Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Footsteps trailed a moonlit path. It used to be a path of rock and gravel, but nature has reclaimed this bit of land. Bits of grass and other plants left cracks in the slate path while moss clung to the topside like a baby to a mother. However, the lack of maintenance had only bolstered the natural beauty of the area with the man-made footpath intertwining with the grass and the wildlife...

And then... there was the horrible monstrosity at the end of the trail, stuck close to the city wall.

This hideous building unlike the rest of Konoha was made of the same rough sandstone bricks which constituted the city walls. The building had several glaring cracks in the walls, including a gaping hole near the top of the building exposing the contents of a room. Broken shards of glass could be seen as Naruto approached the small brick porch of his apartment. A look of alarm rose in his face as he looked at the ajar wooden door, a large dent of splintered wood in the middle of it.

A twitching hand held the brass doorknob and turned, pushing the door forward to meet darkness, the outline of chairs and other furniture barely visible in the shroud of night. Naruto reached for the light switch next to the door and a small ceiling bulb flickered for a moment before illuminating the room with overly-bright light.

Two broken oak chairs with their legs broken off stood in front of a small black television, its screen containing a large fracture mark from the top to the bottom. The oaken table had three good legs and one leg propped up by books. A navy blue sofa, nearly torn to the stuffing it held, lied on the other corner of the large living room with an orange pillow and blanket on top of it. Several portions of the corridors were caved in, preventing entrance to the child regardless of how many times he had tried, evident in the small portion of a hole next to the rubble.

A sigh of relief left the young Naruto's lips.

"Just the way I left it," Naruto said to himself and the tense muscles of his legs and back relaxed. He moved to sit down on the broken chair and reached under it, pulling out a black remote with red buttons and pressed the top right button. The TV flickered on with some sort of show on the screen.

It's when things had started to become wrong.

An odd feeling of floating had emerged in Naruto before it turned into a feeling of being overstuffed.

Huh...I didn't eat lunch tod..."

That was when the grueling pain hit him. Horrific intense pain.

Falling off the broken chair, Naruto brought his knees up to his body and hugged his knees, assuming the fetal position. Tears leaked out of his azure eyes, leaving dark stains on the wooden floor. He violently turned and tossed before realizing that someone was screaming. It didn't take him long to realize that the person screaming was him.

It was then pity from the gods which allowed him to fall unconscious, his body moving no more.

----

A lurching feeling slightly above his navel caused the blonde child to stir, eyelids opening very slowly. Narrow pupils dilated in order to compensate for the pale illumination, but, for now, Naruto couldn't even see a foot in front of him.

He felt wet, very wet. And cold. His clothes were soaked as he continued to lie on the floor, eyes still staring up at the ceiling. Hands entered into the cold chilling water in order to lift the body it was connected to up. His feet and ankles were the only things left in the water. As Naruto's eyes grew more and more accustomed to the light, he found a wall to lean on, bumpy yet smooth.

Keeping his eyes closed to alleviate the feeling of dizziness he had, Naruto inhaled the dank stagnant air, causing him to cough violently several times as he got acclimated. He continued leaning on the wall before he tentatively removed his weight from it. Opening his eyes, he was surprised at where he seemed to be.

It was a large tunnel, a very large tunnel. Made out of the pipes that looked like those in his apartment, except these pipes didn't have gaping holes and dents.

With the dim light, Naruto couldn't see the ends of the tunnel, but they seemed to go on forever. His hands traced the dark coal bricks and the large metal pipe. He definitely was not in Konoha anymore.

His academy sensei had told him of tall tales of cities that were prosperous and advanced before they were destroyed by beings like Kyuubi, the tailed demons. These cities nowadays were refered to as fallen cities. He was probably in one right now...these pipes kinda do look old. Naruto's recounting of his sensei's lecture was interrupted by the more pressing issue in his mind, him being in an unknown place without food or visibly drinkable water.

He stared downwards into the clear dark water, the eyes of his reflection meeting his own.

How...did I get here anyways?

Naruto visibly winced upon remembering the events prior to finding himself here. The pain more specifically. He shuddered and shivered upon remembering that. As he thought about how the pain and him being here were connected, Naruto almost slammed his head into the wall because the answer was so obvious.

Those chunnins from that day! They probably did that to him and abandoned him here!

"Get me out of here already!", Naruto yelled as he lifted a fist into the air. He continued to recieve silence as an answer even after he had started to sling barbs and insults at his captives.

"Fine! I'll find my own way out, bastards!", he defiantly yelled. Again, no answer. An irritated growl later, Naruto ran off towards one end of the tunnel, his impulsive self unaware that he may be going off in the wrong direction.

----

Minutes started turning to hours. Hours started turning to days as Naruto wandered this tunnel with no end in sight. His throat was raw and sore from the constant threats he made to those who had left him here and the pleads for help directed to those who may be outside. His eyes darted from side to side as he nervously took another look at his surroundings.

I thought the corridor was larger a second ago...and the water wasn't this high ...

As he continued running through the ankle-deep water, the lights flickered above him and appeared to glow dimmer than before. Naruto almost felt his heart stop in panic because if he couldn't see, he probably had no chance of getting out.

He ran through the tunnel even faster before tripping over a floating piece of wood. The water felt like the concrete wall as he crashed facefirst into it. Cold and tired, Naruto hugged his legs with his arms, blue eyes dimming from a feeling which was the bane of human existence.

Despair.

"Can you get me out now? I learned my lesson," Naruto pleaded weakly, eyes turning side to side, staring at the tunnel's walls. The space between them was smaller than it was a second ago. Naruto was sure of it. The pauses between his breaths became shorter and shorter as fear became entrenched into his heart, the fear that he constantly told himself to ignore...until now.

He might not be able to get out of here. Might never see ojji-san or the Hokage or Ayame-chan again.

Something odd bubbled up inside his chest, something intangible yet powerful enough to cause Naruto to raise his head at the ceiling with a defiant stare.

No! I will get back, I will see them again and I will become Hokage!

Suddenly standing up with renewed vigor, Naruto struck the wall closest to him with the knuckles of his fists.

"Let me..." A small whisper had left Naruto's lips.

Thud.

"out.." The whisper became louder...to a tense heartfelt murmur.

Thud.

"OR YOU'LL BE..." The murmur into a yell.

Thud.

"SORRY!" Naruto roared with all of the strength he could muster.

Boom.

Everything shattered. The walls and ceiling of his prison fell apart, turning into black pieces of glass. The dark shards of the ceiling with their jagged edges fell down, certain death directed upon Naruto.

----

As Naruto closed his eyes and shielded his head with his arms and back, he waited for the impact.

Several seconds passed. Then several minutes.

The impact never came.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, staring at his reflection in the clear dark stagnant water. As he moved his hands away from his head and stood up, Naruto was surprised at the new room he was in. It appeared to be a large square room, though he couldn't be sure because he couldn't really see too far in front of him. There was not an actual source of light in the room, but he could still see oddly enough. However, the first thing that had caught his attention was a humongous gate with a piece of paper between the two. Naruto knew it was out of his reach, so he tried to read the piece of paper before realizing it was an unfamiliar kanji on it.

Figuring that this may be the way out, Naruto tried to take a step inside and was unable to. As soon as his foot even reached for the gate, fear and apprehension almost made an invisible wall that his body and mind refused to cross. As soon as he stepped inside

He was too short to actually reach for the piece of paper, but he might be able to slip through the bars of the gate. However, as soon as he tried to take a step inside, fear and apprehension made a mental wall in front of him, preventing his foot from reaching in further. The sound of coughing, however, turned his attention to a corner of the wall behind him.

A man with dirty blonde hair stood in the corner of this room, wearing a kimino of deep violet matching the color of his eyes. His left hand was in the folds of his kimino while his right hand was on his mouth, stifling his coughs. Several pieces of paper were attached to the side of his clothes while a line of markings trailed from his right hand and into the sleeve. A headband of Konoha was tied across his left arm.

"Oi, teme! I suggest you get me out of here or else the Hokage will be looking for me," threatened Naruto, a finger pointing at the strange man.

The man looked at Naruto with a raised eyebrow, staring at the room he was in with some shock and some morbid fascination. He ignored Naruto as he walked past him to the large forboding gate in front of him. Eyes stared into the deep darkness, apparantly unaware of the child running at him with a fist outstretched in both desperation and anger.

Thud.

Wait...what just happened..., thought Naruto.

Naruto found himself lying supine on the ground, the water soaking his backside. More importantly, the man in front of him was over him, pointing a kunai at his neck. He definitely peed himself as he felt a warm feeling counteracting that of the cold. However, the man paid no notice as he released the kunai off Naruto's neck before standing up again, walking back to his corner before asking with a ragged voice.

"How old are you?"

Naruto blinked and then blinked again before yelling, "You kidnap me and then ask me how old I am!? Who the hell are you?!" He quickly went to his feet and assumed a make-shift fighting stance.

That man was not going to get him again.

Thud.

Again, Naruto found himself on the ground with the man standing over him, an expression of confusion marring his face. He again stared at the walls and the large ominous gate in front of him before turning his back to Naruto.

"Put more weight on your back leg.", mummured the man before he returned to looking around. He stared at Naruto again with his violet eyes, making Naruto uncomfortable under the scrutiny.

"I did not kidnap you. I'm as surprised as you are...to see you here," the man rasped. An appearance of worry appeared on his face as he stared at the gate before asking, "How old are you?" The intensity of his voice was soft but intimidating. The man stared at the young Naruto again.

"I'm eight. And why are you asking me this? Don't you want to know my na...", Naruto replied as he averted his eyes from the strange man.

"You're Uzumaki Naruto and...", the man coughed, "you aspire to be Hokage. You like ramen." The man paused before continuing, "Because everyone overprices everything else and Ichiraku holds the only restaurant that will actually serve you... The four people you care deeply about are Ayame-chan, Iruka-san, Ichiraku-san, and Hokage-sama." He tapped his foot in the water, waiting for the look of shock to dissipate from Naruto's face.

Naruto pointed frantically, "Are you..like..spying on me?" He took several steps back before realizing something that the man was wrong about. "Wait, who's Iruka-san?" His eyes glared at the man again, scrutinizing if the man wanted to actually cause him harm.

The man rose an eyebrow before adding, "Umino Iruka. Your academy instructor?" He closed his eyes before saying, "No...your current homeroom teacher is Mizuki-san. Am I correct?"

Naruto nervously moved back as he looked over the man, "Yeah...", he hesitantly replied before he added more enthusastically, "He's going to kick your a** when he finds you, but he might be nice to you if you let me go." Naruto stood more defiantly at his captor. "NOW, WHO ARE YOU?!"

The man simply replied with a "Hnn", reminding Naruto of a certain raven-haired jerk, before he moved towards the gate again, trying to see through the dark depths. As he moved a hand towards a bar, he said, "I am..." He was unable to finish as the glowing piece of paper suddenly shined with an intense yellow light, blasting both the man and Naruto with that same shining blaze.

The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes to ward off the brightness was the man being wrapped around by bright yellow light with some sort of oozing red light peeking through the yellow.

---

Naruto's eyes winced as a bright light shined deep into them and he was aware of something rodlike poking into his back. He turned over away from the offending object to only feel his nose collide into something hard.

"Ow! What the?"

His hands covered his bruised nose, rubbing the top of it in a poor attempt to allay the pain. He fumbled left and right angrily on the cool hard floor, bumping into various other things including the one that caused this incident in the first place.

His eyes attempted to get acclimated to his new surroundings...to only find himself back in familiarity. The large sofa in the back of the room, the staticy noise that all TVs make when not tuned in, the leg of an upturned chair which dug into his back, and the table smashing his nose inwards.

Was it all just a dream? Everything?

He tentatively lifted himself off from the hardwood floor, still holding his nose with his left hand. His right hand moved to his backside and his legs.

Well...his back and feet aren't wet...

Tick...tock...tick...tock...

Ears finally picked up on the typical noises of a clock, causing Naruto to stare at the small watch under the table. After holding his head with his hands, Naruto said in a bare whisper.

"Only three hours?"

His legs took him to the broken window and he stared into the view. The moon and the stars were still plastered on the navy blue sky with no sign that the sun will ever come. The sounds of the forest and the village were non-existant, man and beast asleep at this hour. The only sign of human existence is the lit fire which Naruto can barely see at the upper corner of his window.

He moved to the sofa, his heart pumping adrenaline throughout his body. That couldn't possibly be a dream. It was so vivid. He could feel the water down his back and ankles. The strain of his eyes as it tried to see in darkness. The cool metallic touch of the pipes on his hands. The feeling of an immovable object colliding in his ankle and the subsequent fall. Getting slammed into the water...twice.

That wasn't real?

Naruto reached for the remote which had made its way to the sofa after he woke up. The TV's screen flickered before turning back into a foggy distorted mirror. He then placed the remote down on the floor before sitting cross-legged with a look of concentration distorting the features of his young face.

He had been in pain before everything happened. Though he couldn't remember the pain exactly, he remembered that it was the most pain he had ever felt and that included the lady who beat him upon the head yelling "Demon" on his birthday. That was real. He could even feel his body shudder at the memory of it.

However, was the time in the sewers real?

His clock had said that three hours had passed. When he was in there, it felt like days where he was trapped in

that small confining shrinking darkening strangling crushing....


Naruto took a deep breath and held it as he tried to stop his rapid breathing. He relaxed his fists whose knuckles had turned into a ghostly white. He forced himself to relax his arms, his legs, and all the other muscles which had turned tense.




















He stood up and started walking to the one end of the tunnel, aimlessly

Falling, falling deeper, falling into pitch black.

Thunk.

Opening his eyes, Naruto scanned his surroundings as he laid on the ground, the frigid shallow water soaking his back. Wherever he was, the light here was rather dim, the light bulbs on the ceiling spaced sparsely. The tunnel itself was filled with, something that Naruto had seen when he looked into the holes of his apartment, long pipes that seemed to stretch from as far he could see from one end of the tunnel to the other.

Naruto slowly stood up, staggering every now and then. Holding a pipe on the end of the tunnel, he slowly looked at both ends of the tunnel again.

Wh...where am I? How'd I get here?

His face made a visible wince remembering his last bit of memories. Pain. So much pain. He then came to a realization.

It was probably those two shinobi. They probably trapped my house and put me here.

He crossed his arms and shivered, the cold water and the frigid air taking its toll.

"If you don't get me out of here right now, I'll make your life hell!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, remembering a phrase which he saw on TV. It always worked on TV. He heard his words echo throughout the tunnel before silence greeted him once again.

"I want out!" He yelled again and started to run off straight, searching instinctively for freedom. Eyes franctically looked at the sides of the walls. They felt like they were getting closer. He had to get out now!

He ran. Ran for minutes, hours, days. The circular tunnel seemed to be narrowing more and more as he ran. And then he tripped and fell, the slippery floor deciding to impede his efforts. He groaned in pain, but the walls looked like they had stopped closing in on him. Naruto was afraid, afraid of this place, afraid of this dark, afraid that he wouldn't get out. He moved himself into a ball, hugging his legs with his arms.

At his moment of exhaustion, the lights of the corridor flickered and then turned off entirely. Naruto hugged himself tighter, unable to see his hands in front of him.

Somebody...help me.

The ground roared from beneath him and Naruto's head started to hurt, but the pain had passed quickly. To Naruto's relief, the lights of the corridor flickered back on, burning brighter than they had ever been. However, the eight-year old's hope rekindled when his ears picked up on a sound that he himself had not made, a rough hacking cough coming from in front of him. Without his prompting, his body had picked itself up and ran towards the sound, the echos of the coughs getting louder and louder as he approached the source of the sound.

The tunnel finally widened into a large square clearing and, on the other side, was a sort of gate, a large gate that probably was taller than him by around ten times. Naruto heard the cough again and turned his head to the right.

The man in front of him carried himself with the air like many of the ninja of his village. Prideful, almost arrogant. He had dirty blonde hair and, a color he would have never thought possible, vibrant purple eyes. In fact, the gaze the man was looking with him felt as though he was scrutinizing everything about Naruto. The man was thin and appeared to be emaciated, as though he had not eaten for weeks. His clothes were a traditional kimono, worn by the majority of civilians in Konoha. Purple like his eyes.

His left hand was hidden from sight as the man in front of him stuck it in the fold of his kimono on his chest. His right hand, abnormally clean and immaculate for a place like this, was in a makeshift leather pouch tied to his side. On his right arm, the headband with a symbol of Konoha was tied around.

Naruto gathered up his courage, asking "Who are you?"
--




"This is only theoretical. Despite the fact that Yondaime Hokage had applied theory into practice with Hiraishin no Jutsu, there is no particular guarantee that we can succeed."

The figure dressed in white stood on top of a tower, the top of ceiling shredded away. The tower looked over a once prosperous city. The view used to be magnificant: a small stone city in the middle of a lush green forest. Admittedly, the lush green forest was still present, but the city was in ruins. Buildings toppled over and the only signs of life were the new plant life growing over the stagnant stones. The sky, which was almost always sunny, was replaced with perpetually dark clouds filled with impending rain.

Dirty blonde hair peeked out of the hood, violet eyes reflecting both omniscience and a sense of exhaustion. He continued talking despite the fact that he was the only one present on this tall tower. A book peeked out of his hands, the title of which could be barely made out.

Summoning and Seals.

"Hiraishin no Jutsu...Yondaime's renowned jutsu supposedly was said to allow him to teleport from a specially created seal." The figure mumbled to himself as he twirled a tri-tipped kunai with odd markings on it. Seal markings.

"Our belief...is that those seals alter space-time between Yondaime and the seal, allowing him to slow the passage of time while being able to use chakra-enhanced speed to move through that distance. From an outside observer's point of view, he teleported when, in reality, he slowed down time while going top-speed...allowing him to bypass the law of inertia and reach up to near light speed." He tapped his foot on the ground, watching as the sky continued to get darker with the passing of the sun.

He growled, still saying, "But he could never surpass that speed since the Yondaime's body simply had mass..." He slammed his fist into the table, causing him to end up having his fist in the desk.