Chapter Text
The last day of Naruto’s mundane, ordinary life started as all others had before that. He woke up in the morning, already late for that morning’s classes at the university, and dashed through his tiny apartment, barely stopping long enough to change his clothes and take his bag.
By some miracle he was able to catch a train that arrived just twenty minutes later than the one he should’ve used, so it wasn’t so bad.
Naruto slumped to sit and waited for his breathing to get even again. His heart was pounding as he had ran all the way from home to the station, and he was in a desperate need of coffee.
It was only at that point he looked at his phone. There had been three missed calls and one message, all from his adoptive father. Iruka lived in a town some fifty kilometers away from Tokyo, but he did call almost every morning, trying to get Naruto wake up in time.
Needless to say, it didn’t work most of the time.
Naruto did have alarms, but he just slept too deeply to hear them, no matter how many of them he had. He even had his phone’s ringtone set as loud as possible, but even that hadn’t been enough to wake him up.
It probably had something to do with the fact that he had been playing well into the night, completely forgotten the time and realized at almost three a.m. that he was, in fact, a university student who had actual classes.
Naruto had considered skipping, but Iruka still paid most of his tuition, so Naruto couldn’t bring himself to disrespect him like that. Iruka had taken care of him ever since he’d been a child, barely two or three years old – Iruka had been a friend of his parents, and adopted him after Naruto’s parents had died.
There was also Jiraiya, Naruto’s godfather, but he travelled so much because of his work as a writer that he just hadn’t had the time to take care of a child.
And Naruto did know that it was probably also because Jiraya was a free spirit and didn’t want to be tied to a specific place like that.
Jiraiya did take care of him in his own way; he deposited money regularly to Naruto’s bank account, and sent lots of letters and postcards wherever he’d visited. Just recently Naruto had gotten a postcard from Finland, where Jiraiya had been researching sauna for his future book.
Naruto was just happy in Japan, with his familiar food and familiar language.
Once the train arrived near the university, Naruto jumped out and went to buy a takeaway coffee from his favourite cafe. He also bought some snacks to eat during the lectures so that he wouldn’t get bored to death.
Naruto was happy to study – he was aiming to become a caretaker to one of the orphanages around Tokyo – but he was still exceptionally bad at it. He managed to survive through most of his studies thanks to Shikamaru, who helped him create better study habits (although he did complain every time he had to do it). But without Shikamaru’s help, Naruto’s time at the university would have been really short.
The day went by boringly. Everything was just like always – the classrooms, the rustle of notebooks and the tapping of laptops, Kakashi always being late from his own lectures – and by the time Naruto left around four p.m., he was already exhausted. And he still had his shift at the ramen restaurant later.
He wouldn’t have needed to work – he got enough from Jiraiya and Iruka to get by – but Naruto hated being so dependant on others. The money he got from the job he used on the stuff he liked: manga, video games and movies.
Naruto still had some time before work, so he went to eat lunch (not ramen, obviously, because he would eat that later at work), and used the time to study.
His life was boring and ordinary, but he was happy. Most of the time.
Sometimes he did feel like he was missing something, but he hadn’t figured out what that was. He had dated both guys and girls, but at twenty, he was still single. No one had felt right, but then again, Naruto didn’t really even know what that ’right’ even was. He had the looks for dating – according to Jiraiya, he’d inherited his blond hair and sky blue eyes from his father – so he could have gotten pretty much anyone he’d wanted, but if the emotion wasn’t there, he just didn’t bother.
He studied, he hung around with his friends and tried to remember to call Iruka at least sometimes. Still, he needed something exciting to his life.
As Naruto finished up his studies for the day and got ready to leave for work, he saw something through the café window. Shikamaru was walking past, hands in his pockets, looking dreadfully bored like always, but as Naruto looked, he saw very clearly how Shikamaru’s shadow twisted.
Thinking it was only a trick of the light or something, Naruto didn’t think much about it. He packed his bag and left for the Whirlpool Ramen.
***
The evening at work as insanely busy, but it was just like Naruto wanted it. He didn’t have too much time to think about stuff, about his future or about anything else.
Naruto was fine when he didn’t have to think about things. He just kept moving, moving, moving, hoping for a reason to stop.
The reason never came.
He had no real family left. Iruka and Jiraiya were the only ones, and these days he didn’t see them much either. Of course he had his friends and he treasured them, but even that didn’t seem to be enough.
As Naruto walked to the train station, he kept thinking what it was that was missing from his life. He also bumped into Shikamaru again, and they chatted a bit about the next day’s lectures.
At first it was fine, but then Shikamaru seemed to see something that drained the colour from his face.
”You okay?” Naruto asked, instantly worried.
”It’s nothing, go ahead,” Shikamaru said, waving his hand. ”I’ll see you tomorrow.”
”Okay,” Naruto said. ”If you’re sure.” He contineued to walk towards the station, completely lost in his thoughts.
So lost that it took a moment to realize he was being followed.
Naruto stopped and looked over his shoulder, but he couldn’t see anyone. The sense of unease didn’t leave him alone, though – so Naruto decided to take another route to the station, via more crowded streets. He wasn’t particularly worried; he knew how to defend himself. And if someone wanted to rob him, he’d just give away his laptop and the wallet.
He only needed to go through one secluded street to get into the more better areas.
Naruto didn’t get far. He wasn’t even halfway through when he suddenly realized he couldn’t move a muscle. No matter how much he tried, it was like he’d been glued to where he stood.
”It’s no use, Naruto, you won’t be able to break free,” a lazy, familiar voice called out to him.
Naruto couldn’t turn around to look – whatever was binding him was reached up to neck and hands - but he heard steps and soon Shikamaru came into view, followed by Ino and Choji, his best friends.
None of them looked like Naruto was used to see them. They all had weirdly shining skin, and Ino’s hair seemed to glow and move on its own. She’d always been pretty, but now even more so. Shikamaru looked a lot like he usually did, except he had deer horns protruding from his head, and he also had deer ears. His features were a lot more animal-like, something Naruto totally hadn’t expected. Choji was different too, he had weird, glowing tattoos on his face and purple butterly wings.
”Have you been partying somewhere?” Naruto said with a nervous laugh, even though he knew he wasn’t seeing party costumes. All three of them, his friends, those he’d known since middle school, they all weren’t… human. The realization made Naruto’s head spin, he couldn’t make sense of it. He wasn’t superstitious, even though he had loved everything supernatural since he’d been a kid.
”Don’t fool yourself, it’s just embarrassing,” Ino said. ”We’re not happy to do this, you know.”
”Yeah, we never wanted it to be you,” Choji added.
Naruto believed them. He didn’t know why, but he did. They had gone through so much together… middle school… high school…
”What are you?” he demanded, his voice trembling. ”Have you just been, what, playing my friends? Waiting for your moment?”
”We are your friends,” Shikamaru said heavily. ”But we are also Fae, and we are bound to our realm.”
”You guys are cracked,” Naruto laughed. ”I mean, really. Fae? Tell me a more believable lie. Fae don’t exist, and if they did, they wouldn’t exist in Japan.”
”Oh, but they do,” Ino said. ”Fae are but a part of the yokai. We’re not the same, but not completely apart.”
Naruto couldn’t listen anymore. He used all of his strength to move his legs, and he managed to move – only for a centimeter or so, before he was frozen again. He couldn’t understand how Shikamaru did it. But then he saw the shadows creeping up his arms.
Then he remembered seeing Shikamaru earlier that day and his twisting shadows.
”What are you going to do to me?” he said, desperation – and fear – quickly setting in. He knew about Fae legends, who wouldn’t? They were dangerous, they kidnapped people regularly and spirited them away -
”You’re taking me away,” he whispered. ”To… to… your world. Is that it?”
”We’ve lived a long time in the human world,” Shikamaru said, ”only to find suitable people for a certain role. I never wanted to get you involved, but… someone saw you and made the decision for us. We can’t do anything but obey.”
”Shikamaru,” Naruto said weakly. ”Please. I have a life here. It’s my world. My home.”
Shikamaru, Ino and Choji all looked at each other and then at him. Their expressions were sad, but Naruto knew he wouldn’t be able to persuade them to let him go.
Fear got the better of him, fear of the unknown, and he almost dislodged his hip as he tried to wrench himself free from the shadows that were binding him.
”Ino, please,” Shikamaru said.
Naruto didn’t see what Ino did, but then he felt intense pain and pressure in his head, and suddenly – he could feel nothing. He still saw with his eyes, but he wasn’t in control of his body. It was as if he was just a traveller. Ino’s body was on Choji’s arms, unconscious.
”I really like you, Naruto, and I think you don’t deserve this,” Ino’s voice rang in his head. ”I hope that someday you’ll be able to forgive us.”
Naruto screamed, but there was no one who could hear him. No one except Ino, who whispered, ”Sleep, Naruto. It’ll be over soon.”
He didn’t want to sleep, but it took him anyway.