Eras (MadaNaru)

Chapter 1: Conflict and Smiles

Stubborn as he was, even he should have listened at this particular juncture. His adamancy to be better than his rival had bought him this close to certain death, and now because of this situation, he was compelled to have a good long argument with himself on the logistics of that particular judgment. Mostly because even if Sasuke somehow found out about his very idiotic stunt of supposed bravery would he even care? No, he had left the village two years ago for the very reason that he didn't care anymore.

Now his foolhardy plan had landed him into this plight. A plight where, he was in the conundrum of having no clue to his position in relation to the village, and the fact that his and Kyuubi's Chakra felt near to completely burnt out. If this was not a bad situation Naruto didn't know what was.

Fortunately, he was at least partly sure that he was still within the Land of Fire, unfortunately, the Land of Fire was the second largest Shinobi Nation, and finding your way around it was difficult when you didn't know your bearings as he now didn't.

The forest surrounding him even felt different than anything he ever felt from the trees within the Land of Fire, which was strange for a number of reasons. Firstly he had no idea at any point in his life that the trees could feel strange, and second because he had lived here for fourteen years -barring the two years he had spent with Pervy Sage- so this was not only interesting to him but also downright terrifying. He could try to find the nearest town, then hopefully get directions to the Hidden Leaf. Yes, that would have to be his game plan at this point.

He turned in a randomized direction and began walking. For as long as he had a semblance of a plan he could deal with this.

When he had been a Genin within team seven his biggest fear other than ghosts had been getting lost while separated from his team. He'd never actually admitted that to himself until now, mostly because he was ashamed of the fact that something so small could strike so much fear into him.

When he'd first woken up to find himself in the situation he had been on the very borderline of a panic attack, he was quite lucky he had managed to calm himself before that happened.

There was no doubt in his mind that should he had panicked he would have been killed, he was in ground foreign to him, and undoubtedly there were enemy ninja's just waiting to strike.

He was very fortunate he hadn't been killed while he was unconscious. Many ninjas would have taken the chance to take out the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki if they found him asleep within the forest without any sort of protection around him.

Even the Villagers would have taken the opportunity, regardless of the small chance of him waking.

They would have slashed his throat, a thought that made him shudder with the honesty of it all.

Had he been more coherent he wouldn't have even considered thinking such a depressing thought, as it was he was only about thirty percent aware of his surroundings, his thoughts were not going to be as monitored as they usually were. His very Chakra pathways hurt.

The sound of a crack on wood drew his attention quicker than many would expect, having had many attempts upon on his life within the last two years -and his very early childhood- he was actually quite adapt to focusing on his surroundings.

Really the crack could have been anything, but he cast his eyes towards the sound regardless he didn't want to be caught unaware after all, even if he didn't have any chakra, well if it came down to it he could use a bit of Kyuubi's.

He felt a spark of shock at the sight of someone actually standing upon a tree branch on his right, and looming over him. Acting on his shock he jumped back as quickly as he could, just as he landed a kunai was implanted where his feet had been just moments ago.