Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and One piece.
A/N: This isn't really a real chapter tbh. This is more like a long ass prologue.
A fair warning though...English isn't my first language, not second, third, or fourth...so there are going to be a lot of grammatical errors which might make your eyes bleed.
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(Somewhere in the Land of Fire)
"Finally! Phew...it took a lot of time.." A blonde man cheered in joy and breathed out a sigh of relief as he finally finished inspecting the seals that he had inscribed on his last tri-pronged kunai.
He was currently sitting cross-legged on a small bed, which was completely cluttered with numerous brushes, inks, scrolls, and 10 tri-pronged kunai. He had been inscribing the Hiraishin seals on those kunai for about an hour or two and now that it was finally over, he could now get outside from the cramped cabin to breathe in the fresh air of the sea.
After giving the seal on the kunai a final glance, he collected all the materials that were cluttered on the bed and sealed them all inside a scroll, after that he picked up the 10 kunai and sealed them along with the scroll in a seal that was inscribed on his left wrist.
"Ah...my back..." He let out a groan as he lightly massaged his aching back with both of his hands and slowly, got down from the bed, making sure to stretch out his legs and arms a bit, before wearing the black sandals that were placed on the wooden floor.
How he wishes, he could simply clone the seal matrix when using either the kunai shadow clone jutsu or the shadow clone jutsu. It would have really made his life a bit easier... but meh, you can't have everything going your way, right?
This young man was Naruto Uzumaki, the hero of the 4th shinobi war. He was 18 years old and has bright short blonde hair and deep blue eyes. The most noticeable trait of his appearance however was the three whisker-like marks on each side of his face. He was wearing a black elastic forehead protector on his head with the leaf symbol. Over his black pants and shinobi sandals, he was wearing a black uniform jacket with an orange zipper and buttons on the waist and sleeves, which were folded up. Moreover, his right hand was wrapped up in white bandages and he was also wearing a red armband with the Uzumaki crest on his left arm.
Naruto was currently on a voyage to the Land of Whirlpools, the birthplace of his mother. He had always been planning to visit the ruin of the island for quite some time as he wanted to know and learn a bit more about his Uzumaki heritage after training in the art of seals for the past year, which was an art that the Uzumaki's excelled in; and after learning the unfortunate history of the Island, he finally decided to visit the island and pay respect to his ancestors which he thought was long overdue.
Other than that, he was also kinda getting quite bored, and angsty with the monotonous life that he was currently having in Konoha. Even the missions that were usually given to him by Kakashi-sensei were becoming quite uninteresting and uneventful, which was not surprising as the Elemental Nations were now at peace with each other.
However, the downside of being in peace with all the nation was that, other than the missions involving bandits and missing nins, most of them were diplomatic missions...and he was usually the one who often got those missions since he was now a revered figure among the nations. He knew that those missions were important for peace, but they were nonetheless boring. Granted, he enjoyed the peace as much as the next person, but for an adventurous and hyper person like him, it tends to get boring due to the lack of action.
This voyage to his ancestral land was his attempt and a sort of reprieve to curb the monotony of his life and pay respect to his ancestors while also fueling his adventurous side.
Thankfully, he didn't have much problem getting permission for this voyage from the Hokage; it surely helped that the Hokage was his sensei. Not only that but he was also permitted to take someone along with him, who ended up being his clumsy brother/rival/student Konohamaru. To say that the kid was ecstatic about the whole thing would be a massive understatement.
Though, it was kinda a drag to find a ship that would take both of them to the Land of Whirlpools as the sea around it was known to be quite violent. He could have just flown to the Island by himself, but it would've taken away the whole point of this trip...which was having an adventure.
After about a whole day without any success, they were finally able to get a ship in the Land of Waves, thanks to Tazuna and Inari. Who, after hearing that he was looking for a ship contacted him and came forward to give him and Konohamaru a ride on their considerable large fishing boat to his mother's ancestral land.
Sometimes he was really pleased with himself for having a huge hero complex in the past. Not that he didn't have one now or anything, mind you.
After much joy and excitement, they started the journey to his ancestral land from the land of Wave in the morning, but after only seeing the blue waters for more than two hours his previous joy and excitement had slightly dwindled. So he had decided to simply complete inscribing the Hiraishin seals on some of his extra tri-pronged kunai, which he had been neglecting to do for a while, mostly because he didn't get any opportunity to use them other than simply for traveling long distances. If he had needed them for battle he would have at least made more than a hundred of them by now...but sadly..or thankfully—he wasn't sure which— he hadn't been into any fight since the end of the war. Of course, not including the numerous friendly spars against Lee.
"Oi, boss! We are finally near the island!" The young Konohamaru exclaimed in excitement as he hurriedly entered the cabin where the blonde was currently in.
"Eh? Really!?" Naruto asked the kid in surprise upon hearing the news.
"Yup!" Konohamaru nodded rapidly and informed the blonde, "Though the old man had said that there was a slight problem."
"A problem? what kind of problem?" Naruto curiously asked as both of them walk out of the cabin to the deck of the small ship.
"I don't know, " Konohamaru shrugged "You should just ask the old man."
As they made their way to the deck, Naruto saw Tazuna steering the wheel of the boat while his grandson Inari was looking at something through a binocular.
"Yo, old man. Are we really near the island?" Naruto asked as he walked toward the man.
"Yes, brat. We are indeed near the island," Tazuna replied turning his attention to the blonde "Though, we kinda have a problem."
"Kon had told me as such. So, what's the problem anyway?"
"Inari, hand the binoculars to the brat."
Naruto quirked his eyebrows in curiosity as Inari handed him the binoculars and instructed him to look through them toward the sea.
As he looked through the binoculars, he frowned a little at what he saw and understood what the old man was talking about. He could see the Island all right, but he also noticed that the waves around the island were quite fierce, not to mention the numerous whirlpools that were surrounding it acting as a sea barrier to the Island. No wonder the island was named the land of whirlpools by his ancestors, it was quite fitting.
Noticing the look of understanding dawn on the blonde's face, Tazuna said, "There's no way that my boat can sail through those waves or the whirlpools, so you two might have to do some of your ninja things to get us over to that island."
"Naruto-aniki, can't you two simply walk through those waves?" Inari curiously asked the blonde as he knew that shinobi were able to walk on water.
"Hmm... I don't think both of us will be able to do it as the waves are quite violent." Naruto replied and pondered over their options for a bit before an idea struck his mind, "Though, I have an idea that could work." he beamed and summoned two tri-pronged kunai from the seal on his left wrist.
Seeing the weirdly shaped Kunai on the blonde's hand, the other three occupants of the fishing boat got curious.
"What are you planning to do brat?" Tazuna asked a bit concerned for his safety as they noticed the blonde's grin was almost threatening to split his face in excitement "Oi, brat! I just painted that yesterday!" The old man yelled in shock as he saw Naruto stab one of the kunai on the boat's cabin door.
"Don't worry about it old man, I'll fix it later," Naruto waved off the old man and wordlessly summoned a shadow clone beside him, "Look after the boat until we return from the island, okay?" he instructed his clone, who gave him a mock salute in understanding.
"Naruto-aniki...uh, Can't you tell us what are you planning to do?" Inari nervously asked the blonde, who was now dramatically stretching his right hand holding the other kunai and pointing it toward the direction of the island.
"I'm going to show you guys something cool, so just wait for it." Naruto winked at the nervous boy, which made the other there occupants of the ship even more nervous.
"Sigh..." Konohamaru sighed in despair as he finally understood what his boss was planning to do "I know what he is planning to do, so...uh..both of you two should be ready to spill your gut." he advised the two confused non-shinobi and he meant it literally.
"What...?"
"Yosh!" Naruto cheered as he aimed and hurled the tri-pronged kunai toward the Island. After sensing the kunai had successfully reached its intended destination, the blonde turned his attention to the other occupants and grinned "Come and grab my shoulder. I'll teleport us all to the island in an instant."
"Really!?" Inari asked a bit shocked and awed by the blonde's incredible jutsu.
"Yup!"
"But brat, how are we going to come back to the boat?" Tazuna inquired the grinning blond.
"Well, it's easy," Naruto replied and reassured the old man by pointing at the kunai that he had previously stabbed on the cabin door, "I can just teleport us back here again with that kunai."
"That's good to know." Tazuna relented albeit a bit hesitantly and grabbed Naruto's shoulder as the blonde had instructed them along with Inari.
"Oi, Kon! What are you waiting for?" Naruto asked as he noticed that the boy still hadn't grabbed his shoulder.
"Ah...boss, are you sure about this?" Konohamaru asked nervously "I mean...uh, you still haven't completely mastered the Hiraishin...so would it be okay for you to teleport us all together?"
This made the two other people on the boat quickly retract their hands from the blonde's shoulder in panic.
"Meh, don't worry, guys." Naruto waved off the boy's concern even though it had some truth in it, and reassured them "The distance isn't that far, so we will be okay. Trust me."
After thinking for a bit, Konohamaru let out a sigh of resignation and hesitantly grabbed the blonde's shoulder, already anticipating the suffering that awaited him. Seeing him do that, Tazuna and Inari also relented and did the same thing.
"Alright! Now here we go!" Naruto cheered and made the ram hand seal with both of his hands. Within seconds, the four-man disappeared from the boat in an orange flash, leaving behind the blonde's shadow clone to look after the boat, and teleported directly to the kunai that had been hurled at the Island before.
*Blerg!!*
The moment their feet touched the sandy beach of the island, Konohamaru, Inari, and Tazuna quickly heaved to the ground and started spilling all their guts.
Seeing this, Naruto sweet-dropped and sheepishly scratched his head "Ah...sorry about that, guys."
After a few minutes of vomiting all their breakfast, the three unfortunate men were finally able to compose themselves.
"Ugh, I'm never going through ever this again." Inari let out a pitiful groan and rubbed his aching head.
Tazuna glared at the sheepish blonde "Didn't you say that nothing was going to happen, brat?"
"Hehe...my bad. I haven't completely mastered the jutsu yet, so sometimes it tends to lead to some side effects when I teleport someone with me."
"You should have said so from the beginning!"
"I said sorry, didn't I?"
"I'd already warned you that it was going to happen," Konohamaru grumbled and wiped his mouth with his sleeves.
(Line break)
A few minutes later.
The Land of Whirlpools, the ancestral home of the once-renowned Uzumaki clan. Just 30 years ago, it was considered to be one of the strongest villages in the whole Elemental Nations, owing to the sealing capabilities of the Uzumaki clan and because of their life force as well. But now, it was nothing...but ruins of a once renowned land and its once glorious history completely forgotten by the people...its history lost through the ravages of time.
As he stared at the ruins of his mother's ancestral land, Naruto felt a deep sense of sadness and grief grip his heart. There was nothing to see or even salvage, other than the result of war and human senseless cruelty. Everywhere he looked, he could only see rubble and ruins of numerous buildings which were now completely taken over by the nature. Sometimes, he was really appalled by the cruelty and actions that humans were willing to take just out of irrational fear.
He still didn't understand how the past Kages of Iwa, Kiri, and Kumo even came to the outrageous decision of attacking and completely destroying such a small island of peaceful people, just because they THOUGHT that they could pose a threat to their nations!
"Pshh...and you humans think we are the demons." Kurama snorted as he watched the ruins of the Land of Whirlpools through his seal.
"I can't argue with that, " Naruto sighed at his partner's statement and a small smile took over his face "Weren't you taking your beauty nap, Kurama?"
"I was, but I had to wake up because of your emotions going haywire," Kurama responded with a huff "I honestly thought that you were going through a period or something."
Naruto balked in shock and asked, "How do you even know about period!?"
"Did you forget that I was sealed inside two women before you? One of them happens to be your mother by the way."
"Ugh...I didn't need to know that."
"Why? Weren't you here to learn about your mother's heritage?"
"That's not the same thing!"Naruto refuted loudly and grumbled as he could hear his partner laughing loudly at his expense. 'Damn it! that fur ball got me again!'
"Oi brat! Who are you talking to?" Tazuna asked as he walked toward the blonde with a bottle of alcohol in his hand.
"Ah...no one. I was just talking to myself," Naruto nervously replied and quickly changed the subject "You still haven't stopped drinking?" which seemed to work.
"I'm never stopping drinking this baby, brat!" Tazuna hotly responded and took a large chug from the bottle "Anyways, what do you want us to do? Should we also look through the ruins or something?"
Naruto pondered the question for a few seconds while glancing at Inari and Konohamaru, the two of them were inspecting a nearby destroyed structure in interest...which looked like a gate of some sort.
"Sure, if you guys want to. Though if you want to just sit here you can do that as well." Naruto answered and chuckled as he saw the old man unceremoniously plop to the ground and continued to chug from the bottle... seems like the old man preferred the second option.
"Inari, Kon," Naruto called the two younger lads and walked toward them, "I'll be going to check if there are any shrines among the ruins to pay my respect. Both of you can survey the site if you want to but make sure to not get too far from here, okay?"
"Sure, boss!"
"Alright, aniki."
"Oi, brat. Just try to be back before the sun sets as the waves are going to be rough during the night."
"Ai, ai, captain."
"Damn, brat. Even after so many years he still hasn't learned to show respect to his elders." Tazuna grumbled as the blonde gave him a mock salute and sauntered away.
(Line Break)
After separating from his ragtag group, Naruto, with a heavy heart wandered deeper inside the ruined island checking the various destroyed monuments, structures, and buildings for a shrine...or anything that remotely resembled a shrine, to at least pay his respect to his ancestors. Which was sadly the only thing that he could do here now...since it would probably take him days or even weeks to find anything that could offer him some information about his heritage among the ruins.
Though, he promised himself to one day return to the island to clear out the ruins and built a large monument to remember as well as to honor all the innocent lives that had been lost due to the greed and senseless fear of some nations. It was the least he could do for his ancestors and to an extent...for his late mother.
After surveying the ruins for about more than 15 minutes, he finally found what he was looking for...a shrine or what probably used to be a shrine in the past. It was kinda hard to miss due to the numerous wooden worn-out Tori gates— which to his surprise were somehow in decent condition despite the ravages of time—leading to a small shabby-looking wooden building that had two half-destroyed stone statues of the 'Komainu' near its entrance.
As he entered the shrine the blonde made sure to watch the crevices on the floor, while walking as soft as possible to avoid breaking the worn-out wooden floor by mistake. The inside of the shrine was quite empty, it might have probably been looted by the attackers or by some treasure hunters. The only thing left inside was a prayer bell and some small pots which were probably used as incense containers during prayers.
Letting out a solemn sigh, the blonde was about to offer a prayer for all the innocent souls to rest in peace when his partner decided to let its presence known to him.
"Oi, brat."
"Hmm..."
"I don't know whether you have sensed it or not, but there's something underneath this shrine."
Naruto raised his eyebrows a little in surprise at the information as he haven't sensed anything in the shrine or underneath it "Are you sure about that, Kurama?"
"I'm quite sure about it, brat." Kurama responded and added, "Though the energy that it is giving off doesn't feel like chakra at all, so it might probably be the reason that you haven't been able to sense it yet."
"Ah...so...should I investigate it?" Naruto curiously asked his partner, a bit unsure of how to proceed with the information that he had been just given.
"I don't care whether you investigate it or not, brat," Kurama grunted nonchalantly and added, "I just informed you about that because you might find it interesting."
Naruto snorted as he could tell that the fox was just acting nonchalant with the whole thing "Don't act like you aren't curious about it yourself, buddy, and don't worry I'll investigate it just to satisfy both of our curiosity."
"I said I'm not interested nor curious about it, brat." Kurama growled and tried to go back to sleep.
"If you say so, furball." Naruto chuckled amused by the mighty nine-tails acting, and asked "Just tell me where exactly do you sense that thing?"
"It's just right underneath this shrine," Kurama grumbled as the blonde quirked his eyebrow and tapped at the wooden floor with his hands.
"Hmm...it indeed sounds like there is a basement underneath it." Naruto mused and tried to think of a way to get to it. There could be probably some stairs that would lead him there.
"Why are you thinking about it so much? You can simply take out those wooden planks, idiot."
"I could but I don't want to damage the shrine, furball." Naruto retorted at the suggestion.
"Yeah, right. It already looks like it would crumble any moment so instead of wasting both of our time with such useless sentiments, just take those out and get down there."
Naruto grumbled at his partner's infallible reasoning and decided to just do as he had suggested. He let out a sigh and started to pull the wooden planks out of the floor to get to the basement while muttering an apology to his ancestors.
After successfully pulling out about 3 wooden planks, which were honestly in terrible condition, the blonde narrowed his eyes underneath the basement to see if there was anything but failed to notice anything worthwhile. Other than the concrete floor of the basement, nothing was interesting that could have possibly ticked off Kurama's senses.
"Just get down there and check, brat." Kurama loudly sighed in annoyance as he saw the blonde simply observing the basement from the top instead of doing the more sensible thing, which was going down there.
"Sheesh...alright, furball. No need to get so annoyed about it." Naruto grumbled and jumped inside the basement from the shrine floor.
As he landed on the concrete floor of the basement with a resounding thud, Naruto dusted off some of the dust and spiderwebs that got stuck on his jacket. He then swerved his head around the small basement to see what had made his partner so interested but failed to notice anything significant.
"Try tapping on the wall in front of you," Kurama suggested as he saw the blonde just looking around the basement like a headless chicken."The energy is coming from behind that wall."
"You should have told me that from the beginning, furball," Naruto grumbled and walked in front of the wall, which was also made from concrete, and thumped it with his right hand a couple of times. As he thumped on the wall, which was quite thick, to be honest, his eyes widened in excitement as it gave off a hollow sound, indicating that there was a hidden room or compartment behind it.
"There's a room behind it, Kurama!" Naruto exclaimed in giddiness.
"I told you so," Kurama smirked and instructed his partner to quickly knock down the wall, which made the blonde momentarily pause his excitement in shock.
"Are you mad, furball? If I knock down the wall, the whole shrine might collapse on us."
"Pssh...let me do the thinking and just do as I say, brat." Kurama groaned in annoyance, prompting the blonde's eyes to twitch a little at the indirect insult but decided to just let it slide for now and do as he had been told. Since Kurama would never tell him something to do which could possibly endanger his life.
The blonde sighed in resignation and after giving it a second thought, he raised his right fist and punched the wall in front of him with enough force to ultimately knock it down completely. Much to his relief, the whole shrine didn't collapse on top of him as he had initially believed. Moreover, his previous excitement returned full force as there was indeed a hidden room behind the wall like they had expected and it was much larger compared to the basement. However, as he scanned through the now unhidden room his eyes widened in awe as he noticed a large red-colored stele placed in the middle of the room. The top of the stele was touching the ceiling of the room and its wide was wider than his wingspan.
"What the hell is that?" Naruto muttered in awe as he walked toward the stele and squinted his eyes in curiosity as he noticed that there were some inscriptions inscribed on it. He traced the inscriptions with his fingers and tried to decipher them, but couldn't decipher anything as it was written in an unknown language.
Moreover, the stele might be an important artifact or something, if his ancestor had to go to such lengths to hide it under the shrine...or were they hiding some other things in here?
"It seems that the weird energy which I've been sensing was coming from this thing," Kurama spoke as he too observed the stele and the inscriptions written on it with interest. However, the most interesting part of the stele was that he was able to understand some of the letters that were inscribed on it; since it was written in a language that he had seen being used by some humans, at least 1000 years ago.
"Hmm...I'm not sure, but these inscriptions are talking about the coordinates of an island called...uh, Laugh Tale."
"Eh...? You can understand this weird language?" Naruto asked his partner in surprise.
"Why are you so surprised about it, brat? When you have lived for more than a thousand years like me, you tend to pick up and learn a lot of things over those years." Kurama huffed arrogantly at his own knowledge. Granted, he didn't understand everything that was inscribed on the Stele but the brat didn't need to know that.
Naruto sighed at Kurama's vanity and decided to just ignore it for his own sanity, "So...this is really talking about an island called...what was that? Laugh Tale?" he asked curiously.
"Yup. A weird name for an island if I say so."
Naruto couldn't really argue with that, it was indeed a weird name.
"Though, something has been confusing me about this...stele," Naruto said and asked his partner, "You told me that it is giving off a weird energy. So why can't I sense it like you?" Even without using his powerups, he would have still been able to sense it... as after the war his sensory ability was off the chart even in his base form.
"I'm not at all surprised about it, because the energy isn't chakra nor an emotion...which are the things that you can sense." Kurama answered and explained, "But unlike you, I'm an entity completely made out of chakra. So, I can sense and feel all sorts of energy in the world. Not to mention the fact that I'm the strongest of the Tail-beasts, the mighty Nine-tails! So such little things like sensing, are child's play for me."
Naruto deadpanned as his partner's explanation took a completely different turn midway. Though Naruto understood and believed the vain fox's explanation, about him being able to sense all sorts of energies, with him being a chakra entity and all. Also, if he wasn't wrong...foxes and other animals like dogs and cats tend to have much better senses compared to humans, being able to even sense ghosts and spirits, so...that might be also one of the reasons.
"You just compared me to a fox didn't you?" Kurama glared at the blonde accusingly from inside the seal.
"I don't know what you are talking about, furball," Naruto smiled innocently and was about to say something smartass but halted when he noticed something interesting under his foot.
"Hey, Kurama. Take a look at this."
"Don't try to change the subject, brat! I'm not done with you."
"Yeah, yeah, sure. You can deal with me later, but you have to first look at this. It looks like a seal of some sort." Naruto told his raging partner as he knelt on the floor and critically examined the seal that was inscribed on the concrete floor. He wasn't a seal master or anything, but after going through tons of sealing books over the past year just to learn the Hiraishin jutsu, his sealing knowledge wasn't too shabby either.
As he examined the seal with interest, the blonde quirked his eyebrow in curiosity as he had a rough idea of what the seal's function was...
"Hmm...it looks like a summoning seal," Kurama guessed as he too examined the seal in interest.
Naruto nodded his head in agreement with his partner's guess, as he also had concluded the same thing.
"But, what is it doing here?" Naruto thought out loud as he traced his finger on the kanjis of the seal that was carved on the concrete in interest and after a few seconds, an interesting idea came to his mind.
"Kurama, should I check if the seal works by applying some chakra to it?"
"That sounds like a bad idea, brat."
"What? Are you scared or something?"
"Not scared, just cautious and wise," Kurama grunted and explained "We don't even know what this seal's exact purpose is, so applying chakra to it might prove dangerous. Not to mention, with your dumb luck, the seal might even summon the Ten tails here."
Naruto gulped nervously at the mention of the Ten tails and quickly took his hand off the seal, he knew that his luck was quite awful when it didn't involve gambling, but it wasn't that terrible...right?
"Brat..."
"Ah...yes."
"Did you just apply your chakra on the seal?"Kurama asked the blonde with an anxious tone in his voice
"Eh...? No, I didn't." Naruto replied and he was about to ask the reason for the sudden question but halted in surprise, as he noticed the seal suddenly glow in blue light while emitting an enormous amount of chakra.
"Get out of this place, right now!" Kurama ordered his partner in panic as he sensed the amount of chakra radiating from the seal and realized what was happening since it had happened to him before as well...the seal was reverse summoning his partner somewhere.
Naruto, grasping the urgency and panic in Kurama's voice tried to quickly get out of the room but couldn't, as his foot was somehow glued to the seal, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't lift his foot off from the seal.
"What are you doing, brat!? Quickly get out of the room!"
"I'm trying, Kurama! But the seal isn't letting go of my foot!" Naruto yelled as the light from the seal started to glow even brighter, illuminating the whole room.
"Grr...Then teleport away from the room by using the Hiraishin!"Kurama advised anxiously as the chakra from the seal started the get denser and heavier.
"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed and summoned one of his tri-pronged kunai from the seal inscribed on his wrist and hurled it directly toward the wall of the first basement.
"Idiot! You could have just teleported to the boat!"
"Sorry! I didn't think about that!" Naruto screamed, prompting his partner to let out a sigh of defeat at the blonde's stupidity even amid such a situation.
Naruto concentrated on the kunai that he had just thrown and tried to teleport to it, but his eyes widened in disbelief as he wasn't able to do so, and his disbelief turned into terror; when he noticed the seal started cracking and felt himself getting pulled...
"Naruto!"
"Shit!" Naruto cursed as he disappeared in a puff of smoke...from the Elemental Nations.
After a few minutes, a large black portal appeared inside the hidden room and a dark-haired man emerged from it with a grim expression on his face.
"What have you got yourself into now, Naruto?" The man muttered in worry for his best friend as saw the large red-cloured stele inside the room and the cracked seal on the ground.
He then walked toward the tri-pronged kunai that was stuck into the wall of the first basement and carefully pulled it off.
"Sasuke-san! What are you doing in here?"
The dark-haired man let out a weary sigh as he saw three concerned-looking faces through the gap from the shrine floor.
(Line Break)
In a dimly lit chamber, we find our hero sprawled out on the ground. He can be seen twitching in pain as he groggily cracked open one of his blurry, sleep-filled eyes and tried to push himself up into a more comfortable position.
"Ugh, What hit me?" He groaned as he managed to push himself up into a sitting position and massaged his temples, trying to ward off the nasty headache he was sporting at the moment. After managing to calm down the headache, he rubbed his eyes and peered to check where he was.
And as he saw the all too familiar settings of his mindscape, he let out a groan and slowly stood up. He stretched his arms and legs for a bit and walked toward the direction where he knew his partner would be.
After a short walk, he saw the hulking form of his partner snoring peacefully.
"Kurama, wake up!" Naruto called out to his partner, his sound echoing in the huge chamber.
"Grrr.., "Kurama grunted and cracked open his eyes, and let out a tired yawn as he heard his partner calling him. it turned its head towards its partner and blankly stared at him with its huge slitted, red eyes.
"You finally managed to wake up, huh, princess?"
"You were the one that was sleeping, furball!" Naruto retorted pointing one of his fingers at Kurama.
"Nah, I was simply waiting for you to wake up idiot."Kurama calmly said and yawned tiredly.
Naruto's eyebrows angrily twitched at his partner's reply, he was about to yell at Kurama for the 'idiot' remark. But momentarily paused, as his eyes finally adjusted to the dimly lit chamber and he got a proper look at his partner's condition.
Kurama's whole body looked like someone who hadn't eaten for years; granted it doesn't need to it anything, but that's beside the point. it looked worryingly thin and skeletal. its one's majestic-looking blood red 'fur' was now slightly dull and pale. And the most worrying part was his partner's size; Kurama's whole body had somehow shrunk. Before, its whole body could easily dwarf the Hokage monument, but now it was no bigger than a small two-storey building.
"Oi...Kurama?" Naruto called now looking at his partner's face in concern and a little bit of confusion.
"What happened to you?"
"So, you finally noticed...huh. Took you long enough." Kurama snidely remarked as he slowly stood up and brought his face closer to Naruto and gave a menacing glare.
"It's all thanks to that darn seal under that shrine...and to an extent, because of you."
"Wha...what do you mean?" Naruto stuttered as a sense of foreboding filled his body.
"Don't you remember?"
Naruto shooked his head negatively as he tried to recall what had happened, but failed. He only remembered that he and Kurama were examining the stele and the seal that they found under the shrine and...
"Well, then let me jog your memory a bit." Kurama let out an annoyed sigh and continued. "After I stopped you from applying your chakra on that summoning seal, the seal somehow activated itself and tried to reverse summon you somewhere. But it seems it malfunctioned midway and failed to do so because of you trying to use the Hiraishin to get away from its grasp, and instead of summoning you to its intended location it transported you inside a dark void and since I'm connected to you, you being my container and all; I was also summoned along with you and had to use almost all of my chakra to keep you alive; otherwise, you would have died inside that void."
Kurama paused and took a deep breath as it prepared itself to give its partner even more bad news.
"Whatever that void was, it was stretching your body like rubber while suffocating you and sucking your chakra at an alarming rate. So, I had to use my chakra as a protective barrier over your body and almost lost all of my chakra in the process as the void started to absorb my chakra as well. And after a few minutes, the void spat us out here in this strange world."
"I...I'm sorry, Kurama."
After hearing the information, Naruto guiltily apologized as he now realized that it was due to his stupid action of wanting to apply chakra on that seal his partner was now in this sorry state. But he blinked and a confused look appeared on his expression when he comprehended the full explanation.
"What do you mean...a strange world, Kurama?"
"It might be hard to believe, brat but that void has somehow transported us into a completely new dimension, and from what I could sense this dimension or world is very far away from our home."
"What...? you are joking, right?" Naruto worriedly asked, however, Kurama knew that it was not even the worst part of their current predicament.
"I'm afraid this is not a joke, brat. I wish it was." Kurama stated grimly.
"And that's not even the worst part of our situation. When we were stuck in that void, it might have felt like a few minutes, but it was actually three years."
"WHAT? THREE YEARS?"
Kurama nodded grimly as it looked over its shell-shocked partner.
"Kurama, this ought to be a joke! How can three..."
"I know it may be hard to believe but this is the truth brat." Kurama interrupted his partner and explained. "You might have not sensed the difference in time since you haven't aged inside the void, and even I wouldn't have been able to notice the difference, but since I have lived for almost a thousand years I'm quite perceptive of time and I'm a being of chakra so any changes like that, can't go unnoticed by me."
"But, if what you are saying is true, then why don't I feel or look like I have aged even a little bit in those three years?" Naruto questioned a bit uncertain and still not believing Kurama's claim.
"About that, I don't exactly know or have the exact answer to why you haven't aged in those three years," Kurama confessed as it too was a bit uncertain about that though it had some theories about that.
"There are certain possibilities about your dilemma though I'm not exactly certain. It might be because of the overflowing chakra that I was pumping through your chakra networks, and to your whole body which could have protected you from aging, or the most probable and believable in my opinion is that the 'void' might have put your body into a stasis, which might have stopped your aging for those years."
"Though on a positive note," Kurama took another heavy breath mid-sentence and look at Naruto, who looked thoroughly confused, perplexed, and shell-shocked. The beast couldn't blame him though, even he, was a bit confused about their situation when he noticed the complete dark void trying to suck both of them dry of their chakra. "Since this dimension is so far away from our own, there might be some time difference between the two; so there is a high possibility that only a month, year, or heck even an hour might have passed in our world due to time dilation. so you don't worry much about that."
"By that logic, isn't there a possibility that five years, ten years, or heck! even twenty years might have passed in our world?" Naruto questioned in bewilderment.
"Ah... You are right. I didn't think about it that way." Kurama sweated and sheepishly agreed with its partner's statement earning a groan from the said partner.
"But, don't think much into it. As I said, It is just a possibility, not one hundred percent factual that it is going to happen. so, don't..uh.. sweat about it okay?"
Hearing the explanation and his partner's rather bad attempt at consoling him, Naruto let out another frustrated groan from his mouth. If he was being honest, he was thoroughly confused with his current predicament. He was never really a scholar type or anything, so to hear about things like a void, stasis, and even traveling through dimensions was all a bit confusing and foreign to him. Granted, during his fight with Kaguya, he had traveled to different dimensions, but this was on a whole other level.
So just to calm down the massive, headache that he could feel was coming, he decided to simply accept everything that he had heard so far as another part of his massive pile of misfortune that had been handed to him since his birth.
'Wait...a minute.' He thought as a literal light bulb lit up in his head and a massive grin appear on his face. 'Even if I'm in a different dimension, wouldn't the toad elders be able to reverse summon me back to our home? And if I'm not wrong, Sasuke's eye has the ability to open portals to different dimensions, so wouldn't he be able to easily open a portal to wherever we have landed and get us out of here?'
"No, it's not going to work, brat," Kurama hotly declared as it saw the grin on his partner's face.
"Wha... what do you mean it's not going to work?" Naruto sputtered his grin and the hope that was brewing inside him now fading away. "And how do you know what I was thinking of?"
"Let me guess..." Kurama mused its eyebrow quirking a bit, even though it didn't actually have one. "You were thinking that the toad summons of yours, would be able to summon you back, right?"
Seeing its partner giving a resigned nod it continued, "And you were also hoping that Uchiha would be able to open a portal into this dimension and get us back to our world, weren't you?"
"How do know that!? and why do you think that it wouldn't work?"
"Hmm...for your first question, you are just far too easy to read, brat." Kurama quipped prompting Naruto to facepalm.
"And for your second question, the simple answer is that they lack the amount of chakra to access this dimension. Like I said before, this dimension is very far away from our own; so to open a portal to this dimension or even to summon you back, would require an enormous amount of chakra; which the toads nor your friend have."
"So how are we going to get back to our world then? Are we going to be stuck here forever??" Naruto asked in desperation as his last hope of going back to his home was crushed. He didn't want to get stuck in this unknown world! he still had a lot of things to accomplish back home, like becoming the Hokage!
It seems that whatever Kami has been looking after him, has taken his wish for an adventure quite literally by dumping him and Kurama in a strange new world.
"Well, we do have a way to get back to our world." Kurama said gaining the complete attention of its partner "We can get back through the use of your Hiraishin kunai."
"My hiraishin kunai...?" Naruto muttered confusedly getting a nod from his partner "But how?"
"I don't know whether you remember it or not but before you suddenly disappeared from our world, thankfully, two of your kunai were left back there. Since you use that kunai to teleport from one place to another, use the kunai as a medium. In theory, there is a possibility that you could teleport both of us back to that kunai that was left in our world."
"But...But I don't even know how to use it properly yet. So to teleport us back to a whole different dimension is out of the question!" Naruto stated looking at his friend like he had grown a second head for giving such an outrageous solution to their problem.
"Who is even talking about being able to go back to our world now, brat? There is no chance that we will be able to go back with my condition right now as I barely have more than two tails worth of chakra right now." Kurama retorted and confessed, "Not to mention that it is just a theory, not a foolproof plan so even if I get back all my chakra we could still be stuck here."
"What? If not now then when?"
"Maybe after 4 or 5 years, and since this world doesn't have any chakra in the air it might even take longer than that."
".."
"..."
Naruto blankly looked at his partner while trying to make sure that he hadn't heard it wrong.
"You serious, Kurama? Please tell me you are joking." Naruto pleaded and hoping that it was just one of those cruel jokes that his partner sometimes likes to play on him.
"I'm afraid, I'm not joking brat," Kurama said and explained, "As you have already noticed by now, I'm not in very good shape. I have lost almost seventh tails worth of chakra trying to protect both of us in that void. Even if you master that jutsu, your chakra won't be enough to transport us back to the kunai in our world. Since both of the dimensions are so far apart not even your massive chakra reserves would be able to fuel the process. You are also going to need almost all of my chakra to be able to do that. So for me to recover the chakra that I had lost in that void It's going to take almost 4 to 5 years, even if I sleep and do nothing."
After hearing Kurama's reasoning, Naruto finally realized how dire their situation was. He felt like his whole world has been snatched away from him, literally. However, he also knew that there was any other choice, what choice did he even have?
"Sigh...So, will you be sleeping for almost 5 years?"
Kurama snorted at that question and retorted "Like hell, I will do that. If I sleep for so long then you are probably going to get yourself killed due to your stupid decisions. So, I'm not going to hibernate and make sure that you don't do anything stupid."
Naruto laughed amusedly even if he was quite ticked off by the insult, but he let it slide as he was kinda relieved that he won't be on his own in this strange world for so long.
"So what's the plan then, O wise one?"
"Hmm...First, I need you to get information about this world that we are in and also try to keep the information about your origin a secret. Make sure to not tell anyone that you are from a different dimension as some people might take advantage of your naiveness and trustful nature. "Hey!" Secondly, you might have to avoid using my chakra for some years unless you feel like you are in a grave or dire situation. As you using my chakra would delay my recovery." Kurama instructed and grinned as it saw that Naruto was listening to its instructions seriously, nodding his head to every word it was saying.
"And most importantly, we need to find any information regarding that Island called Laugh Tale, that was mentioned on that stele. I have a hunch that it might exist in this world."
"Eh...? Why though?" Naruto asked a bit confused by that part.
"Because my gut is telling me that there is some connection between this transportation and that Island. Not only that but if your Hiraishin isn't able to get us back to our world then that Island is our only hope, as there might be some information on that island that could help us to find a way back."
"How are you so sure that this island exists in this world?"
"Brat... like I said, it's just a hunch."
Naruto deadpanned at that but just let out a sigh and nodded his head in agreement.
"It seems we are going to have one hell of an adventure here aren't we, partner?" Naruto lightly smile and extended his right fist for a fist bump.
"It seems so, brat." Kurama chuckled and bumped his partner's fist.
"Now, go and take your nap. As I'm going to show this world the awesomeness of the most unpredictable ninja and future Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto declared with a confident grin on his face.
"Yeah, sure brat. Now get your stupid ass out of my face, I need to rest a bit." Kurama declared with a noticeable grin on his face.
"Yeah..yeah... You old fox. I also don't want to see your stupid face anymore." Naruto retorted with a similar grin on his face as he slowly willed himself out of the mindscape.
(Line Break)
Tequila Wolf, East Blue.
When Naruto groggily opened his eyes as he came out from his mindscape he was half expecting to see some dark and dreary deserts or just simply a large expanse of dry flat lands with flowing lavas as rivers. Just like the ones he had witnessed during his fight with Kaguya.
Instead, he was welcomed by the sight of the night sky and a white blanket, no... a blanket of snow to be precise and to his annoyance, it was snowing quite heavily as well making him shudder due to the low temperature.
"..."
"Am I laying down in a ditch?" Naruto wondered out loud and sighed when he realized that he was indeed laying down in a deep ditch or crater of some sort, which he assumed was formed on the snowy ground by his landing.
'I guess that void dropped me here from a big height. No wonder my back is hurting so much.' He mused and then push his body into a sitting position and started to check on his condition. Thankfully, he found that no part of his body was missing; all of his arms, legs, fingers, and toes were intact. Though both of his sandals were missing and he was now barefoot.
His clothes were also completely ruined, his pant and shirt were in tatters with holes all over them. He touched his forehead to check whether his forehead protector was missing, and to his relief, it was still safely secured on his forehead. Though, he could feel some scratches on it.
He then slowly stood up while holding his aching back and started to climb his way out of the snowy ditch. When he finally made his way out, he couldn't help but let out a "wow" from his mouth as he saw that the whole place was covered in snow.
"This place is freaking cold, man." he shuddered and rubbed his hands together to warm his freezing hands.
"Brat, I have a piece of great news."
"What is it Kurama? and didn't you say that you were going to take a nap?" Naruto asked curiously.
"Bah...the mighty nine-tails doesn't need to take a nap." Kurama declared, prompting his partner to sweat drooped at his antics "Anyways, I can sense the same energy that was emitting from the red-colored stele some 2000 miles away from here."
"Really!?" Naruto exclaimed in excitement at that information as there was a chance that there was another similar stele in this world that could have the same seal which was present on the island.
"But how are you able to sense it if the energy is so far away from here?" he asked in confusion as last time Kurama was only able to sense the energy because the source of the energy, being the stele, was just underneath them.
"I also don't know, but it isn't important for now. The most important thing now is to locate the source of the energy as fast as possible. Though, it would take a lot of time as it is too far away from here."
"Eh..? Can't I just fly to that location?"
"Brat...do you even know how far 2000 miles is?" Kurama groaned and was about to say something when both of their senses caught someone approaching them, though they weren't alarmed as they didn't sense any negative emotions from that person.
"Don't do anything stupid brat." Kurama pleaded to his knucklehead partner.
"Have some faith in your partner, you damn furball," Naruto grumbled getting a snort from his partner in return.
The blonde anxiously waited for the person that was coming toward him, not knowing what to expect though he wasn't on guard nor alarmed as the person didn't radiate any negative emotions. After a few seconds, when he finally saw the person he became a bit surprised as the person turned out to be a little girl, and judging by the girl's expression she looked just as surprised as him when she noticed him.
The young girl had medium-length blond hair and she was wearing an old, tattered suit that seems to be too big of a size. Her suit was blue with a buttoned collar, and the sleeves were rolled up. She was also wearing brown shoes which might also be too large of a size and had a white muffler wrapped around her neck. The number "3333" was also sewn onto her suit, which made Naruto a bit curious, and she was holding some small pieces of wood in her hands.
"Ah...hello." Naruto nervously greeted and waved at the surprised girl, while trying his best to put on the most charming smile on his face.
"Hello, " The young girl greeted back and curiously stared at the blonde, specifically, at his tattered clothing "Are you okay?" she asked in concern.
Naruto grinned as he saw the concerned look on her face and was now sure that she didn't have any ill intentions toward him, "Yup, I'm alright. Though I'm freezing out here, to be honest."
After hearing his answer the young girl seemed to ponder for a bit and asked, "Would you like to come to our house then?"
Naruto blinked in surprise at the sudden kind offer from the girl and thought for a bit, but ultimately decided to accept her offer as he could feel his ball freezing due to the cold.
"Uh...If it won't put you out. Then yes, I would like to come to your house." Naruto replied sheepishly and thanked the girl for her kindness, to which she just gave a slight nod in return and told him to follow her.
"Would you like to wear my muffler?" Soran kindly offered the blonde as she saw him shivering a little.
Naruto smiled at the girl's kindness, "No, it's okay." he kindly rejected the offer and made sure to not shiver again due to the cold as he didn't want to make her concerned.
"By the way, My name is Naruto. What's your name?" Naruto lamely introduced himself and asked the girl for her name as they both walked through the snowy path to her house.
"My name is Soran, " The girl replied and curiously asked, "You are not from around here, are you?"
"Yup. Though, how do you know that I wasn't from around here?"
"Your clothes, I've never seen someone wear such kind of clothes here."
Naruto sweatdropped at the way he was caught, but decided to not think much about it, "Where is this place anyway?" he asked as he finally noticed some large buildings appear in view.
"This place is called Tequila Wolf, it is a part of the East Blue," Soran answered and instructed while pulling the surprised blonde to quickly hide behind one of the buildings.
"Why are we hiding?" Naruto asked a bit confused by the way they were hiding and also by the anxiousness of the girl. Though, his eyes narrowed slightly as he heard some screams of pain and a whipping sound nearby making him quite wary of the situation.
"If the guards see you they are going to put you in jail," Soran nervously replied making the blonde even more confused and wary by the whole thing. "Come follow me, and make sure to not make any sound." She advised the blonde and pulled him towards the door of a building, which was right across the snowy street.
As Naruto quietly followed the girl, he gritted his teeth in anger when he noticed something which made his blood boil in fury. He now had a rough idea of what this place was and also guessed why Soran had a number stitched to her suit.
'What the hell is going on in this place?' Naruto thought furiously as he saw a man wearing a red uniform wickedly whip two people while ordering them to do their job properly.
*The End*
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A/N: I just copied and pasted the conversation between Naruto and Kurama after they were transported from my first story. Of course, I modified it a little.
The ending wasn't that great, I know.
By the way, Naruto can still use Kurama's chakra. He just won't be able to spam it for every situation.
Anyways, which timeline in the canon would you prefer for this story? After the two-year time skip or right after Luffy started his journey?
The main story is going to start in the next chapter.
If you have any ideas, suggestions, or criticism feel free to review or PM me.