"Going out again, are you?"

"Yup. Ero-sensei offered to take me, Sasuke and Sakura out on a training trip. 'See the sights, meet the girls, learn things', he said. There's more to it than that, though, there's this group of ninja called-"

"The Akatsuki."

"- the Akat- Wait, you already know?"

"I encountered one of their number a while back."

"What were they like?"

"His name was Kakuzu. You'd be better off asking Jiraiya about him, as my interactions with him began at trying to kill him, and were ended by a Bijuudama."

Was that... amusement I saw in the Kyuubi's Heart?

"What's a Bijuudama?"

A horrifically powerful ability that can reshape the landscape. "A skill available to the Bijuu, and their Jinchuuriki. The Yondaime based his Rasengan on it. If you can get anything out of him, you'd probably be better off asking the Kyuubi about it."

"Tch. All the furball does is yell at me and insult me. He's kind of a jerk."

"True. Understandable, but true."

"Understandable?"

"Despite the fact that the Kyuubi is a horrifically powerful mass of Chakra and malevolence, it is still a sapient and sentient being. He has a reason for acting how he does, just like everybody else. And all things considered, from what I know of his history, he has some very good reasons."

"Huh. That's... huh. I never really... thought about that."

"Most don't. Many think of the Bijuu as unintelligent beasts, or malevolent demons. It can be a bit hard to look past that to realise that they're all still people."

"I kind of feel like an asshole, now."

"Language, Naruto."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, mom."

"Don't take that tone with me young man."

"Heh." He chuckled.

A moment passed, before Naruto looked up at me. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"What you said about the Bijuu... why do I get the feeling you're talking from experience?"

"I've met the Sanbi. He's... surprisingly polite, actually. Knows a lot of things, too. I've had a lot of interesting conversations with him."

"Huh."

I watched as Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Jiraiya left the village, heading away on a three year training trip.

Three years. Three. Whole. Years.

I had no idea what I was going to be doing for those three years. I could stick around in the village, but to waste three whole years of time was... not exactly endearing to me. That the village sure seemed a lot less vibrant without Naruto's antics only icing on the cake.

I'd probably go looking for the Keyhole again, but the last time I'd done that had taught me that the Keyhole to this World was more elusive than the Ninja that inhabited it.

It... was not something that I fancied.

Perhaps... perhaps it was time to expand my horizons?

"Going on another trip?" Shikaku asked.

"Yes."

"Right. Keep in touch, would you?"

"Of course."

I soared through the Sea of the Skies, heading towards a World that I had never been too. A world that was 'close' to the Elemental Nations, and to Madoka's World, though it was further away from both than they were from each other.

I wondered, idly, as I crossed the Sea of the Skies, what this World would be like.

I stepped into the World, immediately getting drenched with heavy rain.

I rolled my eyes.

Of course there's rain.

I noticed that I was in an alley, a... fairly normal alleyway, actually.

Unclean, perhaps, and not exactly well-maintained, but a fairly normal alleyway. A quick glimpse showed no strange energies, no utterly ridiculous quantities of Darkness, and general feelings of peace through where I had showed up.

A fairly normal World, by appearances.

And if it wasn't for the serious dimensional shenanigans I could see that this World had going, I might have even believed that.

So much dimensional shenanigans.

I took a single glance at all the separate, yet interconnected dimensions, and quietly let my aspirations for finding the Keyhole of this world die.

Why are there so many?

There must have been hundreds.

And nearly all of them were filled with Hearts!

I could sense billions, and that's just in the dimension I'd landed in!

I slumped.

It was not going to be fun searching this World for its Keyhole.

Rain is still pouring down.

The city I'm in is apparently Tokyo. Shinjuku, to be specific.

That was... wonderfully unhelpful.

Interesting, however. That both this World and Madoka's World held a Tokyo.

But currently irrelevant.

It wasn't until very early in the morning that the rain began to let up. Turning from a downpour into a drizzle, and then fading away until it was just the occasional drops.

Still, in that time, I'd noticed a grand total of... nothing.

Things seemed... actually fairly normal around here.

Which, according to my experiences, meant that I'd either just missed the action, or the action was about to start soon.

"Mom, please!" A young child, who couldn't be more than 8, begged. "I really want some Digimon cards."

Across the street, I froze.

No.

"You enjoy those cards too much." The boy's mother said, a long-suffering expression on her face. "Besides, you asked for cards just last week."

Nooooo.

"But my friends got new Digimon cards yesterday!"

Oh god damn it.

Slowly, I started moving forwards again, noticing a few people eyeing my heavily cloaked form, most of which were looking in confusion.

Best not to attract too much attention.

There was, as far as I was aware, only a single setting where Digimon Cards were a thing. A setting that I was now apparently in.

And of all the Digimon settings to land in, I landed in Digimon's Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Fuck.

Fuuuuuck.