A/N:
Yes the A/N at the end is different. Please go read it for the ones who have already read the chapter. That's the update, but next chapter is underway.
In the middle of the two combatants two forces clashed thunderously, power cascaded through their techniques. Lightning carved through the ground, carving the valley with deep, jagged gashes, you know kinda like the ones really bad barbers gave you, you know the ones. On the other side, the wind picked up and swirled until mini tornadoes formed, mincing rock into little pebbles and throwing them around. The sound the mixture concocted sounded kinda like what would happen if you gave a banshee steroids and lifted its voice twenty octaves.
"Sasuke!" snarled a blonde boy with the most brilliant blue eyes, not that you could see them, his usual sky blue eyes being instead replaced with red eyes bearing vertical black slits that glared with annoyance at the other boy. A shimmering red cloak, that looked suspiciously like a fox, bubbled at the show of aggression as if it was strengthened by it.
The other boy glared at him, "Naruto!" he managed out, most of his energy going to the lightning technique in his hands. His usually handsome face was marred with a dark grey layer that covered his skin, his normal onyx eyes being replaced with a yellow shade with a black sclera surrounding it.
The two forces in their hands fought for dominance, one a purple rotating mass of pure energy, the other; a black and grey sparkling mess of lightning. The two techniques fought for a second before they started swirling into one another.
A boom was heard and a brilliant blue beam about a metre wide descended from the heavens into their technique, powering the already destabilising object causing it to churn violently.
The two combatants had a second to widen their eyes in shock before the new concoction exploded outwards in a white flash.
The bubbly substance protected the blonde but the other guy, not so lucky. He got blasted out like he had been shot out of a cannon and his head hit the solid rock at the other end with a resounding crack that the other boy, Naruto, could hear from the other side. He let out a silent scream in grieving before he felt his surroundings destabilise and twist. Naruto closed his eyes to escape the nausea. His ears rang and his stomach twisted like he was being sucked into a black hole and was going through the process of being spaghettied.
When the light died down the area the valley used to lay was turned into a deep crater, making the already deep valley even deeper. The stones that were once shaped to look like Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha instead lay as fine dust. Both boys were gone, eradicated probably, turned also into the dust that settled after a moment. Rain began pouring as if the sky was mourning for the loss of the boys too.
Somewhere nearby, a man in a black cloak patterned with red clouds emerged from the ground. His orange mask stood out against his other more saturated colours. The man frowned in thought, he hadn't meant to do that, the blue beam. It killed Minato and Kushina's kid but that wasn't even the main issue. The power he had used in that technique was more than even he should have been able to do.
He sighed, the plan would be delayed for a bit, but that was fine. What's a few more years when you're trying to fix the world? He shook his head and jumped away, he could sense Kakashi nearby and that wasn't an encounter he wanted at the moment.
If he had stayed for a moment longer he would have noticed how the earth where the valley used to be almost seemed to smile, a sick, twisted smile that just seemed to ooze evil. All according to plan Gaea thought, elated. She thanked Kronos quietly and moved to do her side of the deal. With a frown she went to see her 'dear' husband.
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Naruto gasped out of the scrunched up position he was in, a wall of memories hit his head like a truck. The wall of memories brought back every single emotion he'd ever felt, every moment he'd ever experienced in HD.
His head strained against the pressure and blood cascaded through his nose from the mental anguish. The blood that was leaking from his nose was a sickening shade of pink, a pinkish gold and gods the colours did not mesh well together. It looked less like someone's blood was pinkish, rather it looked like someone stuck his blood in a blender with gold but didn't blend it to completion so parts of it oozed like ichor while other parts stained like blood.
Naruto looked anywhere other than the blood oozing from his nose. Dark walls covered the area he lay in. The closeness of the walls brought the panic he was feeling back tenfold. Millions upon millions of thoughts stung his head making his ever present headache even worse. He gnawed at his head, trying to get it to just stop.
Where was he?
Why was his blood pink?
Oh God Sasuke.
All the thoughts were interrupted when the walls rumbled and shook. Tremors pushed Naruto down, he felt himself being squeezed out of something, not smoothly either but painfully. How did the expression go? Squeezing a camel through the eye of a needle or something. Yeah, that's how it felt.
Naruto was crying when he got out. The air was chilly and unforgiving, the anguish at his friend's death pulled at his heart strings and the hospital lights blinded him. He would do anything to get back in the warmth of the cramped prison.
His voice was squeaky and shrill. Too squeaky and shrill. He opened his eyes, rapidly getting used to the light. He was in the hands of a giant woman with the kindest eyes trying to calm him down. They were green, as green as meadows, they held such unrestrained love that had Naruto about to pop. Her eyes were covered with tinted glasses, orange and purple, that kept alternating each time she moved her head a bit.
Her hair was brown. Stringy but stuck together via braiding. It ran down to her shoulders and rested there, emitting an almost ethereal light. They smiled a smile brighter than the sun, "My dear little Naruto," she said. Naruto stared at her blankly. Hope welled in his chest pushing aside all confusion. He didn't understand a single thing she had said except Naruto but the look she had sent him, he recognised the look. It was the look that parents would give their kids when they picked them up from the Academy, the look that had Naruto sinking into the swing and trying not to feel envy, the look of pure love.
"My dear little Naruto, " she repeated. He then realised he wasn't in the midst of a giant but he was a dwarf, no not a dwarf, worse, a baby. A new set of cries filled the room
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His name was Naruto Natit. Naruto Natit, amazing. Rolls of the tongue perfectly. He looked pretty much the same. He had the same blonde hair and blue eyes but without the fox marks that used to adorn his cheeks.
Immediately after his birth he was taken for a few tests. Mostly the regular stuff and a few tests on why he was bleeding from the nose when he came out of the womb.
That was actually related to his pink blood situation. Apparently it was a rare disease that only affected his head and blood. So he should expect frequent headaches and pink blood spewing out of his nose if the headaches got super bad. Unfortunately it wasn't temporary and didn't have a cure.
After too many tests, in Naruto's opinion, they were let out and allowed to go home. When they reached home his new mother attempted to breastfeed Naruto. Yeah that was not happening. He struggled and fought but he was but an infant. Eventually he was forced to bite down and just accept the milk.
Sakura would never let him live it down and Sasuke would just look at him with a slight quirk up to his lips, oozing enough mirth to say what he wanted to say. The thoughts of his teammates dampened his mood. He missed the little laugh of Sakura that would bubble up his inside with joy. He missed yelling at Kakashi-sensei when he was late. He missed the laziness of Shikamaru, the constant eating of Choji. Heck he even missed the weirdness of Hinata, when she would blush and faint for some reason that Naruto wasn't aware of. Sasuke- no he would not get into that.
He looked to his mother, he wondered if she could be so easily taken from him, just like all his friends were. He hugged her, his infant hands not really being able to go around her entirely. She smiled and ruffled his hair softly. He loved having a mom.
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Naruto was trying, he swears he was but his mom would not just leave him alone. A week into his stay at his new world and he'd noticed the normal chakra running through his system was gone. It was a ball in the middle of his core, out of reach which basically meant he had to unlock his chakra again.
The problem? When you unlock your chakra you gain this little blue aura that stays for a second before it dissipates. You're probably thinking 'OK? Why does that matter? Look for a minute when your mom isn't looking and do it.'
Not that easy. See, when most kids are unlocking their chakra their reserves are quite small. Some will have a bit more but that is infrequent and only comes with people in clans or special.. inhabitants. You see where I'm going with this? That little blue aura is the body releasing all the chakra in its core before it absorbs all that chakra back but with the chakra pathways opened from the previous action. Naruto releasing all the chakra in his body would be like dropping a nuke in the Natit household.
He was speaking from experience too. The first time he had unlocked his chakra, in his previous life, he was in his bedroom reading a scroll on how to do it. When he finally succeeded he'd blown up the apartment block and sent earthquakes throughout Konoha. Luckily no one lived in the apartment block, no one wanted to live close to the demon after all, but Naruto still felt bad about it, mostly because of the Hokage who had to pay for it. He'd received a plus amount of glares and whispers after that by the lovely civilians of his village.
Back to the point; Naruto didn't have a safe area where he could unlock it. Four years into his problem he gave up and asked his mom. He could tell you lies that it was because 'too early would have been suspicious. No two year old really knows about chakra well enough to inquire about it.' But it was the fear that really stopped him from asking. The fear that he would learn something he didn't want to know. Like the death of his friends for example. This world was so different, so much more advanced. But the years were backward.
Where he came from they used the time of the Sage Of The Six Paths. A god among men. Most people thought of him as a myth but it was the consensus. For convenience sake.
But the time of the Sage was thousands of years ago. Almost five thousand years ago. So either he was far in the past or future that the time was under a new name. That was one theory. The other was that he was in an entire new place with better technology.
When he was forced into Kindergarten he'd learned a bit about his location. 'America' they called it. New York specifically. Weird name in his opinion.
He'd gotten a map and hadn't gotten even a singular name of a Hidden Village. That's fine he thought, They're hidden villages. Not just anyone would know their location.
But what about the opposite? Why would the academy never mention other areas like America and New York?
He ignored the part of his mind that suggested that. He was going nowhere with this. He walked over to his mom, who was holding a magazine on pottery and other mud works.
He planned on what to say in the first part and decided to wing it after. "Hey mom?" he asked, the awkward tongue slipping weirdly out of his mouth. They didn't use the same language as they did in the Hidden villages. His mother stopped reading her magazine and looked at him, "Yes, little man?"
"I want to be a ninja," Naruto said. Goal was to understand the world's shinobi system. If it was different outside of the elemental nation. His mother's eyebrows raised up to her hair. Naruto wasn't too surprised by the reaction. It's not everyday a four year old shows interest in the shinobi arts. It wasn't too uncommon to the point it was suspicious.
She was still gaping at him like he was an alien but schooled her features after a moment but Naruto still saw a hint of.. nervousness? "Uh a little late there, my dude," she said, breaking Naruto from his thoughts, "They haven't been any ninjas since like four hundred years ago."
Four hundred years? Had he been sent four hundred years into the future? Once he found out who made the decision to reincarnate him especially with his memories. He was so going to gut them and to do that he had to unlock his chakra again.
His mother's previous statement still left a pressing question that Naruto asked out, not really thinking about how it sounded, "So.. what do people use chakra for? The police force? Messaging? Travel? No, you use those weird 'car' machines," he said before snapping his hand against his mouth. That was so stupid. She was going to know that he knew that there was another way and she was going to ask questions then-
"Uh, no we have email for messaging, you dig?" she said before turning back to her magazine, "And chakra? You mean the meditating guru stuff on spirit stuff?" she said, her nervous expression back tenfold. Though Naruto didn't notice. Too focused on her words
Spirit stuff? Spiritual energy. That was only one part of chakra. He hadn't considered the fact that people could just not use chakra properly or maybe even at all. You couldn't use chakra without balancing physical and spiritual/mental energy. But then how? How did they know about it then?
If he was four hundred years into the future; his friends were dead. He forced back the tears until he at least reached his room. He turned back to his mom, "Um thanks," he said before going to his room.
He wasn't allowed enough time to really get out his emotions because his mother came and asked him if he was ready for Kindergarten.
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Kindergarten sucked. You had to deal with the annoying sounds of children crying and the even more annoying sound of adults making baby noises. You know the ones, where they pitch their voices up and talk slowly like they were... well talking to a baby. When you're twelve years older than the pipsqueaks it's supposed to be targeted at; it's really annoying.
So the whole time he was being driven there he was glowering at his mom. She didn't seem to notice otherwise she would turn to him and pinch his cheeks while cooing. He was just that cute.
He sighed in frustration and resignation. He waved his mother goodbye after she embarrassingly kissed his cheek and led him into his classroom. He attempted to blend into the crowd of kids, near the back in an attempt at not getting picked to answer questions on the alphabet and counting. Things below his level.
He ended up sitting next to a girl around his age, his new life age at least, who looked at him curiously, a courtesy he did not send back. He didn't care though, he had no intention of making four year old friends. All that Naruto really cared about was that she was quiet. He would move if he even heard a peep of crying.
He made sure there was space between them, enough space that she couldn't be tempted to wrap her hands around his throat for some reason. He spoke from experience, children were scary.
When time for a break came, Naruto pulled out a plastic container from his bright blue Superman bag and sat down where he sat before to enjoy his snacks. It wasn't anything special, just a pack of ginger cookies. Most of the other kids had gone outside but Narutk decided to stay in and just take in the silence. Only a few children remained and one teacher, who was ferociously tapping on her phone with it sideways with her tongue peeking from the side.
The girl who sat next to him was one of the ones who remained as well. She stayed by him only breaking off for a moment to get her bag. It was a navy blue Batman bag. She pulled out a similar plastic container from her bag. In her box was a mouth-watering set of blue chocolate chip cookies.
The girl looked shyly at him and extended her container to him. He realised he was staring at her cookies and immediately stopped. The girl didn't seem to be upset by the loss and grabbed a cookie and stuffed it into her mouth. Naruto grabbed one of his own cookies and brought it to his lips. Before he could eat it he noticed movement behind the girl. A snake, wider than his head and more than double the length of their tallest teacher, easily twelve feet, slithered in between the students, yellow eyes gleaming with hunger.
Naruto knew that kids weren't necessarily smart but even an infant would notice the creature, but somehow not a single child did. The snake looked at no one but the girl next to him, who was facing away from the snake, opening her mouth to drop in another cookie and clearly not knowing the danger right behind her. The snake opened its mouth and his voice caught in his throat while trying to warn her but she didn't need it.
Her hand stopped holding the cookie, she let it fall and instead shot her hand out and snapped the mouth of the snake closed. Her other hand reached around its neck and squeezed while twisting the neck until she was holding a limp rope with green and yellow patterned skin.
Naruto watched all this in fascination. She looked back at him and flashed a smile that blinded Naruto for a second, "Wanna play with me?" she asked shyly, holding out the other end of the snake like she had been trying to muster up the courage for a while. Naruto hesitated but eventually grabbed the other side of the snake.
He actually looked at the girl for the first time. She had ebony black hair, the same shade of Sasuke's, but the ends were a deep purple. So dark one could assume it was black if the sun wasn't illuminating the area. She had a beautiful set of sea green eyes not too dissimilar from his mother's eyes that simply spoke of childlike innocence. She had on a baggy blue collared shirt that was a size too big for her. Her shorts were jean-like, pale and white with a small oil stain present on the side. She was pale with a slight olive tint to her skin and the round cheeks you would expect in a toddler. She had on a happy expression, probably at his acceptance to play with her.
She looked familiar, like an old friend you hadn't seen since childhood but who she reminded him of escaped him. They played a few games with the snake's body like jump-rope, the one where you have to pull until the other team, in this case a person, would be pulled past a line. The name escapes me. Naruto all-while was trying to figure out how she reacted and strangled the snake.
Their little games were ruined when the rest of the students came in and shrieked at them. It was truly the worst moment to do that since their game of.. tug-of-war, that's what it's called. Anyway, it was the worst moment to do that since their game of tug-of-war was in full swing. The girl pulled too hard in shock and Naruto was not going to lose. The snake split into two, sending blood everywhere and spraying the students and the teachers in snake organs and blood, probably traumatising them forever.
"Whoops," The girl said and Naruto cracked a smile.
Thankfully they weren't expelled. It would look really bad on the Kindergarten's record if two kids had to defend themselves from a snake. Though the girl and him were separated from each other for the rest of the day. Which wasn't really a lot of time since their parents were sent to pick them up. Shame, he was actually enjoying himself. He stomped on that thought; he couldn't get attached, not when it could be ripped from him, just like that.
She had a few similar mannerisms to Sasuke too; the grunt when she didn't know what to say, the smug cockiness when she won. Who knows if she had the same betrayal tendencies. Well Naruto wasn't going to find out the hard way, thank you.
He left with a quiet goodbye to the girl and left with his mom, mood positively soured. Her guardian wasn't there yet so she had to wait for a bit. She yelled out a boisterous goodbye behind him. She also reminded him of him, old him at least. The boisterous nature and the naive attitude. Things he was trying to remove out of himself. When he talked to her, he could feel that foolish part of him try to come out. He promised to not talk to her again.
That plan was immediately foiled the next day, when his mother dragged him to Kindergarten. He had forgotten he had to come here again and most likely the girl would too. His experience from yesterday telling him she would not be so easy to avoid. His suspicions were proved correct when he walked into the Kindergarten and even before he could say bye to his mom she was there. Pointing at him with the most excitement a four year old could muster to a woman with the same shade of purple hair that she had; almost black.
She had green, misty eyes that were accompanied by dark shadows around her eyes and a slight hunch to her back. She had a maternal smile that could rival his mother's. Her eyes had an element of rebelliousness.
"Oh, is this the boy you were telling me about?" she asked. The girl nodded enthusiastically, "Uh huh," she said, nodding even quicker which Naruto didn't think was possible. The woman smiled even harder and handed Naruto a container of similar kind to the one the girl had yesterday except it had Superman pictures instead. She did this after getting a look of agreement from his guardian of course.
The container was filled with similar blue cookies. Naruto experimentally tried one, weighing the possibility that they were poisoned. He eventually reached the consensus that if she was going to poison him then she would give it to him when no one could see.
Actually he didn't care if they were poisoned. They were bliss. They were warm and delicious. Literally melting in his mouth. He let out a small moan of enjoyment.
The lady smiled and ruffled his hair. She smelled like warm sweaters and blue pop tarts with a hint of strawberry. She went to introduce herself to his mother. He heard a bit of their conversation before the girl dragged him away.
"Persis doesn't talk to the other kids much so it was so much of a relief when she told me about her new friend yesterday."
So the snake killer was called Persis. Weird name. Persis dragged him to the side, "You see the dude there?" she asked, pointing at this huge dude in a brown trench-coat and a similarly brown massive hat that covered his facial features. Next to him was a big and intimidating black Mastiff that snarled in their direction, looking distinctly rabid and hungry.
I mean it was quite odd that a fully grown adult was hanging around a Kindergarten with a clearly rabid dog but he didn't think that was that thing that was the thing Persis was talking about. "Yeah?"
"I looked under his hat and it was one eye instead of two. Weird right?" Persis asked, expressing everything with frantic arm movements. Weird wasn't the right word in Naruto's mind. Absolutely terrifying. Yep that was more in line. And if you noticed that that was two words then you're really attentive and Naruto hates your guts
Naruto racked his brain, trying to think of things with one eye. The one that popped into his head first was a cyclops. They were probably more but he could only focus upon the theory of Cyclops. Didn't help that the last myth his mom had told him about as a bedtime story was the Odyssey. Which featured the most infamous cyclops in his opinion: Polyphemus. Yeah his mom told him Greek Mythology as a bedtime story. She was weird like that.
He focused back on the situation. So if this was a cyclops, did that mean that Greek Myth was real? When you come from a time where one could summon a toad bigger than most buildings, your limit of what could be real was pretty high. Not that he wasn't freaked out. It was a cyclops after all, with a pet dog that should not be allowed anywhere near a human. He also admitted that there was a possibility that Persis was being dramatic and creating something out of nothing. He resolved to be wary today.
He noticed one of the teachers trying to chase him away. He looked ready to fight but conceded after the teacher threatened to call the cops. That and my mother's death glare, were able to send the man and his dog walking off.
Naruto relaxed and allowed himself to be ushered by one of the other teachers into the classroom. Class was boring as expected. Mainly learning about the basic arithmetic and unfortunately he was called on a few times. The snake incident had given him more attention it seemed. When they were allowed to break Naruto, and consequently Persis, were approached by a group of boys, just a bit older than them.
"Hey, you wanna play with us?" asked the group leader. 'Not really,' Naruto wanted to say but that would be considered rude and he didn't want to actually hurt his feelings. Persis spoke up while he wondered how to politely say no. "Sure," she said, "We would love to play with you."
He really didn't want to, he was just doing it because of Persis. Don't get it twisted; she was so not his friend. He was just being cordial for the sake of blue cookies. Yes, that was it. Blue chocolate chip cookies.
The game they ended up playing was soccer. Naruto was proud to say that he pounded those losers. It wasn't even close. The only time someone got the ball was at the end of the game, when Persis had managed to snag the ball. She panicked when she noticed he was approaching and kicked the ball so hard it flew as high as the two story building and so far that it scaled past the Kindergarten, to which we were at the complete opposite end of, and landed outside the walls.
That was no easy feet. The Kindergarten was positively massive. It was a school for really smart kids or very rich kids so it had a super high budget. Naruto gawked at the display of strength. No normal four year old could kick that hard. It just added to the mystery of Persis.
Well they were obviously tasked in getting it back. Actually Persis was tasked and Naruto just followed. For the kicks, he told himself. He really just wanted to make sure his new.. acquaintance was safe. Though with that mad kick maybe he didn't need to worry so much and that reaction time too. No help necessary. He joined her anyway to ease his mind.
The ball, with all the power that it had been kicked, hadn't crossed the road. It lay wedged in the grass, having made its own mini crater. Naruto looked around to see if someone was around trying to kidnap them. Call him paranoid but it was better safe than sorry. He would not die again only after four years, especially to people who un-ironically had a white van. No.
Thankfully there were no would be kidnappers. In fact there was no one here at all. The road lay occupied by nobody. That filled Naruto with a different feeling of apprehension. No people meant no witnesses or help. Great.
Persis ran forward and grabbed the ball and held it up like a trophy. "Got it!" she yelled towards him. Her happy expression turned to one of shock then horror, she pointed at him, no behind him. The gigantic fist that was sent at him was dodged only because of years of shinobi training.
He leaped back and landed next to Persis. The owner of the meaty fist was trench-coat from earlier. Now without the hat Naruto could see the big eye, smack in the middle of its forehead. The eye was ugly but calculating.
Of course he had to get a smart one. And he hadn't unlocked his chakra. Perfect. The black mastiff was there too. It was bigger, easily double the size of a bear and with glowing red eyes and black fur that stood up in anticipation.
Look he was out of practice. He hadn't had the opportunity to train at all in his four years of new life and it showed. Had he mentioned it was so entirely annoying to deal with NOT HAVING FREAKING CHAKRA! Shinobi training is so reliant on chakra, using a bit to increase their senses function and some to augment their strength. Being able to chakra dash to another location or substitute if needed was basically ingrained into his fighting. Without chakra, shinobi fighting was obsolete, which was why the Gentle fist was considered so deadly. It stopped you from using your Taijutsu to its maximum.
It was really like not having an arm immediately after it's removed. You make movements that are decreed by the assumption that you have the arm, then it doesn't work and you realise you're missing an arm. So Naruto was making moves that he would do if he had chakra. Like when the cyclops attempted a punch and Naruto tried jumping away only to realise that his four year old body did not have chakra (Argh!) as such he couldn't jump that far or that fast.
The fist crumpled his ribs like it was paper and he was sent twenty feet into the air, easy. Only being stopped by an apartment building a few buildings down the road. He smashed right through one of the floor's doors and hit a wall and broke cleanly through it. He hit the wall at the end of the apartment with a sickening crunch and he slipped down.
The residents of the apartment looked at the blonde boy incredulously, worried and peeved at the same time. One of them approached him to see if he was alive and was pleasantly surprised to see that he was. His chest was rising up and down, though very uncoordinated. She made an attempt to hold him but had to immediately release him. "Ow," she yelped, hand burning intensely from the second long touch. Heat was emanating from the boy so much that the whole family could feel it from the door. Steam emanated from the boy, enveloping him in a thick coat of it.
The steam dissipated after a moment and the family all gasped at the site of the now standing boy. Three whisker-like marks made themselves known on the boy's cheeks. A bubbly aura enveloped him in a foxy cloak. One bubbly tail waved behind the boy. His wounds seemed to heal in front of their eyes. Ribs clicked back into place, back stretched into shape and all scrapes and wounds stitched themselves together.
The boy opened his eyes, bright red demonic eyes looked at the family as if assessing whether he wanted them alive or not. By his movement towards the door, where they were huddled upon, they assumed he chose the latter. They scattered and dived out the way. Just on time, a red bullet shot through the hole where the door used to be and shot up the street, towards where it came from. A second passed as the family watched the boy shoot down the street like red blur with accents of orange thrown in from the clothes he wore.
The door pieces rattled, drawing the family's attention. In front of their eyes the door attached itself back together like a four year old hadn't crashed through it at all. The wall the boy had broken down doing the same thing. "Dad? What did you put in that coffee?" asked the youngest.
His eyes clouded over after saying that, as did the rest of his family's eyes. Like mist was covering their eyes.
The family found themselves struggling to remember the fine details not even a few seconds after. The eye colour of the blonde, then the face, then the entire incident. "What were we talking about?" asked the dad.
"I have no idea," everyone said at the same time.
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If Naruto wasn't a mess of anger he would be aghast at almost hurting that family but he wasn't. He was pissed, maybe it was the annoyance of Naruto not having chakra as such being slapped around or it could be the fear for his... acquaintance. He would not call her his friend.
While the Kyuubi did not unlock Naruto's chakra he did fill his pathways with its chakra. He was kinda annoyed he had to deal with the Kyuubi again, hopefully it wouldn't bother him.
He pumped the chakra into his legs and sprung forward, he sailed off the balcony and used the tail behind him to latch on of the rails of said balcony and swing himself back to the building. He instinctively stuck his legs on the wall with chakra and started scaling down it.
With the Kyuubi's chakra giving him a boost he was down in no time. Gods, he'd forgotten how good it was to feel the gentle thrumming of chakra under his skin. The tingly sensation as he manoeuvred the chakra through his body. While is was vile and malicious chakra, it was still chakra. It felt like waking up without energy but since you can't remember yesterday's sensations of not being tired you're already used to the tiredness of today.
Then you take that first gulp of coffee and it reminds you of the not-tiredness of yesterday and it feels so good. And you feel like you can't go back. That was it.
Naruto quickly arrived back at the scene. The mastiff from earlier was mounted on Persis, trying to bite down on her little toddler head. It was barely being held back by the girl, who had her arms keeping its jaw from snapping closed while also attempting to push it away from her head. Which considering the strength of the animal was nuts. It was easily twice the size of a grizzly bear and was packing in the teeth department.
A human with all of their jaw muscles working together could close their teeth with about 55 pounds (25 kilograms) in their incisors or 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms) in their molars. The fact that a four year old was holding more than that strength was crazy. More to the mystery of Persis. She wasn't completely nonsensical as he could see her muscles shaking and quivering.
On the side the cyclops was cheering on his dog from the side-lines, whooping and making dramatic noises of approval. The cyclops' cheering stopped when he spotted Naruto. His expression turned downright murderous. In his eyes Naruto could see him basically saying, You were supposed to stay dead until I came and ate you.
It charged, hand raised to give him another falcon punch. Naruto didn't spare a second and darted around the attack and moved past the cyclops and towards the dog. The cyclops snarled at the casual disregard and turned to the boy, fuming. Naruto had a similar feeling of rage, though he buried it under a mask of indifference and cockiness.
The cyclops charged at Naruto again but this time Naruto didn't dodge. A kick met the back of his head. The only movement that Naruto made was another step forward. The cyclops felt his leg crack and he let out a small moan in pain. Naruto spared him not a moment and dashed to the dog. A Rasengan formed in his hand but dissipated after a few seconds. Naruto bit back a growl. He would have to learn the Rasengan again.
He still had plenty in his pocket. He made a cross sign with his fingers and smoke covered the clearing with a POOF! sound. Standing in the clearing was a group of similar blonde boys with fox cloaks. About twenty of them.
Ten of the clones went to deal with one eye while the other ten and the original went to free Persis. The beast was so focused on Persis that it didn't notice him until one of the clones had a tail wrapped around its throat.
Naruto looked it in the eye as it slowly lost power in its limbs and as the light faded in its eyes. The strain on Persis' muscles lightened and the dog fell to the side. It glared at him one last time before fading into golden dust.
Which what? Is that what happened to people when they died here or was it a dog thing? This place was very confusing.
He left one of the clones to calm down the hysterical Persis while he moved to the other batch of clones making a mockery of the cyclops. It tried swatting them like flies but each time the clones darted around it and made its hand their personal punching bag.
One of the clones decided it was tired of the games and launched a backflip kick to the jaw of the cyclops, sending it up. The other clones jumped up and kicked him around like a pinball for a few minutes. One of the clones stayed on the ground to send the cyclops back up if it started falling.
Naruto used the moment where the cyclops was shot up again to intervene. He grabbed the cyclops around the waist and flipped it around so its head was looking towards the ground. He flipped himself around too and gripped the cyclops around the waist again and started spinning them both towards the ground.
"Primary Lotus!"
A very rough imitation of Rock Lee's but it worked. The cyclops turned into a pile of dust too.
He turned back to the clone trying to calm down Persis. The clone was failing as Persis seemed to vibrate more after every second.
He pitied his clone and dispersed it as well as every other clone. Persis got spooked from the sudden disappearance of the clone. Naruto wondered what she thought happened; he died or something.
"Persis," he called. She turned to him with a displeased face. Though it looked like a pout really.
"How do you know that name?"
"Is that not your name?"
"No.. Yes? Just answer the question!"
Naruto paused, where had he heard the name? Oh. "Uh your mom."
That came out wrong. Luckily Persis didn't get it. "That makes sense," she said thoughtfully, "That's my mother's nickname for me. My name is actually Perseas. My doctor had an accent that made it sound more like Persis and me and my mom kept it as a running joke."
Naruto nodded along. "So you want me to call you Perseas?"
She looked down thoughtfully. "Hmm that does sound weird." She brightened up and Naruto could almost see the bulb flash from the top of her head. "As a sign of our friendship you can call me Persea."
"Isn't that a boy's name?"
She shook her head ferociously, "No, Persea. Not Percy." He decided not to bring up the fact she had said the exact same thing twice and just move on.
"Ah okay," he said before examining the area for any more threats, there were none. "We should probably head back."
The members of the family had probably called the police. If they were anything like the Uchiha police force; he did not want to be around. The teachers would be worried too at least until after the students admitted to have sent them alone.
Persea smiled a mischievous smile. "Can you please teach me how to do that?"
"Do what?" asked Naruto, already knowing the answer. "The clone thing with the red cloak." She gave him her best puppy dog stare that melted Naruto's heart. How could he say no to that face? She looked like a baby seal looking for attention.
He caught himself. Her baby magic was strong but not as strong as his will. "I can't," he said shortly. It would take too much time to figure out if she could even use chakra or she would complain after not getting it on the first try and give up. A headache Naruto didn't need
"Pleaaase?"
"No"
"Come on" she said, "You saw the dog, it tried to eat me. If you don't help me another big dog will come and eat me. You're going to let me die?"
That.. was an actual valid point. He knew for a fact that she wasn't asking for that reason and she just wanted to look cool but the mastiff was rather insistent on eating her. It could happen again and Naruto would not let himself be the reason for the little girl's death.
He made a show of sighing exaggeratingly. "Fine," he said and the happy expression of the girl almost made up for it. He smiled a little smile.
Persea wrapped him in a hug before he could protest. Naruto almost melted into the hug; she smelled like blue chocolate chip cookies and warm sweaters. Persea realised she was hugging him for too long before getting out of his arms and attempting to get back her dignity by offering a handshake.
Naruto's eyebrows shot into his hair. Her hands had two little punctures from the mastiff. Nothing too much but still concerning. That was bad enough but her blood was.. well it was the same as his.
"You're blood"
"Huh? Oh"
She seemed to notice the Jesus cosplay hands she had. "Oh." she huffed, an expression of pain showed on her face as if only feeling it now. Naruto felt his jaw drop. What the fuck? Excuse his French but how? Not a singular civilian would see a hole in their arm and go 'oh'. Then there was pinkish gold blood that she shared with him. What was up with this girl?
He wordlessly bit his thumb and showed it to her. "Woah!" she said, "We have the same blood colour."
No shit? OK maybe he was being a bit rude but come on; you would overreact too. "Mom told me that I had that because I had a disease. Do you have it too?" she asked, a few tears pricking her eyes as the adrenaline left her and pain replaced it.
Naruto shut down the instinct to be sarcastic. It was so weird how she could go from a seasoned veteran who isn't affected by pain to a four year old. He tore off a part of shirt and grabbed her hand, all prince-like, and wrapped the cloth around her hand. He felt her skin heat up in a blush. Being the ever loving oblivious idiot he was he didn't understand why.
"We should be getting back though"
The Kindergarten hadn't noticed they were gone until they returned. Apparently the boys hadn't fessed up. Naruto didn't know what they planned to do when they returned. If he was more petty he would have ratted them out and been done with it but he wasn't.
Their parents were called to pick them up. His mom appeared first. It wasn't even the end of the morning so it made sense. His mom owned her business and it was more passive income too.
Naruto actually did want to hang out more but also didn't want to admit it. Persea was more vocal and expressed her opinions out loud.
Naruto's mom giggled and cooed at Persea. Naruto sighed before approaching the girl. "Here you go," he said, slipping her an address written on a paper, "I'll ask my mom when we can organise something."
She smiled and engulfed him in another bear hug. Naruto blushed and looked to the side when she let go, "Jeez, you're so sappy" he said. "Awww" said his mom from across the room. Naruto sighed, used to her shenanigans.
"Bye," he told Persea before running up to his mother. He had teased Persea about it but he too was sappy. After he was reborn he would make sure to give his mother a hug whenever he could and his mother never complained
He sent one more look towards Persea as he got into the car they owned. A sleek black Mercedes-Benz. He saw a look of slight longing. The look he would send at kids with their parents in the academy. The look was directed at the driver's seat where his mother was sitting. The Mercedes he reckoned as they drove away.
The red sky behind looked beautiful but dangerous in the morning sky.
A/N:
Ok first chapter done. My current schedule is I'm thinking a chapter a week but that can and probably will change. Current ship in mind is Naruto x Persea but I'm thinking of Persea x Naruto x Annabeth. It doesn't change much of my big plans so I'll let the story decide this one. Don't feel afraid to give your opinions though.