~Parallel Dimension~
The world seemed to materialize before Naruto, or perhaps he materialized within the world. The transport only lasted a few moments, the flash only being present for a mere moment before returning to nothingness, as though it had never occurred in the first place.
Naruto breathed in the scent of blood, his blood to be precise, and quickly followed the scent. Grabbing his corpse, he speedily dug a hole before dumping his own regurgitated corpse into the dirt and covering it back up, stomping the dirt to pad it down. Wiping the dirt, saliva, and vile from his pant legs, he stood, dashing into a sprint, in search for his new "team".
He found the pair on a high branch capable of overlooking the surrounding area, almost level with the canopy, but both starred upwards at some unseen force, not acknowledging Naruto's newfound presence. A large snake sprang forwards, jaw open and prepared to ensnare the two whole, just as its brethren had done to his counterpart from this dimension. Naruto wanted to slash into it, claw its eyes out, stab it, but he knew that this world's version of him wouldn't do that, nor be able to.
In the end, he merely used a kunai to detour the great beast, the small-in-comparison-blade piercing easily through the tough scales. If anyone took the time to analyze the action, they'd noticed that the blade, on its own, should have been incapable of the action, unable to penetrate the thick, battle-hardened scales of the matured snake nor was it immune to the velocity the snake had given it when it had been deflected. In truth, the blade should have snapped from the force, yet it hadn't been marred by the defensive attack, no bend ruining its sharp, straight surface.
The reason behind such odd durability, sharpness, and force the blade maintained was the thin coating of translucent chakra, just beyond the viewable capability of the naked eye, one that only lasted until impact but allowed for the blade to imbed itself multiple feet within the creature thick tissue, the gash itself far larger than the blade would have allowed.
The snake made an odd screech and hiss mix at the burning sensation of the chakra as it fizzled heatedly through its reddening, exposed flesh, the creature's healing factor disabled due to the nature of the chakra. The creature lost focus, eyes clouding with pain as it missed its targets, colliding powerfully into the thick stem of a neighboring tree, shacking the leaves for a few moments before subsiding into near stillness. Naruto wanted to laugh at the humorous scene but felt the situation to be a serious one and not one that allowed his amusement.
"The hell were you doing, Uchiha?" Naruto demanded in distaste. In question, Sasuke turned to Naruto as the blonde landed easily on the branch, now standing a short ways away from the raven. Sasuke held a look in his eyes, one of surprise, lingering horror, and an odd blankness of defeat, as though the boy had given something up and abandoned his cause for fear of a greater loss. Naruto wrinkled his nose as if in response to a foul odor.
"Wipe that look off your face, it's disgusting." Naruto hissed. He had to admit that badmouthing this version of Sasuke made him feel better about what the raven had put him through, but that didn't help an odd guilt, like a small voice in the back of his mind, over taking his aggression out on someone who hadn't been the true source of his pain, one of the last shreds of his maintained morality.
Sasuke's dull eyes finally snapped into focus, scowling at the blonde's sudden incline of confidence and attitude, not wanting to admit his jealousy and amazement of the blonde's actions.
"Oh, shut up, dobe." Sasuke retorted snidely. Naruto smirked internally to himself at how easy this all had gone, how swift he was to replace the other version of himself, and how the others hadn't noticed the obvious differences. It seemed that, despite whatever changes this world held, these two had never been close to the Naruto of this world. Now, they would never have the chance to befriend the one who had longed so desperately to please and love.
'I'll have to thank Ed sometime later, using an illusion was the right way to go!' He told himself. Edward had convinced and help teach Naruto how to use illusions, functioning similarly to genjutsu, to tempt the mind of those around him to fill in the gaps with their memory.
Taking advantage of the way the mind tended to multitask, the illusion took advantage of memory and assumptions, either tempting the mind to make connections to explain things, such as Naruto's slightly different size, build, shade of skin color, shade of hair color, facial structure....now that Naruto thought about it, there were a lot of differences between this world's him and himself-or replacing what was seen with something else entirely.
Sakura looked to him with a look of both surprise and gratitude, thankful for his intervening in their situation. This look turned to horror, the girl throwing her pointer finger out towards something behind the blonde, drawing attention to something else, or someone else, that had begun to draw near.
"Look out!" She yelled desperately. If it were not for her reaction, Naruto would not have managed to turn and dodge the grasp of the invading other.
The person, whose gender was indistinguishable due to a complete lack of feminine or masculine traits, growled in distaste as Naruto had evaded from his extended arms. Naruto's eyes widened a mere fraction of an inch before settling back again, allowing his recognition of this person's energy type to go unnoticed.
He vaguely knew this person, though not as he had from those who had betrayed him. This man had been a member of the circle who had worked on that day.
He knew that this man-yes, he knew it was a man-had not gone to extract the beings he would assume to reside inside of the boy, nor had this version helped in the original sealing, so he wouldn't recognize Naruto for who he was.
Taking a kunai with speed unseen by the others and plunging it into the man's throat with swiftness inhumanly possible, Naruto leapt back to his "friends", standing before them in a protective stance.
The past version of him had a goal, that much Naruto remembered, he wanted to become a chunin. Naruto knew this to be an impossible feat, the council either wouldn't allow him to pass due to weakness on his part or fear of what he could do if he did succeed, but he felt that letting one of his cohorts die so quickly would ruin his game.
Naruto listened as the man gurgled, grasping at the bark beneath them as if it would help him, before loosing his footing and falling to the forest below.
"Naruto, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" Sakura screamed in horror, not believing that the dimwitted genin was capable of harming another, let alone murder.
"We should move before he regenerates." Naruto explained hurriedly, knowing that the man was not without allies who would go to their master's aid.
"Regenerates? Naruto, you killed someone." Sasuke snapped, also mortified.
'Was this the real Naruto?' He wondered silently.
"He was bragging about it to a couple others in the test room." Naruto lied as an explanation, it was the best he could give at the moment.
"I overheard him tell them that he could do it, and that he had before. He can regenerate his entire body-" Naruto crinkled his nose in disgust.
"-Similarly to how a snake sheds their skin, gross!" Sakura sighed in relief at the explanation, lifting up their earth scroll.
"I have the other one." She told him. Naruto didn't remember this part, or anything of scrolls, but he was a great roll player, grinning in pretend satisfaction and relief. Sasuke suddenly put a hand before Sakura, blocking the blond off from the pair.
"Wait, how do we know he is who he says he is?" Sasuke asked. Naruto feigned confusion whilst his heart skipped a beat. Would he have to send them to join their original teammate?
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, his tone revealing nothing but falsified confusion.
"What is the password?" Sasuke asked. Naruto scratched his brain, trying to recall what the password had been when the original had still breathed. Coming up with a blank, he improvised.
"No idea." Naruto finally responded with a shrug before turning around, leaping off of the branch to leave the area.
"Are we going to go or what?" Naruto asked loudly, not pausing to listen for a response. It wasn't long before the others were running beside him, both of them slightly slower than himself. Sakura was in the back, having the least muscle mass of all of them. Naruto stopped suddenly on one of the branches, realizing something.
"Maybe someone who knows where the thing is should lead." Naruto stated to the others, both of whom sweatdropping at this.
It took much longer than it should have, as they managed to get turned around multiple times, one of the causes being intersection by another team, more time than what Naruto had initially guessed being spent on a trivial fight, leading the three to remain within the forest during the darkness of night. Because of this, and because he,and were naturally creatures of the day, they had to set up a camp of sort to rest for the night. Naruto scowled internally, far too used to moving about at night and resting during the day to do any sleeping.
-
Naruto waved a hand in the air in a dismissing way.
"Nah, I can do it. You guys just get some shut eye." Naruto responded, trying to convince the others to let him keep a watchful eye out for foes while they rested their battered and exhausted selves. Sasuke finally caved to Naruto's prodding, the argument having lasted the better portion of the past five minutes. Sakura groaned dramatically, as if it was her he had been arguing with and not the raven.
"Just don't watch me sleep this time." She glared at him, as if to make a point. Naruto's eye gave an unnoticed twitch, knowing that his other had no true romantic feelings for the pinkette and finding her personality, now that they were out of danger, to be as annoying as it had been in his own world. He wanted to retort, to snap at her, to tell off her lie, but he knew that the other version of him had never done so, always taking the hits rather than defending himself.
"Oh, don't worry, dear Sakura, I'll make sure to not watch out for someone who wants to slit your throat." Naruto purred in a passive aggressive tone, slipping into a hiss at the end. Sakura hadn't heard him, already having moved onto their hiding place. Naruto sat, still as a statue, on his rock island.
The hours passed as Naruto sat, remaining still and allowing his sense of hearing to cloud his eyesight, listening for the sound of breath, of crinkling leaves, footsteps, anything.
Finally, after four hours, he felt a footstep. Focusing on the location of the person, his eyes having been closed for the past few hours, the person assuming Naruto to be sleeping upright rather than studying their location. He memorized the spot where the person crept, the hand he had rested in his pocket very slowly wrapping around the kunai that rested there, and he sprang forth from his location to the other, as if to draw the blood of whomever had dared to draw near.
Grabbing the other's ponytail and yanking it backwards and wrapping his arm around the others neck so the other couldn't escape, Naruto stood behind him. Silence, broken only by startled and labored breathing of the captured prey, loomed heavily over the two. The person began to move, the movement slow and cautionary, reaching for their concealed weapon. Naruto's grip tightened dangerously around the other, constricting their breathing to the point of near suffocation.
"Give me a reason." Naruto hissed through the teeth that held the handle of his blade, the same blade that was pushed dangerously close to the other's main artery located in his throat.
"Easy, Naruto!" The other, whom Naruto recognized as Shikamaru, replied immediately and in a very alarmed tone. The grip of the blade loosened before regaining its previous edge, this time being firmer, drawing a very small sliver of crimson from pale, smooth skin.
"Nara, you are well aware of what this test details, we are enemies so long as we are here." If he had the wits to think clearly concerning his sense rather than trying to determine a way to appease Naruto, he would have realized just how clear and almost echo-y Naruto's voice had sounded in those moments, as though he hadn't spoken them through the Handel of a metal blade.
"Why in anyone's right mind, would anyone assume you an ally? I have no reason to assume that you didn't come here to try and steal our scrolls through violent means." Naruto continued in a low voice, his words still clear. Shikamaru was most definitely confused as to where this had been coming from, knowing his friend to give anyone the benefit of the doubt to the point of it being harmful to himself, not to mention the sudden incline of speech patterns in those moments.
"If I had come here to hurt you, then I wouldn't have moved on without dealing with you when you were sleeping." Shikamaru reasoned before realizing that Naruto likely hadn't truly been asleep in those moments. He gave a soft chuckle at this realization, looking to the side as if he could see the blonde. Breathing was difficult, but he was able to manage, but he could feel his mind begin to fog over, being denied precious oxygen.
"Clever boy." He said in a calm tone.
"I hope you understand that I will not harm you, let's talk-" moving slowly, careful not to move too fast nor slow, Shikamaru lifted a hand from his loosened confinement and gently touched the blade that pressed to his throat, moving to the cheek of the blond in a seemingly affectionate manner.
"Easy now, you're doing good." He said in hushed tones, as if to a frightened animal, as he slowly and carefully removed the blade, pulling it away and dropping it to the ground beside them.
Bringing his hand back to Naruto's cheek, he carefully and precisely rubbed the whisker where it met the jaw line, sensing the pulse of chakra and feeling Naruto's muscles relax slightly from behind him. He had discovered this trick when he and Naruto had been younger, though the reasoning behind it had never revealed itself to the brunette.
An idea sprouted and took route in Shikamaru's mind, he began to stroke the pressure point, pushing very lightly where he knew the lines to be.
His father had actually taught him this part when he had asked, though it had been an eternity ago and when they had still been quite young. Deciding that Naruto was in the correct state of mind now, he gently changed their positioning so that he was now facing the blonde.
The moment that he was about to speak, imprint a few demands into the impressionable state of mind, Naruto jerked back, eyes flashing open and instantly regaining consciousness. He stood in a defensive position, kunai in hand at the ready to slash or block, his stance was wide and low, arms almost in an X shape, his facial expression unreadable in the dim light. Naruto didn't understand how or what had just happened, but he knew it unwise to allow himself to relax around a possible enemy, that portion of his life had long since ended, and nothing solidified his newfound resolve more than the memories of this world's version of himself.
Shikamaru looked on, taken aback at the blonde's actions. Naruto pointed away from their location, a small glare on his features.
"Leave now." Naruto hissed, perhaps playing this role wouldn't be as easy as he had assumed. He realized that he would need to fix this, and fast, to avoid suspicion. He watched Shikamaru's back as the other person receded, entering the darkened greenery with the swiftness of a startled turtle.
"Oh, hey wait-" Naruto called in a quiet enough tone. Shikamaru turned around, eyebrow raised, having almost been about to leap over and to a tree branch with the assistance of a controlled jolt of chakra. Naruto let his head tilt to the side, bangs acting as curtains and perfectly fraiming his face, a sweet smile overtaking his lips.
"We're good, right?" Naruto asked in a kind voice, Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly as his cheeks heated from Naruto's sudden adorableness, not to mention sudden attractiveness. Naruto smirked internally, he really did love playing with people's senses, he'd have to thank Nightingale when he would next see her. After a few quick and embarrassed nods from the brunette, Naruto was alone again.
Walking back over to his stump, he sat, thinking in depth of his next steps. Should he play with this further? Test it out on others? No, that would draw in too much unwanted attention. Would it happen again? Who else knew how to do...that to him? What even was that trance? He glanced over his shoulder, checking to see if the others were out or awake. Upon seeing neither of them present, he pulled out a kunai, lifting it to his face, starting on his right side, and pressed the tip to his cheek.