爆発！« explosion »

XXX

Nonexistence

"What happened?" Gaara questioned, worry in his eyes.

Naruto studied the Ichibi jinchūriki for a long moment, simply taking in the other's features.

Those carmine locks were very different from the ruby red hair of the Uzumaki, he now noted. His hair was different from the bloody crimson of Kurama's long tresses and was further from the bright scarlet of the name that Naruto now saw above his head. Those eyes were a striking and distinctive pale turquoise hue, quite different from anyone else he has met before. They were also lacking pupils, which would have been impossible for humans within the Shinigami World. Although it was true that both had dark eye circles, L and Gaara's eyes were decidedly different. Gaara had some resemblance to a tanuki due to the shape of the dark rims of his eyes -- it almost looked stylish due to the sharp contrast, as though it was thick black eyeliner. His skin was a rosy beige -- Naruto knew now due to the comparisons he can make after reading so many descriptions of all the possible culprits of various cases.

He simply grasped more details now.

"There was an immense explosion at Konohagakure. Since there was no chakra outflow, those not paying attention to their surroundings have missed it. Right after, we stopped being able to detect you. Something interfered with our connection -- we coincidentally had the same idea to find your brother based on what we recalled of your memories. The eruption happened an hour ago and Deidara-san just led us here," Yagura explained, guessing that it was related to Naruto's brief disappearance.

Naruto's scrutiny was transferred to the eleven-year-old. 

Yagura's hair was something he had never paid attention to before -- its owner evidently did not think much of it. Naruto's mental classification had been something along the lines of "greyish-brown" or something equally unflattering. He now had a better descriptor for the colour. It was tortilla or khaki, not flashy but undeniably unique. His eyes, which Naruto used to assume to be but a brighter shade of pink, were magenta. It was a colour that could not be reasoned by the pigmentation produced by the human body. It seemed humans in his homeworld possess a lot more variation in the hues of their hair, eyes and skin than those in the Shinigami World.

The racial issues permeating the social structure in the human realm there would never appear in this world -- there was too much variety to expect homogeneity to be possible.

"I travelled to another world," he voiced for his brother's sake, wordlessly prompting his pair of contractors to skim through his memories.

Yagura sighed, "If it wasn't so obviously you, Naruto, I would have thought it might be someone else. 

Naruto tilted his head to the side uncomprehendingly.

Was there something he had forgotten?

"He means that we do not sense you at all even right in front of us. Our contract is still there, but it is inactive and I cannot look into your mind. I'd presume it's the same for Yagura-san. Deidara-san couldn't even cross the threshold of the intersection between your realms before you came barging in and your kekkei-genkai are not accessible to us currently," Gaara elaborated when he interpreted Naruto's look as confusion.

There was a clear shift in Naruto's mannerisms, but it was still the same person.

"Oh," Naruto uttered in understanding.

He accessed his chakra pool for the first time in forever and probed at the tattoos hidden under his skin. They lost their lustre when he crossed into the Shinigami World and did not recover on their own upon his return. This has indeed slipped his mind. Checking the proof of his contracts never occurred to him in the other world -- another of the mysterious compulsions that have yet to wear off completely. This caused them to glow brightly as they did back when they have first been established a lifetime ago.