For Naruto, it had been four years.
"Silent Barrier!" said Naruto, his black staff thumping once on the ground. "We can't be eavesdropped on or overheard until I drop this. Where to start?"
"Start with when you disappeared," said the Hokage.
"When I vanished here, I went to a world..." Naruto's voice trailed off. "It was a world at war. A terrible war. They had great and powerful magic. Everyone had access to what we'd consider miracles."
Naruto went silent again for a moment, so the Hokage asked the obvious question. "'magic'? 'miracles'?"
"Magic is another word for genjutsu and ninjutsu when neither is used by a ninja," explained Naruto. "As for 'miracles' - yeah. I've seen crystal cities. Other cities that floated up in the air. There were crystal waterfalls and forests the color of a rainbow. There were ships that could sail the skies and even beyond. There was stuff like the TVs and refrigerators we've got, but - so much better. More developed."
"How long were you there?" asked the Hokage.
"I was gone for four years," said Naruto, putting a gold bar on the counter and motioning to Teuchi.
"Uhm," said the proprietor of Ichiraku's as he glanced at the Hokage and the others with Naruto.
"All that is said here is secret," said Naruto. "Unless you say different, sir?"
"Just call me what you used to, Naruto, I'm still getting used to the difference in your attitude," said the Hokage. "As for the proprietor and his daughter, I'm sure they hear many secrets and know how to keep them to themselves."
Teuchi nodded and set the bowl in front of Naruto before moving back to the stove to give the authorities their privacy. Never mind at the moment that Naruto had just paid enough for Ramen For Life. That was a concern for much later.
Naruto ate slowly, clearly savoring each sip or bite, speaking only in between feeding himself. "That world was at war and I arrived in the middle of it. There were three sides. The Prosperity Alliance, the Defensive Union, and the Progressive Powers. They'd been fighting for maybe four years before I arrived, and it looked as if the Progressives were on the losing end. They created a sort of 'weak point' in reality, trying to summon powers to them. They got it."
"Ah, so they got you because of THAT then," guessed the Hokage as he indicated a "#3" to the ramen shop owner. Some hot broth would feel good on his throat.
"Yeah, that was what THEY figured too," said Naruto. "They might have tried tearing it loose too, except they got a bigger fish. A god from another world in the process of dying, killed by another god, and they bound it in a sword. Doing it cracked their fortress in half. Which is when I escaped."
"A sword?" asked the Hokage, glancing at the staff.
"Mitternacht can take the forms of a key, a staff, or a sword," said Naruto. "Depending on what I'm doing with her. Anyway, when everything was going wrong and something else was trying to get in through their rift, I grabbed the sword and escaped. Before I got completely out of there though, I had Mitternacht seal the rift since it had lost enough energy she could do that."
The staff pulsed, a deep red that started in the middle and rippled out to the ends before fading.
"Hello, Mitterunachtu," said the Hokage, playing a hunch. "Thank you for being a friend to Naruto."
The staff pulsed again.
"She's not much of a talker," explained Naruto. "We wandered that world. Mitternacht used her Absorb Magic ability to defend us from some stuff. I used Shadow Clones and what she could teach me to survive otherwise. Everybody escalated their efforts. The war got worse. Lots worse. The war didn't stop with the soldiers and such, civilians got caught in the fighting. It didn't matter who you were, you were someone's enemy."
The ANBU who were present stirred, and the Hokage sighed. Those old enough remembered what it was like before the Fourth killed enough of the other side that peace could be accepted. "Sounds like the last Ninja War. It's why we hold onto peace as fiercely as we do."
"Yeah," said Naruto. "I held on. There was a community, a few mages from the Defensive Union on this really big island. Survivors there, four or five families. When the fighting finally stopped, I went wandering again. Found this old guy. Bunch of others. Place called the Springfield Farm where they'd retreated to when it all went to hell."
The Third Hokage looked at Naruto, saw his eyes, and felt like shedding a tear for the lost innocence. He'd seen so much of it destroyed in the War, the constant battles and death taking its toll on the living. He'd placed the look the moment Naruto had returned to them.
"The TSAB, that's Time/Space Administration Bureau, found our world after a few months. The old man applied for refugee status. We got out. Some of the people from Mid-Childa are apparently researching that world now."
"I see," said the Hokage.
Naruto's cool gaze regarded the Hokage briefly. The sadness and loss on the old man's face said volumes. "Yeah. Guess you do at that." You didn't need to lose a whole world to get into that feeling of helpless loss. To see people you care about dying on a daily basis. In the short term you got numb, in the long term - you found a way to deal with it or it drove you mad.
"Still want to be Hokage, even though you might have to lead your people if there's a war?" asked Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Naruto finished slurping up the last bit of ramen. "Yeah. Actually. More than ever. Though if anyone declares war on Konoha, me and Mitternacht are going to have a few things to say to them."
The staff pulsed again, somehow giving the impression of agreement with that sentiment.
"So what's the plan?" asked Naruto. "I'm back but I'm sixteen."
"You could always use a henge to look younger, but I've got a cover I can circulate about a time/space jutsu gone wrong," said the Hokage. "The problem will be getting people to accept you. You can't simply command something like that, even if you're the Hokage."
"Yeah, you've tried that before," said Naruto humorlessly.
"You say you've been gone four years," said the Hokage. "Yet when you returned, not a full minute had passed. Hinata is... confused and concerned."
"So what's the plan?" repeated Naruto.
"I pass the word around about you getting caught in an experimental time/space jutsu, aging four years and returning to us," said the Hokage. "That'll explain the changes. Everything else will be up to you. It might help if we put you back on the same path you were, which would be placement on a genin team. That will give me time to work on some of the other problems involved."
"Uh huh," said Naruto. "Gonna be strange to see everyone after all this time."
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(Posted Thu, 27 May 2010 17:08)
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