Naruto 1. Chapter 1

Naruto's Fantasy

**I do not own Naruto or Final Fantasy X. Just simply the plot itself. Please enjoy.**

The Invasion begins

Darkness surrounded him everywhere as he walked down a corridor he had come to know in these past few nights. Making his way slowly as torches burst to life one either side of him, slowly illuminating and driving off shadows. Soon he came to a large circular room. Walls made of well lined were decorated with velvet drapes. A single red carpet stretched from down the long corridor, through the room, and up a flight of stone steps that stopped short of some oddly shaped stone door. Great torches were lit aflame at the entrance of the room, at the bottom of the steps, and at the top of steps near the door.

Uzumaki Naruto cast a cautious look around before he walked further in. Each step he took was soundless as he came to the bottom step. Then a noise, foreign to this quiet, yet recurring dream, resounded. It was the sound of stone grinding against stone. Naruto looked up towards the door. It was slowly, almost painfully, sliding up, reveling a dark shadow of someone standing within intensely bright light.

Naruto had to shield his eyes before calling out, "Who are you!"

The person seemed to have just noticed Naruto then. A smile crossed their face and their arms folded behind their back as this person bent down a little in an almost childish manner. "There you are! I'm waiting for you, Uzumaki Naruto!"

"What? Who are you? Why are you waiting for me?"

A small laugh was he heard as the shadow simply said. "Come back soon, ok? " Then everything simply went black.

Naruto opened his eyes as his alarm went off. He lifted his face out of the pillow that was matted with his cold sweat. Finally catching his breath he reached out and turned it off, he wiped the sweat that had matted his forehead with the back of his hand and muttered. "Damn it"

"So, you're finally awake"

Naruto lifted his head and found Auron leaning on his bedroom door. "Auron," Naruto wiped the sleep from his eyes, stretching his muscles as he got out of bed. "Where have you been?"

"Around" he simply answered

Auron was something of a guardian to Naruto, a surrogate father of Naruto's after his mother died and his father disappeared in thin air. That was ten years ago at least and the last thing Naruto remembered was living on a tiny island with his sick mother covered with wild flowers and sea water.

Auron never spoke much or about why his father left his mother, be he hated the man nonetheless.

Pushing up his dark shades on his nose, the man strode across the room, grabbing Naruto's outfit from the closet and threw it to Naruto. "The game starts soon, and your fans are waiting."

At this Naruto took his clothes and headed to the bathroom to change. All the while thinking about that dream, he had been noticing that he had been having that same dream over and over for the last couple of weeks. And yet he could never understand it at all. Though he decided to push the thought away for a later date, tonight he needed to focus.

Tonight was the ending of the blitzball season. The Zanarkand Abes vs. the Zanarkand Doogles and he needed to focus for tonight's game.

After five minutes, the teen walked out of the room. He wore a high collar shirt with no sleeves black with a trim of white, black and white pants and black boots. His outfit was much different amongst the Zanarkand Abes, but he liked it that way, he wanted to be different from the sharp contrast to the bright yellow and black his teammates wore. The style made him stand out amongst his team, his white spiky hair that seemed to flop down his shoulders, covered the left side of his face and his eye. Keeping his right blue eye visible on the right side of his face.

Auron noted that the boy looked a little like his mother, but didn't voice his opinion. Both walked towards the door and opened it. Upon opening it they were both greeted by an entourage of fan girls. Screaming and practically going bat shit crazy, sucking in a breath and knowing what's to come he exited and gave them all a wave.

Naruto signed a few autographs and took several pictures with his adoring fans before making a run for to the stadium. All the while ducking and dodging fan girls aplenty, guess this was the price of being well known as one of the greatest blitzball player in all of Zanarkand. And he accomplished it all in less than a year!

That in it self was a feat and he was damn proud of it. Though before he left his home Auron told him that he wanted to talk to him about something after the game.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was in the middle of a pre game warm ups and stretching when he heard the sounds of an incredible amount of water being gathered in one place. Fill the sphere pool in the academy, the roar of crowds in anticipation filled the stadium.

A small smile crossed Naruto's lips as he began envisioning his and the team's victory.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Auron walked until he reached a tall building that towered over the pier. "So now the story is about to begin." The gray haired man closed his eyes and sighed. "I thought I'd have more time to train the boy." Auron looked out to the water. In the distance, along the horizon, the water began to bulge as something massive traveled just beneath the surface toward the glorious city that never sleeps.

_Naruto, I hope you're ready for this_,Auron thought as the sound of the swiftly filling stadium not too far caught some of his attention. _We have to be ready._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The feeling of water in the Sphere Pool, the slightly muffled sound of screaming Blitzball fans, and the sensation of adrenaline pumping through his veins was the best. The competition, the infamous Zanarkand Doogles, was known for their brutality and unmerciful beatings they handed their opponents each game. They slammed, kicked, rushed, and tackled almost every Abe unfortunate enough to get caught by them.

Naruto dodged everything with unusual grace as he rushed a Doggle, knocking the older, burley man out of the pool and into the stands. He smirked at the unconscious man and swam away. This action gave his team enough of an opening to score on the Doogles. The Abes were now one up on the team that received a fair amount (a lot) of boos and jeers.

Since most of Zanarkand's population was at the stadium, cheering on their favorite teams, nobody saw the monstrous creature rise of the water and hover over the pier. No one saw but one. Auron sighed in frustration as he made his was back to the stadium to pick up his charge. _It's here now,_ he thought. _It is almost time to go._

The clock was ticking away the remaining time as Naruto informed his team though signs to pass him the ball as he started to wind up his trademark Sphere Shot.

The Doggles, recognizing the Uzumaki boy's special shot, they all refocused their attention on him and tried to stop him. The Abes blocked off the Doggles as the surrounded their star player, forming a defensive ring. The white and blue dimpled ball shot out the top of the Sphere Pool, followed closely by Naruto.

He was performing the backwards flip that would bring his foot slamming into the ball, but his attention was brought away from his intended target when he saw it. On the other side of the city, near the pier, a large something hovered poise looking directly at him. Naruto gasped. The watery bubble surrounding it ripped before four bullets of energy shot into the city. Each one pierced one building after another before hitting the grounds near the stadium or different parts of it. Explosions erupted and rocked the city as every building hit toppled and caved in on them selves.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The pure energy that held the water within the Sphere Pool disbursed and the water quickly emptied out on to the evacuating stadium below.

Naruto's hand reached out and grabbed the ring of the Sphere Pool when he fell. As more powerful explosion shook the stadium, Naruto lost his grip and fell.

Pain coursed though his body when he came to. Somehow or anther the young Uzumaki had survived his fall as he sat up. Naruto grabbed his head as a throbbing headache shot through it. "Shit, that hurt…"

The white haired youth took a look around; he was soaked by water and surrounded by rubble. He slowly stood up, wobbling a bit but he was fine. He had landed near the entrance; he remembered being thrown when an explosion went off when he fell. He made his way out of the remains of the stadium, along with the rest of the surviving fan who were running past him.

Naruto looked up and standing there next to a fallen wall, reading a little orange book as though nothing happened, was Auron.

"Auron!" the teen shouted while walking over pieces of fallen rubble and debris and up to the taller man. "What's going on?"

Auron simply looked off to the distance and began to walk. "Come on, we're expected."

Naruto blinked in confusion, "What are you talking about? What do you mean expected"

Auron didn't say anything as he led the teen away from the broken stadium and deeper into the heart of Zanarkand.

Throughout the destruction and panic around, all but two souls made their way closer to the beast as waves of humanity rushed to find shelter from the monstrous creature that arrived just moments ago as it continued to destroy the city.

Auron was dipping between people with ease as the city's inhabitants stampeded across one of the bridges that connected Downtown Zanarkand with its residential areas in a desperate attempt to get away. Naruto, however, was continuously bumped and pushed out of the way as he tried to keep up with Auron.

Then a strange, tingly sensation washed over Naruto's body. In a blink of an eye, everything stopped. He looked to his left, then right, and all the way around to find everything and everyone frozen. Like statues. Fear and panic clearly etched on all their faces as he walked slowly around each of them.

"…now what's going on?"

"…it begins…"

Naruto whirled around and turned down on the only mobile thing other than him self. A small dark skinned boy wearing strange clothes faced him. His clothes were royal blue and yellow torn at the shoulders and knees, making them into a no-sleeve hooded shirt and shorts.

Naruto sent the child a disbelieving, wary stare. "Who-"

The hooded boy had cut him off by saying, "It matters not my identity. So tell me," he smirked, tilting his head and folding his hands behind his back. "Are you afraid?"

Who's afraid? Surely not Uzumaki Naruto? What an outrageous question! "No way!"

"Good, you'll need a brave face for what's to come." With a snap of his fingers, the kid vanished and everything frozen was now moving. It was like someone had pressed the pause button on a remote and then pressing play again.

"Wha?" Naruto turned around to look for the boy but he was no longer there. However he did see Auron once again. "Hey wait!" Naruto called before running after him.

He caught up to the taller man, stepping in front of Auron. There must have been a million questions for him to ask. "Are you crazy? We can't go this way!"

Auron spared a single, fleeting glance towards Naruto before turning towards the offensive creature attacking Zanarkand while pushing his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Look," The optimistic teen looked up at the said felonious monster. "We called it _Sin._"

"_Sin?_" What kind of name was that? Auron gave a small nod before his eyes narrowed menacingly at the accursed monster. Just looking at it made the silent man seethe and Naruto could feel the vast amount of killing intent roll off of his surrogate father in powerful waves.

Out of the water shield, something large shot out and lodged it self in the wall of a nearby building. What ever it was, its long tentacle-like appendage writhed for a moment before its many glowing black scales shook themselves loose. Naruto watched in horror as they hurtled down into the city. Some landed a few feet away from the duo.

After landing into the ground, the thick scales opened up, like cocoons. Naruto noted that these creatures, whatever they were, came up to his waist, were slimy, stood on tiny legs, and had viciously sharp claws. The screeches they made weren't very loud but still threatening as three approached the snowy haired child.

Naruto tried to swat at a few but found that they were the ones pushing him back. One tried to take a chunk out of him by using their sharp as swords scaly wings. Naruto backed up to avoid it, not noticing the small rock debris as he tripped over it and he fell on his butt.

Auron simply sighed, surely this boy new better right? _At least he tried. _Reaching into his coat he pulled out a long black with a trim of crimson colored sword, holding it out to Naruto. "You'll have an easier time if you use this, Naruto"

Naruto looked at the blade while getting to his feet. Obviously from the way it shone it seemed new. So he reached out and took it.

"It's a present from Minato."

"My old man?!" Naruto exclaimed causing the other man to nod. Right now wasn't the time to ask questions. It was a time for action and that time was now.

The stoic bushido simply stated. "I hope your ready for this" and began to cut through the large crowd of sin scales. Clearing a path, Naruto shook his head and followed close behind. Both men hacked and slashing their way through to meet Sin.

Already, the blitzball star could tell that this was going to be a long night indeed.

**Thanks to those who are taking a look at my story, it's greatly appreciated ya know. And I will be updating my Prince of Pleasure very soon. Just needed to work on the characters and interactions a little bit. **

**For some reason I always wanted to try a Final Fantasy x / Naruto story. Plus it will help me with my writing style and variety. Oh please check out my Prince of Pleasure story and leave constructive criticisms. Much obliged ya know? (=**

**Also, I may decide that I will write my Way of the Assassin story over. I ran into a rut and a few things came up. I apologize to those who liked it and to other's who are probably tearing their hair out at hearing this. But don't worry, my new Assassins Creed/Naruto story will be awesome, I won't give up.**

**Read and review please. Thank you.**


	2. A whole new world

Naruto's Fantasy

Chapter 2

"Auron! What the hell is going on?!" Naruto shouted, while he ran behind the man, while clearing a path with him.

"So, are you going to tell me, Auron" Naruto held his sword up, after bring it down on an unfortunate Sin Scale in his way. Blood leaked down the blade and a fire burned in Naruto's visible eye. Ready to bring it down on the next unfortunate Sin Scale that tried to attack him or Auron.

"Tell you what?" The older man asked without looking at the teen and earned a scowl.

The white haired teen simply growled. Naruto knew Auron knew what he wanted to know. "Do you really need me to ask?"

Auron said nothing and Naruto continued. "Fine, how the hell do you know what these damn things are? How do you know my old man? And why is it you seem to know what that thing is up there,"

He said throwing his head in the direction of Sin. "Come on Auron, I need you to tell me what the hell is going on?!"

Auron ignored Naruto and cleaved another enemy in half, ignoring the boy's question entirely. And frankly it pissed Naruto off. But he decided to lay off on the questions… for now anyway.

Auron swung his sword at another Sin Scale, cleaving it cleanly in two. "You will find out, eventually." He said, taking another swing at a Sin Scale while it was in mid-jump. "There are some things best left unsaid until the time is right and right now isn't the time." He sliced another one to ribbons without looking at it. "Besides... I made a promise."

"Fine then, we're going to talk after we clear through these things." Naruto swung his sword, killing yet another as two more rushed in. "Dammit! How many of these things are there!"

Both men now stood back to back with each other. "This isn't going to turn out good for us if we don't do something fast." Auron's eyes then spotted a potential shred of hope. Off to the side of the bridge was a tanker truck, almost completely hanging off the bridge. Hopefully it had fuel or some thing flammable in it. "That, Naruto!" He pointed to it. "We got to take it down!"

Naruto looked at the truck in confusion. Why would he want to knock it down? Then his dark blue eye looked between the truck and the crippled building not too far away, then back at the truck. That's when he caught on to the idea. "Are you mad!!!? You're out of your cotton picking mind!"

Auron grunted before running over to it, striking the electronic junction hook that connected the tanks to the truck. Sin Scales attempted to attack the man while his back was turned only to meet the cold steel of Naruto's sword. Fierceness burned brightly inside of his visble blue orb and he dared one of the monsters to try that trick again.

Auron smirked at Naruto's endeavor to protect him as his hacked and slashed away at his currant objective. His smirk widened, though one wouldn't be able to see it through his shades and underneath his cloak, as the electric hook sizzled and popped and finally gave way.

Auron jumped back to avoid the small explosion the junction hook created before the tanks fell off the bridge and into the space between it and the building. A huge explosion resounded as a tower of fire rose up. The already falling building couldn't take the force of such and explosion and it caught fire and fell.

Naruto yelped. The building fall right on top of him! He ran out of the way, a second short of getting flattened by the crumbling structure. The hordes of Sin Scale however weren't very lucky as they gave out final cries before they were all squished_. Finally,_ the young Uzumaki thought to himself.

The building had crashed though the bridge, sending more debris into the air. "Come on!" Auron called as he actually jumped onto the falling building!

Naruto didn't even have time think, his body just followed the grey-black haired man. Hopefully he knew what he was doing! Did he know what he was doing! _Wait! What the hell am __**I**__ doing!_ He thought to him self.

Sharp shards of glass and fire blew up into the air beneath his feet. Naruto looked up to see Auron jumping back onto the broken bridge, landing onto a safer place. Now all he needed to do is match the man. _Almost there, almost there!_ He chanted to him self. Then it was time to make the leap of faith. The sinking building was getting dangerously low before Naruto bent down. _I gotta make it!_ Then, with all the power he had in his legs, he spring boarded, pushed up and jumped.

The flames on the building seem to follow him as he propelled him self through the air. The sounds of the building blowing up underneath him rang loudly in his ears. He stretched his arms out as far as human anatomy allowed. For a moment, Naruto thought he wouldn't make it. He was relieved to be proven wrong when his hands meet with cold, but very solid concrete.

Naruto's body swung back and forth as his fingers dug in to find enough of a grip. He didn't dare look down to see the building he'd just escaped across meet its fate as it broke apart like a fallen jig-saw puzzle.

Auron stepped to the edge of the broken bridge and looked down at the struggling Naruto. "Auron!" he called out for help

The bridge gave a sudden and violent jerk up. Naruto nearly lost his grip but held fast. Large chunks of building and debris was sent flying towards them as if they were being picked up by a vacuum. "Auron!" He called to the man a second time.

The man wasn't even paying attention to Naruto Instead he seemed to be talking to Sin. Naruto didn't know what was going on now nor did he realize when it hovered over to them until it was directly over them.

"Are you really sure?" then as if hearing a silent 'yes', he nodded. Auron trailed to Naruto now who had pulled him self half way onto the bridge. The teen huffed and glared up at Auron for his lack of assistance.

"Now's the time..." He said, bending down and grabbing the scuff of his outfit and raised him up high over his head. Naruto felt the air was leaving his lungs and gasped for air, but his body would not respond. Already his world was already going black but he willed himself to fight his body's fatigue.

It almost felt like Naruto was being offered to Sin or something, but Auron didn't let go... yet. "This is where everything begins for you." Naruto's stomach fell when he saw Auron's mouth seem to be crinkle up, meaning he was smiling, or something along those lines.

Definitely not a good sign! "This is where your story begins" Auron simply stated as his feet lifted off of the ground.

Naruto gasped when the grey-black haired man let him go. Together, the two began to float up towards Sin. He looked down at Auron who was turning into a red blur. His grip loosened and he gasped a breath of air, right before letting out a scream as he was enveloped in bright light.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

When the light subsided, Naruto opened his eyes and found himself attached to a rock in what appeared to be a lake. He groaned in pain but he was fine. Looking around and studying his surroundings he found himself in some old ruins. The skies were dark and there appeared to be no form a life anywhere.

Naruto fixed himself and onto the rock and shouted. "Is anyone around?! Auron!!!!"

But his cry was unanswered and he sighed. Deciding that he needed to get his bearings he began to swim. Needing to get to higher and ground and find out where the hell he was. Naruto pushed himself off of the slab of stone he'd been resting on, swimming towards a small flight of stairs.

The swim was long though not tedious since he was use to being in water long periods of time. So it didn't bother him at all, looking around to see ruins poking out of the water. Soon his feet touched the first set of stairs and he pushed himself out of the water.

Naruto looked around and could smell the musk coming off of this place, it had age; definitely. Then there was the fact that it seemed quiet, a little too quiet to be exact. So with caution he began walking forth the path in front of him. His visible eye darting around to see of he spotted anything out of the ordinary.

All the while his muscles tensed and relaxed, footsteps were light and almost soundless. At least Auron's training seemed to pay off, though he wished Auron was here right now, though he would probably give the man the tongue lashing of the century.

But, something happened. Something totally and utterly unexpected on Naruto's part that he didn't expect.

CRACK!

Naruto gave a surprised gasp as the ground beneath him crumbled and he fell. The feeling of cold water washed over his body again, course he really didn't mind since he was already wet to begin with.

The white haired young man broke the surface and shook water from his eyes. Naruto was about to utter a curse, when he stopped. There, he felt it. Something lurking in the depths underneath him, something bad he figured. Naruto spun his head towards the splash.

His blue eye was able to catch what appeared to be a green marine creature jumping over his head. Its green scales glistened and shone and was followed by two more of its kind. Naruto took a breath and dived into the depths and tried to swim away, but it was then he noticed just how fast they were exactly.

He tried to swim away from them, but he noticed just how fast these things were under water and that escaping them was going to be next to impossible. They'd catch him in no time and it would be a waste of energy, and right now he couldn't expend his energy so lightly.

Finding no other option he pulled his blade out and did a 180 and met them. The creatures, Sahagin, looked very surprised to see the sudden change in their prey's attitude as he shot at them like a torpedo. Red tinged the water as Naruto shoved his blade into the stomach and ripped in a downward path, causing blood to fill the water. Though the blitzball star looked startled, not because he killed the monster, though it didn't sink too the bottom or float to the top when it was supposed to die.

But instead it simply burst into small wisps of lights. Though he was brought back to the real world when the remaining two monsters screeched loudly, charging at him with impressive speed. He swerved and ducked out of the way from a claw swipe, but his eye widen in surprise and growled as the other Sahagin, using the blood left from its comrade as cover snuck behind him.

Scratching him across his back, Naruto surprised it as he spun around in an instant and jabbed it through the head and out of the back of its skull. It didn't even have time to cry out in death and burst into light just like the first one. Though he didn't notice the small sets of glowing lights among the rocks, glowing bright red as a huge shadow lurked through the darkness.

The blitzball player turned warrior held his blade with confidence, tensing his muscles in anticipation. _Two done, just one more to go._

BAAAAAMMMM!!!

A larger more dangerous predator, came out of no where swimming towards Naruto and the last marine creature. The Sahagin tried to swim out of the way, but was too late as it chomped down viciously on it. Tearing bone from flesh, though it didn't seem to like the taste and spat it out. Then it turned its focus on Naruto, another viable meal.

_Oh fuck no! _Naruto cursed in his mind as it charged at him with its mouth wide open. Naruto swam faster than a dolphin that had drunk a full cup of coffee. At the same time dodging and slashing at the monster along it's back to intimidate it somehow. But that plan definitely didn't work, not by a long shot; in fact it just seemed to piss it off even more.

Looking around while swimming he saw it, a doorway of some kind going into a building. Excellent! Now he just needed to get there before he could be digested. But the monster must have been able to read his mind or body language thereof, and let out a very very inhuman roar. He pushed all of the muscles he had in his entire body and swam like he never swam before.

Obviously he couldn't kill this monstrosity; heck even being in the same aquatic place with it was directly suicide even! It was just ten feet away. He was almost there, just a few feet more and he was home free. Though about two feet behind him was the hungry creature, mouth agape and ready to devour him whole.

But the large monster roared in anger and fury when it closed its mouth and didn't taste flesh that it so desired and hungered for. Naruto narrowly made it, its roar of anger was so powerful that it sent the Uzumaki boy flying into the inner walls of what appeared to be a chamber and his skull met hard stone.

Naruto was positive that he saw spots dance across his eyes. Blinking rapidly to get rid of them and he stood on shaky legs, holding his head. Knocking the kinks out of it, though he regretted it when he felt a headache coming on to his brain. Though the beast refused to give up its meal and slammed into the cavern, causing rocks and stone to dislodge and barricade the entrance.

He looked toward the entrance and sighed, but at least he was able to escape and took his time going through slab door. Thought it didn't budge, as if something was blocking it somehow. He gave it some more effort even though his left shoulder and back pained him and got the results he desired. A sudden crash of thunder and lightning illuminated the dark room, the long and since forgotten ruins and the large pillars that were blocking the door rolled out of the way.

Uzumaki Naruto walked in cautiously, taking it all in and looking around. His bright sapphire eye looked all the large room of some sort. He also noted that there was water pouring from the ceilings and towards the floor. Pooling underneath his feet. A chill lashed against his still wet skin, he practically threw his arms around his body and shuddered.

"I'll…. f-freeze if I d-don't start… a f-fire" he stuttered. Already wishing he was in his comfortable bed drinking some hot chocolate tea with some marshmallows right now, but he pushed it away as a realization hit him like a mack truck.

_Come on Naruto, get it together or you'll go crazy. Stupid Auron sending me to this horrible place._

Naruto began his search of the place. A pile of old burnt wood caught his attention; obviously the fire was used though not recently. Maybe a few weeks ago, maybe a month or so, at least it told him that someone was here. But right now needed something to use to start a fire and decided to have a look see.

He rummaged through and fro the drawers through the second and soon came back with two pieces of flint, an armful of withered flower. Placing the dead bouquet on the dried up wood, arranging them so he could light them easily. Holding the two flints above it he began to spark, roughly scarping them together, trying to get a spark.

Soon Naruto found himself in front of a warm fire and yanked off his sleeveless shirt, seeing that it was in full taters and was utterly useless. A buzzing feeling was going in the back of his skull, and he didn't know what caused it. Thought it properly introduced itself to Naruto

GGRRAAAAWWWRRR!

And there that problem was now. Naruto grimaced deeply as his hand went to his growling stomach. He hadn't eaten since before Sin's attack on Zanarkand. "I knew I should've eaten something before I left."

Sighing, Naruto laid down rubbing his heavy eyes. Maybe if he took a quick nap he could divert his attention away from that empty feeling in his gut. Naruto sat back up, pulling his knees to his chest, he rested his head onto the remainder of his completely destroyed shirt as a make shift pillow before he yawned. He then slipped off into bitter-sweet slumber. Had he stayed awake a moment longer, Naruto would have seen a darkened form slip between the shadows above him quickly, soundlessly.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"What do you want Auron" Naruto snapped at his visitor. He was slouching, which was a rare sight, on his couch and was drumming his fingers on its arm. He was in a foul mood that night and wanted to be alone, but his visitor had other things in mine.

Auron looked at Naruto with a look that was unreadable underneath his cloak. "Can't you ever respect your elders?"

"Before or after they come in uninvited in the middle of the night at two in the morning?" he countered

Auron shook his head. "You made some pretty bad calls out there, Naruto." the older man said.

A vein was starting to become evident in Naruto's left temple. "What's it to you? It's not like you actually stick around long enough to watch any of my games!"

It was true, Auron never had much of an interest in Blitzball, but it made a good distraction from certain thoughts from time to time. "You're supposed to be the team leader; you should really learn how to act like one."

He said as he began to leave, opening the door but stopped between the door posts. "When you have someone who is depending on you, you have to be strong for them. Your team was depending on you tonight, but I guess you were just a big cry baby." Auron said before closing the door.

Naruto shot out of his seat. "I'm not a cry baby!"

A small dark skinned boy in blue and yellow phased into the room. "But you did cry though." he said, and then vanished in thin air. Naruto turned towards the strange voice but didn't see the owner of it.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Naruto's head nodded up and down in his sleep. Sudden sounds from behind made him jerk back into awareness. His head turned left and right, his body tensed up. His ears perked, listening for that sound again. It almost felt like he was being watched. Naruto, not seeing or hearing anything out of order, simply went back to sitting.

Naruto looked at the fire with alarm. "Ah, come on!" it was nearly out by now as it began to slowly burn out. Naruto looked left and right, trying to find something more to burn.

"I need to find more wood or another withered up bouquet." He stood up go scrounge around for more materials that could have been used for kindle. As he turned away from the fire, the tingling in the back of his skull was there again, this time he felt it for sure. His eye scanned the room before the landed on a large monster up on the second floor railing.

It was a Klikk, and it watched the teen with wicked red eyes. The Klikk stood poised on all fours. It had long, scythe-like claws, ready to rake the flesh off of Naruto's bone, a long pointed tail, and tough looking skin. It looked even more deadly when it eyes glowed.

The Klikk gave a screeching roar and then it moved. It was fast, much faster than the Sahagin. It used the walls on the second floor to circle Naruto. Then, without warning, the Klikk jumped into the air. Naruto dove out of the way when it nearly landed on him.

He whipped out his sword and prepared to fight. The Klikk rushed forward, brandishing its claws and taking a swipe at him. Naruto blocked with his sword, pushed the Klikk back and swung. The sword only seemed to nick the Klikk's armor-like skin. Naruto swore under his breath, not only was this thing agile, but it had a strong defense, and it barely needed any offensive strength with its claw!

Naruto swung his again, this time missing completely when the Klikk jumped back. It then rebounded and slashed at his face. Naruto ducked, but barely dodged it by the skin of his teeth as all it managed to cut was few stray hairs on the Uzumaki boy's head.

Naruto got the necessary distance he needed with a few well timed flips and acrobatic techniques on his part. He put up a guard with his sword and the Klikk looked ready to pounce. Naruto suddenly found himself mentally thanking Auron for giving him all those lessons in swordsmanship and for having a flexible spine. The two were now facing each other in a stand off.

BOOOM!

Naruto watched as the heavy door flew through the air and smack the wall. His attention then turned to a small group of five, four men and one girl, standing in the now door less doorway. Each wore the most unusual clothes he'd ever seen. The men fanned out around Naruto and the Klikk with raised guns.

The girl then stepped up beside the teen while adjusting her of arm bands. The girl gave Naruto a curious look through a pair of goggles. He in turn gave her a small smile which surprised her.

Naruto's sapphire eye looked the mysterious girl up and down, taking in all her features. She wore a hot pink and pale yellow body suite with green straps, matching pink head gear, black fingerless gloves, and a pair of knee high boots. She stood a head shorter than him, had a petite form, blond hair that was cut short so that it didn't pass her ears, and from as far as Naruto could see, had pale, almost paper-white skin.

Naruto kept his smile on his lips and said. "You're fighting with me? Now that's what I'm taking about!" he shouted with enthusiasm.

The mystery girl nodded once before sinking into a fighting stance and brandished a weird claw-like weapon at the Klikk. Naruto grinned before raising his Longsword at the ready. "Let's take him down!"

Then, with a tremendous burst of speed, Naruto charged the monster with the girl close behind. The two quickly closed the distance between them and the Klikk as Naruto swung his sword in a wide arch.

The Klikk, with all its agility, quickly jumped out of the way. This however left it open to attack as the second member of tag team fighters took advantage of its vulnerable underside. One would think with her small size that she wouldn't have the physical strength necessary to really hurt something like a Klikk, however she did. With a viciously sharp clawed fist, she punched the creature back.

Naruto came around her to press their attack with an over head slash. His sword attack managed to slice though its thick armor-like skin on its shoulder and into softer flesh under it this time. The Klikk gave a pained screech as blood flowed freely onto the floor. It shrieked again before swinging its talons at the teen Zanarkadian

Naruto dived away to the side, completely avoiding the attack. His partner rushed forward, pulling back her arm and curling her hand into a tight fist again. The Klikk swung its claw in a horizontal slash aimed at her neck. She ducked just in time, allowing her to get within its defenses. The pale girl delivered a strong uppercut to its maw. She pivoted around and followed through with a roundhouse kick, connecting the back of her foot with its face, and knocking the Klikk senseless.

The kick had enough power in it to send the Klikk flying. One of the four men that accompanied the girl yelped when he saw the Klikk being hurtled in his direction. He managed to move out the way seconds before the Klikk impacted with the stone support beam behind him.

There was a deafening **BOOM** followed by the sound of crumbling stone as spider cracks appeared out from where the Klikk landed. Naruto noted that she was incredibly strong and the girl readied themselves again when monster quickly recovered and rose to its feet, shaking it head to focus its vision. Even though the Klikk's face was so stiff it couldn't create a proper expression, that didn't stop the teen or the mysterious girl from seeing the angry, murderous glint in its red eyes or feel the terrible amount of bloodlust radiating from it.

Naruto saw that it was aiming for his partner and got in his line of sight before it could attack the girl, surprising her greatly. Though he was rewarded with the air leaving his lungs, the sword left his grip and he found his body being driven into the air. The Klikk moved with monstrous speed when it rammed into the teenager with a lot of force behind it. When he hit the ground he skidded a few yards before stopping, kicking up dust along the way. Naruto got up to his knees, his mouth filling with the coppery taste of blood. With his free hand he gently touched his ribs and hissed in pain. It was a wonder nothing broke. _Shit, bastard hits pretty hard_

The Klikk wasted no time as it moved on to the girl again. It jumped up into the air screeching, extending one of its clawed arms while guarding it underside. After getting struck twice there, it didn't seem to want the give the girl another chance to hit it there again. The girl jumped back, avoiding the raking claws.

The Klikk rebounded from its initial attack and swung its heavy tail. She backed away from its swinging tail distracted her just long enough for the Klikk to take a swipe at her. She screamed in pain when dagger sharp claws sliced through cloth and into her arm, leaving three large horizontal gashes.

The girl fell back, clutching her bleeding arm. The Klikk was about to pounce on her when a hail of bullets whizzed by. The Klikk screeched in anger again and was now charging the nearest human with such blinding speed he barely had time to reload.

The four men that came in with her raised their guns again, ready to fire off another round. The recovered Naruto stepped in the way of the Klikk and caught its claw like arms with his bare hands and growled at it. It roared in frustration as it tried to push him back, but he wouldn't budge at all. He knew that if he moved it would not hesitate to attack or maybe even massacre the group of people. The Klikk couldn't use its tail since it couldn't reach around from how close he was too it.

Naruto couldn't see the looks of surprise he was getting from the mysterious people, especially from the girl who he saved only moments. It just wasn't possible for a human to be able to hold off a fiend, much less be able to stand face to face with one. The girl simply looked on in shock and surprise as Naruto brought his foot back and slammed it into the monsters stomach, sending it skidding across the floor and crashing into a wall.

Not wanting to waste anymore time and not giving it a moment to recover, he charged and to everyone's surprise began to rain a hail storm of lightning fast punches and kicks to it. Each blow he made to the Klikk made it sink deeper and deeper into the wall, causing everyone to look on in shock. All the while he was breaking through its thick hide and it began to crack, causing it to screech in agony and unable to counter attack at all.

The unnamed girl looked surprised to see a complete, yet very strong, stranger, defend her and her companions so. "Oi, lady! I can't keep this up forever ya know!"

The short haired girl shook her shock away and nodded. Standing up, she fished though a small hip pack and pulled out a small round, green object.

Naruto was starting to slow down suddenly, his muscles ached but he kept up the punishment nonetheless, though the Klikk was able to see that he was running out of gas. With a screech it swiped him across the chest causing him to growl in pain. Though the Klikk pushed himself from the wall and tried to force Naruto out of his way, but missed and screeched in anger as it was unable to move.

Naruto held the Klikk in a full Nelson from behind, it screeched and roared as it struggled to get free. But Naruto's grip just tightened, his muscles screamed at him but he fought against it. He wasn't going to let this thing go unless it killed him, and even that was going to be less likely. Naruto growled as he struggled to keep it still, its tail jabbed into his side and he cried out in pain.

But his resolve stood strong and he looked pleadingly at the unnamed girl, in her hand she was holding a small grenade, ready to pull the clip. Her eyes were hesitant, wishing for him to get out of the way. Catching onto to her plan and having one of his own he kicked the Klikk's legs from underneath it, causing it to roar in pain as it landed on its sensitive stomach. Already the armor was mostly gone but he knew a way to finish it off quickly.

Naruto grabbed the back of its neck and its tail he spun around with his inhuman strength, a devilish smirk graced his lips and threw it towards the girl. Then he ducked and moved the hell out of the way when she threw it. It reeled and screeched as it tried to get its feet on solid traction, but by the time it did, its clawed foot stepped on the grenade and a split second later.

**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

The beast was engulfed in red and blue flames, its roars and cries of pain echoed through out the ruins. The witnessing people dressed in funny clothing took a few steps back away from the heat and debris flying everywhere. From somewhere inside of the ball of burning flames the Klikk let out one final agonizing roar before falling to the ground, it too burst into bright lights like the other monsters before him.

Naruto was beginning to feel his body scream again, he wrapped his arm around his body. Pushing so hard even when he was injured was probably a bad thing to do, but at least they were safe. Though he didn't notice that his wounds were knitting themselves together at an alarming rate, though it didn't stop him from feeling the fatigue, he needed to lie down for a while.

And his headache was coming back again at full force, and his body was on fire. Pain unlike anything he ever felt coursed through his body, and he made a sound that didn't sound human. He couldn't even begin to describe what the hell was going on with him, but he really needed to lie down.

He simply slumped on a wall behind him and sighed wearily. Wanting to get back to sleep

Naruto's eyes motioned over to the girl who stood there watching him. After a moment of staring she took her goggles, revealing vibrant and rich green eyes. The girl him a small smile; he sighed in relief and was glad she was alright and so was her team. But right now he really needed to sleep.

With a sigh escaping his lips he slumped to the floor ready to take a long nap, fatigue plagued his body and he needed relief. Though he didn't see the four men he helped surround him, then he hissed in pain when a hand suddenly gripped his hair and yanked him to his feet. "What the hell… stop it!!!" he exclaimed.

The moment those words left his mouth three gun barrels were shoved in his face. "_Fryd ec drec?_" One of the four men asked in a language Naruto had never even heard before.

"_Y fiend! Eh resyh tukieca!_" Another responded.

"_Oac! Ed ec cu!_ "

Despite Naruto's lack of understanding their words, body language was something he did understand and from the way things were looking, it didn't look like things were falling in his favor. His brain was pounding painfully in his skull, the burning sensation was getting worst and felt so tired. His suspicions were confirmed when the one clutching his hair tightened his grip, making the teen cry out, and a dark skinned man pressed a curved knife to his throat.

"_Fa gamm ed?_"

He almost sighed in relief when the girl suddenly spoke up. "_Fryd! Fryd ev ed ec risyh?_"

The one with the knife twisted it away from Naruto's neck and pointed at her. Not in a threatening way though, simply as if to make a point. "_Drao yna dra cysach eh taydr._"

The girl placed her hands on her hips and said, "_E vanpet ed! Fa puchk ed fedr ic._" Her green eyes drifted over to him before she came close to him. She nearly winced at the pleading look that he gave her, but she brought her mouth to his ear. "... _Cunno_" She breathed into his ear, causing him to involuntarily shiver, but it didn't last long.

Naruto's eye widened as he doubled over when her bare fist sank deeply into his already abused gut, knocking the air out of him. He dropped to his knees before falling over, clutching his stomach. His world became nothing more than a blurry double vision as he watched the girl watch him go down before turning and waling away. Then he was submerged into the realm of darkness.

**Read and Review oh and don't get too comfortable of me using Al Bhed, I'm just going by memory of what I remember. Sorry if it's not accurate. Cheers! ^^**


	3. Going Under

Chapter 3

Naruto groaned slightly as his awareness slowly came back to him. The sounds of water rolling and the smell of the sea affected his senses, as if the world moved in a sort of swaying motion. A breeze ruffled his hair and clothes, bringing the familiar scent of salt water to his nostrils. Naruto sighed a little at the coolness around him.

Slowly he opened his eyes to find himself lying on cold hard metal, his legs and arms felt stiff. Not exactly the best way to wake up after going through so much in such a short period of time.

Pushing himself to a sitting position he decided to get a good look around. Not only was it still night, but now he was trapped in the middle of the sea with a bunch of people, whose language he barely understood. Not only that but they took his sword and other things he picked up. A growl escaped his throat when he remembered how he saved that girl and her team.

And what did he get in turn for compassion? He got slugged in the gut for no reason and was kidnapped. Finally when colors seemed to come back to his blue eye, his brows narrowed and in frustration he slammed his fist into the ground. That girl better have some damn good answers or there was going to be hell to pay.

Sensing sudden movements from behind, one of the two guards that were on deck turned to the white haired teen to rise. ""_Ced, lybdejega!_" The guard shouted while slamming the butt of his rifle into his stomach, throwing him down in the guardrail of the ship.

A growl escaped Naruto's throat sending shivers down their spines, and without warning Naruto sent a powerful backhand blow to the guard that hit him. Lifting him off of the ground and causing him to slam into a container, spider webbed cracks appeared when he slumped down the ground and groaned in pain.

"Dammit!" Naruto sent him a death glare while bearing his teeth, showing pronounced canines. "Don't hit me for no damn reason!"

"_Hu sujehk, rayn!_" Naruto was suddenly looking down the barrel of the other guard's gun, the bayonet inches way from his face. Shouting in the same language he couldn't understand.

His fist clenched and his body shook with anger, mind rapidly going over about ten different ways he could take this guy down. All of them including deadly and lethal force, Auron made sure to pound into his head self defense and other methods of protecting himself.

At that moment, on the opposite end of the deck, a heavy metal door slid open as five more people walked out. Naruto could see the girl that knocked him out, and he seethed at the memory. She had fallen in step behind a young man around his age, a year older perhaps. He wore a black and whit sleeveless suit with blue straps criss-crossing here and goggles that were pushed on his forehead and a pair of short boots, and like the girl behind him, a pair of goggles pushed to her forehead.

The man wore a scowl on his face that would have rivaled his on his worst day. Then blitzball star could tell that this guy was the leader of this group, and instantly he didn't like him.

While one of the guards kept his gun on Naruto, the other who had crumpled to the floor caught his bearings. Got up to his feet and held his gun at Naruto, all the while saying something to his boss. Judging by the way the man looked at him with furrowed brows, and hardened eyes, it wasn't very good news.

The girl came around to Naruto, and apologetic look was in her eyes as she pulled him up and pinned his arms almost gently behind his back. The man then dug into his back pocket and produced a pair of goggles. Then he gestured for Naruto to take them and, if Naruto was reading his body language correctly, he believed he was to jump overboard into the water.

He sort of picked up on it, but wasn't really sure what exactly what he was suppose to do after that. Looking quizzed at him he scratched the back of his head.

The teen frowned at Naruto, his brow twitched in annoyance. "Tu oui hud cbayg?" he questioned and repeated his earlier actions.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and said. "I don't understand what you saying"

"Ehcumhala!" A gun butt found itself in Naruto's forehead, he was dazed and a small trail of blood leaked down his head. A feral sound escaped his throat and he gave a pointed look at the one who attacked him. The girl looked at where his hand braced on the metal bar, surprise danced in her eyes when she realized that Naruto was crushing it underneath his grip.

'_Dear yevon!' she thought to herself. _Quickly she swatted the weapon away from Naruto with a "Fryed" before turning to Naruto. "He said you can stay if you work.

Naruto's ears caught what she said fluently, it was actually English. Her words were soft and optimistic. Turning to the girl with surprised her said. "You understood me?" She nodded.

Then pain blessed the back of his skull, ok, enough was enough. Naruto yanked the rifle from the man who hit him, and then with a growl he promptly bent with into a pretzel with relative ease. Everyone gaped as he threw it back to him and simply replied. "Alright, I'll work, but if someone hits me again,"

He motioned his head towards the rifle. "There going to end up like that rifle over there, understood?!" At this everyone simply shivered, he turned to the girl who spoke to him. His eyes softened and she gave him an apologetic smiled before translating for her comrades, quickly they got the message and told them his decision.

"There are some ruins down below us, are duty is to go down, dig it up and salvage something important. There's still some power left there, so we'll have to activate it before we start excavating what's there." She explained as she handed back all of Naruto's personal effects they had confiscated.

Naruto nodded before taking his stuff from her. "Understood"

Quickly he strapped on his stuff, though he frowned when he realized that he didn't have a top to wear. Though he didn't notice the girl, underneath the mask, she was blushing heatedly. She watched as his muscles clenched and relaxed, like a cat ready to pounce. Naruto quickly jumped to the rail and did a handstand with ease, balancing on his fore and middle finger, giving her an expecting foxy grin that held warmth and comfort. "So are we going or what?"

Obviously he was very fit and flexible to boot and did a beautiful swan dive into the water, earning a small splash. She looked over the rail, Naruto was calling for her and for some reason she found herself smiling, and she turned to the other four men and told them that she would be gone for a while. Slipping on her goggles she plunged into the sea water.

The swim down went fairly smooth as they descended deeper into the unknown with only four overhead lights to guide their path. Along the way there did meet a small group (about four) of some flesh eating piranha, they were quickly dispatched before any real harm came to them.

Just a little further down, Naruto could make out dim red lights and the silhouetted form of a large collapsed building that, oddly enough, looked similar to the ones found in Zanarkand. The very thought made him a little nostalgic, he was so deep in through that he didn't notice that they had made it to the ruins until he felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned to see the bilingual girl point to an opening, pulling at his arm to follow her. With a nod he swam with her inside.

They both found themselves in a small room. In front of them there was a large panel that whirred and seemed to have some power inside of it, since the lights flickered on and off. The girl swam up and started typing away at the touch screen. After a moment, the door that was connected to the panel began to open, but there was a horrible groan of metal and it only opened to a few inches apart.

She typed into the panel again, but there was no luck. Naruto swam to her and pulled her behind him; he braced his hands on the inside of the metal doors and began to pry them open. She watched as the muscles on his back and hips seem to flex, tighten and relax with the effort. Already she could feel her cheeks redden at the sight; she wondered how such a lithe frame could possess so much strength and power.

Obviously he was strong; if the bending of the rifle wasn't enough then perhaps when he went head to head against the fiend was a true sight to behold. She realized that she never thanked him properly and made a mental note to thank him when they got back on top side.

Finally after breaking her reverie, she realized the door was open. Naruto motioned for her to lead the way and she did. She blinked as Naruto got in front of her into the next room, they made out inside of what looked like an Observatory where they met more Piranhas. Several quick slashes of his sword and a few clawed punches here and there, and the deadly little fish were reduced to nothing more but sushi. They continued on to what was supposed to be the power room.

Naruto watched as his teammate swam up to a large power conduit that was attached to the ceiling. There were a number of tubes and wires connected to it that it seemed to go in every direction, though some of the tubes seemed to be disconnected. A few wires were severed and from the looks of it, it was running on some type of secondary power generator or something. It kind of reminded of a small ARK regenerator he owned. In fact, it looked just like one that gave power to his household back in Zanarkand.

After helping her fix the wires and reconnecting a few, he finally threw on a switch. The center tube hummed and grew bright with renewed life, and the turbines began to turn. The room lit up as power poured out of the machine. Naruto gave a foxy grin, glad at his successful abilities of being a handyman.

The girl gave him a smile as well, while giving thumbs up and she motioned for them to both leave. Though unbeknownst to them in the Power Room, the sudden surge of the generator started to draw the attention of a large sea creature with a lot of tentacles.

With their task done, they both made their way out and into the observatory. The moment they reentered the room, Naruto felt a buzzing sensation in the back his skull, his danger senses were tingling and he could tell that they were not alone in the room. Then out of nowhere came out a large octopus, a Tros.

It was made shades of blue, with huge yellow eyes, a thickly armored head. The beast was easily twice their size and it speedily made it's way to them. Two tentacles shot out in an attempt to grab them.

They scattered in different directions, slipping out of its range. Naruto pulled his blade while the girl readied her claws. The Tror's yellow eyes trailed between the two humans, as if choosing which one to attack before settling on the smaller one. Then, with its massive appendages, the Tros darted towards the green eyed girl, its tentacles stretched out to ensnare her.

But Naruto would have none of that as he carved off two of its appendages. The water beast bellowed in agony before swimming around to the opposite side of the room, away from the two while trailing clouds of blood. However, it didn't stay very long as it charged back at them. Using its armored skull, it slammed into the two in a hit and run tactic.

Shaking the dizziness away and worrying for his female companion, Naruto was pissed and wanted to end this as quickly as possible. Not wanting to endanger her life, but having a plan in mind, he motioned for her to go into the opposite direction. She nodded, recognizing the plan to trap it in a pincer formation. Reaching their desired positions, they nodded once to each other before charging it at the same time.

A grenade was in the girl's hand, but in order for it to have full effect she would need to get closer. Naruto noticed the object her in hand and instantly knew what she needed, taking initiative he struck at another of its tentacles causing it to cry out in pain. The Tros gave a death glare at the human and bound to wrap him in his grasp; it struck true and found its mark.

Naruto could feel it tightening its grip, his sword dropped to the bottom of the area. He fought its grasp and pried it slightly, and then he braced his leg against the metal for leverage and held four of its tentacles tightly underneath his arm. The girl sped in, not wanting to waste the opportunity that Naruto gave her and sliced clean through two of them. Leaving it with only with two more

The Tros screeched and thrashed wildly, its eyes screaming bloody murder. It pulled free and slammed him into a column, almost knocking the wind out of him. Tros turned to the smaller human and in a great burst of speed was on her, it wrapped an appendage on the arm that held the claw weapon while the other wrapped around her middle section.

Already she felt explosive pain shoot through her body, and a watery scream escaped her lungs. White hot pain coursed through her body, the air left her lungs and already in its place was sea water. The Tros slammed her into the wall with such force that she felt a crack, two or maybe three of her ribs must have been broken and the grenade fell to the floor. Its eyes seemed to shine with glee that it finally caught his prey, but it suddenly turned to something else.

With an inhuman roar it screamed in agony before bursting into a pillar of lights. Naruto had stuck his sword through its brain and quickly put it away looked at her with alarm and worry was in his eyes, already he was at her side he tried to move her but her head shook. Already her heart rate was panicking and her lungs burned because of the lack of oxygen she had lost. Already everything was going blurry and black.

But Naruto refused for her to die, it would have taken too long to take her to the surface for air. She would die before she made, so he came up with another option. But he wasn't to sure how she would react to it, but her life was endangered and he hoped that she would forgive him. Naruto closed his eyes and pressed his lips towards hers.

Slowly he was passing his breath of life into her body, her eyes slowly but surely began to open. Then they widened to the size of dinner plates, everything began to come clear in her vision. Warmth unlike anything she had ever felt coursed through her entire being and the pain she had felt just simply washed away. As if it was never there at all. Energy coursed through her and slowly her body was beginning to function properly, though she wasn't to sure if she could make the swim back up.

She didn't notice the blue aura emanate her frame and her broken ribs were being fixed, though Naruto held her tightly to his chest. The same couldn't have been said for his ribs snapped in the same place as hers did had been but they would heal eventually. He always healed quickly, but it didn't mean that he couldn't feel the pain from an injury. Finally when the bone snapped into place he commenced with his plan of getting them both out of here.

The Zanarkadian with a heated blush also on his face; wrapped her legs around his waist tightly, while she wrapped her arms around his neck. Not wanting to let go. Both sharing the same oxygen supply he had, albeit a strange way to do so perhaps; but effective nonetheless. Naruto knew full well that this seemed a little odd, not bad but odd. But hoped that the green eyed girl was not mad at him, and yet, why did her lips feel so warm, and so good. Though it also felt very nice, though he was not going to voice that anytime soon.

It's not like he was going to tell her that this was the first time he ever met lips with a girl.

Pushing the though away he noticed that outside, one by one the large and long rusted search lights turned on as power once again flowed through them. Bright light suddenly turned on so sudden that it scared away a small school of fish. By then Naruto, still mouth to mouth with the girl had already emerged from the ruins. Thanks to the newly powered lights, the pitch darkness was banished away as the made their way to a small search party that had joined them off of the ship.

Though they didn't seem too happy to see them or him for that matter, since even though they couldn't speak. Their faces were flushed with anger. But they realized that if they disconnected them, they would both drown so they left it alone for now. Though the girl had a seriously heated blush on her cheeks, and seemed to pull tighter against his body. Wanting to be closer to his warmth and not wanting to let go.

Naruto took that as for him to hurry up so he left them and began to swim up top side. Though not before noticing embedded deep within the coral reef was something big, in fact, it looked like a ship. It was badly rusted from constant exposure of sea water and time itself. Dents and holes were blown in it, over all it was not appealing to the eye.

Though, for some reason, Naruto had a small inkling that the people swimming not five feet from him were planning something big with it. Obviously they were give it an overhaul to fix it up, but what they were going to use it drew up one big question mark in his head.

_Whatever it is, _Naruto turned his eyes to the bilingual girl, blushed and motioned that he was going up top. _My priority is to get her top side, I only have about eight maybe seven minutes of air left in my lungs. _With that he began to swim back to the ship, others following shortly after.

One by one they quickly broke the surface. There was a rope hanging overboard waiting to be used for them to get back to the ship with. Though to her reluctance Naruto moved her lips from hers, allowing her to gulp in air. Her face was flushed and she pressed her head into the crook of his neck while holding on to dear life, she wrapped her arms around his neck and thighs around his waist and he pulled the both of them up.

Though parts of her body felt like mush, lead and heavy. Had it not been for his arm comfortably wrapped around her waist, she was sure that she would have fallen off back into the sea.

With each tug and pull she could feel that he was being gentle with her, just being in this close proximity of him brought warmth that she had never known in her entire life.

Though Naruto felt that she shivered, thinking that it was probably from the cold air stinging her sharply after being in the water for so long. But in essence, it was really a shiver of delight and lust unlike anything she had felt, though she had to tighten her legs occasionally to quell the feelings. If that wasn't an indication, the maybe the way she chewed her lips was, though he didn't see it.

After Naruto helped her to the guard rail, several of the men went to assist her. Pulled her over the rail and led her towards the metal doors, not even giving a glance over to the Zanarkadian.

Finally being free of the water, he shook the droplets off of him. Finally he was able to stand on solid ground, err, metal. Behind him several of the men dressed in strange clothing came up, they seemed to chattering excitedly. All the while heading towards the door, probably to get something to eat, though when he motioned towards the door a man turned to Naruto and pushed him away.

The metal door slammed in his face. Naruto sighed defeated before walking over to a bunch of stacked metal cargo that had been tied down and covered. Truth be told, it didn't matter if they trusted him, one way or another. He slumped down to the cold metal deck and leaned back and closed his eyes, his mind wandered to what he did to the girl under water.

He knew that it was a dire situation, if she didn't have air she would have died. But why did his face heat up from the sensation, his hand traced his lips and felt the warmth their or at least a phantom warmth of her lips anyway. Looking into the sky he could make out the stars, he closed his eyes and sighed, maybe if he slept the hunger would go away. He only slept for about two hours, every now and again the beast in his stomach simply growled in protest.

"Dear God I'm so hungry, I feel like I'm gonna keel over" he spoke to himself. Though his ears picked up soft footsteps and turned to the noise. Naruto turned to see the girl he was with earlier, instantly his cheeks betrayed him and was filled with red as he moved his face away. She saw this and her cheeks filled with red also, the memory of their lips pressed together caused her to fidget where she stood.

Quickly remembering why she came up she placed a tray of food down in front of him. "I…I wanted to thank you… for saving my life" her cheeks were blood red as she said the words.

To Naruto he was greatly surprised; maybe she wasn't mad about the situation below the sea. But the aroma of the food was so seductive to his senses, so he gave her a heart stopping smile and a word of thanks. Sitting up he placed the tray into his lap, picked up the fork and began to eat, to his surprise it was really good and so he dug in.

The girl couldn't help but giggle at his enthusiasm, and it was so cute to see someone so appreciative of her cooking. A feeling of calm, peace and tranquility filled her being and she felt extremely comfortable around this Naruto. So she sat down next to him after he was finished and he sighed in content, the childish light danced in his blue eye and she couldn't help but giggle.

"Thank you so much for the meal" he replied with a slightly bowed head and flashed another smile, causing her to melt in her place. She could not deny that he was very handsome and they he smiled at her seemed to make her burn with heat.

Then a contemplative look came to his face, he tilted his head while putting his index finger underneath his pouted lips. Yevon he looked so cute when he did that!

"So, would you kindly tell me your name?"

"Oh, I'm sorry I should have introduced myself from earlier on, I'm Rikku" she gave a small smile and her body shone with optimism. Naruto found it comforting, at least she didn't hit him when he voiced how he felt.

Jabbing a thumb into his chest, he too gave her a grin. "I'm Naruto, nice to meet you. Wow, so you really do understand me, huh?" She nodded. "But why didn't you say so earlier and why did you hit me, back at the cavern?"

Naruto left the question to hang in the air, though Rikku traced a finger into one of the grates and sighed. "I'm sorry for what happened back there, but I did it to save you life. Back there the others thought **oui **were a fiend because of the way you were able defend yourself and hold your own against one bare handed. It was so amazing; I've never seen anything like that!"

"We?"

Rikku nodded. "Oh… oui means you." She got up and walked over to the rail, looking out to the vast ocean, its smell was welcoming to her nose. She was glad that she was able to talk to him and slowly she was already being more and more acquainted with him.

"So then, who are you guys anyway?"

Rikku turned to Naruto and gave a giggle, though it sounded cute, almost like music to his ears. "You can't tell? We're Al Bhed" then suddenly something dawned on her. "You're not an Al Bhed hater… are you?" She looked at him, worry were in her beautiful green eyes as she turned around.

Naruto frowned and shook his head. "No I don't hate you, but honestly, I don't even know what an Al Bhed is, but I can never hate you. You're nice and funny and you're a really great cook." When the words left his mouth Rikku blushed again, mentally feeling relief at what he said, so she continued. "So, where are you from?"

"Zanarkand" he stood up and brushed his white pants, freeing it from imaginary dirt and leaned against the railing. "I'm blitzball player for the Zanarkand Abes."

At this Rikku simply blinked at his words, almost as if he grew a second head. "I'm sorry if it sounds rude or offensive, but, did you hit your head or something? You feel okay?"

The Zanarkadian simply huffed at this and narrowed his snowy brows. "Yes rude indeed, but I have no reason to lie about where I came from, and let's not forget it was your people who hit me, remember?" he said slowly, seething at the thought.

Rikku flinched and waved her arms in front of her, she didn't mean to make him so mad. "S...Sorry." the pointed look he gave her scared her and she didn't want to ruin what was already a beautiful conversation. "So, do you remember anything before we met you, anything at all?" trying to change the subject.

Naruto took a breath and sighed, he didn't mean to scare her. So he crossed the end of the deck and stood next to her on the rail, she realized that he was much more taller than her, and the way the night shadowed his features he looked, lack for a better word; amazing. He then began from the beginning, telling her all about Zanarkand, how life was there, blitzball, and up to Sin's attack. He even mentioned the light that engulfed him and Auron.

It was the most so far he ever talked to another about him in his entire life; after his mother died he practically shut himself off from the world. Save for blitzball and Auron, though he never really spoke much about himself, but he felt comfortable around this pretty girl Rikku. They way she listened so intently to his story while not missing a beat, well, it inspired him to go on. But the conversation got him thinking when he saw each of her reactions on her face from the different parts of his story.

"What?" he asked when he saw her eyes grow to the size of plates in surprise.

"You… you were near sin?" she asked disbelievingly while the information still sank in. Naruto nodded. "I see. Don't worry then." Rikku gave a small sympathetic smile on her red lips, for some reason when he looked at them he looked away and blushed heatedly. Rikku saw this and blushed also, but decided to continue.

"You'll get better soon" Naruto gave her an odd look, and she clarified for him. "They say that when people are to close to Sin, people lose their memories and start to hallucinate."

Naruto odd look became apparent, his hand went through his hair and revealed his other eye, but it simply flopped down over it again. "Are you saying that, I'm sick?"

Rikku nodded her pretty head. "Yes, you must've breathed in some of sin's toxins." She said. "Zanarkand doesn't exist anymore, well not really. But it was destroyed by Sin a thousand years ago," she pushed off of the rail. "So nobody plays Blitzball there anymore."

Now, Naruto was the one without words, he could handle the part about sin destroying Zanarkand, he was there. It was her last few words that hit him cold, like a slap to the face. "…A thousand…no!" He looked the smaller girl in the eye. "There's no way… I saw Sin attack Zanarkand. It couldn't have been that long ago! Sin came, attacked Zanarkand, and took me away less than twenty four hours ago."

Rikku looked at him sympathetically again, she could see that his visible eye seem to water slightly and she placed a hand on his shoulder in sympathy. He couldn't believe this, was this come type of sick joke or something, but deep down he knew it wasn't and that's why it hurt so much for him to accept it. Naruto fell to his knees, placing his hands on his face and began to cry.

The Al Bhed was greatly surprised at the emotions he displayed, he seemed to truly believe his own story, and Sin's toxin seemed to have afflicted him severely. So why did she find herself kneeling next to him, embracing him warmly and whispering words of comfort and encouragement in his ear. She didn't know, but she didn't like to see him sad.

She didn't mean to make him cry, but could he be telling the truth of it all? Naruto didn't look like the type to lie and make up something like that. So she wiped the tears from his eyes and gave him a smile, wanting to cheer him up, then a thought came to her. "You said that… you like to play Blitzball, right?"

Naruto's head nodded numbly in her chest and he looked at her, his eye was puffy and slightly red. "Maybe you should try going to Luca" she suggested, helping him up on his feet.

"L…Luca?"

"Yea, there's a Blitzball tournament comin up and a lot of people are going there. Maybe there you'll find someone who looks familiar, okay?"

Naruto thought about for a moment, wiped his face and forced a smile on his face. "Why not… I guess so." At this he embraced her tightly against his chest; Rikku looked surprised as he lifted her off of the ground, like a child would an empty card board box. She could feel his heart hammering away in his chest, the slight shallowness of his breathing she could feel on her skin.

It sent delicious chills down her spine and she was surprised when he whispered. "Thank you, Rikku" The words came out thick, and she couldn't help but sigh in his chest, his scent and warmth felt amazing to her senses. At this she nodded and embraced his as well, and then he placed her down on her feet while her face seemed to blush intently at the action. Her heart also seemed to race and she felt a longing for him, somewhere deep down for this boy; this man.

Again she smiled. "Okay, I'm going to go tell the others, okay?" Naruto gave a nod and scratched his head sheepishly while sporting a grin. She turned and walked towards the metal doors that led to the lower decks of the ship, but stopped short and turned and ran back to him and planted a soft kiss on his cheeks.

He blushed again as he looked at Rikku who was also blushing, but looked sort of serious at the same time. "Oh right, one more thing. For your own safety, don't go telling people that you're from Zanarkand. People believe it's a holy place and it would upset people, okay?" With that Rikku gave him another kiss on the cheek and ran off, blushing the whole way.

At that moment Naruto felt like the luckiest person alive, his hand trailed where that girl kissed him. Feeling the warmth resonating from her action and he sat to where the cargo crates were, he leaned back and sighed. The feeling was unlike anything he had ever felt, it was just like the way his mother kissed him, with all the warmth and affection. But could there have been something deeper there, something more perhaps; Naruto didn't know. But he treasured the moment and held a smile on his face as his sapphire twinkled with giddiness and delight.

Finally things seemed to be turning around, but he couldn't take from his mind that Sin seemed to have done. Here he thought and simply believed that Sin just transported him to some far away place and that he could get back without too much of a hassle. But he didn't expect Sin to play Leap Frog through time, though now getting back seemed like a distant dream and it did make his blood boil, but he decided not to give in to his anger. With that he folded his arms behind his head and sighed.

Then a loud groan and screech of metal resonated in his ear, Naruto found himself pin wheeling across the deck and slamming into the rail, some of the Al Bhed came to see what had hit them. Among them were Rikku and that guy who Naruto seemed to dislike, though he rubbed the back of his head from the discomfort of the impact.

Then a giant wall of water rose out of the sea, as though something detonated underneath the water. But the wall didn't die down, it only rose higher and seemed to head for the ship.

"SIN!!!" one of the men exclaimed.

Naruto turned towards one of the Al Bhed who was looking out at the towering water. "Sin ec lusa!" another yelled.

The bald man rushed to the rail and shouted. "Ihtan ic, ihtan ic!"

By then the water tower crashed down upon them. The Al Bhed managed to hang on to something to keep them from being swept into the sea. Panic filled them, but they hung on, but someone wasn't so lucky. The water crashed directly in front of him and washed him over board.

Everything seemed too moved to a crawl as Naruto watched as Rikku ran to the rail and tried to reach for him in time, but she was too late. She watched in fear as he fell down into the water, terror crept into her heart as she watched Naruto being swept into the watery depths of a whirlpool created by sin. A few moments later Naruto was lost to the cold sea, the Al Bhed girl slumped against the rail, her green eyes were wide and looked unable to grip the reality that the one person she genuinely felt something for was gone in an instant.

Slowly she shook her head, tears formed in her eyes and into the darkness she wailed aloud for all of Spira to hear.

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Much Obliged.

Dark Spidey out.

P.S. Expect to see an update for Prince of Pleasure either today or tomorrow. Most likely today. ^^


	4. Coming to Besaid

Chapter 4

_Naruto opened his eyes to find himself standing in the swirling maelstrom of darkness. The seventeen year old turned left and right only to see nothing but the black abyss around him, stretching into eternity. It was cold and silent; like the grave. He felt uncomfortable being lonely here._

_He realized that he was completely and utterly alone._

_For some reason being here bothered him. It didn't bother the Zanarkadian before, he's been practically alone almost all of his life, so why did it hurt to feel this way? Back then Naruto wasn't too big on socializing with anyone either, he mostly stayed to himself, minded his own business after his mom died. This darkness didn't feel right._

_The last thing he could remember was Rikku, seeing how scared and terrified she was made his chest ache. The one person other than Auron he decided to open up too, and now she was gone. Naruto got up and decided to walk; anywhere but here was fine, hoping to find something, someone that would lead him into the real world because obviously this wasn't it._

"_Hello?" he called. There was no response, save for his echo. "RIKKU?" he looked around from side to side and found nothing. "AURON?" Still nobody answered and for the first time since his mom died, he felt terrified. "ANYBODY?"_

"………_.Na…"_

_Naruto nearly jumped out of skin when he heard something from behind. He whipped around while making a grab for his sword, but instead of feeling cold steel; his hands groped nothing but air. What the… no way! Naruto looked shocked._

"………_Naru"_

_The Zanarkadian eye looked about around hi, wanting to find the source of the voice. He didn't recognize it, but he heard it._

_Then he heard it again. "Na…ru…" but he didn't recognize that voice, and he frantically looked about, but found nothing._

"………_Naru…to" Now he was sure about that voice, it was Rikku. He knew it was her. Naruto stopped looking, but the voices coaxed him on. Then he blinked when he felt_

"_HEY!!" he shouted while running towards the darkness, there in the distance he saw light. Three shadows stood in the light and the only person he could make out was Rikku, feeling joy in his heart he ran to meet her, but all he got was a simply cute giggle from the Al Bhed and her eyes shone with delight as she simply said. "We'll be waiting for you… Naruto"_

_Then his entire world was enveloped in pure white light, right before he screamed Rikku's Name out to the darkness._

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Naruto nearly choked on sea water when he tried to breathe for air. Salt from the sea assaulted his nose and eyes when he opened them, making them sting slightly. Naruto kicked his legs as he made his way back to the surface. Naruto gulped fresh sweet air as his head burst out of the water. He coughed and sputtered the water out of his throat; finally he was able to breathe properly.

The Uzumaki teen wondered as he looked around. From the looks of it he was swimming in the shallow waters of the sea. The day was warm, a calm light breeze glided through the air gently. Looking down he could see all kinds of exotic and tropical fish (the non aggressive kind) of every color, shape and size swimming about leisurely in the little schools.

Large corals reefs of pink, orange and red dotted the sandy floors every few feet. From the way the sun reflected, the water itself seemed to shine and glimmer with life, like shard of diamonds. The sounds of the waves breaking filled Naruto's ears along with the cawing of seagulls with blue stripes stretching far and wide.

_At least that giant teme dumped me somewhere nice, but Rikku, I hope you safe ._Naruto thought solemnly as his chest seemed to have a weird ache deep down inside, he was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't see the small white and blue dimpled ball speeding towards him. He felt a tingling in the back of his skull and moved just in time for it to land in front of him.

_What the heck,_ Naruto looked at the blue and white dimpled something, and a smile graced his lips. "Hmm, A blitzball?" Naruto raised it a little and looked towards the sea at who threw it on to the beach.

"HEY, YOU OKAY?" a loud voice yelled.

Naruto gave a wave and smiled brightly, before diving and letting the blitzball go and stopped when he touched the sea floor. After looking up to make sure the ball was where it should be, then he shot up. It connected with his forehead and splashed out of the water, shooting into the air like a bullet. Naruto followed it promptly and with grace and speed of a true blitzball star, his body twisted and contorted in such a way that it left the people on the beach speechless.

After performing the necessary corkscrew, added with a flip, he took aim and delivered an extremely powerful kick to the ball. Sending it whizzing towards the people on the beach; though they were amazed that at the last second it veered off of course and went around them and flew into the distance, into the great unknown. There jaws literally fell down; shock and amazement filled their eyes, were they actually seeing this properly?

Naruto simply smiled and began to make his way towards the beach, but something to the right caught his gaze. He didn't know why but something told him to go that way, so he followed his instincts. Then right there in the sand he knelt down and brushed where he was standing; and right there was some type of crest, on it was a blue moon. It looked old, but something told him to take it and he put it away for later. Maybe something special would happen if he took it with him, he thought to himself.

Then he quickly made his way towards the people on the beach, though for a moment he thought he broke them. Since they looked at him as if he was some type of ghost or something that was beyond the grave, but guessed that they were still shocked. Though after a long while of silence everyone seemed to crowd around him, and was abuzz with excitement. Asking questions about that shot he just performed and what team he played.

At that moment the tall man with red hair was finishing up talking with two unknown people who had popped up out of nowhere. There Naruto stood while scratching his head sheepishly while gauging everyone. _Hmm if I didn't know any better I would see that these guys were a blitzball team. _They all wore funny looking outfits that were yellow and a little brown with different colors, followed along with straps. From what he could tell, the guy with the red hair that seemed to be grinning up a storm was the leader, if by the way everything acted around him.

"Uh, what's up?" Naruto greeted properly, while shaking the water out of his hair and body.

"You, uh… want to try that move. One more time?" he asked, still in awe and had to believe that this kid was obviously no rookie, but a veteran; a professional blitzball player. It was there that Naruto felt extremely comfortable with this bunch, giddiness danced in his single blue eye and then one of the men threw a blitzball into the air.

Naruto focused and closed his eyes, deep in though as the ball landed on his forehead and bounced again into the air. It ascended into the air with a light thump and it was then Naruto opened his eye and flew into the air after it, and with a flip he kicked the ball clear across the water with amazing dexterity and it swooshed cleanly across the ocean.

Obviously judging by the way everyone was agape and whispered words like 'Whoa' and 'Amazing' they were deeply surprised. It was then that the leader simply folded his arms across his chest and simply smiled. "You're definitely no amateur, who you play for?" he asked.

"The Zanarkand Abes" Naruto blurted, then at this his single eye widened and he cursed mentally for the slip and judging by the way they looked at him he realized his mistake. The man's eyes narrowed slight and asked. "What team you say you play for again?"

Naruto was taken aback; luckily he was able to rebound his mistake. "Uh, I meant, forget that," Naruto waved his hands and his eye shifted over to everyone on the beach, gauging everyone's reactions and coming up with a plan and remembered Rikku's word'. "I uh, got to close to Sin and my mind is a little foggy. So I don't know where this place is… or where I came from." Naruto lowered his head and looked away ashamed.

The Zanarkadian really, utterly and truly hated lying. He couldn't stand it because lies hurt people, but even though in this situation it was necessary. Deep down it did hurt for him to lie, though he said nothing.

The leader nodded in understanding. "Sin's toxin got to you huh, but your still alive," at this everyone did a weird gesture with the hands. It reminded Naruto about something that he remembered seeing back home. It was the sign of victory, a bow that he knew by heart and he wondered why were they doing it now. "Praise be to Yevon"

A thought came to the man and he slammed his fist into his palm, nodding to himself. He told his men to go back to practice while he held his hand out, Naruto did the same and they shook. "I'm Wakka, coach and captain of the Besaid Aurochs bruddah.

Naruto wanted to answer but felt a cramp in his stomach, a loud audible growl echoed on the shore and he blushed in embarrassment and at this Wakka guessed that he was hungry and guided him down into a path. Naruto waved the guys off and followed behind Wakka.

The path was narrow and short, filled with a lot of trees and shrubbery. When they came to the end it broke off into a fork; the left forced you to weave up and around half buried ruins and the right led to a small cliff. It was about eight to teen feet above a winding lake. Wakka turned off to the right towards the cliffs edge. Naruto walked until he stood just about the edge of the cliff. Amazed at the beauty of it all.

Wakka glanced at Naruto with a devilish smirk, and without him noticing he took a few steps behind Naruto, who was so busy looking over the edge. Then he faked a yawn and kicked him over the edge and earned a surprised yelp in the process and he splashed into the water below. Naruto shook the water from his hair and glared at Wakka who simply laughed at the look on his face and was already in the water with him.

Wakka gave a wide smile at Naruto when he came up. "This way!" He swam off with Naruto behind him. They weaved through the ruin filled waters, dispatching water fiends; a few Piranhas that tried to ambush them. Wakka, to Naruto's surprise, was a skilled fighter despite the fact that he used a blitzball and sometimes his fist. He was dexterous and seemed to have really good accuracy with the sports ball. By the time they had neared the end of the swim they came to a tall vine and leaf covered rock face. There was a submerged tunnel opening in and Wakka was going to lead them into it.

Wakka called out, "Hey, Naruto,"

"Yeah?"

"I've a favor to ask you." Naruto turned around and looked into his eyes and seemed to guess what the red head wanted. Though the man scratched his head sheepishly and gave a small grin. "Since you play Blitzball, I was wondering-"

Naruto cut him off saying, "You want me to play on your team?"

Wakka looked at the Zanarkadian and nodded his head. "I would appreciate it if you would". Wakka pointed out and continued. "You see, there's a major blitz tournament coming up in a few days. Many from Spira will be there, and I was wondering, hoping, that you could play for the Aurochs and me." Naruto turned to him and seemed to think about it, and Wakka concluded. "Maybe someone might recognize you and you might be able to find you team, ya? So what do you think?"

Well, to Naruto the idea seemed sound enough and he didn't see any harm in playing so he nodded and grinned with enthusiasm. "You bet, this year we're going to bring home the cup. I guarantee it!" he flashed a grin and Wakka in turn his. The man could feel that this guy, Naruto, was something amazing, with him on their side he could feel that Trophy in his hands. Now way they could possibly lose to anybody!

"Alright, come on and follow me" Wakka then swam into the tunnel and Naruto followed behind.

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Not long after Naruto and Wakka reached dry land, the two hiked up a short mountain path until they reached the top. Naruto shook the water out of his hair and clothing as he stood next to an odd looking black and grey stone. Wakka walked over to a makeshift railing made out of short polls that had been hammered into the ground. Weathered ropes connected each of them together.

"This is where I was born…" Wakka pointed down into a small valley at the base of the mountain. Naruto walked over and stood next to him; his blue eye looked down into the valley and looked at Wakka for clarification.

"I started playing blitzball when I was six years old. Then I joined the Aurochs two years ago, it's been eleven years since I aspired to be a well known blitzball player. He stared won at his place of birth and memories coursed through his mind and he sighed. "Sadly though, even with my help, the Aurochs have yet to win a single tournament in years.

Wakka began to walk the dirt road and Naruto followed. "Lately though, I haven't been able to play properly because I have another job and I've been forced to split my focus between the two. My mind tends to wonder because of this and I simply cannot be satisfied until I have achieved my dream ya know? Only then I can retire peacefully with no regrets.

"Retire?" Naruto said and realized something. _So that's why huh, he's planning to go out with a bang._

Wakka nodded. "Yes, the upcoming tournament will be my last."

"I see. So what is are goal?"

Wakka shrugged. "As long as the team can give their all and do their best. I'll have no regrets" at this Naruto rolled his eye. Could this guy be serious, do your best? No way, he was going to change all of that.

No," he glanced at Wakka. "Anybody can play their best Wakka, but in blitzball like the one coming, victory must be your key focus, other wise your team will always lose. He said sagely.

Wakka stopped in his tracks and his eyes widened at Naruto's word's, they held a lot of truth and weight in them. The islander had to take a moment to them over in his mind, and he barked in laughter before coming to a conclusion. "Yes, your right Naruto, we're going to win this year's tournament. With your help, I know we can win this.

Naruto gave him thumbs up and flashed a smile. "No problem" At this Wakka simply laughed at his good fortune and continued the rest of the way towards the nearby village. After a few moments of walking, a voice rang out.

"Hey you!!!" The two were stopped by the pair Naruto remembered from earlier on. "You're the kid that drifted from the sea right?" the older man asked and he nodded his head.

He simply folded his arms and stated. "You two should be on your guard, fiends have been spotted on this road lately. Make sure to get him to the village safely, Wakka." Then he and his companion left them both to their thoughts

Naruto watched them as they left and looked confused as he followed Wakka back home. "So, who were those guys?

"Oh, those two are Crusaders" Wakka explained.

"Crusaders?"

Wakka gave Naruto a dumbfounded look. "Hmm, maybe sin's toxin must have gotten to you real bad ya. But don't worry they'll come back soon, ya. If you want to know more about the Crusaders, you can visit their lodge in the village."

Naruto and followed behind the red headed islander.

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"Welcome to Besaid!" Wakka happily yelled as he and Naruto walked through the village entrance. Naruto looked around the village, it seemed peaceful and quiet. The kind of place you would want to live and not be so stressed out and bothered if you asked him and yet, he could tell that it was special somehow.

The Huts were decorated with bright and vibrant colors. People seemed to titter as they walked to and fro the village. Broken cobble stone stretched along the street of the village that led from the village gates to the huge building on the opposite side.

A loud and deep rumble resounded.

Wakka's wide eyes trailed on Naruto who grinned sheepishly and he laughed heartily. "You must be hungry, ya? Come to my home later on and I'll prepare you something." He pointed to the middle hut on the right side of the village, and then pointed to the lodge on the opposite side. "Over there is the Crusaders' Lodge.

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Naruto was now walking up the steps of the white building he had moments ago found out from the Crusaders. Naruto had kept the conversation between them short, sweet and to the point. He had asked the two about what the Crusaders were and what they were all about, though it did earn him surprised glances and shocked expressions. Quickly he used the excuse Rikku had given him about Sin's toxins, though he felt bad for using it.

Their suspicious looks quickly turned to that of sympathy, even anger and one of the men took it upon themselves and quickly summarized what their organization was all about. Though he was in disbelief about one thing thought (Eight hundred years of fighting Sind and they were still going at it) that was a very long time and seemed to yield no results, but he said nothing. Then the one with the red hair, who he assumed was the leader, suggested that Naruto pay a visit to the temple for help.

Naruto walked through the large temple doors and found himself standing in a grand, circular room. The room was dim and the only sources of lights were the candles and torches that littered the place, many were richly tapestries, curtains of different colors told different tales of the temple's history. The place was also filled with statues of deceased priests and priestesses around the room, praying. There were four large statues that were three times his size flanking the doors on the opposite side.

One large door at the top of a flight of stairs of white marble stairs and two regular sized draped doors on ground level. Each statue was of powerful men and women wearing traditional robes and tunics, holding different weapons like swords, lances and staves. But above everything were two extremely tall statues that took up a good deal of the room's ceiling. One was a man in purple, blue and gold armor and the other was of a scantily clad woman with long white hair in black and blue.

The most interesting thing about the temple was the moment he walked in, an eerie, disembodied voice of a young woman echoed everywhere inside of the temple walls. Naruto was positive that something about this song affected him, his headache was coming back and he shook his head to clear it. Weird, he had never felt this way before, felt so… he couldn't even describe it really.

Naruto walked over to the large statues and looked them over. Three were of men and one was a woman. Out of the four life like stone creations, the one on the far right got his immediate attention the most. Naruto peered at the carved man's face intently. He was handsome no doubt, and seemed like the kid of person you could be friends with and the clothes he wore made him seem like nobility. Yet at the same time he seemed to radiate power and authority, Naruto simply smiled, knowing deep down that this was the type of person he could honor and trust.

"It's been ten years," an aged voice said next to Naruto. He turned to see a bald priest in green robes striding next to him. Weathered eyes trailed over the statue and he sighed. "Ten years has past since Lord Braska became a High Summoner. We only just recently received this statue for our temple." He said with a bow and looked at Naruto.

"What's a summoner?" he asked with genuine confusion, though as the word's left his mouth every pair of eyes in the temple turned to him. At that moment Naruto wished he could make himself small and hide in a hole, but he simply brought back the same story he told the Crusaders. "I got to close to sin so I don't remember much of anything, sorry.

There was a sudden burst of chatter filled with emotions of sympathy, shock and wonder. The priest bowed to Naruto before explaining what a summoner was. "Summoners are those who practice the sacred arts. They are the only ones who can summon the omnipotent beings called Aeons. The Aeons were given to us by Yevon himself a thousand years ago to combat Sin"

The white haired teen was positive that he may have heard the word before, something his mother told him maybe. He wasn't too sure but he remembered the melody very well, it was sung to him as a lullaby or whenever his mother felt sad he would do his best to sing it to her. It always seemed to make her happy, and he enjoyed her happiness.

Naruto was able to grasp the general idea of what a summoner was. They were people with the ability to call on more powerful creatures to aid them in their fight against Sin. "Thank you enlightening me, it is well appreciated" his tone was bright and with respect, it caused the man to look at him in surprise and he nodded his head and returned the smile. Obviously the child was respectful and was of a calm nature, but for some reason he looked so strikingly familiar.

The hair was strikingly similar, but it was the face that caught his attention, but before he could ask questions Naruto was gone. After a few minutes of exploring what the village had to offer he headed over to Wakka's place. He took a quick look around and found nothing but the essentials; a small table sat in the middle, a low sitting bed off to the side, a two seat couch and several large baskets opposite of the bed.

Wakka looked up when the flaps to his door were pushed aside and greeted Naruto with a grin. "Ah, Naruto, your back, so tell me how did you excursion go, ya?"

Naruto shrugged and summarized all he did and the islander simply nodded his head in acceptance. "Good, good, but you seem tired. You should rest for a while I prepare dinner." Wakka stood tall and went to pick up the two wicker baskets, wanting to bring in some fresh fruit for later.

"Yea, now that you mention it," The Zanarkadian tried to stifle a yawn, but failed miserably and stretched his arms. "I do feel a like exhausted." He made his way towards what looked like a bed with the man's acceptance he laid down and slowly his single eye felt heavy and he was asleep.

Wakka turned away from his task after the flap of his hut blew open a second time, the same old priest Naruto had met before entered and greeted him. The two looked at each other for a moment before he spoke. "Don't you think you should go check on them?"

The captain of the Aurochs shook his head and stated. "I don't think my presence is necessary" he stepped out of the hut with the old man in tow. "The others can handle things without me.

"But it's already been nearly…"

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Stay tuned for more.


	5. Becoming a Summoner

Chapter 5

Naruto's eyes snapped open suddenly. He sat up and wiped the sweat off of his brow, his breath came out short and haggard pants. His hand came to his head and pain throb inside of his skull. _Damn it, I had that dream again. _Naruto slammed his fist into the bed ran his hand through his white locks.

He scanned the room expecting to see Wakka, but the hut was empty. Naruto called out to him, but got no response, getting out of the bed he walked out of the hut and called again. "Wakka!"

"Oi, young one!" Naruto turned to a bearded middle aged man who was crouched won and petting a golden-brown and white dog. "Mind keep'n it down a bit. Ye be yell'n in me ears, ya?" Naruto apologized and the man gave him a questioning stare before shrugging his shoulders and asking. "So, ye be look'n for Wakka, ya?"

Naruto gave a nod. "Yeah, have you seen him?"

"Aye that I have."

"Can you tell me where he is?"

The man pointed towards the temple. "One o em priests came a few ticks ago. Both o em wins to the temple. The ole priest looked a bit anxious, that he did. Mus be bout tha young summoner lady in training, ya?"

"Thank you Mister" Naruto said before walking towards the temple and the man waved him off.

"Anytime, lad"

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As soon as Naruto stepped through the doors of the temple, he found Wakka talking to a priest at the bottom step of the large flight of stairs that led up to the second floor. Wakka looked annoyed or anxious, he couldn't tell from where he was but he came over to find out. "What's going on Wakka?"

The islander seemed thankful for Naruto's sudden appearance and replied. "We were discussing the apprentice summoner. It's been almost a full day since she went in and she has yet to come out."

Wakka explained, pointing up the stairs. "Up there is the Cloister of Trails, beyond that is a room called the Chamber of Fayth. The chamber is where the apprentice summoner is."

"But isn't it dangerous in this Chamber of Fayth?" Naruto asked. Somehow he had felt deep down that there was something, or maybe someone, waiting there for him. He couldn't explain what he felt, but it reminded him of that weird dream he had when he woke up in the sea. Something inside of him tugged him, compelled him to go.

Wakka shrugged. "Not really, but there have been a few who did come out hurt in some form or way. He sipped into a thinking pose. "Though, it is unusual for an apprentice summoner to be in there for almost a day.

At this the Zanarkadian seemed alarmed at the news, someone could have been stuck in here for an almost a day? Was Wakka serious? That was all it took for Naruto to ascend the stairs. "Halt!" He was nearly to the top step when he stopped and looked back down at the priest. "The precepts of the temple—"The priest yelled, but was cut off abruptly.

"To hell with you precepts! Your summoner could be hurt or worse, she could die!" Naruto shot back, turned and continued his way, while ignoring the outraged protests. He kicked the doors open and shut them behind him.

Wakka came up after him, but when he tried to open them it wouldn't budge. It had been automatically locked behind Naruto. He pulled with all his might but it still wouldn't move. "Well, what's wrong?" the priest asked as he came up next to Wakka.

"Somehow, for some reason, The Cloister of Trials has locked itself up."

"Impossible! It never did that before."

Wakka wiped the light sheen of sweat from his brow. He once again took up a thinking pose as he stood staring at the door, a thought came to him. "Could… could it be that the Fayth inside does not wish for us to intervene and locked it somehow?"

The old priest looked dumbstruck before looking at the door in confusion and wonder.

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Going inside of the Cloister of Trails was rather different for Uzumaki Naruto. He didn't know why but for some reason, it all looked so very familiar to him. He had never been in one of these before, but it seemed familiar to him. The headache came back again at full force and he clutched his head in pain, but bared it as he searched the dead end for some type of switch or sig, anything that would allow him to pass through.

But found nothing, nada and frankly it made him even more anxious.

He had searched the entire room and still didn't find any entry way of some sort, though he did come to the idea that he should punch his way through. But decided against it, wouldn't make any sense of bringing the whole place down and killing the summoner by mistake.

Then he remembered something, he would look for some type of seal of some kind. While he had lived on the island with her, she did teach him about the significance of seals and glyphs, along with a few other interesting tricks. But that had been ages ago, years when he was probably nine or ten, but he could try to remember.

Slowly but surely, he felt around the walls. Looking for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Like a niche or something of the sort, a switch maybe. The moment his back touched the wall, a faint glowing from behind got his attention. Naruto pushed himself off the wall and turned. A large glyph appeared on the wall.

Naruto touched the glowing symbol tentatively. The glyph grew brighter for a moment before it disappeared and writing, which Naruto couldn't read, took its place. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the same glyph was now on the wall to his right. He then touched the glyph on that wall too thinking something might happen and he'd finally be getting somewhere. The glyph sank into the wall and a section of it lit up as Naruto stepped back. The light form an arch on the wall as stone melted into iron. When the light died away a large teal colored set of double doors.

Naruto pushed them open and found a small stairway. Walking down, he saw a small clear crystal ball sitting snugly in recess in the wall. Naruto looked at it curiously, he doubted that it was there simply for wall decoration, especially since there were three glyphs glowing on the wall above it; one was light blue, purple and white. As he neared the three glyphs then converged, forming a larger glyph which sank into the small crystal ball. The sphere glowed white and Naruto picked it up and wondered what it could be possibly for.

He looked down the next flight of stairs and saw that another set of doors at the bottom had a small lock that looked like the sphere would fit perhaps. Taking the sphere in hand, Naruto descended the stairs, heading towards the doors. Looking at the orb he placed it into the lock. A faint glow ran up between and around the doors, and with a clicking sound could have been heard and slowly the door swung open.

**(A.N: Alright, since I seriously don't want to write this all out and since those who played the game know what happens, I'll skip the running around getting spheres and opening doors part of the trial) **

From there Naruto began his tedious task of moving back and forth, having a good understanding of what he was supposed to do. He found several hidden rooms; one which he accidently blew apart a wall to, which possessed a somewhat old, yet power looking magical rod, two others had a blue and a purple sphere. A Besaid sphere and a Destruction sphere, and the last had a stone pedestal that had a placed sphere already inside.

_Either the person who built this place was an absolute genius, or maybe they just simply went out of there way to try and kill me with the effort! _Naruto berated mentally, praying he wouldn't have to go through anymore than he need to go through.

He was fairly annoyed, who ever built this place must either was a genius or had some type of weird twisted sense of humor. His muscles ached and his headache seemed to pound dangerously inside of his brain, and it seemed like the closer he got to his destination, the worse it got.

Naruto growled as he gave another push and the pedestal fell into synch with the floor panel. A clicking sound was audible and he watched it sink into the ground.

"OI, NARUTO!!!"

Naruto spun around to see a slightly irritated Wakka standing just a few feet away, so he simply wiped the sweat from his brow and gave a stupid grin. "What's up Wakka?"

Though the scowl never disappeared off of his face, Wakka felt his anger seemed to ebb and flow away. Hard as he might, he just couldn't seem to get mad at him, so with a sigh he simply stated. "Do you know how many rules you just broke just by coming down here? Only summoners, apprentice summoners and guardians are allowed down here."

Wakka suddenly gave the Zanarkadian boy a look that simply made him wince and shouted. "You just ignored a thousand years worth of tradition!"

"I'm sorry Wakka, but you could you expect me to do. How can you leave a woman in this place for almost a whole day, knowing full well the risks and dangers of this place?" Naruto shot back. "You wouldn't have me stand there outside and do nothing if it can't be helped, do you? It shouldn't take a day to finish something like this right?" Naruto asked, his voice laced with worry and concern

The islander was slightly surprised by the way he placed the words, true the Trials were known to be dangerous. Heck even to the most skilled of summoners, but maybe he was right, just thinking about and he felt this terrible pain in his chest.

The way he spoke, his optimistic and bright personality, he reminded him so much of his late brother Chappu that it was starting to scare him. Heck if the look wasn't enough, it was definitely the attitude that killed it.

Pushing the thought away and the oncoming tears away he simply sighed and agreed. "Yes, your right Naruto, but there are already two guardians there."

"I just want to make sure that she's okay, that's all I want Wakka, please?" Naruto begged and the older man sighed in defeat. He moved next to Naruto on the stone that lit up in a circle of red and yellow rug with intricate black designs.

"Fine then, since I am a guardian after all, I will take care of my responsibility, alright Naruto" he replied in a soft tone and wanting to ease his mind. The boy simply gave a bright grin and nodded, and then a thought came to him.

"So you're a guardian huh, is this the other responsibility you were talking about earlier?"

"Yea, this is it," Wakka sighed out, while scratching the back of his head. "It's my duty to be the lady summoner's guardian, but after this year's tournament I will be her full time guardian. Soon we will go on a pilgrimage to end Sin's tyranny. As a guardian, it is my sworn duty to protect my summoner with my life. That is the code of a guardian."

Naruto whistled slightly, it was a very steep code, but sounded honorable enough. The cause was just of course, so why wouldn't it be, though another question came to mind.

"You mentioned two other guardians, what are they like?"

At this Wakka simply scratched the back of his head. "Well the first one is a black mage and she's really strong, but she can get scary and she has a short fuse."

The elevator that they were on suddenly came to a stop. "And the other one?" the sounded interesting enough, maybe he could learn a thing or two from this black mage. He always wanted to try his hand at magic, he had wanted his mom to teach him, but he failed miserably so his mother taught him everything she knew about ninjustu. Though he didn't find the harm of broadening his perspectives as it already was.

"Hmm… the other one…" Wakka scratched his cheek and hummed as he led Naruto through a torch lit corridor. Being down here seemed to make his mind feel like bursting open, but he did his best to hold back a yelp or a cry of pain. "Well, I can't say much about him. He is very reclusive and hardly says any more than two or three words at a time. But what he lacks in sociability, he makes up for in fighting capability.

"So he's strong?"

Wakka nodded. "Very." Naruto seemed to beam at the idea while Wakka was beginning to look apprehensive as they neared the end of the hall. "Though… I believe they won't take you too kindly to you being here."

Naruto simply shrugged, it wasn't like they could kill him for caring, right? At the moment they walked into a large circular chamber and Naruto's eyes widened. This place looked so oddly familiar, it screamed familiarity but he couldn't place where on Spira he had seen this place. From the carpet, to the odd stone at the top of a large stair-case.

The craftsmanship was obviously beautiful, and there was a feeling of magic in the air. But suddenly he felt his headache come back with a vengeance, and he clutched his head and groaned. Almost falling to the ground, but Wakka caught him, and asked. "Naruto, are you okay? You don't look so hot." his voice was full of concern, like that of an older brother.

"I'm fine," Naruto replied, though his head did feel a bit swimmy. His vision was slightly blurry and there was a weird ringing in his ear, but he ignored it and was led by Wakka. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he forced a smile and walked with Wakka through the doors.

"Wakka, what are you doing here?" Both men looked up to see a woman sitting at the base of a large staircase. She was dressed in an outlandish low-cut fur-lined black dress that prominently displays her extremely large breasts. She wore a huge collection of interlocking belts below the waist, along with several accessories such as some necklaces, earrings and her nails were colored in purple nail polish.

Her skin was very pale, and she seemed to wear a lot of make up on her face. But Naruto didn't see the need for it, but decided to not question her about it.

Her hair was tied up in a knot with long braids dangling from it with a few colorful beads on the bottom of each braid. Naruto noted her red eyes as they seemed to burn with intensity, and they seemed so cold for such an extremely attractive woman. What could have made such beautiful eyes be so cold and so distant?

"What do you think you are doing here? Didn't think we'd be able to handle it?" Came the cold and harsh voice of Lulu, if it wasn't her voice that almost scarred him, it was her sharp and cold tone that hit the nail on the head.

Wakka winced and began to scratch his head sheepishly, doing his best to form a coherent sentence. "No, it's uh… well"

The black mage strode forward and glared, Wakka jabbed his rib slightly into Naruto's side. Talking through the side of his lips, he said in a whisper. "See, I told you she get's mad easily.

Naruto watched as those cold red eyes seemed to stare him eye to eye, it took him his hardest to not look away, wishing he could hide in the smallest corner and yet. The Zanarkadian found them so interesting and yet he saw something familiar in them, the she looked at him with cold disdain reminded him how he was like when his mom died.

Could she have lost a loved one perhaps, though he was brought out of his revere by the way her eyes looked deeply into his visible blue eye. They way her eyes seemed to gauge him and look him over. He tried to fight it, but his cheeks betrayed him and his cheeks flustered in embarrassment, and by the way she looked at him. Yevon knows he did his best to hide it somehow, but to him it felt like she was mentally peeling away the clothing and stripping him naked before her.

The very thought made his cheeks burn a bright red, causing him to turn and avoid her gaze, Wakka noted this and simply shook his head. Lulu simply squinted her eyes to get a better look at him, though she did notice his cheeks were very red.

But she couldn't help and think in the lighting, he looked very much like someone she knew, and she frowned at the idea. She shook her head, not being able to come to grips that she actually thought such a thing. _Damn, for a second I thought he was—_

"Is the summoner alright?" Naruto quickly asked, he couldn't have thought of anything else to say, he felt embarrassed. But the way she stared at him made him nervous, and he had to say something. Thank goodness he found his tongue, or else he might have said something stupid and out of the way, and that would have been very bad.

"Who are you?" she asked, before Naruto could answer her question, a noise emitted in the room. All eyes turned up to the door that led to the Chamber of Fayth. The door slid up and a lone figure slowly stumbled out of the chamber beyond. The person was using the wall to support herself as she stepped further. Her breath came out in short and fast pants. She looked very weak as sweat cascaded down her tanned skin, and her indigo colored hair clung to her forehead. She ran a shaky hand through her hair as she looked down at the small group with tired pale eyes.

Naruto looked up at the new arrival and felt his froze on the spot. The teen was never one to stare at women since he found the gesture very rude, but he just couldn't help himself. He felt his cheeks burned again! Kami he had to learn how to stop blushing so vehemently, how embarrassing. He swallowed when he realized something was wrong; very, very wrong.

The girl took a wobbly step down the stairs before her exhaustion got the better of her and was about to fall.

Wakka, Lulu and Kimarhi made moves to catch her before she got hurt, but they were greatly surprised by a blur of white shot past them, up the stairs. Before anyone knew it, the girl was safely in Naruto's arms, to their surprise. The young woman blinked and looked at her rescuer, and her mismatched eyes widened in surprise and her cheeks tinged instantly with red.

Wakka and Lulu felt their jaws drop, no way was a normal person suppose to move that fast! They didn't even see him move, let alone act so quickly, noticing the odd silence he quickly righted her on her feet and coughed in his fist. The ronso stepped up next to her in case there was another fainting spell, though Naruto simply gave a bow and stepped down in respect. Making sure to do his best to avoid eye contact, lest he may have stuttered stupidly in front of her.

"I… am glad you are well, lady summoner" he quickly said, took another bow and took his place next to Wakka, who looked at him like he had grown a second head. The man had already made up his mind to definitely ask how he performed such a feet, he was positive he moved as fast as Kimarhi, if not faster.

The young woman caught her breath and smiled triumphantly, confidence and assurance radiated off of her figure. "I've done it. I've finally become a summoner"

Next chapter will be coming soon. Read and review.


	6. Leaving Besaid

Morning rose over the clouds over the isle of Besaid, Naruto opened his eyes and sat up on the bed. He found that Wakka was missing, figuring he was probably doing something extremely important. The white haired male patted his stomach in content with the memory of eating so much put a small smile on his lips as he remembered that the leader of the Aurochs told him that he could have all he could eat.

Though they miscalculated his very _voracious _appetite, so he, Lulu, Yuna and the villagers were rather alarmed that their 'guest' had practically eaten over eighty dishes of food in one sitting. Naruto knew that he could have eaten more, but he pulled away from the table and wanted to talk with the new summoner; Yuna. He could tell that she was going to be something special, and he got a good feeling about her.

After stretching his stiffened muscles and spine, and headed for the door leading out to the village. On the way out his hand reached out and grabbed his sword that was resting near the door, and walked underneath the flaps to head outside.

The teen stood in the village square where he had been speaking to Yuna last night, but he didn't hear the usual chatter of villagers or even children in the vicinity. So he chocked it up that the villagers were somewhere else for the moment, and decided to head to an empty forest close by. Not far enough that fiends would disturb him, but far enough where he wouldn't cause no heavy damage to valuable buildings and landscapes.

He looked at his surroundings and gave a small nod to himself, and closed his eyes. "Hmm, well this is a good as place as any to get some work done," Slowly and meticulously he pulled the sword from its leather sheathe, and held it pointing at the ground. His back was straight as he sucked in a low, steadying breath.

An exhale left his lips, and that was his moment to strike. His eyes flashed open and he struck much faster than the human eye was capable of keeping up with, his knees were bent and his eyes were shadowed by his hair. He opened his eyes and let his sword fall back in place into the leather makeshift sheathe.

Suddenly trees, wood and even stone had suddenly exploded in a flurry of dust and debris. The ground and at least a good portion of the forest around him was completely and utterly mutilated, it was as if an epic battle had been fought here and the landscape was struck hundreds of times over to get the result it was in.

A reverie came to his mind, causing his eye to simply quake in his sockets.

"_If you think that shitty flailing around you call swordsmanship is enough to beat me, then your poorly mistaken" The voice of a woman resonated in his mind. "You think you can beat me, even when you couldn't even save—_

"_SHUT UP!!!" Naruto shouted, his face was flushed in complete anger and rage. His body was racked in pain and exhaustion, hundreds and cuts and lacerations adorned his body as he fought to keep standing. Blood spilt heavily across the grass turning it into a dark shade of red, but yet again he charged. Even as he felt his bones simply creak and shatter from the very strain of the activity in itself he still charged and made to swipe at her midsection, the need of wanting to slice his opponent in half for what she did meant more to him than his own health._

_The action was easily sidestepped and the boy was rewarded for his efforts with a vicious chop to the back of his neck. He fell to the ground, his sword skittered across the ground away from his person. Naruto looked through his bloody, wavering vision as he tried in vain to reach the weapon. His body jerked sharply where it laid, and a blood curdling scream left his throat, his hands gripped the dirt for what it was worth from the very pain of it all._

_Several inches of bloodied steel were protruding from him, pinning him down into the earth itself. He felt a hand grab a fistful of his hair, pulling back so hard that he could feel it ripping from his very scalp, forcing him to look ahead of him. "Look, damn you, look. This is what you've done boy. This is what happens when you don't listen to me, and when I give perfectly clear instructions for you not to create other attachments besides us I __**mean **__it. When I say kill, you kill. When I say do something, you obey. No doubts. No hesitation. No questions. Obedience. Do you understand the word? You know nothing. You are nothing. I gave you life and by the all powerful I'll take it away from you if I must. This is what you are. You are weakness. You are filth. You are the blood bubbling from that girl's mouth!_

_Naruto looked across the grass he laid in and the sight before him broke his heart. Angry sobs left his throat. He thrashed about even when his body was impaled into the ground, doing his best to look away. But the woman's grip was like steel, and the sword slid further down to the point where the guard was pressing into the back. Agony, pain and loss ripped through him unlike anything else he'd ever known. "No! Look! This is what you've done! This is your failure! This is what your feelings do to others! Do you understand!?"_

"Whoa!" a voice said in complete surprise.

Naruto was pulled from the dark memory that had been dredged in his mind, and he turned around found a very shocked and surprised Wakka staring at him with complete astonishment. His hand brushed his hair out of his face, and he simply looked at the older man. "I apologize Wakka, did I happen to disturb you by any chance?"

Wakka shook his head. "No bruddah nothing like that, but… did you do all of this? So what were you before you became a blitzer?" he asked in pure awe and curiosity.

Naruto gave a nod. "Yea, I needed to get some exercise done before we left to go on our little adventure, and I was trained as a Shinobis before I became a blitzer." He brushed some dirt off of his shoulder and began to stretch his cramped muscles again. Using that technique was mainly designed for the use of a katana, and since he didn't have one at the moment it wasn't as powerful as he had intended it to be.

"Shinobis huh?" Wakka tapped his chin, and seemed to nod his head in acknowledgement. " Never heard of that before, but you must be something extraordinary with a sword where you come from, ya?" Wakka moved towards Naruto who simply shrugged.

_You have no idea. _Naruto thought and nodded , but remembered to ask. "So, where are we headed for exactly?"

"Oh, well, first we're going on a boat to get to Killika. There Yuna will pray to the Fayth to achieve her Aeon. From there we'll go to Luca and I hope we can find somebody that know or recognize you there, sounds good ya?"

"I suppose so," He said to himself. The idea in itself was pretty sound, and it was better being sticking around in a place where nobody knew him. Besides that, he was up for a little adventure. He followed the islander back into the village, in front of the temple. "So, who are we waiting for exactly?"

"Yuna, she'll be out in a few minutes" Lulu spoke, coming up from behind him. She realized that his eyes were staring at her intently, and a very big smile came to his lips.

"Is something the matter, Naruto?" she asked.

"Oh nothing, just that I'm not use to seeing an alluring woman so bright and early" He spoke out honestly as he scratched his head sheepishly, though he didn't realize that Lulu's face suddenly felt hot at his words and she wasn't to sure how to respond to that."

"Hey, don't you get no funny ideas" Wakka grabbed Naruto's head, placing him into a headlock, while burying his other fist into his skull.

"Ahh! Ahh! Complete invasion of personal space!" Naruto let out. His hand opened and he pinched the man's side sharply, not enough to kill a person mind you. But enough to cause some mild discomfort and release him from the hold.

Wakka suddenly remembered the reason he had been looking for the teenager since he wasn't back at his house. He snapped his finger. "Oh yea, before I forget. I got something I want to give ya,"

Naruto and Lulu watched as the older man ran inside of his house, and moment later came back with a treasure chest. He could tell right away that it had seen better days, given all of the dust and cobwebs that practically covered it. Wakka rested it down on the ground and simply pulled out a small gold key, which he used to open the box.

Naruto watched in complete and utter surprise as Wakka seemed to slightly struggle with what appeared to be a katana he pulled out from its resting place. The sheathe was purely black and seemed to shone brilliantly in the sunlight. The teen was greatly surprised when Wakka laid it in his hands.

He quickly pulled the blade from its scabbard and was rewarded with one of the most beautiful blades he'd ever laid eyes on. The blade of the katana was black as night, with trails of crimson on the side from the hilt up to the blades edge, and its handguard had flower like edges.

"Whoa… you're giving this… to me? Are you sure?" Naruto asked in complete surprise, he noted that just by feeling the handle that the blade itself was obscenely and incredibly heavy, but the quality of it was simply magnificent.

"Yea, I'm pretty sure that you would have better use for it than me." Wakka watched as Naruto simply tested it out before his very eyes, he saw the appreciation and excitement burn in his eyes and inwardly he felt happy.

Though Lulu on the other hand was simply and utterly stunned at what had just happened in front of her. "Isn't that the sword you gave Chappu?"

"He never got around to use it, and it makes sense to give it to someone that's able to use it rather than for it to simply rust away underneath my bed" Wakka gave a shrug.

Naruto placed the sword in it's sheathe and he turned towards Wakka. He saw a faraway look in the man's eyes, as if he was remembering a memory from long ago. "It's been ten years huh? Ten years since Yuna came here and the last calm started."

"The… calm?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"Since then she's been like a little sister to Lulu and I," Wakka turned to Naruto. "But she always had the talent… she became an apprentice"

Though something in the way he said it seemed to puzzle the snowy haired boy. Something in the way he spoke struck him as odd, but he didn't know why.

"Now… today she leaves as a full grown Summoner" Wakka said with a smile.

"This is our journey, and as such we will all leave together" Lulu spoke finally.

Something hard struck the ground, causing everyone to spin around towards the temple, sparing the sight of Yuna panting slightly from carrying a rather large suitcase. Which was roughly three times her entire body weight and half her height in total comparison.

Lulu couldn't help but shake her head at the younger woman. "You really don't need all of that luggage Yuna."

"But they're not all my things," Yuna said, she poked her index fingers together feeling sheepish and simply out of habit. "Th… they're gifts for the temples we're going to visit"

"Yuna you should know better than that," Wakka folded his arms and gave her a look that seemed to make her shrink slightly. "This isn't a vacation Yuna, you have to remember that"

"I… guess" Yuna started, though she felt downtrodden.

.

"Oh come off of it guys!" Naruto spoke out loud, which caused Yuna to jump in surprise. But the teen simply placed his palm on her shoulder, and gave her an assuring look. "If Yuna wants to bring a few extra things along with her, then I really don't see the big deal and it's not like its going to kill anybody."

_Wait, wasn't he just in front of me? _Wakka thought as he blinked, and so did Lulu. They watched as he knelt down and made to pick up the luggage with a hand and slung it over his shoulder like it was a sack of potatoes. "I'll carry it for you Yuna, no sweat" he offered a confident and assuring smile to her.

Her face felt hot and shook her head. "No, no it alright, I don't wish to trouble you or anything," she said.

"Don't worry yourself so much, it is what you desire so its but a small thing to me," he stepped forward, followed shortly by the group of three.

They made it towards the half way mark when Yuna turned around, and her mismatched took in the details of the small, quaint village she known just about all of her life. This very place had so many memories, and she was a bit sad to leave it, but gave what Naruto recognized as the symbol for victory back in Zanarkand. Yuna turned towards the shinobis and gave a small smile and they continued to proceed out of the village.

The small group of four walked out of the village and proceeded to wander the gravel like trail, when suddenly a brown wolf shot out of the bushes. A look of hunger and primal instinct was on its face as it snarled viciously at the humans in front of it. Wakka pulled out his ball, while Naruto simply held his sheathed katana in his hand with his knees slightly bent.

"Here's a fiend for ya Naruto, why don't you try out that sword I gave ya?" Wakka asked.

Naruto nodded and turned his eyes towards the wolf, already the being cleared up some serious distance in such a short amount of time. It jumped from its position and made to tear out Naruto's throat, but its eyes widened in shock as its tasty treaty blurred out of its line of sight at the last moment and the last thing it was able to hear was a slight clinking sound of a sword entering its scabbard before it burst into a stream of light.

_Hmm, the blade itself is massively heavy but allows the user to unleash their true damage potential. It throws my control off a bit, but with some practice I can do some serious damage with this thing _Naruto gave a small smile before spinning the entire sword and nestling against his waist.

_Holy Yevon, I thought only ronso's could move that fast. It was so fast that I was barely able to keep up with it, he keeps fighting like that and he'll be a guardian in no time. _Wakka looked up and saw a that a flying fiend suddenly came out of nowhere, and a devilish smirk came to his lips. "Alright, my kind of customer!" He gave an exuberated whoop, with accurate aim he threw his blitzball. Hitting it squarely in the head, and with a boomerang effect it went back towards its owner and the bird creature also burst into a slew of lights.

"Nice shot" Naruto spoke with a grin.

"Thanks," They continued forward again, all the while they were simply ever vigilant and kept an eye out. Just as they made there up the steep, stony path a jelly like creature appeared out of nowhere. It was short, clear and blue with yell beady eyes in the midst of its darker blue, and had veins inside of its body type.

"Hmm, I don't think I've ever seen that monster before" Naruto noted out loud.

"It's a water flan. Which could spell… trouble"

'Alright, let's get this over with" Wakka tried to warn him, but was too late. Naruto had jumped ahead and landed two successful cuts against the beast, though it was harmed considering its haggard appearance but frankly it did not die.

"Damn, should I have put more force in my swing?" Naruto asked Wakka, who in turn shook his head.

"If you can't beat them down physically then you'll have to use magic against an element they don't like, get it?"

"Hmm, I think I understand what you're saying. But why don't I just finish it off now?" he replied adamantly, but Wakka gave him a look and rolled his eyes.

"Why don't we just let our black mage handle it" Wakka said, and Lulu simply stepped up.

"Clueless boys," She spoke and clarified. "There are four types of magic elements. Fire, Ice, Thunder and Water, these four elements can be used against fiends. However, each can be used as a strength and a weakness for different fiends. For example Fire spells are strong against ice fiends as are ice spells against fire fiends. Do you follow Naruto?"

"Yea I get it, but can the same be said about for water and lightning?"

"Water and lightning are opposed as well. Since this is a water fiend then that means…" Lulu let on and watched as Naruto's body shrunk to that of a chibi and his eyes simply took the shine of a school child who was given yummy piece of candy.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! I know! It's lightning right?"

"That's very correct Naruto," She petted him on the head, though that was before she gave the water flan a vicious look. The fiend felt a large amount of murderous intent sent its way and made to run away, but Lulu simply raised her hand into the air. A blue flow of energy was visible in her fingers and was present for the Zanarkadian to see.

'_Hmm, so that's what magical energy looks like, it sort of feel like chakra but yet it doesn't. In a way you could say that it's chakra's sister' _Naruto thought, and watched with immense interest as she swung her hand down. A medium sized lightning blot came down from the sky and struck the fiend before it was able to jump into the bushes, instantly turning into a flash of lights.

"Now that was just awesome!" Naruto said.

A smirk came to the lips of Lulu and she dusted her dress off, her braids delicately spilled over her shoulder blades as she looked behind her. "Shall we go?" Naruto grinned and everyone continued their slightly long trek, and finally came up to what appeared to be a cliff that showed an absolutely stunning and amazing view of the entire village.

Lulu glanced over at her charge, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Take your time Yuna"

Yuna glanced over the village with her mismatched eyes, and she felt a slight ache in her chest. Deep down she felt that she was going to miss the very place that she called home, but she took a steadying breath and took one final look before she turned to Wakka who asked. "Are you alright?"

Yuna gave a small nod, Lulu pressed her hands on the younger woman's shoulder and led her to the away. Naruto took one final look at the village before he spun around and found that Wakka was on his knees in front a rather large stone with three green stones in separate places as he placed the bag down next to him. He scratched the back of his head and asked. "So, what's going on?"

"It's an ancient custom. People leaving the island pray here for a safe trip or journey," Wakka said on his knees in front of the stone, and a look of sadness came over his face. "Chappu didn't pray that day, said he'd miss his boat"

He watched as Lulu, Yuna and Wakka perform the motion with their arms before bowing down. The snowy haired teen simply shrugged and performed the same motions as did the others, believing that it would have been disrespectful otherwise had he not done so. Though Wakka, Yuna and Lulu were curious when he pulled a piece of paper from his coat pocket, and nicked his thumb on his canine. He pressed it against the paper with his eyes closed in concentration, and different symbols and kanji's magically began to appear.

His eyes widened and he held the paper over Yuna's suitcase and shouted. "Seal!"

The command slightly surprised everyone and right before their very eyes, her suitcase disappeared in a plume of smoke. The paper that Naruto held in his hand rolled up automatically and he simply tied a ribbon around the middle, and fastened it and put away in his coat pocket.

"See, what did I tell ya Yuna, no worries right? Lulu isn't the only one who knows a few tricks" Naruto grinned with his hands behind his head, Yuna gave him a surprised glance before looking at Lulu who gave him puzzled look before shaking her head. She would ask him about it once they set sail.

Wakka seeing that everyone was ready simply shrugged his shoulders, chocking it up to another of his 'shinobis' secrets. "All right, while we got daylight let's go."

The group left the large monument and continued on down the path, which was the quickest way of getting to the Beach. All the while Naruto simply took in the nature of everything that was around him, enjoying everything seemed to look so absolutely green and lush. Though he looked up and seemed surprised.

Above him were what appeared to be metallic ruins of old, if by the indication of moss and rust was a pure sign. He followed it despite the fact that the others were much farther ahead of him, and something seemed to catch his eye. It looked to be a blue panel.

The markings were a bit familiar to him. Not exactly the same symbols, but the writing style was very familiar, but he couldn't make anything of it so he left it alone.

"Damn," He jogged down the path and underneath the metal structure, when suddenly he felt something grab his attention. A familiar tingling sensation came from the back of his skull, and forced him to look up to see a blue, giant, furry monster display acrobatic capabilities that were beyond anything human and seemed to land in front him on it's hands and feet. The creature looked at him with utter anger and something raw, something primal.

He saw its claws dig through the very earth itself and gave the white haired teen a ferocious animalistic roar. Naruto noted that it was at least eight or nine feet tall in height alone with white hair tied in a small ponytail flowing down his back. On his forehead was a horn that appeared to have the tip of it either broken or cut off. The beast also had white hair on its chin forming a small gotee with braids folded up to make a thick braid on both sides of his head, and a yellow necklace around his neck,

He had on black straps on his chest with a skull on the center and was dressed rather weirdly in Naruto's opinion but he didn't seem to voice it. Especially when he saw it pull out a large battle javelin, and took an unfamiliar stance that put him on edge. Though the grip on his scabbard tightened considerably when he disappeared out of sight only to appear moments later at its unprotected back, ready and willing to deal a blow that would have rendered his weapon arm useless.

But it dodged skillfully, though not before losing bits of his hair from a slice that had been meant for his head. It drew his javelin back and moved in a circular motion, wanting to knock both sword and sheathe out of his hand or simply shake his sword arm a bit. The beast was simply and utterly surprised. He could feel the javelin in his hand trembling when both weapons clashed so violently against one another.

It swung counterclockwise, causing Naruto to block and skid back several paces. But it didn't stop him from closing the distance between them, even though his enemy was obviously trying to get him to give him some room to maneuver his pole arm weapon. Though what he hadn't expected was for Naruto to be so tenacious and relentless in his attack, and as far as he remembered he'd never seen a human this fierce.

Naruto sliced at his midsection, but the beast simply blocked and was pushed backwards several feet, and the teen made to clear the distance once more and tire him out. But his opponent was not going to give him the advantage of a close range battle, and at the rare this was all going this kid was definitely pushing him to his limits and maybe even beyond what he had expected from the beginning. Though he surprised Naruto greatly when he jumped back several feet, only for him to run forward while stabbing the ground with his javelin and simply used it to catapult him into the air.

Naruto looked up and flared before sheathing his sword and bending his knees for what was to come. The beast closed the distance between them and his javelin glinted evilly as it made skewer his opponent, but again he'd been caught off guard. An unknown unknown had occurred and the blue furred monster couldn't help but be surprised once again. Right at the last moment he had made to stab Naruto, he used the power he'd built from unsheathing his sword and his knees to cushion the recoil the damage that was meant for him.

The most harm that was done was that the action simply caused the young man to sink several inches into the ground, and a shockwave hit the area. Not once did his sword arm waver or falter from the strain, or even when he felt himself get pushed into the ground. Though the same couldn't have been said for his opponent as Naruto was able to land a vicious kick into his midsection, which was enough to lift the blue monster up into the air and smash against the mountainside.

Debris and rocks shook from the place as he landed on all fours, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. It felt that nothing inside of him was broken, though calculated that a blow like that against a normal person would have killed them the moment they had hit the ground from the height he had fell from.

A slight whirring sound caught it's attention and it's eyes widened and he leapt out of the way, just in time to avoid the whipped air blade projectile that had been sent his way. Though not before it cleaved beautifully through a part of the metallic ruin like a hot knife through butter, leaving a huge gash where it laid. Naruto cursed himself for missing and had intended for it to sever his weapon arm off in one swift go.

Naruto took the time to rush in, his eyes dead serious and his grip on the katana held. His opponent was panting, minutely, but panting nonetheless and he made to finish him off with one blow that he would have never seen coming.

"That's enough" A voice called out of nowhere causing Naruto to look up, and found that Wakka was right behind him. The beast got out of his stance and brought the back of his hand up to wipe the blood that was slowly dribbling down the side of his gashed lip. Wakka was walked up and touched the big guy on his shoulder, and a silent message of some sort passed through the two.

The blue, furry monster turned around and started walking away, though not before he looked over his shoulder at Naruto. A look of acceptance and respect shone in his eyes before he made to leave.

"So who exactly is he?" Naruto asked as he stepped towards Wakka and Lulu.

"His name is Kimarhi Ronso, of the Ronso tribe. He learned the fiend's way of fighting." Lulu replied, getting a confused look from the white haired teenager.

"He's another of Yuna's guardians" Wakka finished.

"Really," Naruto tapped his chin in thought, and said. "Weird guy"

At that Yuna simply giggled at the funny expression that was practically lit up on his face. "Sometimes we don't understand him either. He doesn't really talk much anyway," Yuna held a smile while placing her hands behind her back. "But he has always protected, even when I was simply a child." She moved aside of the Naruto as they began walking down the path.

"So, him jumping me out of nowhere was like a test or something? He asked, causing Wakka to nod at him. The boy ran his hand through his hair and gave Wakka such a cold look that it merely left him frozen in place and an involuntary shiver ran down his spine. "Had I not known recognized him from being present inside of the temple when Yuna nearly fainted, you my friend would have cost him serious injury. I won't ask twice, but, **don't** make that mistake twice, otherwise it will be on your head."

Wakka quickly nodded his head so fast that Lulu thought he would have had a whiplash if hadn't stopped. The answer seemed to satisfy him and they continued walking along the group, and the air of hostility seemed to simply vanish between Wakka and Naruto and they continued their walk.

Though Yuna was a bit curious about how Naruto's unique fighting style and simply by the way he carried himself. Her head tilted as she looked at Naruto's sword arm. "Where did you learn to fight like that, Naruto?"

"I learned by training under my master ever since I was born, though it has been a long while since I've been able to get my hand on an O katana. But I guess she was right after all, once you've learned the way of the sword you can never forget" Naruto said, thumbing the handle lightly

"She?" Lulu asked.

"My master… the one who taught me everything I know… was the woman who gave me life, her name was Rogue," He stated, though Lulu noticed by the way his eyes shifted, and figured that the topic was a sore one for him, judging by the way he seemed to shift uncomfortably.

But Wakka, not being one to catch things quite as quickly couldn't help but ask. "You said was, so she's dead?"

The teen gave a simple nod of the head. "Yea she's dead. Been dead for a while now, though I learned did learn a great deal from her during the time she was alive. She was a tough person, _impossibly _hard to please and wouldn't accept anything less than perfection, but that's to be expected I guess," his voice was calm, much too calm even for him and forced.

"How did she die?" Wakka asked.

"I'd rather not talk about if that is alright with you Wakka, I'd rather let sleeping dogs lie," He replied simply, his voice was void of emotion and his grip on the handle nearly turned it to splinters in his hand. The memory that had plagued his mind earlier made to surface in his mind, but Naruto shook his head. Pushing it away and he smiled. "Anyway, let's get going before we miss out boat, hmm?"

They turned back towards the path, and came up what appeared to be three separate, connecting bridges that lead across a vast and beautiful waterfall. They were about to make their way across when a weird sound came to Naruto's ears, causing him to look up. He tilted his head to the side and spoke up. "Umm, guys,… I don't think we're alone"

Everyone looked up at the giant bird like fiend, and watched as drool seemed to drain down its hungry, vicious looking fangs as it flapped over their heads.

"Hmm, it would appear to be a condor" Lulu gathered, easily recognizing the creature.

"Should I kill it?" Naruto asked, already thumbing the blade from it's resting place, but Wakka shook his head.

"Nah, why don't we let our summoner have a go" Wakka turned to Yuna who simply stepped up besides him. "Well Yuna the shows all yours, now, why don't you show us your style."

"Let's see what your training has taught you" Lulu encouraged.

"Okay" Yuna straightened her shoulders, and drew her staff. But Naruto felt a bit uneasy to leave such a huge threat to the younger woman, and he made to take care of it himself.

But Wakka placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. "Just watch, Yuna's got this"

Yuna gave a nod and stepped in front of everyone, and watched as the Condor gave a terrifying shriek. But the young woman remained unmoved, and she gave a final look at Naruto before a surge of confidence welled up inside of her.

"Father… guide and give me strength!" Yuna held her staff in the back of one of her hands, and gradually four green spheres of light from a seal that appeared underneath her feet and slam into the sky.

Instantly a booming sound was heard, and a small object rocketed out of the air and rocketed towards Yuna. It spun at the last moment and spread its wings before touching the ground in a slide. The Aeon stopped next to Yuna who simply ran her hand through its mane of red hair, and he instantly recognized it as the bird like creature that she had summoned yesterday.

Gently she asked. "Please, fight for us!" It gave a nod and stood in front of her protectively, and gave a screech that seemed to intimidate the Condor. But it wasn't enough to cause the fiend to turn tail, instead it seemed to provoke it all the less. It zipped through the air and made to peck its eyes out, but Valefor flew around and dodged the hit entirely.

Though not before it slammed its talon like feet across the Condor's face with its razor sharp talons, which were definitely not just for foot decorations. Valefor screeched, and liked the wind maneuvered easily and swiftly across its blind spot and seemed to motion its wings at its enemy.

The action caused an invisible force of wind to slam directly into its back, causing it to fall to the floor. It tried to but another pained screech left its throat as Valefor had sliced easily through one its wings, handicapping the being from flying and causing blood to splash across the ground. The fiend realized how close it was to the summoner and even though it couldn't fly, it didn't mean that it was useless altogether.

It reared its head back and made to bite at her, but just like that it simply froze in place. Yuna saw that its face was morphed in a mixture of pain and horror as it turned into a plume of lights. She looked up and saw that Naruto was several inches from where the Condor was, and he promptly placed his sword away and gave Yuna a smile. "That was really something Yuna, though I hope you don't mind me interfering at the last moment,"

Yuna shook her head, and she too smiled albeit a bit shyly. "No, not at all and I thank you for saving me," She looked at her summon and gave a small thank you, causing Valefor to nod and disappear into the unknown.

The blue eyed teen simply laughed sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. "Aww shucks Yuna, if you keep talking like that you're going to make me blush!"

"Yea yea, blush all you want while we walk" Wakka gripped Naruto in a headlock, while burying his fist into his skull, again. A large grin was on the older man's face.

"Dude, get your pit out of my face! I was just giving Yuna a compliment" Naruto complained as he was pulled away by Wakka. Yuna felt her face grow hot as she smiled shyly, and Lulu couldn't help but shake her head at his antics.

He finally got himself free from Wakka's headlock, only to come face to face with another Condor that came out of nowhere.

"Hmm another one huh," Wakka mused to himself while pulling his ball out its confine. "Look's like I'm up!"

"So what are you going to do?" Naruto asked, not at all drawing his sword at the large creature.

"I got something special for you," Wakka's hands took on a small glow and he tossed his ball at the Condor with all of his might. The blow wasn't enough to kill it like it did the other bird fiend from earlier, but the end result was that smoke seemed to cover its eyes. Effectively blinding it in the process, since it tried to strike at Naruto but he easily sidestepped the thing.

"It's my dark strike attack, it blinds my enemies for while by the moment it makes contact with my opponent. Wakka said with a smile.

"Well then, guess it's my turn now," Naruto steadied himself on one hand and began to rotate, while at the same time gaining speed and power. Kicking up dust in the process, he looked at the condor that was still aimlessly hitting pure air, not at all was it aware of its impending demise.

Finally he stopped gathering power, and spun one final time before shouting. "Rankyaku!" A large air blade projectile shot out as from his leg and smashed into the Condor's wing, slicing cleanly through flesh and bone and sending it smashing into the ground. Seeing his opponent felled, he made a single seal and sucked in a huge breath. "**Katon: Gōkakyū No Jutsu!!!"**

Naruto formed a ring with his thumb and index finger, and blew heavily threw it causing him to spew out a very large fireball at his enemy. The condor turned in time to roar in pain as it was enveloped in a giant plume of flames, and in a miniature explosion.

"Whoa!" Wakka shouted out loud, nearly being blow away from the very force since he was the closest. Multi colored lights flew into the air, and the teen finally let up on the giant fireball and brushed himself with a slight frown. _You would think that I would forget a technique like that after all these years, I guess Rogue was right after all._

"What… in dear Yevon was that" Lulu walked up to him. "That was as powerful as one of my more advance fire spells"

"Oh, well that was just a basic Ninjutsu technique, nothing to get so worked up about" Naruto shrugged.

Yuna seemed to purse her lips, and tilted her head to the side in a rather cute and childish manner. "Nin-jut-su?"

"Yea, though the basic term would be ninja techniques. Though to short end of it is that allows the user to do something that they normally wouldn't be capable of by using chakra. It's a bit complicated to explain really, and I should still a have a few more left in my head somewhere,"

"YOU HAVE MORE!!!" Wakka all but shouted, his eyes nearly bulged out of there sockets at the small claim. He knew the guy was strong in his own right considering he was able to gain Kimarhi's respect, but if what he said was true then they had a really valuable asset on their hands.

"Well yea, but to be honest I had hoped I would have forgotten how to use them. But I guess when you're placed in a sticky situation; some things just seem to come back to you I suppose."

"Why did you want to forget?" Lulu asked.

"Because people look at you funny like a freak when you perform feats that aren't classed or considered normal in their eyes and the more serious ones that I remember were capable of large heavy damage to the landscape and were known to seriously injure other people. So I just only resorted to using them when nobody was around, or when I'm fighting one of the more tougher and nastier garden variety fiends." Naruto looked away with another shrug and the group slowly continued their journey to the boat.

Yuna felt deep down inside that there was more to his words than he was truly letting on, but she couldn't help but feel worried about. She didn't know why she felt so strongly about this, but she was just really worried about him. Yuna didn't like to see people said and she something inside of her yearning to help him, she wanted the opportunity to get to know him more deeply.

After several more minutes of walking along the sandy path that was an indication that they were getting much closer to their destination. Yuna was greeted by the farewells and goodbyes that came from the village's children and the majorities of the elders. Wakka, Lulu and Kimarhi weren't too far behind from her, but the snow haired male couldn't help but feel that someone was calling him.

He turned around and was greeted by a man, on his back was a fairly large green and brown backpack. "Hey! Your going travelling with Lady Yuna right?"

"I suppose so, but why did you ask?"

"Well since your going to be accompanying Lady Yuna, I'd be honored if you would be able to give her these supplies I was able to gather. It's not much but it's the thought that counts, right?" The man pressed the pack into his fingers, and finished. "I want to help Lady Yuna, even I am not able to fight by her side I feel like I can count on you to fight in my stead. Please protect Lady Yuna!"

With that the man left, and slowly more and more people began to gather round placing similar gifts and offerings in his arms, while expressively encouraging him to protect their Lady Summoner. He could tell that these very people loved her with all their hearts and it moved him, when they finally gathered around the boat along with Wakka, Lulu, Kimarhi and Yuna.

He watched sadly as a small boy cried in Yuna's arms as she told him goodbye. Something about they way these people weep and cry for this young woman, made something fierce churn inside of him. A desire to protect her from danger and all that would stand in their way on their journey burned in his visible eye and he promised internally that he would let nothing bad happen to her so long as he lived.

Lady Yuna looked at the masses and masses and people that had gathered out to see her off, and she mentally reminded herself to be strong. She needed to be strong for her people and for the future to come, and it wouldn't do for her to burst into tears in front of them. But Yuna was after all a woman, a strong willed woman that stood tall and proud for her people and for their dreams.

She swept them a bow, and bid them goodbye.

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**Good day folks, this is your host with he most Dark Spidey and to just let you all know that I am NOT dead. Though there is something I will have to share with you all and I know deep down some of you will be extremely and highly upset, and I hope you can understand my plight.**

**I have here, good news, bad news, and terrible news. So first I'll start with the good news, the good news is that I'm still writing, and I haven't given up on any of my fanfictions. So just because they haven't been update in a long while doesn't mean I have given up on them so hear me out.**

**The bad news is the jump drive that had just about all of my new chapters to my stories that I was suppose to update with has been completely and utterly destroyed. Meaning that even though I do have some of the saved files on my laptop, there not the finished ones that I toiled to make for you guys, which means I'll have to work on them as soon as I possibly can.**

**The terrible news is that the reason I wasn't able to update in a relatively long time is as I had told Yami I think a weak or so ago. I got into a terrible car accident somewhere in July when I had hoped to update my fics. I got mangled pretty badly and my favorite typing arm, which is my right arm has been so badly damaged that I've been forced to do therapy to get it back in working order again. I was really thankful that I didn't have to get it amputated or I really would have a hollering fit.**

**So typing with my bad arm, which is my left has been extremely difficult and painstakingly slow, you guys have no idea. Then there's the fact that these stupid nurses keep telling me that I shouldn't be typing in my condition just outright infuriated me, not the mention that they keep taking it away from me. Cutting my updating time to almost practically nil, and the fact that my jump drive was completely manhandled in the crash made me feel like I was a complete and total failure. Gave me a real bad case of depression, but another author who I simply call Yami encouraged me in my plight to not give up and I took his/her words to heart. You know who you are and I really appreciate your words my friend, I really do.**

**So I decided that I would continue updating my stories nonetheless, since I'm just about three quarters of the way done with both Rosario Kitsune and Claymore Number 48, so please just bear it with me just a bit longer guys, okay?**

**And again I apologize to everyone for not being able to update as quickly as possible as I am use to doing in the past. Though I implore all of you to just please bare this with me, and that I pray and hope I'll be still be able to give you the chapters to the stories you all hold near and dear in your computer files and hearts. In both length and quality.**

**Anyway please leave me your thoughts and suggestions and I'll try to be able to get back to you as soon as possible. Though I feel that in this fic I will definitely have to make some changes in the previous chapters though not before I update Rosario Kitsune and Claymore Number 48 since they seem the two fics that have seemed to garner the most attention.**

**Thank you all so much for encouraging and believing in my stories, and I hope that this arm really does heal. It's a really bother to use an arm your not totally familiar with, but I refuse to let it discourage me from doing what I love to do.**

**Your faithful writer, encourager and reader of all that is fanfiction**

**Dark Spidey**


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