1,764I was absolutely staggered by the response the first chapter got. Over 100 of you chose to follow this story. I'm incredibly grateful for the support. I never expected the first chapter of my first story to receive so much attention so quickly. Thank you.
Before we get to this next chapter, there is one thing I wanted to address. This will not be a harem fic. Naruto is going to be with Ahsoka, and only Ahsoka. Jiraiya will also be getting a pairing, but I have not finalized my decision on who it will be. Beyond that, I don't know who else will get a pairing, but it won't be everyone.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Star Wars.
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Chapter 2
'Ok, first things first,' Jiraiya thought to himself. 'Do not panic. Just stay ca-'
"WHAT THE FUCK!" he heard Naruto scream. "Why are there two moons? What's going on here? Where are we? Why are the trees different? What happened to- mmph."
Jiraiya's hand slapped across Naruto's mouth, cutting off his increasingly strident rant. Only when he felt his student stop struggling and calm down did he remove his hand. He glanced down to make sure he had Naruto's complete attention before he started speaking.
"Listen, kid, you need to stay calm. Do. Not. Panic. You understand? Remember your training."
Naruto took a deep, slow breath, held it for a few seconds, and then released it. After a few cycles of this, his mind began to clear of its fog of panic. With one final breath, he forced himself to rein in his fear and think clearly. The past few weeks with Jiraiya, and the months with Kakashi before that, had instilled a few basic tactical instincts into him.
"Right. Okay. Don't panic. Got it," he said, his voice back down in a more normal register. "There are just two moons in the sky. But that's impossible. How can there be two moons? Jiraiya-sensei, where are we?"
The older man motioned for him to be quiet.
"Pipe down for a second and let me think. Nothing's attacked us yet, so here is as safe a place to stay as any. Inventory our gear. Make sure nothing was stolen or tampered with."
Naruto just nodded and moved to obey the command. He had long since learned to recognize that tone in adults. When he heard it, even he knew to shut up and do as he was told without complaint. That lesson in mind, he began systematically unpacking, checking, and then repacking every piece of gear they had.
When the sound of Jiraiya's low muttering reached his ears, Naruto looked up at his teacher. The older man was holding one hand up to the sky, fingers splayed in an odd pattern. After a few seconds, he would start scribbling in a notebook before looking back up at the starry expanse. Naruto recognized the activity. Jiraiya was trying to use the stars in order to find their rough location. Trusting his godfather to figure it out, Naruto turned back to his task.
15 minutes later, Naruto had finished inventorying the gear, and Jiraiya was wrapping up his observations. With one final disgruntled sigh, the sage sat down, his face marred by a heavy frown.
"Have you figured out where we are, Jiraiya-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"That's the thing, kid," Jiraiya responded. "So far as I can tell, we haven't moved."
"What?"
"You heard me," he said. "The stars are more or less all in the same place, with a little variation. The mountains to our east are unchanged. None of our gear has moved. All signs point to us being in the exact same place as we were yesterday."
"But then, how are there two moons?" Naruto asked loudly. "And why are all the plants different? Unless- wait. Maybe I'm in a genjutsu. Yeah!"
With the sort of confidence available only to the young, Naruto formed a quick hand sign. Screwing up his face with effort, he pulsed his chakra as forcefully as he could. Opening one eye to check on his surroundings, he noticed no difference, so he tried a second time. And then a third.
As he was gearing up for a fourth attempt, he was interrupted by Jiraiya rapping him on the head with his knuckles.
"Ow! What was that for, you old sadist?" Naruto cried out, rubbing his bruised cranium.
"For being stupid, brat," Jiraiya said. "Genjutsu was the first thing I checked for. Besides, you were gonna give me a headache, pulsing your chakra like that."
"I thought maybe you were a part of the genjutsu," Naruto muttered, looking hurt.
Jiraiya blinked at that. That was a level of critical thinking he hadn't expected from his young student. He smirked a bit at the progress the boy was making. It always felt good when his students demonstrated what they had learned from him. Sadly, in this case, it also made him feel like a dick. He had clearly offended his student with his harsh words.
He reached out to pat Naruto's shoulder. His godson tensed for a second, as if torn between shrugging off the hand or accepting it as a peace offering
"I'm sorry I called your idea stupid, Naruto," he said kindly. "It was smart of you to check if I was real. We're both clearly on edge. Let's sit down and take a breath. Remember, getting angry won't solve anything."
Naruto nodded and sat down on a nearby rock. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but seemed to think better of it. Pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts, he reached down and pulled up his mask. He had lowered it during his last sparring match with Jiraiya. He had learned the hard way early on that puking with the mask on was definitely not fun, and Jiraiya wasn't afraid of making Naruto taste his lunch twice.
With the mask raised, he felt himself calm down fractionally. The feel of it against his face reminded him of Kakashi's lessons. Ironically, after all the times the lazy jonin had futilely preached patience, it was now, when he wasn't here, that Naruto brought those lectures to mind.
With his eternally hyperactive mind now somewhat less turbulent, Naruto could focus on the problem at hand. They were lost. Except they weren't lost, because Jiraiya said that they hadn't moved. But there were two moons in the sky, and weird plants everywhere.
Naruto groaned and rubbed his temples with his palms. This was so confusing. It felt like one of those stupid logic puzzles that Iruka-sensei had always loved to assign him. He had always hated those things. He wasn't Sakura. Puzzles like this made his brain hurt.
Still, Naruto was nothing if not stubborn. So, headache or not, he thought about what he could do to help. To his minor amazement, an idea popped into his head after less than a minute of thinking. Excited at this rare moment of his brain being useful, he quickly lent voice to his thoughts.
"Jiraiya-sensei, why don't you just summon a toad? Maybe they'll know what's going on."
Jiraiya nodded slowly before responding.
"It's a good idea. I just don't like the idea of summoning the toads into a completely unknown situation. Still, I don't think we have another option."
Naruto's eyes crinkled as he smiled beneath his mask. He had had an idea, and it had been useful. While not completely unheard of, it was still rare enough that it felt like a major achievement.
Before he could dive further into his self-congratulatory thoughts, he felt the seal on his stomach flare with power. He could feel the Kyuubi flexing its power. He clenched his teeth when he heard a deep bass voice sound in his head.
'What have you done, you stupid human?' the Fox growled.
'What are you talking about, stupid Fox? I didn't do anything,' Naruto thought silently. He didn't want to distract Jiraiya from talking with the toads.
'Hmm. Get in here, ningen. I refuse to converse this way.'
'Wha-.'
Before Naruto could even finish thinking his response, he felt an odd tugging sensation. It felt as if someone were trying to pull his brain down into his stomach. His vision went black, and the ground seemed to vanish from under his feet. With a scream, he fell into pitch black nothingness…
…Only to land, mere moments later, in a filthy pool of ankle deep water. Looking around, he saw cracked sewer pipes and stained walls stretching off into the gloom. Dim, flickering light shone from somewhere above him, its source impossible to determine. A soft, steady whooshing sound filled the air, accompanied by a hot wind on his back. Swallowing his trepidation, Naruto turned around, knowing what he would find.
Sure enough, towering before him, were the immense steel bars of the Kyuubi's cage. Behind them, red eyes glowing with barely controlled hatred and anger, sat the beast itself. As always, its size was the first thing Naruto noted. It was huge, with most of its vast body disappearing into the darkness beyond the seal. Its eyes alone were over two meters tall. Its whole head was the size of one of the stone faces on the Hokage monument. A snarl parted its lips, revealing ivory teeth taller than a grown man. It did not look happy.
"I will ask again, ningen," it growled out. "What did you do?"
"Hey, what's the big idea?" Naruto shouted, ignoring the bijuu's question. "Why did you bring me in here? How did you even do that?"
"Bah, insolent wretch. You should be honored to be in my presence. Now, answer my question. What. Did. You. Do?"
"Not until you answer me first. How did you pull me in here?"
The Kyuubi roared in anger and lunged at the bars. The entire room seemed to shake when it crashed against the door of its cell. The sound was deafening, blowing Naruto back onto his butt. He stayed there, watching nervously as the enormous fox beat against the bars of the seal.
Eventually, after a seeming eternity of clanging and roars, the Kyuubi ceased its assault on the bars. It glared down at Naruto, its tails twitching with fury.
"Curse you and your insolence, ningen. But for this seal, you would even now be digesting in my stomach."
"Yeah, but we both know you can't do shit about it," Naruto said, smirking at the snarl of rage he elicited from his unwilling tenant. "So, are you gonna answer me, or should I just start looking for a way out of here?"
The fox looked down at its jailer for a long second. Just when Naruto was about to turn and walk away, it exhaled with a sharp huff. The titanic bijuu settled on its haunches and lowered its head onto its front paws.
"Very well, ningen," it snarled. "I shall play your game…for now. It was simple for a being of my magnificence to draw you here. When your feeble mind is distracted, I can call you into the seal."
Naruto blinked at that revelation. He did not like the implications of that one bit.
"Cease your pathetic worrying. I have no interest in bringing you here more often than absolutely necessary. Now, you have your answer. Give me mine."
Naruto glared up at the fox for a few seconds before answering. "I didn't do anything. There was this weird humming noise, and then this really bright light knocked me out. When I woke up, all the plants were weird, and there were two moons in the sky. But Jiraiya looked at the stars and the mountains and said we haven't moved."
The fox hummed at his answer and closed its eyes. Naruto looked on impatiently, eager to get the conversation over with. He wanted to get back to Jiraiya and see what the toads had to say. Thankfully, before too long, the Kyuubi opened its eyes and sat up sharply.
"Well, this is unexpected," it drawled. "It seems the old toad lover was correct; you have not traveled in space. You have somehow been pulled forward in time. Some 50,000 years forward, by my guess. How interesting."
Naruto's brain shut down for a second upon hearing that. He just stood stock still, a vacant look in his eyes, while he digested that little tidbit of information. It took about ten seconds, but finally what the fox had said actually sunk in. Once it did, it could be charitably said that he completely lost his shit.
"TIME TRAVEL!? Are you shitting me? Please tell me you're shitting me," he pleaded with the Kyuubi, only to receive nothing but a deadpan stare. That alone told him all he needed to know.
A small part of his brain, the part that wasn't currently paralyzed with stupefied horror, noted that the idea of time travel made sense, given the context. That time difference could account for the new plant life, while also explaining why the mountains remained unchanged. It might even explain what Jiraiya had mentioned about the stars being subtly out of place. Stars moved over time, right? He seemed to recall Sakura saying something about stars moving.
Unfortunately, while this small part of Naruto's brain continued to work unabated, the rest of his brain was doing the mental equivalent of running in circles screaming. This led to his eyes nearly bugging out of his skull, while his mouth gaped open like a goldfish under his mask. It took nearly an entire minute, but he eventually regained the power of speech.
"Fi-fifty thousand years. How could this have happened? What am I supposed to do now?" It was a sign of his shock that Naruto was asking for advice from the Kyuubi.
"Hahahaha. What should I care, ningen? How this occurred and what you do now are your concern. Now, be gone. The very sight of you offends me."
With those final words, the Kyuubi smashed a paw into the water. The subsequent wave was enormous and pushed Naruto out of the room. As the wave washed him down the hall, his vision once again went black, and he felt a sensation of rising. Moments later, he vanished from the filthy sewer that made up his mindscape.
Meanwhile, the Kyuubi laid its enormous head back down onto its paws and closed its eyes. Humming slightly, it smirked in faint amusement.
'Time travel, hmm,' it thought to itself. 'Perhaps being sealed inside this pathetic meat sack will not be as boring as I had feared.'
With that thought in mind, the great fox settled down to watch what trouble its hated warden would manage to find. Perhaps this far-flung time period would offer it some new method of escape. If not, then it might at the very least provide some decent entertainment.
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Meanwhile, back in the physical world, Naruto opened his eyes with a jolt. Glancing around quickly, he was relieved to see that Jiraiya had not yet even summoned a toad. It seemed that, just as during that time in the canyon, time spent in his mindscape passed much more quickly than in the real world. That was good to know. Still, he had to tell his godfather what he had learned. Jiraiya would know what to do.
"Jiraiya-sensei, hold up," he yelled. "I just had a chat with the Kyuubi."
"You what!?" Jiraiya yelled back, his face worried. "Dammit brat, do you know how dangerous that is?"
"Yeah yeah yeah," Naruto said dismissively. "Whatever. The important thing is that it told me what happened. It said that something pulled us 50,000 years into the future. That's what that light was. That's why all the plants are different, and why the stars have moved a little."
His words brought Jiraiya up short. He stared, openmouthed, at Naruto for a good half minute before blinking. The idea made a disturbing amount of sense, the more he thought about it. Still, it couldn't be. It was impossible. He shook his head slowly, a frown on his face.
"It was lying to you," he said, only half believing his own words. "It must have been."
"I don't think so," Naruto said. "I mean…why would it? It didn't even try to trick me into unlocking the seal. It just asked what had happened, and then it meditated or something, and then it told me that…well that."
Jiraiya palmed his face and groaned. This was just too much. Time travel? Seriously? That was so far outside the realm of believable, it wasn't even funny. And yet, his brain kept traitorously failing to find an alternative explanation that made any more sense. They hadn't moved geographically. He was very certain of that. They hadn't somehow crossed dimensions into an alternate universe. He knew what that felt like from his early summoning experience. A plethora of other options failed to present themselves.
"I-fuck. I don't know, kid," he said. "I'm going to summon the toad elders. They should be able tell us what's going on. They're very wise, so be respectful when you meet them, got it?"
Naruto nodded silently. The implications of just what the Kyuubi's statement might mean for them were dawning on him. He didn't trust his voice at the moment. Indeed, he was glad that the mask helped hide the look of fear he knew was written on his face.
Satisfied that his student understood the importance of minding his manners in front of the elder toads, Jiraiya took a few steps back and clapped his hands together. He held that position for nearly a minute, gathering chakra for what he was about to do. Summoning both elders at once was no small task, even for him. He didn't want to accidentally exhaust himself in this unknown environment.
Finally, just as Naruto began to actually vibrate with impatience, Jiraiya broke his palms apart. He then bit his thumb and flashed through five rapid hand seals before slamming his hand into the dirt.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu," he shouted.
A plume of smoke billowed out from where his hand touched the ground. Excited to see the elder toads, Naruto leaned forward, waving the smoke away. As it cleared, he finally saw…
"…Uhh, Jiraiya-sensei, I think you messed it up. I thought you were summoning the toad elders. These are just two tiny old geezers," Naruto whispered loudly, his eyes confused.
Apparently, age had not affected the male toad's hearing, as he immediately shot the two humans a glare. Then, with remarkable speed, he leapt up and smacked Jiraiya on the head with his staff.
"Gah! Dammit, Naruto, these are the toad elders," Jiraiya moaned as he clutched his throbbing head. "Why did you have to go and hit me, Pa? He's the one who said it."
"Yeah, but yer the one who didn't teach him to show respect towards his elders. Now quit yer whining, you big baby," the male toad said sharply, before turning to Naruto.
"Now, who are you, you disrespectful little tadpole? Speak up."
Naruto struggled to find his voice for a moment. He was torn between shock that this was one of the great toad elders, amusement at seeing his godfather get beaned in the dome, and fear of being the next target of the grumpy old toad's wrath. After a moment, he choked out a response.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said, before he rallied further. "All around awesome shinobi and future Hokage!"
The toad's eyes narrowed further, making Naruto gulp. Before he could say anything else, an elderly, but distinctly female, voice spoke up.
"Ah, quit scaring the poor kid, Pa. It's Minato's boy."
Naruto turned to see the other toad had gotten behind him somehow. Unlike the other toad's green skin and white hair, she had pale yellow skin, with purple hair and lips. Her expression was kindly as she looked up at him.
"Don't you mind my husband, boy," she said, shooting said husband a reproving look. "My name is Shima, and that's Fukasaku, but you can just call us Ma and Pa. It's nice to meet you, Naruto."
"It's, uh, nice to meet you too, Ma, Pa," Naruto said, thrown somewhat by the sudden shift in tone.
Shima smiled up at him, while Fukasaku scratched his head awkwardly, before flashing him a quick grin. Both of them then turned towards Jiraiya, who still looked somewhat miffed that Naruto had escaped a hit from Pa's staff.
"Now, Jiraiya-chan, why'd you summon us here?" Shima asked. "For that matter, where is here anyway? Last I checked, two moons ain't normal."
"That's why I summoned you both, Ma," Jiraiya said. As quickly as he could, he summarized the events of the last hour to the two sage toads. By the end, both of them looked deep in thought. Fukasaku was the first to speak.
"So, the Kyuubi said it was time travel, did it?" he asked, turning to Naruto.
"Yeah. It said we had been dragged 50,000 years into the future somehow."
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but it looks like it told the truth," Fukasaku said grimly.
"What?" Jiraiya yelled. "But how is that even possible? It's time travel."
"How am I supposed to know how this happened, Jiraiya-chan? All I can tell you is that you definitely haven't moved locations, but the world feels older than it did the last time you summoned me. For now, I'm inclined to take the Kyuubi at its word."
"But if we're in the future," Naruto said, "how can you be here too? I mean, you both are old, but not that ol- oops. Sorry."
This time Naruto did earn himself a smack from Fukasaku's staff. Luckily for him, it was only a warning blow, though it still stung. Ignoring her husband's actions, Shima turned to answer Naruto.
"Mt. Myōboku isn't on the same plane as this world. Our only connection to this dimension is our summoners. When the two of you were displaced, that connection shifted here with you."
"Huh?" Naruto said, blinking in confusion.
"We're tied to you two chuckleheads by the summoning contract. When you got moved, the toads got dragged with you," she sighed. This one would need some work. Still, there was potential buried in there.
"Ohh," Naruto exclaimed as understanding dawned. "Why didn't you just say so the first time?"
Shima sighed again. It seemed it was buried deep.
Ignoring her exasperation, Naruto turned to Fukasaku, his eyes shining.
"So, how do we get back to our time?" he asked.
"You can't," came Fukasaku's flat reply.
"What do you mean, we can't?" Naruto shouted desperately. "You two can just do some super-secret toad jutsu and send us back, right?"
Fukasaku's expression softened at the pleading tone in Naruto's voice.
"I'm truly sorry, Naruto-chan," he said. "There is no known method of traveling in time. I have no idea how you might have gotten here. If you truly have traveled forward in time, then that's it. You both are stuck here."
"N-no. No, that can't be true," Naruto yelled. "I need to get back. I need to get Sasuke back, and become Hokage, and marry Sakura-chan, and…and…."
His voice trailed off as tears began to flow. With a loud sniffle, he looked at Jiraiya pleadingly. His eyes begged the older sage to have an answer, to give him something. Anything. Any sort of hope that this wasn't really happening.
Jiraiya could only shake his head and pull his godson into a hug. He felt his vest begin to grow damp with tears again. He didn't mind. His own eyes were hardly dry.
"But I promised, Jiraiya-sensei," Naruto wailed. "I promised Sakura-chan, and Tsunade baa-chan, and everyone. What am I supposed to do now?"
"I don't know," Jiraiya admitted. "But we'll figure it out together. Okay."
The two elder sage toads dismissed themselves, giving their summoners some privacy. As the sun rose, Jiraiya and Naruto began to mourn the loss of their world, and plan how they would move forward into this new dawn.
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The days passed by in a blur after that first heart wrenching night. Naruto and Jiraiya immediately tracked back to where they knew Konoha should be. Neither said much on the journey. They both knew what they were likely to find when they arrived, but they refused to give up hope completely. Even so, the lack of roads, or indeed any other sign of human habitation, was not encouraging.
After four days of traveling at top speed, their worst fears were confirmed. There was no trace of the village to be found. Where there had once been a sprawling settlement of nearly 80,000 people, there was now an unbroken stretch of humid forest. Trees grew where the massive village walls had once stood. In place of the busy sounds of people living their lives, there was only the rustling of leaves and the chirping of birds.
Worst of all was the Hokage monument. Just enough of the stone faces remained intact for them to tell that this was, without a doubt, where Konoha had once stood. There could be no denying it now. They were most definitely in the future.
However, there was some good news to be had, even amongst such gutting loss. Instead of a mere four faces, as had been on the cliff when Naruto and Jiraiya last saw the village, there were now dozens. Nearly the entire eastern face of the mountain was covered in the remains of huge stone faces. The master-student pair even recognized two of the new additions.
"Pigtails and a diamond on her forehead," Jiraiya murmured. "That's got to be Tsunade."
"Yeah, and look at the one after her," Naruto said, his voice just as soft. "Crazy hair, and they only carved one eye. I guess someone finally tricked Kakashi-sensei into working for a living."
Jiraiya laughed at that, while internally he sighed in relief. Naruto had been far too quiet these last few days. The fact he could still find it within him to make a joke helped soothe Jiraiya's worries over his godson's state of mind. Naruto being silent was against the natural order of things. It was like seeing Tsunade win a bet. It never meant anything good.
Still, that brief moment of humor was all too quickly swallowed by the looming reality of their situation. Their village was gone. The last hope that somehow things might be normal again was now extinguished.
"So…what do we do now?" Naruto asked.
"I'm not sure, kid," Jiraiya replied. "I mean, if it really has been 50,000 years, then who knows what's out there. There might not even be people anymore."
"There can't just be no people anywhere, could there?"
"I think we have to face facts, Naruto. We didn't see any roads, any campfires, or any sign of people living here at all. This is good land. If there were still people living anywhere nearby, they'd be living around here."
Naruto grew silent at that. The mask hid most of his facial expressions, but Jiraiya could still see the fear and confusion in his eyes. The poor kid didn't know how to handle this. In truth, neither did Jiraiya. Still, he had to put on a brave face for his godson. And for himself.
"Look, we'll head east, okay Naruto," Jiraiya said. "Maybe we'll find people living along the coast. If that doesn't work, we'll keep looking. I promised you we would figure this out, didn't I? Well, I'm not giving up just yet. Something will turn up."
Naruto nodded his head silently. Even he could tell it was a weak plan, based mostly on desperation and hope. It didn't matter, though. All they really had left was hope.
With a plan, or what passed for a plan in their situation, in place, the two of them walked out of the village. The great stone faces of the past Hokages watched as the last two Konoha shinobi in the universe walked away from their village for the final time.
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It was two days after they left the village that Jiraiya's prediction that "something will turn up" came true. It just wasn't in a way that either of the two shinobi could have imagined.
As they were hiking through a large clearing, they heard a sound coming from above them. It sounded like a very small, but very powerful hurricane was passing over their heads. When they looked up, their jaws dropped in sync.
What they saw was a large metal object, somehow flying through the sky. As it had neither wings nor propellers, neither Naruto nor Jiraiya could fathom how it was managing the feat, but it was.
Its front half looked like an elongated hexagon, with a tubular projection sticking forward off the front. The rear looked like a large wedge, with three cylinder shapes stuck to it, from which a faint red glow emanated. Jiraiya suspected those were somehow responsible for the object's seemingly impossible flight, but he had no notion of how they might work.
As they watched, the object slowed and swung about, facing perpendicular to their path. It then slowly descended towards the ground. A series of leg-like metal struts emerged from the bottom of the object, and mere seconds later it touched down onto the ground of the clearing.
Jiraiya watched cautiously, unsure of what to do. His shinobi paranoia was telling him to hide and prepare for an attack, but his natural curiosity drew him towards the strange metal…thing. In the end, curiosity won. It was helped by Naruto, who had immediately begun approaching this new arrival, seemingly uncaring of any potential dangers.
Jiraiya swore and ran to catch up to his over enthusiastic godson. He reached him quickly and grabbed his shoulder, sharply arresting his movement. He opened his mouth to remonstrate the boy for his foolishness, but was interrupted by a sudden hiss coming from the recently landed flying machine. A glance told him that some sort of pressurized hatch had opened on the craft's side. A ramp extended to the ground, and two figures walked down it.
The first was a man, his face ordinary but for a gold stripe running across his nose. His dark hair hung in shoulder length dreadlocks. He wore a sleeveless brown tunic, with a darker brown robe over it. He strode down the ramp with confidence, no hesitation or uncertainty in his stride.
The second figure was rather different. Naruto especially had trouble hiding his shock at what he saw.
The third thing he noticed about her was her clothing. Unlike her companion's, it was fairly revealing. It consisted of a pair of tight leather leggings and an equally tight leather shirt that left much of her midriff exposed.
The second thing he noticed about her was her looks. By any standard, she was gorgeous. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties and had an amazing figure. She was clearly athletic, and her toned limbs and stomach spoke of many hours spent training her body to perfection.
The first thing that he noticed about her, however, was that she was not, by any stretch of the imagination, human. Her skin was a vibrant cerulean blue. She had cone-like projections on the side of her head, where her ears would have sat. Most striking of all were the two thick tentacles that took the place of her hair. They were draped behind her body, where they extended to her lower back.
All in all, she cut a striking, if highly exotic, figure for the twelve-year-old boy. He was never more glad that his mask covered the embarrassed blush that spread across his face. Judging by the blue lady's sudden amused smirk, though, some of it was still visible.
While Naruto dealt with his mortification, the dark-haired man stepped forward, raising a hand in greeting.
"{Hello there}," he said. "{I am Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos, and this is my Padawan, Aayla Secura. Would you mind telling me what you're doing on Tython?}"
Jiraiya stared at the man with the gold stripe on his face blankly. The newcomer had clearly said something, but the language wasn't any he had ever heard before. That aside, the fact this unknown man and his unusual companion hadn't immediately attacked was a good thing.
"I didn't understand what you just said," Jiraiya said slowly, making sure to keep his hands visible. "We don't want any trouble."
The stranger lowered his hand and let out a sigh.
"{Well, this could be awkward}," he said.
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So that's chapter two. To preemptively clear up any confusion, Naruto and Jiraiya have travelled forward in time, but they are still in the same universe and on the same planet as they always have been. Only now that planet has two moons. I wonder how that happened.
They will not be going back to the past, and no one else from Naruto canon will be joining them in the future. Aside from the toads, everyone died tens of thousands of years ago. We may find out what exactly happened to Naruto's people, but not for quite a few chapters.
Until the next chapter, goodbye.