Nighttime made this city feel like a different place.
It wasn't a bustling place during the day, at least to what he believed it should have been, as he thought it would be more populated than it looked, but it was a ghost town at night. Konoha was more active, and it was a smaller place than this city. He had to wonder what was wrong and why he felt there were fewer people in this place than he thought there should have been.
Not to mention, he could feel the shades moving at night...
And that wasn't a good thing.
Naruto heard the crime boss was giving Huntsman fits here, but to think it might be this bad. He was thinking of returning to that board and looking up a few more criminal names...
Do a spree of hitting the town and nabbing a few big-name crooks. Rewards would be nice and all, sure, but...
If not many people weren't coming out of their homes at night, something was off. Or, again, was there more to this than he realized? Did this place have different cultures or something?
It was all too confusing...
Just like this gadget in his hand, which he had no clue how it functioned!
"Stupid thing... Map! Where is the map?" Naruto grumbled as he could barely interface with the touchscreen feature, having to be shown several times how that worked. "If we don't find this place..."
"Which is why I've been leading us." Blake humorously grinned, hiding her scroll behind her as her eyes glinted at the scene before pointing over at a building that looked like a budget hotel. "I believe that is what we are looking for... Seen better, but it will do. Just no... Nothing like this morning."
"I cannot promise that." Naruto held up his hands defensively, wincing, seeing the dagger-like gaze being sent his way. "Look, let's just say it has been a part of my upbringing, and I've had a more than healthy interest in female anatomy. Found a certain orange book when I was little, and now I own the entire set thanks to my master, who wrote the series and is a world-renowned super-pervert. Not to mention my sensei is an avid reader of the said smut, and I've just been around perverts all my life!"
Hissing deep within her throat, repressing the urge to play into his game, for she knew that was what he was aiming for, Blake restrained herself. Instead, she calmed herself, crossing her arms over her chest, and turned her head from him. "Being a writer or a reader of smut does not make you a pervert. Doing what you did this morning does! Don't get it twisted. That won't fly in the room, and I will kick you out if that happens, understand?"
"Good on that front. Can't operate this thing to do that even if I wanted to!" Naruto grinned and made Blake stare at him flatly, not sure if she wanted him in the room with her or not. "Besides, who said reading or writing made them perverts? No, master was a self-proclaimed super-pervert who peeped on women and taught me how to do it better, I suppose, and sensei openly read those books in public and even mocked us while in training. Sort of funny now that I think about that..."
"You were taught to peep on women!" Blake bristled, her ears spiking upward and her hair pointing on end. "Wait, better! You were doing it before! You vile cretin! How dare you think that was acceptable? That's something a twelve-year-old would do!"
"I was twelve!" Naruto shrank from the shrieking cat girl, petrified of her and wishing she would just hit him, as it would make him feel better about the moment. "I was younger when I started! I think ten, maybe? I don't know! I didn't think it was that odd when I found the book and wanted to learn more about women, and it had a scene like that, so I thought it was okay! Found out it wasn't, but that never stopped me, but that was my pig-headedness for ya... Don't know when to quit."
Blake's demeanor dramatically softened. Her eyes were wide, her mouth agape, before bringing her hand up and holding it to her chest. "You were that young? And you were exposed to that kind of material without it being explained? Why didn't anyone tell you?"
"Mah, I was an orphan, and no one really cared about me but the leader of my village at the time. And he probably didn't want to explain what it was to me after I stole it from him. I think Old Man Sarutobi was really embarrassed to admit to others that I learned about it because he left it on his desk, and I took it..." Naruto slowly stood back to his full height, recognizing he was standing at the same size as her, even if she did have some decent-sized heels on her boots...
And with her ears, she was technically taller than him, even with the spikes in his hair, with her heels!
"Oh, I didn't know that you were..." Blake looked even further, dismayed and astonished, before looking away. "Sorry, I shouldn't have assumed."
"Don't apologize. It's not something I told ya! How could you have known? So no worries!" Naruto flashed a grin. "But I guess I probably shouldn't be doing either, so I will do my best not to indulge in my old ways! Even if they did almost save the world..."
"What?"
"I'll tell you about that another time," Naruto's grin widened, amused by Blake's fuming, knowing she wanted to know more.
But as he ignored her, focused on getting a room for the night, she smoldered at him. That was a story she needed to know!
Blake hadn't heard about anything that would have put Remnant in peril. She thought she would have, but being disconnected from the rest of society while she was with Adam and his faction of the White Fang...
It would also make sense why she found him in that state. And he was certainly strong enough to protect the world from something dramatic. Maybe a meteor... He had weird abilities that didn't make any sense, as his power didn't function like aura in the slightest.
Ugh! She needed to know the answer to the question! Something inside of her was screaming at her to get the answer, wanting it!
Desiring it! As if it were key to explaining everything!
"Wait, get back here and explain..." Blake demanded as she followed behind Naruto after he paid for a room for the night for both of them.
"So, you read smut?" Naruto deflected, a twinkle in his eyes as he looked back at Blake.
"What?" Blake stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide in peril as her face went scarlet, as Naruto turned and faced her before balking at him. "W-What gave you that impression? No!"
"Mah, that sounds suspicious." Naruto kept a toothy grin before shrugging his shoulders and turning away. "Was just curious after hearing how you defended those who read and write smut earlier. Saying they weren't perverts. It sounds pretty defensive if you ask me. Well, whatever."
"Got some books if you're interested." Naruto waved as he headed back toward the hotel, ignoring the fuming and flushed Blake as she twitched behind him.
Was he messing with her again? Trying to break her and have Blake stoop her to his level! It was so frustrating!
Or was this a genuine offer? Was he just being friendly, offering her a book to read...? A naughty one, but a book nonetheless!
He was so frustrating! She couldn't get a read on him! One minute, they could have a heart-to-heart, and the next, he was cracking wise and taunting her! Or doing something impossible? Or didn't know anything or...
What was this enigma known as Uzumaki Naruto? Why was he so damn unpredictable?!
And why was she so damn curious?
What was this feeling that kept pulling her toward him?
And why did his scent seem so familiar, yet she couldn't recognize it?
[ X ]
"Mah, told you I wouldn't peep." Naruto held up his hands as Blake exited the bathroom, then scowled and muttered under his breath as he dropped his right arm and glared at it.
Her ears twitched as she could hear his murmuring. She could only sigh at the scene. Putting on a smile, she closed her eyes and nodded, placing her hand on her hip. "You earn a point this time around. Still got some work to go."
"Woop-woop! I'm at one, so that's a start." Naruto chuckled as he scratched his head. "Now, how much for a passing grade, as I'm pretty bad at tests? Like, notoriously bad. Don't think I've ever passed one that wasn't a physical grade..."
Snickering and rolling her eyes, Blake settled her vest and leggings onto her bed. While she felt somewhat exposed, she could tell he wasn't leering at her and joking around as he had been. So while she was slightly uncomfortable staying in a room with a boy she hardly knew, he seemed tolerable. It certainly could be worse.
Didn't hurt from what she had seen, Naruto was built fairly well... With built solid abs, even if he was a little shorter than the average boy her age. Adam wasn't very much taller. Blake knew her perception of size was skewed because her father was such a mountain of a man.
Sighing and shaking her head, she hopped on her bed and took a seat. "Sorry for taking so long. Water might take a little bit to warm back up, but it felt so good..."
Hearing the purr in her voice, Naruto held back a chortle by biting his lip. "I can see that. Must have been purrfect."
Instead, it came through his voice and earned him a death stare, and then he let it out, causing Blake to only scoff at the blonde and look up through the ceiling. "Oum, help me with this one. I'm going to kill him."
"Well," Naruto stood up slowly, stretching his back. "I would say I get some fresh air and do a short exercise in the meantime, but the air here isn't really fresh..."
"Why don't you watch the holo-vision?" Blake blinked as she pointed over at the dresser, and a small box was placed on top of it. "Who knows, there might even be something on the news about one of the criminals you took notes on?"
"The what-a-vision?" Naruto stared blankly at Blake, and her horror had only just begun. "It sounds like you just mixed television with something from those sci-fi shows I used to watch all the time when I was a kid. What was it again? Um, yeah! That's it! A hologram!"
"Oum, help me! This is basic technology!"
[ X ]
"How?" Blake rubbed her temples, having stepped outside as she left Naruto to take a shower, slipping on her vest and leggings, and sitting on the rooftop of the hotel, staring longingly at the moon. "How does he not know anything about the basics of modern technology?"
As she watched the moon, noticing the full moon cycle had ended and tonight was the first night as it was shifting into its broken cycle, a few fragments becoming visible on the right-hand side, Blake exhaled deeply. Even with the normally calm sight of the moon usually gave her, she was disturbed.
How was he so clueless? Didn't know anything about what should have been basic knowledge?
She would have had them test for amnesia if they were at the hospital, but he seemed capable of recalling everything, so that wasn't it. Something else was the issue, and it bothered her. The moment she picked him up and began carrying him, and he didn't recognize what her scroll was or how to use it, something should have tipped her off.
Even the older generation knew how to operate a scroll. That was old tech, even if new, more modern ones were constantly being updated. With the Cross Continental Transmit System built after the Great War, the first models of scrolls were developed, though they were primitive by today's standards and only updated over the years. So for someone not to at least know how to know of one...
"I don't get it." Blake bit her lip, ears lowering as her eyes shimmered in the limited light, glinting and shining as she could see every aspect around her perfectly. "You don't even know what I'm talking about when I bring up concepts like Aura and Semblances. Don't fall under the same rules when fighting, as your abilities seem too varied for it to be a Semblance..."
"Who are you, and where are you from, Naruto?" Blake asked no one in particular as she looked out onto the moon, praying for an answer but knowing she would not get a response.
She didn't expect one. He didn't want to talk about it.
And she understood. He was lost and didn't know where he was. What reason would he have to tell his secrets to a stranger?
She wasn't telling him hers. So it didn't feel fair to press him only when the subject arose, and they often did. Eventually, something would have to give, and an answer would be given, but that would take time.
And she supposed that was why he wasn't pushing her either. If he could feel people, what did that mean exactly? He seemed to know when she was distressed or upset, and he found a way to uplift her in some way. So did that mean...
"Ah, here you are!" Naruto's voice chirped, most likely seeking her out and having found her using his said ability to feel people's presence. "You doing o... What in the world?"
"Naruto?" Blake's head bolted upright, hearing his tone shift, and she instantly knew something was wrong as she could see his eyes flickering.
Something had terrified him! She could see that! But what could bring the usually so jovial, so uplifting personality of Uzumaki Naruto to such terror at a single glance?
What was behind her?
Feeling her spine-tingling, she leapt to her feet, turning and looking toward what he was gazing at to see what he was freaking him out, only to see the clouds parting in the sky and the moon hovering over Remnant.
"That is the moon?" Blake glanced back at Naruto, her eyes glistening in confusion as she faced Naruto, worry strewn as her lips furrowed. "Naruto, you are frightening me. What is wrong..."
"That is not the moon..." Naruto shook his head, not believing what he saw, seeing the shards of the shattered moon, his body quivering. "That can't be! What happened? That's not what the moon looked like! Not at all! It was never shattered or broken like this!"
Blake went rigid. Her ears stood on high alert, her hair standing on end. Her teeth clashed uncontrollably as her eyes vividly focused on the enigma that was known as Naruto, as a cold shiver went down her spine.
It finally dawned on her why nothing about him made sense. Or why he didn't know any of the basics that any child of Remnant would know.
It was because he wasn't from here. No, not from Vale. He wasn't from Mistral, Atlas, or Vacuo. Definitely not Menagerie. Any bandit tribe or people trying to live outside of the system.
He, by all purposes...
Was an alien. From another world.
And he was standing before her, confused and unsure how he arrived here.
She didn't have an answer either, as she simply smelled him and found him near death. Like something was pulling her toward him and had been pulling her to stay by his side to help him adjust...
"This can't be!" Naruto suddenly, and to Blake's surprise, burst into a golden glow with a light black tint to his chest area, and...
Her eyes couldn't believe what she saw as the wind whipped around her, barely able to stay on her feet. Blake's eyes widened as she, for a second, could track Naruto all due to a golden light wrapping around his body. And in an instant, he burst toward the moon.
This wasn't like when he jumped earlier to take out the Alpha Nevermore! No, he didn't even move a muscle in his legs!
He was flying! Naruto had the power of flight!
And why was he flying straight to the moon?
"Naruto!"
[ X ]
This couldn't be real. This had to be fake...
An illusion!
Yes, that is what this was! It had to be!
Was all of this just some elaborate illusion? Did Sasuke's Susanoo fail, and was everyone caught in Madara's infinite Tsukuyomi after all?
Was all of this just some ploy by the Uchiha to keep Naruto trapped within the illusion? Make him believe that he was under his thumb?
Naruto didn't understand, but he knew he had to get to the moon! If he did, he could see the reflection! He still had these powers. He might not have the Rinnegan that allowed Sasuke, along with the Tailed Beast powers, to reflect from them, Kakashi, Sakura, and Obito...
But he still had a small amount of chakra from the rest of the nine, although he was unsure why. Naruto swore he had spent it in his fight against Sasuke. But if he had it, he could do something with it.
Find a way to break out of the illusion!
It was getting tight on his lungs. He had long since left the atmosphere, and he could see the shattered remains of the moon getting closer and closer. He didn't think about it, but could he survive here? He wasn't struggling as hard as he thought, but the weight around him was a little uncomfortable...
That glow. Was it...
Just the sun's shine? He couldn't feel anything radiating from this shattered moon. There was definitely a presence...
Something powerful had been here at one time, but it was long gone. Its trail had gone cold. But there was no other trace of anything. No remnants of chakra, natural energy...
Nothing.
No...
There was no reflection? No illusion?
That couldn't be! No! This had to be an illusion! There was no way this was real! He couldn't be somewhere else...
Where was he?
Why was he here?
What happened to Sasuke?
What happened to him?
Tears dripped from his eyes as he gripped his temples...
This was reality, not an illusion.
He was here now, wherever here was.