First Steps in a strange World

His shadow clone ran out before the mission even began.

At the time he had been with a healer. After acquiring a grasp of YiTish, he had been able to explain his problem with only a few difficulties. Not that had helped the matter any.

The healer didn't really seem to understand what he was trying and failing to properly explain, only shaking his head at any mention of chakra and it's pathways.

He had still examined him, checking his breathing and heart in a serious of tests that Tsunade or Sakura would have used to find any problem. From what he understood he had been pronounced completely healthy.

As soon as he had put his clothes back on, the memories from his clone hit him. The conversation that had just happened replayed itself in his mind and he almost clapped his forehead at his own terrible explanations.

Naruto barely stopped himself from doing so, the healer already took him for a crazy person, no need to add to that view.

"Damn it," he muttered under his breath. He had hoped that the clone would last a bit longer. Even without any exertion or even movement it had barely lasted a few days. Two weeks of preparation for not even half that time.

That certainly screwed up his plan of having his clone work throughout the bodyguard mission.

"Thanks a bunch anyway, old man." With a wave of his hand, he got up and left the building, ignoring the words from the healer.

The memories from his clones were weird things. Remembering the things his clones had done was made difficult because he had his own memories of the same point in time. He couldn't recall one without the other.

He remembered the moment that they were dispelled the best, which made using them for scouting and fighting easy enough. In that instance what they had just found out was usually the most important.

Training with them was similar.

If a clone learned a skill or trick he didn't really need to remember all the details precisely. The memory of doing it correctly was enough. Knowledge was a bit different.

He knew all the things his clone had read about and learned but it would take a while to really process all of that information. For now that was fine, he had done all that reading mainly to learn the language but information was important, Jiraiya had pounded that fact into his brain one beating at a time.

The streets were as packed as they always were. A part of him wasn't really comfortable with that. Konoha was big but even those streets weren't ever that full and on his travels with Jiraiya they had spent a lot of time in smaller villages or by themselves.

Normally he'd just shrug that off, when Konoha got busy he could always search for a friend to spend some time with or go training, in Asabhad he knew no one. Even if he could now communicate with them it simply wasn't the same.

Naruto felt lonely again, in a way that he hadn't since he was a little kid. He hated it.

He shook his head banishing that kind of thinking. He had better things to do.

Tomorrow the mission would begin so he needed to finish all preparations for that. He had been told that there was a relatively low risk of any attacks but because of the proximity to the border the chance wasn't zero. He'd bring what little gear he had on the journey, no sense in leaving it here.

A few provisions would be good too, something durable that wouldn't go bad quickly, even if part of their pay was their necessities being taken care of. You never knew.

Naruto sped up slightly and oriented himself towards his hideout. No sense in delaying any further, there was nothing else to do in the city.

"Where is this Konoha place? I have never heard it before."

"It's very far away," Naruto answered evasively. He wasn't sure how to really answer the question. The cart driver was simply trying to make conversation but Naruto didn't really know the answer after all.

He had seen different maps in his search through Asabhad but none of them had included anything he was familiar with, much less any mention of his home. Either the maps he had seen were incomplete, even if they didn't look like it, they were incorrect, which left him very little to work with, or the problem was that his home was nowhere in this world.

Like the space inside the Kamui, he couldn't just walk in or out of here. He had to find some other way to get back. If it on the other hand this really was an incredibly intricate illusion, he had to find a way to break it.

Which left him, again, with the problem of his diminished chakra. A problem he had made no progress on yet.

"Do you plan to go back there?" the driver asked. The man was mostly focused on him, barely paying the road or the other carts in front any mind. He had an old, weathered face, and as far as Naruto had understood, was the oldest person in the caravan they were guarding.

"As soon as I can, but there is something else I have to do first." Naruto tried to sound enthusiastic but he knew that it was a wasted effort. The old man still looked curious but thankfully let it drop.

After spending yesterday at back of the caravan without much variety, he had jumped at the chance to be positioned further forward. The first part of the journey had taken place on barges, using the river to travel inland fast river had reached an end they were moving in a caravan, carts carrying the different wares that hadn't been sold yet.

With only four people they were stretched a bit thin but no one seemed to be worried about anything happening.

"You ever fought a man before?" Clearly the driver was still interested in conversing, though at least he had changed topics. That was fine, Naruto had no problem with this one.

"Yeah, I'm pretty strong too." He flexed his arm and gave a toothy smile.

The old man chuckled in amusement when they were interrupted by the cart ahead stopping. A commotion at the front drew Naruto's attention. He couldn't see much from his position, a bend in the road obscuring his vision.

He turned to the open cart next to him and leapt up, balancing on the wooden exterior to give him a better view. Naruto ignored the surprised exclamation from the driver, bringing up one hand to shade his eyes.

Two of the other guards were at the front, together with some of the other merchants and caravan members. They were arguing but there was no sign of any attack or danger.

Jumping off Naruto ran towards the front, only throwing a quick "I'll check it out!" and a wave backwards.

A tree had fallen onto the road, blocking the path for the carts and making further travel impossible. They had only been moving for two hours today, certainly not a lot, especially with the slow speed of civilians.

When he arrived, the two others had already gotten a hold of axes and were about to start chopping.

For a few seconds he was confused. Sure, the tree was pretty big but two strong people could just carry it off right? He could probably do it alone.

Right, these weren't Shinobi. Man, who hired normal people for guard duty? The people here were so weird.

"Want a hand?"

The two Zhuang brothers turned towards him, clearly not expecting him there. They looked at each other in confusion before turning back to him.

"Of course, there is axes on the wagons. Better hurry."

Instead of grabbing an axe, he went for the tree itself. Crouching low he latched on. Without chakra to power his muscles there was no way he could compete with the explosive power of Tsunade or Sakura but he didn't need to.

The tree hadn't been massive, just slightly longer than the road was wide, but it was still heavy.

His muscles screamed in protest but he lifted nonetheless.

'Man I should have started at the side,' he thought, trying to raise the tree onto his shoulder. He wasn't directly in the middle so balancing the weight was quite difficult, but he didn't need to move it very far. As long as the road was cleared everything was fine.

He changed his approach. Instead of trying to lift the whole tree of the ground, he shifted to one end, carefully avoiding any of the branches, broken off and not.

With one end over his shoulder and the other on the ground the weight wasn't as difficult to handle. He groped for better handholds on the sides, and after finding two appropriate spots, started dragging the tree off of the cobbled road.

He dropped the weight from his shoulder with a relieved breath and stretched his arms and shoulders. The tree fell to the ground with a dull thud, bark breaking off and some of the remaining branches snapping.

"Okay! Let's go!" Naruto turned with a wide grin, eager to get back on the journey.

Everyone was looking at him like he had fallen from the sky. Even after his more recent experiences with a positive public reception after the whole Pain business, being stared at like this still made him slightly uncomfortable.

"Something wrong?" He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

The two brothers shook their heads again, before growing amused grins.

"Nothing wrong. You do not look so strong." They waved the matter off and stowed the axes they had been about to use. The other members of the caravan that had been standing around followed their example and returned to their wagons, though some threw furtive glances.

'People here are just weird,' Naruto decided in his head and returned to his original position.

The different merchants and traders that they escorted spent their time either talking business with each other or amusing themselves with stories new and old.

Naruto had never really given the actual intricacies of being a merchant any thought, even if he had been in contact with a large amount of them over the years. While travelling with Jiraiya, they had sometimes been sent a few missions in the region they were planning to travel through.

The lazy old pervert had left him to accomplish those mostly by himself, but their danger had never been particularly high.

The different members of the caravan talked of changing demands and prices, of new trends and trade routes. Most of the information was difficult to understand for him. He didn't recall where Vaes Dothrak or Lotus Port were on the maps he had seen and he didn't know what Mulberry had to do with silk.

The stories however were a different matter.

Any hint he got he would take. Without anything to work off of he had no other choice. First he'd get his chakra back, and then he would get back to his friends.

Most of the stories were probably as true as the ones Jiraiya had used to entertain prostitutes and drunks on their training trip but it still gave him something to investigate further.

It had gotten dark and the caravan had stopped for the day, carts arrayed in a circle to protect the inside from wind and trouble. Naruto was seated on one of the carts, listening with half an ear while focusing mostly on their surroundings. This was one of two stops they would make on the road, all the other ones would be inside villages if nothing severely disrupted their travel.

One of the traders, an older man, with the same light eyes and dark hair as most people he had seen in Asabhad, though his had grown grey from age, told of a trip to Qarth, where he had sold silks to one of thirteen merchants.

How did a city only have thirteen merchants? Whatever.

Afterwards a strange man with blue lips had asked to accompany him back to Asabhad, claiming to be a warlock whose services were required.

"What's a warlock?" Naruto asked, stumbling over the foreign word, just as another man stood up to relieve himself at the tree line. He turned his head for a moment, to look at the speaker. Some of the other listeners looked as if they were wondering the same thing but hadn't wanted to interrupt. The story was clearly embellished, the better to heighten it's effect on the crowd, but at least some parts seemed to be the truth.

"Strange men, they are. Blue lips and pale skin and they look half a corpse. It is said they practice magic in their house in Qarth, but who knows what they truly do," the trader explained, an uncomfortable frown on his face. Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly but turned back to his guard duty.

Magic? Interesting. No Shinobi would describe chakra or jutsu that way, but for a civilian there probably wasn't much of a difference.

It seemed like he would have to pay Qarth a visit as soon as he returned.

He nodded his head at the explanation, encouraging to man to continue telling his story. They weren't even halfway done with their journey meaning it would take many days until he returned to Asabhad.

Naruto hated the waiting but he had given his word to see this mission through. Even if this was only an illusion he would stay true to a promise he had made.

Something moved between the trees.

His eyes zeroed in on the movement despite the darkness and he stood up. It was low to the ground but quick, too quick to be a bandit crawling on their belly, and closing on the pissing merchant.

A bit of moonlight peeked through the treetops, illuminating yellow reptilian eyes. He was reminded of Orochimaru for a moment but this creature was no snake. It rushed forward on short, stubby legs, it's intent clear. Naruto had never seen a creature like it, but the danger it presented was obvious from the rows of teeth set in a powerful jaw.

He jumped from the wagon and hit the street at a run, kunai already in his hand.

"Hey! Your left!"

The merchant didn't seem aware of the danger he was in, neither realising that he was being warned nor spotting the creature in the dark, even if it was the size of a hound, though more long than tall.

Naruto threw the same way he had practised thousands of times, hitting the reptile in the neck, the weapon easily penetrating the scaly hide. The creature continued moving for a few feet, blood escaping from it's maw before it fell to the ground.

The man flinched, turning in the direction of the sound, his exposed genitals forgotten for a moment, but Naruto had already reached him.

He pulled on the man's shoulder, he still wasn't sure about everyone's names, steering him away from the treeline.

His eyes flickered around the dark forest, trying to spot anything that would indicate more danger, while his ears tried to filter out the shocked stuttering beside him and focus instead on the sound of movement from the forest, which would serve better in warning him than his eyes when it was this dark.

Without any sounds from in front of him he relaxed and stepped towards the creature, intent on reclaiming his weapon, when the eldest Zhuang brother, Wei, drew up beside him, spear in hand.

"Basilisks, this close to the road?" Wei muttered to himself as Naruto crouched down, one hand on the grip of his kunai, the other on the hide of the basilisk.

The blade came free easy enough but was slick with blood.

"The blood is dangerous. You need to clean your sword carefully," came from behind him.

"Is it poison?" He turned his head and saw a thoughtful frown on the older man's face, illuminated barely by the campfires between the wagons behind them. He had expected venom, from his run-ins with Orochimaru alone, but he had never thought to be careful with the blood then.

"It won't kill you, but you go mad from it, attack everything you see."

It reminded him of the effect Kurama's chakra had on him before. Everything he experienced was pushed through a great red filter then, until only rage and violence remained.

After carefully cleaning the blade with a bit of water and some leaves Naruto resettled on the wagon he had been using before. Even if the likelihood of bandits was supposed to be low it seemed like he would have to be careful anyway. He just hoped basilisks didn't get much bigger.

Tiqui was a grand city.

Asabhad had impressed him with it's size and population but Tiqui made it look like a small collection of hovels. Great stone buildings in white and gold and purple dominated the view for more than a day before they had even reached it and they only grew more impressive the closer they got.

The whole city was surrounded by a huge stone wall, as tall as the one in Konoha, dotted with towers and giant weapons and soldiers patrolled all along the battlements day and night.

After they had crossed inside through one of the gates, one of the caravan members, an ambitious young carver by the name Lo, had explained that they should be glad that no band of the Jogos Nhai had chanced upon them.

Apparently that had been the greatest worry among the merchants, traders, and craftsmen they had been escorting. Being killed or taken captive by a barbaric people that knew neither cities nor trade, only war and raiding.

Even though the young man had clearly believed what he had been saying Naruto wasn't completely convinced. Civilians tended to be pretty bad at gathering information, just repeating things they heard again and again until something that didn't even resemble the truth was left.

You had to be able to notice that for missions too. Even if the clients were supposed to be truthful with the Shinobi they hired, some weren't and others just didn't know any better.

Naruto collected his payment, two silver coins for every day of the journey, and was about to wander off in search of a place to stay for the night but the oldest Zhuang brother stopped him.

"What is your plan now, sun-head?"

"I'll go to Qarth, I think," he answered eventually. Either he would find some caravan moving in that direction or he'd have to move their by himself. That would probably suck, since he didn't know the surroundings at all, but he would do even that if he had to.

"Qarth? You are brave then. The way there can be dangerous. If you change your mind, find us." Wei turned away with a smile and a friendly wave, most likely going to join his brothers in drinking for the day.

"I'll think about it!" Naruto called to his back, his pronunciation still slightly awkward. He had gotten a lot better over the journey, there was nothing to do but talk for most of the day after all, but it was still readily apparent that he was no native speaker.

He set off. First he'd find out how to get to Qarth from here and then he'd look for a caravan moving there. If the way really was dangerous there would surely be work aplenty. He considered what to do with his money. Surely there was someone knowledgable enough here that could help him with his chakra as well?

No, he would stick to his plan with Qarth. That at least had some clear connection to his problem. Magic and chakra had to be connected somehow, so anyone who practised magic had to be able to help him. His own efforts had still been completely useless in that regard.

Exhausting his chakra didn't change anything, trying to concentrate it didn't change anything, and Kurama was still completely unresponsive. He had toyed with the idea that the great fox was dead, but that was impossible.

He was breathing. Slowly, very slowly, but breathing. Lifting his eyelids didn't do anything, the slitted red eyes unseeing, and nothing else he had tried had any effect either.

So, Qarth, and then, warlocks.

Resolved to this path he looked first for work and then something to eat.

Riding a horse was a lot harder than it looked.

It had taken three days before he had been even slightly comfortable in a saddle. He had seen horses before of course, some merchants used them to pull wagons or heavy weight, but there had never been a point in riding one. He could run faster and for longer than any animal and uneven terrain didn't inhibit him.

Without his chakra, he was looking at things a bit differently. He was still fast, could probably still outpace a horse if he tried, but he would be exhausted a lot easier than before. Since all the other guards would be riding and the way was very long, he hadn't put up much resistance to the idea.

Naruto had thought that he had been doing quite well from the start, though the snickering from the others had made it clear they disagreed, but expecting much more from his first attempts was pretty foolish.

That had almost cost him his spot. With pay this good a lot of people had clamoured for the opportunity despite the risks and no one wanted to slow down because one man couldn't ride.

Trying to tell them with words that he was a valuable asset hadn't worked particularly well, probably because he was the youngest of all the other candidates.

Naruto had been accepted after he flattened four of them by himself, though he felt slightly bad about beating up civilians even if he hadn't hurt them that much. He needed to get to Qarth, all of his friends were more important than a few bruises.

The caravan had set off three days after he had gotten to Tiqui, leaving the giant city behind them.

The docile brown mare he had acquired tolerated his position on her back, following along with the caravan mostly of her own volition but that was fine with him.

There were twenty guards in total, four of which were always scouting out the surroundings. The wares they escorted were packed into only two carts with a third that held supplies for the journey. Until they reached Bayasabhad about a third of the way to Qarth, the thing they had to look out for were apparently the Jogos Nhai.

They were said to raid surprisingly far into Yi Ti, sometimes even as far as the jungles to the south, and would happily claim all the treasures they could find.

That, and what awaited them beyond the Bone Mountains, were the reason for the large escort.

At least the reason he had been presented with. The merchant that had hired them all, a thin man as convinced of his intelligence as he was sly, had been very generous with information on the potential dangers and difficulties that awaited them but basically silent on everything else.

Naruto had no idea what it was they were transporting and none of the others seemed to know either. The carts were both identical, two dark wooden boxes with wheels and barely enough space for the driver to sit down in front.

He could see no doors or openings anywhere along the sides. The carts had been constructed around their cargo and were obviously not meant to be opened before they had reached their destination.

Without being able to see inside, ascertaining anything about the contents would be quite difficult. Trying to pick up a scent had been met with no results and destroying the boxes themselves wouldn't endear him to anybody.

It wasn't really any of his business, so long as he got paid and got to Qarth, what did it matter? But he was definitely curious. Maybe he'd find out when they reached their destination.

Naruto tried to give the matter no further thought on the journey. The more he thought about it, the more he would want to know. They would reach Bayasabhad in twenty days if they kept their pace and if nothing else got in the way they would be in Qarth after another twenty.

'Patience, Naruto. You can do this.'

Notes: Hello there.

For everyone that isn't happy about me nerfing Naruto: Unfortunately a full-power KCM Naruto is a bit much for a world like ASoIaF and I want to focus more thoroughly on magic in that setting. For that I need Naruto to face similar limits as other sorcerers and magic-users in that world. In the end he'll still be a BAMF but not by simply spamming Shadow Clones and Rasengan. He'll be forced to adapt his approach and I believe that this kind of harsh restriction will make for a more interesting story. Think of that what you will.

I have two more chapters already finished and will publish them as I finish with the next ones.