sasuke. "Everything really is backwards here, isn't it?"
"Not everything."
A/N: Sorry I had rather a lot of explaining to do with this chapter. I promise it's going to start speeding up soon though.
-Yasu