ATTENTION, ATTENTION!
This is not a normal chapter! I posted three chapters at once because none of them belong to this story directly! These are the beginnings to the sequels I talked about like, in February, I think?
So, why do I post those? Because I am officially setting this fic under construction for the foreseeable future. I'll stop posting on this one for a while, until I get it to a state that I can comfortably reread it without pulling my hair out. It may take a bit. (It's mostly grammar bits.)
Which means, as a consolation, you get these first chapters. More or less proof that I won't abandon this fic, if purely so that I can start writing the sequels.
Spoilers should be relatively minimal. Like, it should be no surprise that there won't be any big character deaths or anything.
The first one, the DC one, I'd recommend you read first. It is the saddest though. The second one is a Naruto one. I wrote it before and totally separate from my other story (Of Seals, Traitors and the Pursuit of Safety) but the parallels are definitely there, and it was kind of fun to compare. Third one is Harry Potter. So, all pretty much classic fandoms. I am a basic bitch that way, lol.
If none of these are your thing, welp, sorry.
Chapter 1: Of New Beginnings, the Theory of Chakra and Finding Family
Waking up, I blinked at the blue sky above me. The sun was shining, a warm breeze rustling the leaves above my head. Groggy from my nap, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.
There were numerous things wrong with my situation.
I had gone to sleep in a cabin in the mountains in the middle of winter, for once. I didn't even need to look down, I could already feel that I wasn't wearing my pjs.
I sighed. No use crying about it.
I sat up and took in my surroundings. I was in the middle of a clearing in a forest. What disturbed me though, was that I could feel energy in the air and all around me. You know, the kind of energy sorcerers used. The kind they drew from other dimensions.
Which meant I was at least in another dimension. Or a different universe altogether.
Well, it had been a good run.
I had long since outlived most of my friends anyway. At around 2020 did I notice that I looked the same as ten years previously. While I never quite got my answers, my guess was that it was Ree's fault. The ring was a magical artefact. It drew on energy from another universe, to do that it needed a fitting conduit – me.
That was the reason why I got tired if I used the ring too much, my body had to handle all that energy going through me. On the flipside, the same energy was responsible for keeping my body in an ideal condition. It took care of ageing, diseases and injuries.
Before I went around trying to find out where and when I had landed, I checked if I could still access my little pocket dimension. And I could! Did take a lot more effort though.
Relieved, I dressed myself. Teal shirt, bleached jeans and teal shoes. You would think that color would start to annoy me after decades. You would be wrong.
Taking out a brush, I took care of my hair. It had grown quite a bit over the years. At first, I just forgot to go to the hairdresser, but after a while it felt just familiar and as I semi-retired as a Hero it wasn't in the way either. With practiced ease my hair was braided into a simple plait that reached nearly down to my thighs.
Maybe I should cut it again.
Anyway.
I nodded to myself and put my game face on. Time to look around.
Immediately my stomach began to complain. Sighing, I kicked off the ground.
I should have eaten more yesterday evening.
Flying in my civvies felt weird, but also weirdly freeing. More like fun and less like work.
When I was a good dozen or so meters above the treetops, I hovered, turning around myself to spot some sign of life on the horizon. Ree couldn't detect any satellites or any kind of long-distance communication system.
So not any kind of modern society then. There was chance that the people here used the inherent magic here for communication, Ree wouldn't be able to tap into that reliably.
All I could see around me was trees that ultimately ended in a beach and a lot of ocean.
For a split second I even feared that I had landed on a planet completely uninhabited by intelligent life, which would have been awfully boring. Then I saw some sort of settlement near a coast.
I let out a breath of relief. It seemed the forest had just hidden the roads.
A goal in mind I was on my way.
The flight was short. I landed out of sight, no need to give the locals a heart attack. Although, I thought to myself on as I walked the last hundred meters, maybe the locals would be used to flying? With all that energy in the air?
Entering the village, I drew a lot of attention. It wasn't hard to understand why. I dressed different, I was taller than most here and I did have bright red hair. There were more inconspicuous people than I.
I took my time observing them back as I walked to the little market square. A few blonds, mostly brown and black hair though. The clothing was… - interesting. A lot of browns and greys, simple cuts, but every now again there was a pop of color and normal hoodie. I saw some kimonos and the architecture was definitely Asian. The Japanese signs were a big hint.
Also, every fucking person was wearing a straw hat. Just, why?
I got many distrusting and even fearful looks. I did my best to look as unthreatening as possible, but it didn't seem to be working.
After wandering around for half an hour, I found a ramen stand. Jackpot. There had been a lot of fish restaurants, the natural thing so close to the sea, I guessed. Sadly, I was a bit particular about my fish.
Ramen was good, Ramen was safe.
"Miso, two please," I said to the cook as I sat down.
I was the only one there. The cook was trying to muster me discreetly but got to preparing the food. It occurred to me that I couldn't actually pay. I shrugged and fished out ten grams of pure gold out of my pocket dimension.
A variety of rare metals was great for trading with aliens, something I had learned the hard way other the years.
Of course, I was about to grossly overpay the man, but I figured I would get some info out of him, and the rest was for the inconvenience of not paying him in common currency.
When the cook sat down the second portion in front of me, I waved him closer. He mustered me warily.
"Listen, I can't really pay you in normal currency because, well it's a long story. So: here," I said quietly and held the gold in his direction.
The man practically jumped in fright, looked around panicked and hissed at me.
"Are you insane? Why would wave around your gold like that! If Gato's goons get wind of that we are both dead!"
I raised an eyebrow. That name sounded faintly familiar. I took a napkin and sat down the gold on the table covered. Relaxed, I pushed it in the stall owner's direction.
"Then be sneaky about it," I said confidently.
Said confidence, no matter how fake it actually was, seemed to calm the cook right down. Looking over his shoulder again, he sat down across from me.
"You are crazy," he murmured.
"So, tell me. Where did I actually land myself? Oh and before you get too specific, I am talking about the country."
He looked at me like I was insane. Fair, that must have been weird to hear.
"You don't even know where you are?! You are in the Land of Wave! You are going to get yourself killed!"
My new friend there went on a rant about suicidal foreigners and the dangers of Wave. I hummed indistinct noises as my thoughts raced a mile a minute.
Wave, Gato – this was a story I knew well. Naruto.
I practically grew up on that shit. My first anime, my first crush on a fictional character, the first online fandom I got into. A lot of firsts.
Never got into Boruto though. The little twerp was a bit of a dick and the anime managed to bore me pretty fast.
Still, Naruto I would always defend. Even the ending. I mean, they should have stopped at Madara and just skipped Kaguya altogether, but hey nothing is perfect. And the reverse harem thing was kind of hilarious.
The only thing I had been mad about with the ending was the fight after Kaguya. Sasuke vs. Naruto. Again.
Fucking hated Sasuke. Worse than all the filler episodes combined. Utter self-obsessed asshole. In his constant rage he let himself be manipulated by some of the shadiest people – like an idiot. And after all that, he still thought he knew best. I didn't think I had felt such hatred for a fictional character ever since -
Shaking my head to clear it from thoughts about how really wanted to strangle a certain 12-year-old brat, I tuned back into the cook's rant about the horrors of Gato.
"Hey, has Tazuna already returned from Konoha?" I asked, interrupting him in his rendition of how Gato's goons had collected most of his income from last month.
He looked at me, astonished.
"Uh, he should be back any day now," the stall owner answered almost on reflex.
"Cool, cool. Could you point me in his daughter's direction?"
It took some needling, but he gave me directions to Tsunami's house after I had convinced him that I really didn't mean Tazuna or his family any harm, and that I really didn't work for Gato.
Sometimes gold was enough to buy you trust.
I was singing along to "Sweet Dreams", whistling the synth parts as I sat on a branch overlooking the street to Tsunami's home. After packing myself a few meals (consisting solely of ramen) I had taken up station just far enough away from the house to be able to belt without annoying the poor woman.
During the wait time I was very thankful that Ree was basically the ideal music player.
Experimenting with the energy I now knew was Chakra led me to discover that I could augment my body easily. I just had to be careful to not put too much into a punch. I studiously ignored the mess of exploded trees a couple of meters behind me.
My usual sorcery was even more of an issue. I would have to be careful while using it for a while. It wasn't that bad while I concentrated on what I was doing, but if I didn't, I would automatically use my magic the way I had trained to for decades. Which wasn't good. Imagine being used to driving at 30 km/h max and then suddenly your car could drive 500 km/h. The ride becomes a bit wilder.
I was just about to start my rendition of "Circle of Life" (I know, I have an interesting taste in music) when I spotted four silhouettes in the distance, one was a bit bulkier than the rest.
As they neared, they gave me wary, tired looks. My spot was easily seen from the street. I didn't exactly want to scare them after the fight they just had.
"Hello," I said and waved at them.
"Who are you?" came the (very loud) answer from a certain orange menace.
"Al. And you?"
"Naruto Uzumaki. And the future Hokage, dattebayo!" he exclaimed… loudly.
I blinked at him, needing a second to take in the sheer Narutoishness that had been presented to me.
"Baka!" a very clearly tired Sakura chastised her teammate as she mustered me with some fear in her eyes. Sasuke just scowled at me.
I grinned at Naruto.
"Alright. Need a hand with that?" I gestured at his Kakashi shaped backpack.
"No way! I got this!"
I nodded wisely, that is the spirit. A little voice in the back of my head screamed "The Spirit of YOUTH!", but I valiantly ignored it.
"What do you want?" Tazuna asked worried.
I hummed.
"Nothing really. I was just bored, wandering around, but then a nice man came up to me and asked me to help with the whole Gato problem," I fipped.
"That's it?" the bridge builder asked, skepticism clear on his face.
"He gave me ramen," I explained simply.
Naruto nodded as if that made sense. The rest looked at me in disbelief. I shrugged and pulled out another bowl of ramen. Naruto's eyes lit up.
That was how I got my in with the ninjas. Naruto and I got on like a house on fire. Especially when I shared my ramen with him.
Some kids were so easy. And I had lots of experience in bribing them.
Sakura and Sasuke were predictably more cautious. The little emo shit even tried to attack me with a kunai as soon as I turned my back. Sadly for him, I was faster than him, stronger than him and had decades of fighting experience more.
He looked like a wet kitten when I pulled him up by the scruff of the neck to look him into the eyes and say: "Pfui, bad baby ninja."
He went off to pout – erm, brood. And if Sasuke didn't like me, Sakura of course didn't either. I think after getting over his distrust Tazuna was just glad to have another adult in the house.
I got some brownie points with the pinkette for entertaining the household with music. I had gotten my guitar out of storage and dusted off my skills.
It made me glad that I had taken the time to learn some instruments over my very long stint in the MCU. It also made me glad that I could actually turn off the instant translation of my ring. My listeners might have been a bit confused by the weird languages I was singing in, but them understanding the lyric would have been worse.
It took Kakashi three days to wake up. I spent the days playing music, teaching Naruto and making a new sling ring.
Teaching the little chibi had been surprisingly easy. To be fair, I did use my Canon knowledge with a deliberate dose of Fanon strategies. I told Naruto about the advantage of Kage Bunshins, their memory retention. Then I got him started on tree walking and later water walking.
He crushed his training.
At the same time, I copied the clone technique and had my clones start on the same exercises. I tried to not take it too hard, but they were a bit slower than Naruto. The shame.
Solid basis established, on the third day I started training Naruto in hand-to-hand combat while having Naruto's clones start on the wind-leaf- exercise.
Predictably, that one took him way longer. He hadn't made any progress in a day. No wonder, really. In Canon he used way more clones over a long period of time after he had already mastered the Rasengan and had gone on three-year training trip.
Not that that training trip ever showed any significant influence on Naruto's progress. The only thing the boy had to show for that had been – a slightly bigger Rasengan. Bravo, Jiraiya, bravo.
The next morning had Naruto and I crouching over a table in Kakashi's room, slurping our ramen. Tsunami had kicked us out of her kitchen after she couldn't get us to eat anything healthy. Well, she was nice about it, but she probably didn't want her brat to get any more ideas. Was already grumpy enough, that one.
Halfway through our second servings, I heard a groaning from the ground next to us. Without stopping to eat I turned myself in the Jonin's direction to watch his reaction to my presence.
"Uuh, I seemed to have overdone it, huh?" Kakashi asked, more at himself than us.
"But you were a total badass, Sensei!" Naruto exclaimed as he energetically jumped up from his seat.
A quick glance in his bowl confirmed that he had emptied again.
While Naruto launched in a colorful retelling of the fight, as if Kakashi hadn't been there, I could feel his sensei mustering me. Steps sounded outside the door and soon almost the whole house was gathered in the room.
"Sensei, you are awake!" Sakura said, clearly relieved.
"Hm, but it seems I will have to rest for a while longer before I am on my feet again. Now, who are you?" he asked me in a deceptively calm tone.
"Hello, my name is Al. I like ramen, my special family seals and beating the shit out of as- ", I interrupted my introduction when I felt Tsunami's stern gaze to correct myself, "- pricks. I dislike entitlement and people that take themselves too seriously. My dream is finding some of my extended family."
Naruto nodded along, he had heard this before when I had started training him. Game on Kakashi, how long would it take you to pick up on the clues I was throwing out.
"He said he would help us," Sakura said hesitantly.
"And he trained me! I can walk on trees now, and on water! And he is going to show me super cool wind jutsus, dattebayo!" Naruto chattered on.
"And he is way stronger than Sasuke-teme!"
I snorted as said "Teme" scowled. Little brat had wanted to be trained too, when he got wind of Naruto learning something. I had just looked at him and asked him why I would want to do that. One ignored temper tantrum later, I wondered if I was too harsh on Chibi-Sasuke. Letting my dislike of the fictional character out on this kid wasn't really fair. But in the end, he was a Shinobi, he wanted to be taken seriously. Part of that was conducting yourself properly. He had to learn that being an ass wouldn't get him any favors.
"Thank you for your glowing endorsement, little one," I quipped, reaching out to ruffle Naruto's hair.
He grinned at me.
Over the course of our training sessions, it became clear quickly that he wasn't used to this kind of positive contact. I took that as a personal challenge. After acting like he didn't like it for the first few times, he was mostly bashful now when I made a mess of his hair.
Kakashi watched the interaction critically.
"Anyway, what are you going to do about Zabuza?" I questioned, pretending to want to change the subject.
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked frowning.
"Yeah, he's dead!" Naruto said confused.
I shook my head.
"No, remember how you told me that the Hunter-nin took the body away?"
Naruto nodded, not seeing the point. Watching out for Kakashi's reaction I could see the Jonin's visible eye widen. With visible effort he sat up.
"Hunter-nin don't work that way. They destroy the body on the spot to make sure they get every trace. Not to mention that Kiri is in the middle of a Civil War, I don't think they are sending any available Shinobi out right now," I explained.
"Civil War?" Naruto asked.
"Mhm, one faction wants to eradicate any and all Bloodline users in Kiri, the other faction, well, doesn't. I am not all that flush on the details. I am a bit of a nomad, but I always make a wide detour to avoid the craziness there. You know, for reasons."
"Bloodline users?" Naruto asked again, still confused.
My mouth twitched at his obliviousness. So cute. Sakura came over and hit him over the head.
"Baka! Like Sasuke's Sharingan!" she screeched.
Not cute at all. I glared at her until she shrank back.
I had forgotten how annoying she was before the time skip. As much as she was made fun of, I quite liked her when she grew up a bit and she was stronger than a majority of ninjas we got to see. Even if Kishimoto stopped at making her a Tsunade 2.0 in terms of power. It was just that near the end of the series Naruto and Sasuke were absolutely ridiculous powerscale wise. Sakura having a monologue about how she caught up to them and won't be left behind anymore, just sounded a bit delusional there.
One way or another, this Sakura still had a long way to go.
"What excellent camaraderie you exude," I drawled, doing my best Snape impression.
"Truly, hitting your teammates to punish them for asking questions, what a shining example of Konoha's subpar understanding of teamwork."
I made sure to sound a bit bitter at that.
A myriad of emotions flittered over Naruto's face, confusion and bashfulness at someone standing up for him, halfhearted anger and hesitance at wanting to defend his teammate while not wanting to push away his new friend and more anger and confusion as he struggled to understand what I was referring to.
Sakura meanwhile seemed cowed. I huffed as she looked at the ground. Sasuke just stood in the corner frowning and the two civilians exchanged looks. The back of my neck tingled as I felt Kakashi's gaze sharpen.
"I thought Konoha is known for its teamwork?" Naruto asked hesitantly.
I snorted.
"How about you ask your Sensei what that red symbol on his arm is and why nobody knows it anymore," I threw out dismissively.
Kakashi's eye narrowed.
"Mah, mah, your last name isn't Uzumaki by any chance?" the Jonin drawled.
Bingo.