The Avatar's Will of Fire

Explanations and Meetings

"Why are you doing this?" Naruto asked, glaring up at Madara Uchiha as he stood on the rooftop above him at the edge of Kumogakure.

"For the exact reasons I gave you, boy." The reply was a mixture of conviction and condescension, as if while Madara believed what he was saying, he never expected Naruto to understand.

"We have been divided for far too long, fought amongst one another too often. We were one people once, before we allowed ourselves to become divided by our petty jealousies. I intend to correct that. I am going to unite us in a way that no kage or daimyo ever could!

"Take a look around you; see the destruction and chaos. You and your allies could end it all, right here, right now, if you only lay down your arms!"

But Naruto had seen what the Akatsuki did to those they conqured, and there was no way in hell that he was letting that happen to Konoha, or any other Hidden Village.

Naruto prepared to charge a full-powered wind-style Rasengan, but before he could charge, the entire world seemed to fall away, and then he somewhere else, unable to make out any of his surroudings, but still able to recognize the vauge outlines of two men, one of which appeared to be holding a sword of some kind.

"This is the only way." The figure with the sword stated.

"Is that how you sleep at night?" The other man asked, snorting.

The first man didn't respond to the obvious jab. "You know the stakes just as well as I do."

Now, Naruto was somewhere else, and he couldn't get any kind of bearing at all, for there was just nothing, no light, no space, not even darkness, just a great void of emptiness. Then, Naruto could feel something, some unknown presence that gave off a feeling of pure, absolute hate, before he saw a pair of golden eyes, and the thing howled in fury...

Naruto felt as if he had just gone three rounds straight with a full-powered Rock Lee, and he was really starting to hope that waking up in pain wasn't going to become a trend here. He could vaguely recall having a dream, about his fight with Madara in Kumo, and then a white mask, but he couldn't remember any specifics.

He should have expected something like this. After all, when was the last time anything had gone right in his life? The fact that he actually had to pause for a moment to think of an answer was depressing in and of itself.

He had traveled to a completely different world, and one of the first things he did after his arrival was get himself involved in a fight.

To be fair, Naruto didn't regret it. In fact, given another chance, he probably would have done the exact same thing. He could never just stand by as innocent people got slaughtered when he knew that he could do something to help.

No, he was just marveling at his inability to catch a single break in his life.

Seriously, he had been willing to sacrifice himself so that the Akatsuki War would end, and his friends would live. Didn't that count for anything?

Apparently not.

Well, at least he had been able to protect the noncombatants. That would be good enough for him.

Taking a moment to look around, Naruto realized that he was in a room similar to the one that he had woken up in, though it clearly wasn't some convenient guest room like the one that he had been in before was. Instead, this room gave the feeling that someone was living in it. Despite the lack of any obvious decorations, the way the various objects in the room were organized indicated that it was because of a persons' personal preference. He could see a shelf that was filled with books, though he couldn't make out any of the titles, and what he could only guess were some type of scrolls spread out over a desk. While most of the scrolls were closed, one was laid open, as if whoever this room belonged to had been reading it before they left for some reason.