Hey, everyone. Here I am with my first new long-term story in a while. Not much to say right now; power was out at my house for the last couple of days, so it's great to have Wi-Fi again. Amazing how only 2 days without power makes you realize how much you take for granted. Anyways... Hope you all enjoy the chapter!
It hurt. In his brief career as a shinobi, Naruto had learned that pain was one of life's constants. Whether it was from sparring, a mission, or even an accident, injuries occurred frequently to varying degrees of severity.
He'd been cut. He'd been stabbed. He'd been scorched and knocked out.
But this.
This.
Sasuke had tried to kill him. Sasuke was trying to kill him. Even thinking those words brought about an ache that somehow stung worse than any injury he'd ever taken on a mission. Seeing his best friend standing from the crater in the cliff he'd been knocked into, lightning chakra sparking around him as he used that technique…
Naruto didn't want to kill Sasuke. Naruto didn't want to be killed by Sasuke.
'Why? Why are things ending like this?! Sasuke… we're friends, aren't we?' Even as he thought the words, Naruto could feel the rasengan forming in his palm. Driven by his emotions and fueled by the fox's chakra, the growing orb took on a purple hue rather than its normal vibrant blue.
There was barely any time for thought. The orb formed on its own; and in any other case Naruto would've been laughing and cheering and showing off to Pervy Sage or Kakashi-Sensei that he hadn't needed his clones to make the rasengan!
But not this time. There was no time for laughter or celebration. Not when he was already speeding towards Sasuke, arm outstretched to meet the black lightning in Sasuke's palm…
Negative Chidori met Ninetails-empowered Rasengan in a clash of energies that the Valley of the End had not seen in decades. The air crackled around them as the out-of-control energies surged, and in a brilliant flash the world went white! For a single moment, all was still… before an ever-growing orb of dark purple surrounded the two. In mere moments, the purple orb darkened to an inky black, an abyss so deep not even light could escape it…
Then, a shining white light began to form in the center black sphere. From this light, cracks formed in the shape of blocky runes, before the light drowned out the darkness, leaving the two battling teens caught in the midst of it.
Red eyes stared into red eyes.
And then one pair of eyes- along with its owner, faded into the light, their form blurring and distorting before vanishing altogether.
The world was silent once more, the stillness interrupted by the quiet pitter-patter of falling rain.
Sasuke's numb legs hit the rain-slicked mud of the riverbank, the dark haired teen's knees wobbling as he only barely managed to catch his balance.
Naruto was gone.
'Did… did that really happen? Have I… won?' The young Uchiha blinked at the sensation of raindrops falling on his skin. With the adrenaline of battle dying down, only now did his senses to the rest of the world reawaken. It was as if someone had abruptly turned the color, the sound, the smells of the world around him back on after disabling them for his fight with Naruto.
'Naruto… you…' He didn't know what to say. He never would've thought that the dead last of their graduating class, the knucklheaded, stubborn, orange-wearing ninja would've been the person to give him the hardest fight of his life, but…
Naruto truly had given the fight everything he had. And he'd paid the price for his stubbornness.
Sasuke barely had the chakra left to use his Sharingan, but even he could tell this was no illusion. Here he stood, alone, as if Naruto had never shown up. The only evidence that the loud-mouthed blonde had ever come after him were the plentiful scorch marks, craters, and dents in the landscape around him.
Naruto had simply… shimmered out of existence, fading into the light like some ethereal spirit leaving this plane of existence.
Sasuke didn't think Naruto was dead, because his Sharingan had not ascended into the Mangekyou Sharingan, but either way there'd been no body left behind…
Sasuke doubted he'd be seeing his former teammate again.
"Urgh!" A spasm shot through his body, and Sasuke's knees hit the mud. Right. He hadn't noticed up till now how heavily injured he was.
It was time to be off, then. Reinforcements were probably on their way for Naruto, which meant that he needed to move, and fast.
As he staggered further and further away from Konoha, Sasuke cast his now scratched forehead protector behind him. He wouldn't be needing it anymore.
"Ugh… what… I feel like I just got punched out by an Akimichi…" Naruto groaned, blinking bleary eyes as he pushed himself up off of the muddy riverbank he'd been lying face down on.
"The last thing I remember… Sasuke!" His eyes no longer bleary and confused but wide and alert, Naruto spun around hoping to see his enemy, his rival, his best friend.
Nothing.
No sign of Sasuke anywhere. His heart sank. There was no sign Sasuke was still here, or had even been here!
Naruto knew he wasn't the most observant person, but even he couldn't miss something so obviously out of place. Namely, the glaring fact that the Valley of the End was for some reason lacking the two gigantic statues of two of Konoha's most famous figures.
Not only that, but…
He and Sasuke had scarred the earth with their battle, but this river looked as quiet and picturesque as any artist's painting of a peaceful landscape. Naruto felt an unpleasant tingle in the back of his mind.
"I… I must've drifted downstream. The fight with Sasuke…. Konoha… Lee, Shikamaru, and everyone else… The river must've carried me away from them. I… I need to find my way back…" The blonde muttered, wincing as he set off. Without the adrenaline pumping through his veins, he was keenly aware of just how much everything hurt. Sasuke hadn't pulled a single punch… and Naruto would likely bare the scars of this battle for the rest of his life.
Sasuke had punched straight through his chest with his Chidori. Had it not been for the Fox stuck in him, he would've died immediately.
Gritting his teeth, Naruto shoved the agonizing memory aside. He needed to… what?
Find Sasuke?
Was Sasuke still alive in the first place? Had he survived that terrible last clash of their powers?
No.
He wasn't dead. He couldn't be dead. Naruto was going to find Sasuke. Everything would be right again. He, Sasuke, and Sakura would go back to Kakashi-sensei, and the world would make sense again. It… it had to happen. It needed to happen. He couldn't let them down.
A flare of pain shot through his chest, almost bringing Naruto to his knees as he wheezed.
Right. Maybe… maybe one of his friends had finished their fight with those creepy Sound shinobi goons already. As much as he wanted to run after Sasuke, Naruto hated to admit it, but it was taking every bit of willpower just to put one foot in front of the other and keep staggering down the riverbank. If Sasuke was still ready to fight… Naruto knew he wouldn't have a hope of beating him into submission.
'Something… something's not right. The Valley… the statues… I should've seen them by now!' He'd been walking (well, stumbling, more accurately) for a good few minutes, and the towering statues- two of the most recognizable landmarks in the Land of Fire, were still alarmingly absent!
'I must've drifted further than I thought…' Though as much as he hated the feeling, Naruto couldn't shake the instinctive feeling that there was something really wrong here.
His suspicions and fears only grew as the minutes passed. No sign of Shikamaru or his squad. No sign of Sasuke. No sign of Kakashi or anybody else he could think of who might show up. Not even Pervy Sage or Granny Tsunade, though why the Hokage herself would be wandering the woods looking for him was beyond him.
Worst of all was that his exhaustion was only growing. Naruto had been stubbornly pushing his battered, broken body to its limit, and after the battle with Sasuke, the first thing he needed was an extended stay in the hospital, not a wild goose chase through the dense forests of the Land of Fire.
'I… I have to keep moving. I can't… can't fall… here…'
The pain in his chest refused to die down. It felt like his lungs were burning, and every bone and muscle in his body was calling it quits at the same time!
The world spun, and once more Naruto found himself reacquainted with the ground.
Naruto's eyes fluttered open.
For a few blissful moments, he remained half-asleep, paying no attention to his surroundings. Sunlight illuminated the rustic room he was in, and Naruto himself felt warm, cozy, almost drowsy from the comforting sunbeam falling on him. He could hear the sound of birds chirping outside, and the distinct hustle and bustle of people milling around outside.
With a drawn-out yawn, the blonde teen stretched his arms high.
Working the sleep out of his eyes, Naruto blinked his eyes a few times.
Then he closed his eyes.
Waited a full five seconds.
And opened them again.
His scenery was unchanged.
'This definitely isn't my room! Where… where the heck am I?' The banner with Konoha's leaf symbol imprinted on it; which had hung for years over his bed wasn't anywhere in sight. The furniture in the room was different. His little television was nowhere in sight. And the walls… rather than the composite materials the apartment building had been constructed from, the walls of the room he was in looked more like some old-timey log cabin!
'And I've been to the hospital enough times to know that this definitely isn't a hospital room either…' Naruto thought, looking around warily. What had Kakashi said about what to do when you woke up in a strange, unfamiliar location? Well, more like 'what had he taught that the ninja academy hadn't.'
First, take stock of his location. Kakashi had warned him about automatically assuming whether or not strangers were friendly or hostile, but a quick look at himself told him that someone had taken the time bandage and patch up many of the injuries he'd accrued in his fight with Sasuke.
Someone had also apparently changed his clothes at some point, because his beloved orange jumpsuit had been replaced with a set of dull brown pants and a woven shirt a few shades of brown lighter than the mud-colored pants.
…Waking up in an unfamiliar location wearing clothes not his own wasn't a comforting feeling, but if whoever's bed he'd woken up in had taken the time to treat his wounds, they couldn't be all bad. His body ached all over, and he hadn't felt this much fatigue in a long time, but the most glaring injuries, cuts, and bruises from his battle with Sasuke had been bandaged or otherwise tended to.
Enemy shinobi had little reason to show such compassion to their foes, after all.
Still… Sasuke was out there, along with Shikamaru, Lee, and everyone else. He couldn't lie around here snoozing in the sun while his squadmates were potentially fighting for their lives!
'Guess I'd better make a quick exit. I just hope whoever owns this cabin left my ninja tools lying around somewhere. I don't wanna have to pay to replace all those kunai and shuriken…' And paper bombs and smoke bombs and other odds and ends vital to a proper ninja, but that went without saying.
Naruto threw the covers off of the bed he'd been lying in, prepared to make a dash for the door to the room. The window looked to be too small for him to fit through, and though Kakashi had impressed the need to always have more than one escape route when alone in an unfamiliar location, for the life of him Naruto couldn't see another way out.
That being said, escaping from this place was easier said than done. Naruto's body quickly reminded him that he was very much still recovering from one of the roughest fights of his life, and as his muscles locked up, pain flaring in his torso, Naruto hit the wooden floor with a thump.
Moments later, the unmistakable sound footsteps approaching the door to his room echoed throughout the wooden home.
The door flew open, and Naruto found himself scooped up by a pair of sturdy arms, before being gently deposited back in the bed he'd been sleeping in.
"Easy there, lad! You shouldn't be up and movin' yet! Why, with how you were snorin' only a few hours ago, I thought you'd be out cold till tomorrow morn at the least! Margot! Margot, get in here! The boy's awake!"
Naruto was left blinking dumbly at the large, muscular old man who'd entered the room. Short brown hair, a thick beard and moustache, and black eyes all set on a weathered face. The man was… well, old. Naruto wasn't good with guessing ages; he put Kakashi and Bushy Brows-sensei (Might Guy, he reminded himself) at both being well into their thirties, and it had come as a bit of a shock to learn that both of them (along with the other Jonin teaching his graduating class from the academy) were all collectively in their mid-twenties.
All he could tell about this guy was that he was maybe around Pervy Sage's age, though the beard could've added (or taken) a few years from his age.
Another set of footsteps thudded into the room, and Naruto was soon leaning back in the bed as a dark-haired woman roughly the same age as the man entered, a shocked expression on her face.
"Goddess above, it's true. Can you hear me, boy? Merciful Macuil, it does my heart good to see you awake, child! My heart just about jumped right out my throat when I saw Ffion and Dafydd carrying you in."
…The first thought that passed through Naruto's mind was the rather decisive notion that this man and woman; most likely husband and wife; were not enemies, shinobi or otherwise. The second thought… where the heck in the Land of Fire had he ended up? He'd heard a few names mentioned by now, or at least what sounded like names, but they sure hadn't been any kind of names he'd ever heard.
'Fee-on? Day-fid?And… those are some of the funniest-sounding names I've ever heard. And these two don't really look like they're from the Land of Fire either…" There was something off with their faces; though not in an unsettling way. Naruto couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Both man and woman were staring down at him expectantly, and while the man's bushy beard made it hard to tell, Naruto felt a bit taken aback at the raw compassion on the matronly woman's face.
"I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki! Nice to meet you!" When in doubt, put a big smile on your face and hope for the best!
The woman- Margot- smiled gently, in a way Naruto seldom saw on the girls and ladies he knew. It was like the warm smile he'd sometimes see on Granny Tsunade's face when she was healing him up and thought he was unconscious.
"It's nice to meet you, Nar- Naruto," she replied, though Naruto didn't miss how she stumbled over his name slightly. Her smile faded and was replaced by a concerned frown. Next to her, Naruto could see her husband's brow furrowing, his lips moving silently. Naruto could practically hear the phonetic butchering of his name (Nah-ru-toe) on the man's tongue.
"Er, Naruto, was it? I mean no offense with these questions, but… what in the Goddess's name was a boy of your age doing out in the forest alone? If a couple of our hunters hadn't been out at the time, wolves might've gotten to you before any could've found you!" Naruto had the distinct feeling that she'd wanted to say 'no place for children to play,' and only just stopped herself.
"I was out on a mission! After Sasuke left our village, my teammates and I were sent out to bring him back! You, uh… you haven't seen Sasuke anywhere, have you? He's my age, black hair, black eyes but they're sometimes red, usually wears blue or black…"
"By the Saints, slow down, lad! What's this about a mission? And your… friend? The name's not familiar. I could send for Ffion or Dafydd, if you want to ask them, but s' far as I recall, they found you alone."
Those words didn't help Naruto feel better, and while he was stewing in thought, wondering why the civilian duo were so weirded out by the idea of a regular ninja like him doing his job, he missed the concerned, questioning look the married couple shared.
'This just gets weirder and weirder… even people living out in the middle of nowhere in the Land of Fire knew a shinobi of Konoha when they saw one. His forehead protector should've tipped them off immediately…
Wait.
His forehead protector!
'It's gone! W-where is it?!' Naruto slapped his hands to his forehead, now realizing for the first time that he could feel nothing but bare skin.
"Easy there, lad! If you're lookin' for that funny headband of yours, it's over in the next room, along with your other possessions. I can fetch em' for you if that'll put your mind at ease."
"…Thanks." Naruto mumbled, feeling more than a little lost. A pit was forming in his stomach, and a very discomforting thought was forming in his mind.
"Could… could you ask the hunters who found me if I can talk to them? Maybe… Maybe one of them saw something that they didn't tell you about."
"…Aye. I can do that. Margot, can you help me find the siblings? It's early enough in the day that Declan hasn't finished repairing Ffion's bow, so she and her brother are probably around the village somewhere."
"Arnaud, shouldn't I stay with the boy? He's only just woken up, after all."
"I think it would be best if you came with me, Margot."
"Oh! I-I… yes, of course. You stay right here, Naruto. We'll be back soon, and we'll bring the ones who found you by the river."
The door shut behind the two adults as they left the room, and that was that.
Naruto wasn't stupid. He'd received enough disdainful glares and suspicious looks throughout his young life to recognize when people were trying to get away from him.
'At least they aren't hostile… More like… they're confused by what I was telling them.' And the fact that they were confused made him confused. The old guy- Arnawd? Arnaud? That was another weird-sounding name to him. …Anyways, the old guy had specifically mentioned seeing Naruto's forehead protector.
A 'funny headband' he'd called it.
That sentence alone was enough to widen the pit in Naruto's stomach.
He couldn't think of a single civilian in all the Land of Fire, no- the entire Elemental Nations who wouldn't recognize a shinobi's forehead protector when they saw it.
Slumping back on the bed, Naruto realized that he could hear the two adults talking a room or two over in hushed tones. He knew it wasn't polite or proper to eavesdrop, but… Naruto's curiosity got the better of him
"I'm not saying we need to be wary of the boy, Margot! But you can't deny there's something odd about the lad! When Ffion and Dafydd brought him back to the village, he was wearing just about the strangest clothes I've ever seen in my life! And not to mention those strange knives in that little pack of his. Who in their right mind would let a child go off into the deep woods to play with real blades? I felt one of those knives- they're only sharp at the tip, but they'll kill a man just as quickly as an axe or bow if misused!"
"I agree with you there, Arnaud, but the boy's only just woken up. I fear he'll bolt like a frightened rabbit if we press him too quickly."
"Aye, you're right about that. Doesn't mean I won't talk to him about all that strangeness of his at some point, but… I'll give him some time."
"You better not frighten the boy; you saw what he looked like before Maeve could start working her healing magic on him! That poor boy looked like he'd crawled right out of Ailell itself! Who on Fodlan would do something so horrible to such a young boy?! The tears on his clothes, the scars… Mark my words, Arnaud, some of those scars didn't look like they were left by a woodland beast! Now, I agree with you that he certainly doesn't seem like he's from around these parts, but that's no reason for us to be cold to him. You hurry along and fine those two siblings, while I see if I can prepare something hot for the boy to eat."
The sound of footsteps growing fainter told Naruto that the adults had likely left the building.
He was alone now, but saw no point in trying to run. The people here meant him no harm, and his mind was buzzing with questions.
"Argh… I wanna just ask them how to get to Konoha from here… But that grandma and grampa were acting like they'd never seen a Konoha ninja before! What am I gonna do if they tell me they don't know what Konoha is?!" It was a small mercy that Naruto was left alone to voice these thoughts; even if he wasn't aware of how he came across to other people, he was for better or worse, the type to speak first and think later at the best of times.
If it hadn't been for his confusion hampering his thought processes, he most likely would've bombarded the old couple with questions they would've had no answer to, questions that would've only made them more confused about his circumstances.
In the end, as the minutes ticked by, Naruto decided it would be for the best to wait and see who it was the kind man and woman would bring.
"Those two said that the people who found me didn't find anyone else near me. I hope that doesn't mean that Sasuke got away! If he really did run off to join that creep Orochimaru… then that means that we failed… That we let everyone down! But… I might have even bigger problems right now. If this isn't the Land of Fire… then where am I?"
Naruto was not an unintelligent person. Sure, he'd been called stupid, brainless, thoughtless, and a whole host of other similar insults, but when push came to shove, he was good at coming up with plans on the fly. He'd evade professional ninja regularly during his days as a prankster (and devised complex traps and pranks that said professionals had constantly gotten caught in.) Yes, he was somewhat prone to putting his foot in his mouth, but what many people who underestimated him failed to understand was that under his shaggy blonde mop of hair, there was a fully functioning brain.
Naruto understood the basics of what was happening to him.
He was a Konoha shinobi lost in unfamiliar territory, with limited supplies and no ninja allies.
He didn't need Kakashi-sensei, Pervy Sage, or even Iruka to tell him what needed to be done.
He'd read stories- both real and fictionalized- of heroic ninjas going on great journeys to find their way back to their home villages. Maybe… Maybe it was his turn to have his tale immortalized in story?
'Yeah… I just… I just need to figure out where I am first, and everything else will fall into place! And maybe I'm not all that far from the village! I didn't see those huge statues anywhere, but the forest I was walking through earlier did look similar to the forests surrounding Konoha. Maybe… if I'm lucky it won't take more than a few days to get back home!'
Naruto's spirits felt a little better thanks to the positive thoughts, and soon after he had concluded his mental self-conversation, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching; though this time it sounded like there were an additional two sets of footsteps.
"He's right in there. Awake, like I said. You be careful with your questions, you hear me, Dafydd? I don't want you spooking the poor boy. Goddess knows what happened to him before you found him."
The door to the room opened, and two new people walked in. One was a tall young man of maybe twenty years, and the other was a girl a year or two younger than her friend.
'Brother and sister,' Naruto mentally amended, seeing that both had similar facial features and blonde hair the color of straw. The only difference was that the boy's eyes were blue while his sister's were green.
"Saints above, Arnaud and Margot were telling the truth! He is awake!" The boy breathed, blue eyes wide in wonder.
"I can hardly believe it myself… A-are you really alright? You were in such a state when we found you, I was afraid you wouldn't last long enough for us to fetch the village healer," The girl murmured, peering down at the seated Naruto with wide, worried eyes.
"Uh… I wouldn't really say that I'm okay, I'm still pretty sore… But don't you worry! I'm not going to go and die anytime soon!"
"Phew! That's a relief! I just about died of shock when we found you, you know! Dafydd- this lunk here is my older brother- we were out tracking a deer when he spied your clothes through the trees. I ate an orange once; when a trader from the Alliance was passing through our little village, but I've never seen clothes the same color as an orange!"
"What Ffion is saying is that you sure stood out against the mud of the riverbank, kid. Not only that, but… well, Ffion an' me have seen our share of scrapes, it's natural bein' hunters an' all. But I ain't never seen injuries as bad as yours! Damn near didn't think you'd make it long enough for Miss Maeve to treat you!"
"Ahh… yeah… Thanks for, uh, bringing me to your village," Naruto mumbled.
"Ah, think nothing of it! We're just doing as any proper citizens of Faerghus would! We're all devout followers of the Church's teachings here! The Goddess smiles on those who help the less fortunate, after all!"
"Faerghus? O-oh, yeah! Of course! The Land of Faerghus!"
"…You mean the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus?"
"T-that's what I meant, obviously!"
Both the boy and girl looked at him with no small amount of confusion on their faces. Naruto kept the bright smiled plastered on his face, though inwardly he was yelling at the top of his lungs.
There were no kingdoms in the Elemental Nations. The only Kingdoms he'd heard of were the ones he'd seen in fictional movies. And while he followed the Will of Fire along with pretty much every other citizen of Konoha, he wasn't familiar with any church or goddess either.
"So, uh… did either of you see anyone near where you found me? My, uh, friend, Sasuke, he might've been nearby-"
"Sorry, kid. There was no one but you where we found you."
That's what he'd been afraid of. Naruto knew that he shouldn't have expected anything different, but the news hurt all the same.
Sasuke really was gone.
And as much as Naruto wanted to focus on that particular issue- that he'd failed to bring Sasuke back, that Team 7 would fracture because he'd been too weak to stop Sasuke from leaving…
There was another, much bigger problem he needed to focus on right now.
Sort of like the feeling a homeowner had when they returned home from grocery shopping to find that their home had been broken into and burglarized, this was a panic-inducing, all-encompassing problem that drowned out every other issue Naruto was currently facing.
'You okay there, kid? You're looking a little pale,"
"Y-yeah, I'm fine, believe it! It's just… I think I'm a long way from home,"
'Everything is wrong! This is like… like some kind of strange dream! Everyone I've met has a weird name, their accents sound weird, and I'm even in an entire country I've never even heard of before! Either these people are pulling the weirdest joke on me ever, or…'
Or he really wasn't in the Land of Fire anymore.
Was he even still in the Elemental Nations?
Had he somehow ended up on a different continent?
'I mean, it'd be one thing if these people were just villagers who had never met a ninja before, but… everyone knows what a ninja is!' Shinobi had been around for decades, and was such an integral part of life in the Elemental Nations that the very idea of meeting someone who had no idea what a shinobi was, was just…
Well, absurd!
"Um… Naruto? That is your name, isn't it? It sounds a little strange to say, but… I like it! It's a good name!"
"That's my name, all right! Did you have a question, Miss-"
"Ffion. And I did. Er, do." The older girl looked back at her brother, who just shrugged.
"Well, when me and Dafydd found you out in the woods, the first thing both of us thought was that you'd been left for dead by bandits! But there're no bandits around these parts… and if there are, that'd be bad news for us commonfolk."
"I told my sister that you looked like you'd been savaged by a demonic beast, but then what demonic beast would leave its prey breathing?"
"I-I…"
"That'll be enough of that talk, you two!" Margot stated, opening the door firmly, but not hard enough to make it slam against the wall.
I'm sure the two of you must be bursting with questions, but they can wait till tomorrow. Regardless of the boy's circumstances, he's been through a terrible ordeal. Best to let him rest, and then when he's recovered a bit more you can talk with him."
"Sure, sure. It's not like I was tryin' to frighten the boy or anything! Just curious, is all. A village as small as ours doesn't see much in the way of outsiders."
Naruto was grateful that the boy and girl- well, young man and young woman, really- left without a fuss.
If he'd been in better condition, he might've followed after them, or tried to run out the open door behind them, even though he knew that the kind couple who'd sheltered him in their home probably only had good intentions for him.
But his body still ached fiercely, and like every other time after recovering from a big fight, just because his body had been repaired by medical ninja, their medical jutsu couldn't remove the accumulated fatigue he was feeling.
And more than the physical pain, Naruto felt an uncomfortable ache in his chest.
He hated being alone. Hated being depressed. Hated having no friends and no family. And right now, he felt like he was back in those dark days before he'd become a ninja, sitting on the swing outside Konoha's ninja academy watching as all the other children were picked up by their parents, waiting for parents he knew would never come.
"Now, I'm going to leave you alone, Naruto. Maeve might've healed you right up, but she told me to make sure you got plenty of bedrest. If you're hungry, I can bring some food to you. Does that sound alright to you?"
Naruto appreciated the kindly woman using his name instead of 'boy' or 'child,' even if she was stumbling over the pronunciation.
"Thanks, Grandma, I guess I was pretty lucky to meet people like you and your husband! I might've been a goner if those two hadn't found me!" He probably should've called the lady something other than 'grandma,' given the way her eyes rose.
"Grandma, am I? I'm certainly not your grandmother, but I suppose there's no harm in you calling me that if it makes you feel better. Now, you try and go back to sleep. Rest is the best thing a growing boy like you needs at a time like this."
Margot left the room, her long dress swishing from the movement. Just like when he'd first woken up, Naruto found himself left in a tranquil silence.
No one but himself to talk to.
'Ugh… as soon as my body stops hurting so much, the first thing I'm doing is finding a map of where I am… And food. If I didn't feel too tired to make it out the door, I would've asked for some food. Ramen always makes me feel better…'
Naruto felt his thoughts drifting away once more, and sleep claimed his tired mind and body for the second time that day.
Little did he, Margot, Arnaud, or the siblings Dafydd and Ffion know, but this exact day marked a grand shift in Fodlan's history. Naruto, Konoha's number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja, was a force of nature that, in the coming years would shake Fodlan to it's very core.
Author's notes and scrapped ideas, if anyone is interested in hearing them.
First and foremost, I struggled with writing Naruto this chapter, both his spoken dialogue, and his thoughts. He's very much a 'talk-first, thing second' kind of character, which for a POV character was new to me. Maybe it balances out because he CAN be extremely quiet when he's very sad, lost, or depressed (as is the case here.) Starting from the next chapter, he should be more recognizable as the loudmouthed knucklehead we all know.
I originally typed 'Kakashi-Sensei' every time I brought him up, but ended up deleting most of the 'sensei' parts. We all know who Kakashi is without me referencing his role a billion times.
I briefly struggled with the idea of having Fodlan's common language and the Elemental Nation's language not being the same. Ultimately scrapped this idea because it would've taken way longer than I would've liked to get the first arc of the story anywhere with the whole subplot of Naruto needing to learn a new language.
Other than just outlining the chapter before I wrote everything, researching naming conventions was what took the most time. Faerghus has a lot of Welsh and Gaelic names for it's people and places, with some French and other cultures. Ultimately the the names in this chapter for the citizens of the village Naruto is in are a mix of those three (Welsh, Gaelic, and French.
Are there any filler episodes of Naruto getting lost in a village that's never had contact with ninja before? I don't know, but that sounds like the kind of thing that would happen in a filler arc/episode.
Are the villagers too accepting of an obvious stranger/foreigner like Naruto? Possibly. I go off the angle that A) he's 'just a wounded kid' to them, and B) he looks like them. Fodlan is, bluntly put, not very kind to foreigners, so Naruto being blue-eyed and blonde-haired is definitely helping him out here.
Lastly... I briefly considered having Naruto directly reference the 2005 movie: Legend of the Stone of Gelel, in the chapter, as it's the Naruto anime's only reference to a Europe-like civilization (that I know of.) Scrapped this idea because that would've just made things convoluted (among other things.)